Table Of ContentHistoriography, Ideology and
Politics in the Ancient Near
East and Israel
In this volume, Niels Peter Lemche and Emanuel Pfoh present an anthology
of seminal studies by Mario Liverani, a foremost scholar of the Ancient
Near East.
This collection contains 18 essays, 11 of which have originally been
published in Italian and are now published in English for the first time. It
represents an important contribution to Ancient Near Eastern and Bibli-
cal Studies, exposing the innovative interpretations of Liverani on many
historical and ideological aspects of ancient society. Topics range from the
Amarna letters and the Ugaritic epic, to the ‘origins’ of Israel.
Historiography, Ideology and Politics in the Ancient Near East and Israel
will be an invaluable resource for Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical schol-
ars, as well as graduate and post-graduate students.
Mario Liverani is Professor Emeritus of Ancient Near Eastern History at the
University of Rome, Italy. He is the author of many studies, including Inter-
national Relations in the Ancient Near East, 1600–1100 BC (2001), Myth and
Politics in Ancient Near Eastern Historiography (2004), Israel’s History and
the History of Israel (Routledge 2005) and The Ancient Near East: History,
Society and Economy (Routledge 2014).
Niels Peter Lemche is Professor Emeritus at the Faculty of Theology, Uni-
versity of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is the author of many studies, includ-
ing Early Israel (1985), Ancient Israel (1988), The Canaanites and Their Land
(1991), The Israelites in History and Tradition (1998), Prelude to Israel’s Past
(1998), and The Old Testament between Theology and History (2008).
Emanuel Pfoh is Assistant Professor of History of Asia & Africa at the Na-
tional University of La Plata, Argentina, and Researcher at Argentina’s
National Research Council. He is the author of The Emergence of Israel in
Ancient Palestine (Routledge 2009) and Syria-Palestine in the Late Bronze
Age (Routledge 2016).
Copenhagen International Seminar
General Editors:
Ingrid Hjelm, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and Emanuel Pfoh,
National Research Council, Argentina
Changing Perspectives Subseries
Biblical Studies and the Failure of History
Changing Perspectives 3
Niels Peter Lemche
Rethinking Biblical Scholarship
Changing Perspectives 4
Philip R. Davies
Historiography, Ideology and Politics in the Ancient Near East and Israel
Changing Perspectives 5
Mario Liverani, edited by Niels Peter Lemche and Emanuel Pfoh
History, Archaeology, and the Bible Forty Years after “Historicity”
Changing Perspectives 6
Ingrid Hjelm and Thomas L. Thompson
Biblical Interpretation Beyond Historicity
Changing Perspectives 7
Ingrid Hjelm and Thomas L. Thompson
Revealing the History of Ancient Palestine
Changing Perspectives 8
Keith W. Whitelam, edited by Emanuel Pfoh
For more information about this series, please visit https://www.routledge.
com/Copenhagen-International-Seminar/book-series/COPSEM
Historiography, Ideology and
Politics in the Ancient Near
East and Israel
Changing Perspectives 5
Mario Liverani
Edited by
Niels Peter Lemche and Emanuel Pfoh
First published 2021
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 selection and editorial matter, Niels Peter Lemche and
Emanuel Pfoh; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Niels Peter Lemche and Emanuel Pfoh to be identifed
as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their
individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Liverani, Mario, author. | Lemche, Niels Peter, editor. | Pfoh,
Emanuel, editor.
Title: Historiography, ideology and politics in the ancient Near East and
Israel : changing perspectives 5 / Mario Liverani ; edited by Niels
Peter Lemche and Emanuel Pfoh.
Other titles: Changing perspectives 5
Description: First edition. | New York : Routledge Taylor & Francis Ltd,
2021. | Series: Copenhagen international seminar | Includes
bibliographical references and index. | Some essays translated from Italian.
Identifers: LCCN 2021003906 (print) | LCCN 2021003907 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367742485 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367742584 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003157717 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Middle East—History—To 622—Historiography. |
Middle East—History—To 622.
Classifcation: LCC DS62.2 .L579 2021 (print) | LCC DS62.2 (ebook) |
DDC 939.40072—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021003906
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021003907
ISBN: 978-0-367-74248-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-74258-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-15771-7 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003157717
Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Editorial note ix
List of abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
NIELS PETER LEMCHE AND EMANUEL PFOH
PART I
Ancient Near Eastern historiography 9
1 ‘But in the Seventh Year …’ 11
2 The Ugaritic epic in its historical and literary context 16
3 Memorandum on the approach to historiographic texts 28
4 The tribunal of history: judicial origins of Ancient Near
Eastern historiography 48
PART II
Ideology and propaganda in the Ancient Near East 59
5 Συδύκ and Μισώρ 61
6 Holy war and just war in the Ancient Near East 79
7 The Pharaoh’s body in the Amarna letters 100
8 Ḫattušili dealing with Ramesside propaganda 123
9 The ideology of the Assyrian empire 135
vi Contents
10 Kingship ideology in Assyria and Israel 155
11 The king in the palace 168
PART III
Syria-Palestine in the Late Bronze Age 183
12 Contrasts and confluences of political conceptions in
the Amarna period 185
13 Political lexicon and political ideologies in the
Amarna letters 202
14 Refugees in Syria in the Late Bronze Age 222
15 Becoming ḫabiru 241
PART IV
The Old Testament and the history of Israel 255
16 The ‘origins’ of Israel: an unachievable project of
ethnogenetic research 257
17 New developments in the study of the history of Biblical
Israel 274
18 The Book of Kings and Ancient Near Eastern
historiography 291
Index of Authors 311
Index of Sources 317
Acknowledgements
The chapters in this volume appeared originally in the following journals
and collections of scholarly papers and are republished here by the kind
permission of the respective publishers and editors. They are listed below in
the order of their appearance in this volume:
1 ‘“Ma nel settimo anno…”’, in H. Cazelles (ed.), Studi sull’Oriente e la
Bibbia offerti al P. Giovanni Rinaldi nel 60 compleanno da allievi, col-
leghi, amici (Genova: Studio e Vita, 1967), pp. 49–53.
2 ‘L’epica ugaritica nel suo contesto storico e letterario’, in Atti del con-
vegno internazionale sul tema: la poesia epica e la sua formazione. Roma,
28 marzo -3 aprile 1969 (Problemi Attuali di Scienza e di Cultura 367,
quaderno 139; Roma: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1970), pp. 859–69.
3 ‘Memorandum on the Approach to Historiographic Texts’, Orientalia
NS 42 (1973), pp. 178–94.
4 ‘The Tribunal of History. Judicial Origins of Ancient Near Eastern His-
toriography’, Cadmo: Revista de História Antiga 10 (2000), pp. 243–54.
5 ‘Συδύκ e Μισώρ’, in L. Aru et al. (eds.), Studi in onore di Edoardo Volterra
(6 vols.; Pubblicazioni della Facolta di Giurisprudenza dell’Università
di Roma 40–45; Milano: Giuffré, 1971), vol. 6, pp. 55–74.
6 ‘Guerra santa e guerra giusta nel Vicino Oriente antico (circa 1600–600
a.C.)’, Studi Storici 43 (2002), pp. 639–59.
7 ‘The Pharaoh’s Body in the Amarna Letters’, in M.G. Biga and M. Liv-
erani (eds.), Ana turri gimilli. Studi dedicati al Padre Werner R. Mayer,
S.J. da amici e allievi (Roma: Università degli Studi di Roma «La Sapi-
enza», 2010), pp. 147–75.
8 ‘Hattushili alle prese con la propaganda ramesside’, Orientalia NS 59
(1990), pp. 207–17.
9 ‘The Ideology of the Assyrian Empire’, in M.T. Larsen (ed.), Power and
Propaganda. A Symposium on Ancient Empires (Mesopotamia 7; Co-
penhagen: Akademisk Forlag, 1979), pp. 297–317.
10 ‘Ideologia della regalità in Assiria e Israele’, in P. Scarpi and M. Zago
(eds.), Regalità e forme di potere nel Mediterraneo antico (Padova: Sar-
gon SRL, 2007), pp. 35–47.
viii Acknowledgements
11 ‘The King in the Palace’, Orientalia NS 78 (2009), pp. 81–91.
12 ‘Contrasti e confuenze di concezioni politiche nell’età di el-Amarna’,
Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie orientale 61 (1967), pp. 1–18.
13 ‘Political Lexicon and Political Ideologies in the Amarna Letters’, Bery-
tus 31 (1983), pp. 41–56.
14 ‘Il fuoruscitismo in Siria nella tarda età del bronzo’, Rivista Storica Ital-
iana 77 (1965), pp. 315–36.
15 ‘Farsi Habiru’, Vicino Oriente 2 (1979), pp. 65–77.
16 ‘Le “origini” d’Israele: progetto irrealizzabile di ricerca etnogenetica’,
Rivista Biblica 28 (1980), pp. 9–31.
17 ‘Nuovi sviluppi nello studio della storia dell’Israele biblico’, Biblica 80/4
(1999), pp. 488–505.
18 ‘The Book of Kings and Ancient Near Eastern Historiography’, in A.
Lemaire and B. Halpern (eds.), The Books of Kings: Sources, Composi-
tion, Historiography and Reception (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2010), pp. 163–84.
Editorial note
The chapters originally published in Italian were translated by Niels Peter
Lemche (Chapters 1, 5, 12, 14, and 15) and Emanuel Pfoh (Chapters 2, 6, 8,
10, 16, and 17). The English language was revised by Jim West. A fnal revi-
sion of all the chapters was made by Mario Liverani.
