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Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa

George Hatke

This book assembles and analyzes the textual and archaeological evidence of interaction between Nubia and the Ethiopian kingdom of Aksum, focusing primarily on the fourth century CE. Although ancient ... More

This book assembles and analyzes the textual and archaeological evidence of interaction between Nubia and the Ethiopian kingdom of Aksum, focusing primarily on the fourth century CE. Although ancient Nubia and Ethiopia have been the subject of a growing number of studies in recent years, little attention has been given to contact between these two regions. This book argues that ancient Northeast Africa cannot be treated as a unified area politically, economically, or culturally. Rather, Nubia and Ethiopia developed within very different regional spheres of interaction, as a result of which the Nubian kingdom of Kush came to focus its energies on the Nile Valley, relying on this as its main route of contact with the outside world, while Aksum was oriented towards the Red Sea and Arabia. In this way Aksum and Kush coexisted in peace for most of their history, and such contact as they maintained with each other was limited to small-scale commerce. Only in the fourth century CE did Aksum take up arms against Kush, and even then the conflict seems to have been related mainly to security issues on Aksum's western frontier. Although Aksum never managed to hold onto Kush for long, much less dealt the final death-blow to the Nubian kingdom, as is often believed, claims to Kush continued to play a role in Aksumite royal ideology as late as the sixth century. This book examines the extent to which relations between two ancient African states were influenced by warfare, commerce, and political fictions.Less

Amheida I: Ostraka from Trimithis, Volume 1

Roger S. Bagnall and Giovanni R. Ruffini

This book presents 455 inscribed pottery fragments, or ostraka, found during New York University's excavations at Amheida in the western desert of Egypt. The majority date to the Late Roman period ... More

This book presents 455 inscribed pottery fragments, or ostraka, found during New York University's excavations at Amheida in the western desert of Egypt. The majority date to the Late Roman period (3rd to 4th century AD), a time of rapid social change in Egypt and the ancient Mediterranean generally. Amheida was a small administrative center, and the full publication of these brief texts illuminates the role of writing in the daily lives of its inhabitants. The subjects covered by the Amheida ostraka include the distribution of food, the administration of wells, the commercial lives of inhabitants, their education, and other aspects of life neglected in literary sources. The book provides a full introduction to the technical aspects of terminology and chronology, while also situating this important evidence in its historical, social, and regional context.Less

Ancient Jewish Sciences and the History of Knowledge in Second Temple Literature

Seth L. Sanders

Jonathan Ben-Dov (ed.)

Since the 1990s, Early Modern and Medieval Science in Jewish sources has been actively studied, but the consensus was that no real scientific themes could be found in earlier Judaism. This book ... More

Since the 1990s, Early Modern and Medieval Science in Jewish sources has been actively studied, but the consensus was that no real scientific themes could be found in earlier Judaism. This book points them out in detail, and posits a new field of research: the scientific activity evident in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Early Jewish Pseudepigrapha. The publication of new texts and new analyses of older ones reveals crucial elements that are best illuminated by the history of science, and may have interesting consequences for it. The book attempts to account for scientific themes in Second Temple Judaism. It investigates the meaning and purpose of scientific explorations in an apocalyptic setting. An appreciation of these topics paves the way to a renewed understanding of the scientific fragments scattered throughout rabbinic literature. The book first places the Jewish material in the ancient context of the Near Eastern and Hellenistic worlds. While the Jewish texts were not on the cutting edge of scientific discovery, they find a meaningful place in the history of science, between Babylonia and Egypt, in the time period between Hipparchus and Ptolemy. The book uses recent advances in method to examine the contacts and networks of Jewish scholars in their ancient setting. Second, the book tackles the problematic concept of a national scientific tradition. It explores the tension between the hegemony of central scientific traditions and local scientific enterprises.Less

In the Presence of Power: Court and Performance in the Pre-Modern Middle East

Evelyn Vitz

Maurice Pomerantz (ed.)

Rulers’ courts of the pre-modern Middle East have long been a staple of Western fantasies about the East. Yet in spite of the importance of the court as a symbol of the absolutist power of the ... More

Rulers’ courts of the pre-modern Middle East have long been a staple of Western fantasies about the East. Yet in spite of the importance of the court as a symbol of the absolutist power of the “Orient,” relatively few scholars have explored the cultural production of the courts of the pre-modern Middle East. In the Presence of Power: Court and Performance in the Pre-Modern Middle East, edited by Maurice A. Pomerantz (New York University Abu Dhabi) and Evelyn Birge Vitz (New York University), offers twelve chapters that present a complex and nuanced image of rulers’ courts as vital spaces of performance. Building on previous studies that have examined the court as an important sociopolitical space but moving in new directions, this volume explores literary works produced about and for performance in courts from the eighth to the sixteenth century. Contributions address topics such as delight, persuasion, and entertainment in Byzantine and Abbasid rulers’ courts.Less