The publication of a new inscription from Theban Tomb 99 sheds new light on the early history of the Hebrew Alphabet. This ostracon is a bilingual “abecedary” written in Egyptian Hieroglyphic and Semitic. It gives further evidence for an Egyptian connection to the origins of the early Hebrew alphabet. Sponsored by the UCLA Near Eastern...
Recent archaeological discoveries have begun to challenge the prevailing view of the Early Iron Age (ca. 1200-900 BCE) as an era of cultural devolution and ethnic strife, or a ‘Dark Age’, in the eastern Mediterranean, as depicted in the Homeric epics and the Hebrew Bible. This illustrated talk will highlight the exciting discoveries of the...
Professor Machinist will develop aspects of intertextuality through several examples involving well-known biblical texts, including Psalm 29—a famous “Canaanite” hymn in the Psalter. This seminar will be held in conjunction with Professor Schniedewind’s Ugaritic seminar. Graduate students are encouraged to read Psalm 29 and Y. Avishur’s chapter on “Psalm 29” in Studies in Hebrew and...
Professor William Schniedewind will present the outlines of his research in progress—a book on Scribal Education in Ancient Israel. The research proposes that outlines of scribal curriculum in early Israel can now be reconstructed based on his interpretation of the recently fully published inscriptions from Kuntillet Ajrud and using parallels with Mesopotamian scribal curriculum and...
12:00 – 1:00pm Overspecializing the Specialist: Reevaluating the Role of Producers in the Study of Technological Interconnectivity Nadia Ben-Marzouk (Archaeology) Accounting for Kingship: The Samaria Ostraca as Royal Performance Jason Price (Hebrew Bible) An Image on the Stele or a Ghost in the Shell? A Cognitive Scientific Approach to the Material “Soul” in the Levant Timothy...