Eastern Mediterranean World Research Articles

An Island in the City: Ancona’s New Lazaretto as a Medical, Political, and Religious Borderland

Abstract: This essay explores the role of quarantine stations as sites of creation and disruption of Mediterranean borderlands. It considers the early history of the “new lazaretto,” the maritime quarantine station created in Ancona, a city in the Papal States, after Pope Clement XII declared the city a free port in 1732. Big and beautiful, the new lazaretto was built on an artificial island and marked Ancona’s cityscape. This essay reconstructs how it functioned as a dynamic border space where concerns about disease transmission were addressed through the deployment of practices of environmental and sensory control. It argues that the new lazaretto embodied a liminal environment that was established at the crossroads of medical, economic, religious, and political entanglements and reflected the geopolitical dynamics of the eastern Mediterranean world.

Reorienting English Protestantism

This special issue seeks to expand the intellectual landscape of English Protestantism over the course of its long Reformation from the early sixteenth through the late seventeenth centuries. England's protracted conflict over its Protestant identity encouraged the diversification of its orientations to sacred texts and religious traditions, stretching it beyond western Europe to the eastern Mediterranean world. The essays examine English Protestant engagement with Hellenic, Hebraic, and Arabic sources and traditions within a wider context than typically explored in existing narratives. They illustrate how English Protestant scholarship reinforced stereotypes, while also prompting self-reflection and inspiring the reconstruction of England's own traditions and cultural assumptions. Expanding English ecclesiastical, theological, exegetical, philological, and cultural interests, the volume calls for a more fluid and “connected history” to understand the full scope of English Reformation thought and its engagement with non-Western churches and traditions.

Bronze Age Cyprus and the Aegean: ‘exotic currency’ and objects of connectivity

The island of Cyprus is justly regarded as a key juncture in the eastern Mediterranean world, one that played a prominent role in the exchange networks operating within and beyond that region, especially during the Late Bronze Age (LBA). With respect to the Aegean world, contacts are well represented by Aegean and Aegean-style objects and imagery found on the island, a form of ‘exotic currency’ often associated with elite feasting and funerary activities. The arts and crafts of Bronze Age Cyprus are particularly rich in representational terms, particularly evident in the floruit of figurative representations depicted on the pottery, metalwork, ivories and figurines of the LBA. When we focus down onto individual objects or classes of objects, the role of hybridisation practices also seems evident, and any discussion of connectivity between the Aegean world and Cyprus must take such practices into account. The purpose of the present study is to consider a representative example of these objects of connectivity during both the Prehistoric and Protohistoric Bronze Ages, always highlighting the Aegean dimension. In turn, the nature of Aegean-Cypriot relations during and at the end of the LBA is considered with respect to the merchants, mariners, exchange systems and spheres of interaction that characterised Cypro-Aegean connectivity.

The Making and Breaking of Kinetic Empire: Mobility, Communication and Political Change in the Eastern Mediterranean, c. 900–1100 CE

AbstractThis paper applies the concept of ‘kinetic empire’ to the eastern Mediterranean world in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The term ‘kinetic empire’ is borrowed from Hämäläinen's analysis of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century north American Comanche Empire. It refers to the way in which trans- and supra-regional power could be created, expressed and enforced through mobile means. The article focuses primarily on the role of mobility in the expansion of the Byzantine Empire between c. 900 and 1050, but also makes comparison with the contemporaneous Fatimid caliphate and other regional polities which we might usually regard as sedentary states. Recovering the role of the kinetic not only extends our understanding of the modalities of power in this crucial region of the medieval world, it also allows us to question the nature and degree of transformation wrought by mobile newcomers, such as Normans, crusaders and Turks in the later decades of the eleventh century. In this sense of developing and exploring concepts useful for the study of the transregional in premodernity and questioning standard periodisations, this article is also a practical exercise in medieval global history.

Revisiting 1177 BCE and the Late Bronze Age Collapse

Revisiting 1177 BCE and the Late Bronze Age Collapse

Gary Leiser, Prostitution in the Eastern Mediterranean World. The Economics of Sex in the Late Antique and Medieval Middle East, London: I.B. Tauris, 2017, 332 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1784536527.

Article Gary Leiser, Prostitution in the Eastern Mediterranean World. The Economics of Sex in the Late Antique and Medieval Middle East, London: I.B. Tauris, 2017, 332 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1784536527. was published on April 1, 2022 in the journal Der Islam (volume 99, issue 1).

Rethinking Middle Bronze Age Communities on Cyprus: “Egalitarian” and Isolated or Complex and Interconnected?

Current views of Cyprus during the Middle Bronze Age (or Middle Cypriot period) depict an island largely isolated from the wider eastern Mediterranean world and comprised largely if not exclusively of “egalitarian,” agropastoral communities. In this respect, its economy stands at odds with those of polities in other, nearby regions such as the Levant, or Crete in the Aegean. The publication of new excavations and new readings of legacy data necessitate modification of earlier views about Cyprus’s political economy during the Middle Bronze Age, prompting this review. We discuss at some length the island’s settlement and mortuary records, materials related to internal production, external exchange and connectivities, and the earliest of the much discussed but still enigmatic fortifications. We suggest that Middle Bronze Age communities are likely to have been significantly more complex, mobile, and interconnected than once envisaged and that the changes that mark the closing years of this period and the transition to the internationalism of Late Bronze Age Cyprus represent the culmination of an evolving series of internal developments and external interactions.

Prostitution in the Eastern Mediterranean World: The Economics of Sex in the Late Antique and Medieval Middle East. By Gary Leiser

Prostitution in the Eastern Mediterranean World: The Economics of Sex in the Late Antique and Medieval Middle East. By Gary Leiser. London: I.B. Tauris, 2017. Pp. xv + 332. $52.50, £35.

Truth and Equivocation in Constantine Cavafy’s Poems of Antiquity

The Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy (1883–1933) spent most of his life in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. Cavafy liked to think of himself as an historical poet. A large proportion of his poetry is set outside of Greece in the eastern, southern and south-eastern Mediterranean world at a time when the centre of Greek culture had shifted from ‘mainland Greece’ to cities such as Alexandria and Antioch, when a cosmopolitan Greek culture was contained by the Roman Empire, and later when Christianity began to take hold and challenge the Hellenic world and its values. Cavafy also liked to think of all his poetry – whether the setting was his own time and place or that of antiquity – in three categories of historical, philosophical and hedonistic, while acknowledging their overlap.This paper concentrates on his poems of antiquity, and within that on those poems which deal with questions of ambiguity, equivocation, and various forms of non-truth telling. The paper’s critical-theoretical beginning relies on the equivocal prophecies of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, William Empson’s notions of ambiguity and dramatic irony, and Cavafy’s theatrical representation of history, and then turns to Derrida’s essay on the history of the lie.Keywords: Constantine Cavafy, poetry, antiquity, ambiguity, self-deception, William Empson, Jacques Derrida

A Micro-Analytical Study of the Scarabs of the Necropolis of Vinha das Caliças (Portugal).

Five scarabs and one scaraboid found in Vinha das Caliças 4 (Beja, Portugal) were analyzed using a micro-analytical methodology in order to determine their mineralogical and chemical composition. Microstructural characterization and chemical analysis revealed that all were composed of a white body of crushed feldspathic sand covered by a lead-rich, alkaline-depleted silicate blue-green glaze showing evident signs of glass deterioration. Variable pressure scanning electron microscopy with X-ray energy dispersive spectrometry, handheld X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, and micro X-ray diffraction results show that blue-green color of the glaze was produced by using copper ions (Cu2+) in conjunction with the lead antimonate bindheimite, a yellow-colored opacifier. The introduction of small amounts of tin in the structure of bindheimite enabled the production of a ternary Pb-Sb-Sn oxide. Tin, which was most likely added with the copper source (bronze scrapings), is known to facilitate the crystallization of bindheimite. The results are consistent with the five scarabs and one scaraboid being manufactured in Egypt. This study, the first archeometric study of scarabs found in the Iberian peninsula, has greatly contributed to the understanding of the influence of the Eastern and Central Mediterranean world in the Southwestern Iberia during the first millennium B.C.

Sleep of the Soul and Resurrection of the Body: Aphrahat’s Anthropology in Context

Abstract The fourth-century Syriac corpus known as the Demonstrations, attributed to Aphrahat, the Persian Sage, provides a unique window into the early development of Christianity among Syriac-speaking communities. Occasionally these writings attest to beliefs and practices that were not common among other contemporaneous Christian communities, such as Aphrahat’s apparent belief in the “sleep of the soul” and the implications of that belief for his concept of the soul-body relationship and what happens to the soul and body at the resurrection. Aphrahat addresses this topic in the context of a polemical argument against an unnamed opponent, which provides the occasion to consider whom these arguments might be addressed against. The present article seeks to understand Aphrahat’s views on the body and soul within the broad religious milieu of the eastern Mediterranean world in Late Antiquity. The article concludes with an argument for reading and understanding the Demonstrations as a witness to the contested development of Christian identity in the Syriac-speaking world.

“You are the Heretics!” Dialogue and Disputation between the Greek East and the Latin West after 1204

Abstract In the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade Byzantines and Latins engaged in numerous instances of dialogue and negotiation intended to unite the Greek and Roman Churches. The meeting between four mendicant friars and Patriarch Germanos II in Nicaea and Nymphaion in 1234 is indicative of a continuous trend in Byzantine diplomacy going back to the Komnenoi emperors that used ecclesiastical debate as a mechanism for diplomatic gain. In the years after 1204, however, church-union negotiation took on new purpose, serving to solidify Byzantine identity and resistance in the face of western invaders. Although the study of dialogue and disputation is enjoying a period of renewed focus among western medievalists, the field of Byzantine Studies, with few exceptions, has confined such material to the realm of theological research, neglecting the importance of such encounters, especially in the period after the Fourth Crusade. This study sets out to address why historians of Byzantium have been apprehensive about embracing the sources that describe ecclesiastical dialogue, and show how they can inform us about diplomacy, society and identity in the Eastern Mediterranean world after 1204.

(Re)sources: Origins of metals in Late Period Egypt

Metal trade and access to raw materials during the Late Bronze Age—roughly covering the New Kingdom in Egypt—have received substantial attention from past and present scholarship. Despite copper and lead remaining essential commodities afterwards, our knowledge about their supply during the Iron Age and later periods, in contrast, remains limited, even if it has improved recently. This paper presents the results of a pilot project investigating the possible sources of lead and copper available to Egypt during the Late Period (664–332 BCE), a period of intense contact and exchange between Egypt and the Mediterranean world.In the context of this research, a wide range of artefacts from Naukratis, a major cosmopolitan trading hub in the Western Nile Delta founded in the late 7th century BC, were analysed to determine their chemical composition and lead isotope ratios. They mostly consist of metal finds—including a crucible slag—but also some locally produced faience objects which used lead and copper to colour the glaze. Additional samples include metal objects and lead ores from Tell Dafana, a Late Period settlement in the Eastern Delta, and contemporary Egyptian or Egyptianizing bronzes from Cyprus.A total of 39 objects were analysed with a combination of lead isotope and elemental analysis, yielding surprising results for the likely origins of the copper. While Cyprus, an expected source for copper, is identified for one object, the copper deposits from Faynan or from northwestern Anatolia offer the best match for most finds, including those found in Cyprus.The lead analysed seems to originate from a variety of mines, particularly from Laurion in Attica, and mines in the northern Aegean and/or northwestern Anatolia, with one example possibly from a lead‑silver mine located in central Iran. The multiplicity of lead sources reflects the complexity of international trade in the Eastern Mediterranean at the time.The study offers a valuable insight into the trade networks of Egypt and, by extension, the whole of the ancient Mediterranean. A larger-scale project investigating objects from a wider range of sites in the Eastern Mediterranean world could revolutionize our understanding of metal trade and concomitant economic, political and social developments in the first millennium BC.

Book Review: Gary Leiser, Prostitution in the Eastern Mediterranean World: The Economies of Sex in the Late Antique and Medieval Middle East

Book Review: Gary Leiser, <i>Prostitution in the Eastern Mediterranean World: The Economies of Sex in the Late Antique and Medieval Middle East</i>

Sacred Townscapes in Late Antique Greece

The towns and surrounding rural areas of the Eastern Roman Empire experienced a remarkable boom during Late Antiquity (late fourth to seventh century ad), which involved both extraordinary diversity from region to region but also continuities and parallel transformations in town size and monumentality. Early investment in church and fortification building on behalf of an ecclesiastical and secular/urban elite gave way to a gradual, progressive ‘Christianisation’ of townscapes in the late fifth and sixth centuries ad. This was a ‘global’ phenomenon, in that it began in many parts of the eastern Mediterranean world at more or less the same time, and this paper focuses on the example of central and southern Greece to discuss how this process relates to issues of urban diversity during this period. The article draws from a data set of excavated remains at Athens in Attica and Corinth in the Peloponnese, and from recent survey work in Tanagra in Boeotia.

The Pentateuch: Genesis

The PentateuchGenesis Christopher T. Begg, Eric J. Wagner, CR, Michael W. Duggan, and Bradley C. Gregory 241. [Torah; Greek Law] Anselm C. Hagedorn, "Sacred Law, Lawgivers and Codification. Perspectives from the Hebrew Bible, Gortyn and Selinus," Writing Laws in Antiquity, 117-40 [see #700]. H.'s essay offers a wide-ranging comparison of Greek and biblical laws. After surveying the current state of the question, he proceeds to compare and contrast the two legal traditions in light of two related issues: the involvement of the gods in writing laws (and other materials) and the sacred character of law. With regard to the first issue, H. shows that even though the references to Yhwh's writing activity in the Hebrew Bible are relatively limited in comparison with the mentions of writing gods elsewhere in the ANE, the characterization of Yhwh as the author or writer of Israelite law does play a key role in the Pentateuch, especially in the late stages of the formation of this collection. By contrast, the references to writing gods are marginal at best in ancient Greece, and Greek gods are never presented as the authors of written laws. This contrast points to a more basic difference in the understanding of the relationship between the gods and laws in the two cultures, a point that is then explored in the next section of H.'s essay. Here, he begins by noting that the biblical law codes are intrinsically religious documents and that this feature also permeates the depiction of Moses as lawgiver, in contrast to Greek lawgivers. Thereafter, H. proceeds to discuss the role of the gods and the place of sacred or religious matters in various laws of the so-called Gortyn Code, as well as the law of Selinus. As he notes by way of conclusion, comparison of the two corpora highlights first and foremost the differences between Greek and biblical laws. While the written law may be viewed in both cultures as an "identity marker," the status and meaning of the laws vis-à-vis the community and the god(s) remain markedly distinct. In particular, the scribal processes underlying the composition and revision of biblical laws "removes the law from human activity" (p. 132) in a way that is unparalleled in the Greek world. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 242. [Torah; Greek Law] Gary N. Knoppers, "Moses and the Greek Lawgivers. The Triumph of the Torah in Ancient Mediterranean Perspective," Writing Laws in Antiquity, 50-77 [see #700]. K.'s essay features a discussion of the parallels between the traditions about the Greek lawgivers and the eastern Mediterranean world, specifically the figure of Moses. In dialogue with A. Szegedy-Maszak and others, K. begins by reviewing the typical features that characterized the great lawgivers of the Greek tradition, e.g., their rigorous training, [End Page 79] their virtue, or the challenges that the new legislation they sought to impose had to face. He then discusses the question of whether, and to what extent, the resulting typology can be applied to figures elsewhere in the ancient Mediterranean region, especially to Moses. He argues in this connection that while the divine origin of the legislation associated with Moses (the Torah) signals a basic difference between the Greek and Israelite legal traditions and their respective authoritative figures, the line between the two legal traditions should not be drawn too sharply (contra Szegedy-Maszak): first, because the relationship between divine and human roles in the origins of the law is more complex and more nuanced in the biblical tradition than has been sometimes supposed; and second, because the notion of the divine origin of law is not unknown in the Greek traditions about lawgivers. On this basis, K. proceeds to a detailed discussion of the parallels between Moses and the Greek lawgivers (see pp. 63-69 of his essay). He concludes that the parallels are as significant as the differences that can be observed, and this finding, in turn, calls for a study of ancient lawgivers that is not merely restricted to the Greek cities but takes into account the wider Mediterranean context. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 243...

The sedimentary and geomorphological imprint of the AD 365 tsunami on the coasts of southwestern Crete (Greece) – Examples from Sougia and Palaiochora

The southwestern coast of Crete, one of the most seismically active regions in Europe, experienced co-seismic crust uplift by 9 m during the Ms = 8.3 mega-earthquake that struck the eastern Mediterranean world on 21 July AD 365. An associated tsunami event caused thousands of fatalities and destroyed many coastal settlements and infrastructure between the Levante in the east and the Adriatic Sea in the northwest. So far, coastal sedimentary archives in southwestern Crete including distinct palaeotsunami fingerprints are rarely investigated. Therefore, a multi-proxy study including sedimentological, geochemical, geochronological, and microfaunal methods was conducted in order to detect onshore coastal sedimentary archives that functioned as fine sediment traps and document palaeotsunami imprint. We found adequate archives at the Sougia and Palaiochora coastal plains that were used to reconstruct the palaeogeographical evolution and the palaeoseismological history of SW Crete during the late Holocene. Our studies revealed distinct geomorphological, sedimentological, geochemical, and microfaunal traces of high-energy impact from the marine side related to seismic events. At the Sougia coastal plain a sheet of fine sand with a neat microfossil and geochemical fingerprint was found sandwiched between underlying pre-tsunami muds and overlying post-tsunami colluvial silt. In the Palaiochora coastal plain, tsunami overflow of a flat Neogene bedrock platform led to the accumulation of sand-dominated deposits that were subsequently covered by colluvial material from the adjacent hillslopes. Based on radiocarbon and luminescence dating approaches, it is shown that the AD 365 tsunami event is the best-fit candidate for the tsunami-related sediments deposited at both, Sougia and Palaiochora. This study, for the first time, presents multi-proxy evidence of the AD 365 tsunami imprint on fine-sedimentary archives along the western and southwestern coast of Crete.

Now Those Who Were Scattered Went about Preaching the Word (Acts 8:4): The Migrant Church and Its Mission According to the Book of Acts

After a brief survey of migration in the Bible, this article examines migration be it voluntary or enforced in the Book of Acts. Acts describes in Stephen's speech in surprising detail experiences of migration in Israel's past and its theological implications. Acts also describes that many early Christian missionaries served in places that were not their places of origin, voluntarily or by force: the disciples ended up in Jerusalem and eventually at the ends of the earth rather than returning to Galilee. Others had come to Jerusalem from elsewhere even before encountering the Gospel and ministered throughout the Eastern Mediterranean world as they became involved in mission. Early Christian mission is closely related to migration and dislocation, voluntary or by force, led by the Spirit and for the sake of the Gospel. Repeatedly other missionaries had to flee in order to avoid persecution. Despite the tragedy and suffering involved, there were also great opportunities which were readily seized: the Gospel moved forward. Much of early Christian mission was accomplished by refugees. A final section reflects on the significance of this portrayal of early Christian mission for the church and its mission in the 21st century.

The land of Hiyawa (Que) revisited

AbstractThe focus of this article is the recently published, near-duplicate ARSUZ inscriptions carved on two stelae found near İskenderun in southeastern Turkey and dating to the later tenth century BC. Particular attention is given to the historical section of these inscriptions, and its reference to a land called Hiyawa (Assyrian Que) in eastern Cilicia, previously attested in only one other Iron Age inscription, the Luwian-Phoenician bilingual found at Çineköy near Adana. The article discusses what new information can be deduced about Hiyawa, including its relationship with the land of Adana(wa) in eastern Cilicia, the implications to be drawn from the findspot of the stelae and the much-debated question of whether the references to Hiyawa reflect Greek settlement in southeastern Anatolia during the Early Iron Age. Fresh attention is also given to the two Akkadian texts from the archives of Late Bronze Age Ugarit which refer to a group called the Hiyawa-men, who were located at that time (late 13th to early 12th century) in Lukka in southwestern Anatolia. The controversial identification of this group with Ahhiyawans/Mycenaean Greeks is re-examined within the broader context of a comprehensive reconsideration of the Ahhiyawa-Hiyawa equation and the role played by ‘Hiyawans’ and the land of Hiyawa in the affairs of the eastern Mediterranean world from the end of the Bronze Age through the succeeding Iron Age.

Copper-alloy use in a Tyrrhenian medieval town: The case of Leopoli-Cencelle (Italy)

This study focuses on the use of copper-alloys in the Tyrrhenian town of Leopoli-Cencelle (Italy) during the Middle Ages, and explores the technical aspects and sociocultural implications of metal consumption. Founded near the coast of the Tuscia region as a reaction to threats from Saracens, and located within the main trade routes linking Rome to the northern Tuscan powers of Pisa and Siena, Leopoli-Cencelle was an active town up to the 14th century. This was also facilitated by the proximity of the Tolfa Hills mining district and the important harbour of Corneto. This research concentrates on the technological and compositional study of copper-alloy artefacts such as everyday life objects, dress accessories, work instruments, jewellery, and structural and decorative items. The analytical data reported here includes pXRF, optical microscopy and SEM-EDS, which were employed to acquire information on copper-alloy composition and manufacturing processes. The results allow an assessment of the main alloys employed and their uses, which can be compared to information from medieval written sources, and they provide insight into the nature of the local workshops, and the skill and level of specialisation of metalworkers. Some interesting aspects are the relative scarcity of tin bronzes, which are almost exclusively reserved for bell casting, and the presence of gilded or silvered brasses, which denote influences from the eastern Mediterranean world. The comparison of metal surface and bulk compositions also provides a contribution to evaluate the potential of pXRF analyses on unprepared metal samples.