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A. Name and geography [German source] The name Israel (Egyptian ysrʾr, Moabite yšrʾl, Assyrian Sir-ʾi-la-a-a [51200]; Hebrew Yiśrȧ’ẹl) is first attested in an inscription of Pharaoh Merneptah (1224–1205/1213–1204/03) on his ‘Israel Stela’ (1209) [52168–171], and it serves here as an ethnonym (although it may at the same time also be a geographical term referring to Mount Ephraim) [1758 f.]; [137–43]. There is no agreement on the meaning of the name [51200]. This evidence puts Israel in Mount Ephraim between the Jezreel Valley in the north and the highlands of…

A. Names, significance, chronology [German source] Three factors determined the history of Cyprus (indigenous and Greek name: Kýpros; Neo-Assyrian  Jad(a)nana; Hebrew  aeraeṣ kittim, ‘isles of Kittim’; Egyptian probably  iw, on the stela of Amasis at Elephantine) in the LBA and IA. The first was the rich reserves of copper ore on the edge of the Troödos Mountains [20]. Copper ore was a rare material in the Mediterranean, and smelting and exporting it guaranteed economic prosperity (on copper from Tamassus, cf. Hom. Od. 1,183–185). Such activities are confirmed by archaeological findings in the environs…

A. Terminological and geographical definition [German source] There is a variety of competing names and concepts for the Levant in the scholarly literature. Ancient sources, for instance, use the term  Amurru (‘land of the west’) to refer to the regions between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean (without defining a northern or southern boundary) from the 3rd millennium on (Canaan 2.7.4.) [4224–48]; [211–15]; [134–38]. At the time of the Assyrian king Sanherib (705–681), Phoenicia, the land of the Philistines and the kingdoms of eastern Jordan were also considered part of Amurru […

A. Name, geography and history [German source] The province of Canaan (Phoenician  knʿn, Hebrew kenaʿan, Akkadian kinaʿanu/kinaḫḫu/kinaḫnu; Greek  Kanaán; [29352]; etymology uncertain [29352]) stretched from the environs of its main city, Gaza, in the southwest, to north of Beirut, where it met its northern neighbour Amurru (capital Ṣumur). It was bordered on the east by the province of Upe, with its capital at Kumidi in the Beqaʿ Valley, and the Dead Sea [14555–557]. The territory of Ammonitis (Ammon 2.7.8.) did not belong to Canaan [10162 f.].The earliest evidence of …

A. General principles [German source] Scholars often treat the religions of the Levant (Eastern Mediterranean world 2.7.) in the context of the ‘Fertile Crescent’. This concept, however, brings together the religions of Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Egypt as dominant, while tending to neglect those of the Aramaeans (2.7.2.), the Phoenician cities 2.7.3., Israel (2.7.5.) and Judah (2.7.6.). Lumping cultures like Egypt and Mesopotamia together also …

A. Definition, origins and settlement [German source] The Aramaeans’ settlement region extended from central and upper Mesopotamia through northern Syria and southern Anatolia to central and southern Syria and Palaestina. This geographical range gave rise to ethnic, political, military, economic and cultural co…

A. Name, geography and history [German source] The etymology and meaning of the name Judah (Hebrew Yǝhudȧ) are obscure […

[German source] There is evidence of a Phoenician presence on Crete (2.5.12.) at Kommos on the island’s southern coast, beginning in the late 9th century. There may have been a Phoenician port of call here for trade and ship repair. Apart from Phoenician pottery, the evidence consists of a sacellum in Sanctuary B, dating from around 800–760. Three freestanding cult stelae were found here on a pedestal; they have been interpreted as baityloi for unnamed Phoenician deities. There was an site for offerings in front of these stelae, and a bronze shi…

A. Name, Geographie und GeschichteDer Name Juda (hebr. Yǝhudȧ) ist in seiner Etymologie und Bedeutung unklar [48200]. Das Land Juda umfasste urspr. das Gebirgsland zwischen Jerusalem im N und Hebron im S. Grenzen waren gegeben mit den Philistern im W, Israel (2.7.5.) im N, dem Toten Meer im O und dem Negev im S (P-A 45).…

Die Präsenz von Phöniziern auf Kreta (2.5.12.) lässt sich ab dem E. des 9. Jh.s in Kommos an der Südküste de…

A. Definition, Herkunft und AnsiedlungDie Siedlungsgebiete der Aramäer erstreckten sich von Mittel- und Obermesopotamien über N-Syrien und S-Anatolien bis nach Mittel- und S-Syrien sowie nach Palästina. Aufgrund dieser geogr. Verbreitung ergaben sich Kontakte ethnischer, polit., mil., wirtschaftlicher und kultureller Art mit Babylonien, Assyrien, Anatolien (Luwischer Kulturraum 2.6.10.), Phönizischen Städten (2.7.3.), Israel (2.7.5.) und Juda (2.7.6.), Ammon (2.7.8.) sowie Ägypten (Unterägypten 2.8.…

Die Präsenz und Aktivität von Phöniziern (= Ph.) in Kleinasien ist gut nachweisbar [12]; [19]; [14]; [29]; [20109–143]; [1025–88] (Luwischer Kulturraum 2.6.10.), insbes. durch diverse phöniz. Inschriften (zur Verbreitung vgl. die Karte [26913 f.]). Ihr zeitl. Beginn lässt sich möglicherweise mittels einer Vase des 11. Jh.s aus Zypern bestimmen, die urspr. aus Kilikien stammt [20110–113]. Die weiteren phöniz. Inschriften aus Kleinasien gehören in das 9.–7. Jh. Deren älteste sind die Inschrift des …

A. Begriffliche und geographische DefinitionIn der wiss. Literatur konkurrieren unterschiedliche Namen und Konzepte zum Levante-Raum. So findet sich in ant. Quellen zunächst Amurru (Westland), womit seit dem 3. Jt. die Regionen westl. des Euphrat bis hin zum Mittelmeer benannt wurden, ohne nähere Abgrenzung nach N und S (Kanaan 2.7.4.) [4224–48]; [211–15]; [134–38]. Zur Zeit des assyr. Königs Sanherib (705–681) wurden auch Phönizien, das Philisterland und die ostjordanischen Königreiche als Amurru bezeichnet [215]. Ferner war die Red…

A. Name, Geographie und GeschichteDie Provinz Kanaan (phöniz . knʿn, hebr. kenaʿan, akkad. kinaʿanu/kinaḫḫu/kinaḫnu; griech. Kanaán; [29352]; Etymologie nicht gesichert [29352]) erstreckte sich vom Gebiet um den Hauptort Gaza im SW bis in das Gebiet nördl. von Beirut; hier wurde sie durch Amurru mit dem Hauptort Ṣumur begrenzt, im O durch die Provinz Upe mit Kumidi in der Beqaʿ-Ebene als Hauptort und das Tote Meer [14555–557]. Die Ammonitis (Ammon 2.7.8.) gehörte nicht zu Kanaan [10162 f.]. Die frühesten Belege zu Kanaanäern begegnen um 1750 in den Mari-Briefen (A 3552 Rs 9) [3]; [18398]…

A. Allgemeine Grundlagen Östlicher Mittelmeerraum 2.7. | Aramäer (2.7.2.) | Phönizische Städte 2.7.3. | Israels (2.7.5.) | Judas (2.7.6.)Eine weitere Problematik der Konzeption des fruchtbaren Halbmondes liegt darin, dass hier Kulturen wie die Ägyptens und Mesopotamiens zusammen gesehen, die zwischen ihnen bestehenden Unterschiede aber außer Acht gelassen werden. Dagegen befasst sich ein alternatives Konzept mit der Frage, »ob es auf kulturellem und religiösem Gebiet im Altertum neben den Gemeinsamkeiten des fruchtbaren Halbmonds nicht auch, in mancher Hinsicht gegenläufig dazu, eine Art levantinischen Halbkreises um das östl. un…

A. Namen, Bedeutung, ChronologieDrei Faktoren bestimmten die Geschichte Zyperns (Eigenbenennung und griech. Kýpros; neuassyr. Jad(a)nana; hebr. aeraeṣ kittim, »Land der Kittäer«; vermutlich ägypt. iw auf der Stele des Amasis in Elephantine) in der SBrz. wie auch der Ez.: (1) Die reichen Vorkommen von Kupfererz in den Randgebieten des Troodosgebirges [20], einem im Mittelmeergebiet raren Rohstoff, dessen Verhüttung und Export ökonomische Prosperität garantierten (zu Kupfer aus Tamassos vgl. Hom.Od. 1,183–185). Dies wird durch arch. Befunde etwa in der Umgebung von Tamassos…

A. Name und GeographieDer Name Israel (ägypt. ysrʾr, moabitisch yšrʾl, assyr. Sir-ʾi-la-a-a [51200]; hebr. Yiśrȧ’ẹl) wird zum ersten Mal in der Inschrift des Pharao Merenptah (1224–1205/1213–1204/03) auf seiner Israel-Stele von 1209 erwähnt [52168–171], wobei ›Israel‹ hier als Ethnikon steht (was aber eine geogr. Bezeichnung, die das Gebirge Ephraim meint, nicht ausschließt) [1758 f.]; [137–43]. Konsens über die Bedeutung des Namens Israel besteht nicht [51200]. Israel liegt demzufolge im Gebirge Ephraim zwischen der Jesreel-Ebene im N und dem Bergland von…

[German Version] The Phoenician personal name Sanchuniaton (“Sakun has given”) appears in Greek in passages from the writers Porphyry and Philo of Byblos quoted by the church father Eusebius of Caesarea ( …

[German Version] I. The State of Israel – II. History – III. Society I. The State of Israel The formal full name, State of Israel (Heb. Medinat Yisrael), calls attention to the spatial divergence between the political entity and the geographical and historical Erets Israel (Land of Israel, Palestine and its linguistic equivalents). Israel is located in southwest Asia, on the southern stretch of the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. In its northern half, inland from the shore, is the coastal area and further east are the hills, from n…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. Legal History I. Religious Studies Trial by ordeal is a means of decision-making as to the guilt or innocence of a suspect in legal cases where there is no available evidence or testimony, and where no guilty plea has been entered. In place of an oath, but in ¶ line with the inherent logic of the oath, a conditional self-curse was sometimes employed; this would apply in cases where, for example, a slave was disqualified from a hearing under oath, and a divine declaration of the truth was sought, as a special case of divination. Although trial by ordeal (Ger. Gottesurteil, Lat. iudicium Dei) assumes a personal God who is willing to establish the truth and is capable, on the basis of his omniscience, of being the supreme and final authority, the various ways in which trial by ordeal is carried out suggest the notion of an almost automatic result from potentially dangerous elements: in trial by fire, the innocent person under ordeal is able to withstand touching fire or hot iron. In trial by water, the manacled suspect sinks if innocent (being accepted by the water, as it were); if guilty, he or she is rejected by the water and so swims (this was often applied as a test of witches as late as the 15th and 16th cents.). In trial by food, in the case of the poison ordeal, especially widespread in Africa, the poison harms or kills the guilty. In all these cases, however, the conclusiveness of the ordeal is tied to ability to survive such trials, and ultimately, such survivals are supernatural or miraculous, as in the testing of evidence by the so-called ordeal of the bier, in which the corpse of the murdered person starts to bleed in the presence of his unidentified murderer. The eschatological ordeals of Zoroastrianism (Zarathustra) are intended to correspond to the execution of justice and the investigation of the guilty, and their identification. Not only does the soul of the righteous deceased pass with ease over the “bridge of the decider” (Činvat Bridge) to its final habitation in the hereafter, while the soul of the enemy of the faith discovers the bridge to be like a sharp sword which it cannot cross, and plummets into an infernal abyss (Bundahišn, ch. 30); but also, at the end of time, all mankind has to step through fire and molten metal. The righteous will experience this glowing heat as “lukewarm milk,” but …

[German Version] (“Black Hill”), an ancient fortified hill in Cilicia. Together with the neighboring fortress Domuztepe, it dominates the overland route from northern Syria and Cilicia to Central Anatolia across the Anti-Taurus mountain range. Now a Turkish city, it lies roughly 100 km northeast of Adana. Following the discovery of the archaeological site in 1946, excavations uncovered the upper and lower city on the Karatepe from 1947 onward. A considerable stir was caused by the Phoenician and Hieroglyphic-Luwian inscriptions on the door-jamb orthostats of

[German Version] I. Religious Studies There are two basic types of interaction between trade and religion: trade growing out of the practice of religion and religious phenomena as by-products of trade. Only in exceptional cases do both have equal weight. Trade can arise from the need for sacrificial offerings, as well as for special vestments and regalia for religious specialists and other officiants, and …

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[German Version] While Canaanites are already mentioned in the Mari correspondence (mid-18th cent. bce), the place name Canaan appears fo…

[German Version] In order to understand the title שֹׁפֵט/šopeṭ, fundamental to the office of judge, reference should be made to the institution of the šāpiṭu in Mari in the 18th century bce and to the office of the Suffetes among the Phoenicians and in Carthage from the 6th century bce onward. It is a non-royal office of leadership in various realms. The list-like enumeration in Judg 10:1–5; 12:7–15 suggests that a pre-deuteronomistic tradition, which cannot be dated more precisely, knew of an office of leadership over the tribes of Israel in …