June 2018
Vol. 6, No. 6
The Visible Dead: Dolmens and the Landscape in Bronze Age Levant
By James Fraser
Dolmens in the Levant always get a boost from their better-known European counterparts. But a closer look at their locations and geology show they formed an important part of the Early Bronze Age settlement landscape.
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The Meanings of Suicide in the Ancient Near East
By Jan Dietrich
One of the central questions about the meaning of life is how to understand suicide. How did humans of the ancient Near Eastern world attribute meaning to suicidal acts, especially since there is no term for suicide in ancient texts?
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The Origins of Maps in the Near East
By Bleda S. Düring
We live in a world of which every corner has been mapped, and in which we constantly use maps to navigate our way. Yet this use of maps is relatively recent. Maps originated in the ancient Near East but why aren’t there more?
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The Making of Monotheism
By Michael Hundley
The Hittites made due with a pantheon of at least 3000 gods. So how did belief in a single god develop? Yahweh rose to prominence from relative obscurity, but the trail had already been blazed by Marduk and Assur.
