Beginning at 9am on Friday, March 7, and running through 1:30pm on Saturday, the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago will be hosting its annual symposium. This year’s topic is “The Early/Middle Bronze Age Transition in the Ancient Near East: Chronology, C14, and Climate Change.” The symposium is free and open to the public; no registration is required.

During the late third millennium BC one of the biggest transformations of the ancient Near East took place, affecting almost all regions from Egypt to Anatolia and from the Mediterranean Sea to the Iranian plateau. This period not only saw the collapse of urbanization in the southern Levant at the end of the Early Bronze Age III and the following pastoral Intermediate Bronze, and the rise and decline of the Akkad empire in the Upper Euphrates region, but also the end of the Egyptian Old Kingdom in the Nile valley. In recent years it has been argued that climatic reasons, especially rapid climate change in the late third millennium BC (the so-called 4.2 ka BP event) might have triggered this supra-regional collapse in western Asia and Egypt, linking it to a period of aridification and cooling.

This seminar brings together specialists working in different fields of the ancient Near East, including Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, and Syria, as well as scholars working on radiocarbon dating and climate data. Three major topics will be discussed: The radiocarbon evidence for the mid- to late third-millennium BC Near East, the chronological implications of new dates and how historical/archaeological chronologies should/could be adapted, and — based on this evidence — if and how climate change can be related to transitions in the late Early Bronze Age. Furthermore, written sources concerning late Early Bronze Age Near Eastern interrelations and/or transformation and collapse from Egypt to Syria/Mesopotamia will be taken into account.

Here is the list of presenters and topics. Several of them look very interesting. See the website for additional information. The schedule for sessions is located here.

The University of Chicago’s Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion is sponsoring a three-part lecture series on “Assyria in Israel, Judea, and the Levant.”

The first lecture presented by Irene Winter (Harvard University, emerita) is on February 11 (Tuesday). No title is yet provided for this lecture.

The second lecture by David Wright (Brandeis University) on “The Covenant Code Appendix (Exodus 23:20–33) and Assyrian Royal Inscriptions” will be given on February 26 (Wednesday).

The last lecture by Elizabeth Bloch-Smith (Saint Joseph’s University) will address “The Assyrian Military Impact on the Ground and in Biblical Texts” on March 13 (Thursday).

The series will take place in the Divinity School’s Swift Hall Common Room on the 1st floor. Lectures begin at 5:00pm and end at 6:30pm. The website for the lectures is here.

January 8, Wednesday, 7:00 pm

The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago presents a lecture by Hartmut Kühn on “The Collapse of the Assyrian Empire and the Evidence of Dur-Katlimmu.” The event begins at 7:00pm. Registration is free and can be completed here.

The collapse of the Assyrian Empire was the prelude to the end of the Mesopotamian domination of the Ancient Near East in 539 BC to be followed by the Persian hegemony. The metropolitan core region of Assyria laid waste, as is known from extensive excavations in the Assyrian capitals; neither the Babylonian nor the Median successors cared for a reconstruction program. But how did the Assyrian home provinces survive the collapse? This poorly known chapter of history is now elucidated by the long term excavations at Tell Sheikh Hamad (Syria), the Assyrian provincial centre of Dur-Katlimmu. In historiography long thought to have vanished, the Assyrians prove to have lived on, as the archaeological evidence unmistakably demonstrates.

January 18, Saturday, 7:00 pm

The Lanier Theological Library is hosting a lecture by James K. Hoffmeier and Stephen O. Moshier on “Moses Did Not Sleep Here! A Critical Look at Some Sensational Exodus and Mt. Sinai Theories.” Go here for more information and to register for the free event.

Over the past 10-15 years there have been a number of sensational ideas advanced for where and how the Red Sea crossing occurred as the Hebrews departed Egypt and where Mt. Sinai is located. Many of these are known from popular TV programs on the History, Learning, Discovery and National Geographic Channels. Some of these theories, such as the one that has the Israelites crossing the Gulf of Aqaba and landing in Saudi Arabia will be examined biblically, archaeologically (Hoffmeier) and geologically (Moshier). Was Mt. Sinai a volcano? Is there any basis for identifying Mt. Sinai with the traditional site, Gebel Musa? These and other questions will be treated, using film clips, slides and maps.