Wednesday, October 28, 2026

Open Access Monograph Series: Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (Oriental Institute) Nubian Expedition (OINE)

[First posted in AWOL  4 June 2014, updated (new URLs 28 October 2026]
 
12 publications
1991
Excavations Between Abu Simbel and the Sudan Frontier, Part 9: Noubadian X-Group Remains from Royal Complexes in Cemeteries Q and 219 and Private Cemeteries Q, R, V, W, B, J, and M at Qustul and Ballana

Author(s): Bruce Beyer Willians.

Series / Volume

Nubian Expedition 9

The excavations at these cemeteries provide a full range of X-Group objects, dated to the fourth through sixth centuries a.d. Of special interest is the military equipment, including many decorated… Learn More
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1967
The Beit el-Wali Temple of Ramesses II

Author(s): Herbert Ricke, George R. Hughes, and Edward F. Wente.

Series / Volume

Nubian Expedition 1

In March 1960 the United Arab Republic appealed to the world through the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to send archeologists to Nubia in order to save the… Learn More

 

 

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Ancient Cyprus

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    Seleucid Nysa-Scythopolis in the Framework of Hellenistic Foundations in the Levant

    Edited by Achim Lichtenberger and Oren Tal
    Seleucid Nysa-Scythopolis in the Framework of Hellenistic Foundations in the Levant 

    The region of the southern Levant and the period have special relevance for Hellenistic foundations because they incorporate the framework in which early Judaism had crystalized and from which Christianity also emerged. The impact of Hellenism on Judaism is regarded as a crucial encounter in influencing later developments and a differentiated understanding of this period and region is needed. To date, a systematic analysis of the material culture of the Hellenistic southern Levant, and particularly, the most visible agent of Hellenization – the foundation of cities – is lacking. This volume seeks to close this research gap. The Seleucid foundation Nysa-Scythopolis is taken as a starting point for the investigation. The Seleucid city was founded on a mound near biblical Beth She’an, which was occupied under Ptolemaic rule. However, the 2nd century BCE Seleucid settlement was not founded on the Ptolemaic occupied site, but rather on a neighboring hill, known today as Tell Iẓṭabba. With its foundation under Antiochos IV the settlement became home to a Seleucid community until 107 BCE when the city was destroyed by the expanding Hasmonean state and never to be rebuilt at the same site. The Early Roman city was reestablished in the 1st century BCE at a different location, closer to the biblical mound, encompassing the area of its southern foothills. Subsequently Tell Iẓṭabba was not rebuilt until the Byzantine period, when the tell was crossed by the Byzantine city walls and parts of it were covered by intra and extra mural ecclesiastical structures. This situation made Tell Iẓṭabba and Seleucid Nysa-Scythopolis the ideal place to zoom into a newly founded Seleucid city in the southern Levant. Many of the other Seleucid foundations in the region such as Gadara, Gerasa or Hippos were massively covered by later Roman and late antique (Byzantine and Early Islamic) phases. Therefore, Nysa-Scythopolis plays a crucial role in understanding Seleucid settlement dynamics in the Levant. The current body of work illuminates new dimensions of the site and its urban form, sociopolitical dynamics, religious expressions, and regional networks situating the town more firmly within both the cosmopolitical Hellenistic world and the traditional ancient Near East. The present volume is conceived as an investigation into the phenomenon of royal city foundations in the southern Levant, with particular attention to the case of Nysa-Scythopolis. Structured thematically and methodologically across a series of interconnected sections, the book moves from broad contextual considerations to focused analyses of material, social, and cultural life, before widening the lens again to contrast Seleucid strategies with those of local dynasts and concludes with theoretical reflections on the Hellenistic world. This structure allows readers to grasp both the local specificity of Nysa-Scythopolis and the broader patterns of Hellenistic urbanization, kingship, and cultural interaction in the Eastern Mediterranean. 

    Kasion 17

    2026

    ISBN 978-3-96327-346-9 (book)

    ISBN 978-3-96327-347-6 (e-book)

    viii + 557 pp. / DIN-A4 / hardcover, thread stitching

    open access: ISBN-978-3-96327-347-6-Kasion-17.pdf

     

    Preface

    Introduction: Seleucid Nysa-Scythopolis in the Framework of Hellenistic Foundations in the Levant (Achim Lichtenberger and Oren Tal)

     

    I. Setting the Stage

    Chapter 1      Nysa-Scythopolis (Tell Iẓṭabba): A Seleucid Foundation in the Southern Levant (Achim Lichtenberger and Oren Tal)

     

    II. People and Environment

    Chapter 2      Climate and Earthquakes in the Beth She’an Valley in the Hellenistic Period (Amotz Agnon)

    Chapter 3      Founding the City, Settling the Chora: Settlement Dynamics in the Territories of Hippos and Nysa-Scythopolis as a Test Case (Adam Pažout)

    Chapter 4      On the Ethno-linguistic Character of the Names of the Judeo-Samaritans in Palestine and Adjacent Regions during the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Periods (Ran Zadok)

     

    III. Royal Administration

    Chapter 5      Ptolemaic Foundations in the Southern Levant: Imperial Policy and Regional Integration (Ole Johannsen)

    Chapter 6      Religious (Royal) Discourse in the Hellenistic Southern Levant (Giuseppina Marano)

    Chapter 7      Seleucid Foundations in the Southern Levant and Their Role in Dynastic Struggles (Kyle W. Mahoney)

    Chapter 8      Royal Cult and Religious Life in the Seleucid Levant: Additional Considerations on the Heliodoros Stele (Kyle Erickson)

     

    IV. Economic Strategies

    Chapter 9      Economic Dynamics (Noah Kaye)

    Chapter 10    Ptolemaic and Seleucid Coinage in the Southern Levant in Consideration of the Political Context (Catharine Lorber)

    Chapter 11    Phoenician Mints in the Hellenistic Period (Jessica Schellig)

     

    V. Urban Fabrics

    Chapter 12    City Planning in the Seleucid Foundations of the Levant (Winfried Held)

    Chapter 13    Seleucid Fortifications in the Southern Levant (Brita Jansen)

    Chapter 14    Bathing in the Hellenistic Southern Levant (Arleta Kowalewska)

    Chapter 15    Nysa-Scythopolis and the Dead: Burial Culture in the Seleucid Southern Levant (Philip Ebeling, Achim Lichtenberger and Oren Tal)

     

    VI. Material Culture

    Chapter 16    Mural Decoration in the Hellenistic Levant (Silvia Rozenberg)

    Chapter 17    Architectural Decoration in the Hellenistic Southern Levant (Julia Hertzer)

    Chapter 18    Art in the Hellenistic Southern Levant (Adi Erlich)

    Chapter 19    Late Hellenistic Glass Production in the Southern Levant: Between Tradition and Innovation (Ruth E. Jackson-Tal)

     

    VII. Dietary Habits

    Chapter 20    Archaeobotanical Remains in the Seleucid Foundations of the Southern Levant: Agricultural Strategies and the Floral Diet (Andrea Orendi)

    Chapter 21    Faunal Remains in the Seleucid Foundations of the Southern Levant: Animal Husbandry and the Meat Diet in Nysa-Scythopolis (Tell Iẓṭabba) from a Comparative Perspective (Miriam Pines)

     

    VIII. Contrasting the Colonial Paradigms: Local Dynasts

    Chapter 22    Royal Religious Ideology in Semitic Minor Kingdoms (Julia Hoffmann-Salz)

    Chapter 23    Border Regions and Ethnicity: Archaeological Insights into Hellenistic and Hasmonean Influence at Tall Zirā‘a (Friederike Schöpf)

    Chapter 24    Jewish Necropoleis and Burial Customs in Seleucid and Hasmonean Palestine (Zeev Weiss)

     

    IX. Concluding Remarks

    Chapter 25    Peoples, Empires, and Experience in the (Southern) Levant in the Final Centuries BCE: Constructing Locality at Nysa-Scythopolis (Tell Iẓṭabba) (Miguel John Versluys)

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    Tuesday, October 27, 2026

    Open Access Monograph Series: Institute for the Study of the Ancient Cultures Miscellaneous Publications

    [First posted in AWOL 27 April 2015, updated (new URLs) 27 October 2025] 

    Institute for the Study of the Ancient Cultures Miscellaneous Publications

     And see AWOL's Alphabetical List of Open Access Monograph Series in Ancient Studies

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