Almost 4,000 years ago, a young king named Hammurabi inherited the small and unimportant city of Babylon in the region of Mesopotamia, now in present-day Iraq. Over his lifetime, Hammurabi expanded Babylon in size and in importance, making the city…

The Mesopotamians invented writing and with it a new way of looking at the world. In this collection of essays, the French scholar Jean Bottero attempts to go back to the moment which marks the very beginning of history. To give the reader some sens…

In ancient history, Darius I stands alone as an administrator with unparalleled insight into the workings of an empire. Under his leadership, the Persian Empire grew to be the largest and most powerful diplomatic and economic force in the world. Aft…

As one of the five pillars of Islam the pilgrimage to Mecca (the Hajj) is central to the life of all Muslims. A network of roads radiates from the Hijaz like a giant spider's web, connecting Mecca to all parts of the Muslim world. Historically the m…

The first general introduction to Mesopotamia that covers all four of the area's major ancient civilizations-Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, and Babylonia.Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspectives ranges from the region's cultural beginnings to its Persian "libe…

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The Short Chronicle is an eyewitness report on the demise of the Sasanian and Byzantines Empires and the beginning of the Islamic period. It uses official Sasanian sources and Syriac church documents and mentions for the first time new Arab cities,…

The Penn Museum's first archaeological expedition to Iran took place in 1931, when Erich F. Schmidt excavated the Bronze Age site of Tepe Hissar near the town of Damghan and the monumental buildings of the pre-Islamic Sasanian Palace.In this part of…

The Sumerian World explores the archaeology, history and art of southern Mesopotamia and its relationships with its neighbours from c.3,000 - 2,000BC. Including material hitherto unpublished from recent excavations, the articles are organised themat…

What was life like for Jews settled throughout the Mediterranean world of Classical antiquity--and what place did Jewish communities have in the diverse civilization dominated by Greeks and Romans? In a probing account of the Jewish diaspora in the…

G. M. FitzGerald's Deep Cut at Beth Shan, a large-scale research project in the southern Levant, is a window to the earliest civilization at this major tell, documenting human activity during the Neolithic and Bronze Age. In 1933, his last season ex…

Based on a revised Oxford University doctoral dissertation, this work examines the evidence from Josephus for prophetic figures in Jewish Palestine in the late Second Temple period, approximately 150 BCE to 70CE. Recent years have seen renewed inter…

A review of the archaeology of Syria from the Paleolithic period to 300 BC.

Despite considerable scholarly efforts for many years, the last two decades of the Kingdom of Israel are still beneath the veil of history. What was the status of the Kingdom after its annexation by Assyria in 732 BCE? Who conquered Samaria, the cap…

In the mid-first millennium B.C., the Eanna temple at Uruk sacrificed a minimum of nine lambs every day in its basic routine of offerings to its gods; in addition to these, special occasions and festivals demanded the sacrifice of as many as 90 lamb…

Situated between Europe, Asia, and the Levantine corridor to Africa, the Zagros-Taurus region has enormous potential for the study of human adaptation and population movement during the Pleistocene. While archaeological work was done in this area 40…

John Hayes and Sara Mandell provide a clear exposition of Jewish history from 333 BCE to 135 CE. This volume focuses on the Judean-Jerusalem community from a historical rather than ideological or theological perspective. With the inclusion of charts…

Two major Jewish risings against Rome took place in the years following the destruction of Jerusalem - the first during Trajan's Parthian war, and the second, led by Bar Kokhba, under Hadrian's principate. The impact of these risings not only on Jud…

Hatra is the richest archaeological site in the Parthian Empire known to date and has great potential for a better understanding of this enigmatic empire and its relationship with Rome. After an introduction to this little known site, seventeen cont…

Ancient Israel is widely regarded as having been set apart from the nations, representing a unique sociopolitical entity in the ancient world. United by a common tribal identity and a commitment to worshiping the God who delivered them from Egypt ex…

The edited volume Cyrus the Great: Life and Lore re-contextualizes Cyrus's foundational act and epoch in light of recent scholarship, while examining his later reception in antiquity and beyond. Among the many themes addressed in the volume are: the…

This text illuminates the long history of human activity in the southern Levant and the long-standing connection between the Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Missouri-Columbia and the archaeology of the Palestinian region. Under th…

In November, 1980, the eastern shallows of the Mediterranean near the village of Athlit, Israel, yielded a remarkable artifact of ancient military history: the bronze ram and connecting bow timbers of an oared warship. It was the first ram ever disc…

The Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon continues its final report series with a study of the fortifications of the North Slope. From the first gate and rampart in the Middle Bronze Age through mud-brick towers from the Iron Age, these defenses are evi…

Beydar Studies 1 constitutes the first volume of a new sub-series dedicated to the excavations at Tell Beydar (NE Syria), and its neighbourhood. It includes archaeological, environmental, and landscape archaeology papers. The contributions included…

This revised edition, published in 1960, brings up to date a book first published in 1954-a concisely organized, simply written account of the society that produced the Bible. As the author traces the fluctuating fortunes of the Hebrews and Israelit…

Ancient Mesopotamia, New Edition brings to life the period in history when the first civilizations arose. Using maps, charts, documents, and works of art to enhance the text and reconstruct life at all levels of society at the time, this book examin…

Encounter the world and traditions that Jesus knew. Illuminate your understanding of the New Testament. In The Complete Works you will discover what the New Testament writers knew about Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, and Solomon and examine an in-de…

The natural arc of resource-rich land which forms the 'Fertile Crescent' of South-West Asia is regarded as the earliest centre of village-based farming in the world and has been the focus of much of our understanding of the transition from Epipalaeo…

The March of the Ten Thousand is one of the most famous military adventures in the ancient world. Its fearless army of Greek mercenaries marched through western Asia (modern Turkey and Iraq) in 401 BC to 399 BC, their hopes and hardships recounted b…

With its unique geographic diversity and abundant archaeological and textual data, the southern Levant is an excellent "laboratory" for studying how Assyrian domination operated. This collection of essays explains how Neo-Assyrian rule influenced th…

It's the cradle of civilization, the wellspring of three of the world's most powerful faiths, a place where vestiges of the ancient past remain vibrantly alive today-but what do we really know about the day-to-day lives and defining culture of the p…

Living in Ancient Mesopotamia focuses primarily on two ""ideal"" periods set in about 3500 B.C (Sumer) and 1000 to 500 B.C. (Assyria and Babylonia). This book examines all the aspects of daily life across all strata of society, from the kings and pr…

This two-volume account of archaeological investigations in central and eastern Luristan reflects work carried out over 50 years in the remote area of western Iran, north of the Zagros Mountains. Included are excavation reports on the Chalcolithic s…

This volume comprises a study of both the site and the surrounding hinterland of one of the earliest and largest Early Bronze Age (3500-2300 b.c.) cities of the Levant. The site of Beth Yerah, located in the Jordan Valley of Israel on the shores of…

Providing a scholar's salute to a teacher, colleague, and friend, the contributors of this new volume honor the memory of Thorkild Jacobsen with essays on Mesopotamian history, culture, literature, and religion. Contributors include: Tzvi Abusch, Jo…

Taking advantage of critical methodology for history-writing and the use of anthropological insights and ethnographic data from the modern Middle East, this study aims at providing new understandings on the emergence of Israel in ancient Palestine a…

Hasanlu V provides archaeologists with a new, more accurate chronology of Hasanlu, the largest and arguably the most important archaeological site in the Gadar River Valley of northwestern Iran. This revised chronology introduces Hasanlu Periods VIa…

Mesopotamia was one of the earliest regions to produce writing, literature and the fine arts, as well as being one of the first areas to construct states. This comprehensive and detailed survey of the region's prehistory and protohistory shows how t…

During the first and second centuries A.D., the supremacy of the Roman Empire was aggressively challenged by three Jewish rebellions. The facts surrounding the initial uprising of A.D. 66-74 have been filtered through the biased accounts of Judeao-R…

This volume provides a series of contributions on the crucial aspects relating to the Bible and the Late Bronze Age period. The volume is introduced with a background essay surveying the main areas of history and current scholarship relating to Late…

The enigma of King Herod as a cruel bloodthirsty tyrant on the one hand, and a great builder on the other is discussed in a systematic modern historical and psychological study. It seeks to unravel the contradictory historic mystery of the man and h…

The emergence of ancient urbanism has long held the interest of archaeologists attempting to understand the origins of inequality and its links to early urban life. This volume presents the results of archeological research at the Early Bronze Age s…