Migration and Colonialism in Late Second Millennium BCE Levant and Its Environs
This book examines migration and colonialism in the ancient Near East in the late second millennium BCE, with a focus on the Levant. It explores how the area was shaped by these movements of people, especially in forming the new Iron Age societies.
The book utilises recent sociological studies on group identity, violence, migration, colonialism and settler colonialism in its reconstruction of related social and political changes. Prime examples of migrations that are addressed include those involving the Sea Peoples and Philistines, ancient Israelites and ancient Arameans. The final chapter sets the developments in the ancient Near East in the context of recent world history from a typological perspective and in terms of the legacy of the ancient world for Judaism and Christianity. Altogether, the book contributes towards an enhanced understanding of migration, colonialism and violence in human history.
In addition to academics, this book will be of particular interest to students of this period in the Ancient Near East, as well anyone working on migration and colonialism in the ancient world. The book is also suitable to the general public interested in world history.
Pekka Pitknen is Senior Lecturer in the School of Education and Humanities at the University of Gloucestershire. He is the author of Central Sanctuary and Centralization of Worship in Ancient Israel (2003), Joshua (2010) and A Commentary on Numbers: Narrative, Ritual and Colonialism (2017). His current research interests include ancient Near Eastern history in the context of world history, the biblical books of Genesis-Joshua with their reception and ritual studies and other sociological and anthropological approaches to the study of the ancient world.
Studies in the History of the Ancient Near East
Series editor: Greg Fisher, University of California Santa Barbara, USA
Advisory Board of Associate Editors
Raanan Boustan, University of California, Los Angeles, USA; Zeba Crook, Carleton University, Canada; Elizabeth DePalma Digeser, University of California at Santa Barbara, USA; Matthew Gibbs, University of Winnipeg, Canada; John Lee, University of California at Santa Barbara, USA; Harry Munt, University of York, UK; Richard Payne, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, USA; Lucy Wadeson, Universit Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium; Philip Wood, Aga Khan University, London, UK; Alan Lenzi, University of the Pacific, USA.
Studies in the History of the Ancient Near East provides a global forum for works addressing the history and culture of the Ancient Near East, spanning a broad period from the foundation of civilisation in the region until the end of the Abbasid period. The series includes research monographs, edited works, collections developed from conferences and workshops, and volumes suitable for the university classroom.
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Walter D. Ward
Geography, Religion, and Sainthood in the Eastern Mediterranean
Erica Ferg
A Story of YHWH
Cultural Translation and Subversive Reception in Israelite History
Shawn W. Flynn
Migration and Colonialism in Late Second Millennium BCE Levant and Its Environs
The Making of a New World
Pekka Pitknen
www.routledge.com/classicalstudies/series/HISTANE
Migration and Colonialism in Late Second Millennium BCE Levant and Its Environs
The Making of a New World
Pekka Pitknen
First published 2020
by Routledge
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2020 Pekka Pitknen
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ISBN: 9781138677036 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781315559803 (ebk)
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To Sowon
Contents
Guide
This book is in a number of ways a culmination of the past 20 years of work that I have done on the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East. In terms of practicalities, it follows a book on Numbers that I wrote a few years ago. I have immensely enjoyed the research and writing process.
I would like to thank a number of people for helping me with the project. Aline Tenu graciously sent me a copy of her thesis on Middle Assyria at an early stage of the project and gave a number of additional tips on digging further into northern Levantine scholarship. Jesse Casana, Mark Weeden, Andrew George, mr Harmanah, Bleda Dring, Francisco Nez, Dariusz Piwowarczyk, Koert van Bekkum and Lawson Younger also helped with related materials and scholarship. I very much appreciate the response by Raymond Kelly to my queries relating to his monograph on the Nuer and Dinka. Thanks are also due to the University of Gloucestershire for reducing my teaching load in the academic years 20172018 and 20182019, which crucially helped me allocate more time for research. Philip Esler has been a source of support in matters that relate to research in general. I also voice my gratitude to the UCU Branch Chair Andrew Misiura for being supportive, and, very importantly, in practical terms flexible with the timing of my UCU duties while I was working on the book.
I would like to express special thanks to Mario Liverani for graciously and swiftly agreeing to review an early version of the manuscript and for his feedback. I am also very grateful to Raz Kletter for his review of an early draft and for his detailed comments that have helped stimulate my thinking and enhance the presentation, together with some suggestions for and also provision of related copies of additional material to incorporate in the discussion. And, the response of Greg Fisher, the series editor, was helpful, including in fostering me to articulate connections with the ancient world in fuller detail in the final chapter. Otherwise, the important work done by the Routledge editorial and production team, including Deborah Kopka, the project manager, and the anonymous copyeditor, should be highlighted explicitly.
As usual, I would like to thank my wife for her constant support. This book is expressly dedicated to her.
- ABC A.K. Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles , Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2000; original edition 1975.