Nomads, Tribes, and the State in the Ancient Near East

OIS 5.

Nomads, Tribes, and the State in the Ancient Near East: Cross-disciplinary Perspective.

Jeffrey Szuchman, ed.

2009.

For decades, scholars have struggled to understand the complex relationship between pastoral nomadic tribes and sedentary peoples of the Near East. The Oriental Institute’s fourth annual post-doc seminar (March 7-8, 2008), Nomads, Tribes, and the State in the Ancient Near East, brought together archaeologists, historians, and anthropologists to discuss new approaches to enduring questions in the study of nomadic peoples, tribes, and states of the past: What social or political bonds link tribes and states? Could nomadic tribes exhibit elements of urbanism or social hierarchies? How can the tools of historical, archaeological, and ethnographic research be integrated to build a dynamic picture of the social landscape of the Near East? This volume presents a range of data and theoretical perspectives from a variety of regions and periods, including prehistoric Iran, ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, seventh-century Arabia, and nineteenth-century Jordan.

For decades, scholars have struggled to understand the complex relationship between pastoral nomadic tribes and sedentary peoples of the Near East. The Oriental Institute’s fourth annual post-doc seminar (March 7-8, 2008), Nomads, Tribes, and the State in the Ancient Near East, brought together archaeologists, historians, and anthropologists to discuss new approaches to enduring questions in the study of nomadic peoples, tribes, and states of the past: What social or political bonds link tribes and states? Could nomadic tribes exhibit elements of urbanism or social hierarchies? How can the tools of historical, archaeological, and ethnographic research be integrated to build a dynamic picture of the social landscape of the Near East? This volume presents a range of data and theoretical perspectives from a variety of regions and periods, including prehistoric Iran, ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, seventh-century Arabia, and nineteenth-century Jordan.

Table of Contents:

1. Integrating Approaches to Nomads, Tribes, and the State in the Ancient Near East. Jeffrey Szuchman, University of Chicago
   
   Section One: Integrating Methods: Historical, Archaeological, and Ethnographic Data
2. The Archaeology of Pastoral Nomads between the Nile and the Red Sea. Hans Barnard, University of California, Los Angeles
3. Egypt and the Vanishing Libyan: Institutional Responses to a Nomadic People. Robert Ritner, University of Chicago
4. History Does Not Repeat Itself: Cyclicity and Particularism in Nomad-Sedentary Relations in the Negev in the Long Term. Steven A. Rosen, Ben-Gurion University
5. Pitching Camp: Ethnoarchaeological Investigations of Inhabited Tent Camps in the Wadi Hisma, Jordan. Benjamin Adam Saidel, East Carolina University
6. Tribal Societies in the Nineteenth Century: A Model. Eveline van der Steen, University of Liverpool
   
   Section Two: Integrating Paradigms of Tribe-State Interaction
7. Specific Characteristics of Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Pastoralism in the Near East. Anatoly M. Khazanov, University of Wisconsin-Madison
8. Prehistoric Mobile Pastoralists in South-central and Southwestern Iran. Abbas Alizadeh, University of Chicago
9. Pastoral Nomads and Iron Age Metal Production in Ancient Edom. Thomas E. Levy, University of California, San Diego
10. Who Lived in the Third-millennium “Round Cities” of Northern Syria?. Bertille Lyonnet, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris
11. Beyond Dimorphism: Ideologies and Materialities of Kinship as Time-Space Distanciation. Anne Porter, University of Southern California
12. Kingship of City and Tribe Conjoined: Zimri-Lim at Mari. Daniel E. Fleming, New York University
13. From Pastoral Peasantry to Tribal Urbanites: Arab Tribes and the Foundation of the Islamic State in Syria. Donald Whitcomb, University of Chicago
    
    Section Three: Response
14. Pastoral Mobility as an Adaptation. Frank Hole, Yale University