From the Mari Archives

Sasson, Jack M.

doi:10.5325/j.ctv1bxgxg3

Cited by 30 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…Until recently, both the timing and explanation of Southern Levantine Bronze Age urban dynamics have been derived from the "export" of Egyptian dynastic chronology (Bietak 2013:81), especially as derived from Tell el-Dab'a (Bietak and Höflmayer 2007;Höflmayer and Manning 2022). In the Northern Levant, Bronze Age chronologies have been influenced analogously by rich textual evidence, especially from Kültepe, Turkey and Mari, Syria (e.g., Barjamovic et al 2012;Sasson 2015), and by dynastic sequences from the Hittite Old Kingdom and Mesopotamia's Old Babylonian Period (e.g., Pruzsinszky 2009;Roaf 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bayesian Modeling of a Peripheral Middle Bronze Age Settlement at Zahrat Adh-Dhra‘ 1, Jordan

Fall,

Ridder,

Pilaar Birch

et al. 2023

Radiocarbon

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Analysis of 20 calibrated accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (AMS 14C) ages reveals a chronology for the habitation of a unique peripheral settlement at Zahrat adh-Dhra‘ 1 (ZAD 1), Jordan during the Middle Bronze Age of the Southern Levant. Bayesian modeling distinguishes three phases of occupation between the first settlement at ZAD 1, perhaps as early as about 2050 cal BCE, and its abandonment by 1700 cal BCE. ZAD 1 represents a marginal community, both environmentally and culturally, on the hyperarid Dead Sea Plain, and exemplifies the peripheral settlements that are envisioned as important elements of Bronze Age Levantine society. Most importantly for this study, it is the only peripheral site in the Southern Levant that provides a Bayesian model for its habitation during the growth of Middle Bronze Age urbanized society. The timing of ZAD 1’s constituent phases, early in Middle Bronze I, across the Middle Bronze I/II transition and in Middle Bronze II, correspond well with emerging chronologies for the Middle Bronze Age, thereby contributing to an ongoing reassessment of regional social and settlement dynamics.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bayesian Modeling of a Peripheral Middle Bronze Age Settlement at Zahrat Adh-Dhra‘ 1, Jordan

Fall,

Ridder,

Pilaar Birch

et al. 2023

Radiocarbon

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“…with central Anatolia (Larsen 2015). Thousands more texts from ancient Mari on the Euphrates document the intrigues and rivalries of the kingdoms of Syria and southern Mesopotamia (Sasson 2015) (Figure 1a-b). This combined corpus attests a web of interconnected people and events that allows a more detailed historical reconstruction to be drawn for the Middle Bronze Age than for any earlier period in the region.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

New evidence for Middle Bronze Age chronology from the Syro-Anatolian frontier

et al. 2023

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Dates differ by up to 150 years in the protracted debate around the chronology of the Middle Bronze Age Near East. Here, the authors present radiocarbon and ceramic evidence from destroyed buildings at Zincirli, Türkiye, that support the Middle Chronology. Ceramics from late Middle Bronze Age sites in Syria and Anatolia, and Bayesian modelling of 18 well-stratified radiocarbon samples from site destruction contexts attributable to Hittite king Ḫattusili I, indicate a date in the later seventeenth century BC. Since the Northern Levant connects the Mesopotamian and Eastern Mediterranean second-millennium BC chronologies, this evidence supports the convergence of these long-debated schemas, with implications for the start of the Late Bronze Age and the rise of empires.

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“…39.19; 44.12, 23; 49.14. In one of the Mari letters (ARM 26 5), an official named Bannum tells the king, ‘I installed Belšunu your servant, a man fattening like a hog – you can butcher him and no one will stay your hand’ (translation after Sasson, 2015: 169). The unfavourable comparison between human and animal is thus no contrivance of recent eisegesis.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 45. Mesopotamia has left rich evidence for royal divination, especially the use of extispicy and astrology. For liver omens in Mari, see Sasson, 2015: 168–173, 272–278. The gamut of topics subject to investigation via extispicy during the Neo-Assyrian period can be seen in Starr, 1990.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Eglon’s Fat and Ehud’s Oracle: A Reconsideration of Humour in Judges 3.12–30

Schroeder

2022

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

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Judg. 3.12–30 details the assassination of King Eglon of Moab by the Benjaminite Ehud ben Gera. Many scholars insist that the story was originally meant to be funny, contending that the text casts Eglon (i.e. ‘Little Calf’) humorously as a slaughtered bovine. Indeed, some regard the text as ‘satire’, though there remains no consensus as to what, exactly, constitutes the butt of the joke. In this article, I argue that Eglon’s fat and Ehud’s feigned oracle work together to form a comical critique of foreign rulers and their reliance on divination. The argument draws on Victor Raskin’s semantic theory of verbal humour along with a re-examination of fat on elite male bodies in the Hebrew Bible and the practice of ancient oracle giving, as reflected in cuneiform sources. I thus aim to elucidate ways the text would have registered as humorous and meaningful for an ancient West Asian audience.

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From the Mari Archives

Cited by 30 publications

References 0 publications

Bayesian Modeling of a Peripheral Middle Bronze Age Settlement at Zahrat Adh-Dhra‘ 1, Jordan

Bayesian Modeling of a Peripheral Middle Bronze Age Settlement at Zahrat Adh-Dhra‘ 1, Jordan

New evidence for Middle Bronze Age chronology from the Syro-Anatolian frontier

Eglon’s Fat and Ehud’s Oracle: A Reconsideration of Humour in Judges 3.12–30

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