0412, 2014

New online content from British Institute for the Study of Iraq

By Mary Fisk|December 4, 2014|Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica, Art and Archaeology|0 comments

The British Institute for the Study of Iraq continues to make complimentary copies of selected publications available to individuals, libraries and institutions as PDF downloads (single copy for personal use only) 36 documents are now freely available. Click here to access the lists The freely available works are: The Old Babylonian tablets from Tell al-Rimah / Dalley et al. (1978) Fifty years of Mesopotamian discovery: the work of the British

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1410, 2014

Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica – September 2014

By Emma Wilson-Shaw|October 14, 2014|Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica|0 comments

Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations Tribe and state: the dynamics of international politics and the reign of Zimri-Lim / by Adam E. Miglio. “Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Netherworld” and the Sumerian Gilgamesh cycle / by Alhena Gadotti. Karkemish : an ancient capital on the Euphrates / edited by Nicolò Marchetti Sourcebook for ancient Mesopotamian medicine / by JoAnn Scurlock. Byzantium From Byzantine to Islamic Egypt: religion, identity and politics after the

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2209, 2014

Free trial access to Hebrew journals collection on JSTOR

By Mary Fisk|September 22, 2014|Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica, Anthropology and Sociology, Linguistics, Literature, Middle East, Central Asia & Islamica, Religions|0 comments

From today (22nd September) to 20th October, SOAS Library has free trial access to JSTOR’s Hebrew journals collection. These will be cross-searchable with other JSTOR content at http://www.jstor.org/. The scope of the collection covers a wide range of subjects from ancient history and religious studies, through literature to sociology, economics and public administration of contemporary Israel. Although primarily in Hebrew, journals also include abstracts and summaries of content in English.

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2008, 2014

Zoroastrianism in China?

By Mary Fisk|August 20, 2014|Art and Archaeology, China and Inner Asia, Religions|0 comments

  Image from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism#mediaviewer/File:Faravahar.png Typically Zoroastrian tombs have been discovered on the remote Pamir Plateau in the Xinjiang Uygur region of China. Archaeologists have dated these to 2500 years ago, which would make these the earliest evidence of the Zoroastrian religion so far discovered outside of the ancient Persian Empire and (if verified) raises controversial issues over the origins of the faith Click here to watch a video (in English) from CCTV

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2008, 2014

Cities in the Ancient Near East: Ömür Harmanşah discusses his recent book

By Mary Fisk|August 20, 2014|Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica, Art and Archaeology, History, Middle East, Central Asia & Islamica|0 comments

In this article on the ASOR (American Schools of Oriental Research) blog, Ömür Harmanşah discusses how he came to write Cities and the shaping of memory in the Ancient Near East, published by Cambridge University Press in 2013, and also looks at concepts of architectural and urban space in more modern times (with a particular focus on Ankara) Click here to go to the Library catalogue, where you will also find

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1508, 2014

Coptic bibliographies (Macquarie University)

By Mary Fisk|August 15, 2014|Art and Archaeology, History, Linguistics, Middle East, Central Asia & Islamica, Religions|0 comments

Interested in Coptic language and history? The Coptic Studies department at Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia) had put together a “traditional” bibliography covering Egyptian history in the first millennium C.E., Coptic language and dialects and Coptic art and archaeology for their staff and students Please note that Coptic Bibliographies does not contain links to full-text. Some external links to book reviews etc. have been added. Click here to access Coptic Bibliographies

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2407, 2014

Commodity Prices in Ancient Babylon 385 – 61 BC

By Victoria Bird|July 24, 2014|Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica, Economics, Financial and Management Studies, History, Unknown|0 comments

Yesterday morning I was shown an interesting piece on the International Institute of Social History website about commodity pricing in late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Babylon, by R.J. van der Spek from Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. The prices were recorded alongside other data by astronomers in the employ of the king. There are six key commodities in the listing: these are barley, dates, mustard, cress, sesame and wool. The earliest commodity price in

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0907, 2014

History – June 2014

By Emma Wilson-Shaw|July 9, 2014|History|0 comments

General & comparative Connecting histories of education: transnational and cross-cultural exchanges in (post-) colonial education / edited by Barnita Bagchi, Eckhardt Fuchs, and Kate Rousmaniere. Religion, language and community in the Roman Near East: Constantine to Muhammad / Fergus Millar. China & Tibet The capital of the Yuan Dynasty / by Gaohua Chen. Lost colony: the untold story of China’s first great victory over the West / Tonio Andrade. Japan

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0707, 2014

Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica – June 2014

By Emma Wilson-Shaw|July 7, 2014|Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica|0 comments

Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations La tour de Babylone : Etudes et recherches sur les monuments de Babylone / Béatrice André-Salvini (dir.) Apprendre le hourrite / Arnaud Fournet Interpretations of Sinuhe : inspired by two passages (proceedings of a workshop held at Leiden University, 27-29 November 2009) / ed. by Harold M. Hays, Frank Federer and Ludwig D. Morenz. Personal names in ancient Anatolia / edited by Robert Parker. Comment devient-on

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0207, 2014

Gertrude Bell Archive at Newcastle University Library and on open-access

By Mary Fisk|July 2, 2014|Archival collections, History, Middle East, Central Asia & Islamica|0 comments

Gertrude Bell (1868 – 1926) was a pioneering traveller whose deep interest in the language, culture, history and archaeology of the Near and Middle East led to her involvement in military intelligence in the area during the First World War and in its aftermath to play a leading role in the creation of the modern Iraqi state. She was also Honorary Director of Antiquities in Iraq and established the Iraq

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