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"Levant"
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Beyond Amarna: exorcists without borders in the Levant
The Levant and the Eastern Mediterranean formed a special sphere of activity for diverse specialists who navigated from one side to the other through extensive networks of interconnections in the Late Bronze Age. During the Amarna Period (fourteenth century BCE), Akkadian and Hittite texts attest a lethal epidemic that originated in Egypt and later spread to Canaan, Syria, Alashiya (Cyprus), and the land of Hatti. References to pestilence, plague, epidemic, and death, as well as metaphoric expressions alluding to the crisis, such as the ‘hand of Nergal,’ are widespread in diplomatic correspondence, prayers, magic spells, and medical texts as well. Specialists (such as physicians, exorcists, and omen experts) traveled between courts to perform acts of healing and to practice divination. Also, statues of gods and goddesses were commonly sent between courts of Great Kings as symbols of fertility, healing, and alliances. This essay analyzes the role of exorcists traveling between courts in the framework of the cross-cultural discourse of alterity in the Amarna Age.
Journal Article
Fluctuating radiocarbon offsets observed in the southern Levant and implications for archaeological chronology debates
Considerable work has gone into developing high-precision radiocarbon (14C) chronologies for the southern Levant region during the Late Bronze to Iron Age/early Biblical periods (∼1200–600 BC), but there has been little consideration whether the current standard Northern Hemisphere 14C calibration curve (IntCal13) is appropriate for this region. We measured 14C ages of calendar-dated tree rings from AD 1610 to 1940 from southern Jordan to investigate contemporary 14C levels and to compare these with IntCal13. Our data reveal an average offset of ∼19 14C years, but, more interestingly, this offset seems to vary in importance through time. While relatively small, such an offset has substantial relevance to high-resolution 14C chronologies for the southern Levant, both archaeological and paleoenvironmental. For example, reconsidering two published studies, we find differences, on average, of 60% between the 95.4% probability ranges determined from IntCal13 versus those approximately allowing for the observed offset pattern. Such differences affect, and even potentially undermine, several current archaeological and historical positions and controversies.
Journal Article
Environmental, social and governance impact on financial performance: evidence from the Levant countries
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate whether the sustainability disclosure with the environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects has an impact on the financial performance represented by Tobin’s Q, return on assets (ROA) and return on equity indices in the Levant countries for the period 2012–2019, which was a period of turmoil and political repercussions that affected the countries of the region.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the content analysis technique, the data was collected from 124 nonfinancial companies from Levant countries (Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon), and 883 observations were collected as panel data for the research analysis.
Findings
The findings indicate that the environmental, social and ESG collective performance maximizes financial performance, while the governance performance influences ROA only. This suggests that companies pay great attention to various stakeholders, mainly external. Maximizing stakeholder value remains an optimal strategy to achieve the company’s financial goals. Thus, improving the disclosure levels of nonfinancial performance in the capital markets will improve the chances of growth of the financial performance indicators of companies.
Originality/value
The study provided insights about the ESG role and its impact on the financial performance of companies in a less explored context by previous literature, namely, the Levant.
Journal Article
The absolute chronology of Boker Tachtit (Israel) and implications for the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in the Levant
The Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP) is a crucial lithic assemblage type in the archaeology of southwest Asia because it marks a dramatic shift in hominin populations accompanied by technological changes in material culture. This phase is conventionally divided into two chronocultural phases based on the Boker Tachtit site, central Negev, Israel. While lithic technologies at Boker Tachtit are well defined, showing continuity from one phase to another, the absolute chronology is poorly resolved because the radiocarbon method used had a large uncertainty. Nevertheless, Boker Tachtit is considered to be the origin of the succeeding Early Upper Paleolithic Ahmarian tradition that dates in the Negev to ∼42,000 y ago (42 ka). Here, we provide 14C and optically stimulated luminescence dates obtained from a recent excavation of Boker Tachtit. The new dates show that the early phase at Boker Tachtit, the Emirian, dates to 50 through 49 ka, while the late phase dates to 47.3 ka and ends by 44.3 ka. These results show that the IUP started in the Levant during the final stages of the Late Middle Paleolithic some 50,000 y ago. The later IUP phase in the Negev chronologically overlaps with the Early Upper Paleolithic Ahmarian of the Mediterranean woodland region between 47 and 44 ka.We conclude that Boker Tachtit is the earliest manifestation of the IUP in Eurasia. The study shows that distinguishing the chronology of the IUP from the Late Middle Paleolithic, as well as from the Early Upper Paleolithic, is much more complex than previously thought.
Journal Article
Across Cultures, Across Languages. Interconnectivity in the Late Bronze Age Ugarit
The spread of cuneiform writing and associated linguistic and literary traditions represents one of the key moments in the cultural history of the ancient Near East. This complex and multilayered process can indisputable be considered an excellent example of cultural transfer. Its long duration and the state of preservation of the sources allow us to follow this process in its entirety, but also to focus on specific details. The aim of this article is to identify the importance of cultural transfer in the Akkadian texts of Ugarit, more specifically with respect to the origins of the phrase “according to the loyalty of someone’s heart”.
Journal Article
Ancient trash mounds unravel urban collapse a century before the end of Byzantine hegemony in the southern Levant
The historic event of the Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA) was recently identified in dozens of natural and geological climate proxies of the northern hemisphere. Although this climatic downturn was proposed as a major cause for pandemic and extensive societal upheavals in the sixth–seventh centuries CE, archaeological evidence for the magnitude of societal response to this event is sparse. This study uses ancient trash mounds as a type of proxy for identifying societal crisis in the urban domain, and employs multidisciplinary investigations to establish the terminal date of organized trash collection and high-level municipal functioning on a city-wide scale. Survey, excavation, sediment analysis, and geographic information system assessment of mound volume were conducted on a series of mounds surrounding the Byzantine urban settlement of Elusa in the Negev Desert. These reveal the massive collection and dumping of domestic and construction waste over time on the city edges. Carbon dating of charred seeds and charcoal fragments combined with ceramic analysis establish the end date of orchestrated trash removal near the mid-sixth century, coinciding closely with the beginning of the LALIA event and outbreak of the Justinian Plague in the year 541. This evidence for societal decline during the sixth century ties with other arguments for urban dysfunction across the Byzantine Levant at this time. We demonstrate the utility of trash mounds as sensitive proxies of social response and unravel the time–space dynamics of urban collapse, suggesting diminished resilience to rapid climate change in the frontier Negev region of the empire.
Journal Article
CONFIRMED OCCURRENCE OF PHARAOH CARDINAL FISH APOGONICHTHYOIDES PHARAONIS (OSTEICHTHYES: APOGONIDAE) FROM THE SYRIAN COAST (EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA)
L'articolo documenta la cattura di un secondo esemplare di Apogonichthyoides pharaonis (Bellotti, 1874) lungo le coste siriane. L'esemplare in questione è un adulto di 97 mm di lunghezza totale (TL), 75 mm di lunghezza standard (SL) e 19 g di peso. Questa cattura conferma la presenza di una popolazione vitale di A. pharaonis nell'area, indicando che la specie abbia trovato qui risorse adeguate allo sviluppo e la riproduzione.
Journal Article
The Role of Scientific Family Traditions in Societal Advancement in the Levant and Egypt:A Focus on Ibn Saghīr’s Family (478-759 AH / 1085-1357 AD)
The current study aims to emphasize the importance of the ethical and scientific standards in child-rearing, encouraging parents to raise their children with a mindset that reflects the goals of modern society for holistic individual and societal growth. Additionally, it encourages the need to urge the ruling authority in the country to adopt a vision that reinforce and support the family unit’s role in society. The findings show that the Ibn Saghīr family maintained its esteemed reputation in Islamic history for over 280 years, due to their commitment to a well-rounded and morally-grounded education. This approach led to the emergence of around eighteen scholars, including a Hadīth scholar, jurist, poet, historian, engineer, and astronomer. They all spent their lives in significantly contributing to various fields within the Islamic community, such as science, administration, economics, and others. The government of that era recognized their contributions by appointing them on prominent positions like judge, minister, teacher, financial supervisor and royal envoy, honoring their academic achievements, administrative skill, and integrity.
Journal Article
Horizon scanning for invasive alien species with the potential to threaten biodiversity and human health on a Mediterranean island
Invasive alien species (IAS) are one of the major drivers of change that can negatively affect biodiversity, ecosystem functions and services and human health; islands are particularly vulnerable to biological invasions. Horizon scanning can lead to prioritisation of IAS to inform decision-making and action; its scale and scope can vary depending on the need. We focussed on IAS likely to arrive, establish and affect biodiversity and human health on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. The scope of the horizon scanning was the entire island of Cyprus. We used a two-step consensus-building process in which experts reviewed and scored lists of alien species on their likelihood of arrival, establishment and potential to affect biodiversity, ecosystems and/or human health in the next 10 years. We reviewed 225 alien species, considered to be currently absent on Cyprus, across taxa and environments. We agreed upon 100 species that constituted very high, high or medium biodiversity risk, often arriving through multiple pathways of introduction. The remaining 125 species were ranked as low risk. The potential impacts on human health were documented for all 225 species; 82 species were considered to have a potentially negative impact on human health ranging from nuisance to disease transmission. The scope of the horizon scanning was the entire island of Cyprus, but the thematic groups also considered the relevance of the top 100 species to the Sovereign Base Areas of Cyprus, given their differing governance. This horizon scan provides the first systematic exercise to identify invasive alien species of potential concern to biodiversity and ecosystems but also human health within the Mediterranean region. The process and outcomes should provide other islands in the region and beyond with baseline data to improve IAS prioritisation and management.
Journal Article