This collection of papers is primarily concerned with wheeled transport in antiquity. They shed much light on the construction of the vehicles, the ways their draught animals were harnessed and controlled, and on the uses to which the equipages were put. Ridden animals also feature in this collection of papers.

This collection of papers is primarily concerned with transport by wheeled vehicle in antiquity. They shed much light on the construction of the vehicles, the ways their draught animals were harnessed and controlled, and the uses to which the equipages were put. The evidence discussed includes actual remains of vehicles and bridles, as well as figured and textual documents. Ridden animals and their gear also feature in this collection of papers. The Selected Writings of Mary B. Littauer and Joost H. Crouwel are important for all those interested in the cultures of the ancient Near East, Egypt and Cyprus and of Bronze Age Greece.

In this volume, Kenneth Way explores the role of donkeys in the symbolism and ceremonies of the biblical world. His study stands alone in providing a comprehensive examination of donkeys in ancient Near Eastern texts, the archaeological record, and the Hebrew Bible. Way demonstrates that donkeys held a distinct status in the beliefs and rituals of the ancient Near East and especially Canaan-Israel. The focus on ceremony and symbol encompasses social and religious thoughts and practices that are reflected in ancient texts and material culture relating to the donkey. Ceremonial considerations include matters of sacrifice, treaty ratification, consumption, death, burial, “scapegoat” rituals, and foundation deposits; symbolic considerations include matters of characterization, association, function, behavior, and iconographic depiction. However, the distinction between ceremony and symbol is not strict. In many cases, these two categories are symbiotic. The need for this study on donkeys is very apparent in the disciplines that study the biblical world. There is not a single monograph or article that treats this subject comprehensively. Philologists have discussed the meaning of the Amorite phrase “to kill a jackass,” and archaeologists have discussed the phenomenon of equid burials. But until now, neither philologists nor archaeologists have attempted to pull together all the ceremonial and symbolic data on donkeys from burials, ancient Near Eastern texts, and the Hebrew Bible. Way’s study fills this void.

New Perspectives on Ancient Warfare explores the armies of antiquity from Assyria and Persia, to classical Greece and Rome. The studies illustrate the ways in which technology, innovation, cultural exchange, and tactical developments transformed ancient warfare by land and sea.

It all probably was a tale.However, serious research does identify some events, from about a thousand years before the Common Era, that qualify as the bases of the epic’s plot. Apparently, collective memory evolved significantly through the centuries before their stories, legends, and allegories took the forms that we know from the epic today.And yet, even if no set of historical events can be found to correspond with epic episodes, its many stories, legends, and allegories nevertheless conform to themes that were at one time authentic. In other words, whether or not epic episodes were historical, the ideas and concepts they represent were.It is with these ideas and concepts that Framing the Mahabharata weaves the pattern of South Asian society as it evolved through the cusp of the Bronze and Iron Ages, developing motifs we are familiar with today. Against this pattern, it reconstructs the military tactics, technology, and sociology that marked the interplay of nomadic and sedentary folks, most poignantly depicted in the career of war-chariots.