Nomads, Tribes and the State in the Ancient Near East
For decades, scholars have struggled to understand the complex relationship between pastoral nomadic tribes and sedentary peoples of the Near East. The Oriental Institute's fourth annual post-doc seminar (March 7-8, 2008), Nomads, Tribes, and the State in the Ancient Near East, brought together archaeologists, historians, and anthropologists to discuss new approaches to enduring questions in the study of nomadic peoples, tribes, and states of the past: What social or political bonds link tribes and states?
This book is an introduction to the war machine of New Kingdom Egypt from c. 1575 bc–1100 bc. # Focuses on the period in which the Egyptians created a professional army and gained control of Syria, creating an “Empire of Asia”. # Written by a respected Egyptologist. # Highlights new technological developments, such as the use of chariots and siege technology. # Considers the socio-political aspects of warfare, particularly the rise to power of a new group of men. # Evaluates the military effectiveness of the Egyptian state, looking at the logistics of warfare during this period. # Incorporates maps and photographs, a chronological table, and a chart of dynasties and pharaohs
A Companion to the Ancient Near East offers students and general readers a comprehensive overview of Near Eastern civilization from the Bronze Age to the conquests of Alexander the Great.
Ancient Laws and Modern Problems - The Balance Between Justice and a Legal System
John Sassoon's study of the written laws of four thousand years ago puts paid to the belief that the most ancient laws were merely arbitrary and tyrannical. On the contrary, the earliest legal systems honestly tried to get to the truth, do justice to individuals, and preserve civil order. They used the death penalty surprisingly seldom, and then more because society had been threatened than an individual killed. Some of the surviving law codes are originals, others near-contemporary copies.
Prayer, Magic and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World
In the religious systems of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Mediterranean, gods and demigods were neither abstract nor distant, but communicated with mankind through signs and active intervention. Men and women were thus eager to interpret, appeal to, and even control the gods and their agents. In Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World, a distinguished array of scholars explores the many ways in which people in the ancient world sought to gain access to -- or, in some cases, to bind or escape from -- the divine powers of heaven and earth.
