The 25th Melammu Workshop: Divination Techniques in the Ancient Near East and the Mediterranean World

29–30 May 2025, Sofia

Divination and prophecy played an important role in decision-making in the ancient world. Royal courts, political elites, military commanders, and ordinary people relied on divination and prophecy to make the right decisions. The 25th Melammu Workshop is dedicated to divination techniques, provoked and unprovoked omens and prophecy in the Ancient Near East and the Mediterranean World. The workshop aims to analyse divination techniques, their development and the context they have been used in, the experts behind them, their conceptual setting, and their diffusion in the ancient world.

The workshop is aimed to be organised in three sessions: provoked omens, unprovoked omens, and prophecy.

Papers dealing with divination techniques, omens, prophecy, their representation in different textual genres and the archaeological evidence, the characteristics of the available sources that are part of (but not limited to) the Ancient Near East and the Mediterranean world are welcome. Papers dedicated to the role of divination and prophecy in the decision-making process and the diffusion of divinatory techniques across the ancient world are strongly encouraged.

Abstracts (200–500 words) should be submitted to Zozan.Tarhan@uni-sofia.bg. The deadline for submission is 30 November 2024. Notification of acceptance/rejection will be sent by 15 December 2024.

For details, see the link here

This is a call for papers for ICAANE 2025 for the workshop:

The role of pottery in communities from the southern Levant to Anatolia 9000–6000 cal BP

Following is the workshop's abstract and the titles of papers that we intend to include. If you wish to join us, please send your title and abstract (up to 200 words) to shalemdina@gmail.com by the end of September. We are particularly interested in studies concerning the regions of Syria and southeastern Turkey.

Workshop abstract

Pottery assemblages from the Pottery Neolithic period and onwards were the focus of countless studies. They addressed their main typologies, vessel surface treatments, raw material procurement, and production technology. These studies provided the foundation for subregional, regional and interregional time-space systematics and cultural subdivisions—issues often discussed and debated in archaeology.

This session wishes to view and consider pottery from a different perspective, which recognizes the role that pottery played in the cultural and perceptual makeup of communities throughout the Pottery Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods (9000–6000 cal BP) from the southern Levant to Anatolia.

In particular, the session will address the effects ceramic vessels and their production had, on the one hand, on divorcing the hunter-gatherer lifeway and ethos and, on the other hand, the later, full establishment of productive, fully-fledged agriculture-based economies on the verge of urban societies. We would like to address the impact of pottery on socio-economic dynamics during the Pottery Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, examine how it is expressed in human behaviors, and discuss the extent to which pottery took part in shaping the newly established worldviews and state of mind of these communities.

The geographical scope considered extends from the southern Levant to Anatolia, so that we can discuss issues related to how pottery may have affected connectivity between different regions of the Near East while offering an opportunity to explore the wide-ranging role of pottery and allowing for a comparative view of its effects in various parts of the Ancient Near East.

Dina Shalem, Avi Gopher and Arkadiusz Marciniak

Participating papers

Isabella Caneva (Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy): Pottery and society at Mersin-Yumuktepe, Turkey, between the seventh and the fifth mill. BC.

Arkadiusz Marciniak (Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań, Poznań , Poland): The potential of pottery in strengthening and expanding of the Central Anatolian Neolithic.

Mehmet Özdoğan (Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey): From kebab to soup—changes consequential to introducing pottery. Generally?

Akira Tsuneki (University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan): Containers for spirits-symbolic meaning of early pottery and stone vessels discovered in Tell el Kerkh.

Avi Gopher (Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel): Trends of change in pottery assemblages along the Pottery Neolithic sequence of the southern Levant: an anatomy of divorcing the Hunter–Gatherer ethos.

Ianir Milevski (National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Argentina and German Institute of Archaeology, Berlin): The social evolution of the Late Prehistory of the southern Levant through the lens of pottery production. A dialectical perspective.

Dina Shalem and Netta Mitki (Israel Antiquities Authority, Akko, Israel): A suggested counting system in the southern Levant during the Pottery Neolithic–Chalcolithic periods based on finds from ‘En Esur, Israel.

 «MARMORA. An International Journal for Archaeology, History and Archaeometry of Marbles and Stones» is an internationally renowned and peer-reviewed journal devoted to marbles and stone materials. Since 2005 it has fostered a multidisciplinary perspective on this topic, becoming a point of union between researchers of the scientific disciplines and humanities and fostering an essential dialogue with the professionals of cultural heritage.

Contributions may consider marbles and stone materials from different points of view, such as provenance, use, appreciation, trade and perception, without temporal or geographic limitation. Therefore, methodologies related to archaeology, architecture, art history and archaeometry are particularly relevant. However, approaches derived from other disciplines and those that have been making headway more recently in the field of materiality are welcome as well.

The journal includes two peer-reviewed sections dedicated to “Saggi” (long essays: max. 12,000 words) and “Note” (short contributions: max. 3,000 words), respectively.

In addition, a further section, “Notizie e recensioni” (2,000 words max. per text), includes, on the one hand, presentations and reviews of events, projects, exhibitions and museum displays related to marbles and stones, on the other hand, reviews of books that investigate these materials from different perspectives.

We accept contributions in Italian, English, French, German, and Spanish.

Deadline for submissions for the 2025 issue: 31st January 2025.

Please address your questions and proposals to marmora@libraweb.net

Please write to marmora@libraweb.net also with information about books you would like us to list for review.

‘Atiqot is a thematic journal, publishing volumes dedicated to specific topics related to the archaeology of Israel from the protohistoric to Ottoman periods. The topics are chosen by the journal’s Editorial Board based on excavation reports from the IAA database, which are complemented by articles on special artifacts and research articles. IAA employees and researchers from outside the organization can respond to the Call for Papers and submit articles on selected artifacts and research articles. Submitted articles will be double-blind peer-reviewed and upon approval, will be edited for language in the IAA Publications Department. The journal is published in English only, both online (Open Access) and in print. The Editorial Board of ‘Atiqot will consider only original, unpublished articles, which were not submitted for publication elsewhere.

‘Atiqot 119 (December 2025) will focus on Water Management and Use in the Archaeological Landscape. Of all the factors affecting the survival probability of humans, water is the most significant one. The earliest civilizations settled near water sources, as they provided a steady supply of drinking water and fertile land—a settlement could not survive without water! Therefore, considerable effort was put into water collecting, be it through channels, reservoirs, dams, etc. Water was also a major component in various industries, crafts and rituals, as well as a cause of diseases and destruction. Archaeological research holds testimony to varied aspects of water, including its uses and importance. These issues will be explored through broad studies spanning many periods and technologies. Relevant studies include, but are not limited to: Drainage systems; Water installations, including wells, pools and cisterns; Water in agriculture and Industry; Bathhouses; Hydrological studies; Water-collecting and cleaning systems; Water supply and management; Uses and importance of water in ancient societies; Holy waters; Conservation and maintenance.

Papers should be prepared according to ‘Atiqot guidelines (https://www.atiqot.org.il/Guide.aspx). Please submit your article by using this Google Form. Articles will be accepted until December 1, 2024. Authors will be notified of acceptance via email within a maximum of two months.

Are you working with networks and first millennium Empires? Interested in writing about the meaning of network studies for the study of identities?

We are pleased to announce an open call for papers for edited volume “New Relational Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Empires: Using Networks for Micro and Macro Perspectives on Identities.” The volume is edited by Saana Svärd, Jason Silverman, Antti Lahelma and Tia Sager. Svärd, Silverman and Lahelma are leading the University of Helsinki’s Centre of Excellence in Ancient Near Eastern Empires (ANEE).

The book is based on the work of the Centre of Excellence. This large research group (30-40 researchers) has worked for years on the research topic of how changing empires impact social group identities and lifeways over a millennium. Instead of treating these empires in isolation, we have brought a cross-disciplinary arsenal of methods and scholars, working through the first millennium BCE Empires in the Middle East: Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, Persian, Hellenistic, and early Roman/Parthian Empires.

One of the main challenges for our research group has been to create fruitful and intensively interdisciplinary and collaborative research. A productive solution has emerged in our joint work – a relational approach as codified in the network sciences! The volume’s novelty is its focus on interdisciplinary discussions between linguistics, philological/historical studies, and archaeology and combining that with the focus on scale: examining the value of network approaches in the study of identities both from micro- and macro perspectives. Focus is on the added value of network methods: what is the relationship between networks as methods on the one hand and the study of identities and social groups on the other. The volume includes response chapters from various fields as well as reflective chapters to assess critically the uses and promises of network approaches.

With this open call, we encourage scholars in all career stages working on any of these time periods to submit proposals examining what network approaches can reveal regarding the construction and evolution of identities (understood in a broad sense) and lifeways under the first millennium empires in the ancient Near East.

Please submit your preliminary title and abstract (max. 400 words) by 30th August 2024 to saana.svard@helsinki.fi. Formal guidelines for submitting the manuscript will be circulated upon acceptance of the proposal. The planned deadline for selected chapters is 1st of June 2025.

We plan to submit the manuscript to Palgrave McMillan series The New Antiquity, hopefully as an open access publication (details to be confirmed later) with a publication date in 2026.

We invite early career scholars interested in researching global Late Antiquity to take part in our initial Research Forum titled Erān: West and Central Asia in the First Millennium CE.

This first Research Forum is a place for established scholars and junior researchers interested in the study of the Iranian, Sasanian, and Eastern Mediterranean world in the first millennium CE to come together for a dialogue of ideas, research agendas, and methods.

The Forum will last for 5 days and is set around the themes of Historiography, Languages of the empire, Religions and Cultures, Material and Visual Culture, and Economy and Administration. Early career scholars are encouraged to propose papers on their desired themes, although these might be organised across the week depending on the number of papers in each theme.

Morning sessions (keynote lectures and seminars) will be open to the public free of charge, subject to availability of space.

More information HERE

25th Congress of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament: Berlin, 11–15 August 2025.
The call for short papers at the IOSOT 2025 in Berlin (August 11–15, 2025) is now open. Applicants can propose short papers (20 minutes) to be presented in the following panels covering the main fields of Hebrew Bibel and Ancient Israel. Proposals will be reviewed by the board of Vetus Testamentum.

Pentateuch
Former Prophets
Latter Prophets
Writings
Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature
Dead Sea Scrolls
Theology, Ethics, and Hermeneutics of the Hebrew Bible
Archaeology of Ancient Israel and the Southern Levant
History of Ancient Israel within the Ancient Near East
Religions of Ancient Israel and the Ancient Near East

Furthermore, the following specialized panels on recent research questions also accept short paper proposals. More information on these panels is available on our website. The panel hosts will review proposals for short papers to be presented in these panels.

Apocalyptic Thinking in Antiquity
Between Foreign Politics and Scribal Theology: Prophecy Concerning the Nations
Digital Humanities and Computational Approaches to the Bible
Philological and Linguistic Variety in Northwest Semitic languages (late 2nd and 1st mill. BCE)
Scribal Culture and the Hebrew Bible

To propose a short paper, applicants should fill out the proposal form provided on our website and send it to iosot2025@hu-berlin.de. The deadline to submit a proposal is June 14, 2024.

הכנס ה־4 של האגודה לחקר העיר עכו וסביבתה יעסוק בתעודות, מסמכים, חוזים מפות ובתיעוד היסטורי של העיר עכו במהלך ההיסטוריה. אנחנו מזמינים חוקרים ואנשי דעת המעוניינים לשלוח תקציר להרצאה בת 30 דקות הנוגעת לנושא הכנס, לרבות:

• עכו בתעודות היסטוריות
• מפות היסטוריות של עכו
• עכו בספרות נוסעים
• הסכמים היסטוריים
• תיעוד היסטורי וממצא ארכיאולוגיה
• מטבעות עכו
• סקרים של עכו

נא לשלוח תקציר של עד 250 מילים ומעט פרטים על הכותב (עד 100 מילים) לדוא"ל: acre.ssae@gmail.com נא לרשום בתקציר פרטים ענייניים! (שם מלא, תואר אקדמי, שיוך אקדמי ופרטי התקשרות).

מועד אחרון להגשת התקצירים הוא 1.5.24

The editors of Teaching Ancient Egypt in Museums: Pedagogies in Practice (Routledge 2024) seek abstract submissions for the second volume in this series, Teaching about the Ancient World in Museums: Pedagogies in Practice. Teaching with ancient material in museums presents unique challenges for educators, museum staff, and learners alike. Ancient objects are sometimes unprovenanced or are of questionable authenticity, and teaching with them necessitates discussions about provenance. In addition, ancient museum collections often provoke conversations about human remains, for which ethical considerations must be woven into pedagogy. Beyond this, contemporary stakeholder perspectives are often excluded from discussions about their ancient pasts and should be incorporated into collections stewardship and educational programming.

This volume will focus on methods and approaches for teaching about *the ancient Mediterranean, ancient Western Asia, and ancient North Africa* through material remains in museums. In our current moment, when both museums and many ancient studies subfields are reflecting on how to create more inclusive practices grounded in social justice and equity, developing ethical and equitable museum pedagogies to teach from ancient material will help shape more critical views of both ancient and modern cultures among students and museum visitors.

We invite participants to submit abstracts for essays that will share *practical examples of object-based teaching in museums and/or with museum collections.* Submissions can be based in museum collections anywhere in the world. Proposed essays should be geared toward generating conversations about best practices in museum pedagogy, curation, and collection stewardship. They must present case studies that are either in progress or completed, and should foreground contributors’ first-hand experiences, methodologies, and reflective teaching practices. We welcome contributions centered on material from the entirety of the ancient Mediterranean, ancient Western Asia, and ancient North Africa that represent teaching with museum objects in creative and inclusive ways. *Essays should be co- authored by two or more authors,* to reflect the collaborative nature of teaching and learning. These may include essays written in partnership between archaeologists, teachers, curators, docents, museum educators, community workers, artists, and others. An authors’ peer-review workshop will be held on Zoom after the first drafts of the volume’s essays are submitted, so that we can all learn from each other.

Proposed essays should center on object-based, practice-oriented learning experiences with clear goals. They may engage learners in a variety of groups, including children; teachers; university students; incarcerated communities; adult lay learners; artists/art students; informal online audiences, e.g. via social media; and learners who require accessibility accommodations. We are seeking contributions that fall into one of the following categories:'

1. Teaching About Tricky Topics: essays that address teaching about topics considered to be difficult, problematic, or sensitive in museum pedagogy (e.g. teaching about provenance, colonialism, restitution, or with human remains).

2. Teaching Towards Accessibility and Inclusivity: essays that take the term “accessibility” broadly, including pedagogies that serve people who require accessibility accommodations, those that engage underserved and underrepresented communities, and those that represent equitable access to collections information.

3. Teaching Across Disciplines: essays that explore productive connections between material culture and fields outside of the ancient world, and those that reach across cultural boundaries.

4. Teaching in the Community: essays that center on case studies where object- based learning takes place outside of the museum proper, such as in schools, community centers, and online, and those that offer examples of meaningful co- creation with community partners.

The editors especially welcome submissions from colleagues working at institutions located in the MENA, SWANA, and Mediterranean regions. Cross-institutional and/or international collaborations are strongly encouraged. Prospective authors are invited to submit a title and abstract (200-300 words) in English that details their proposed essay topic and pedagogical methods by December 1st using this Google Form: https://forms.gle/FbKD5CAiPRGiBviG7