AHIS356

Dialogue of Civilizations:
The Ancient Near East and Egypt
Department of Ancient H istory

CONTACT HOURS: MONDAY 1-4 PM

LECTURE [1-3 PM] – 12 SECOND WAY, ROOM 229
TUTORIAL [3-4 PM] – 12 SECOND WAY, ROOM 225
LECTURER: ASSOC. PROF. JAVIER ÁLVAREZ-MON
[email protected]

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Contents
General Information 3
Unit Description 3 Disclaimer
Macquarie University has taken all reasonable
Learning Outcomes 3 measures to ensure the information in this
publication is accurate and up-to-date. However,
Teaching Structure 3 the information may change or become outdated
Assessments and Grades 3 as a result of change in University policies,
procedures or rules. The University reserves the
Unit Schedule 4 right to make changes to any information in this
publication without notice. Users of this
Policies and Procedures 7 publication are advised to check the website
version of this publication [or the relevant faculty
Essay Topics 9 or department] before acting on any information
in this publication.

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 General Information

Unit Description
This unit offers an advanced study of cultural dialogues between ancient civilizations by examining the
material and literary records of the ancient Near East and neighboring regions, including Egypt. Western
cultural stereotypes and prejudices are investigated, as well as notions of cultural identity, ethnicity,
assimilation, rejection, and superiority. Amongst the themes to be addressed are: cultural borrowings,
gender, funerary traditions, gift-giving, tribute, plundering, arts, trade, and dress

Theoretical Backgrounds to be Discussed in Class

 Black and White: Dialogue of Civilizations and Clash of Civilizations (Whose Civilization?)
 Us and Them: What is Cultural Identity?
 To Be or Not to Be: Assimilation, Rejection and Superiority
 The Lure of Luxury and Comfort: Cultural Borrowings and Identity
 To Clash or Not to Clash: Ethnicity in Antiquity
 Neither One nor the Other: Gender in Antiquity
 Ethno-genesis: Migrations, Marriages and Multiculturalism
 Selective Memories: Manufacturing Identities
 Yin and Yang: Dialogue rather than Clash?
 Observing from the Moon: Big History and the End of Differences?

Teaching Structure
2 hours lecture per week
1 hour tutorial per week

Class Readings

There is no textbook for this unit. Required readings are available in the class reader “Dialogue of
Civilizations” posted in pdf format on the iLearn page.

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 ESSAY TOPICS
SELECT ONLY ONE
(NOTE. I F YOU WOULD LIKE TO EXAMINE A DIFFERENT TOPIC CONSULT WITH THE TUTOR)

TOPIC 1. DOMESTICATION: WORST MISTAKE IN HISTORY?

TOPIC 2. THE “FIRST CATHEDRAL” AND THE MYSTERY OF GOBEKLI TEPE
TOPIC 3. LINGUA FRANCA: THE URUK EXPANSION AND THE FIRST EMPIRE
TOPIC 4. THE GILGAMESH EPIC: THE WORLD’S GREATEST SOAP OPERA
TOPIC 5. ON LOVE, SEX AND GENDER IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND EGYPT
TOPIC 6. ON TRADE AND FAMILY HOUSEHOLDS
TOPIC 7. ON GROUP IDENTITY: I AM A PASTORALIST
TOPIC 8. THE SOUND OF MUSIC: MUSIC AND MUSICIANS IN SOCIETY
TOPIC 9. WORKING CLASS STRUGGLE: CRAFTSMEN AND TOMB ROBBERS
TOPIC 10. ON ETHNICITY, ETHNO-GENESIS AND ACCULTURATION
TOPIC 11. BETWEEN DIVINE AND HUMAN AGENCIES: THE RHETORIC OF NATURAL
LANDSCAPE IN OPEN-AIR SANCTUARIES AND GARDENS
TOPIC 12. IN VINO VERITAS: KINGSHIP AND BANQUETING.
TOPIC 13. GIVING AND RECEIVING: TRIBUTE SCENES
TOPIC 14. HORSEMANSHIP AND THE INVENTION OF EQUESTRIAN ART

TOPIC 1. DOMESTICATION: WORST MISTAKE IN HISTORY?

According to the 1987 article by Jared Dimond discussed in class, two views dramatically collide in the
assessment of the “Domestication Revolution”. The progressivist view of human evolution maintains that
the lives of primitive people improved when they switched from gathering to farming. A recent revaluation
of the ethnographic and archaeological data however (the revisionist view) maintains just the opposite. If
you could choose between being a (complex) hunter gatherer in Gobekli Tepe at around 8500 BC or a
peasant farmer in Chatal Hoyuk at around 7500 BC, which do you think would be the better choice and
why?

Background Reading:

http://www.catalhoyuk.com/
http://www.catalhoyuk.com/research/bibliography

(FOR G OBEKLI TEPE SEE BELOW )

TOPIC 2. THE “FIRST CATHEDRAL” AND THE MYSTERY OF GOBEKLI TEPE

Interpretations of the material remains of prehistoric societies rely on theories of social evolution whose
paradigms are continuously re-examined as new discoveries take place. The discovery of Gobekli Tepe in
1994 has generated an explosion of theories regarding the characteristics of the buildings and, in particular,
the art, “religious” beliefs, mindset and social organization of a (presumably) complex hunter gatherer
society responsible for its conceptualization and construction. Examine the latest theories and make a
compelling argument as to which one, if any, sounds more credible to you.

Background Reading:

https://www.dainst.blog/the-tepe-telegrams/home/ (German Excavations, Official Archaeological Site with extensive bibliography)

 Curry, A. 2016. Göbekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple?" Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian, Nov. 2008. Web. 18
Sept. 2016.

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  Harari, Yuval N. 2011. "Chapter 5: History's Biggest Fraud." Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Harper. Pp. 70-87.
 Mann, C. C. 2016. "Göbekli Tepe.". National Geographic. National Geographic, June 2011.
 Ponting, C. (1991) Ch. 3 and 4 in "A Green History of the World: The Environment and the Collapse of Great
Civilizations." St. Martin's Press, New York.
 Schmidt, K. 2000. Göbekli Tepe, Southeastern Turkey: A Preliminary Report on the 1995-1999
Excavations." Paléorient 26.: 45-54.
 Schmidt, K. 2010. “Göbekli Tepe – the Stone Age Sanctuaries. New results of ongoing excavations with a special focus
on sculptures and high reliefs.”
 Turchin, P. 2016. Complex Societies before Agriculture: Göbekli Tepe."Social Evolution Forum. The Evolution Institute,
17 May 2013. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.

TOPIC 3. LINGUA FRANCA: THE URUK EXPANSION AND THE FIRST EMPIRE

The bevel-rim bowl [BRB] is a ubiquitous, mass-produced, product found across hundreds of locations
outside Mesopotamia proper, including more than one hundred sites in Iran and Pakistan, and has come
to symbolize the cultural expansion and mechanics of the “colonial” Uruk “world” system.
Following the theory of bowls = peoples numerous scholars have understood the BRBs as marking the
physical presence of either settled Uruk merchants or itinerant commercial agents. Review the most recent
interpretations of the function of the BRB and place the bowls within the social and political context of
the Uruk “World Empire”.

Background Reading:

 Alden, J.R., 1979. Regional economic organization in Banesh Period Iran (Doctoral dissertation) Department of
Anthropology, University of Michigan.
 Alden, J.R., 1982. Trade and politics in Proto-Elamite Iran. Curr. Anthropol. 23 (6), 613–640.
 Alden, J.R., 1988. Ceramic ring scrapers: an Uruk period pottery production tool. Paléorient 14 (1), 143–150.
 Alden, J.R., Minc, L., 2016. Itinerant potters and the transmission of ceramic technologies and styles during the Proto-
Elamite period in Iran. J. Archaeol. Sci. 7, 863–876.
 Alden, J.R., Minc, L., 2016. Milieus of production: regional diversity in ceramic production from 3500 to 1000 BC in the
Kur River Basin of Fars Province, Iran.
 Algaze, G., 1989. The Uruk expansion: Cross-cultural exchange in early Mesopotamian civilization. Curr. Anthropol. 30 (5),
571–608.
 Algaze, G., 1989. The Uruk World System. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
 Alizadeh, A., 2008. Chogha Mish II: The Development of a Prehistoric Regional Center in Lowland Susiana. Southwestern
Iran: Final Report on the Last Six Seasons of Excavations, 1972-1978Oriental Institute Publication 130. University of
Chicago Press, Chicago.
 Blackman, M.J., 1981. The mineralogical and chemical analysis of Banesh Period ceramics from Tal-eMalyan, Iran. In:
Hughes, M.J. (Ed.), Scientific Studies in Ancient Ceramics. British Museum, London, pp. 7–20.
 Boese, J., 1995. Ausgrabungen in Tell Sheikh Hassan. Saarbrücken, Saarbrücker Verlag.
 Borrell, F., 2010. Characterizing flint outcrops in secondary position. A study case: the Euphrates terraces and their
exploitation during the 8th-7th millennia cal BC. In: H.,
 Alarashi, Chambrade, M.L., Gondet, S., Jouvenel, A., Sauvage, C., Tronchère, H. (Eds.), Regards croisés sur l’étude
archéologique des paysages anciens. Nouvelles recherches dans le Bassin méditerranéen, en Asie centrale et au Proche et au
Moyen-Orient. Travaux de la Maison de l'Orient méditerranéen 56, pp. 117–128.
 Connan, J., Deschesne, O., 1992. Archaeological bitumen: identification, origins and uses of an ancient Near Eastern
material. In: Druzik, J.R., Freestone, I.C., Vandiver, P.B.,
 Wheeler, G.S. (Eds.), Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology III. Materials Research Society Symposia Proceedings 267,
pp. 683–720.
 Crawford, H.E.W., 1973. Mesopotamia's invisible exports in the third millennium BC. World Archaeol. 5 (2), 232–241.
 Damerow, P., Englund, R.K., 1989. The Proto-Elamite Texts from Tepe Yahya. American School of Prehistoric Research
Bulletin 39. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
 Delougaz, P., Kantor, H.J., 1996. Chogha Mish I: The First Five Seasons of Excavations 1961-1971. Oriental Institute
Publication 101. Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago.
 Desset, F., 2011. Éléments d’archéologie du plateau iranien, de la 2ème moitié du 4ème millénaire au debut du 2ème millénaire
av. J.-C. (ca. 3500-1800 av. J.-C.). Thèse de doctorat d’archéologie, Paris: Université Paris I: Panthéon-Sorbonne UFR 03 –
Histoire de l’art et archéologie.
 Emberling, G., Minc, L., 2016. Ceramics and long-distance trade in early Mesopotamian states. J. Archaeol. Sci. 7, 819–834.

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 Englund, R.K., 2006. An examination of the "textual" witnesses to Late Uruk world systems. In: Yushu, Gong, Yiyi, Chen
(Eds.), Oriental Studies 2006: Special Issue of Oriental Studies: A Collection of Papers on Ancient Civilizations of Western
Asia. Asia Minor and North Africa. Peking University, Beijing, pp. 1–39.
 Forbes, R.J., 1936. Bitumen and petroleum in antiquity. E.J. Brill, Leiden. Cretulae–An Early Centralised Administrative
System Before Writing. In: Frangipane, M. Ed.), Arslantepe: Risultati dell richerche e scavi della Missione Archeologica
Italiana nell'Anatolia Orientale 5. Visceglia, Rome.
 Ghazal, R., Kouchoukos, N., Speakman, R., Glascock, M., Descantes, C., 2008. Production zone sourcing and intra-regional
exchange of ceramics in the fourth millennium BC Susiana Plain: an INAA case study, Appendix I. In: Alizadeh, A. (Ed.),
Chogha Mish II: The Development of a Prehistoric Regional Center in Southwestern Iran: Final Report on the Last Six
Seasons of Excavations, 1972–1978Oriental Institute Publication 130. Oriental Institute, Chicago, pp. 93–152.
 Gopnik, H., Rothman, M.S., 2011. On the High Road: the history of Godin Tepe, Iran. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.
 Gopnik, H., Reichel, C.,Minc, L., Elendari, R., 2016. A view from the east: the Godin VI Oval and the Uruk sphere. J.
Archaeol. Sci. 7, 835–848.
 Goulder, J., 2010. Administrators' bread: an experiment-based re-assessment of the functional and cultural role of the Uruk
bevel-rim bowl. Antiquity 84 (324), 351–362.
 Hallo, W., 2011. The Godin Period VI tablets. In: Gopnik, H., Rothman, M.S. (Eds.), On the High Road: The History of
Godin Tepe, Iran. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, pp. 116–118
 Heinrich, E., 1936. Kleinfunde aus dem archaischen Tempelschichten in Uruk. Ausgrabungen der Deutschen
Forschungsgemeinschaft in Uruk-Warka 1. Harrassowitz, Leipzig.
 Helwing, B., 2013. Some thoughts on the mode of culture change in the fourth millennium BC Iranian Highlands. In: Petrie,
C.A. (Ed.), Iran and Its Neighbours: Local Developments and Long-range Interactions in the 4th Millennium BC. British
Institute of Persian Studies Archaeological Monographs, Oxbow, Oxford, pp. 93–105.
 Johnson, G., 1988-89. Late Uruk in Greater Mesopotamia: expansion or collapse? Origini 14, 595–611.
 Lamberg-Karlovsky, C.C., 1972. Tepe Yahya 1971: Mesopotamia and the Indo-Iranian borderlands. Iran 10, 89–100.
 Lindemeyer, E., Martin, L., 1993. Uruk Kleinfunde III. Ausgrabungen in Uruk-Warka Endberichte 9. Philipp von Zabern,
Mainz am Rhein.
 Marschner, R.F., Duffy, L.J., Wright, H.T., 1978. Asphalts from ancient town sites in Southwestern Iran. Paléorient 4, 97–
112.
 Matson, F.R., 1965. Ceramic Ecology. Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, New York.
 Minc, L., 2016. Trace-element analyses of Uruk ceramics: establishing a database to track interregional exchange. J. Archaeol.
Sci. 7, 798–807.
 Mutin, B., 2013. The Proto-Elamite Settlement and Its Neighbors. Tepe Yahya Period IVC. American School of Prehistoric
Research (ASPR) Monograph Series. Harvard University and Oxbow Books, Oxford, UK and Oakville, CT, USA.
 Mutin, B., Lamberg-Karlovsky, C.C., Minc, L., 2016. Investigating ceramic production during the Proto-Elamite Period at
Tepe Yahya, Southeastern Iran: results of instrumental neutron activation analysis of Periods IVC and IVB ceramics. J.
Archaeol. Sci. 7, 849–862.
 Petrie, C., 2015. Iran and Uruk Mesopotamia: chronologies and connections in the fourth millennium BC. In: McMahon,
A., Crawford, H. (Eds.), Preludes to Urbanism: The Late Chalcolithic of Mesopotamia. McDonald Institute for
Archaeological Research, Cambridge, pp. 137–155.
 Pittman, H., 2013. Imagery in administrative context: Susiana and the west in the fourth millenniumBC. In: Petrie, C.A.
(Ed.), Iran and Its Neighbours: Local Developments and Long-range Interactions in the 4th Millennium BC. British Institute
of Persian Studies Archaeological Monographs, Oxbow, Oxford, pp. 293–336.
 Pittman, H., Blackman, M.J., 2016.Mobile or stationary? Chemical analysis of clay administrative devices from Tell Brak in
the Late Uruk Period. J. Archaeol. Sci. 7, 877–883.
 Postgate, J.N. (Ed.), 2002. Artefacts of Complexity: Tracking the Uruk in the Near EastBritish School of Archaeology in
Iraq, Archaeological Reports 5. Aris and Phillips, Warminster.
 Potts, D.T., 2001. Excavations at Tepe Yahya, Iran 1967-1975: the third millennium. American School of Prehistoric
Research Bulletin 45. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
 Potts, D., 2009. Bevel-rim bowls and bakeries: evidence and explanations from Iran and the Indo-Iranian borderlands. J.
Cuneif. Stud. 61, 1–23.
 Renfrew, C., Dixon, J.E., 1976. Obsidian in West Asia: a review. In: Sieveking, G., Longworth, I.H., Wilson, K.E. (Eds.),
Problems in Economic and Social Archaeology. Duckworth, London, pp. 137–150.
 Rothman, M.S. (Ed.), 2001. Uruk Mesopotamia and its neighbors: cross-cultural interactions and their consequences in the
era of state formation. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe.
 Rothman, M.S., 2002. Tepe Gawra: the evolution of a small, prehistoric center in northern Iraq. University Museum
Monographs 112. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia.
 Sanjurjo Sánchez, J., Montero Fenollós, J.L., Prudêncio, M.I., Barrientos, V., Marques, R., Dias, M.I., 2016. Geochemical
study of beveled rim bowls from the Middle Syrian Euphrates sites. J. Archaeol. Sci. 7, 808–818.
 Schwartz,M., Hollander, D., 2016. The Uruk Expansion as dynamic process: A reconstruction of Middle to Late Uruk
exchange patterns frombulk stable isotope analyses of bitumen artifacts. J. Archaeol. Sci. 7, 884–899.

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  Stein, G.J., 1999. Rethinking world systems: diasporas, colonies, and interaction in Uruk Mesopotamia. University of
Arizona Press, Tucson.
 van Driel, G., van Driel-Murray, C., 1979. Jebel Aruda 1977-1978. Akkadica 12, 2–28.
 Vatandoust, A., Parzinger, H., Helwing, B., 2011. EarlyMining and Metallurgy on the Western Central Iranian Plateau: The
First Five Years of Work. Archaeologie in Iran und Turan 9. Darmstadt, Phillip von Zabern.
 Weiss, H., Young Jr., T.C., 1975. The merchants of Susa: Godin V and plateau-lowland relations in the late fourth
millennium B.C. Iran 13, 1–17.
 Wilkinson, T.J., Christiansen, J.H., Ur, J.,Widell,M., Altaweel, M., 2007. Urbanization within a dynamic environment:
modeling Bronze Age communities in Upper Mesopotamia. Am. Anthropol. 109 (1), 52–68.
 Wilkinson, T.J., Gibson, M., Widell, M., 2013. Models of Mesopotamian landscapes: how small-scale processes contributed
to the growth of early civilizations. BAR International Series 2552. Archaeopress, Oxford.
 Wright, H.T., 1987. The Susiana hinterlands during the era of primary state formation. In: Hole, F. (Ed.), Archaeological
Perspectives on Western Iran. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, pp. 141–155.
 Wright, H.T., 2000. In: Emberling, G. (Ed.), Middle to Late Uruk flaked stone assemblages from Tell Brak Syria: 1997-98.
Excavations at Tell Brak 1998, Iraq 61, pp. 1–41.
 Wright, H.T., 2001. Cultural action in the Uruk world. In: Rothman, M. (Ed.), Uruk Mesopotamia nd Its Neighbors: Cross
Cultural Interactions in the Era of State Formation. School of American Research, Santa Fe, pp. 123–148.
 Wright, H.T., 2013. In: Petrie, C.A. (Ed.), A bridge betweenworlds: Southwestern Iran during the fourth millennium
BCAncient Iran and Its Neighbours: Local Developments and Long-range Interactions in the 4th Millennium BC 3. British
Institute of Persian Studies Archaeological Monographs, Oxbow, Oxford, pp. 51–73.
 Wright, H.T., Miller, N.F., Redding, R.W., 1980. Time and process in an Uruk rural center. In: Barrelet, M.-T. (Ed.),
L’archéologie de l’Iraq. Éditions de la Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, pp. 265–284.
 Wright, H.T., Redding, R.W., Pollock, S., 1989. Monitoring interannual variability: an example from the period of early state
development in Southwestern Iran. In: Halstead, P., O’Shea, J.M. (Eds.), Bad Year Economics: Cultural Responses to Risk
and Uncertainty. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 106–113.

TOPIC 4. THE GILGAMESH EPIC: THE WORLD’ S GREATEST S OAP OPERA

“Gilgamesh is overwhelming…and I consider it the greatest thing one can experience”

(Rainer Maria Rilke 1916)

The Gilgamesh epic has attracted and continues to attract the attention of poets, epigraphists,
philosophers, historians of gender, religion, biblical texts, literature, and many more. It has been subject to
numerous translations and can be examined from a multiplicity of viewpoints. Explain what the Epic of
Gilgamesh reveals about the Sumerians, their myths, legends, beliefs and society, and why you think it was,
and is becoming increasingly again, so popular. Keep in mind there are various versions and editions of
the Epic.

Translations:

 George, A. The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Introduction, Critical Edition, and Cuneiform Texts, 2 vols., Oxford
University Press, Oxford, 2003.
 George, A. The Epic of Gilgamesh: A New Translation, Barnes and Noble, New York, 1999.Includes the Sumerian and
Old Babylonian texts.
 Dalley, Stephanie, Myths from Mesopotamia, Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others, Oxford University Press,
Oxford, 1989.
 Gardner, John, and John Maier, Gilgamesh: The Version of Sîn-leqi-Unninnî, Alfred Knopf, New York, 1984.
 Heidel, Alexander, The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1949.
 Kovacs, Maureen Gallery, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1989.
 Sandars, N. K., The Epic of Gilgamesh, Penguin Books, London, revised, 1972. Temple, Robert, He Who Saw
Everything: A Verse Version of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Rider, London, 1991.
Related Sources:

 Damrosch, David, The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh, Henry Holt and Co.,
New York, 2006.
 Fiore, Silvestro, Voices from the Clay: The Development of Assyro-Babylonian Literature, University of Oklahoma Press,
Norman, 1965.
 Jacobsen, Thorkild, The Sumerian King List, The University of Chicago Press,Chicago, 1939
 ——, The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1976.
 Knoche, Grace F., The Mystery Schools, Theosophical University Press, Pasadena, 1999.

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 Kramer, S. N., History Begins at Sumer, Thames & Hudson, London, 1958
——, Sumerian Mythology, Revised Edition, Harper Torchbooks, New York, 1961.
 Tigay, Jeffrey H., The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1982; reprint,
Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Wauconda, IL, 2002.
 Alster, Bendt forthcoming. Why wisdom literature ― or why not? In Vanstiphout forthcoming
 Anderson, Graham 1984. Ancient Fiction: The Novel in the Graeco-Roman World. London: Croom Helm
 Bailey, John A. 1976. Male, female and the pursuit of immortality in the Gilgamesh epic. La Parola del Passato: Rivista di
studi antichi 171: 433-57
 Bascom, William 1965. The forms of folklore: Prose narratives. Journal of American Folklore 78: 3-20. Reprinted in Dundes
1984: 6-29
 Ben-Amos, Dan 1976. Analytical categories and ethnic genres. Pp. 215-42 in FolklorE Genres, ed. D. Ben-Amos. Austin:
University of Texas Press
 Black, Jeremy 1998. Reading Sumerian Poetry. London: Athlone Press
 ― , Graham Cunningham, Eleanor Robson and Gábor Zólyomi 2004. The Literature of Ancient Sumer. Oxford: Oxford
University Press
 Blenkinsopp, Joseph 1975. The search for the prickly plant: Structure and function in the Gilgamesh epic. Soundings
(Vanderbilt) 58: 200-20
 ― 2004. Gilgamesh and Adam: Wisdom through experience in Gilgamesh and in the biblical story of the Man, the Woman,
and the Snake. Pp. 85-101 in Treasures Old and New: Essays in the Theology of the Pentateuch. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans
 Bratton, F. Gladstone 1970. Myths and Legends of the Ancient Near East. New York: Crowell
 Buccellati, Giorgio 1981. Wisdom and not: The case of Mesopotamia. Journal of the American Oriental Society 101: 35-47
 Bulkley, Kelly 1993. The evil dreams of Gilgamesh: An interdisciplinary approach to dreams in mythological texts. Pp. 159-
77 in The Dream and the Text: Essays on Literature and Language, ed. C. Schreier Rupprecht. Albany: State University of
New York Press
 Bynum, David E. 1976. The generic nature of oral epic poetry. Pp. 35-58 in Folklore Genres, ed. D. Ben-Amos. Austin:
University of Texas Press. Reprinted from Genre 2 (1969) 236-58
 ― 1978. The Daemon in the Wood: A Study in Oral Narrative Patterns. Cambridge: Harvard University Press Campbell,
Joseph 1968. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. 2nd edn. Princeton: Princeton University Press
 Cooper, Jerrold S. forthcoming. Genre, gender and the Sumerian literature. In Vanstiphout forthcoming
 Dalley, Stephanie 1989. Myths from Mesopotamia. Oxford: Oxford University Press
 ― 1994. The tale of Bulūqiy� and the Alexander Romance in Jewish and Sufi mystical circles. Pp. 239-69 in Tracing the
Threads: Studies in the Vitality of Jewish Pseudepigraphia, ed. J. C. Reeves. Atlanta: Scholars Press
 Damrosch, David 1987. The Narrative Covenant: Transformations of Genre in the Growth of Biblical Literature. San
Francisco: Harper and Row
 Dégh, Linda and Andrew Vászonyi 1976. Legend and belief. Pp. 93-123 in Folklore Genres, ed. D. Ben-Amos. Austin:
University of Texas Press. Reprinted from Genre 4 (1971) 281-304
 Detienne, Marcel 1991. The interpretation of myths: Nineteenth- and twentieth-century theories. Transl. John Leavitt. Pp.
5-10 in Mythologies, comp. Y. Bonnefoy, ed.
 W. Doniger. 2 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago PressDoty, William G. 1993. Myths of Masculinity. New York:
Crossroad
 ― 2000. Mythography: The Study of Myths and Rituals. 2nd edn. Tuscaloosa: Universityof Alabama Press
 Dundes, Alan (ed.) 1984. Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth. Berkeley: University of California Press
 ― 1996. Madness in method, plus a plea for projective inversion in myth. Pp. 147-59 in Myth and Method, ed. L. L. Patton
and W. Doniger. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia
 Edzard, Dietz Otto 1994. Sumerian epic: Epic or fairy tale? Bulletin of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies 27:
7-14
 ― and Wolfgang Röllig 1987-90. Literatur. Pp. 35-66 in Reallexikon der Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie 7,
ed. D. O. Edzard. Berlin: de Gruyter Finkelberg, Margalit 1998. The Birth of Literary Fiction in Ancient Greece. Oxford:
Clarendon Press
 Foster, Benjamin R. 1993. Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature. 2 vols. Bethesda, Md: CDL Press
 Fowler, Alastair 1982. Kinds of Literarure: An Introduction to the Theory of Genres and Modes. Oxford: Clarendon Press
 Frye, Northrop 1990. Myth and Metaphor: Selected Essays, 1974-1988. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia
 Gaster, Theodor H. 1954. Myth and story. Numen 1: 184-212. Reprinted in Dundes 1984: 110-36
 Gelder, Geert Jan van 1999. Some brave attempts at generic classification in premodern Arabic literature. Pp. 15-31 in
Aspects of Genre and Type in Pre-Modern Literary Cultures, ed. B. Roest and H. L. J. Vanstiphout. Groningen: Styx
 George, A. R. 1993. Ninurta-p�qid�t’s Dog Bite and other comic tales, Iraq 55: 63-75
 ― 1999. The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian. London: Allen
Lane The Penguin Press; New York: Barnes and Noble. Reprinted in 2000 as a Penguin Classic
 ― 2001. Review of Stephanie Dalley et al., The Legacy of Mesopotamia. Bulletin of SOAS 64: 102–4
 ― 2003. The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford
University Press
 ― 2004. Five scholars and one epic: Gilgamesh and the epic traditions of ancient Mesopotamia, in the Proceedings of the
UNESCO Symposium on David of Sasun and World Epic Traditions, Tsakhkadzor, Armenia, November 2002, ed. A.
Yeghiazaryan. Yerevan

8
 Groneberg, Brigitte 2003. Searching for Akkadian lyrics: From Old Babylonian to the “Liederkatalog” KAR 158. Journal of
Cuneiform Studies 55: 55-74
 ― forthcoming. Classificatory markers in catalogues and early Akkadian lyrical texts. In Vanstiphout forthcoming
 Halperin, David M. 1990. Heroes and their pals. Pp. 75-87 in One Hundred Years of Homosexuality and Other Essays on
Greek Love. New York: Routledge
 Harris, Rivkah 1990. Images of women in the Gilgamesh Epic. Pp. 219-30 in Lingering Over Words: Studies in Ancient
Near Eastern Literature in Honor of William L.
 Moran, ed. T. Abusch, J. Huehnergard and P. Steinkeller. Harvard Semitic Studies 37. Atlanta, Ga: Scholars Press
 ― 2000. Gender and Aging in Mesopotamia: The Gilgamesh Epic and Other Ancient Literature. Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press
 Hecker, Karl 1974. Untersuchungen zur akkadischen Epik. Alter Orient und Altes Testament, Sonderreihe 8. Kevelaer:
Butzon and Bercker, Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag
 Honko, Lauri 1972. The problem of defining myth. Pp. 7-19 in The Myth of the State: Based on Papers Read at the
Symposium on the Myth of the State held at Åbo on the 6th-8th September 1971, ed. H. Biezais. Stockholm: Almqvist and
Wiksell. Reprinted in Dundes 1984: 41-52.
 Jacobsen, Thorkild 1987. The Harps that Once . . . : Sumerian Poetry in Translation. New Haven: Yale University Press
 Jensen, Peter 1906. Assyrisch-babylonische Mythen und Epen. Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek 6, 1. Berlin: Reuther & Reichard.
Reprint, Amsterdam: Celibus, 1970
 Keppler, Carl F. 1972. The Literature of the Second Self. Tucson: University of Arizona Press
 Kilmer, Anne Draffkorn forthcoming. Ea bal��ka liqbi! Repertoires and genres of vocal music compositions. In
Vanstiphout forthcoming
 Kirk, G. S. 1970. Myth: Its Meaning and Function in Ancient and Other Cultures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
Berkeley: University of California Press
 ― 1973. On defining myths. Phronesis: A Journal for Ancient Philosophy suppl. 1: 61-9. Reprinted in Dundes 1984: 53-61
 Kupper, Jean-Robert 1960. Les différents versions de l’épopée de Gilgameš. Pp. 97-102 in Gilgameš et sa légende, ed. P.
Garelli. Compte rendu, Rencontre assyriologique internationale 7. Paris: Klincksieck
 Lambert, W. G. 1960. Babylonian Wisdom Literature. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Reprint, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1996
 ― 1986. Ninurta mythology in the Babylonian Epic of Creation. Pp. 55-61 in Keilschriftliche Literaturen: Ausgewählte
Vorträge der XXXII. Rencontre assyriologique internationale Münster, 8.-12.7.1985, ed. K. Hecker and W. Sommerfeld.
Berlin: Reimer
 Leick, Gwendolyn 1998. The challenge of chance: An anthropological view of Mesopotamian mental strategies for dealing
with the unpredictable. Pp. 195-8 in Intellectual Life of the Ancient Near East. Papers Presented at the 43rd Rencontre
Assyriologique Internationale, Prague, July 1-5, 1996, ed. J. Prosecký . Prague: Oriental Institute
 Lindahl, Carl 1991. The oral aesthetic and the bicameral mind. Oral Tradition 6: 130-6. Reprinted as in Gilgamesh: A Reader,
ed. J. Maier. Wauconda, Ill.: Bolchazy- Carducci
 Livingstone, Alasdair 1989. Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea. State Archives of Assyria 3. Helsinki: Helsinki University
Press
 Longman III, Tremper 1991. Fictional Akkadian Autobiography: A Generic and Comparative Study. Winona Lake:
Eisenbrauns
 Lord, Albert B. 1990. Gilgamesh and other epics. Pp. 371-80 in Lingering Over Words: Studies in Ancient Near Eastern
Literature in Honor of William L. Moran, ed. T.
 Abusch, J. Huehnergard and P. Steinkeller. Harvard Semitic Studies 37. Atlanta, Ga: Scholars Press. Reprinted in Gilgamesh:
A Reader, ed. J. Maier. Wauconda, Ill.: Bolchazy-Carducci
 Maier, John 1984. The one who saw the abyss. Pp. 3-54 in Gilgamesh, Translated from the Sîn-leqi-unninn� Version, by
John Gardner and John Maier. New York: Knopf
 Mandell, Sara 1997. Liminality, altered states and the Gilgamesh Epic. Pp. 122-30 in Gilgamesh: A Reader, ed. J. Maier.
Wauconda, Ill.: Bolchazy-Carducci
 Mason, Herbert 1972. Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative. New York: Mentor Michalowski, Piotr 1989. The Lamentation over
the Destruction of Sumer and Ur. Mesopotamian Civilizations 1. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns
 ― 1996. Sailing to Babylon: Reading the dark side of the moon. Pp. 177-93 in The Study of the Ancient Near East in the
21st Century: The William Foxwell Albright Centennial Conference, ed. J. S. Cooper and G. M. Schwartz. Winona Lake:
Eisenbrauns
 ― 1999. Commemoration, writing, and genre in ancient Mesopotamia. Pp. 69-90 in The Limits of Historiography: Genre
and Narrative in Ancient Historical Texts, ed. C. S. Kraus. Mnemosyne Suppl. 191. Leiden: Brill
 Miller, D. Gary and P. Wheeler 1981. Mother goddess and consort as literary motif sequence in the Gilgamesh epic. Acta
Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 29: 81-108
 Mitchell, Stephen 2004. Gilgamesh: A New English Version. New York: Free Press
 Moran, William L. 1980. Review of W. Röllig, Altorientalische Literaturen. Journal of the American Oriental Society 100:
189-90
 ― 1987. Gilgamesh. Pp. 557-60 in The Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol. 5, ed. Mircea Eliade. New York: Macmillan
 ― 1991. The Epic of Gilgamesh: A document of ancient humanism. Bulletin, Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies
22: 15-22
 ― 1995. The Gilgamesh epic: A masterpiece from ancient Mesopotamia. Pp. 2327-36 in Civilizations of the Ancient Near
East, ed. Jack M. Sasson. 4 vols. New York: Scribners

9
 Müller, H.-P. 1978. Gilgameschs Trauergesang um Enkidu und die Gattung der Totenklage. Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 68:
233-50
 Otten, Heinrich 1957-71. Gilgameš (C. Nach hethitischen Texten). P. 372 in Reallexikon der Assyriologie und
vorderasiatische Archäologie 3, ed. E. Ebeling and W. von Soden. Berlin: de Gruyter
 Parpola, Simo 1993. The Assyrian Tree of Life: Tracing the origins of Jewish monotheism and Greek philosophy. Journal
of Near Eastern Studies 52: 161-208
 ― 1998. The esoteric meaning of the name of Gilgamesh. Pp. 315-29 in Intellectual Life of the Ancient Near East. Papers
Presented at the 43rd Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Prague, July 1-5, 1996, ed. J. Prosecký. Prague: Oriental
Institute
 Pettazzoni, Raffaele 1954. The truth of myth. Pp. 11-23 in Pettazzoni, Essays on the History of Religions, transl. H. J. Rose.
Leiden: Brill. Reprinted in Dundes 1984: 98-109
 Prévot, Dominique 1986. L’épopée de Gilgamesh: Un scénario initiatique? Pp. 225-41 in Les rites d’initiation. Actes du
colloque de Liège et de Louvain-la-Neuve, 20-21 novembre 1984, ed. J. Ries. Homo religiosus 13. Louvain-la-Neuve: Centre
d’histoire des religions
 Raglan, F. R. S., Fourth Baron 1936. The Hero: A Study in Tradition, Myth and Drama. London: Methuen
 Ray, Benjamin Caleb 1996. The Gilgamesh epic: Myth and meaning. Pp. 300-26 in Myth and Method, ed. L. L. Patton and
W. Doniger. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia
 Roest, Bert and Herman Vanstiphout 1999. Postscriptum: Generic studies in pre-modern traditions: Why and how? Pp.
129-39 in Aspects of Genre and Type in Pre-Modern Literary Cultures, ed. Roest and Vanstiphout. Groningen: Styx
 Röllig, Wolfgang 1999. Gilgamesch. Cols. 1244-53 in Enzyklopädie des Märchens: Handwörterbuch zur historischen und
vergleichenden Erzählforschung, ed. R. W. Brednich. Berlin: de Gruyter
 Roth, Martha T. 1983. The Slave and the Scoundrel: CBS 10467, a Sumerian morality tale? Journal of the American Oriental
Society 103: 275-82
 Sasson, Jack M. 1972. Some literary motifs in the composition of the Gilgamesh epic. Studies in Philology 69: 259-79
 Segal, Robert A. 1996. Does myth have a future? Pp. 82-106 in Myth and Method, ed. L. L. Patton and W. Doniger.
Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia
 Smith, Evans Lansing 1997. The Hero Journey in Literature: Parables of Poesis. Lanham, Md: University Press of America
 Spence, Lewis 1916. Myths and Legends of Babylonia and Assyria. London: Harrap
 Tigay, Jeffrey H. 1982. The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic. Philadelphia
 Tinney, Steve 1996. The Nippur Lament: Royal Rhetoric and Divine Legitimation in the Reign of Išme-Dagan of Isin (1953-
1935 BC). Occasional Publications of the
 Samuel Noah Kramer Fund 16. Philadelphia: University Museum
 ― 1999. On the curricular setting of Sumerian literature. Iraq 61: 159-72
 Toorn, Karel van der 2001. Echoes of Gilgamesh in the Book of Qohelet? A reassessment of the intellectual sources of
Qohelet. Pp. 503-14 in Veenhof Anniversary Volume: Studies Presented to Klaas R. Veenhof on the Occasion of his Sixty-
Fifth Birthday, ed. W. van Soldt. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten
 Van Nortwick, Thomas 1992. Somewhere I Have Never Travelled: The Second Self and the Hero’s Journey in Ancient
Epic. New York: Oxford University Press
 Vanstiphout, Herman L. J. 1986. Some thoughts on genre in Mesopotamian literature. Pp.1-11 in Keilschriftliche
Literaturen: Ausgewählte Vorträge der XXXII. Rencontre assyriologique internationale, Münster 8.-12.7.1985, ed. K.
Hecker and W. Sommerfeld. Berliner Beiträge zum Vorderen Orient 6. Berlin: D. Reimer
 ― 1999a. The use(s) of genre in Mesopotamian literature: An afterthought. Archiv Orientální 67: 703-17
 ― 1999b. “I can put anything in its right place”: Generic and typological studies as strategies for the analysis and evaluation
of mankind’s oldest literature. Pp. 79-99 in Aspects of Genre and Type in Pre-Modern Literary Cultures, ed. B. Roest and
H. L. J. Vanstiphout. Groningen: Styx
 ― 2003. The Old Babylonian literary canon: Structure, function and intention. Pp. 1-28 in Cultural Repertoires: Structure,
Function and Dynamics, ed. G. J. Dorleijn and H. L. J. Vanstiphout. Groningen Studies in Cultural Change 3. Leuven:
Peeters
 ― (ed.) forthcoming. Genre in Mesopotamian Literature: Proceedings of the Third Meeting of the Mesopotamian Literature
Group. Cuneiform Monographs 24. Leiden: Brill-Styx
 Veldhuis, Niek 1995-6. On interpreting Mesopotamian namburbi rituals. Archiv für Orientforschung 42-3: 145-54
 ― 2003. Sumerian literature. Pp. 29-43 in Cultural Repertoires: Structure, Function and Dynamics, ed. G. J. Dorleijn and H.
L. J. Vanstiphout. Groningen Studies in Cultural Change 3. Leuven: Peeters
 Verbrugghe, Gerald P. and John M. Wickersham 1996. Berossos and Manetho, Introduced and Translated: Native
Traditions in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press
 Walker, C. B. F. 1981. The second tablet of �upšenna pitema, an Old Babylonian Naram-Sin legend. Journal of Cuneiform
Studies 33: 191-5
 Walls, Neal 2001. Desire, Discord and Death: Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Myth. ASOR Books 8. Boston:
American Schools of Oriental Research
 Wasserman, Nathan 2003. Style and Form in Old-Babylonian Literary Texts. Cuneiform Monographs 27. Leiden: Brill-Styx
 Wilcke, Claus 1976. Formale Gesichtspunkte in der sumerischen Literatur. Pp. 205-316 in Sumerological Studies in Honor
of Thorkild Jacobsen on his Seventieth Birthday, June 7, 1974. Assyriological Studies 20. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press
 Wolff, Hope Nash 1969. Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the heroic life. Journal of the American
Oriental Society 89: 392-8

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 ― 1987. A Study in the Narrative Structure of Three Epic Poems: Gilgamesh, the Odyssey and Beowulf. New York:
Garland

TOPIC 5. ON LOVE, SEX AND GENDER IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND EGYPT

Near Eastern and Egyptian Art and Literature abound in information on gender and sex in society. Select a particular
place and time period and use textual and/or artistic evidence to examine either:
- a specific gender identity (women, men, or ambiguously gendered) or a specific social grooup (goddesses, priests, queens,
soldiers, merchants, etc.) and the role of the selected identity/group in the society; or
- notions of power, class and gender; or
- sex, love and the relationship of sexuality and power both at human and cosmological levels

Background Reading:

Note. In 2001 an international conference was dedicated to this topic. Sex and gender in the ancient Near East : proceedings
of the 47th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Helsinki, July 2-6, 2001. A great introduction is provided by G. Leick “Sex
& Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature” (2003).

 Bottéro, Jean, Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, French 1992, English 2001.
 Comstock, Gary, Gay Theology Without Apology, 1993.
 Greenberg, David, The Construction of Homosexuality, 1988.
 Halpern, David, One Hundred Years of Homosexuality, 1990.
 Harris, Rivkah, “Images of Women in the Gilgamesh Epic,” 1990, reprinted in John Maier, ed., Gilgamesh: A Reader,
1997, p. 79-94.
 Lambert, Wilfried, “Prostitution,” in Volkert Haas, ed., Aussenseiter und Randgruppen: Beiträge zu einer Sozialgeschichte
des Alten Orients, 1992, p. 127-157.
 Leick, Gwendolyn, Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature, 1994.
 Nissinen, Martti, Homoeroticism in the Biblical World, 1998.
 Schroer, Silvia, and Thomas Staubli, “Saul, David and Jonathan – The Story of a Triangle? A Contribution to the Issue of
Homosexuality in the First Testament,” in Athalya Brenner, ed., Samuel and Kings: A Feminine Companion to the Bible,
Second Series, no. 7, 2000, p. 22-36.
Walls, Neal, Desire, Discord and Death: Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Myth, 2001
 Dalley, S. 2002 Evolution of Gender in Mesopotamian Mythology and Iconography with a Possible Explanation of ša
rēšēn, “the man with two heads.” Pp. 117–22 in S. Parpola and R. M. Whiting (eds.), Sex and Gender in the Ancient Near East:
Proceedings of the 47th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Helsinki, July 2–6, 2001. Helsinki.
 Deller, K. 1999 The Assyrian Eunuchs and Their Predecessors. Pp. 303–11 in K. Watanabe (ed.), Priests
 and Officials in the Ancient Near East: Papers of the Second Colloquium on the Ancient Near East “The City and its Life,” held at the
Middle Eastern Culture Center in Japan (Mitaka, Tokyo), March 22–24, 1996. Heidelberg.
 Everhart, J. S. 2003 The Hidden Eunuchs of the Hebrew Bible: Uncovering an Alternate Gender. Ph.D. dissertation,
 University of Denver.
 Grayson, A. K. 1995 Eunuchs in Power: Their Role in the Assyrian Bureaucracy. Pp. 85–98 in M. Dietrich and O. Loretz
(eds.), Vom Alten Orient zum Alten Testament: Festschrift für Wolfram Freiherrn von Soden zum 85. Geburtstag am 19. Juni 1993.
Neukirchen-Vluyn.
 Hawkins, J. D. 2002 Eunuchs among the Hittites. Pp. 217–33 in S. Parpola and R. M.Whiting (eds.), Sex and Gender in the
Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 47th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Helsinki, July 2–6, 2001. Helsinki.
 Rivkah Harris 2000, 2003, Gender and Aging in Mesopotamia: The Gilgamesh Epic and Other Ancient Literature.
 Siddall, L. R. 2007 A Re-examination of the Title ša reši in the Neo-Assyrian Period. Pp. 225–40 in J. J.
 Azize and N. K. Weeks (eds.), Gilgameš and the World of Assyria: Proceedings of the Conference Held at Mandelbaum House, the
University of Sydney, 21–23 July, 2004.Leuven.
 Tadmor, H. 1995 Was the Biblical sārîs a Eunuch? Pp. 317–25 in Z. Zevit, S. Gitin, and M. Sokoloff (eds.), Solving
Riddles and Untying Knots: Biblical, Epigraphic, and Semitic Studies in Hono of Jonas C. Greenfield. Winona Lake,
Indiana.
 Tadmor, H. 2002 The Role of the Chief Eunuch and the Place of Eunuchs in the Assyrian Empire. Pp. 603–11 in S.
Parpola and R. M.Whiting (eds.), Sex and Gender in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 47th Rencontre
Assyriologique Internationale, Helsinki, July 2–6, 2001. Helsinki.
 Svärd, S., 2012. Power and Women in the Neo-Assyrian Palaces, Ph. Dissertation, University of Helsinki.
 Teppo, S., 2005. Women and their Agency in the Neo-Assyrian Empire, M.A. Thesis, University of Helsinki.
 Albenda, P., 1987. Woman, Child, and Family: their Imagery in Assyrian art. La Femme dans le Proche-Orient Antique.
Éditions Recherche sur les Civilisations, Paris, 17-21.
 Albenda, P.,1998. A Royal Eunuch in the Garden, Nouvelles Assyriologiques Bréves et Utilitaires 3.
 Gansell, A.R., 2013 Images and Conceptions of Ideal Feminine Beauty in Neo-Assyrian Royal Context, c. 883-627
BCE, in Critical Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Art, ed. M. Feldman and B. Brown (eds,), Boston, 391–420

11
 Stol, M., 2016. Women in the Ancient Near East, Berlin.

TOPIC 6. ON TRADE AND HOUSEHOLDS: THE ASSYRIAN MERCHANTS

The merchants from Assur and their long-distance trade network is one of the earliest and best-
documented of antiquity and has been compared with the Venetian merchants and the British East India
Company. At the core of the Assyrian trade network were social and family structures. Examine the
evidence and define these structures both at home (the city of Assur) and beyond. What does this evidence
indicate about assimilation, acculturation, identity and exchange?

Background Reading:

 de Roover, R. 1942 The Commercial Revolution of the Thirteenth Century. Bulletin of the Business Historical
Society 16: 34-39.
 Dercksen, J. G. 1996 The Old Assyrian Copper Trade in Anatolia, PIHANS 75. Leiden: Neederlands Instituut voor
het Nabije Oosten.
 2004 Old Assyrian Institutions, MOS Studies 4. Leiden: Neederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten.
 Garelli, P. 1963 Les assyriens en Cappadoce, Bibliotheque archeologique et historique de l'Institut francais
d'archeologie d'Istanbul 19. Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve.
 Goldthwaite, R. A. 1968 Private Wealth in Renaissance Florence. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
 1980 The Building of Renaissance Florence. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
 Hecker, K. 1978 Zu den Verwandtschaftsbezeichnungen in den Kultepe-Texten. Pp. 137-55 in Festschrift Lubor
Matous, Vol. 1, eds. B. Hruska and G. Komor6czy. Budapest: Ei:itvi:is Lorand Tudomanyegyetem, Okori
Ti:irteneti Tanszekek.
 Hirsch, H. 1961 Untersuchungen zur altassyrischen Religion, Archiv fur Orientforschung Beiheft 13/14. Graz:
Biblio-Verlag. Kryszat, G. 2004 Zur Chronologie der Kaufmannsarchive aus der Schicht 2 des Karum Kanes.
PIHANS 99. Leiden: Neederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten.
 Larsen, M. T. 1967 Old Assyrian Caravan Procedures. PIHANS 22. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het
Nabije Oosten. 1977 Partnerships in the Old Assyrian Trade. Iraq 39: 119-45.
 1982 Your Money or Your Life! A Portrait of an Assyrian Businessman. Pp. 214-45 in Studies and Languages
of the Ancient Near East in Honour of I. M. Diakonoff, eds. M. Danda- mayev et al. Warminster: Aris &
Phillips.
 2000 The Old Assyrian City-State. Pp. 77-87 in A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cul- tures, ed.
Mogens Herman Hansen. Copenhagen: The Royal Academy of Sciences.
 2002 The Assur-nada Archive, Old Assyrian Archives 1. PIHANS 46. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het
Nabije Oosten. Matous, L.
 1969 Der Streit um den Nachlass des Puzur-Assur. ArOr 37: 156-80.
 Michel, C. 2001 Correspondance des marchands de Kanish, Litteratures anciennes du Proche-Orient 19. Paris:
Editions du Cerf.
 Stein, G. 2004 The Political Economy of Mesopotamian Colonial Encounters. Pp. 143-71 in The Archaeology
of Colonial Encounters: Comparative Perspectives, ed. G. Stein. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research
Press.
 Veenhof, K. R. 1972 Aspects of Old Assyrian Trade and Its Termi- nology Leiden: Brill.
 2003a The Old Assyrian List of Year Eponyms From Karum Kanish and Its Chronological Impli- cations.
Ankara: Turk Tarih Kurumu.
 2003b The Old Assyrian Period. Pp. 457-58 in A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law, ed. R. Westbrook.
HdO 1.72. Leiden: Brill.

TOPIC 7. ON GROUP IDENTITY: I AM A PASTORALIST

Ethnographic studies of the last 30 years have challenged the stereotypical picture of a dichotomy between the
settled and non-settled populations of the ancient Near east and given way, instead, to a subtler appreciation of the
various degrees to which these populations interacted while adapting to different ecosystems. A number of ancient
Near Eastern texts of historic, mythical, and epic character contain references to “a mobile, herding element in
society”. An overview of the history of pastoralism in the ancient Near East leads us to the Mari archives, without
doubt our best source of textual information for an evaluation of nomadic-settled relationships in the ancient near

12
East. Examine the sources and articulate the structure of the pastoralist tribal society, territories, and the interaction
levels with the state.

Note. A large percentage of Mari sources are in French language. Fleming (2004), posted in our ILearn page,
provides a substantial bibliography.

TOPIC 8. THE SOUND OF MUSIC

The ancient cultures of the Near East and Egypt cultivated rich musical expressions whose manifestations have
reached us primarily in the form of fragmented visual representations and, to a much lesser degree, through textual
evidence unveiling aspects of the formalization and standardization of musical instruments and vocal compositions.
This evidence intimates a cultural legacy that, in the words of L. Oppenheim, “we cannot even imagine”. Evaluate
the role of music and musicians in the cultures of the ancient Near East and/or Egypt taking into account, for
example, gender, sex, roles, performances, instruments, type of music performed and contexts.

Background Reading:

 Cheng, J., 2001. Assyrian Music as Represented and Representations of Assyrian Music, Ph.D. Dissertation, Harvard
University.
 De Waele, E., 1989. Musicians and musical instruments on the rock reliefs in the Elamite sanctuary of Kūl-e Farah
(Īzeh), Iran 27, 29–38.
 Duchesne-Guillemin, M., 1969. Note sur la provenance Asiatique d’un tambour Égyptien Archäologische Mitteilungen
aus Iran 8, 53–5.
 Dumbrill, R.J., 1998. The Archaeomusicology of the Near East, London.
 Fox, N.S., 1995. Clapping Hands as a Gesture of Anguish and Anger in Mesopotamia and in Israel, Journal of Ancient
Near Eastern Society 23, 49–60.
 Henkelman, W.F.M./Khaksar, S., 2014. Elam’s Dormant Sound: Landscape, Music and the Divine in Ancient Iran.
Archaeoacoustics: The Archaeology of Sound, Conference Report (19 to 22 February 2014), Balzan, Malta, 211–31.
 Kilmer, A.D., 1997. Musik, A: philologisch. Reallexikon der Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archäologie 8, 463–82.
 Kilmer. 1998. The Musical Instruments from Ur and Ancient Mesopotamian Music, Expedition 40, No. 2, 12–19.
 Kilmer. 2014a A Brief Account of the Development of the Field of Music Archaeology, in: J.G. Westenholz/Y.
Maurey/E. Seroussi (eds.), Music in Antiquity: The Near East and the Mediterranean, Berlin, 11–4.
 Kilmer. 2014b. Mesopotamian Music Theory since 1977, in Music in Antiquity: The Near East and the Mediterranean,
J.G. Westenholz, Y. Maurey, E. Seroussi (eds.), Berlin, 92–101.
 Lawergren, B., 2009. Music History i. Pre-Islamic Iran. Encyclopaedia Iranica. Downloaded Sept 2011,
http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/music-history-i-pre-islamic-iran.
 Lawergren. 2018. Music, in The Elamite Word, J. Álvarez-Mon, J.P. Basello and Y. Wicks (eds.), London.
 Lawergren, B./Gurney, O.R, 1987. Sound Holes and Geometrical Figures. Clues to the Terminology of Ancient
Mesopotamian Harps, Iraq 49, 37–52.
 MacGregor, S.L., 2011. Foreign musicians in Neo-Assyrian royal courts, in: A. D. Kilmer/W. Heimpel/ G. Frantz-
Szabó (eds.), Strings and Threads: a Celebration of the Work of Anne Draffkorn Kilmer, Winona Lake, 137–59.
 Rashid, S.A., 1984. Musikgeschichte in Bildern, Mesopotamien, Leipzig.

TOPIC 9. WORKING CLASS S TRUGGLE: CRAFTSMEN AND TOMB ROBBERS

Some of the most famous documented robberies of antiquity were enacted in the Valley of the Kings by craftsmen
living in the nearby village of Deir-el Medinat and working on the decoration of the tombs. Who were these people?
What were their living conditions and social status? Who purchased their stolen goods? What do their activities say
about their beliefs, specifically towards the deified pharaohs and the elite class? Examine these questions placing the
tomb robberies in the social and economic contexts of the times.

Background Reading:

Capart, J., A H Gardiner, B van de Walle, “New Light on the Ramesside Tomb-Robberies.” The Journal of
Egyptian Archaeology 22, no. 2 (1936): 169-193.
Peet, T.E., The great tomb-robberies of the Twentieth Egyptian Dynasty, Oxford 1930, 45-51
The Amherst Papyrus, http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/texts/amherst_papyrus.htm
The Abbott Papyrus: http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/texts/pabbott.htm
The Mayer Papyrus; http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/texts/mayer_papyri.htm

TOPIC 10. ON THE INVENTION OF IDENTITY: ETHNICITY, ETHNOGENESIS AND ACCULTURATION

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It is unclear to what degree people and their combined progeny in the ancient Near East and Egypt may have
entertained ethnocentric notions of being “one people,” or whether this notion played a role at all in configuring
their identity. If ethnic identity is a process, how do we speak about “ethnic” groups in the past? What do we make
of critical (ethnic) identity markers such as, for example, common descent, tribal names, language, religion, territory,
class, gender, physical attributes, and livelihood? Ought these be considered, separately or in combination, significant
in shaping history and cultural expression?
Bearing in mind these reflections (which are based on theoretical discussions by Emberling 1995, 1998; Siân Jones
1997; and Hall 1997) examine what role the above identity markers played in the context of a population group of
your choice from the ancient Near East or Egypt (for example, Nubians, Israelites, Cananeans, Hittites, Elamites,
Luwians, etc.). Focus, in particular, on notions and processes of ethnogenesis and acculturation.

Background Reading:

 Emberling, G. 1998. Book Review: on J. M. Hall (1997) and S. Jones (1997). Cambridge Archaeological Journal 8:2 (1998):
265-283.
 Emberling, G. 1995. Ethnicity and the State in Early Third Millennium Mesopotamia. Ph. diss. University of Michigan.
 Hall, J. M. 1997. Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity. Cambridge.
 Jones, S. 1997. The Archaeology of Ethnicity: Constructing Identities in the Past and Present. London.

TOPIC 11. BETWEEN DIVINE AND HUMAN AGENCIES: T HE RHETORIC OF NATURAL L ANDSCAPE IN OPEN-AIR
SANCTUARIES AND G ARDENS

Placed in the context of the ancient Near East, groves, gardens and open-air sanctuaries are ideological political
and religious statements manifesting a dialogue between natural and urban landscapes, and between divine and
human agencies. Evaluate and compare this dialogue in light of the evidence provided by ONE of these examples:

(1) Hittite Monumental Open-Air Sanctuaries

(2) Elamite Monumental Open-Air Sanctuaries
(3) The Persian capital of Pasargadae and the Persian Garden

Background Reading:

 Alvarez-Mon, J. (2004). Imago Mundi: Cosmological and Ideological Aspects of the Arjan Bowl". In: Iranica Antiqua 39,
pp. 131-144.
 Alvarez-Mon, J. (2009). Notes On The Elamite Garment Of Cyrus The Great". In: The Antiquaries Journal 89. August
2009, p. 21. issn: 0003-5815.
 Alvarez-Mon, J. Mon, (2011). Predecessors of the Persian Empire and Its Rise :The Elamite Traditions". In: In press,
pp. 1-9.
 Boucharlat, R. (2007). Achaemenid Residences and Elusive Imperial Cities". In: Getrennte Wege? Kommunikation,
Raum und Wahrnehmung in der Alten Welt. Ed. by R. Rollinger, A Luther, and J Wiesehofer. July. Berlin: Verlag
Antike, pp. 454-471.
 Boucharlat, R. (2009). The 'Paradise' of Cyrus at Pasargadae, the core of the Royal ostentation". In: Bau-und
Gartenkultur Zwischen "Orient" und "Okzident". Ed. by J Ganzert and J Wolschke-Bulmahn. Martin Meidenbauer
Verlag, pp. 47-64.
 Boucharlat, R. (2011). Gardens and Parks at Pasargadae: two paradises?" In: Herodotus and the Persian Empire. Ed. by
R. Rollinger, B Truschnegg, and R Bichler. Wiesbaden: Harrassovitz Verlag, pp. 558-574.
 Boucharlat, R. 2005. Iran. In Briant and Boucharlat (eds.), L’archéologie de l’empire achéménide; nouvelles recherché, Persika 6.
Paris, pp. 221-92.
 Briant, Pierre, ‘A propos du roi-jardinier: remarques sur l’histoire d’un dossier documentaire’in Wouter Henkelman and
Amelie Kuhrt (eds), Achaemenid History XIII (Leiden:Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 2003), pp. 33-49.
 Henkelman, W.F.M. (2003a). An Elamite Memorial: The Sumar of Cambyses and Hystaspes". In: A Persian Perspective
Essays in Memory of Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg. Ed. by W Henkelman and A Kuhrt. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut
Voor Het Nabije Oosten, pp. 101-172.
 Henkelman, W.F.M. (2003b). De_ning 'Neo-Elamite history'". In: BiOr 40.92, pp. 251{63.
 Henkelman, W.F.M. (2008). The Other Gods Who Are Studies in Elamite-Iranian acculturation based on the Persepolis
Fortication Texts. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut Voor Het Nabije Oosten.
 Henkelman, W.F.M. (2011a). Cyrus the Persian and Darius the Elamite: a Case of Mistaken Identity". In: Herodotus and
the Persian Empire. Ed. by R. Rollinger,24 B Truschnegg, and R Bichler. November 2008. Wiesbaden: Harrassovitz
Verlag, pp. 577-634.
 Henkelman, W.F.M. (2011b). Parnakkas Feast: sip in Parsa and Elam". In: Elam and Persia. Ed. by J Alvarez-Mon and
M Garrison. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, pp. 90-167.

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 Henkelman, W.F.M. (2012). The Achaemenid Heartland : An Archaeological - Historical Perspective". In: A
Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Ed. by D. T. Potts. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, pp. 931-981.
 Lilimpaki-Akamati, M., 2002, “Recent Discoveries in Pella,” in Stamatopoulou / Yerolanou, edd., Excavating classical
culture (Oxford).
 Lumsden, S. (2001). Power and Identity in the Neo-Assyrian World". In: The Royal Palace Institution in the First
Millennium BC. Ed. by I Nielsen. Copenhagen.
 Nielsen, I (2001). The Gardens of the Hellenistic Places". In: The Royal Palace Institution in the first Millennium BC.
Ed. by I Nielsen. Copenhagen.
 Potts, D.T. (2005). Cyrus the Great and the Kingdom of Anshan". In: Birth of the Persian Empire. Ed. by V. S. Curtis
and S. Stewart. London & New York: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, pp. 7-28.
 Reade, J. (1979). Ideology and Propaganda in Assyrian Art". In: Power and Propaganda: A Symposium on Ancient
Empires. Ed. by M. T. Larsen. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, pp. 329-43.
 Rykwert, J., 2000. The Seduction of Place, the History and Future of the City; Oxford.
 Siganidou, Maria, and M. Lilimbaki-Akamati, 1997, Pella: Capital of Macedonians2 (Athens).
 Stronach, D. (1985). Pasargadae". In: The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. II: The Median and Achaemenian Periods.
Ed. by I Gershevitch. 1936.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 838-855.
 Stronach, D. (1990). The Garden as a Political Statement: Some Case Studies from the Near east in the First Millennium
B.C." In: Bulletin of the Asia Institute Volume 4 Part 1. Ed. by C Bromnerg and B Goldman. Vol. 4. Ames: Iowa State
University Press, pp. 171-180.
 Stronach, D. (1994). Parterres and stone watercourses at Pasargade: notes in the Achaemenid contribution to garden
design". In: Journal of Garden History 14, pp. 3-12.
 Uchitel, A. 1997. Persian Paradise: Agricultural Texts in the Fortification Archive, Iranica Antiqua 32: 137-44.
 Waters, M (2011). Parsumas, Ansan, and Cyrus". In: Elam and Persia. Ed. by J Alvarez-Mon and M Garrison. Winona
Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, pp. 285-296.
 Wiseman, D.J. (1952). A New Stela of A_s_sur-nasir-pal II". In: Iraq 14.1, pp. 24-44.
 Wiseman, D.J. (1983).Mesopotamian Gardens". In: Anatolian Studies 33, pp. 137-144.

TOPIC 12. IN VINO VERITAS: KINGSHIP, DRINKING AND RECEPTION OF ROYAL IMAGERY

The iconography of banqueting has a long heritage in the Near East going back to the 4th millennium BC. Aspects
of this imagery resonate with force and permeate all aspects of international elite art and ideology. Consider the
evidence and compare the manifestations and significance of royal banqueting and consumption of alcohol in a
culture of your own choice.

Background Reading:

 Albenda, P.1974. ‘Grapevines in Ashurbanipal’s Garden.’ Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 215:5-
17.
 Alvarez-Mons, J. 2009. ‘Ashurbanipal’s Feast: A View from Elam.’ IrAnt 44:131-80. Pdf available in Academia
 Barnett, R. 1980. ‘A Winged Goddess of Wine on an Electrum Plaque.’ AnatSt 30:169-178.
 Carstens, P. 1998. ‘Why Does the God have a Cup in his hand? An Examination on the Ahiram Sarcophagus and
Drinking Vessels at the Table of Display in the Hebrew Bible from a Ritualistic Point of View.’ Scandinavian Journal of
the Old Testament 12(2):214-232.
 Darby, J., Ghalioungui, P., and L. Grivetti. 1977. ‘Wine (Part I)’ in Food: The Gift of Osiris, edited by W. Darby, P.
Ghalioungi and L. Grivetti, 551-595. London: Academic Press.
 Dentzer, J.-M., 1982, Le Motif du Banquet couché dans le Proche-Orient et le Monde Grec du VIIe au IVe siècle avant J.C. (Paris).
Illustrates most of the iconographic evidence.
 Dietler, M. 1990. ‘Driven by Drink: The Role of Drinking in the Political Economy and the Case of Early Iron Age
France.’ Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 9:352-406.
 Dietler, M. 2003. ‘Clearing the Table—Some conclusions on Commensal politics and Imperial States’ in The
Archaeology and Politics of Food and Feasting in Early States and Empires, edited by T. Bray, 271-282. New York:
Klumer Academic/Plennum Press.
 Dietler, M. 2006. ‘Alcohol: Anthropological/Archaeological Perspectives.’ Annual Review of Anthropology 35:229-249.
 Dietler, M., and B. Hayden. 2003. ‘Digesting the Feast: Good to Eat, Good to Drink, Good to Think: an introduction’
in Feasts: archaeological and ethnographic perspectives on food, politics, and power, edited by M. Dietler and B.
Hayden, 1-20. Alabama: University of Alabama Press.
 Diggs, R. 1999. ‘Review: The Origin and Ancient History of Wine by Patrick E. McGovern; Stuart J. Fleming; Solomon
H. Katz; In Vino Veritas by Oswyn Murray; Manuela Tecuşan.’ JNES 58(4):298-300.
 Dusinberre, E. 1999. ‘Satrapal Sardis: Achaemenid Bowls in an Achaemenid Capital.’ AJA 103(1):73-102
 Geso, J. 2003. ‘Feasting and the Practice of Stately Manners’ in The Archaeology and Politics of Food and Feasting in
Early States and Empires, edited by T. Bray, 285-288. New York: Klumer Academic/Plennum Press.

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  Guasach-Jane, M., Andres-Lacueva, C., Jauregui, O., and R. Lamuela-Raventos. 2006. ‘First evidence of white wine in
ancient Egypt from Tutankhamun’s tomb.’ JAS 33:1075-1080
 Homan, M. 2004. ‘Beer and its Drinkers: An Ancient near Eastern Love Story.’ NEA 67(2):84-95.
 Jennings, J., Antrobus, K., Atencio, S., Glavich, E., Johnson, R., Loffler, G., and C. Luu. 2005. ‘Drinking Beer in a
Blissful Mood: Alcohol Production, Operational Chains, and Feasting in the Ancient World.’ Current Anthropology
46(2):275-303.
 Joffe, A. 1998. ‘Alcohol and Social Complexity in Ancient Western Asia.’ Current Anthropology 39(4):297-322.
 Macalister, R.A.S., 1911, The Excavation of Gezer I (London). 292-97. drinking sets.
 Machinist, P. 1993. ‘Assyrians on Assyria in the First Millennium B.C’. in Anfänge politischen Denkens in der Antike:
Die nahöstlichen Kulturen und die Griechen, 77-104. Oldenburg: Schriften des Historischen Kollegs.
 Mattila, R. 1995. ‘Borrowing Wine’ in The Glory and Fall of the Assyrian Empire, Nineveh 612 BC, edited by R. Mattila,
128. Helenski: Helenski University Press.
 McGovern, P. 2000. ‘The Funerary Banquet of ‘King Midas’.’ Expedition-Philadelphia 42:21-29.
 McGovern, P. 2009. Uncorking the Past the Quest for Wine, Beer and Other Alcoholic Beverages. Los Angeles:
University of California Press.
 McGovern, P.E., S.J. Fleming and S. Katz, 1995. The Origins and Ancient History of Wine, Philadelphia.
 McGovern, P., and R. Michel. 1996. ‘The Analytical and Archaeological Challenge of Detecting Wine: Two Case Studies
from the Ancient Near East’ in The Origins and Ancient History of Wine, edited by P. McGovern, S. Flemming and S.
Katz, 57-66. Singapore: Gordon B. Breach Publishers.
 McGovern, P., Glusker, P., Moreau, R., Nunez, A., Beck, C., Simpson, E., Butrym, E., Exner, L. and E. Stout. 1999. ‘A
Funerary Feast Fit for King Midas.’ Nature 402:863-864.
 Miller, M. 2011. ‘’Manners Makyth Man’ Diacritical drinking in Achaemenid Anatolia’ in Cultural Identity in the Ancient
Mediterranean, edited by E. Gruen, 97-134. Los Angeles: Getty Publications.
 Moorey, P. 1980. ‘Metal Wine Sets in the Ancient Near East.’ IrAnt 15:181-197.
 Murray, O., 1983, “The Symposion as Social Organisation,” R. Hägg, ed., The Greek Renaissance of the Eighth Century B.C.:
Tradition and Innovation (Stockholm) 195-99.
 Newman, J. 2008. ‘Wine.’ Cambridge Histories Online, 730-737. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
 Nylander, C. 1999. ‘Breaking the Cup of Kingship: an Elamite Coup in Nineveh.’ IrAnt 34:71-83.
 Parker, B. 1961. ‘Administrative Tablets from the North-West Palace, Nimrud.’ Iraq 23(1):15-76.
 Pinnock, Frances, “Considerations on the ‘Banquet Theme’ in the Figurative Art of Mesopotamia and Syria” Milano,
Lucio, ed., 1994, Drinking in Ancient Societies (Padova). 15-26.
 Pollock, S. 2003. ‘Feasts, Funerals and Fast Food in Early Mesopotamian States’ in The Archaeology and Politics of
Food and Feasting in Early States and Empires, edited T. Bray, 17-38. New York: Klumer Academic/Plennum Press.
 Potts, D., and K. Sowada (eds). 2004. Treasures of the Nicholson Museum. Sydney: University of Sydney.
 Reade, J. E., 1995, “The Symposion in Ancient Mesopotamia: Archaeological Evidence,” in O. Murray and M. Tecusan,
ed., In Vino Veritas (Rome). 35-56.
 Russell, M. 1998. ‘The Program of Art of Assurnasipal II at Nimrud: Issues in Research and Presentation of Assyrian
Art.’ AJA 102(4): 655-715.
 Sasson, J. 1994. ‘The Blood of Grapes: Viticulture and Intoxication in the Hebrew Bible’ in Drinking in Ancient
Societies: History and Culture of Drinks in the Ancient Near East, edited by L. Milano, 399-419. Padova: Sargon.
 Seltman, C. 1957. ‘Origins of Wine’ in Wine in the Ancient World, edited by C. Seltman, 14-31. London: Routledge and
Kegan Paul Ltd.
 Sevinç, N., and C. B. Rose, 1999, “A Child’s Sarcophagus from the Salvage Excavations at Gümüşçay,” Studia Troica 9,
489-509.
 Simpson, E. 1990. ‘’Midas Bed’ and a Royal Phrygian Funeral.’ Journal of Field Archaeology 17(1):69-87.
 Smith, S. 2003. ‘Pharaohs, Feasts and Foreigners’ in The Archaeology and Politics of Food and Feasting in Early States
and Empires, edited by T. Bray, 39-64. New York: Klumer Academic/Plennum Press.
 Stern, E. 1982. ‘Achaemenid Clay Rhyta from Palestine.’ Israel Exploration Journal 32(1):36-42.
 Stern, E., 1982, Material Culture in the Land of the Bible in the Persian Period (Warminster) (esp. metalware ch.), with
references. (Nb illustration reappears with better clarity in: E. Stern, 2001, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible II (New
York), p. 526 fig. III. 43).
 Stronach, D. 1996. ‘The Imagery of the Wine Bowl: Wine in Assyria in the Early First Millennium BC,’ in The Origins
and Ancient History of Wine, edited by P. McGovern, S. Flemming and S. Katz, 175-196. Singapore: Gordon B. Breach
Publishers.
 Whincop, M. 2009. Pots, People and Politics: A Reconsideration of the role of Ceramics in the Reconstructions of the
Iron Age Northern Levant. Oxford: Bar International Series, 1902.
 Ziemba, C. 2011. ‘The Beer Archaeologist’ Tasting World History. Accessed electronically URL:
http://mplayer.pastemagazine.com/issues/week-
10/articles#%3Futm_source=contactology&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=This_Week+In+The+mPlayer+07-
05-11_7_5_111&article=/issues/week-10/articles/the-beer-archeologist-tasting-world-history Accessed: 25/10/2012.
 Zito, R. 1990. ‘Biochimica Nutrizionale Delgi Alimenti Liquidi’ in Drinking in Ancient Society: History and Culture of
Drinks in the Ancient Near East, edited by L. Milano, 69-75. Sargo: Padova.

TOPIC 13. G IVING AND RECEIVING: TRIBUTE SCENES

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The receiving of tribute by the king is an essential expression of Near Eastern power, and carries economic, socio-
religious and artistic dimensions. Examine how tribute is incorporated and expressed in a culture of your choice.

Background Reading:

Alvarez-Mon, J. 2004 ‘Imago Mundi: Ideological and Cosmological Aspect of the Arjan Bowl’,
Iranica Antiqua 39: 203-232.
Allen, Lindsay, 2005, ‘Le roi imaginaire: An audience with the Achaemenid king’ in Olivier Heksterand Richard
Fowler (eds), Imaginary Kings: Royal Images in the Ancient Near East, Greece and Rome (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner), pp. 39-
62.
Mitchell, L.G. 1997. Greeks Bearing Gifts. The Public Use of Private Relationships in the Greek World, 435-323 BC.
Cambridge.
Sancici-Weerdenburg, H. 1989. Gifts in the Persian Empire, Pp. 129-46. In Le Tribut dans l’Empire Perse, eds. P.
Briant and Cl. Herrenschmidt, Paris.
Bivar, A.D.H., 1999, "ΣΥΜΒΟΛΟΝ. A Noteworthy Use for a Persian Gold Phiale," in G. R. Tsetskhladze, ed.,
Ancient Greeks West and East (Leiden: Mnemosyne Suppl.196) 379-84.
NB tribute scene on Xanthos, Nereid Monument
Root, M.C. 1979. The King and Kingship in Achaemenid Art, Leiden. 955.005 1

TOPIC 14. HORSEMANSHIP AND THE INVENTION OF E QUESTRIAN A RT

The emergence of mounted warfare in the 8th century BC transformed history and gave rise to a new cultural ethos
encapsulated in the persona of the horseman. This phenomenon was accompanied by the beginning of equestrian art.
Investigate the genesis and evolution of this imagery in the context of either Egyptian, Assyrian, Elamite, Persian, or other
Near Eastern culture of your choice.

Background Reading:

Anderson, J.K. 1961. Ancient Greek Horsemanship, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Azzaroli, A., 1985. Early History of Horsemanship, Leiden.
Drews, R. 2004. Early Riders, The Beginnings of Mounted Warfare in Asia and Europe, New York.
Gabrielli, M., 2006. Le cheval dans l’empire Achéménide, Studia Ad Orientem Antiquum Pertinentia. Istanbul.
Hyland, A. 2003. The Horse in the Ancient World, London.
Littauer, M.A. and J.H.Crowel., 1979. Wheeled Vehicles and Ridden Animals in the Ancient Near East
Littauer, M.A. and J.H. Crouwel,, 2002. Selected Writings on Chariots and Other Vehicles, Ridding
and Harness, ed.by P. Raulwing; in Culture and History of the Ancient Near East VI. Leiden.
Moorey, P.R.S., 2000, ‘Iran and the West: the Case of the terracotta ‘Persian’ Riders in the Achaemenid Empire,’ in Variatio
Delectat Iran und der Western, ed, P. Calmeyer (Munster). 470-83.

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