The Myth of the Servant: A New Tale of Kingship from the Ancient Near East
Why do so many of the ancient world’s most famous kings share the same unlikely origin story? The answer may lie in a mythical template first forged in Mesopotamia.
Alexander the Great in Jerusalem
One of the famous scenes of antiquity is that of the visit purportedly paid by Alexander the Great to the temple of Jerusalem. But did Alexander actually visit Jerusalem? And does
Moses in Josephus’ Antiquities: Between Jewish and Greek Traditions
November 2023 | Vol. 11.11 By Ursula Westwood In the Greek and Latin literature of the Roman Empire, Moses occasionally turns up as a wise but sacrilegious Egyptian priest (Strabo)
Prismatic Gilgamesh
October 2022 | Vol. 10.10 By Sophus Helle It is 150 years ago since George Smith, a self-taught Assyriologist working at the British Museum, first translated a line from the Epic
Dreams of Early Ancient Egypt
February 2022 | Vol. 10.2 By Kasia Szpakowska If time travel were possible, we could simply ask Ancient Egyptians about their dreams. Instead, we must make do with the scant record
From Texts to Scribes: Evidence for Writing in Ancient Israel
What do we know about ancient Israel’s scribal culture? Can two words in the biblical text, the verb ‘write’ (katav) and the noun ‘scribe’ (sofer) help us understand the
Concepts and Metaphors in Sumerian
The Sumerian language is unrelated to any other language past or present. While it can be read, making sense of things requires understanding how Sumerians used metaphors. Some are
The Current State of Ugaritic Studies
The coastal Syrian city of Ugarit was only discovered in 1929. Since then it has been the most important source for tablets that reveal the history and culture of the late second m