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New Edition of Pritchard’s Anthologies

Princeton University Press has released a new, single-volume edition of The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures, edited by James B. Pritchard. It is available in hardback ($81 at Amazon) or paperback ($26 at Amazon).

With more than 130 reading selections and 300 photographs of ancient art, architecture, and artifacts, this volume provides a stimulating introduction to some of the most significant and widely studied texts of the ancient Near East, including the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Creation Epic (Enuma elish), the Code of Hammurabi, and the Baal Cycle. For students of history, religion, the Bible, archaeology, and anthropology, this anthology provides a wealth of material for understanding the ancient Near East. (publisher’s website)

When we heard about this, we thought there might be a few questions.

Q: What’s the difference between this and ANET?

A: ANET is short for Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. It was also edited by J. Pritchard, but it is larger and contains more texts. The first edition of ANET was published in 1950, the second edition in 1955, and the third edition in 1969.

Pritchard also published a companion volume to ANET entitled The Ancient Near East in Pictures Relating to the Old Testament, commonly known as ANEP. The first edition of ANEP was published in 1954 and a second edition was published in 1969.

Pritchard subsequently edited two volumes of anthologies which are abridgments of ANET and ANEP. The first volume, The Ancient Near East, An Anthology of Texts and Pictures, was published in 1958, and the second volume, The Ancient Near East, A New Anthology of Texts and Pictures, was published in 1975.

This new Princeton edition has combined and reformatted the material of these two abridged anthologies. From our perusal of chapter one in Amazon’s “Look Inside!” it appears almost nothing has changed, including even footnotes and cross-references to ANET and the Bible. The differences between this new volume and ANET are: (1) ANET and ANEP contain more translated texts and pictures, (2) they cost a lot more, and (3) the layout of this new anthology will make it easier to find what you are looking for.

Q: Where can I find more information about this?

A: The Princeton University Press page includes the table of contents and a pdf of chapter one, which is John Wilson’s translations of “Egyptian Myths and Tales.” You can also read portions at Amazon and at Google Books.

While we’re on the subject of anthologies of ancient text translations, Kevin Edgecomb a few years ago helpfully compiled a comparison chart listing the translations included in ANET and COS. The chart shows that ANET includes many texts that did not make it into COS. According to Edgecomb’s blog, ANET has 221 texts not included in COS, and COS has 525 texts not included in ANET.

Tagged Resources

Oriental Institute Works Online

The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago continues to make available older but valuable resources in pdf format. In the next few weeks, all of the titles from the Oriental Institute series will be online. Some recent additions include:

The Sumerian King List. By Thorkild Jacobsen. Assyriological Studies 11. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1939

The Excavation of Armageddon. By Clarence S. Fisher. Oriental Institute Communications 4. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1929

The Annals of Sennacherib. By Daniel David Luckenbill. Oriental Institute Publication 2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1924

The Babylonian Genesis: The Story of Creation. By Alexander Heidel. Miscellaneous publication. Second edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951

The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels. By Alexander Heidel. Miscellaneous publication. Second edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1949

The full catalog is accessible here. The current issue of The Oriental Institute News & Notes is also
available.

HT: Agade

Tagged Resources

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Mark Hoffman is in the process of posting geo-tagged photos from his recent trip to Turkey and Greece.

Tom Powers has determined the exact location of the recently discovered Roman bathhouse in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Ferrell Jenkins has returned safely from his trip to Egypt and Israel. See his recent posts for photos he took along the way.

Leen Ritmeyer continues his explanation of the newly excavated drainage channel next to the Temple Mount.

This Israel MFA article shows you how you can be an “eco-tourist in Israel.” The conclusion provides a list of a ten GoEco opportunities. Many of them sound worthwhile and interesting.

The Jerusalem Post has an interview with Kay Wilson, the tour guide who was nearly stabbed to
death while hiking with a friend in the hills west of Jerusalem.

The Dead Sea is not dead. Some microorganisms are able to survive in the extremely salty conditions. Most of the brief article at ScienceDaily is technical, but this sentence caught my eye:

“Evolution is not a perfect engineer who plans everything and knows exactly what he wants to create from the outset.”

Excavating the City of David, by Ronny Reich, is scheduled to be published this spring by the Israel Exploration Society. Eisenbrauns has the details and is accepting pre-orders.

The best mainstream treatment of the history of ancient Israel is now out in a third edition. Ancient Israel has chapters written by a dozen scholars and is edited by Hershel Shanks. The previous edition came out in 1999, so an updated work is needed. As of this writing, the best price is at the BAS Store.

The latest edition of Atiqot has been published and you can read the articles for free if you register (a quick and easy process). The article I clicked on to test the process (“A Cairn Field”) turns out to be about a potential high place near Jerusalem in the time of Jeremiah.

Israel’s MFA has the best article I can remember about birds migrating through Israel. “At least 500 million birds of 200 different species fly across Israel each spring and fall.” The article tells you where to find them and why you might want to.

And a Haaretz reporter is surprised that he/she likes the newly introduced McFalafel.

Tagged Dead Sea, Jerusalem, Resources, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

New Book: Daughter of Lachish

I enjoy historical fiction, but I seem to be unable to combine my interest in the biblical world with a good story because worthwhile books are just not being written. I was happy to hear that Tim Frank has just published a book set in the late 8th century of Judah. Daughter of Lachish tells the story of a girl who survived the siege of Sennacherib and tries to rebuild her life in its aftermath. From the bookjacket:

The mighty Assyrian army has invaded the tiny kingdom of Judah to crush the rebellion against the great king Sennacherib. After a long siege, the Assyrians capture the fortified city of Lachish. They show no mercy to the vanquished people. But one girl is able to escape-Rivkah. She hides in the hills and finds refuge in the company of other survivors. In a devastated land they seek to rebuild their lives. The words of the prophet Micah-spoken to the people over many years-speak to Rivkah anew, allowing her to see the events in a new light.

Drawing on extensive scholarly research, Daughter of Lachish brings to life the world of Ancient Judah. It melds archaeology and biblical studies to tell a story of the people who first heard the words of the Psalms and Prophets. It is a story of one girl, her search for a place in the world, and her quest to make sense of loss and joy. Through her eyes we experience the daily tasks, the seasons of the agricultural year, the bonds that hold together a household and a village, and the tensions that threaten to tear them apart.

Tim Frank brings extensive knowledge of the ancient world to his writing, serving as a supervisor at the Lahav Research Project (Tell Halif), excavating at Tel Burna (near Lachish), and presently working in the Middle Eastern collection at the Cobb Institute of Archaeology. Judith McKinlay praises Frank’s abilities as a storyteller:

I could not stop reading this story. This is a biblical world engagingly alive, with its carefully researched details of the Assyrian war machine devastating life in eighth-century Judah and its strong characters determined to survive. I felt for Rivkah, survivor of Lachish. With biblical passages interwoven, most significantly the prophecies of Micah, met in person in the latter part of the novel, it is also a tale true to the biblical faith.
—Judith McKinlay, University of Otago

Full details and ordering information are here. The book costs more than your average mass-market work of fiction and that’s because this isn’t a book for the “mass market.” For a great education that takes me on a delightful journey, I’m happy to pay a little more, with hopes that we’ll see more such works in the future.

Tagged Resources, Shephelah

American Colony Photos for Accordance

I’m excited to announce that the American Colony photo collection is now available as a module for Accordance Bible Software. Long regarded as the best Bible software on the market, Accordance brings significant advantages to the American Colony collection by providing quick and easy searches as well as tight integration with the Accordance features and modules.

David Lang describes it this way:

The American Colony and Eric Matson collection is a massive (1.4GB) Accordance module containing more than 4,000 historic photographs of the Holy Land and its people. It is fully searchable, and its images will be included any time you use the Search All window to search by Caption. Once you find an image you like, you can drag its thumbnail onto a Keynote or Pages drop-zone to include it in your slide show or document.

You can read the rest of his helpful introduction here. In my opinion, this is the best collection of historic photographs of the Holy Land anywhere, ever. I give some very specific reasons for that bold statement here. In addition to the photographs, the collection is supplemented by thousands of historic quotes and explanatory notes that are a rich resource in themselves.

The creation of this Accordance module makes a good thing better, and I’m delighted that users can benefit from these significant improvements.

You can purchase the Accordance module here. Those who have already purchased the American Colony Collection from BiblePlaces.com qualify for a crossgrade, which gives a discount of more than $100.

Tagged American Colony Photos, Resources

Top Ten Archaeology Discoveries Related to the Bible

Several months ago Tim Kimberley posted an excellent series of over at the Parchment and Pen Blog. Though I missed the initial posting, I did not want to let it pass. His top ten list of biblical discoveries in archaeology corresponds closely to what I would suggest.

Introduction

10. Assyrian Lachish Reliefs (Sennacherib’s Siege Reliefs)

9. Jehu’s Tribute to Shalmaneser III (Black Obelisk)

8. Caiaphas Ossuary

7. Hezekiah’s Tunnel

6. Pontius Pilate Inscription

5. The Crucified Man

4. Ketef Hinnom Silver Amulet Scroll

3. Jericho

2. House of David Inscription (Tel Dan Inscription)

1. Dead Sea Scrolls

Where can you see these great finds? Your first stop is the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, where you can see #1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 8. The British Museum holds #9 and 10. For #3 and 7, you’ll have to get dirty.

Thanks, Tim, for this valuable presentation. If you have not benefited from Tim’s BibleMap.org, I highly recommend it as a quick way to identify locations mentioned in Scripture.

In looking up the last link, I discovered that Tim has put his research into handy book form. You can purchase a copy of Top Ten Biblical Discoveries in Archaeology for yourself or a friend here.

Tagged Discoveries, Resources