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The Construction of Time in Antiquity

The Construction of Time in Antiquity

The Construction of Time in Antiquity

Ritual, Art, and Identity
Editors:
Jonathan Ben-Dov, University of Haifa, Israel
Lutz Doering, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany
Lutz Doering, Jonathan Ben-Dov, Sacha Stern, Jörg Rüpke, John Steele, Robert Hannah, Alexandra von Lieven, Lorenzo Verderame, SeungJung Kim, Sarit Kattan Gribetz, Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra, Robert Hayward, Clemens Leonhard
Published:
October 2017
Format:
Hardback
ISBN:
9781107108967

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£98.00
GBP
Hardback
$127.00 USD
eBook

    Time has always held a fascination for human beings, who have attempted to relate to it and to make sense of it, constructing and deconstructing it through its various prisms, since time cannot be experienced in an unmediated way. This book answers the needs of a growing community of scholars and readers who are interested in this interaction. It offers a series of innovative studies by both senior and younger experts on various aspects of the construction of time in antiquity. Some articles in this book contain visual material published for the first time, while other studies update the field with new theories or apply new approaches to relevant sources. Within the study of antiquity, the book covers the disciplines of Classics and Ancient History, Assyriology, Egyptology, Ancient Judaism, and Early Christianity, with thematic contributions on rituals, festivals, astronomy, calendars, medicine, art, and narrative.

    • Presents calendars and the history of astronomy as an organ of the historical discipline
    • Provides an accessible approach to a field usually limited to experts
    • Presents promising new voices alongside senior authors in the field
    • Offers innovative studies on various themes, eras, and regions

    Reviews & endorsements

    '… editors have gathered an impressive breadth and depth of perspectives on time in antiquity.' Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

    See more reviews

    Product details

    October 2017
    Hardback
    9781107108967
    308 pages
    235 × 157 × 19 mm
    0.64kg
    15 b/w illus. 6 tables
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • 1. Introduction Lutz Doering and Jonathan Ben-Dov
    • 2 Time and natural law in Jewish-Hellenistic writings Jonathan Ben-Dov
    • 3. Calendars, politics, and power relations in the Roman Empire Sacha Stern
    • 4. Doubling religion in the Augustan Age: shaping time for an empire Jörg Rüpke
    • 5. Real and constructed time in Babylonian astral medicine John Steele
    • 6. The intellectual background of the Antikythera mechanism Robert Hannah
    • 7. Divine figurations of time in Ancient Egypt Alexandra von Lieven
    • 8. The moon and the power of time reckoning in Ancient Mesopotamia Lorenzo Verderame
    • 9. Toward a phenomenology of time in ancient Greek art SeungJung Kim
    • 10. Women's bodies as metaphors for time in biblical, second temple, and rabbinic literature Sarit Kattan Gribetz
    • 11. The beginning of sabbath and festivals in ancient Jewish sources Lutz Doering
    • 12. Seasoning the bible and biblifying time through fixed liturgical reading systems (lectionaries) Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra
    • 13. The Roman ember days of September and the Jewish New Year Robert Hayward
    • 14. Celebrations and the abstention from celebrations of sacred time in Early Christianity Clemens Leonhard.
      Contributors
    • Lutz Doering, Jonathan Ben-Dov, Sacha Stern, Jörg Rüpke, John Steele, Robert Hannah, Alexandra von Lieven, Lorenzo Verderame, SeungJung Kim, Sarit Kattan Gribetz, Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra, Robert Hayward, Clemens Leonhard

    • Editors
    • Jonathan Ben-Dov , University of Haifa, Israel

      Jonathan Ben-Dov is an expert on ancient Jewish literature and ancient astronomy and calendars. He took part in the official publication of calendrical texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls, and is now co-leader of a new project for the digitization of the scrolls. He has been research fellow in New York University and at Durham University, and is a member of the Israeli Young Academy of Sciences.

    • Lutz Doering , Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany

      Lutz Doering is a scholar of ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, specializing in the study of festivals, Jewish law, and letter writing. He has held research fellowships from the British Arts and Humanities Research Council, and the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, and currently leads a project in the Cluster of Excellence 'Religion and Politics' at the University of Münster, Germany.