Oystein S Labianca - Böcker

This volume represents the final output of a long-standing collaboration by an international and cross-disciplinary team sponsored by the Center for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. It aims to tell the history of human cultural production in the Eastern Mediterranean rather than the history of specific states or religions. Simultaneously, the volume argues that the agency of local communities is a key to understand the history of long-term change and cultural production in the Levant. It narrates the story of the crystallization of a type of sub-imperial power, illustrated by the canonical discourses associated with Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Madaba Plains Project, this volume reflects on the decades of archaeological fieldwork experience at Tall Hisban, Tall al-`Umayri and Tall Jalul. In addition to lessons learned and issues addressed, the volume presents the backstories that represent the heart and soul of the MPP, focusing on those that illuminate the efforts to interpret and narrate these archaeological sites. Founding directors, co-directors, and a selection of the core staff and veterans explain the trajectory of their efforts to understand and narrate the place where they have been working by discussing their professional ties, sources of inspiration, personal aspirations and ambitions, regrets and triumphs, accumulative understandings, and remaining questions. They then offer reflective accounts of how their long-term interactions with the local communities have not only helped to build bridges of friendship and cooperation, but shape and inform their understanding of the goals and limitations of their scientific mission and future potential.

Today's politicians argue that the more 'connected' societies are the less danger they pose to global stability. But is this a 'new' idea or one as old as history itself? Trade routes as far back as prehistory were responsible for the exchange of ideas as well as goods, leading to the rapid expansion of states and empires. 'Connectivity in Antiquity' brings together a team of influential scholars to examine the process of globalization in antiquity. The essays examine metallurgy, social evolution, economic growth and the impact of religious pilgrimage, and range across the eastern Mediterranean, Syria, the Transjordan, south Yemen, and Egypt. 'Connectivity in Antiquity' will be of value to all those interested in the relationship between antiquity and modern globalisation.