Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations
New Light on the Egyptian Origin of the Hebrew Alphabet
Young Research Library (YRL) Room 11360 280 Charles E Young Dr N , Los Angeles, CA, United StatesThe publication of a new inscription from Theban Tomb 99 sheds new light on the early history of the Hebrew Alphabet. This ostracon is a bilingual “abecedary” written in Egyptian Hieroglyphic and Semitic. It gives further evidence for an Egyptian connection to the origins of the early Hebrew alphabet. Sponsored by the UCLA Near Eastern...
Sea Peoples and Neo-Hittites in the ‘Land of Palistin’: Recent Discoveries at Tayinat on the Orontes
Faculty CenterRecent archaeological discoveries have begun to challenge the prevailing view of the Early Iron Age (ca. 1200-900 BCE) as an era of cultural devolution and ethnic strife, or a ‘Dark Age’, in the eastern Mediterranean, as depicted in the Homeric epics and the Hebrew Bible. This illustrated talk will highlight the exciting discoveries of the...
Divine Priestesses: The Ptolemaic Queens in the Egyptian and Hellenistic Cults
NELC Seminar Room (Humanities 365) 365 Humanities, Los Angeles, CA, United StatesThe Ptolemaic kings and queens were not only venerated as synnaoi theoi (‘temple-sharing gods’) in the Egyptian temples and received various cults of their own (including the Hellenistic and Egyptian ruler cults), but they also served as priests and priestesses themselves. In the ancient Egyptian understanding, the king was per definitionem the high priest. This...
Modelling Long-Distance Interaction in the Middle Bronze Age
NELC Seminar Room (Humanities 365) 365 Humanities, Los Angeles, CA, United StatesThe Old Assyrian trade network c. 1895-1865 BCE is by far the best documented example of how a long-distance commercial circuit was organized and run in the ancient world. But the Assyrian records show that the circuit to which they relate was not isolated. It formed part of a chain of comparable units and was...
To Refer or Not to Refer: Tracking Intertextuality in the Hebrew Bible
NELC Seminar Room (Humanities 365) 365 Humanities, Los Angeles, CA, United StatesProfessor Machinist will develop aspects of intertextuality through several examples involving well-known biblical texts, including Psalm 29—a famous “Canaanite” hymn in the Psalter. This seminar will be held in conjunction with Professor Schniedewind’s Ugaritic seminar. Graduate students are encouraged to read Psalm 29 and Y. Avishur’s chapter on “Psalm 29” in Studies in Hebrew and...
New Light on Qubbet el-Hawa
NELC Seminar Room (Humanities 365) 365 Humanities, Los Angeles, CA, United StatesDr. Bommas will be giving two lectures. First lecture will be from 11:00A-11:50A. Second lecture will be from 12:15P-1:00P. Dr. Martin Bommas Reader in Egyptology Getty Scholar 2016-2017 Curator of the Eton Myers Collection of Egyptian Arts at the University of Birmingham Director of the Qubbet el-Hawa Research Project Editor-in-chief of the...
The Archaeological Adventure of Museo Egizio (1903-1920)
Humanities Room 365 415 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, United StatesErnesto Schiaparelli, director of Museo Egizio between 1894 and 1928 responded to the need for an enlarged Egyptian collection at Turin. In 1903 the Missione Archeologica Italiana (M.A.I.) was founded, promoting 12 archaeological expeditions at 11 sites in Egypt. With the important assistance of collaborators, Schiaparelli undertook this fieldwork to better document the history of...
Searching for Scribal Curriculum in Ancient Israel
NELC Seminar Room (Humanities 365) 365 Humanities, Los Angeles, CA, United StatesProfessor William Schniedewind will present the outlines of his research in progress—a book on Scribal Education in Ancient Israel. The research proposes that outlines of scribal curriculum in early Israel can now be reconstructed based on his interpretation of the recently fully published inscriptions from Kuntillet Ajrud and using parallels with Mesopotamian scribal curriculum and...
ARCE Practice Talks Round 2
161 Dodd Hall 315 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, United StatesThe Compositional Design of Djedhor Cairo JE 46341 Michael Chen (Egyptology). This paper examines the layout of spells upon the statue surfaces of Djedhor to uncover the inherent planning behind the design of the statue. This strategic design reveals both a balanced spell arrangement and the inscribing order of the statue’s construction. The patterns observed in...
Royal Succession in Ancient Egypt and Early Trade in the Eastern Mediterranean
Humanities Room 365 415 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, United StatesRoyal Succession in Ancient Egypt Nowhere are the legal terms of royal succession in ancient Egypt set out in explicit terms. The concept of hereditary monarchy manifests a wide range of modes of succession across time and place, and today we will review these, together with such evidence as survives from Egypt to discuss the...