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The origins of Abrahamic monotheism are traditionally attributed to culture heroes such as Abraham and Moses. Secular scholars instead assign a later date to these development, during the period of the Babylonian Exile or even later. Despite this late date, however, tendencies towards monotheism must have been developing in the centuries prior to the Exile as well. Usually the focus is on the Southern Kingdom of Judah. This is mostly because after the fall of the Northern Kingdom we witness a sharp increase in prophetic activity in the south. However, when tracing back the lines it appears that this prophetic movement had northern origins, as can be deducted from the prophetic activities of Elijah and his followers. This Elijah and his movement were in turn inspired by the political developments that took place in the small but also young and dynamic Kingdom of Israel. Therefore, I have dedicated this post to this obscure but very interesting kingdom.

Continue reading “Rise and fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel”

History, to me, is a source of inspiration. My desire to learn more about ancient civilizations and all aspects of their cultures is driven by an inner passion that is hard to rationalize. I view people who try to make history relevant by drawing far-fetched and forced parallels between past and present or using it for political purposes with suspicion. It’s not that I think we cannot learn from the past, but the lessons that we draw from history are highly subjective and they will always be. Of course we as historians will always try to get as close as possible to objective truth about the past, but I am sure that all of us have chosen the field of history out of a love for the object of our study. Therefore, the best way to teach children – or anyone for that matter – about history is by inspiring an interest in them that will make them find out more. In order to illustrate this concept, I will discuss the book that inspired me, as a child, to learn more about ancient history: the Children’s Encyclopedia of History – First Civilisations to the Fall of Rome.

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In AD 94 Flavius Josephus, a romanized Jew, set out to write a history of the Jewish people aimed at an educated Graeco-Roman audience. Although he was an observant Jew who was born into a priestly family and even took part in the First Jewish Revolt against Rome (AD 66-73), Josephus soon came to recognize that resistance against the Roman Empire was futile and instead tried to reconciliate his Jewish faith with Graeco-Roman culture. In his Antiquities of the Jews Josephus seeks to present the history of his own people in a way to which this Graeco-Roman elite could relate, often going out of his way to emphasize similarities between Judaism and Graeco-Roman philosophy and to corroborate events mentioned in the Bible by referring to other Graeco-Roman historians. The Antiquities are interesting for many different reasons. This article will only scratch the surface.

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In the late 24th century BC Sargon of Akkad conquered all Sumerian city states and established his Semitic kinsmen as governors over them, thus creating the first multiethnic state. Sargon then set out on a series of conquest that would bring him to the edges of the known world and win him the reputation of an unrivaled world conquering hero. Although his empire was shortlived, Sargon established the Akkadian language and culture as a dominant presence in the Near East for millennia to come and Near Eastern kings up until the time of Alexander the Great tried to emulate his conquests. Although Sargon started a new imperial tradition, he did not exist in a vacuum. Therefore, let us look at the historical context and see which factors gave rise to the phenomenon known as the Akkadian Empire.

Continue reading “Sargon of Akkad in his Historical Context”

The nomadic peoples of the Eurasian steppes have always fascinated me. Although these nomads have maintained a relatively primitive lifestyle up until the nineteenth century, they have also given rise to many of history’s largest land empires. Despite the fact that the Eurasian steppes were seen by many as the edge of the civilized world, many prominent peoples in history – most noticeable the Indo-Iranians and the Turks – have migrated from there. What exactly makes these ‘primitive’ peoples from these ‘desolate wastelands’ so successful? This question has consumed anthropologists for decades. The successes of these nomads seem to defy the notion that only economically complex societies can form states and empires. Luckily, there has been a movement among anthropologists dedicated to studying these nomadic societies, in order to find out in which ways these economically simple societies may evolve to a high level of political complexity. Their findings have been published in a bundle titled Nomadic Pathway in Social Evolution (2003).

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A few days ago I discussed Caesar’s Commentaries on the Gallic Wars. In that article I proposed the hypothesis that Caesar modeled himself after Alexander the Great in his ambitions to be a world conquering hero. Alexander was not the first world conquering hero, however, since he himself explicitly tried to model himself after the Persian kings. The Persian kings, in turn, modeled themselves after their Babylonian and Assyrian predecessors. Ever since the reign of Sargon of Akkad (2334-2279 BC), Mesopotamian kings tried to present themselves as world conquering heroes who, with the help of the gods, established their righteous rule over the earth. Like Julius Caesar, these Assyrian and Babylonian kings issued yearly reports of their campaigns, in which they recorded their victories and other impressive deeds. Since Assyrian kings did not have to deal with pesky senators who thought absolute monarchy was a bad idea, they could be very explicit and in-your-face with their ambitions of world conquest. They also didn’t use the neutral sounding third person, but made sure that they used the first person wherever possible. One of the most interesting and best preserved Assyrian royal inscriptions is Sennacherib’s Taylor Prism.

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Most written accounts of historical events are based on information from oral tradition. Whether we are dealing with early reports or historiographical works written centuries after the events, the information was spread by word of mouth before it reached the author. For this reason alone historians should familiarize themselves with the ways in which oral tradition preserves and transmits memories of historical events. In order to judge the reliability of a source, one should always try to reconstruct the way by which the information reached the author, for even the most objective narrator is only as reliable as his most reliable sources. Despite the importance of oral tradition in history, a truly systematic study of oral tradition started relatively late. One of the founding fathers of this systematic study is the Belgian anthropologist Jan Vansina, whose Oral Tradition as History (1985) is still authoritive to this day.

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Caesar’s commentaries on the Gallic Wars – the Commentarii de Bello Gallico – are one of the most accessible Latin texts. Because of it’s clear prose, straightforward message and lack of complex poetic constructions, it is often used as a practice text for students of Latin. This, in turn, has made the Roman conquest of Gaul one of the most widely known episodes in Roman history. Moreover, it has given schoolchildren of all times the chance to read the work of one of history’s greatest generals: Julius Caesar. Whether you love him or hate him, Caesar certainly was a talented writer in addition to being a great general. He managed to captivate the people of Rome with his commentaries on the Gallic Wars, which contributed greatly to his political success. It is therefore of great importance to understand the political context of his work.

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The transition to agriculture is perhaps the most pervasive change in human history. The agricultural revolution allowed mankind to settle down, to grow in number and to develop various crafts that were not directly related to the collection of food. This in turn led to the rise of cities and states that could effectively rule millions of people. Because the sedentary agricultural people had many advantages over the nomadic hunter-gatherers, their way of life came to dominate the world. From 9000 BC onward, farming spread slowly and steadily across the world. However, the agricultural revolution was not always a smooth one-way process, as this research by Gulio Lucarini illustrates. In fact, the benefits of agriculture were not always as obvious as they appear to us now and in some regions the agricultural revolution even met with resistance.

Continue reading “Haua Fteah – Resistance to agriculture during the Neolithic”

According to the Gospel of Matthew, wise men from the east visited Jesus shortly after his birth. Having followed a star that signified the savior’s birth, they had come to worship the new king and to bring gifts in the form of myrrh, frankincense and gold. This episode in the Nativity story has baffled many people ever since. Because Matthew doesn’t give a lot of background information on these wise men and the reasons of their visit, the narrative has been subject to many different interpretations. However, with today’s knowledge of Ancient Near Eastern cultures, we might just be able to understand this episode a little better.

Continue reading “Who were the three Wise Men?”