A survey of diverse aspects of the reception, attitudes toward, and activities of foreigners in the major cuneiform cultures of the third through first millennia B.C.E. While outsiders could play important roles in their new environments, they were generally soon assimilated into their host societies without effecting significant changes in them. Only toward the close of this period did the arrival of large groups of invaders convinced of the superiority of their own cultures, such as Persians and Greco-Macedonians, radically alter (...) the age-old civilizations of Mesopotamia, Syria, and Anatolia. (shrink)

Ausgrabungen und Forschungen in der westlichen Oberstadt von Ḫattuša I. Edited by Andreas Schachner and Jürgen Seeher. Boğazköy- Ḫattuša, vol. 24. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2016. Pp. x + 225, illus. $140.

Ausgrabungen und Forschungen in der westlichen Oberstadt von Ḫattuša II. Edited by Andreas Schachner. Boğazköy-Ḫattuša, Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen, vol. 25. Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 2017. Pp. xi + 401, illus., 2 plans. €129.95.

The Calm before the Storm: Selected Writings of Itamar Singer on the End of the Late Bronze Age in Anatolia and the Levant. By Itamar Singer. Writings from the Ancient World Supplements, vol. 1. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2011. Pp. vii + 766, illus. $69.95. Pax Hethitica: Studies on the Hittites and Their Neighbours in Honour of Itamar Singer. Studien zu den Boğazköy-Texten, vol. 51. Edited by Yoram Cohen, Amir Golan, and Jared L. Miller. Wies baden: Harrasowitz Verlag, 2010. (...) Pp. xiv + 439, illus., portrait. (shrink)

A City from the Dawn of History: Erbil in the Cuneiform Sources. By John MacGinnis. Philadelphia: Oxbow Books, 2014. Pp. 128, illus. $45. [Distributed by Casemate Academic, Havertown, Pa.].

Die Lebermodelle aus Boğazköy. By An de Vos. Studien zu den Boğazköy-Texten, Beiheft 5. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2013. Pp. 274, 56 plts. €76.

Exlibris der Ägyptenrezeption und Ägyptomanie: Zur Sammlung des Gutenberg-Museums in Mainz. By Kirsten Konrad. Philippika, vol. 90. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2015. Pp. 488, illus. €78.

Male and Female in the Epic of Gilgamesh: Encounters, Literary History, and Interpretation. By Tzvi Abusch. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2015. Pp. ix + 236. $39.50.

Constructing Funerary Rituals in the Ancient Near East. Proceedings of the First International Symposium of the Tübingen Post-Graduate School “Symbols of the Dead” in May 2009. Edited by Peter Pfälzner; Herbert Niehr; Ernst Pernicka; and Anne Wissing. Qaṭna Studien Supplementa, vol. 1. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2012. Pp. ix + 312, illus. €92.

Siedlungskammer Kilikien: Studien zur Kultur- und Landschaftsgeschichte des Ebenen Kilikien. By Susanne Rutishauser. Schriften zur Vorderasiatischen Archäologie, vol. 16. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2020. Pp. xiii + 212, illus. €88.

Wilhelm II.: Archäologie und Politik um 1900. Edited by Thorsten Beigel and Sabine Mangold-Will. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2017. Pp. 140, illus. €39.

Deutsche in Palästina und ihr Anteil an der Modernisierung des Landes. Edited by Jakob Eisler. Abhandlungen des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins, vol. 36. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2008. Pp. xi + 207, plates. €48.

Entlassungsgrund: Pazifismus. Albrecht Götze, der Fall Gumbel und die Marburger Universität 1930–1946. By Harald Maier-Metz. Academia Marburgensis, vol. 13. Pp. 248, illus. Münster: Waxmann, 2015. €38.

Iuppiter Dolichenus: Vom Lokalkult und Reichsreligion. Edited by Michael Blömer and Engelbert Winter. Orientalische Religionen in der Antike, vol. 8. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012. Pp. vii + 306, illus. €99.

Kontaktzone Vorderer Orient und Ägypten: Orte, Situationen und Bedingungen für primäre griechisch-orientalische Kontakte vom 10. bis zum 6. Jahrhundert v. Chr. By Iris von Bredow. Geographica Historica, vol. 38. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2017. Pp. 394, maps. €44.

This article examines the historical representation of the Jinshin Rebellion as a foundational event in the Nihon shoki and other eighth-century Japanese texts. Focusing on the differences between two alternative stories of Tenmu’s departure from the Ōmi capital to Yoshino, I argue that the Nihon shoki contains traces of several competing historical narratives that are the expression of a historical process: the political struggles over the historical record and the representation of Tenmu’s legitimacy in the early eighth century when the (...) Nihon shoki was being compiled. (shrink)

Picturing the Past: Imaging and Imagining the Ancient Middle East. Edited by Jack Green, Emily Teeter, and John A. Larson. Oriental Institute Museum Publications, vol. 34. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2012. Pp. 184, illus. $29.95. [Distributed by The David Brown Book Co., Oakville, Ct.].

Ancient Mesopotamia Speaks: Highlights from the Yale Babylonian Collection. Edited by Agnete W. Lassen, Eckart Frahm, and Klaus Wagensonner. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019. Pp. xiii + 306. $35 (paper).