The thesis examines the archaeological and epigraphic data from Canaan during the Late Bronze Age in order to evaluate the historicity of the Israelite Conquest accounts in the books of Joshua and Judges. The specific sites examined in detail include Jericho, Ai, Hazor, Shechem, and Dan. Additionally, the chronology and setting for the period of the alleged Israelite Conquest is explained through both textual and archaeological sources, and several ancient documentary sources are examined which demonstrate the presence of Israel in Canaan during the Late Bronze Age. The thesis concludes that a vast amount of archaeological evidence indicates that the sites of Jericho, Hazor, Shechem, and Dan were occupied, destroyed, and resettled at the specific times and in the manner consistent with the records from the books of Joshua and Judges, and that ancient documents indicate that the Israelites had appeared in Canaan during the Late Bronze Age. / Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies / M.A. (Biblical Archaeology)

This thesis is a demographic analysis of Late Bronze Age Canaan (ca. 1550/1500-1200/1150 BCE), undertaken through the use of archaeological and anthropological data. The purpose is to establish estimates for the settlement population, nomadic population, nuclear family size, house size, sex ratio, and life expectancy of the people of Canaan during the Late Bronze Age. Previous studies have not addressed these issues in detail, nor had data from the entire scope of Canaan been considered, nor had a precise methodology been developed or used for estimating specific settlement populations and nomadic populations for Canaan during the Late Bronze Age. Thus, additional aspects of the thesis include the development and use of a new methodology for estimating ancient populations and a database of all of the Late Bronze Age sites in Canaan—both archaeological and textual. To accomplish these goals, the thesis uses archaeological data from excavations and surveys, texts from the Late Bronze Age, human skeletal remains from Late Bronze Age burials, demographic and ethnographic studies of various types of nomads, and methods, techniques, and observations from previous relevant studies. The primary objectives are to 1) obtain individual settlement, nomadic, and total population estimates for Canaan in the Late Bronze Age that are as accurate as possible based on the currently available data, along with additional demographic estimates of life expectancy and sex ratio, 2) propose a new methodology for estimating settlement populations in the ancient world, 3) present a catalogue and map of all of the sites in Canaan that were inhabited during the Late Bronze Age, 4) illuminate demographic trends during the Late Bronze Age in Canaan. The implications of the results may lead to a modified demographic view of Canaan and its sub-regions during the Late Bronze Age. / Old Testament & Ancient Near Eastern Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Biblical Archaeology)

Cette thèse propose une étude régionale des deux premiers siècles de l’Islam au cœur de la vallée du Nil. Elle se concentre sur la Moyenne-Égypte, plus précisément sur deux divisions administratives byzantines au moment de la conquête de l’Égypte par l’armée de ‘Amr b. al-‘Āṣ : celle de la capitale de la province de Thébaïde, Antinoé, et une de ses dépendances, la pagarchie d’Hermopolis Magna. Nous suivons dans cet espace les situations de contact entre conquérants et conquis au niveau local, entre les VIIe et IXe siècles, afin d’interroger l’évolution de ces deux catégories d’acteurs jusqu’à l’arrivée des Tulunides (868). Le corpus disponible pour cette étude est formé principalement par des papyrus arabes, grecs et coptes, alors que les sources littéraires s’intéressent très peu à la région. Ce riche ensemble documentaire permet de bien connaître la région et sa population à la fin de l’époque byzantine ainsi que de proposer un point de vue local sur l’histoire de la conquête. Un intérêt particulier est porté au développement d’une administration islamique locale née de la refonte du système régional byzantin en place au milieu du VIIe siècle. Au sein du développement de cette nouvelle structure administrative et provinciale au cours de la période umayyade, Antinoé perd tout statut administratif provincial. Elle prend le nom arabe d’Anṣinā, et Hermopolis celui d’Ašmūn(ayn). Cette dernière devient le principal échelon administratif de la Moyenne-Égypte islamique. En parallèle, nous pouvons suivre le développement d’une communauté musulmane de Moyenne-Égypte, impliquée à partir du VIIIe siècle dans l’administration et au cours de la période abbasside dans la propriété terrienne et dans la vie citadine et villageoise de la région. / This thesis offers a regional study of the two first centuries of Islam in the heart of the Egyptian Nile valley. It concentrates on Middle Egypt, precisely on the administrative divisions of the Byzantine system at the time of the conquest of Egypt by the armies of ‘Amr b. al-‘Āṣ (642) : the capital of the province of the Thebaid, Antinoe, and one of its dependencies, the pagarchy of Hermopolis Magna. Particular focus is given to the relationships between conquerors and conquered in this region between the 7th and the 9th century, the goal being to question the evolution of those two categories until the rise of the Tulunid dynasty (868). The sources available for this research are mainly non-literary papyri written in Arabic, Greek, and Coptic, as literary sources rarely express interest in this region. This rich documentary corpus allows us to examine in detail the administrative geography of the region and its population before the conquest and to offer a local point of view on the history of the conquest. Particular attention is given to the development of a new administrative and provincial structure during the Umayyad period in which the Thebaid is suppressed and Antinoe loses its place in the provincial structure of Egypt. It then appears under the Arabic name of Anṣinā and Hermopolis, as Ašmūn(ayn). The latter becomes the main administrative centre of Middle Egypt in the Islamic period and even supervises Anṣinā. In parallel, we can follow the development of the Muslim community involved in the administration of the region from the 8th century, in landholding and in city and village life in the Abbasid period.

Cette thèse présente l’analyse de la trilogie de José Manuel Fajardo (1957) constituée par les trois romans, Carta del fin del mundo (1996), El Converso (1998) et Mi nombre es Jamaica (2010). Ces trois œuvres font partie du sous-genre, roman istorique d’aventures. À travers l‘étude du temps, de l’espace et des personnages, ce travail de recherche a pour objectif de délimiter la part de l’histoire et de l’aventure au sein de ces trois œuvres qui renvoient à des périodes marquantes de l’histoire de l’Espagne (la conquête, le Siècle d’or). Les nombreuses références à l’expulsion des Morisques ou à la diaspora sépharade témoignent de la volonté de l’auteur de faire œuvre d’historien en sauvant de l’oubli certains pans de l’histoire d’Espagne délaissés par l’Histoire officielle. Cette récupération historique va de pair avec une fictionnalisation de cette matière historique (la découverte de l’Amérique, la piraterie au XVIIe siècle, dans les Caraïbes et en méditerranée) qui permet à l’auteur de créer de l’aventure. Cette aventure est vécue par les héros comme une quête identitaire qui les conduit, à travers la traversée d’innombrables espaces, vers leur Terre promise ; ce qui leur confère une indéniable épaisseur humaine. / This thesis introduces the trilogy by José Manuel Fajardo (1957) composed of Carta del fin del mundo (1996), El Converso (1998) and Mi nombre es Jamaica (2010).These three works are part of the historical adventure novel sub-genre. Focusing on time, space and characters, this research work is aimed at making a distinction between history and adventure in these three works that refer to significant periods in the history of Spain (the conquest, the Golden Age). The numerous references to the expulsion of the Moriscos or the Sephardic diaspora show the author's willingness to work as a historian by saving fromoblivion some parts of Spanish history neglected by official history. This historical exploitation goes hand in hand with fictionalizing the historical matter _such as the discovery of America or piracy in the seventeenth century in the Caribbean and the Mediterranean seas_ which makes it possible for the author to create adventure. This adventure is experienced by the heroes as a search for identity that leads them, through the crossing of countless spaces, to their promised land; whichgives them potent human depth.

Giovanni Boteros (1544-1617) treatise <i>The Reason of State</i> (1589) seemed somewhat uncharacteristic of sixteenth-century political thought, considering the pride of place given to economics in his text. The Age of Reformation constituted not only a period of new ideas on faith but also one of new political thinking, and as the research into the influences on Boteros economic thought progressed, I began to consider the period as one where economic thinking was becoming more common among theologians of the reforming churches and bureaucrats of the developing states. Having been trained in the schools of the Jesuits, Botero was exposed to one of the most potent and intellectually uniform of all the reforming movements of the period, and I argue it was here that he first considered economics as an aspect of moral philosophy. While it cannot be proven positively that Botero studied or even considered economics during his association with the Jesuits (roughly from 1559-1580), the fact that a number of those who shaped the Jesuit Order in its first few generations discussed economics in their own treatises leads one to a strong circumstantial conclusion that this is where the economic impulse first rose up in his thinking. Indeed, it was this background that readied Botero to consider economics as an important part of statecraft with his reading of Jean Bodins (1530-1596) <i>The Six Books of the Republic</i> (1576), in which economics is featured quite prominently. Bodins own economic theory was informed primarily by his experience as a bureaucrat in the Parlement of Paris, where questions on the value of the currency and on the kings ability to tax his subjects were in constant debate among the advocates. I argue further that, upon his reading of Bodins <i>Republic</i>, Botero saw how economics could be fused with politics, and he then set out to compose his own treatise on political economy (although he certainly would not have called it such). In <i>The Reason of State</i>, Botero brought his Jesuit conception of economic morality together with Bodins writings on political economy to create a work, neither wholly Jesuit nor wholly Bodinian, which in the end outlined an overall political and economic structure of society quite distinct from the sum of its parts.

Giovanni Boteros (1544-1617) treatise <i>The Reason of State</i> (1589) seemed somewhat uncharacteristic of sixteenth-century political thought, considering the pride of place given to economics in his text. The Age of Reformation constituted not only a period of new ideas on faith but also one of new political thinking, and as the research into the influences on Boteros economic thought progressed, I began to consider the period as one where economic thinking was becoming more common among theologians of the reforming churches and bureaucrats of the developing states. Having been trained in the schools of the Jesuits, Botero was exposed to one of the most potent and intellectually uniform of all the reforming movements of the period, and I argue it was here that he first considered economics as an aspect of moral philosophy. While it cannot be proven positively that Botero studied or even considered economics during his association with the Jesuits (roughly from 1559-1580), the fact that a number of those who shaped the Jesuit Order in its first few generations discussed economics in their own treatises leads one to a strong circumstantial conclusion that this is where the economic impulse first rose up in his thinking. Indeed, it was this background that readied Botero to consider economics as an important part of statecraft with his reading of Jean Bodins (1530-1596) <i>The Six Books of the Republic</i> (1576), in which economics is featured quite prominently. Bodins own economic theory was informed primarily by his experience as a bureaucrat in the Parlement of Paris, where questions on the value of the currency and on the kings ability to tax his subjects were in constant debate among the advocates. I argue further that, upon his reading of Bodins <i>Republic</i>, Botero saw how economics could be fused with politics, and he then set out to compose his own treatise on political economy (although he certainly would not have called it such). In <i>The Reason of State</i>, Botero brought his Jesuit conception of economic morality together with Bodins writings on political economy to create a work, neither wholly Jesuit nor wholly Bodinian, which in the end outlined an overall political and economic structure of society quite distinct from the sum of its parts.

This thesis examines the transmission of the idea of crusade to Poland and the subsequent Polish response to the idea of crusade in the twelfth century. It determines the key mechanisms by which the idea of crusade was transmitted to Poland and through an analysis of primary contemporary sources the thesis provides compelling evidence that the Polish elites were highly familiar with, and receptive to, the idea of crusade. Moreover, this thesis argues that the Poles were conscious participants in the crusades and undertook various crusading activities during the twelfth century. These findings are contrary to the established position in Polish historiography, and bring many sources to an English-speaking audience for the first time. / Through an examination of narrative sources this thesis demonstrates that the Polish elites were enthusiastic supporters of the idea of crusade within a decade of the First Crusade. This thesis shows that under the leadership of the Piast dynasty the Poles engaged in Christian holy war (proto-crusading): the conquest of Pomerania (1102–1128), contributed armies to three theatres of the Second Crusade (1147–1148), and launched major expeditions against the Prussian apostates (1166 and 1192). / This thesis identifies the influence of the idea of crusade on the actions of the Piasts and in particular, Boleslaw III’s sons (the Piast Juniors), and the importance of family traditions. The thesis presents new propositions in regards to the crusades in Prussia and key Polish crusader participants: the involvement of the Polish crusader army under the command of Mieszko III in the Wendish Crusade (July–August 1147); previously unreported in English historiography, the first known example of crusading in Prussia led by Boleslaw IV (November–December 1147); and Henry of Sandomierz’s leadership of the Polish crusader contingent to the Holy Land (1147–1148).

The present research has been aimed at investigating how imperialism and colonialism are located both in the biblical text (cf. Joshua 1-12) and in present day interpretive postcolonial contexts such as that of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. An investigation was made of the unequal power dynamics at play between the Israelites who are depicted as mercilessly conquering the indigenous peoples of Canaan in the name of the deity, and the Canaanites. How were/ are such power dynamics played out in the Katangese, Democratic Republic of the Congo’s context in the relations between the then colonizers, that is, the Belgians as well as the neo-colonial African rulers and the Congolese peoples? It is argued that the Belgians assumed the role akin to that of the Israelite invaders as they mercilessly invaded the “promised land”, that is, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, ending with the brutal extermination of African peoples justified on biblical precedents. A conclusion is made that within the context of postcolonial biblical interpretation, the conquest narrative of Joshua 1-12 is one of the most traumatic stories in which violence is committed by one nation on another in the name of the deity. Postcolonial biblical criticism was found to be an appropriate approach in assisting the researcher to navigate through violent biblical texts with a view to coming up with a transformative reading of the texts in the (Katangese) context of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. / Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Biblical Studies)

The thesis examines the archaeological and epigraphic data from Canaan during the Late Bronze Age in order to evaluate the historicity of the Israelite Conquest accounts in the books of Joshua and Judges. The specific sites examined in detail include Jericho, Ai, Hazor, Shechem, and Dan. Additionally, the chronology and setting for the period of the alleged Israelite Conquest is explained through both textual and archaeological sources, and several ancient documentary sources are examined which demonstrate the presence of Israel in Canaan during the Late Bronze Age. The thesis concludes that a vast amount of archaeological evidence indicates that the sites of Jericho, Hazor, Shechem, and Dan were occupied, destroyed, and resettled at the specific times and in the manner consistent with the records from the books of Joshua and Judges, and that ancient documents indicate that the Israelites had appeared in Canaan during the Late Bronze Age. / Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies / M.A. (Biblical Archaeology)

This thesis is a demographic analysis of Late Bronze Age Canaan (ca. 1550/1500-1200/1150 BCE), undertaken through the use of archaeological and anthropological data. The purpose is to establish estimates for the settlement population, nomadic population, nuclear family size, house size, sex ratio, and life expectancy of the people of Canaan during the Late Bronze Age. Previous studies have not addressed these issues in detail, nor had data from the entire scope of Canaan been considered, nor had a precise methodology been developed or used for estimating specific settlement populations and nomadic populations for Canaan during the Late Bronze Age. Thus, additional aspects of the thesis include the development and use of a new methodology for estimating ancient populations and a database of all of the Late Bronze Age sites in Canaan—both archaeological and textual. To accomplish these goals, the thesis uses archaeological data from excavations and surveys, texts from the Late Bronze Age, human skeletal remains from Late Bronze Age burials, demographic and ethnographic studies of various types of nomads, and methods, techniques, and observations from previous relevant studies. The primary objectives are to 1) obtain individual settlement, nomadic, and total population estimates for Canaan in the Late Bronze Age that are as accurate as possible based on the currently available data, along with additional demographic estimates of life expectancy and sex ratio, 2) propose a new methodology for estimating settlement populations in the ancient world, 3) present a catalogue and map of all of the sites in Canaan that were inhabited during the Late Bronze Age, 4) illuminate demographic trends during the Late Bronze Age in Canaan. The implications of the results may lead to a modified demographic view of Canaan and its sub-regions during the Late Bronze Age. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Biblical Archaeology)