8. The Life and Thought of the Surrounding Peoples

Abusch, Tsvi, The Witchcraft Series Maqlû (Writings from the Ancient World, 37; Atlanta, GA: SBL Press, 2015), pp. xiv + 195. $29.95. ISBN 978-1-62837-081-2 (paperback edition).

When books represent the results of an entire lifetime of research, it usually shows. Maqlû was the subject of A.'s Harvard dissertation, and the bibliography in this volume consists predominantly of his own publications. Of special note is A.'s 1974 article on this theme, which was a ground-breaking study of when Maqlû was to be recited in the cultic calendar, and specifically his discovery that Maqlû's anti-witchcraft magic was enacted during a ceremony taking place at the end of the month of Abu, when ghosts were thought to be rampant. Over the years A. has engaged in a very productive collaboration with D. Schwemer, which will eventually result in full text editions of all Mesopotamian witchcraft texts, including Maqlû. The present paperback consists of a transcription of Maqlû's Akkadian with the first complete translation of this important text into English. Biblical scholarship will also be interested in the introduction, which provides some brief information on Mesopotamian witchcraft (pp. 1–5) but mostly surveys the shorter and longer recensions of Maqlû. The remainder of the contextual information is scattered throughout the discussion of various incantations, but the brief format of the SBL series does not allow for a detailed survey of Mesopotamian witchcraft. One question which arises is why such a lengthy composition as Maqlû (more than 1000 lines of text) was to be recited in a single night, particularly since fear of witchcraft was universal and not seasonal. Such questions will presumably be addressed in the full edition of the text.

M.J. Geller

Allen, James P., The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (Writings from the Ancient World, 38; Atlanta, GA: SBL Press, 2nd edn, 2015), pp. x + 381. $44.95. ISBN 978-1-62837-114-7 (paperback edition); e-ISBN 978-1-62837-116-1.

The first edition of this book was reviewed very positively by K. Kitchen in B.L. 2007, p. 209. The main change in this new edition is that A.'s new numbering scheme has been abandoned in favour of K. Sethe's original sequence (far more helpful for cross-referencing purposes), but the arrangement of texts, in the order in which they were supposed to have been read by the deceased king, has been helpfully retained (as in the first edition). This enables the reader to discern the ‘liturgical development’ of the royal journey into the hereafter, progressing through the corridors and rooms to the burial chamber.

N. Wyatt

Broida, Marian W., Forestalling Doom: ‘Apotropaic Intercession’ in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East (AOAT, 417; Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2014), pp. xx + 281. 28 tables. €98.00 (print); €108.00 (print + e-book). ISBN 978-3-86835-110-1; e-ISBN 978-3-86835-130-9.

For a review of this volume, see Section 7 above.

Callot, Olivier, Les sanctuaires de l'acropole d'Ougarit. Les temples de Baal et de Dagan (Ras Shamra–Ougarit, 19; Lyon: Publications de la Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée, 2011), pp. 238. 162 figures. €27.00. ISBN 978-2-35668-019-8; ISSN 1762-0503.

At a price of only €27.00, this excellent monograph on the two main acropolitan temples at Ras Shamra (Ugarit) is a snip. Parts 1 and 2 deal respectively with the so-called Baal and Dagan temples. A brief history of the excavation of each is followed by an assessment of conditions in 1988 and 1990 respectively, and discussion of the various architectural elements. The analysis of fragments of furnishings, the organization and functioning of each shrine, and observations on the history and chronology of each temple follow. Part 3 addresses a number of problems: questions of metrology, Egyptian sculpture found on site, the anchors of the Baal temple, whether the temples functioned as maritime safe passage-markers to approaching vessels, the temple-models, and the Baal stela. The volume ends with an extensive bibliography of the temples, followed by a generous selection of photographs, plans, elevations and theoretical reconstructions.

N. Wyatt

Del Olmo Lete, Gregorio, Incantations and Anti-Witchcraft Texts from Ugarit (in collaboration with Ignacio Márquez Rowe; Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records, 4; Boston/Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014), pp. x + 254 + 23 plates. 9 figures. €99.95/$140.00/ £74.99. ISBN 978-1-61451-627-9; e-ISBN 978-1-61451-903-4 (e-Pub), 978-1-61451-492-3 (PDF); ISSN 2161-4415.

The author has an admirable record of detailed and perceptive studies on the Ugaritic religious texts. The present volume collects and brings up to date some of his previous contributions to the subject which treat the theme of the title, in response to the complaint by D.M. Clemens that no focused compendium of the incantations from Ugarit has so far appeared. It begins with a general discussion of magic and witchcraft, common phenomena in the ancient Near East, followed by treatments of the Ugaritic gods and magic. I. Márquez Rowe then contributes a useful chapter on 13 Babylonian incantation texts from Ugarit. The author then resumes, and texts of doubtful identity are treated briefly, followed by detailed treatment of seven Ugaritic incantation texts. A final chapter considers the problem of ‘divine power versus magic’, with particular reference to El (il) and Horon (ḥrn). This is perhaps the most contentious part, since it is arguable that the (Frazerian!) distinction between the two areas is modern rather than ancient. While Horon certainly has demonic traits, he is also a god of healing, even if as a last resort (KTU 1.100). It is very useful to have all the Ugaritian (Ugaritic and Akkadian) texts in one handy volume, which provides a useful resource for further work.

N. Wyatt

Delnero, Paul and Jacob Lauinger (eds.), Texts and Contexts: The Circulation and Transmission of Cuneiform Texts in Social Space (Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records, 9; Boston/Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015), pp. vi + 314. Several figures. €99.95/ $140.00/£74.99. ISBN 978-1-61451-717-7; e-ISBN 978-1-61451-963-8 (e-Pub), 978-1-61451-537-1 (PDF); ISSN 2161-4415.

This publishes the papers from a symposium of cuneiform textual specialists at Johns Hopkins University in 2013. The volume begins with a wide-ranging essay by the editors that discusses previous work on the question and the context and content of the essays. This is followed by three sections. In ‘Textual Circulation and Performance’ the topics are Emar's entu installation (D.E. Fleming), magic, literacy and domestic life in Old Assyrian Kanesh (G. Barjamovic), and the materiality and function of the Sumerian liturgical corpus (Delnero). ‘Textual Circulation and Administrative Praxis’ examines contingency tables and economic forecasting in the earliest texts from Mesopotamia (C. Woods), Ur III administrative texts as the building blocks of state community (S.J. Garfinkle), and the function of legal texts in managing the Eanna temple's livestock in the first millennium bce (M. Kozuh). ‘Textual Circulation and the Mechanics of Production’ looks at the ‘magic’ of Adapa (S.J. Milstein), divination reports from Kassite Babylonia (M.T. Rutz), materiality and poetics in early Akkadian epic (C.W. Hess), and Neo-Assyrian scribes, ‘Esarhaddon's Succession Treaty’, and the dynamics of textual mass production (Lauinger). There are, unfortunately, no indexes for this otherwise very useful volume.

L.L. Grabbe

Devecchi, Elena (ed.), Trattati internazionali ittiti (Testi del Vicino Oriente antico, 4.4; Brescia: Paideia Editrice, 2015), pp. 317. €36.00. ISBN 978-88-394-0874-7.

As is well known, international Hittite treaties are of two main types: between sovereigns of equal rank (parity treaties), and between a monarch and a subordinate ruler (also known as vassal treaties). The introduction gives an account of the structure of such treaties, the languages used (Akkadian, Egyptian and Hittite) and descriptions of the manuscripts. Forty of the better-preserved treaties are then presented in translation, with textual and philological notes, in interaction with other scholars. These treaties were between the Hittite kings and rulers in Anatolia, Syria, Egypt and Alashia (which is probably Cyprus). An introduction is provided for each treaty, giving its geographical and historical setting and, where relevant, comparison with similar treaties. Indexes of names complete the volume. Documents of this type have long been considered significant for comparison with sections of the OT, especially the book of Deuteronomy. These reliable and up-to-date translations will be useful as source material for those conducting research on this topic and also, of course, for historians of the ancient Near East generally.

W.G.E. Watson

Dietrich, Manfried and Ingo Kottsieper (eds.), Ugarit-Forschungen. Internationales Jahrbuch für die Altertumskunde Syrien-Palästinas, 45 (2014) (Munster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2015), pp. lxxii + 574. 96 photographs, drawings and plans. €143.00 (print); €157.00 (print + e-book). ISBN 978-3-86835-137-8; e-ISBN 978-3-86835-138-5; ISSN 0342-2356.

This volume, in memoriam Oswald Loretz, who died in 2014, begins with a tribute to the scholar, and an outline of his massive contribution to Ugaritic studies. This is followed by his extraordinary bibliography, stretching from 1959 to 2013 and covering 41 pages. This is followed by 33 articles in two sections, and two reviews. The articles likely to be of most interest to B.L. readers from Part 1 are the following: A. Ahrens, ‘Pharao Haremhab und die nördliche Levante. Bemerkungen zu einem Skarabäen-abdruck aus Tall Mišrife/Qatna’; A. Altman, ‘The Struggle among the Lebanese Port-Cities to Control Seaborne Trade in the Mid-Fourteenth Century bce’; S. Bojowald, ‘Ps 50,7–14 im Lichte ägyptischer Parallelen’; idem, ‘Die Spreu im Wind und ähnliche Formulierungen als Sinnbild der Vergänglichkeit nach dem Zeugnis hebräischer und ägyptischer Textquellen’; A. Faust, ‘Highlands or Lowlands? Reexamining Demographic Processes in Iron Age Judah’; I. Finkelstein, ‘Settlement Patterns and Territorial Polity in the Transjordanian Highlands in the Late Bronze Age’; M. Gerhards, ‘Noch einmal: Heiliger Fels und Tempel’; P. Pitkänen, ‘Ancient Israel and Philistia. Settler Colonialism and Ethnocultural Interaction’; B. Ress, ‘The jmny.t Inscribed Bread Offering Model from Beth-Shean’; C. Theis, ‘Inschriften zum Schutz der Grabstätte im Raum Syrien-Palästina’. The second part of the volume is devoted to the proceedings of a conference on Ugarit and Canaan held in Münster from 13 to 15 February 2013. The papers were as follows: P. Bordreuil^†, ‘Quelques elements méridionaux dans les textes cuneiforms alphabétiques de Ras Shamra/Ougarit’; J. Bretschneider, G. Jans and A.-S. van Vyve, ‘Once upon a Tell in the East. Tell Tweini through the Ages’; J.C. de Moor, ‘Concepts of Afterlife in Canaan’; M. Dietrich, ‘Beschreibungen transzendenter Wohnstätten von ugaritischen Gottheiten. Die Paläste Yammus und Baals und die Schreine Anats’; H. Matthäus, ‘Ugarit, Zypern und Ägäis. Spätbronzezeitliche Kulturkontakte, Grundlagen und Wirkungen’; G. Mazzini, ‘The Ugaritic terms ^cšty and t'nṯt in the Light of Ancient South Arabian’; J. Sanmartín, ‘Ist “Altsyrisch” eine Sprache? Und wenn ja, wie viele?’; R. Schmitt, ‘Astarte in Ugarit, Kanaan und Ägypten’; and P. Xella, ‘Dieux et cultes en Syro-Palestine. Idéologies “religieuses” entre Ugarit et le monde phénicien’.

N. Wyatt

Dietrich, Manfried and Ingo Kottsieper (eds.), Ugarit-Forschungen. Internationales Jahrbuch für die Altertumskunde Syrien-Palästinas, 46 (2015) (Munster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2015), pp. viii + 544. 96 photographs, drawings and plans. €157.00 (print); €173.00 (print + e-book). ISBN 978-3-86835-181-1; e-ISBN 978-3-86835-182-8; ISSN 0342-2356.

The present volume of UF contains the following articles, all of which will be of interest, directly or indirectly, to readers of the Hebrew Bible in context: J. Bretschneider, A. Kanta and J. Driessen, ‘Pyla-Kokkinokremos. Preliminary report on the 2014 Excavations’; G. Bunnens, ‘On Upper and Lower Aram Again’; C. Cornell, ‘A Moratorium on God Mergers? The Case of El and Milkom in the Ammonite Onomasticon’; M. Dietrich, ‘Die keilalphabetische Inschrift KTU 6.1 auf dem Bronzemesser aus dem Tabor-Tal’; G. Galil, ‘A New Look at the History of Jabesh-Gilead (Tell Abu al-Kharaz) in the Light of New Archaeological and Epigraphic Data’; E. Gaß, ‘Schoschenq und Jerusalem. Probleme einer historischen Rekonstruktion’; P. Guillaume, ‘Naboth the Nabob: A View from Assyrian Jezreel’; I.K.H. Halayqa, ‘Two Canaanite Scarabs from Kherbit el-Jami’ (el-'Ubayat) South of Bethlehem’; K.H. Keimer, ‘The Impact of Ductus on Script Form and Development in Monumental Northwest Semitic Inscriptions’; J. Livni, ‘Investigation of Population Growth of Ancient Israel’; V. Matoïan, ‘Horon et Shed à Ugarit: textes et images’; I. Milevski, O. Barzilai, N. Getzov and A. Vered, ‘An Animal Relief from ^cEin Zippori, Lower Galilee’; J. Oliva, ‘On the Order of Shuppiluliuma in Syria: Reading the Hurrian of the Qatna Letter TT1’; J. Patrier, ‘Détail et alimentation dans l'iconographie syro-anatolienne (IIIe–Ier millénaires av. J.-C.). Partie II: Pomme de pin ou gigot?’; C. Schäfer-Lichtenberger, ‘PTGYH—Divine Anonyma? The Goddess of the Ekron Inscription’; O. Wikander, ‘Emphatics, Sibilants and Interdentals in Hebrew and Ugaritic: An Interlocking Model’; N. Wyatt, ‘The Evidence of the Colophons in the Assessment of Ilimilku's Scribal and Authorial Role’; J. Yogev and S. Yona, ‘Visual Poetry in KTU 1.2’; and I. Ziffer and D. Shalem, ‘“Receive my Breast and Suck from it, that You May Live”. Towards the Imagery of Two Ossuaries from the Chalcolithic Peqi'in Cave’.

N. Wyatt

Eaton, Katherine, Ancient Egyptian Temple Ritual: Performance, Patterns, and Practice (Routledge Studies in Egyptology, 1; New York/London: Routledge, 2013), pp. xvi + 225. 33 figures, 5 tables. $114.00/£85.00. ISBN 978-0-415-83298-4; e-ISBN 978-0-203-49324-3.

While for the casual visitor to an Egyptian temple it is difficult to make sense of the endlessly repeated ritual scenes in relief on the walls, focused analysis of the kind well represented by the present volume can use the evidence for a fairly detailed reconstructtion and characterization of the cult. The analysis begins with the observation that a temple represents the body of the resident deity, with the cella a divine womb from which he is born. This immediately focuses on the fundamental symbolism, that deity and shrine are extensions of the human body, both individually and socially. The cult is an assertion of the life-force of the Egyptian people. In its tidiness and circumscription by order and repetition, it provides the ideal image or pattern of life to which society in its untidiness aspires. Evidence is drawn from temple wall reliefs and cultic rubrics and complementary important ritual papyri to reconstruct the sequence of events as the priests went about their business in the shrines. Technically, the king was the chief officiant, but the priests represented him, and also the gods, in the essentially dramatic performance of the toilet, feeding and processing of the images. Rites of the Horus cycle, the revivification of Osiris and the restoration of Horus’ eye at Abydos are treated in detail, followed by the festivals and their embedded daily aspects. A further chapter examines minutiae of the cult, in the gestures, postures and acts of the king. The most common offering scenes are discussed, and the book concludes with an appendix treating the daily and royal ancestral rites from Abydos, with a synoptic edition of texts from the papyri and the Isis chapel walls. The drawn figures are clear, but the photographic plates would have benefited from sharper tonal contrast. An interesting feature of the cultic procedures outlined here is their extraordinarily obsessive nature, eloquent evidence for the therapeutic nature of ritual activity in temple worship in relieving the unspoken anxieties of a people. This has intriguing implications for our understanding of the Jerusalem cultus. It is a pity, though symptomatic, that with modern book-binding (sc. glueing!) techniques, the reviewer's copy of this volume immediately split down the spine despite gentle handling. A further symbol, perhaps, of the binary nature of life.

N. Wyatt

Elayi, J. and A.G. Elayi, A Monetary and Political History of the Phoenician City of Byblos in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries b.c.e. (History, Archaeology, and Culture of the Levant, 6; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2014), pp. xvi + 384. 1 map, 25 plates. $59.50. ISBN 978-1-57506-304-1.

This is the third volume in the Elayis’ study of the Phoenician cities, which has focused on the coinage. The coins and their distribution tell us much (‘in particular, epigraphy, iconography, technology, metrology, political and economic history, history of religions, and so on’ [p. 5]) about the organization and history of the individual cities and their trade. The most valuable aspect of the volume is Appendix 1 (taking up almost half the book) that gives a chronological catalogue of 1662 coins of Byblos, together with Appendix 3 that is a study of the dies and their relative chronology. Considerable obstacles face a study of Byblos, including an inappropriate excavation method and a great deal of looting and illegal excavation. Although this volume overlaps with a previous history of Byblos by J. Elayi (Byblos, cité sacrée, 2009; not reviewed in B.L.), it covers only the period of the coinage (essentially the Persian period) and basically the information that can be extracted from the coins themselves. This study illustrates the importance and value of coinage in reconstructing history, especially when the literary sources are not extensive. It is a valuable study in its own right but also part of a welcome larger study of the Phoenician cities.

L.L. Grabbe

Fischer, Alexander A., Tod und Jenseits im Alten Orient und im Alten Testament. Eine Reise durch antike Vorstellungs- und Textwelten (Studien zu Kirche und Israel, Neue Folge, 7; Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2014), pp. 301. €26.00. ISBN 978-3-374-03734-6.

For a review of this volume, see Section 7 above.

Harrison, Timothy P., Edward B. Banning and Stanley Klassen (eds.), Walls of the Prince: Egyptian Interactions with Southwest Asia in Antiquity. Essays in Honour of John S. Holladay, Jr (Culture and History of the Ancient Near East, 77; Leiden: Brill, 2015), pp. xx + 436. €162.00/$210.00. ISBN 978-90-04-30255-6; e-ISBN 978-90-04-30256-3; ISSN 1566-2055.

Harrison opens with an ‘Appreciation’ of Holladay, followed by his bibliography (pp. ix-xvii). Kathryn Bard and Rodolfo Fattovich assess ‘Egyptian Long-Distance Trade in the Middle Kingdom and the Evidence at the Red Sea Harbour at Mersa/Wadi Gawasis’, then Stanley Klassen emphasizes techniques in ‘MB II Flat-Bottom Handmade Cooking Pots from Wadi Tumilat: A Useful Chronological Marker or an Indicator of Technical Style?’. Carolyn Graves-Brown, ‘Flint and Forts: The Role of Flint in Late Middle-New Kingdom Egyptian Weaponry’, argues for the widespread use of flint in weaponry, especially arrowheads, and knives (cf. Josh. 4.3). Ted Banning, ‘Geophysical Surveys at Tell el-Maskhuta, 1978–1982’, illustrates possibilities and drawbacks. Douglas Frayne identifies places named in ‘Thutmose Ill's Great Syrian Campaign: Tracing the Steps of the Egyptian Pharaoh in Western Syria. Part I: From Idlib to Aleppo’. Gregory Mumford's comprehensive study ‘The Amman Airport Structure: A Re-assessment of its Date-Range, Function and Overall Role in the Levant’ treats it as a fortress, not a shrine, with no human sacrifices. John Van Seters, ‘Israel and Egypt in the “Age of Solomon”’, concludes that ‘there is no evidence of any relations between Israel and Egypt during the Solomonic period’ (p. 209). Fish continued to be traded along established routes from Egypt in the twelfth and eleventh centuries bce as a modest luxury, according to Bruce Routledge, ‘A Fishy Business: The Inland Trade in Nile perch (Lates niloticus) in the Early Iron Age Levant’. P.M. Michèle Daviau's ‘In the Shadow of a Giant: Egyptian Influence in Transjordan during the Iron Age’ describes and catalogues many objects. Kasia Szpakowska interprets clay uraei from Egypt and the Levant as amuletic: ‘Snake Cults and Egyptian Military Bases’. For Mary-Ann Pouls Wegner, ‘Anthropoid Clay Coffins of the Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age in Egypt and the Near East: A Re-Evaluation of the Evidence from Tell el-Yahudiya’ indicates that foreigners were emulating Egyptian practices. Patricia Paice^†, ‘A Preliminary Analysis of Some Elements of the Saite and Persian Period Pottery at Tell el-Maskhuta’, begins to establish a typology of local and Phoenician ceramics. Peter James, ‘Meẓad Ḥashavyahu Reconsidered: Saite Strategy and Archaic Greek Chronology’, through historical and archaeological sources lowers the destruction to c. 570–565 bce. Analyses by Lawrence A. Pavlish^†, ‘Provenancing Basket Handle Jars from Mendes, Egypt’, showed that the jars were made in Alexandria for exports in Persian times. Philip Kaplan's ‘Sojourner in the Land: The Resident Alien in Late Period Egypt’ collects evidence for all aspects of foreign presence. These provocative and informative essays make worthwhile contributions archaeologically and historically.

A.R. Millard

Heintz, Jean-Georges, Prophétisme et Alliance. Des Archives royales de Mari à la Bible hébraïque (ed. Stephan Lauber, with Othmar Keel and Hans Ulrich Steymans; OBO, 271; Fribourg: Academic Press; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015), pp. xxxvi + 373. Numerous figures. SFr 113.00/€120.00. ISBN 978-3-7278-1765-6 (Academic Press Fribourg), 978-3-525-54396-2 (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht); ISSN 1015-1850.

This volume collects 19 of Professor Heintz's studies on his two research foci: (a) prophecy and prophetic literature in the west Semitic context and its relationship to divine covenant and sovereignty; (b) the connection between ancient Near Eastern iconography and pictorial speech in the OT. The essays (all in French) are divided into an introduction and three sections. The introduction consists of a methodological essay on new perspectives of research and documentary analysis in biblical (OT) exegesis. Section 1 has six studies on prophecy: prophetic oracles and ‘holy war’ according to the Mari archives and OT; prophetic language and ‘court style’ according to the Archives Royales de Mari X and OT; on the origin of a biblical expression: ūmūšu qerbū in ARM X/6, 8?; the ‘end’ of biblical prophecy? new theories and ancient Semitic documents; the legitimacy of comparing ancient Semitic texts and the Hebrew Bible; and a note on the origins of Jewish apocalyptic in the light of ‘Akkadian prophecies’. Section 2 contains seven thematic studies: the ‘devouring fire’ as a symbol of divine triumph in the OT and the Semitic milieu; from the absence of a divine image to the ‘God who hides himself’ (Isa. 45.15): on the origins of a biblical theme; captive gods and forced journeys: the imprinting of a Semitic theme onto the OT (à propos ARM XIV/8, EA [Amarna letter] 134, and Gen. 31.22–44); the oracle of Isa. 43.14–15 and its spacial and thematic background; the goddess Anat and her ‘ašērāh in the book of the prophet Hosea (14.9b); metaphorical language and symbolic representation in biblical prophecy and its milieu; and divine resemblance and representation according to the OT and the surrounding Semitic world. Section 3 consists of five studies on covenant: recital of a bipartite agreement in Genesis 31.43–32.1: ritual background and narrative coherence; preliminary remarks on new treaties of the Old Babylonian epoch and the covenant formulae of the Hebrew Bible; an outline of human covenant and divine covenant in documents from the Old Babylonian period and the Hebrew Bible; remarks on the covenant formula ‘in the fullness of heart’ at Mari, in Assyria, and in the Bible; and a proposed reading of Hos. 12.2b in the light of an alabaster vase from the time of Shalmaneser III (Djèzireh) and an Assyrian treaty ritual. M. Weippert contributes a long foreword (in German) with an appreciation of Heintz and a summary of and comments on each essay.

L.L. Grabbe

Hrůša, Ivan, Ancient Mesopotamian Religion: A Descriptive Introduction (trans. Michael Tait; Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2015), pp. 232. Several figures. €36.00 (print); €40.00 (print + e-book). ISBN 978-3-86835-118-7; e-ISBN 978-3-86835-136-1.

There is little doubt about the usefulness of this ‘descriptive introduction’ to Mesopotamian religion for biblical scholarship and others interested in ancient religious practices and rites, since this survey of Mesopotamian religious texts provides full bibliographies and a detailed overview of deities, prayers and rituals, cultic calendars, and various types of divination. At the same time, the approach begs many questions, such as whether Sumerian and Akkadian religious texts can be assumed to reflect identical religious concepts, or whether Akkadian nomenclature for Sumerian gods reflects the same divine attributes. H. makes no attempt to identify a theology or theologies of Mesopotamian religion, or to distinguish personal religion from the state cults. Although ‘prayers’ and ‘incantations’ are treated in successive chapters, it is unclear where the border lies between these two genres, since the texts seem remarkably similar. It may be that prayers and incantations are mainly distinguishable by their accompanying ceremonies and rituals, rather than by content or even aims. The final chapter devoted to divination is particularly troubling within this context, since the highly technical nature of ‘divination’ texts clearly indicates that these technē are primarily concerned with prediction through complex procedures, while often hardly acknowledging the role of divinities in these processes. Divination includes the search for ‘provoked’ and ‘unprovoked’ terrestrial and celestial omens, liver-divination, dream interpretation, physiognomic and medical omens, birth anomalies, flights of birds, necromancy, and even corrective namburbi-rituals to counteract evil portents, all of which are often considered as illegitimate in biblical scholarship.

M.J. Geller

Lauinger, Jacob, Following the Man of Yamhad: Settlement and Territory at Old Babylonian Alalah (Culture and History of the Ancient Near East, 75; Leiden: Brill, 2015), pp. xviii + 447. €162.00/$210.00. ISBN 978-90-04-29093-8; e-ISBN 978-90-04-29289-5; ISSN 1566-2055.

In 1953 D.J. Wiseman issued his pioneering catalogue of cuneiform tablets from Alalah, and their study continues. L. concentrates on those from Level VII (c. 1750–1625 bce) concerning ownership of ‘settlements’ (cities, towns, villages). His extensive discussion, based on first-hand scrutiny and on consideration of previous readings, leads to numerous fresh proposals, frequently giving better sense. He reconstructs the archives, chooses documents about four places as case studies, finds an analogy at Mari, then examines ‘Conditions of Tenure’ in the light of two important tablets (AT 1 and 456), arguing that AT 1 reproduces a dedicatory inscription recording Abba-el King of Yamhad's gift of Alalah to Yarim-Lim as an inalienable inheritance, whereas in AT 456 gifts of other places depend on continuing loyalty to Abba-el's successors. Places named in AT 456 apparently did not adjoin Alalah, preventing Yarim-Lim from establishing a local power base. L. deduces that a ‘settlement’ was ‘a group of persons associated with a portion of land at a site’ supported with rations while working that land, presenting its produce to the owner (p. 188). Persons rather than land were the object of acquisition. Appendixes cover the chronology of Level VII, summarize the documents discussed and provide editions of all the texts appearing in the book, with extensive notes (pp. 276–400). A bibliography and detailed indexes follow. L. significantly moves forward the study of property ownership at one place.

A.R. Millard

Müller, Katrin and Andreas Wagner (eds.), Synthetische Körperauffassung im Hebräischen und den Sprachen der Nachbarkulturen (AOAT, 416; Münster, Ugarit-Verlag, 2014), pp. x + 267. €93.00 (print); €102.00 (print + e-book). ISBN 978-3-86835-108-8; e-ISBN 978-3-86835-127-9.

These are the proceedings of a conference held in 2011, in Darmstadt, on metaphorical and metonymic uses of terms for parts of the body. It extends H.W. Wolff's Anthropologie des Alten Testaments (Munich, 1973), which as its title suggests was restricted to the OT, to usages in neighbouring languages and reconsiders his findings. In the first paper, A. Wagner explains, with illustrations, how a word such as Hebrew yād, ‘hand’, has a range of meanings beyond the merely literal. K. Müller looks at the evidence in epigraphic Hebrew and D. Schwiderski considers terms for ‘hand’, ‘foot’, ‘arm’ used figuratively in Biblical Aramaic. As a sondage, S. Görke studies the non-literal use of words for ‘hand’, ‘foot’ and ‘eyes’ in Hittite. Similarly, E. Martin confines herself to various terms for ‘hand’ and ‘foot’ in selected Ugaritic poetic texts. U. Steinert provides an overview of Akkadian words for parts of the body, with their many non-literal meanings, first as a table and then illustrated by texts, closing with descriptions of deities and kings, where names for parts of the body are compared to abstract and concrete terms. Surprisingly, there is no reference to similar descriptions in the Song of Songs. In a lengthy section, D.A. Werning discusses intriguing Egyptian expressions such as ‘the head of the leg’, which means ‘procedure, ritual’, within a wider theoretical framework. He then looks at a considerable number of Egyptian terms in respect of their hieroglyphic spellings and their metonymic and metaphorical uses. Part of a Memphite creation text is presented in translation with a grammatical analysis as an illustration. J. Stenger surveys some twenty anatomical terms in Greek as used figuratively in texts, noting, incidentally, how often the word for ‘eyebrows’ appears in Homer. Likewise, M. Kropp looks at ancient Arabic poetry (the Quran) in respect of terms arranged from ‘head to foot’. Helpfully, in an appendix, he lists these terms alphabetically (German/Arabic and Arabic/German). The final chapter, by the editors, gives summaries of the contributions and an overall evaluation followed by a general bibliography and indexes. The sheer wealth of comparative material and the range of figurative and idiomatic usages presented here, chiefly outside the OT, almost make this volume a reference work.

W.G.E. Watson

Oshima, Takayoshi, Babylonian Poems of Pious Sufferers: Ludlul Bēl Nēmeqi and the Babylonian Theodicy (Orientalische Religionen in der Antike, 14; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014), pp. xx + 572. 65 plates. €139.00. ISBN 978-3-16-153389-1; ISSN 1869-0513.

This critical edition of two Akkadian wisdom texts, Ludlul Bēl Nēmeqi (often described as the Babylonian Job) and the Babylonian Theodicy, incorporates new data from unpublished cuneiform copies, which facilitates their revised translation here. The introduction to each poem includes an account of previous editions, theories of dating and authorship, detailed literary analysis, together with succinct explanations of the relevant cultural and historical issues. In the case of the Ludlul Bēl Nēmeqi it is intriguing to observe how a poem, composed originally as a praise-offering prayer to Marduk for personal use, developed into a standardized or ‘canonical’ text. Accompanying discussions regarding the nature of retribution, the righteous sufferer motif, the role of piety and ethics, etc., afford a rich delineation of theological associations, where, for example, contemporary interpretations of ‘the tablets of sin’ (pp. 286–89) are particularly interesting. Descriptions of related texts, together with hand copies of the cuneiform exemplars and photographs of each tablet, complement the bibliographical references, glossary and indexes. Variant readings of these poems from the private papers of the late Wilfred Lambert are fully integrated in this commentary, although their full publication is anticipated in the future by Andrew George. The immense scholarship and painstaking attention to detail in this volume will benefit Assyriologists, biblical scholars, historians of religion and theologians alike, for years to come.

S. Jacobs

Peckham, J. Brian, Phoenicia: Episodes and Anecdotes from the Ancient Mediterranean (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2014), pp. xxii + 586. 42 illustrations, 11 maps. $69.50. ISBN 978-1-57506-181-8.

J. Brian Peckham SJ died in 2008, having entrusted the manuscript of this encyclopaedic volume to the editorial care of one of his students, Adina Levin. It is the culmination of a lifetime of scholarship devoted to the Phoenicians. P.'s work may be known to B.L. readers from one of his earliest publications, The Development of the Late Phoenician Scripts (1968), or his contribution to the 1987 F.M. Cross Festschrift on ‘Phoenicia and the Religion of Israel’ or his entry in the Anchor Bible Dictionary on ‘Phoenicia, History of’ (1992). Levin's name appears only at the foot of the preface and the extent of her editorial role is not made clear, but she has done her teacher, and scholarship in general, a great service by putting the present volume in our hands. As she notes, the book documents ‘every place that a Phoenician set foot’, following the Phoenicians through time and space to produce ‘a truly comprehensive examination of the Phoenicians’ economic, religious, and social relationships with their neighbors’. The book's subtitle alludes to the episodic character of the historical narrative arising unavoidably from the sporadic sources, epigraphic, literary and archaeological. The book is provided with thorough indexes of modern authors and geographical names, as well as copious footnotes referring to a myriad of sources. The footnotes do not appear to have been supplemented to take account of material published after the author's death; nevertheless, for all things Phoenician up to that time, this will be an essential source of reference, destined to sit alongside E. Lipiński's Dictionnaire de la civilisation phénicienne et punique (1992).

J. Healey

Pongratz-Leisten, Beate, Religion and Ideology in Assyria (Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records, 6; Boston/Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015), pp. xviii + 553. 57 figures. €109.95/$154.00/£82.99. ISBN 978-1-61451-482-4; e-ISBN 978-1-61451-954-6 (e-Pub), 978-1-61451-426-8 (PDF); ISSN 2161-4415.

This wide-ranging study traces ideology, especially as it relates to kingship, from the third millennium bce to the Neo-Assyrian period. By the late second millennium bce, Assyrian kingship had evolved so that the king was not only ruler of the material world but also involved in the maintenance of the cosmos—sacral kingship. This mythic discourse was vital to supporting the cohesion of the far-flung empire, while important in the development and the maintaining of this ideology were the scholars (‘the thread running through this book is the cooperation between the intellectual and political elites and the king’ [p. 14]). P.-L. notes that divine kingship and the discourse undergirding it are well documented in the Neo-Assyrian period, but she wants to trace its roots in the third and second millennia bce. A significant aspect of this tradition and world-view was the fact that it was dominated and permeated by religion—religion was not just one cultural system among others. The state rituals became a powerful mechanism for publicizing the mythical status of the king. On the other hand, the king supported his position by a number of practical matters, including roads, hydraulic projects, close coordination between palace and temple, fostering an Assyrian architectural style, Aššur as a religious centre, and an effective provincial system. This is an important book that helps explain the imperial power which did so much to affect and channel the history of Israel and Judah.

L.L. Grabbe

Pongratz-Leisten, Beate and Karen Sonik (eds.), The Materiality of Divine Agency (Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records, 8; Boston/Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015), pp. xviii + 239. 20 figures. €99.95/$140.00/£74.99. ISBN 978-1-5015-1068-7; e-ISBN 978-1-5015-0230-9 (e-Pub), 978-1-5015-0226-2 (PDF); ISSN 2161-4415.

This volume is the fruit of the eponymous workshop held in New York University in April 2011. It is arranged in three parts. The contents are as follows: Part 1 (‘The Material Divine: Anthropomorphism, Animation, and Agency in Cross-Cultural Perspective’): Beate Pongratz-Leisten and Karen Sonik, ‘Between Cognition and Culture: Theorizing the Materiality of Divine Agency in Cross-Cultural Perspective’; and C.W. Bynum, ‘The Animation and Agency of Holy Food: Bread and Wine as Material Divine in the European Middle Ages’. Part 2 (‘Divine Materials, Materiality, and Materialization in Mesopotamia’): K. Benzel, ‘“What Goes in Is What Comes Out”—But What Was Already There? Divine Materials and Materiality in Ancient Mesopotamia’; Beate Pongratz-Leisten, ‘Imperial Allegories: Divine Agency and Monstrous Bodies in Mesopotamia's Body Description Texts’; and Karen Sonik, ‘Divine (Re-)Presentation: Authoritative Images and a Pictorial Stream of Tradition in Mesopotamia’. Part 3 (‘A Feast for the Senses: Visual and Auditory Engagement with the Divine and Divine Agents in the Ancient Near East’): D.E. Fleming, ‘Seeing and Socializing with Dagan at Emar's zukru Festival’; and A.-C.R. Loisel, ‘The Voice of Mighty Copper in a Mesopotamian Exorcistic Ritual’. This volume counterpoints rather nicely with the study by J. Middlemas reviewed in this volume (see pp. 157–58 above), for a contrast between the pressure for immaterial and material (> incarnational) theology.

N. Wyatt

Rollinger, Robert and Erik van Dongen (eds.), Mesopotamia in the Ancient World: Impact, Continuities, Parallels. Proceedings of the Seventh Symposium of the Melammu Project Held in Obergurgl, Austria, November 4–8, 2013 (Melammu Symposia, 7; Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2015), pp. viii + 666. €138.00 (print); €152.00 (print + e-book). ISBN 978-3-86835-128-6 (print); e-ISBN 978-3-86835-129-3 (print + e-book).

The aim of the Melammu Project, begun in 1998, is to investigate the spread of Mesopotamian and ancient Near Eastern culture through the ancient world from the third millennium bce down to Islamic times. These proceedings of the seventh symposium open with a re-examination by R. Rollinger of the relationship between the ancient Near East and the Homeric epics. This is followed by the seven sections into which the book is (appropriately) divided, each with an introduction and a closing response. Under the first heading, ‘Talking to God(s): Prayers and Incantations’, come C. Jean on Akkadian and Hittite rituals, P.M. Michel on worshipping gods and stones in Late Bronze Age Syria and Anatolia, A. Lenzi on the language of Akkadian prayers (including comparison of a wisdom text with Job), D.P. Wright on ritual speech in the Pentateuch and in the ancient Near East, and A. Bernabé on swearing oaths to heaven and earth. Next comes a section on the reception of objects from Mesopotamia in Etruria (G. Bardelli), in Cilicia (W. Held and D. Kaplan) and even in Germany (J. Ganzert). Section 3 deals with literary figures of speech in Mesopotamia and Greece (S. Fink and K. Ulanowski), in the Epic of Gilgamesh (A. Annus and M. Sarv), and in the same epic and in the Iliad (J. Haubold). The topic of interregional interaction between Mesopotamia and the world is considered by R. Pirngruber (on Neo-Assyrian kings), A. Heller (on why Greece was ignorant of Mesopotamian history), J. Monerie (on cuneiform transcriptions of Greek), K. Nawotka (on Alexander the Great), and B. Gufler and I. Madreiter (on historiography). Elements of citizenship are considered by K. Momrak (in city-states), K.A. Raaflaub (in Greek poets and Israelite prophets), and S. Müller (in the Greek polis). The topics surveyed under the heading ‘Iran and Early Islam’ are Semiramis and Alexander (A. Szalc), Armenia (T. Greenwood), and the conflict between empire and state (L. Berger). In the final section, on representations of power, F.M. Fales examines Sennacherib's bond with destiny, D. Wicke surveys Assyrian art in Southern Anatolia, R. Da Riva looks at Neo-Babylonian inscriptions, and C. Schäfer evaluates Seleucid depictions of royalty. There is a topic index and several illustrations are provided. Alongside the papers of direct interest to B.L. readers there is a wealth of thought-provoking comparative material here presented by a range of scholars from a wide spread of disciplines.

W.G.E. Watson

Steiner, Richard S., Disembodied Souls: The Nefesh in Israel and Kindred Spirits in the Ancient Near East, with an Appendix on the Katumuwa Inscription (Ancient Near East Monographs/Monografias sobre el Antiguo Cercano Oriente, 11; Atlanta, GA: SBL Press/Universidad Católica Argentina Centro de Estudios de Historia del Antiguo Oriente, 2015), pp. xvi + 210. $27.95. ISBN 978-1-62837-076-9 (paperback edition); e-ISBN 978-1-62837-077-5.

For a review of this volume, see Section 7 above.

Theis, Christoffer, Magie und Raum. Der magische Schutz ausgewählter Räume im alten Ägypten nebst einem Vergleich zu angrenzenden Kulturbereichen (Orientalische Religionen in der Antike, 13; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014), pp. xvi + 1032. Numerous figures. €139.00. ISBN 978-3-16-153556-7; ISSN 1869-0513.

How did the ancient Egyptians protect the places where they lived, worked, worshipped and were buried? To answer this question, T. has examined a wide range of documents in Egyptian while also considering similar texts from Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Greece and Palestine. In fact, one of the strengths of this comprehensive study is its detailed comparison with neighbouring civilizations. The introduction defines the concepts, fundamental to this book, of ‘magic’ (with descriptions of the personnel and literature included under this label) and of ‘space’. There are separate chapters on the protection of Egypt, of Egyptian cities, temples and sanctuaries, of the palace and private houses, of the bedroom and the grave. A whole chapter is devoted to an intriguing ritual ball game, which is followed by a general evaluation (ch. 12), an overall summary and notes on future research. Helpfully, most of the Egyptian texts cited are set out in hieroglyphs with transliteration, translation and philological notes. Summaries are provided throughout and there are indexes of the texts (including the OT and NT), proper names and words discussed. The ‘Anhang’ (pp. 707–849) supplies a considerable amount of classified information on items with inscriptions (clay figurines, statues, tombs, etc.) and detailed indexes to the Egyptian material quoted, including the names on the Execration Texts, as well as a synopsis of the inscriptions on magical bricks. The range and wealth of material on the protection of space by means of magic and ritual presented and discussed in this tome will repay the interested reader.

W.G.E. Watson

Tyson, Craig W., The Ammonites: Elites, Empires, and Sociopolitical Change (1000–500 bce) (LHBOTS, 585; London/New York: Bloomsbury T & T Clark, 2014), pp. xviii + 293. 18 figures and 10 tables. £70.00/$120.00 (hardback edition); £22.99/$29.99 (PDF e-book). ISBN 978-0-56742-855-4; e-ISBN 978-0-56765-544-8.

This volume is a revised doctoral dissertation completed at the University of Michigan in 2011 whose stated goal is to write a social history that understands how Ammonite economy, politics and culture developed in the Iron Age. T. presents a synthesis of past and present work on the Ammonites that uses epigraphic and archaeological materials as primary sources and biblical texts as secondary sources. The transformative role of the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires in stimulating economic, political and social changes and the role of local power brokers as agents of change are emphasized, with a focus on the late eighth to sixth centuries bce as the key period of such development. In most of the first five chapters T. reports or describes the work of others, often stating afterwards if he agrees, disagrees or demurs. Chapter 6 on the economy of the Amman Plateau contains some analysis; T. argues against the common proposal that agricultural produce could be commodified so that the underlying purpose of increased settlement was to produce surplus wine, oil and grain to gain metal and other high-value goods to meet imperial demands. The closing remarks on Neo-Babylonian imperial policy in ch. 5 also argue against using the first half of Nebuchadnezzar's reign to determine subsequent imperial policy. The volume is a useful resource for anyone wanting a bibliography dealing with texts relating to and artefacts deriving from the Amman Plateau compiled through 2011 or anyone wanting to read a synthesis of this body of work.

D.V. Edelman

Willems, Harco, Historical and Archaeological Aspects of Egyptian Funerary Culture: Religious Ideas and Ritual Practice in Middle Kingdom Elite Cemeteries (Culture and History of the Ancient Near East, 73; Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2014), pp. x + 389. 16 plates. €135.00/$175.00. ISBN 978-90-04-27498-3; e-ISBN 978-90-04-27499-0; ISSN 1566-2055.

This is a translated and thoroughly revised study that appeared originally in French in 2008 (not reviewed in the B.L.). In spite of the title, the main concern has to do with the office of ‘nomarch’ (ḥr.y.tp ‘3) in the Middle Kingdom. However, the information for answering the question is found in the cemeteries surveyed (‘funerary architecture’), primarily the tombs with Coffin Texts. Central to the study is the site of Dayr al-Barshā, currently under excavation. The nomarchs seem to have originated by the Sixth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom but disappear in their original form by the end of the Twelfth Dynasty in the Middle Kingdom. The Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom become replaced by the Coffin Texts of the Middle Kingdom, but these remained confined to the tombs of the elite (including the local elite—there was no ‘democratization’ in the Middle Kingdom as many believe). Nomarchs continued to exist during the Twelfth Dynasty but had disappeared by the end of this time, to be replaced by other sorts of administrative officials. The book concludes with a concordance of Coffin Text manuscripts and Middle Kingdom coffins (most of these as yet unpublished).

L.L. Grabbe

Xella, Paolo (ed.), Studi epigrafici e linguistici sul Vicino Oriente antico. Nuova Serie: Ricerche storiche e filologiche sulle culture del Vicino Oriente e del Mediterraneo antico, vol. 31 (Verona: Essedue Edizioni, 2014), pp. 194. €25.00 in Italy, €30.00 elsewhere. ISSN 2239-5393.

The first part of this annual (pp. 1–72) comprises five articles. J. Yogev and S. Yona suggest that a Ugaritic letter (KTU 5.9) is a scribal exercise in poetry and W.G.E. Watson discusses an enigmatic passage from the Baal Cycle. Of less direct interest to B.L. readers are the papers by F. D'Agostino and F. Pomponio on a Neo-Sumerian account, A. Rositani on Old Babylonian bullae and Z. al-Salameen on a Nabataean bronze lamp dedicated to Baalshamim. The second part presents papers, all in Italian, from a round table on ‘Wisdom’, held in Rome in 2013. These are M. Liverani on wisdom in the ANE, M. Bonechi on proverbs from Mari and Ebla as the earliest Syrian wisdom texts and S. Alaura on Hittite proverbs in Anatolia, with references to the Bible. More directly for the OT, L.C. Paladino provides a survey of wise women and prophetesses in the Bible, with a discussion of the Hebrew word ṭa'am, ‘taste’, in its transferred sense of ‘discernment’, that was applied to them. As mentioned in B.L. 2014, p. 158, M. Giordano has shown that Greek σοϕία, ‘skill, wisdom’, was borrowed from Semitic. Here, G. Cerri builds on this significant finding and discusses the related terms τὸ σοϕόν and νοϕίη in Heraclitus. Finally, A. Ercolani and P. Xella sum up the meeting. As shown by these papers, which provide abundant comparative material, wisdom traditions go back much earlier than Israel and were developed later in the Mediterranean.

W.G.E. Watson

Xella, Paolo (ed.), The Tophet in the Phoenician Mediterranean (Studi epigrafici e linguistici sul Vicino Oriente Antico, 29–30; Verona: Essedue Edizioni, 2013), pp. x + 314. $50.00. ISBN 978-88-85697-74-7; ISSN 2239-5373.

This double volume of SEL, devoted to one theme, contains 12 papers on the subject of the institution of the Phoenician-Punic tophet. These are as follows: P. Xella, ‘Introduction: Tophet as a Historical Problem’; P. Bernardini, ‘Organised Settlements and Cult Places in the Phoenician Western Expansion between the 9th and 7th Centuries bce: A Reflection of the Tophet’; J.C. Quinn, ‘Tophets in the “Punic World”’; G. Garbati, ‘Baal Hammon and Tinnit in Carthage: The Tophet between the Origin and the Expansion of the Colonial World’; B.K. Garnand, ‘Phoenician on the Edge: Geographic and Ethnographic Distribution of Human Sacrifice’; M.M. McCarty, ‘Continuities and Contexts: The Tophets of Roman Imperial-Period Africa’; P.G. Mosca, ‘The Tofet: A Place of Infant Sacrifice?’ Other papers are F. Stavrakopoulou, ‘The Jerusalem Tophet: Ideological Dispute and Religious Transformation’; M.G.A. Guzzo and J.A. Zamora Lopez, ‘The Epigraphy of the Tophet’; B.K. Garnand, L.E. Stager and J.A. Greene, ‘Infants as Offerings: Palaeodemographic Patterns and Tophet Burial’; V. Melchiori, ‘Osteological Analysis in the Study of Phoenician and Punic Tophet: A History of Research’; and P. Xella, ‘Tophet: an Overall Interpretation’. V. Melchiori, in an appendix, gives a selected and classified bibliography of the subject. After a long period of what the editor calls ‘substantial stagnation’, these papers reflect a new and growing interest in the topic, between them giving a thorough and up-to-date account of this disturbing religious phenomenon, while the Stavrakopoulou paper brings it all the more disturbingly to the heart of the cult of Yhwh. What remains to be written in the light of this aggiornamento is a new engagement (following J.D. Levenson's 1993 study, reviewed in B.L. 1994, pp. 110–11) with the link between historical child sacrifice and the passion tradition of the New Testament.

N. Wyatt