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Khirbet Summeily is an early Iron Age II site located northwest of Tell el-Hesi in Southern Israel. Excavations sponsored by the Cobb Institute of Archaeology have revealed a large structure with a potential ritual space dated to the Iron Age IIA (ca. 1000-980/850 B.C.E.). Recent interpretations suggest the site was integrated into a regional economic and political system and functioned as a potential administrative outpost based on the material culture and architecture recovered from the Iron Age IIA layers. This thesis presents the carbon, oxygen, and strontium isotopic analyses of intra-tooth samples from ovicaprine and cattle remains to test herd management strategies in connection to administrative and cultic provisioning activities. The animal remains are used as proxies to identify political and economic ties through herd management patterns. These results will test the hypothesis that Khirbet Summeily was an administrative outpost integrated into a larger political and/or economic network.

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This thesis examines the practice of hunting within the Neolithic community of Çatalhöyük by focusing on its stone projectile points. Wild faunal remains indicate that hunting remained in practice, even though domesticated animals and plants comprised the staple diet of the Neolithic people of Çatalhöyük. Hunting and the “wild” are venerated in the site's iconography (wall paintings, wild bull skull mural installations, zoomorphic figurines), while obsidian projectile points—the dominant hunting weapons— were carefully executed artifacts that seem to have served more than one purpose. In studying the projectile points I consider the role of hunting at Çatalhöyük and its significance in shaping personal and communal identities. By employing an attribute analysis I examined the projectiles’ deposition in varied contexts (caches, burials, building infills, middens etc). Differences in use-wear traces as well as in technological and morphological traits suggest that the Çatalhöyük point assemblage consists of two groups that were used and treated in very distinct ways. The first group comprises projectile weapons that were used in hunting, exhibiting clear signs of actual use; whereas the second group consists of bifaces that were in all likelihood reserved for ceremonial purposes given their pristine condition and special deposition. This thesis argues that hunting was not merely an alternate subsistence strategy but an arena where symbolic expression and social identities could be performed and negotiated. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis researches the role of hunting in one of the earliest agricultural societies with livestock, Çatalhöyük in Turkey (7th-6th millennium cal BCE). For this purpose I studied the stone tips of projectile weapons, i.e. arrows and spears. The results of this work show that apart from the actual hunting weapons, the people of Çatalhöyük also had weapons reserved for ceremonial purposes. Indeed other evidence also shows that hunting and the “wild” was revered at the site: wall paintings, wall decorations with wild animal skulls, large feasting events, and animal figurines. In this thesis I argue that hunting was not only a strategy for the farmers of Çatalhöyük to acquire extra food resources but it also played a significant role in their symbolic and religious life, which is why this tradition persisted even after the domestication of animals.

Popular interpretations and academic scholarship tends to emphasize the relationship between jihad, military action, and communal violence. These reinforce a sense that violence is inherent to Islam. Investigations into the contexts where jihad has been deployed highlight how its use is often a call for unity believed to be necessary for political goals. Therefore, in order to deconstruct this belief, this thesis tackles instead the relationship between textual interpretations and historical actions, and how these varied across specific moments in time. The case studies examined range from the initial evolution of a theory of jihad in the late antique world, to the Crusades in the 11th and 12th centuries, to early modern dynamics of the Ottomans and Safavids, and finally to modern state-making projects in the Arabian Peninsula These examples seek to create a comprehensive picture of the intricacies rooted in jihad and the narrative that can be associated with a religion that is most often misunderstood. The effort to shed some light on the multiple facets of jihad is hinged upon how these case studies differ from one another, thus forcing the reader to question how they previously understood the modern day phenomenon of jihad. While the conversation will reiterate various themes and concepts as discussed in previous scholarship, it should push the boundaries on how jihad has been framed as a modern day extremist ideology.

This study presents the results of an analysis of three Late Neolithic pottery assemblages from Wadi Ziqlab, northern Jordan. These sites were occupied during the 6th millennium BC (calibrated) and are therefore contemporary with sites in other parts of the southern Levant that are attributed to the Wadi Rabah culture. The assemblages are analyzed from a stylistic perspective, broadly defined, which includes an examination of technological style in addition to a more traditional examination of vessel form and surface treatment. Different stages in the pottery production sequence are investigated using a range of analytical techniques, including thin-section petrography and xeroradiography. While there are some similarities between the assemblages, there are also some noticeable differences. The results of the pottery analysis are used to explore the nature of community in the context of the Late Neolithic. A critique of more traditional archaeological approaches to prehistoric communities leads to a re-conceptualization of community that combines interactional and ideational perspectives. Similarities in pottery among the sites, especially technological similarities, suggest that pottery producers may have comprised a dispersed community of practice. At the same time, pottery may have also been a symbolic marker of community boundaries. Differences in pottery among the sites, including surface treatment, may reflect the flexibility of these boundaries as different parts of the dispersed community negotiated their place in it. The presence of variation among contemporary pottery assemblages in a localized area suggests that social organization during the 6th millennium may have been more complex than is normally assumed for the Late Neolithic in the southern Levant. A dispersed community, with its members spread throughout the wadi, would require a sufficiently complex and flexible system of relationships to maintain it. Failing to acknowledge this has contributed to the difficulties archaeologists have encountered when trying to understand the culture-history of the 6th millennium BC in and east of the Jordan Valley.

Thesis advisor: Jeffery Howe / The Orient has been a mythical, looming presence since the foundation of Islam in the 7th century. It has always been the “Other” that Edward Said wrote about in his 1979 book Orientalism. The gulf of misunderstanding between the myth and the reality of the Near East still exists today in the 21st century. Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798 and the subsequent colonization of the Near East is perhaps the defining moment in the Western perception of the Near East. At the beginning of modern colonization, Napoleon and his companions arrived in the Near East convinced of their own superiority and authority; they were Orientalists. The supposed superiority of Europeans justified the colonization of Islamic lands. Said never specifically wrote about art; however, his theories on colonialism and Orientalism still apply. Linda Nochlin first made use of them in her article “The Imaginary Orient” from 1983. Artists such as Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Eugène Delacroix and Jean-Léon Gérôme demonstrate Said's idea of representing the Islamic “Other” as a culturally inferior and backward people, especially in their portrayal of women. The development of photography in the late 19th century added another dimension to this view of the Orient, with its seemingly objective viewpoint. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2004. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Fine Arts. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

O trabalho tem o objetivo de apresentar a homossexualidade na Bíblia Hebraica através das passagens de Levítico 18:22, 20:13, Deuteronômio 22:5, 23:18-19, 1º Reis 14:24, 15:12, 22:46 e 2 Reis 23:7; analisar as relações da prostituição cultual masculina dos termos encontrados em Deuteronômio 23:18-19 (qadesh e keleb); os termos da região do Oriente Próximo com o papel da adoração ritual homossexual (qaditu e assinu); as deidades rituais com o rito masculino (Asherah de 2º Reis 23:7 e a Astarte de Kítion do Chipre relacionada ao keleb em Deuteronômio 23:18-19) as quais estão relacionadas aos ritos de fertilidade; trabalhar o contexto histórico no qual a homossexualidade ritual se desenvolveu em Israel e Judá (1º Reis 14:24, 15:12, 22:46 e 2º Reis 23:7); e com a questão das abominações e interditos tanto da homossexualidade (Levítico 18:22 e 20:13) quanto do travestismo (Deuteronômio 22:5). A pesquisa será realizada através de diversos estudos de acadêmicos que discorreram sobre o tema da homossexualidade na Bíblia Hebraica e sobre as suas questões levantadas e conclusões. / The work has the objective to present the homosexuality in the Hebrew Bible through the passages of Levíticus 18:22, 20:13; Deuteronomy 22:5, 23:18-19; 1st King 14:24, 15:12, 22:46; and 2nd Kings 23:7; to analyse the relations of prostitution cultual masculine of terms found in Deuteronomy 23:18-19 (qadesh and keleb); region of the Near Easts terms made a list to ritual homosexual worships role (qaditu and assinu); ritual deities with the masculine rite (Asherah of 2 Kings 23:7 and Astarte of Kítion in Cyprus connected with keleb in Deuteronomy 23:18-19) what they are with the fertility rites; to work the historical context in which the ritual homosexuality was developed in Israel and Judá (1st Kings 14:24, 15:12, 22:46 and 2nd Kings 23:7); and the question of the abominations and injunctions so much of the homosexuality (Levíticus 18:22 and 20:13) how much of tranvestism (Deuteronomy 22:5). The research will be carried out through several academic\'s studies which wrote about the subject of homosexuality in the Hebrew Bible and on his lifted questions and conclusions.

Ce travail de doctorat en archéologie du Proche-Orient entend questionner les preuves matérielles des phénomènes de globalisation et de la formation de l’empire néo-assyrien (IXe-VIIe s. av. J.-C.). L’empire néo-assyrien a été imaginé très tôt par des savants européens, nationalistes et positivistes du XIXe siècle. Ils lui reconnaissent un espace central qu’ils dénomment « le triangle assyrien » et l’érigent comme foyer culturel. La culture assyrienne serait dès lors diffusée au gré de l’expansionnisme des souverains motivés par une idéologie impérialiste. Les premiers archéologues confirment la singularité ethno culturelle des vestiges remise en cause aujourd’hui grâce à un renouvellement des méthodes et des activités de recherche au nord de l’Irak. Le premier volet de notre étude propose une approche épistémologique et historiographique des notions de « culture matérielle » et de « région centrale». Il s’agit d’éviter les obstacles méthodologiques pour penser l’histoire des contacts et des circulations des techniques des Anciens entre l’Euphrate et les contreforts du Zagros. Le deuxième temps de l’analyse consiste à enquêter sur les modèles de peuplement et les productions matérielles dans l’ouest de la Djéziré, en se concentrant sur le site de Tell Masaïkh pour lequel une typo-chronologie des poteries est proposée. Enfin, par une mise en perspective de ces deux temps d’analyse, les rythmes d’installation et les orientations des échanges et des interactions des populations de ces régions sont précisés. Ces conclusions démontrent une appartenance de l’empire assyrien à un réseau globalisé au Ier millénaire, hérité d’une longue durée des contacts en Mésopotamie du Nord. / This dissertation examines material evidence of the phenomena of globalization and the formation of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (9th - 7th century BCE). The Neo-Assyrian Empire was first concieved of by nineteenth-century European scholars, nationalists, and positivists. They identified it as a central space which they called "the Assyrian triangle" and envisioned as a cultural hub. The Assyrian culture would then radiate outward according to the expansionist policy employed by rulers motivated by an imperialist ideology. Previous archaeological examination confirms the ethno-cultural uniqueness of the vestiges now being revisited thanks to a renewal of research methods and activities in northern Iraq. The first part of this study proposes an epistemological and historiographical approach to the concepts of "material culture" and "central region," in order to avoid any methodological obstacles in thinking about the history of contact and the circulation of ancient technologies in the region between the Euphrates and the foothills of Zagros. The second part of this study investigates the settlement patterns and material production in the western Jazirah, focusing on the site of Tell Masaikh for which a typo-chronology of the pottery is proposed. Finally, by putting into perspective these analyses, settlement rythmes and the direction of exchanges and interactions among the populations of these regions are made clear. The conclusions of this study show that the Assyrian empire belonged to a globalized network in the first millennium, which resulted from the long history of cultural contact in northern Mesopotamia.