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September 2019
Applying for Jobs and Life After the Dissertation
Join NELC faculty Dr. Cate Bonesho, Dr. Kara Cooney, and Dr. Bill Schniedewind for a workshop and discussion of applying for jobs and life after the dissertation. Event Flyer RSVP Below:
Read More about Applying for Jobs and Life After the DissertationNovember 2018
Between Egypt and the Near East: Current Research on the Amarna Letters
Various aspects of the interaction between Egypt and other political and cultural centres of the Ancient Near East have always sparked the attention of scholars, trying to understand this multi-layered and complex issue — ranging from the interpretation of finds of Egyptian or Egyptianized objects at the ANE sites to a misapprehension in communication resulting from considerably different concepts of royal power and authority. The Amarna tablets are a collection of almost 400 cuneiform documents discovered in the later 1880’s…
Read More about Between Egypt and the Near East: Current Research on the Amarna LettersOctober 2017
Searching for Scribal Curriculum in Ancient Israel
Professor 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 its adaptations into other Levantine scribal settings. Event Flyer Please RSVP for Event
Read More about Searching for Scribal Curriculum in Ancient IsraelApril 2017
The Inventors of the Alphabet — Erudite Scribes or Unlettered MinersOrly
According to Orly Goldwasser's analysis of the evidence, the alphabet was invented around 1840 BCE by illiterate Canaanite mining experts working in the Sinai site of Serabit el-Khadem. This conclusion is based on a painstaking comparative analysis of the paleography of the Middle Kingdom hieroglyphs in the Egyptian temple on the site and the so-called “Proto-Sinaitic” inscriptions that were discovered primarily in and around the neighboring mines.The inventors of the alphabet were inspired by the highly pictorial hieroglyphs around them,…
Read More about The Inventors of the Alphabet — Erudite Scribes or Unlettered MinersOrlyJanuary 2017
To Refer or Not to Refer: Tracking Intertextuality in the Hebrew Bible
Professor 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 Ugaritic Psalms. Dr. Peter Machinist Harvard Divinity School Event Flyer
Read More about To Refer or Not to Refer: Tracking Intertextuality in the Hebrew BibleModelling Long-Distance Interaction in the Middle Bronze Age
The 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 kept intentionally separate from competing entities. This talk will explore some of those other linked and competing commercial networks of the Middle Bronze Age in…
Read More about Modelling Long-Distance Interaction in the Middle Bronze AgeSea Peoples and Neo-Hittites in the ‘Land of Palistin’: Recent Discoveries at Tayinat on the Orontes
Recent 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 University of Toronto’s ongoing excavations at ancient Tayinat. TIMOTHY HARRISON (University of Toronto) Cosponsored by the UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures UCLA…
Read More about Sea Peoples and Neo-Hittites in the ‘Land of Palistin’: Recent Discoveries at Tayinat on the Orontes