Canaanite Scribal Creativity and the Making of Cuneiform Culture in - the Amarna Ag

Canaanite Scribal Creativity and the Making of Cuneiform Culture in the Amarna Age offers a nuanced exploration of the scribal practices behind the Canaanite Amarna Letters and wider scribal culture of the Levant during the Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 BCE).

List of contents

1. Introduction: Writing, Scribes, and Diplomacy in the Southern Levant in the Amarna Age; 2. From Speech Communities to Script Communities: Past Approaches and New Directions in the Study of the Canaanite Amarna Letters; 3. The Canaanite Amarna Letters and the Scribes Who Wrote Them; 4. Approaches to Code-Switching and Related Phenomena in Speech and Writing; 5. Code-Alternation in Canaano-Akkadian, a Multimodal Strategy of Communication; 6. Broad Strokes: The Visual Design of the Canaanite Amarna Tablets; 7. Code-Alternation in EA 286: A Jerusalem Amarna Letter, Written by a Scribe Trained Outside of Canaan; 8. Code-Alternation in EA 147: A "Literary" Letter from Tyre; 9. Code-Alternation as Register Shifting in EA 300 and 378; 10. Code-Alternation in EA 369, an Egyptian-Akkadian Letter; 11. Conclusion: The Canaanite Amarna Letters as Portals into Cuneiform Script Communities.

About the author

Alice Mandell is the William Foxwell Albright Chair of Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Her research investigates the origins, spread, and socially situated uses of writing in the ancient Levant, focusing on the cuneiform and alphabetic scripts in the second and first millennium BCE. Her work on ancient literacy includes peer reviewed articles: "Writing as a Source of Ritual Authority: The High Priest's Body as a Priestly Text in the Tabernacle Building Story;" "Word Craft in the Ancient Levant: Craft-Literacy as the Intersection of Specialized Knowledge;" and "Reading and Writing Remembrance in Canaan: Early Alphabetic Inscriptions as Multimodal Objects."

Product details

• Authors: Alice Mandell, Mandell Alice
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 31.12.2021, delayed
• EAN: 9781138230507
• ISBN: 978-1-138-23050-7
• No. of pages: 912
• Series: The Ancient Word; The Ancient Word
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Antiquity; Non-fiction book > History > Pre and early history, antiquity; HISTORY / Ancient / General, Religion: general, Christianity, Ancient History, Classical history / classical civilisation, Archaeology by period / region, Criticism and exegesis of sacred texts, Ancient Egypt, Ancient religions & mythologies, Biblical Studies & Exegesis, Egyptian Archaeology / Egyptology, Ancient religions and Mythologies, Middle & Near Eastern archaeology