Ancient Near-Eastern Cultures and Archaeology

Ever since the Hittite city of Boğazköy was discovered in 1834, Hittite people, their culture, and society have been a great source of both archaeological and historical interest. Their kings, known as one of the three Great Kings of the Ancient Near East in the Late Bronze Age, has fascinated scholars and readers alike. Hittite religion, and recently their magic rituals, have also recently captivated academic and public interest. However, there has been no definitive scholarship concerning Hittite women. This essay will provide a perspective on the role of Hittite women. It will provide an in-depth analysis into the lives of Hittite women of all classes, beginning with aspects of a Hittite woman's life from birth, through to marriage, and death. It will also examine the lives of Hittite royal women and the so-called Wise Women, who played an important role in the lives of Hittite people. In the process, it will show that women in Hittite society had an important role to play in many aspects of life.

Image and Identity in the Ancient Near East: Papers in memoriam Pierre Amiet gathers the papers of two colloquia-one held in Pierre Amiet's honour in Lyon in 2016 and the other held in Paris in 2017, as well as articles by colleagues who wished to dedicate a fi nal tribute to him. The volume consists of two parts. The studies in the fi rst part analyse the body as a biological entity as well as a social, sexual and cultural identity (persona).They show the emotional power of images, the means and media used to achieve this suggestive power, and the diff erent audiences that are the privileged recipients of the diff erent types of production. They also investigate the emotions as they are expressed through the gestures and attitudes of the characters represented. The second part includes articles that are more closely related to the themes that Pierre Amiet has tackled. Two articles deal with his favourite research theme, glyptics. One article takes up the problem of the formation of the state which Pierre Amiet had dealt with in several of his glyptic studies. Other papers are concerned with the organisation of craftsmen and statuary.

This article explores how material culture is used to shape, mediate and transform social relations within contact zones. The aim is to highlight cultural hybridity, namely the material expression of new social practices within a colonial third space. It focuses on the Gaza region of the southern Levant during the later 2nd millennium BCE, a cosmopolitan period, illustrated by large-scale movement of goods, raw materials, and exotic luxuries over vast distances around the East Mediterranean resulting in cultural connectivity. The Late Bronze Age in the Gaza region is also characterized by Egyptian colonial activity. Consequently, this article examines material evidence for the development of new social practices in the region and in particular the adoption of Egyptian(izing) exotica in the creation and mediation of new hybrid identities. Specifically, it explores the social life of objects at two important Late Bronze Age sites in the region: el-Moghraqa and Deir el-Balah.

n118 mit Bibliographie zu den verschiedenen Versionen der Inschrift. DB a/Elam: Vallat 2011, 271. DB L/Elam: Vallat 2011, 264ff. DB a/Altpers.: Vallat 2011, 271, Kent 1953, 134f. 2 Hinz 1952, 28-38 [DB L/Elam.: 28-33; DB /Altpers. §70: 33-38]; ders., 1974, 133. 3 DB a/Elam., DB L/Elam., DB a/Altpers.:

The study of craft production has emerged as one of the most important, although problematic, issues in archaeological research. Organization, role, location, and meaning of workshops have been examined through a variety of interpretive models adopted by scholars. Through a historiographic analysis, this contribution surveys the different hypotheses that have been formulated in archaeology and art history: this double focus allows for moving between different scales of analysis ranging from the concept of household production to regionally based production. In particular, in art history, traditional approaches concerning "artistic attribution" or "authorship" have been partially replaced by a new perspective, according to which the intrinsic meaning and content of artworks are now considered the most relevant thread of inquiry.

This paper presents a study of 95 bronze coins found recently by the french mission from Lyon at Tyre. These finds stretch from the Hellenistic to the byzantine period. The comparison of this assemblage with the finds from the necropolis and the Apollo sanctuary at Tyre as well as those from Deb'aal and Umm el-'Amed allowed to draw a certain pattern of the coin circulation in Tyre and its region.

In the field of art history of ancient Western Asia there is quite a long tradition in the use of quantitative and digital methodologies. However, such a tradition is not so rich in experiences, and it is in general very complicated to integrate properly quantitative tools and logics in research approaches to ancient art history, partly because of cultural issues, partly depending on technical or logistical problems. These are probably the main reasons which often made the use of mathematical models in the art history of the pre-classic Western Asia relatively unpopular.

In the past the study of glyptic iconography was among the most favourite fields for the use of quantitative methods, but the efforts of the different scholars are, on the whole, still poorly coordinated, and thus not very consistent with each other. Other interesting experiments show, anyway, that the fields for the application of such tools can be very numerous and large. What is actually of fundamental importance is that the scholars in humanities keep a control and an awareness on the functioning and the features that are typical and essential in the models they use.

It will be presented here a general critical overview of the different concrete uses of quantitative methods in ancient Near Eastern art history. This will serve as a starting point for suggestions and guidelines and for the drawing of new, more general and coordinated approaches in the near future, hoping that more accessible techniques and wider interest and variety of models will facilitate this.

"El vídeo (en inglés) hace referencia a cuatro ideas principales:

- Los etnomusicólogos piensan que estos cánticos pueden ser antiquísimos.

- Ya quedan pocas personas que cantan en esta lengua.

- La indumentaria tradicional posee evidentes referencias a la cultura fenopúnica.

- Las danzas folclóricas, también de abolengo muy arcaico, representan al Sol y a la Luna.

Extracto del documental "Fenicios: Mercaderes y Navegantes de la Antigüedad". ZDF Enterprises (2003)."

The sudden and extreme climate changes that occurred in Southwest Asia towards the end of the Last Glacial Period on a global scale, created important developments for both the natural environment and
human communities. Hunter-gatherer societies trying to accommodate themselves to the natural environment in the face of these sudden changes were forced to develop several strategies to survive. For human
societies organized around a common collective consciousness by blending the objective and symbolic elements; the selection and use of venue, and abstract and concrete means of information storage turned
into a means of information transfer used in developing a sense of social belonging or identity as well as in determining the boundaries of cognitive development. The feasts, which were carried out in areas that
functioned as collective memory spaces, the selection and processing of food needed for these feasts, and also the storage of food depending on their seasonal availability or famine conditions played an important
role in domestication of plants and animals as well as the transition to settled life for the first time ever.

… Nous apprenons à séparer et non pas à voir ce qui relie. Pour résoudre un problème selon Descartes, il faut séparer en autant de petites parties qu'on le peut et les résoudre les unes après les autres. Mais ce n'est valable que quand il y a addition de problèmes. Dès qu'il y a un tout, on ne peut le comprendre en additionnant ce qu'on sait des parties séparées. De par son organisation et son fonctionnement, un tout est plus que la somme de ses parties. Ainsi, notre mode de pensée formé dès le primaire, consolidé dans le secondaire et aggravé irrémédiablement à l'Université, nous amène à être lucides pour séparer, mais myopes pour relier… » 3