Seventh Century BC Research Articles

Bioarchaeology aids the cultural understanding of six characters in search of their agency (Tarquinia, ninth–seventh century BC, central Italy)

Etruria contained one of the great early urban civilisations in the Italian peninsula during the first millennium BC, much studied from a cultural, humanities-based, perspective, but relatively little with scientific data, and rarely in combination. We have addressed the unusual location of twenty inhumations found in the sacred heart of the Etruscan city of Tarquinia, focusing on six of these as illustrative, contrasting with the typical contemporary cremations found in cemeteries on the edge of the city. The cultural evidence suggests that the six skeletons were also distinctive in their ritualization and memorialisation. Focusing on the six, as a representative sample, the scientific evidence of osteoarchaeology, isotopic compositions, and ancient DNA has established that these appear to show mobility, diversity and violence through an integrated bioarchaeological approach. The combination of multiple lines of evidence makes major strides towards a deeper understanding of the role of these extraordinary individuals in the life of the early city of Etruria.

The Coastal Landscape of West Samos in the Seventh and Sixth Centuries BCE: Possible landing points and routes

This article uses a combination of archaeological, environmental and historical evidence to consider where the most plausible shipping routes and landing points were around the west part of the Aegean island of Samos during the period 700–500 BCE, a time known for significant maritime activity in the region. Emerging evidence suggests that the west part of Samos, although subject year-round to strong and dangerous winds and lacking in safe anchorages along its coastline, connected itself in antiquity to a range of regional and supra-regional maritime networks. This article provides an important discussion for considering the practicalities of how those networks operated. Taking into account the size and capacity of ships sailing the Aegean in the seventh and sixth centuries BCE, this article considers how small ships would have fared in this region, in light of annual wind forecast, coastal topography and offshore bathymetry. Although there is a dearth of primary historical evidence from this period, comparative written accounts from the early modern period provide an opportunity for reflecting on how this area of the Aegean could have been navigated in small craft. This article closes by presenting a synthesis of possible year-round and seasonal routes usable around the island.

Iron Age Connectivity Revealed by an Assemblage of Egyptian Faience in Central Iberia

Research concerning transactions in the early first millennium bc in the westernmost Mediterranean has tended to focus on colonial coastlands occupied by scattered Levantine outposts, whereas cross-cultural interactions in hinterland regions have remained ill-defined. This article presents an assemblage of Egyptian vitreous artefacts, namely beads, a Hathor amulet, and further items from the seventh-century bc rural village of Cerro de San Vicente (Salamanca) in the interior of Spain. Macroscopic and chemical analyses demonstrate their likely manufacture in Egypt during the Middle and New Kingdom (second millennium bc), attesting to a far-reaching Phoenician maritime network that connected both ends of the Mediterranean. The authors interpret the items as liturgical objects, rather than mere high-status trinkets, that formed part of a widely shared Mediterranean world view and associated ritual mores. They consider the impact of cultural syncretism, which reached even remote and allegedly isolated peripheral settings in Iberia.

Nabû at the Frontiers of the Assyrian Empire: An Inscribed Bronze Necklet from Yasin Tepe, Iraqi Kurdistan

Abstract This paper presents an inscribed bronze necklet discovered at Yasin Tepe, one of the largest tell-type sites in the Sulaymaniyah Governorate in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The necklet was found on the floor of a large building complex of the Neo-Assyrian period that probably belonged to an elite family living at the site. The two-line inscription dates to around the eighth to seventh centuries BCE, and mentions the dedication of a son by his father to the god Nabû, implying the diffusion of his worship to the frontier of the Assyrian empire. Nishiyama wrote Sections 1–4, and Yamada Section 5, respectively; both share the responsibility for Section 6. Abbreviations follow M. P. Streck et al. (eds.), Reallexikon der Assyriologie, vol. 15. Berlin/Boston, except for RINAP 2 = Frame 2020; RIMA 2 = Grayson 1991, RIMA 3 = Grayson 1996.

On Shifting Social and Urban Landscapes in Uruk under Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur II

Abstract This paper discusses a small dossier of four documents concerning a house that stood in Neo-Babylonian Uruk. These documents, among which are two previously unpublished texts, offer a rare opportunity to follow the history of one property and one neighborhood over a period of more than half a century. Apart from supplying unique long-term data on property prices in Uruk, the dossier provides insight into various social and political changes that shaped Uruk’s urban landscape in the late seventh and early sixth centuries BC. In particular, it contributes to the evidence concerning a dramatic purge of Uruk elites that took place in the middle of Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur (Nebuchadnezzar) II’s reign.

The Amulets from the Carthaginian tophet

Abstract Amulets found in burial urns of the Carthaginian tophet are discussed in terms of frequency of occurrence, and the nature and chronology of their material composition. Amulets were added in only 31 % of the urns studied, exclusively to urns containing human remains, with glass, faience, gold and silver the most common materials used. Chemical analysis of a selection of glass and silver amulets identified the primary origin of raw materials used in their manufacture. The primary glass used for the tophet amulets has its origin in the Levant and/or Egypt, from at least two different production centers in those regions. This does not exclude the likely existence of local secondary workshops where primary glass was colored and shaped. The silver in the amulets shows a diachronic shift in raw materials usage, from western Mediterranean sources in the eighth and seventh centuries BCE to eastern Mediterranean sources (possibly combined with Iberian sources) in the sixth and fifth centuries. Some objects could be positively linked to sources in Laurion/Kea and Siphnos, while others may have derived from the mixing of ores or the recycling of older materials.

Battles beneath the Sea: Phoenician Votive Offerings as a Possible Religious Response to Extreme Marine Events in the Gulf of Cadiz

ABSTRACT This article reviews the possible cause for the underwater deposition of a series of Phoenician bronze figurines dated between the eighth and seventh centuries BC and discovered on the southwestern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, around the Islet of Sancti Petri (Cadiz) and on the coast near the city of Huelva. These figurines have been interpreted as votive offerings thrown into the waters near the ports of Cadiz and Huelva by Phoenician seafarers and merchants at the end of their voyages as an expression of gratitude to the god Melqart. Instead, I propose that these objects may have been thrown into the waters as part of religious rituals intended to appease the waters of the ocean following the occurrence of catastrophic marine floods, such as those that apparently affected the seaboard of the Gulf of Cadiz in the middle of the first millennium BC.

Mobile craftspeople and orientalising transculturation in seventh-century BC Iberia

During the early first millennium BC, Phoenician peoples settled the Iberian coasts instigating cultural innovations known as the orientalising; indigenous communities of the interior have long been considered as passively dependent on, or isolated from, these developments. Recent excavations at the Early Iron Age village of Cerro de San Vicente in central Spain, however, have yielded domestic contexts that prompt reconsideration of this relationship. The authors use settlement layout, architecture and locally made tablewares to identify heterarchical organisation around virilocal and bilateral kinship and hybrid practices that attest to adoption of know-how and practices from distant places. Emphasis is placed on the role of embodied craftworking skills and female mobility in transculturation processes.

Bone Objects as Offerings of Animal Bodies in Archaic Greek Sanctuaries

During the late eighth and the seventh centuries BCE, objects worked from animal materials became a common form of offering at sanctuaries across the Greek world. Contemporary dedication practices of modified bone shafts at the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta and at two sanctuaries on Rhodes (Athena Kameiras and Athena Lindia) indicate that during this period there was an emphasis on creating and offering conspicuously organic objects made from the remains of animals. This article argues that perceptions of corporeality in the early Greek world permitted an understanding of the human body as a collection of separate parts. Examining the dedication of the modified bone shafts along with other ritualized acts (e.g., sacrifice and meat consumption) reveals that animal bodies could also be divided into distinct parts with separate functions. By repeatedly disassembling and transforming animal bodies, individuals in the Greek world offered bone objects that functioned as extensions of once-living animals, structuring and maintaining the relationships among humans, animals, and the divine.1

“Don't Let the Boats Pass!” Neo-Elamite Grain Procurement in Times of Famine and Drought

AbstractThis article is concerned with interregional trade dynamics between Elam and Mesopotamia in the early to mid-first millennium BC. During the seventh century BC, two great famines in the Neo-Elamite kingdom, of which climatological changes were a major cause, were documented in the textual records. An era of megadrought made grain procurement from the neighboring regions essential to feed the Neo-Elamite lowland population. This article further explores the impact of the two Neo-Elamite famines and “drought of the century” on the commercial and political mechanisms in the Upper Persian Gulf region.

Attīma nannarat šamê u erṣetim—“You Are the Light of Heaven and Earth”

This article is an in-depth study of two cylinders seals with the goddess in a nimbus from the Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem. It is commonly accepted that the goddess in a nimbus is Ishtar (Inana in Sumerian), the goddess of love and war. Although Ishtar is one of the best-attested motifs on ancient Mesopotamian seals, the appearance of the goddess surrounded by rays of light—reminiscent of Roman Catholic imagery of the Virgin Mary surrounded by sunshine—is limited primarily to the period between the eighth and seventh centuries BCE. This article offers an insight into the iconography of this mysterious goddess, as well as a glimpse of a small portion of the Bible Lands Museum Seal Collection, probably one of the largest such collections in the world.

Mineralogical and petrographic characterization of the Cerrillo Blanco Iberian sculptures

The archaeological heritage at Cerrillo Blanco (Porcuna, Spain) is made up of 27 sculptural ensembles and hundreds of fragments dated between the seventh and second centuries BC. They represent a fundamental milestone in Iberian art and culture. Despite their relevance, no scientific studies have been carried out to date in order to fully understand the materials, intentions and techniques that led to their creation. This is a study carried out on original pieces from the Archaeological Museum of Jaén using stereoscopic optical microscopy (SOM), polarised optical microscopy (POM), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), field emission scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive x-ray analysis (FESEM-EDX) and spectrophotometry (SF). The results obtained provide new information on the material composition of this important legacy of the Iberian civilization as well as its main alteration factors.

The Titles of the High Priest of Jerusalem in the Pre-Hasmonean Period

This article studies the main titles documented for the high priest of Jerusalem in the Hebrew Bible as well as in a few other sources from the Persian and Hellenistic periods. In dialogue with recent scholarship on the topic, particularly an important article by Noam Mizrahi it argues that the title הכהן הגדול (ha-kohēn ha-gādôl), “high” or “great priest” probably originates in the late monarchic period (seventh century BCE), but only became the standard designation for the high priest during the fifth century BCE. An alternative title, כהן הראש (kohēn ha-ro’š), “head” or “chief” priest, was introduced in Chronicles and other writings in order to designate the high priests of the preexilic period specifically. Finally, a third title, המשיח (ha-kohēn ha-māšîaḥ), “the anointed priest”, was used for some time in priestly circles as part of a bid to transfer a key royal attribute (anointment) to the high priest of Jerusalem, but was eventually replaced with the more standard designation הכהן הגדול.

Where (and When) Did the Authors of Joshua 10:1–39, 11:1–15 Live?

Abstract This article challenges a common scholarly view regarding Josh 10:1–39, 11:1–15. The first edition of these episodes is commonly attributed to Judean authors. I offer arguments in favor of a northern Israelite provenance of the first edition, assessing the extracts for which there is convincing evidence of such provenance. I also critically examine the arguments in favor of a Judean composition, rejecting some of them, reevaluating others, and determining pieces of text within 10:1–39, 11:1–15 for which there is in fact convincing evidence of Judean authorship. Much of the analysis is focused on the level of familiarity with different regions of Eretz-Israel exhibited in different parts of the text. In addition, any portion within these episodes for which the geographical setting of composition can be determined is placed along the time line of the episodes’ textual development. Whenever possible I suggest the approximate date of composition for a text and assess whether the extract under discussion belongs to a relatively early layer or to a late, redactional one. I conclude that the first edition of 10:1–39, 11:1–15 was composed in the northern kingdom of Israel before 722 BCE, and that this edition was later revised and expanded by Judean authors, probably in the seventh century BCE.

The geoarchaeological investigation on the defunctionalisation of an Assyrian canals system reveals Late-Holocene land use transitions in Northern Mesopotamia

During the Assyrian rule over Northern Mesopotamia (present-day northern Iraq), complex systems of canals were built to increase the surface of cultivable land and improve the movement of people and goods across the irrigated waterscape of the hinterland of Nineveh and other major urban centres, with the aim of granting socio-economic prosperity to the empire. Nevertheless, supra-regional political instability eventually led to the rapid downfall of the Assyrian state during the late seventh century BCE, causing the swift abandonment of the canal systems. In this study, we examine the post-abandonment formation processes of the natural and anthropogenic infillings of three portions of King Sennacherib’s Khinis canal system (705–681 BCE, northwestern Kurdistan Region of Iraq) through means of archaeological, sedimentological and micromorphological analyses. We identify water lain sediments, desiccation features, colluvial gravel intake and pastoral occupation layers, anchoring the deposit to radiometric dating and contextualising it against the known regional climatic history. The interpretation of pedostratigraphic evidence highlights subsequent phases of use, abandonment, and repurposing of the canals, reflecting shifts in land-use from agriculture to pastoralism and dynamic adaptation and resilience of the local ancient communities in response to Late-Holocene climate changes and geopolitical events.

Karel van der Toorn. Becoming Diaspora Jews: Behind the Story of Elephantine

Karel van der Toorn. <i>Becoming Diaspora Jews: Behind the Story of Elephantine</i>

ASPECTS OF BEING A GIRL IN FRANCAVILLA MARITTIMA-&lt;em&gt;LAGARIA&lt;/em&gt; (CALABRIA) IN THE EIGHTH CENTURY BC: A RECONSTRUCTION BASED ON TERRACOTTA FIGURINES AND THEIR ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXTS

In this article, terracotta figurines from four burials of little girls of an Italic-Chonian community at Macchiabate, together with terracotta figurines from ritual assemblages of the Athenaion at Timpone della Motta, are studied using concepts of archaeological “agency” and “personhood” theory. These approaches are different from the commonly used in Italian mortuary and sanctuary archaeology, which, by focusing on what may be called symbolic reading, regard grave- and votive-goods as attributes of the buried individuals and thus as straightforward presentations of status. The explanation current in agency and personhood theory, however, by focusing on active reading, prefers to see individuals and objects as producing social order and not merely reflecting it. Terracotta figurines, unearthed in the Macchiabate necropolis near the Calabrian village of Francavilla Marittima, and figurines excavated in the sanctuary on the Timpone della Motta near that same Francavilla Marittima, provide interesting cases of objects functioning as key actors in processes of personal and social change. The figurines from the eighth and the first quarter of the seventh centuries BC were made and used to act as intermediates between the natural and the supernatural worlds on behalf of girls and their parents in transitional situations. In the presented cases the figurines and the girls are, moreover, related to “Middle Ground” situations of social change in operation with indigenous Italic-Chonian inhabitants and new settlers from the Eastern Mediterranean (likely Euboia, Samos and the Cycladic islands) in the pre-urban coastal area of Ionian Calabria.

A TRADE ROUTE FROM THE PROPONTIS TO PHRYGIA: ASSESSING THE ECONOMIC STATUS OF KIOS BETWEEN THE ARCHAIC AND THE EARLY HELLENISTIC PERIODS

SummaryThis article proposes a reassessment of the role that Kios played as a nexus of trade between the northern Aegean, the Black Sea and inland north‐west Anatolia. The city was founded as an emporium at the end of the seventh century BC and joined the Delian League in the following century. The autonomous city was subsequently ruled by a Persian dynasty during the fourth century BC, while retaining its Greek identity. Three groups of ceramics will be analysed for this reassessment: one from rescue excavations at Kios itself; another from surveyed sites in the surrounding region; and a third from other excavated settlements. It is argued that both locally‐produced fine wares and transport amphoras allow chronological periods to be traced to relatively high resolutions, and that these reveal Kios to have been a significant market town that was deeply involved in trade with the Aegean and the Black Sea.

:Etruscan Literacy in Its Social Context

:<i>Etruscan Literacy in Its Social Context</i>

From the Editors

From the Editors