Writing and Re-Writing History by Destruction

Proceedings of the Annual Minerva Center RIAB Conference, Leipzig, 2018. Research on Israel and Aram in Biblical Times III

edited by Angelika Berlejung, Aren M. Maeir and Takayoshi M. Oshima

Book cover: Writing and Re-Writing History by Destruction

Extent: 349 pages

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Subjects: Ancient Near East, Biblical Studies

Series: Orientalische Religionen in der Antike

Series volume number: 45

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(March 2022)

ISBN: 9783161612480

9.45 x 6.65 inches

Price: $168.00

In stock

This volume combines the papers held at the Minerva Center’s “Research on Israel and Aram in Biblical Times” conference (Leipzig 2018) on the subject of writing and re-writing history by deliberate destruction in the regions of Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia. An international group of scholars studies the subject using a multi-perspective and interdisciplinary approach. Archeological studies, ancient Near Eastern studies, and biblical studies focused on the destruction of ancient sites in Israel and Judah in the 1st millennium BC. The perspective of the defeated Israelites, Jerusalemites, and Judeans is described in detail in the Old Testament and in postbiblical literature and shows that the destructions in the past were a cultural and identity creator of the first magnitude. The longue duree of the practice of reshaping the past through the deliberate destruction of a cultural heritage in order to shape the present according to current interests becomes evident based on the Neo-Assyrian Empire’s practice up to the modern era and is demonstrated by the example of the Arabian-Muslim conquest of Aram as well as current Turkish politics.

  • Edited by Angelika Berlejung
  • Edited by Aren M Maeir
  • Edited by Takayoshi M Oshima