ANE Today, 3 Apr 2025
The Hittite Prince Who Stole an Empire, A Window on the Silk Road: Archaeology in Medieval Armenia, our Object of the Week, plus the usual round-up of news, books, and other media.
The Hittite Prince Who Stole an Empire
By Trevor Bryce
He was a sickly young child, now close to death. We do not know his birth name, but he was no ordinary child, this. His father was the Great King Mursili, ruler of the Hittite empire, the most powerful Bronze Age kingdom in the Near East. The year is sometime around 1315 BC. Our ailing prince was the youngest of four siblings — there were two older brothers and an older sister. Muwatalli was the eldest, and it was he who would inherit the mantle of Great Kingship when his father died . . .
Friends of ASOR Webinar: Kate Franklin on April 30
Mark your calendar for one of our upcoming FOA Webinars: "A Window on the Silk Road: Archaeology in Medieval Armenia," presented by Dr. Kate Franklin on Wednesday, April 30th at 2:00pm ET. To imagine the medieval Silk Road is to conjure up images of exotic commerce: camel caravans crossing wind-swept dunes, bustling city bazaars, silks and spices spilling from saddlebags. If these images loom large in modern imaginations of the Silk Road, how did people actually living in the Middle Ages think about long distance trade and travel? Drawing on textual, architectural and archaeological evidence, this talk explores the social lives of people living not in the city centers of medieval commerce, but in the places in-between, along the road.
Read more about Dr. Franklin's talk and register ahead of time here.
In the News:
Archaeologists find evidence of biblical king who died in battle at Armageddon (Daily Mail)
Archaeologists and indigenous scholars call for better care of animal remains (phys.org)
Archaeologists reconstruct the scents of ancient mummification (Hyperallergic)
Human sacrifices found in a Bronze Age tomb in Turkey were mostly teenage girls (LiveScience)
Rare early copy of the Book of the Dead from Memphis identified (Finestre sull’Arte)
Object of the Week:
New Books to Explore:
The Victorians and the Holy Land: Adventurers, Tourists, and Archaeologists in the Lands of the Bible, by Allan Chapman
Making Memories in Ancient Egypt, by Leire Olabarria (free download until April 8)
Rabbinic Parodies of Jewish and Christian Literature, by Holger M. Zellentin (open access!)
Thutmose III and Hatshepsut, Pharaohs of Egypt: Their Lives and Afterlives, by Aidan Dodson
Palace Gardens in Lower Mesopotamia, 8th to 11th centuries, by Safa Mahmoudian
Histories of Political Thought in the Ottoman World, edited by Nedim Nomer and Kaya Şahin
Museum Exhibits:
Le mystère Cléopâtre (Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris)
Latest Podcasts:
Latest YouTube:
Recreated: Assyrian Bronze Age Cake (Table of Gods)
What’s Inside These Ancient Egyptian Jars? (Nova | PBS)
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In Case You Missed It:
Putting Carthaginian Stelae Back Into Context: The ASOR Punic Project Digital Initiative
By Brien Garnand
The investigation of Punic stelae from Carthage has a long and storied history. Through computer modeling and collation of legacy archival data, the ASOR Punic Project will provide context for this corpus and make the data widely available. Read more here.
Badè Museum Lecture Series: “Caucasus Connections: Kura-Araxes Migration and Diaspora in the 3rd Millennium BCE, a View from the Southern Levant”
Thursday, April 3, 2025 at 9:30 am PT: Dr. Sarit Paz, Ca’Foscari University, Venice
This lecture series, presented by the Badè Museum of Biblical Archaeology and co-sponsored by the Archaeological Research Facility at UC Berkeley begins September 26, 2024 through May 15, 2025. Watch live on the ARF YouTube Channel or view later on the ARF & Badè YouTube channels.
ECS Research in Action Talk: Rennan Lemos
Join ASOR’s Early Career Scholars on April 4, 2025 at 12:00pm ET via Zoom for a virtual Research in Action talk from Dr. Rennan Lemos about cultural heritage in Sudan. Drawing on archival materials and recent fieldwork, this talk will explore how Sudan’s archaeological heritage has been endangered—first by the flooding of Lower Nubia and now by war—and how a history of major threats has shaped the region’s heritage. Read more here.
Badè Museum Lecture Series: “Shifting Boundaries, Moving People? Investigating Change in Archaic Western Anatolia”
Thursday, April 17, 2025 at 9:30 am PT: Dr. Jana Mokrišová, University of Cambridge
This lecture series, presented by the Badè Museum of Biblical Archaeology and co-sponsored by the Archaeological Research Facility at UC Berkeley begins September 26, 2024 through May 15, 2025. Watch live on the ARF YouTube Channel or view later on the ARF & Badè YouTube channels.
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Published with the assistance of The Lanier Theological Library and Stevan Dana