This article explores the way assumptions about gender prevalent in twenty-first century readers impact our understanding of Sarai. It interrogates the way a mere glimpse allows us to instantaneously assign a person gender, something trans theorist Julia Serano calls gendering. Through this article, we see how the third-party accounts of Sarai in…[Read more]

A piece on the archaeology and social context for home in the 21st century Bakken oil patch.

Digital practices have increasingly come to influence discussions of archaeological work in the 21st century. As a result, many archaeologists use the concept of workflow to describe the relationship between the various phases of the knowledge making process from fieldwork to analysis, interpretation, research, and writing. This paper extends this…[Read more]

A review of Karel van der Toorn’s Becoming Diaspora Jews: Behind the Story of Elephantine (Anchor Bible Reference Library). New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019. Pp xi, 270. Hardcover: $65. ISBN: 9780300243512.

Julius Wellhausen proposed a “sharp break” between ancient Israelite religion and early Judaism: for him, the eighth-century prophets were the “spiritual destroyers of old Israel” and the forerunners of early Judaism. The biblical theologian Brevard Childs rejected Wellhausen’s reconstruction and insisted instead that “very strong theological…[Read more]

I wrote the first version of this guide in the summer of 2018. For the first time in my career I had received a multi-year fellowship, and I had been told that the position had a good chance of continuing beyond the initial fellowship period, if not of becoming permanent. So, since I did not expect to have to search for employment again, it seemed…[Read more]

I wrote the first version of this guide in the summer of 2018. For the first time in my career I had received a multi-year fellowship, and I had been told that the position had a good chance of continuing beyond the initial fellowship period, if not of becoming permanent. So, since I did not expect to have to search for employment again, it seemed…[Read more]

Recent research demonstrates that maternal grief functions paradigmatically to epitomize despair and sorrow in the Hebrew Bible. These literary uses of maternal grief reinforce the stereotype of womanhood, defined by devotion to children and anguish at their loss. In 1–2 Kings, narratives about unnamed bereaved mothers are used politically to c…[Read more]

Recent research demonstrates that maternal grief functions paradigmatically to epitomize despair and sorrow in the Hebrew Bible. These literary uses of maternal grief reinforce the stereotype of womanhood, defined by devotion to children and anguish at their loss. In 1–2 Kings, narratives about unnamed bereaved mothers are used politically to c…[Read more]

Aus historischer Sicht sind genauere Definitionen, Abgrenzungen und ethnische Zuweisungen der
Bevölkerung des Alpengebiets in vorrömischer Zeit ausgesprochen schwierig, umstritten und problematisch.
Die einschlägigen Diskussionen drehen sich meist um die Kategorien „Kelten“ oder „Räter“
3. Beide Zuordnungen sind jedoch seit der Antike unsc…[Read more]

Dieser Text soll auf drei Ebenen Fragen an die Quellen tragen. Erstens will ich versuchen, exemplarisch
Entwicklungslinien zwischen der antiken Provinzstruktur und dem bairischen Dukat
– einer militärisch-politischen Organisation nach spätantikem Muster – bis in karolingische Zeit
herauszuarbeiten. Zweitens soll die Frage gestellt werden, wie u…[Read more]

This chapter examines the ways in which the Linear B ‘extra’ signs – syllabograms which can in certain circumstances replace the ‘core’ signs of the Linear B syllabary – are often used as evidence for the process by which this writing system was created from its parent writing system, Linear A, and thus, by extension, for reconstructing aspects of…[Read more]

Overview of demons and monsters in Mesopotamia, highlighting works in the Yale Babylonian Collection.

The iconography of the Horus cippus, an amulet popular in Egypt from the late Third Intermediate Period to Roman times (8th century BCE – 2nd century CE), is unexpectedly recapitulated in bronze “goddess plaques” of the 7-8th centuries CE made by Permian peoples – Finno-Ugric groups from the Ural region of northern Eurasia. The likely expla…[Read more]

The relationship of the Hebrew Bible to the New Testament is explored by means of apocryphal and pseudepigraphical texts, using the ethical issue of interpersonal forgiveness as a test case.

Transport stirrup jars – so-called because of the shape formed by their handles and false neck – are a common type of Mycenaean pottery: used to transport and store liquid commodities, usually assumed to be olive oil, they are found throughout the central and eastern Mediterranean. A small sub-group of these carry painted inscriptions in the Lin…[Read more]