K. C. Hanson's Collection of Mesopotamian Documents

K. C. Hanson's Collection of West Semitic Documents

Dead Sea Scrolls Online (Israel Museum, Jerusalem)

Map of the Levant sites (Oriental Institute)

Map of Ancient Syrian sites (Oriental Institute)

Map of Ancient Mesopotamian sites (Oriental Institute)

Map of Mesopotamia (Oriental Institute)

Map of Ancient Egyptian sites (Oriental Institute)

Map of Ancient Jerusalem

Jacques Berlinerblau, "Ideology, Pierre Bourdieu's Doxa, and the Hebrew Bible,"
    Semeia 87 (1999) 193–214.
Abstract: In recent years "ideological criticism" has emerged as a new and important branch of inquiry in Old Testament studies. This essay examines the ways in which biblical scholars have appropriaated the concept of ideology and applied it to the Hebrew Bible. It is argued that most of these researchers share certain fundamental assumptions about what ideology is and how ancient writers made use of it. This "voluntaristic conception," as I call it, stresses the consciousness of the biblical ideologue qua ideologue. It focuses on the ideologue's deliberate attempt to use his writing as a means of persuading others of the veracity of his group's world view. As a means of broadening the variety of theoretical options available to ideological criticism this article challenges the fundmental assumptions of the voluntaristic conception. Pierre Bourdieu's notion of doxa is discussed as one possible alternative for socioliterary analysis of the Hebrew Bible.

F. V. Greifenhagen, Ethnicity In, With, or Under the Pentateuch,"
    Journal of Religion & Society 3 (2001).
Abstract: In the last decade a number of scholarly works investigating the phenomenon of ethnicity in the Hebrew Bible have appeared. This essay will address critically the question of whether a focus on ethnicity contributes to a deeper understanding of the Hebrew Bible both in its original setting and in its use and transmission to the present. The Pentateuch arguably is deeply concerned with establishing the true identity of Israel vis-à-vis other nations, peoples, or ethnic groups. The first task will be to address how ethnicity is to be defined, and its usefulness as a conceptual framework for investigating the Pentateuch. Since the greatest concern in the Pentateuch is expressed about Israel’s identity in relation to Egypt, the second task will be to address how recent works on ethnicity in the Pentateuch deal with the question of Egypt. This essay will argue that only a reading strategy that goes “against the grain” and attempts to reconstruct that which the text seeks to silence will be able to access the dynamics of ethnic identity formation that lie submerged under the surface of the Pentateuch and the Hebrew Bible.

Steven W. Holloway, Biblical Assyria and Other Anxieties in the British Empire,"
    Journal of Religion & Society 3 (2001).
Abstract: The successful “invasion” of ancient Mesopotamia by explorers in the pay of the British Museum Trustees resulted in best-selling publications, a treasure-trove of Assyrian antiquities for display purposes and scholarly excavation, and a remarkable boost to the quest for confirmation of the literal truth of the Bible. The public registered its delight with the findings through the turnstyletwirling appeal of the British Museum exhibits, and a series of appropriations of Assyrian art motifs and narratives in popular culture - jewelry, bookends, clocks, fine arts, theater productions, and a walk-through Assyrian palace among other period mansions at the Sydenham Crystal Palace. Unfortunately for the evangelically-inclined, “the monuments” did not confirm the received narrative of the Bible with uniform transparency. King Pul of biblical fame failed to appear in the cuneiform texts, thus sparking an international twenty-year hunt that illuminates deeper anxieties in British imperial civilization.

André Lemaire, "West Semitic Inscriptions and Ninth-Century BCE Ancient Israel,"
     in Understanding the History of Ancient Israel, edited by H. G. M. Williamson, Proceedings of the British Academy 143 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007) 347–67.
Abstract: Together with material archaeology and the literary tradition of the Hebrew Bible, epigraphy is one of the main sources for the history of ninth-century BCE ancient Israel, and, although limited in number, West Semitic inscriptions throw some light on the history of this period. We shall try, first, to present a list of ninth-century West Semitic inscriptions and, second, to appreciate the historical information they contain regarding the history of ninth-century Israel.

Amihai Mazar, "The Spade and the Text: The Interaction between Archaeology and Israelite History Relating to the Tenth–Ninth Centuries BCE,"
     in Understanding the History of Ancient Israel, edited by H. G. M. Williamson, Proceedings of the British Academy 143 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007) 143–71.
Abstract: Rather than accepting a revisionist theory that compels us to discard an entire library of scholarly work, the evidence brought here calls for balanced evaluation of the biblical text, taking into account that the text might have preserved valuable historical information based on early written documents and oral traditions that retained long-living common memory. These early traditions were cast in the mould of literature, legend, and epic, and were inserted into the later Israelite historiographic narrative which is thickly veiled in theology and ideology. Yet many of these traditions contain kernels of historical truth, and some of them can be examined archaeologically, as demonstrated in this chapter. By ridding the texts of their literary, theological and ideological layers and using the archaeological data critically, the Hebrew Bible may be evaluated as a source for the extraction of historical data, yet this has to be evaluated as much as possible in light of external evidence. The results may prevent us—if I may use a colloquialism—from throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Nadav Na'aman, "The Northern Kingdom in the Late Tenth–Ninth Centuries BCE,"
     in Understanding the History of Ancient Israel, edited by H. G. M. Williamson, Proceedings of the British Academy 143 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007) 399–418.
Abstract: A major problem in the discussion of the Kingdom of Israel in the late tenth-ninth centuries is the evaluation of the Books of Kings as a source for historical reconstruction. In addition to Kings, there are some late tenth-ninth century Egyptian, Assyrian, Aramaic and Moabite royal inscriptions that refer to various events in the history of the kingdom. However, the number and scope of these inscriptions are limited, and on their basis plus the archaeological data alone we would be unable to draw even a schematic history. Moreover, when discussed in isolation, the contribution of the royal inscriptions turns out to be minimal, but when set against the biblical account they fill some gaps in the history and help us to evaluate the authenticity of other closely related descriptions. Therefore it is necessary to establish to what extent we can trust the Books of Kings for the historical reconstruction.

Simo Parpola, "National and Ethnic Identity in the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Assyrian Identity in Post-Empire Times,"
    Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies 18/2 (2004) 5–22.
Abstract: The Neo-Assyrian kings pursued an active policy of nation building, whereby the citizenship of Assyria was routinely granted to the inhabitants of newly established provinces. As a result of this, by 600 BC the entire vastly expanded country shared the Assyrian identity, which essentially consisted of a common unifying language (Aramaic) and a common religion, culture, and value system. This identity persisted virtually unchanged and was converted into an ethnic identity in the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid periods (600–330 BC). After the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire (130 BC), several semi-independent Mesopotamian kingdoms (Osrhoene, Adiabene, Hatra, Assur) perpetuated Assyrian religious and cultural traditions until the third century AD. From the fourth century on, Christianity has been an essential part of Assyrian identity and has helped preserve it to the present day despite endless persecutions and massacres, which have reduced the present-day Assyrians into dwindling minorities in their home countries. The self-designations of modern Syriacs and Assyrians derive from the Neo-Assyrian word for “Assyrian”, Assūrāyu/Sūrāyu.

David Ussishkin, "Archaeology of the Biblical Period: On Some Questions of Methodology and Chronology of the Iron Age"
     in Understanding the History of Ancient Israel, edited by H. G. M. Williamson, Proceedings of the British Academy 143 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007) 131–41.
Abstract: In this chapter I briefly summarize my views on the role of archaeology in the study of the biblical period and biblical history, with special reference to the ninth century.

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PHOTOS

View of the Hinnom Valley, Jerusalem (Douglas E. Oakman)

Model of the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way in Babylon

Ishtar Gate from Babylon

Photos from the Museum of the Ancient Orient, Istanbul (Dick Ossman)