Wednesday, June 26, 2019

New Online from the Oriental Institute: CHDS 3. Unpublished Bo-Fragments in Transliteration II (Bo 6151–Bo 9535)

CHDS 3. Unpublished Bo-Fragments in Transliteration II (Bo 6151–Bo 9535) 
Oğuz Soysal and Başak Yıldız Gülşen
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The monograph offers a large number of unpublished text fragments in photo and transliteration and gives succinct philological notes to these fragments. The fragments are part of a large collection that had been found during the early Turkish-German campaigns at the Hittite capital Hattusa before the Second World War. The fragments were taken to the Staatliche Museen in Berlin (which fell to Eastern Germany after the war) and were finally returned by the German Democratic Republic to Turkey (the Museum of Ancient Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara) in the year 1987. They were then divided among a team of eminent Turkish Hittitologists under the supervision of Sedat Alp, but most of the pieces remained unpublished. Following a decision of the Turkish Ministry of Culture in 2010, a new team was formed, partly consisting of members of the former team, but also supplemented by several fine younger Turkish Hittitologists. The authors of the present monograph are among these new team members.

Oğuz Soysal, a Hittitologist, and Başak Yıldız Gülşen, a curator of the Ankara Museum, provide photographs and transliterations of each piece. This is a very felicitous decision. Photos offer the users of his book all the information needed on the sign forms of the fragments, and the transliterations show how the authors have interpreted those signs. Wherever necessary, the authors give philological notes to explain certain forms or to present relevant text variants. Each fragment, if possible, is accompanied by information on its assignment to a Hittite text or text genre, the date of the composition, the fragmentʼs measurements, and previous bibliography.

After the presentation of the fragments highly useful indexes on onomastics and lexicographical matters close the book.

Table of Contents

Foreword
List of Abbreviations
Unpublished Bo-Fragments in Transliteration II (Bo 6151–Bo 9535)
Appendix 1: Addenda and Corrigenda to CHDS 2
Appendix 2: Concordance of Bo-Texts and CHDS 2–3 Numbers
Index of Proper Names
Select Lexical Entries from Bo 6151–Bo 9535
Lexical Citations
Citations from Other Boğazköy Texts
Concordance of the CTH Numbers of Bo 6151–Bo 9535 according to CHDS 3 and Konkordanz
  • Unpublished Bo-Fragments in Transliteration II (Bo 6151–Bo 9535)
  • Chicago Hittite Dictionary Supplements 3
  • Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 2019
  • ISBN: 978-1-61491-044-2
  • Pp. xvi + 306; 316 illustrations (most color)
  • Softcover, 9 x 11.75 in.
 Chicago Hittite Dictionary Supplements (CHDS) | List of volumes in print

For an up to date list of all Oriental Institute publications available online see:

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FACEBOOK’S BLACK MARKET IN ANTIQUITIES

FACEBOOK’S BLACK MARKET IN ANTIQUITIES
AMR AL-AZM, KATIE A. PAUL WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY SHAWN GRAHAM
JUNE 2019
Facebook’s “Groups” feature, which allows users to create and control a contained network of individuals with “shared interests,” has become a facilitator for the expansion of antiquities trafficking networks. The Groups provide a seamless environment for digital interactions and cross-border networking between users interested in buying and selling antiquities, allowing them to communicate efficiently and discretely. The ATHAR Project’s report covers nearly two-years of investigative research and incorporates a case study on Groups based in Syria.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Facebook’s rapid growth and lack of internal policing mechanisms over the past decade have helped the platform become a digital black market where users buy and sell goods, including illicit antiquities, from some of the world’s most conflict-ridden nations. The social media platform has marketed itself as a tool for the global dissemination of ideas and information. In the process, however, it has unwittingly expanded the communication abilities of transnational criminal networks the world over.

Today, Facebook offers a veritable digital toolbox for traffickers to utilize, including photo and video uploads, live streaming, disappearing ‘Stories,’ payment mechanisms, and encrypted messaging. Facebook is the perfect platform for a one-stop-shop black market.

This in turn has made Facebook the wild west of social media, providing opportunities for violent extremist organizations and criminal groups to operate in plain sight with little recourse. Facebook and other technology companies receive broad immunity from responsibility for any content posted to their platforms by third-parties under the 1996 Communications Decency Act Section 230.

Aside from the law, Facebook does have its own internal policies laid out in the company’s Community Standards that prohibit the sale of black-market items like drugs and wildlife. But illicit cultural property is not listed in the banned trades under Facebook’s Community Standards. As a result, today we can find detailed information about antiquities trafficking that has remained active on the platform for years. This data provides a rare look at the inside of the trade.

It is worth noting that unlike other black market trades, there are few statistics on the trade in illicit antiquities. Likewise, little data is available for the legal global trade in antiquities. Art market industry reports typically lump datasets for antiquities together with the broader art market. For a trade that can straddle the legal and illegal realm, it is difficult to get a handle on the amount of cultural property that is currently leaving Middle East and North African (MENA) countries in high volumes.

The public nature of these digital criminal networks therefore offers an opportunity to track the actors in the illicit trade of cultural property. The data in these Facebook Groups opens a window to the early stages of the antiquities trafficking chain. This research builds upon existing knowledge of antiquities trafficking and provides a quantitative lens to analyze the Facebook trade in illicit antiquities and the actors who engage in these crimes. Studying Facebook Groups and the users that communicate and operate within them allows for both a substantive look at the actors and a measurable set of data that can help foster a better understanding of the transnational criminal networks involved in this trade.

This report details the findings of the Antiquities Trafficking and Heritage Anthropology Research (ATHAR) Project. The goal of this research is to provide a more complete illustration of the digital black market in antiquities from the MENA region and present potential means for disrupting it.

KEY FINDINGS

An analysis of 95 Arabic Facebook Groups developed for antiquities trafficking indicates that the administrators (“admins”) managing Groups are highly interconnected and have a global reach. There are 488 individual admins managing a collective 1,947,195 members across 95 Facebook Groups. Twenty-three of the admins managing four or more Groups. Their influence extends as far as the United States, where an American antiquities dealer is Facebook friends with at least one admin who runs multiple trafficking Groups and Pages on Facebook.

Group members include a mix of average citizens, middlemen, and violent extremists. Violent extremists currently include individuals associated with Syrian-based groups like Hay’at Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), Hurras Al-Din, the Zinki Brigade and other non-Syrian based Al-Qaeda or Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) affiliates. All of these groups are using Facebook as a platform for antiquities trafficking, whether through direct interaction with buyers and sellers or through the use of middlemen who straddle transactions between the general public and terrorist groups.

Facebook Group admins compel users to give them money if they make a sale or connection through the Group they have joined. Admins may collect a fee (referred to by some as “khums tax” or equivalent) from any sales generated through contacts made in their Group. The admins can also remove or block users who do not comply. The same khums tax practice was used by ISIS in its governance of illicit antiquities.

Traffickers are offering large artifacts, including mosaics, architectural elements, and Pharaonic coffins — all still in situ. These individuals are finding buyers before they put in the effort to remove the objects. Monitoring social media offers a rare opportunity for authorities to stop trafficking before an object has even left the ground.

A case study on Syrian-based Facebook Groups reveals that posts from users based in conflict zones make up more than one-third of all posts offering artifacts. Among the active users with locations in the Groups analyzed, 36% of posts offering artifacts have identifiable locations in conflict zones and 44% of posts offering artifacts were from countries bordering conflict zones.
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The Construct of Identity in Hellenistic Judaism

The Construct of Identity in Hellenistic Judaism
By Erich S. Gruen
The Construct of Identity in Hellenistic Judaism by Erich S. Gruen

Book Description

This volume assembles twenty-three essays by Erich S. Gruen, who has written extensively on the literature and history of early Judaism and the experience of the Jews in the Greco-Roman world. Twenty-two of the articles have previously been published, and one new one was composed for the volume.
  • ISBN: 9783110387193 |
  • Hardcover: 588 pages |
  • Publisher: De Gruyter |
  • Publication date: |
  • Language: English |
  • Format: Ebook
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Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Open Access Journal: Revue de théologie et de philosophie

[First posted in AWOL 21 July 2014, updated 25 May 2019]

Revue de théologie et de philosophie
ISSN: 0035-1784
La Revue de théologie et de philosophie (RThPh) a été fondée en 1868 par des philosophes et des théologiens protestants de Suisse romande. Elle parut à l’origine sous le titre «Théologie et philosophie: Compte rendu des principales publications scientifiques à l’étranger ». Elle fut donc au départ un simple bulletin de recensions. Le but des premiers rédacteurs était d’informer le public philosophique et théologique romand des nouveaux travaux allemands, anglais et italiens, sans parti pris, selon le principe « La vérité sans la recherche de la vérité n’est pas la vérité ».
Au fil des ans, la RThPh est devenue une revue, assurant, à côté des comptes rendus, la publication d’articles, de chroniques et d’études critiques, participant ainsi elle-même plus activement aux travaux et débats en cours.
Pour plus de détails sur l’histoire de la Revue:
Henri Meylan, «La Revue de théologie et de philosophie 1868 1968», RThPh, 1968, pp. 273 292.
Pour trouver un article ou une recension dans la Revue, on peut consulter les quatre volumes de «Tables» élaborés au fil des décennies: 1868-1911, 1913-1937, 1938-1967 et 1968-1995. Les deux derniers volumes sont en vente auprès du Secrétariat de la Revue
[Five year moving wall]
  1. Volume 146 (2014)
  2. Volume 63 (2013)
  3. Volume 62 (2012)
  4. Volume 61 (2011)
  5. Volume 60 (2010)
  6. Volume 59 (2009)
  7. Volume 58 (2008)
  8. Volume 57 (2007)
  9. Volume 56 (2006)
  10. Volume 55 (2005)
  11. Volume 54 (2004)
  12. Volume 53 (2003)
  13. Volume 52 (2002)
  14. Volume 51 (2001)
  15. Volume 50 (2000)
  16. Volume 49 (1999)
  17. Volume 48 (1998)
  18. Volume 47 (1997)
  19. Volume 46 (1996)
  20. Volume 45 (1995)
  21. Volume 44 (1994)
  22. Volume 43 (1993)
  23. Volume 42 (1992)
  24. Volume 41 (1991)
  25. Volume 40 (1990)
  26. Volume 39 (1989)
  27. Volume 38 (1988)
  28. Volume 37 (1987)
  29. Volume 36 (1986)
  30. Volume 35 (1985)
  31. Volume 34 (1984)
  32. Volume 33 (1983)
  33. Volume 32 (1982)
  34. Volume 31 (1981)
  35. Volume 30 (1980)
  36. Volume 29 (1979)
  37. Volume 28 (1978)
  38. Volume 27 (1977)
  39. Volume 26 (1976)
  40. Volume 25 (1975)
  41. Volume 24 (1974)
  42. Volume 23 (1973)
  43. Volume 22 (1972)
  44. Volume 21 (1971)
  45. Volume 20 (1970)
  46. Volume 19 (1969)
  47. Volume 18 (1968)
  48. Volume 17 (1967)
  49. Volume 16 (1966)
  50. Volume 15 (1965)
  51. Volume 14 (1964)
  52. Volume 13 (1963)
  53. Volume 12 (1962)
  54. Volume 11 (1961)
  55. Volume 10 (1960)
  56. Volume 9 (1959)
  57. Volume 8 (1958)
  58. Volume 7 (1957)
  59. Volume 6 (1956)
  60. Volume 5 (1955)
  61. Volume 4 (1954)
  62. Volume 3 (1953)
  63. Volume 2 (1952)
  64. Volume 1 (1951)
  65. Volume 38 (1950)
  66. Volume 37 (1949)
  67. Volume 36 (1948)
  68. Volume 35 (1947)
  69. Volume 34 (1946)
  70. Volume 33 (1945)
  71. Volume 32 (1944)
  72. Volume 31 (1943)
  73. Volume 30 (1942)
  74. Volume 29 (1941)
  75. Volume 28 (1940)
  76. Volume 27 (1939)
  77. Volume 26 (1938)
  78. Volume 25 (1937)
  79. Volume 24 (1936)
  80. Volume 23 (1935)
  81. Volume 22 (1934)
  82. Volume 21 (1933)
  83. Volume 20 (1932)
  84. Volume 19 (1931)
  85. Volume 18 (1930)
  86. Volume 17 (1929)
  87. Volume 16 (1928)
  88. Volume 15 (1927)
  89. Volume 14 (1926)
  90. Volume 13 (1925)
  91. Volume 12 (1924)
  92. Volume 11 (1923)
  93. Volume 10 (1922)
  94. Volume 9 (1921)
  95. Volume 8 (1920)
  96. Volume 7 (1919)
  97. Volume 6 (1918)
  98. Volume 5 (1917)
  99. Volume 4 (1916)
  100. Volume 3 (1915)
  101. Volume 2 (1914)
  102. Volume 1 (1913)

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