Computer-aided Analysis of Amorite

Computer-aided Analysis of Amorite
Author: Ignace Jay Gelb
Publisher: Oriental Institute Press
Total Pages: 680
Release: 1980
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN:

'Computer aided' is somewhat daunting in books dating from 1980 but the underlying purpose of this book, to provide linguistically ordered lists of 6,662 proper names excerpted from Sumerian and Akkadian texts, remains useful since most of our knowledge of the non-Akkadian Semitic dialect comes from these names.

The Amorite Dynasty of Ugarit

The Amorite Dynasty of Ugarit
Author: Mary E. Buck
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2019-09-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004415114

In The Amorite Dynasty of Ugarit Mary Buck pursues a nuanced view of populations in the Bronze Age Levant, with the objective of understanding the ancient polity of Ugarit as a kin-based culture that shares close ties with neighbouring Amorite populations.

Becoming Diaspora Jews

Becoming Diaspora Jews
Author: Karel van der Toorn
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2019-09-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0300249497

Based on a previously unexplored source, this book transforms the way we think about the formation of Jewish identity This book tells the story of the earliest Jewish diaspora in Egypt in a way it has never been told before. In the fifth century BCE there was a Jewish community on Elephantine Island. Why they spoke Aramaic, venerated Aramean gods besides Yaho, and identified as Arameans is a mystery, but a previously little explored papyrus from Egypt sheds new light on their history. The papyrus shows that the ancestors of the Elephantine Jews came originally from Samaria. Due to political circumstances, they left Israel and lived for a century in an Aramean environment. Around 600 BCE, they moved to Egypt. These migrants to Egypt did not claim a Jewish identity when they arrived, but after the destruction of their temple on the island they chose to deploy their Jewish identity to raise sympathy for their cause. Their story—a typical diaspora tale—is not about remaining Jews in the diaspora, but rather about becoming Jews through the diaspora.

Canaanite in the Amarna Tablets (4 Vols.)

Canaanite in the Amarna Tablets (4 Vols.)
Author: Anson F. Rainey
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 1164
Release: 2015-11-02
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 900429399X

This four-volume reference work deals with the language of the Amarna letters written by scribes who had adopted a peculiar dialect mixture of Accadian and West Semitic syntax. In addition to the texts from Canaan, a few from Alashia are included along with the texts from Kamed el-Loz and Taanach. Each of the first three volumes is written as a separate monograph; together they treat the problems of morphology and syntax. The first volume covers writing, pronouns and nouns (substantives, adjectives and numerals); the second volume treats the verbal system; and the third volume discusses particles and adverbs with a chapter on word order. The fourth volume includes the bibliography and index to the set. Since these texts are the earliest witness to West Semitic syntax, they are an invaluable source for the historical study of the North West Semitic family, including biblical Hebrew.

Semitic and Assyriological Studies

Semitic and Assyriological Studies
Author: Pelio Fronzaroli
Publisher: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag
Total Pages: 726
Release: 2003
Genre: Assyriology
ISBN: 9783447047494

This substantial volume comprises almost fifty Semitic and Assyrological studies dedicated to Pelio Fronzaroli, professor of Semitic philology at the University of Florence, written by colleagues and pupils.

La famille dans le Proche-Orient ancien: réalités, symbolismes et images

La famille dans le Proche-Orient ancien: réalités, symbolismes et images
Author: Lionel Marti
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 809
Release: 2014-07-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 1575068885

In July, 2009, the International Association for Assyriology met in Paris, France, for 5 days to deliver and listen to papers on the theme “La famille dans le Proche-Orient.” This volume, the proceedings of the conference, contains 53 of the papers read at the 55th annual Rencontre, including primarily papers directly connected with the theme and some on areas of related interest. The papers covered every period of Mesopotamian history, from the third millennium through the end of the first millennium B.C.E. The photo on the back cover shows only a representative portion of the attendees, who were warmly hosted by faculty and students from the Collège de France.

The Aramaeans

The Aramaeans
Author: Edward Lipiński
Publisher: Peeters Publishers
Total Pages: 716
Release: 2000
Genre: History
ISBN: 9789042908598

In order to present the Aramean history during some six hundred years, down to the seventh century B.C., it was necessary to analyze a wide range of sources, mainly cuneiform, epigraphic, and biblical. Chapter I deals with Aramean pre-history and proto-history, while chapter II examines the question of the alleged relationship between the Hebrew forefathers and the ancient Arameans. Chapters III to XIV give a relatively accurate description of the territory of each historically attested Aramean group or state and present a detailed narrative of political events. Chapter XIV, the most extensive, considers the situation of the Arameans in Babylonia, also in relation to the Chaldeans and to the North-Arabian tribes. Chapters XV to XVIII deal with Aramean institutions, economy, legal practices, and religion. Special attention is paid to linguistic features of the available evidence, when they can help resolving historical questions. The book concludes with an extensive general index and with an index of biblical sources.

Semitic Languages

Semitic Languages
Author: Edward Lipiński
Publisher: Peeters Publishers
Total Pages: 792
Release: 2001
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9789042908154

The first comparative grammar of the Semitic languages, by H. Zimmern, was published a hundred years ago and the last original work of this kind was issued in Russian in 1972 by B.M. Grande. The present grammar, designed to come out in the centenary of the completion of Zimmern's work, fills thus a gap. Besides, it is based on both classical and modern Semitic languages, it takes new material of these last decades into account, and situates the Semitic languages in the wider context of Afro-Asiatic. The introduction briefly presents the languages in question. The main parts of the work are devoted to phonology, morphology, and syntax, with elaborate charts and diagrams. Then follows a discussion of fundamental questions related to lexicographical analysis. The study is supplemented by a glossary of linguistic terms used in Semitics, by a selective bibliography, by a general index, and by an index of words and forms. The book is the result of twenty-five years of research and teaching in comparative Semitic grammar.

Life and Mortality in Ugaritic

Life and Mortality in Ugaritic
Author: Matthew McAffee
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 391
Release: 2019-12-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1646020383

While topics such as death, funerary cult, and the netherworld have received considerable scholarly attention in the context of the Ugaritic textual corpus, the related concept of life has been relatively neglected. Life and Mortality in Ugaritic takes as its premise that one cannot grasp the significance of mwt (“to die”) without first having wrestled with the concept of ḥyy (“to live”). In this book, Matthew McAffee takes a lexical approach to the study of life and death in the Ugaritic textual corpus. He identifies and analyzes the Ugaritic terms most commonly used to talk about life and mortality in order to construct a more representative framework of the ancient perspective on these topics, and he concludes by synthesizing the results of this lexical study into a broader literary discussion that considers, among other things, the implications for our understanding of the first-millennium Katumuwa stele from Zincirli. McAffee’s study complements previous scholarly work in this area, which has tended to rely on conceptual and theoretical treatment of mortality, and advances the discussion by providing a more focused lexical analysis of the Ugaritic terms in question. It will be of interest to Semitic scholars and those who study Ugaritic in particular, in addition to students of the culture of the ancient Levant.