Routledge. - Ancient Near Eastern History and Culture

Third edition published 2018

by Routledge

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The right of William H. Stiebing Jr. and Susan N. Helft to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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First edition published by Pearson 2002

Second edition published by Pearson 2009

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Stiebing, William H. Jr., author. | Helft, Susan N.

Title: Ancient near eastern history and culture/William H. Stiebing, Jr. and

Susan N. Helft.

Description: Third edition. | New York, NY : Routledge, 2017.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016039416 | ISBN 978-1-138-08240-3 (hbk. : alk. paper) |

ISBN 978-1-138-68641-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 978-1-315-54233-1 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Middle EastHistoryTo 622.

Classification: LCC DS62.2 .S65 2017 | DDC 939.4dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016039416

ISBN: 978-1-138-08240-3 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-68641-0 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-54233-1 (ebk)

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Absolute chronology A dating system in which years are counted forward and backward from a specific event. The absolute chronology used in the West is based on the supposed year when Jesus of Nazareth was born.

Akh The Egyptian term for a transfigured or glorified spirit of light in the afterlife. A person who through burial rites is transformed into an akh is an effective being in the other world just as he or she was in this one. The word also was used to describe a son who performed rites to transform his dead father into a blessed spirit or for a person who performed pious rites for the good of the gods.

Akhet Normally translated horizon, this Egyptian word means much more. It is the home of light located between the horizon and the underworld, and the place where a dead person becomes an akh , a potent inhabitant of the world beyond death. Each day, the sun is transformed this way as it rises and sets.

Akkadian A term used for the dynasty of Sargon of Akkad and its era, and for the Semitic language of ancient Mesopotamia that Sargon spoke. The principal dialects of the Akkadian language were Babylonian and Assyrian.

Amarna The modern name for the location of the Egyptian king Akhenatons capital city, Akhetaton (Horizon of the Aton, or better, Place Where the Aton is Transformed). As an adjective, it refers to anything having to do with the reign of Akhenaton and his immediate successors.

Amarna Letters A collection of letters written in Akkadian on clay tablets found in the ruins of Akhenatons city at El-Amarna in central Egypt. These documents are correspondence to the Egyptian pharaoh from the rulers of other major powers and from vassal rulers of city-states in Syria and Palestine. Most of the letters belong to the reign of Akhenaton, but a few come from the last years of Amenhotep III, and a few may extend into the reign of Tutankhamun.

Amorites People speaking a West Semitic language who originally seem to have been seminomads settled primarily in southern Syria along the western fringes of Mesopotamia. Around 22002000 BCE large numbers of them moved into Mesopotamia, western Syria, and Palestine.

Anatolia A term that originally referred to the central highlands of Turkey, but it is also often used more broadly as a synonym for Asia Minor or the entire Asiatic portion of the modern Republic of Turkey.

Arabah The valley that runs from the southern end of the Dead Sea to the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba.

Artifact Anything that has been made, altered, or used by humans or which owes its position in space to humans.

Aryans This is the native Iranian and Indian (Vedic) term the Indo-European speakers who invaded Iran and India after (or, some would say, in conjunction with) the collapse of the Indus civilization applied to themselves. In fact, it is the source of the place name Iran which means land of the Aryans. The Achaemenid Persians also used it to refer to their language and script. Like Indo-European, today it is a linguistic term, not a racial or ethnic one, despite its misuse by racists from the nineteenth century CE to today.

Asia Minor The large peninsula that is the Asiatic part of modern Turkey. It is bounded on the north by the Black Sea, on the west by the Bosporus, Sea of Marmora, Dardanelles, and Aegean Sea, and on the south by the Mediterranean Sea.

Assemblage In archaeology, this term designates a group of objects found in association with one another and believed to be of the same date and to belong to one group of people.

Ba In Egyptian belief, a spiritual element of a person that expressed his personality and power. After death, the ba could move about freely, even beyond the tomb.

Bullae Hollow clay balls in which clay tokens were sealed for record-keeping purposes before writing was invented. Impressions corresponding to the shapes and number of the tokens they contained were usually placed on their outer surfaces.

C. An abbreviation for the Latin word circa meaning about or approximately.

Carbon-14 dating See Radiocarbon dating .

Cartouche An oval design surrounding each of the last two of the five names of Egyptian pharaohs. Cartouches were also sometimes placed around the names of queens and gods.

Cataract A term used for a place in a river (especially in the Nile) where there are rapids or small waterfalls.

Coregency A period when two rulers shared the throne. Coregencies were often utilized during the Egyptian Middle and New Kingdoms. When a pharaoh was growing old or feeble he might name someone (usually his son) as coregent (or co-ruler) to help maintain control and make the succession easier.

Corve A term (derived from pre-revolutionary France) that refers to temporary forced labor which citizens had to perform for the state. Corve labor was used to build most ancient Near Eastern monuments such as Mesopotamian ziggurats or Egyptian pyramids.

Cosmology Stories and/or ideas relating to the structure and origins of the universe.

Cuneiform A writing system consisting of signs composed of wedge-shaped elements. It was first developed in southern Mesopotamia probably to write Sumerian, but it was adapted to write other languages as well, including Akkadian, Elamite, Hittite, and Persian. It was generally written on clay tablets, but could be carved into stone, as well.

Cylinder seal A carved or engraved small stone or metal cylinder that was rolled over wet clay to leave an impression of its design. It was usually used in place of a signature on documents or to indicate ownership of objects.

Dendrochronology Tree-ring dating. By comparing groups of wide and narrow tree rings, scholars have been able to connect modern sequences of rings with those in old stumps and even older logs and beams to create a tree-ring sequence that stretches back more than 6,000 years. Radiocarbon testing of tree rings firmly dated by dendrochronology has helped improve the accuracy of radiocarbon dating.