The Shavei Zion Figurine Assemblage. A Cultic Site at Sea
An underwater discovery off the coast of Israel revealed terracotta figurines. But there was no shipwreck and the finds dated across hundreds of years of the Iron Age. Was this an
Cognitive Science and the Ancient Near Eastern Religious Imagination
Ancient religions imagined all sorts of animals and demons. Cognitive science suggests how humans understood these hybrids, and when they became too much to comprehend.
Temples and Cult Places in Iron Age Transjordan
Many temples and cult places are known from Iron Age Israel but what about in Transjordan? What does a look at these sites reveal about cult and religion in Moab, Ammon, and Edom?
The Symbolic Representation of the Cosmos in the Hittite Rock Sanctuary of Yazılıkaya
The Hittite sanctuary at Yazılıkaya functioned as a calendar. But the carefully carved galleries of gods and goddesses depicted much more, a representation of the cosmos moving t
Monotheism or Monopoly? Akhenaten and His Religious-Political Reform
Few ancient personalities excite as much interest as Akhenaten. Was he an enlightened religious leader and an idealistic politician, or was he mentally ill and physically frail?
Commemorating Jesus: Constantine’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre
March 2021 | Vol. 9.3 By Jordan J. Ryan Since antiquity, Christians have travelled to the region that they call the “Holy Land” in order to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and
The (Historical) Origin of God
March 2021 | Vol. 9.3 By Theodore J. Lewis When a historian of Israelite religion talks of the origin of God, she certainly doesn’t mean ontology. Proofs for the existence of God
Epidemics in Mesopotamia
Epidemics have been with us since long before the dawn of history. Three collections of documents record some of the ways ancient Near Eastern societies suffered and coped.
What is a ‘House of a God’?
Ancient Near Eastern temples are frequently described as a ‘house of a God’? But what can we learn when temples do not resemble houses?
A Calendar in Stone: Hittite Yazılıkaya
All cultures have calendars. Some also make stone monuments. Hittites’ stone calendar included depictions of some of their thousands of gods.