Beyond the River: New Perspectives on Transeuphratene

Abstract

Beyond the River: New Perspectives on Transeuphratene, by josette Elayi and jean Sapin. JSOTSup 250. Trans. J. Edward Crowley. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998. Pp. 191.235.00/$58.00. This programmatic book, an earlier version of which was published in 1991 (Nouveaux regards sur la Transeuphratene), makes the case for the application of a new interdisciplinary approach to the study of ancient Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, and Cyprus during the Persian period. Because the work is a kind of scholarly manifesto, the authors do not attempt to provide either a complete survey of past research or a summation of the most exciting discoveries in the area. Instead, Elayi and Sapin stress a number of theoretical considerations that can be brought to bear on the study of the Transeuphratene region. Traditionally, three major disciplines have had a stake in the study of the Transeuphratene region during the Persian period: classics, biblical studies, and ancient Near Eastern (Achaemenid) studies. In their opening chapter, the authors level a series of severe criticisms of the compartmentalization represented by these three separate fields of study. They are particularly critical of the neglect of the Persian period in traditional biblical scholarship and the fixation on earlier periods in Syro-palestinian archaeology. What Elayi and Sapin call for is not simply a conversation among scholars in classics, biblical studies, and ancient Near Eastern studies, but also the creation of new research initiatives designed to address a series of important developments during the Persian period: the introduction of coinage and the coin economy, the emergence of city-states similar to the Greek polls, the growing use of and dependence on mercenary armies, the various kinds of trade between local cultures, and the opening up of the western fringe of the Achaemenid empire to the Greek world. The argument for fresh thinking and new approaches is a good one, but it is pursued in a sequence of very different chapters. One chapter is devoted to the use of computers, in particular the development of data bases and the emergence of new techniques in data analysis, Two chapters are devoted to recent advances in archaeology. Elayi and Sapin point to archaeological surveys, spatial archaeology or geo-archaeology, and coastal archaeology as particularly promising developments. They also call for, quite sensibly in my judgment, the complementary use of tel archaeology and archaeological surveys to reconstruct the material history of the region. A separate chapter focuses upon new directions in epigraphy. Here, the authors call attention to the detailed study of non-monumental inscriptions, the diffusion of writing in the Persian period, and recent analyses of the relationships between writing and cultural integration. Reading the ancient textual sources in a different way is the topic of the seventh chapter. As examples of (re)reading sources, the authors propose asking new questions of the classical materials and analyzing the later books of the Hebrew Bible within their broader social contexts in the Achaemenid empire. If literary texts constitute part of the written remains from the Achaemenid period, pottery constitutes part of the material remains from the same. Elayi and Sapin wish to see more study of international trade, including analysis of the diffusion of pottery as a means to understand larger trading patterns and economic activities. Coins and the development of a cash economy also require much more intensive scrutiny. Within the Transeuphratene region, the authors think that the commercial use of coinage was largely limited to trade within Phoenician cities and was nonexistent in the case of external trade. Even internally within the Phoenician cities, the authors argue that older systems of exchange survived and did not disappear completely. Elayi and Sapin think that one of the most promising research developments in the study of the Transeuphratene is historical sociology. …