In Colonial Encounters in Southwest Canaan during the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age Koch offers a detailed analysis of local responses to colonial rule, and to its collapse.

This volume examines the power relationships between the rulers of the Late Bronze and Iron Age and their subjects in the Levant through the lens of "cultural hegemony." It explores the impact of these foreign powers on all social classes and reconstructs the public presence of cultural control. The book serves to determine the impact of foreign control on the daily lives of those living in the ancient Levant and offers a means by which to attempt to discuss non-elites in the ancient Near East. It examines expressions of foreign ideology within public performance such as religious expressions and in public places, observable by all social classes, which assert control or dominance over local identity markers. In utilizing textual, epigraphic, and archaeological records, it paints a more complete picture of Levantine society during this time while also drawing upon evidence from neighbouring Anatolia, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. This is a fascinating resource for students and scholars of the ancient Near East, particularly the Levant but also Anatolia, Egypt, and Mesopotamia in the Late Bronze and Iron Age periods. It is also useful for scholars working on power and imperialism across history.

The area of the Judean Foothills – the biblical Shephelah – has in recent years become one of the most intensively excavated regions in the world. Numerous projects, at sites of different types and utilizing various methodological approaches, are actively excavating in this region. Of particular importance are the discoveries dating to the Iron Age, a period when this region was a transition zone between various cultures—Philistine, Canaanite, Judahite, and Israelite. The current volume includes reports from eight of the excavations currently being conducted in the region (Azekah, Beth Shemesh, Gezer, Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tel Burna, Tel Halif, Tell es-Safi/Gath, and Tel Zayit), as well as a general study of the region by Ido Koch. The importance of this volume lies not only in the fact that it collects up-to-date reports on most of the current excavations in the region but also demonstrates the lively, at times even boisterous, scholarly discussions taking place on various issues relating to the archaeology and history of the Iron Age Shephelah and its immediate environs. This volume serves as an excellent introduction to current research on the Iron Age in this crucial zone and also serves as a reflection of current trends, methodologies, and approaches in the archaeology of the Southern Levant.

Ponder questions of the united monarchy under Saul and David in light of current historical and archaeological evidence Reconstructing the emergence of the Israelite monarchy involves interpreting historical research, approaching questions of ancient state formation, synthesizing archaeological research from sites in the southern Levant, and reexamining the biblical traditions of the early monarchy embedded in the books of Samuel and Kings. Integrating these approaches allows for a nuanced and differentiated picture of one of the most crucial periods in the history of ancient Israel. Rather than attempting to harmonize archaeological data and biblical texts or to supplement the respective approach by integrating only a portion of data stemming from the other, both perspectives come into their own in this volume presenting the results of an interdisciplinary Tübingen–Tel Aviv Research Colloquium. Features: Essays on Israel's monarchy by experts in biblical archaeology and biblical studies Methods for integrating archaeology and biblical traditions in reconstructing ancient Israel's history New research on the sociopolitical process of state formation in Israel and Judah

This book looks back over thousands of years to explore the period in Egyptian history when the Bible identifies that Ancient Israel was resident in Egypt. It asks and answers one very simple question: What new things can we learn about this period of history if we treat the Bible as a valid historical document? Whereas this topic is often approached from either the perspective of the Bible or Egyptology, this work genuinely attempts to occupy the ground between the two. It uses Scripture like a torch carried into the deepest recesses of the established historical facts and theories concerning the late Middle Kingdom period, the Second Intermediate period, and the early New Kingdom period in Egyptian history. Along the way, it considers some of the latest discoveries, innovations, and theories from the world of Egyptology and unearths a trove of tangible points of connection. As such, the narrative forms a two-way perspective, where the biblical account illuminates stubbornly opaque moments in Egyptian history and chronology and where the meticulous work of Egyptologists provides appropriate additional background to the Bible. The result is a sharper perspective of an ancient account that has a surprisingly current application for us all.

Writing in the ancient Mediterranean existed against a backdrop of very high levels of interaction and contact. In the societies around its shores, writing was a dynamic practice that could serve many purposes from a tool used by elites to control resources and establish their power bases to a symbol of local identity and a means of conveying complex information and ideas. This volume presents a group of papers by members of the Contexts of and Relations between Early Writing Systems (CREWS) research team and visiting fellows, offering a range of different perspectives and approaches to problems of writing in the ancient Mediterranean. They focus on practices, viewing writing as something that people do within a wider social and cultural context, and on adaptations, considering the ways in which writing changed and was changed by the people using it.