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Description:
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This volume constitutes a new step forward in the study of the Late Bronze
Age city of Emar. A multi-ethnic population of Hittites, Assyrians,
Egyptians and the north-west Semitic-speaking natives inhabited this port
of call situated on the middle Euphrates on the frontier of the Hittite
province of Syria, facing Babylonia to the south-east and Assyria to the
north-east. It flourished during the last days of this hegemonic power
system which was broken by the inroads of the Aramaeans, the Israelites,
the Sea Peoples, and the rise of the Phoenician city states in the twelfth
century. The tablets published here are in a variety of languages and cover
the full range of types of documents found from rituals and cultic
inventories to legal documents and payment lists. Each text type is
discussed and parallels to previously published texts are given. Every
document is provided with an introduction placing it in its context, a
transliteration, translation and philological and textual notes.
Furthermore, they are presented in photographs, hand copies and with
drawings of all the Hittite and Syrian sealings. These texts provide
insights into the political, economic, social and religious life of the
critical period of the late thirteenth and early twelfth centuries when the
face of the Near East underwent global changes.
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