Cleopatra’s Languages
February 2024 | Vol. 12.2 By Rolf Strootman In Antiquity, Cleopatra VII, the last ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty (ruled 51–30 BCE), was renowned for both her beauty and her intel
Archaeology of the Silk Road: What Lies Ahead?
November 2023 | Vol. 11.11 By Kate Franklin The idea of the Silk Road seems to be everywhere: bestselling books, museum exhibits, conferences, tours, travelogues, and geopolitical
Gender in the Ancient Near East and Egypt
November 2023 | Vol. 11.11 By Stephanie Budin Sex and gender have become central topics of discussion and scholarship in a wide variety of fields, ever since second-wave feminism e
“Sin”: The Hidden History
September 2023 | Vol. 11.9 By David Konstan Sin is a religious concept. In civil law, one is accused of committing a crime, not a sin. But sin is often still more narrowly understo
Who Really Invented the Alphabet?
August 2023 | Vol. 11.8 By Seth Sanders Who really invented the alphabet? Despite its vast influence, we are still uncertain about precisely where the world’s most influential co
Before and After Babel
August 2023 | Vol. 11.8 By Marc Van De Mieroop “But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the sam
The Bible in Arabic
may 2022 | Vol. 10.5 By Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala The earliest references to Arabic translations of the Bible date back to the pre-Islamic period, although at the present time we h
The Social Context of Writing in Ancient Ugarit
April 2022 | Vol. 10.4 By Philip Boyes We often ask, what is writing? A better question is, who is writing? It is very easy to approach ancient writing as something rather abstract
Language Death—The Case of Akkadian
February 2022 | Vol. 10.2 By Johannes Hackl The phenomenon of language death is as old as the recorded history of the world’s languages, if not as old as language itself. Languag
Were There Sumerians?
February 2022 | Vol. 10.2 By Paul Collins The Sumerians can seem very familiar. They have been understood as a distinct people, speaking a common language, who occupied the alluvia