Ancient Palestine

This article provides an update on one of the most famous characters in the history of Ancient Caucasian Iberia. As an Iberian prince exiled in the Roman Empire owing to the changeover of his fatherland in the Sasanian orbit c. 368, Bacurius led career in the Roman army to become General of Theodosius.
Several testimonies by Ammianus Marcellinus, Libanius and Themistius, Rufinus, and Byzantine ecclesiastical historians enable to better understand this ambivalent figure, who was well favored by Christians as well as pagans.
This article offers a detailed explanation showing that the death of Bacurius during the Battle of Frigidus in 394 prevents him from being confused with other Iberian princes of the fifth century CE.
The account narrating the conversion of the Iberian king to the Christian faith delivered by Bacurius to Rufinus must also be understood as a political act in the context of the Acilisene Treaty of 387.

Revised and corrected working paper dated October 25, 2019.

Access to the original paper published in Iberia-Colchis, № 13, 2017, p. 166-192 :
http://dspace.nplg.gov.ge/handle/1234/242318

This conference seeks to explore and contextualize the configuration of the varied desert cultic practices from the southern Levant and northern Arabia during the Late Bronze/Iron Ages that may have contributed to the emergence of the Yahwistic cult. Recent archaeological excavations in the Negev, southern Transjordan and Hejaz and new interpretations of old epigraphic and iconographic evidence are rapidly changing the biblical-based paradigm of the interactions between the desert cults and the Iron Age Levantine religions.

The conference adopts an interdisciplinary approach, assessing textual, archaeological, as well as epigraphic data. The papers presented here contribute in a unique way to big historical questions of the LBA/IA desert religions: Was there something unique in the desert cults? How were the religious experiences shaped by the interactions between the local rituals and the sanctuary cults that penetrated from the agricultural lands? The conference also touches the much wider debate of the role played by trade–in copper, incense, pastoral products–and cultural interconnections in the diffusion of religious ideas. It particularly explores how these data relate to those religious practices attested in Judah and Israel of the later Iron Age and beyond, thereby providing new insights into the prehistory of the Yahweh cult.

T he eleventh season (April–June 2015) of the archaeological investigation and site protection as well as valoriza-tion of the site of Tell es-Sultan was carried out by the University of Rome " La Sapienza " (under the direction of the present writer) and the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities – Department of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage (directed by Jehad Yasine) with the aims to: (1) reexamine several of the historical archaeological highlights of this long-standing site and (2) make the site accessible and appealing to the public through restorations and a large set of illustrative and explanatory devices set up with the help of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Jericho Municipality, and to make the site an inclusive part of the Jericho Oasis Archaeological Park (JOAP: www.lasapienzatojericho.it/JOAP).

Patron-client relationships have been documented and studied by anthropologists and sociologists since the 1950s, from rural settings to urban locations, and virtually on every region of the world. It was, however, only in the last decades of the twentieth century that this analytical model was slowly incorporated into the socio-political interpretation of biblical texts and other ancient Near Eastern sources. The patronage model proves to be a useful interpretive tool, as it casts new light on many aspects of the history of Israel and of other socio-political communities in the southern Levant. Moreover, the concept of patron-client relationships clarifies many of the implicit socio-politics found in the stories and motifs of several biblical books.

This reader collects a number of studies by internationally renowned scholars dealing with different aspects and situations of patronage: in the context of Southwest Asia during the second millennium BCE, related to the history of ancient Palestine during the first millennium BCE, and lastly with notices of patron-client ties in texts of the Hebrew Bible. While these selected papers do not presume to offer a complete or exhaustive treatment of periods, historical cases and themes in ancient Palestine and Hebrew Bible literature, they variously illustrate the many possibilities of the concept of patronage to elucidate them.

In the diplomatic messages of the Amarna letters from the 14th century BCE, we find plenty of data related to socio-political situations and practices active in the Southern Levant under Egyptian overlordship. These data are indeed most relevant to characterize a particular political ontology indigenous to the land, dealing with performances of hierarchy, reciprocity, loyalty and obedience, all features proper of what 20th-century social anthropologists have called "patronage" or "patron-client relationships" in relation to modern and contemporary historical contexts. Many of these socio-political aspects can also be found in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and, notably, in the New Testament as well. This lecture will attempt to show how these expressions of patronage appear in the Amarna letters and how they have also been transmitted into the biblical narrative, illustrating in fact a continuity of this political ontology in ancient Palestine through the centuries.

The Beersheba church is remarkable in many respects. Its exceptional internal full cross-shaped plan introduced a new type of church into the repertoire of ecclesiastical architecture of Byzantine Palaestina. The inscriptions contain a unique architectural term and a rare formulaic quotation, cited in the liturgy performed at the consecration of churches. The reference to the partition of the church allows a glimpse into the spatial perception of the church by its visitors. In addition, the dimensions and architectural complexity of the Beersheba church highlight the importance of Beersheba and its prominent place among the settlements of southern Palaestina.

Recent scholarship has shown that there is no solid archaeological or epigraphic evidence to deem the narratives about the rise to kingship of David and his son Solomon as reflecting the rise and consolidation of Israel as a Nation-State during the 10th century BCE. It is rather during the 9th century in the Palestinian highlands that we can find the emergence of a socio-political entity named Bīt Ḫumri/ya or Israel in the contemporary archaeological and epigraphic records, but with an ambiguous character as a state. In this paper, it is suggested the possibility that the rise of such a polity and the constitution of an ethnogenesis are notably and directly related to the appearance
of the Arabian network of exchanges in the early first millennium BCE in the Near East. Furthermore, from a critical point of view, one may suggest that there is no direct ethnic connection between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah and the later Jewish cults of Yahweh in Palestine.

This article discusses the presence of Celtic mercenaries in the army of the King of Judea – Herod the Great. Representatives of this people are present in the army of this ruler from 30 BC. In the same year Octavian Augustus, in return for the help given during the Civil War (32–30 BC), handed over a unit of 400 Galatians who were previously part of the guard of the defeated Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra. They were incorporated into Herod’s bodyguard. The generality of the sources, however, makes it impossible to be sure if they came from ethnic Galatia. Also the history of this part of Herod's guard is difficult to track.

After Constantine’s victory at the Milvian Bridge, the Christian Church could rely on the help of the State to make her doctrine a civil law. For members of rival religions, that is to say pagans and Jews, as well as for groups considered heretics, there began a period of gradual loss of rights. This paper analyses the change that the so-called “Constantinian revolution” implied for Judaism through the testimony of Joseph of Tiberias, presented by Epiphanius of Salamis in his Aduersus haereses. In the 19th century it was affi rmed that baptism provided Jews the “entry passport” to European society. In Joseph’s case, his conversion allowed him to reach the highest administrative positions in the State with the title of comes. He is a clear example of the destiny of Israel’s people, forced to choose either a wretched existence or a fulfi lling life in exchange for giving up their roots.

Using the results of current researches conducted in Greece, in Cyprus and Palestine, this paper shows how archaeological and historical studies of regional fortifications help to reconstruct the defensive policies established  by the powers in control of each region.  The elaboration of this method of study of the territorial defences in Cyprus is first presented and then the application of this method to study the defensive policies of the Achaemenids and Ptolemies in Southern Syria (Syria Phoenicia). Then the first results of this method applied to the study of the defensive policies of Greek cities in indifferent regions of Greece (Argolis, Boetia, Thessaly, Achaïa),

This contribution deals with the decoration of the Palestinian incense altars. It focuses on three types of motifs: the architectural ones, the palm tree and the astral symbols, selected because of their importance in the art of Palestine before and after the Persian period, in an attempt to show the continuity in the use of the decorative repertoire. The study investigates the meaning of this imagery, showing that it was mainly cultually inspired. It also questions the sources of inspiration of the decoration, asserting that, from an iconographic but also from a stylistic point of view, it is deeply rooted in local culture.

Using the results of current researches conducted in Greece, in Cyprus and Palestine, this paper shows how archaeological and historical studies of regional fortifications help to reconstruct the defensive policies established by the powers in control of each region. The elaboration of this method of study of the territorial defences in Cyprus is first presented and then the application of this method to study the defensive policies of the Achaemenids and Ptolemies in Southern Syria (Syria Phoenicia). Then the first results of this method applied to the study of the defensive policies of Greek cities in indifferent regions of Greece (Argolis, Boetia, Thessaly, Achaïa),

RESUMO: O presente artigo tem por objetivo compreender, através da fusão entre fontes textuais e cultura material, a multiplicidade de experiências religiosas relacionadas à divindade semita Iahweh e sua circularidade no mundo mediterrânico antigo, a partir dos vestígios arqueológicos descobertos na ilha de Delos, na Grécia. A hipótese defendida é de que mesmo durante o período em que o segundo Templo de Jerusalém esteve em funcionamento (V aEC-I EC), o culto não se constituía como centralizado e monolítico, possuindo um caráter plural, como as inscrições de origem israelita-samaritana, dedicadas ao Monte Gerizim, demonstram. Palavras-chave: Delos-Javismos-Pluralidade Religiosa ABSTRACT: This article aims to understand, by the combination of textual sources and material culture, the multiplicity of religious experiences related to the Semitic god Yahweh and his circularity in the ancient Mediterranean world, from archaeological remains discovered on the island of Delos, Greece. The ...

“Through interaction with these and neighboring disciplines, scholars of Jewish, Christian and other (late) ancient traditions will be able to explore comparatively how manifestations of knowledge (concepts, institutions, practices) impacted specific periods, and in turn were shaped by larger socio-historical, cultural and religious formations. It will require a thorough and inter-disciplinary study of many traditions (like rabbinic texts, Christian sermons, ascetic or monastic traditions) that were previously studied upon other terms (i.e. primarily as literature, philosophy, theology or religious law) in order to flesh out shared but also distinct ways of knowing.”