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This provocative new history of Palestinian Jewish society in antiquity marks the first comprehensive effort to gauge the effects of imperial domination on this people. Probing more than eight centuries of Persian, Greek, and Roman rule, Seth Schwartz reaches some startling conclusions--foremost among them that the Christianization of the Roman Empire generated the most fundamental features of medieval and modern Jewish life. Schwartz begins by arguing that the distinctiveness of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and early Roman periods was the product of generally prevailing imperial tolerance. From around 70 C.E. to the mid-fourth century, with failed revolts and the alluring cultural norms of the High Roman Empire, Judaism all but disintegrated. However, late in the Roman Empire, the Christianized state played a decisive role in ''re-Judaizing'' the Jews. The state gradually excluded them from society while supporting their leaders and recognizing their local communities. It was thus in Late Antiquity that the synagogue-centered community became prevalent among the Jews, that there re-emerged a distinctively Jewish art and literature--laying the foundations for Judaism as we know it today. Through masterful scholarship set in rich detail, this book challenges traditional views rooted in romantic notions about Jewish fortitude. Integrating material relics and literature while setting the Jews in their eastern Mediterranean context, it addresses the complex and varied consequences of imperialism on this vast period of Jewish history more ambitiously than ever before.Imperialism in Jewish Societywill be widely read and much debated.

Abstract – The corpus of the lead weights from Hellenistic Berytos totalizes twenty-three specimens (185/184?-64/63). It is based on an unfinished and unpublished corpus prepared by Henri Seyrig in the 1960s and 1970s. Since then, several of its sixteen weights have been lost, others appeared on the antiquity market or were discovered during official archaeological excavations. Nineteen emissions are identified. Their study sheds new light on the political status, the ponderal systems and the agoranomoi of the city.

Evidence from a newly discovered well at Berenike, a Hellenistic port on Egypt's Red Sea coast, suggests that the late third-century BC hiatus in occupation may have resulted from a multi-year drought that caused the city's freshwater source to run dry. This climatic shift was probably triggered by a volcanic eruption in 209 BC, an event that also caused a failure of the Nile to flood, leading to the famine-induced revolt of 207–186 BC in Upper Egypt. The Berenike excavations have not only uncovered the first Hellenistic city on the East African coast, but have also contributed to a better understanding of the effect of natural disasters on ancient societies.

Beyond the Bronze Age and Geometric Period through landscape analysis and the GIS, we can prove that the polis of Ithaca in the Classical and Hellenistic periods was characterized by the expansion of the settlements, and the construction of numerous fortifications, so that once this process had concluded, all of the cultivable land on the island was brought into play and all of the population centers would have been interconnected and visual surveillance would have existed throughout all parts of the island liable to be exploited. In short, Ithaca was an independent city-state community fully structured from a political, religious and economic point of view that was flourishing and expanding during the Classical and Hellenistic Periods.

This article studies the main titles documented for the high priest of Jerusalem in the Hebrew Bible as well as in a few other sources from the Persian and Hellenistic periods. In dialogue with recent scholarship on the topic, particularly an important article by Noam Mizrahi it argues that the title הכהן הגדול (ha-kohēn ha-gādôl), “high” or “great priest” probably originates in the late monarchic period (seventh century BCE), but only became the standard designation for the high priest during the fifth century BCE. An alternative title, כהן הראש (kohēn ha-ro’š), “head” or “chief” priest, was introduced in Chronicles and other writings in order to designate the high priests of the preexilic period specifically. Finally, a third title, המשיח (ha-kohēn ha-māšîaḥ), “the anointed priest”, was used for some time in priestly circles as part of a bid to transfer a key royal attribute (anointment) to the high priest of Jerusalem, but was eventually replaced with the more standard designation הכהן הגדול.

In this article, I would like to provide a reappraisal of sophistic activities during the Hellenistic period. An analysis of passages in Philodemus, Posidonius, and several more fragmentary sources can show that there is a continuous and lively tradition of sophistic teaching and rhetoric from the Classical period until Imperial times. The texts give the impression that characteristic features of Hellenistic sophists point towards the generation of Gorgias and his colleagues as well as towards the star speakers of the Second Sophistic. The traditional but outworn negative image of the Hellenistic sophists and Hellenistic rhetoric in general can be explained as a result of the source situation, the decentralisation of schools and performance spaces, and a Classicistic bias of ancient and modern authors. In the end, the testimonies allow for more conclusions than generally thought. A selection of related sources is provided in an appendix.

The necropoleis of Knidos are relatively well-preserved compared to the necropoleis of Western Anatolia. In the eastern necropolis, hundreds of monumental tombs still exist, and one can observe numerous examples regarding the traditional tomb architecture of Knidos. The common characteristics of these tombs are the simple grave cells surrounded by walls, sometimes with \"U\" formed walls with one side open and enclosed mostly by four-sided walls. This traditional form in Knidos was referred to as temenos or peribolos type of tombs. As one of the circular walled Tumuli only represented with three examples in the Knidos necropolies, the Tumulus of Saranda and its findings constitute the subject of the study. According to the evaluations conducted on the burial findings, the circular wall, dromos, and two tombs at the center of the tumulus (Tombs II and III) must have been built in the second half of the 3rd century BC. The same area was used again as a second burial around the middle of the 2nd century BC or a little later. The last comprehensive construction and burial site in the Tumulus were built in the 2nd century AC. The form is the only difference between the circular walled tumuli and the traditional architecture of tombs in Knidos. Therefore, rather than the observed form of these walls, it's the meaning that they give to the tomb, which is important in the traditional tomb architecture of the city. Based on the circular walled tumulus, which is the subject of this article, it can be stated that although it is observed as a different tomb type, the same tradition continued in the necropolis of Knidos. Either in rectangular or in circular form, these walls aimed to separate the family graves from others and to bring a monumental view to these non-extravagant tombs.

Excavation at Pauli Stincus in Sardinia has revealed an ancient plough soil, with associated evidence of intensive prehistoric agricultural activities.

The paper deals with the first results of the Armenian-German Artaxata Project which was initiated in 2018. The city of Artaxata was founded in the 2nd century BC as the capital of the Artaxiad kingdom. The city stretches over the 13 hills of the Khor Virap heights and the adjacent plain in the Ararat valley. The new project focusses on Hill XIII and the Lower city to the south and the north of it. This area was investigated by magnetic prospections in 2018 and on the basis of its results, in total eleven 5 × 5 m trenches were excavated in 2019. On the eastern part of Hill XIII several structures of possibly domestic function were uncovered. They were laid out according to a regular plan and in total three phases could be determined. According to 14C data, the first phase already dates to the 2nd century BC while the subsequent two phases continue into the 1st/2nd century AD. In the 2019 campaign, the overall layout and exact function of the structures could not be determined and more excavations will be undertaken in the forthcoming years. North of Hill XIII the foundations of piers of an unfinished Roman aqueduct on arches were excavated. This aqueduct is attributed to the period 114–117 AD when Rome in vain tried to establish the Roman province of Armenia with Artaxata being the capital.

In this ground-breaking analysis of the world's first private banks, Edward Cohen convincingly demonstrates the existence and functioning of a market economy in ancient Athens while revising our understanding of the society itself. Challenging the \"primitivistic\" view, in which bankers are merely pawnbrokers and money-changers, Cohen reveals that fourth-century Athenian bankers pursued sophisticated transactions. These dealings--although technologically far removed from modern procedures--were in financial essence identical with the lending and deposit-taking that separate true \"banks\" from other businesses. He further explores how the Athenian banks facilitated tax and creditor avoidance among the wealthy, and how women and slaves played important roles in these family businesses--thereby gaining legal rights entirely unexpected in a society supposedly dominated by an elite of male citizens. Special emphasis is placed on the reflection of Athenian cognitive patterns in financial practices. Cohen shows how transactions were affected by the complementary opposites embedded in the very structure of Athenian language and thought. In turn, his analysis offers great insight into daily Athenian reality and cultural organization.