Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations
A Better Story Tyrian Resistance, Hasmonean Valor, and the Authority of Narrative
NELC Seminar Room (Humanities 365) 365 Humanities, Los Angeles, CA, United StatesNew archaeological discoveries from two sites in Israel’s Upper Galilee illuminate the territory and autonomy of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre from the early years of Achaemenid rule until c. 140 BCE – with implications for both the historicity of 1 Maccabees and the literary impetus of its author. The first site is Mizpe Yammim,...
The Adoption of the “Adoption” Formula in Biblical Literature
NELC Seminar Room (Humanities 365) 365 Humanities, Los Angeles, CA, United StatesThe metaphor of adoption saturates biblical literature, yet there is no discrete adoption law in the Hebrew Bible. This metaphor did not draw upon one particular source or ancient Near Eastern legal tradition, but had a wide range of associations rooted in familial and political life. The performative and ritual nature of adoption in the...
Settlement and Urban Development in the Bronze Age Southern Levant
NELC Seminar Room (Humanities 365) 365 Humanities, Los Angeles, CA, United StatesScholarship describes both the Early Bronze Age and the Middle Bronze Age in the southern Levant as “urban” eras, yet, beyond broad superficial similarities, the pattern of settlement and subsequent urban character of each period differs widely. Rather than assume that this precludes examining the two eras together, however, these differences instead raise questions about...
Tracing the Skill of Fresco Painting in Tell El-Dabca
NELC Seminar Room (Humanities 365) 365 Humanities, Los Angeles, CA, United StatesAround 1500 B.C.E. a palatial district has been constructed at the site of Tell el-Dabca, directly above the Pelusiac branch of the Nile. There, below the ramps of the entrances of both main buildings about 20 000 fragments of wall paintings have been discovered since 1992. These paintings are rather unusual in context of the...
Lesser Syrtis (Tunisia) in Antiquity
NELC Seminar Room (Humanities 365) 365 Humanities, Los Angeles, CA, United StatesThe Lesser Syrtis, or Mediterranean littoral of southeastern Tunisia, is a pivotal region in North African history and archaeology. With the Gulf of Gabes as a natural harbor complex opposite the island of Jerba (associated with Calypso of the Lotus-Eaters), ancient populations of the area found themselves in an enviable strategic position with access to...
The Cities that Built the Bible
Royce Hall Room 314 340 Royce Dr b100, Los Angeles , CA, United StatesThe Cities That Built the Bible is a magnificent tour through fourteen cities: the cities of Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos, Ugarit, Nineveh, Babylon, Megiddo, Athens, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Qumran, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Rome. Along the way, Cargill includes photos of artifacts, dig sites, ruins, and relics, taking readers on a far-reaching journey from the Grotto of...
Lucille Ball in Ancient Egypt? The Business Dealings of Lady Tsenhor in Persian Egypt
NELC Seminar Room (Humanities 365) 365 Humanities, Los Angeles, CA, United StatesIf Tsenhor were alive today, she would be wearing jeans, drive a pick-up and enjoy a beer with the boys. Instead she was born c. 2500 years ago, leaving behind an archive of Demotic papyri now kept in various European museums. These papyri allow us to reconstruct her life (in a way), showing that apart...
Painters and Painting Practices in the Theban Necropolis During the 18th Dynasty
NELC Seminar Room (Humanities 365) 365 Humanities, Los Angeles, CA, United StatesThe lecture will outline some of the main results of a project funded by a Research Incentive Grant of the National Foundation for Scientific Research of Belgium (F.R.S. - FNRS) and devoted to the study of the painters responsible for the decoration of private tombs in the Theban Necropolis during the 18th dynasty, their techniques,...
Kitāb al-Ḥayda and Early Ḥanbalī Creeds
NELC Seminar Room (Humanities 365) 365 Humanities, Los Angeles, CA, United StatesAmong Islamic groups, Sunnī traditionalists, especially Ḥanbalīs, were strongly opposed to kalām (dialectical theology). Their condemnation of kalām was such that it became an established article of their creeds. Notwithstanding this official condemnation, there is evidence in their writings that they practiced kalām. For example, Ḥanbalī practices of kalām have been examined in the work...