Dictionary of the Ancient Near East

by Bienkowski, Piotr; Millard, Alan R.

• ISBN13: 9780812235579
• ISBN10: 0812235576
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-03-02
• Publisher: Univ of Pennsylvania Pr

Summary

The earliest farms, cities, governments, legal codes, and alphabets developed in the ancient Near East. Four major religions--Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam--began in the region. Ideas, inventions, and institutions spread to all parts of the globe from the urban centers of the ancient Egyptians, Syrians, Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians, and other peoples of the biblical world. For good reason is the ancient Near East known as the cradle of civilization. The only single-volume dictionary to embrace the whole of the ancient Near East, this major reference work covers Anatolia, Mesopotamia, the Levant, and the Arabian peninsula from the earliest times, through the Old Testament period, until the fall of Babylon to the Persians in 539 B.C. From "Achaemenids" to "Ziwiye," "administration" to "ziggurat," in 500 concise, cross-referenced, and comprehensively indexed entries, the Dictionary of the Ancient Near East describes and explains the major ideas, institutions, places, peoples, and personalities that shaped the earliest development of Western civilization. Architecture, literature, economics, labor, religion, and society are all extensively treated, as are such subjects as crime, dreams, drunkenness, shipwrecks, and sexual behavior (and misbehavior). Each entry, written by a scholar of international standing, includes up-to-date bibliographic references. The book is richly illustrated with photographs, maps, and plans of major sites. Contributors: Douglas Baird (Lecturer in Near Eastern Archaeology, University of Liverpool), Jeremy Black (University Lecturer in Akkadian, Oriental Institute, Oxford University), Paul T. Collins (freelance lecturer in the Ancient Near East, London), Stephanie Dalley (Shillito Fellow in Assyriology, Oriental Institute, Oxford University), Anthony Green (Lecturer in Near Eastern Archaeology, Free University of Berlin), Gwendolyn Leick (Lecturer in Anthropology, the American International University, London), Michael Macdonald (Research Fellow, Oriental Institute, Oxford University), Roger Matthews (Director, British Institute for Archaeology, Ankara), Gerald L. Mattingly (Lecturer, Johnson Bible College, Knoxville, Tennessee), Graham Philip (Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Durham), Geoffrey Summers (Lecturer in Archaeology, Middle East Technical University, Ankara).

Author Biography

Piotr Bienkowski is Curator of Egyptian and Near Eastern Antiquities in the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool. He was editor of the archaeological journal Levant from 1987 to 1992 and has directed archaeological projects in Jordan. He is the author or editor of many publications on the archaeology and culture of the ancient Near East and Egypt, including Jericho in the Late Bronze Age, Early Edom and Moab: The Beginning of the Iron Age in Southern Jordan, and Treasures from an Ancient Land: The Art of Jordan. Alan Millard is Rankin Professor of Hebrew and Ancient Semitic Languages at the University of Liverpool. He has participated in archaeological projects over much of the Near East; among his scholarly and popular works on the subject are The Eponyms of the Assyrian Empire, 910-612 B.C., Treasures from Bible Times, and Discoveries from the Time of Jesus.

Table of Contents

Map of the ancient Near East	vi
Chronological chart	vii
List of contributors	viii
Preface	ix
Dictionary of alphabetical entries	1	(329)
King lists	330	(6)
Index	336