The Journal of the American Oriental Society articles from April 2005

The Journal of the American Oriental Society archives from April 2005

The "Queen of the Night" plaque--a revisit.(clay plaque from the Old Babylonian period of Hammurabi)(Critical essay)
April 1, 2005... INTRODUCTION In 1970 this writer published an article on the figural relief of the clay plaque then known as the Burney Relief (fig. 1), questioning the authenticity of the plaque based on the iconography of the ring and rod held in each...

The Three Chaste Ones of Ba: local perspectives on the Yellow Turban rebellion on the Chengdu Plain.
April 1, 2005... It is something of a truism in discussions of early imperial Chinese history that the so-called Yellow Turban rebellion of the late second century C.E. played an important role in the demise of the Han dynasty. (1) With the court weakened by...

Baochang: sixth-century biographer of Buddhist monks ... and nuns?(Biography)
April 1, 2005... Not much attention has been given to the Liang dynasty (502-557) monk Baochang [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], other than a few stray lines about his authorship of the Mingseng zhuan [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (Biographies of Famous...

Of Jesus, Darius, Marduk ...: Aramaic Magic Bowls in the Moussaieff collection.
April 1, 2005... Only a few textual witnesses exist for the Aramaic incantation type before the appearance of Mandaic and other Aramaic incantations on earthenware bowls, metal, and leather from Mesopotamia. Due to the non-survival of writing material like...

On reading Fitzgerald's Vyasa.(James L. Fitzgerald's translation of the Mahabharata)(Critical essay)
April 1, 2005... After an extraordinary twenty-six years' wait, the J. A. B. van Buitenen translation of the Mahabharata has been resumed by James L. Fitzgerald and it has been well worth the wait. Fitzgerald is to be congratulated for a vigorous, nuanced, and...

Idumaean ostraca and early Hellenistic chronology.
April 1, 2005... With the publication in 1996 of a large number of Idumaean ostraca, a new source of information on early Hellenistic chronology has appeared. (1) Subsequent publications have continued to add to this material, with the promise of still more to...

Royal Bronze Statuary from Ancient Egypt, with Special Attention to the Kneeling Pose.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Royal Bronze Statuary from Ancient Egypt, with Special Attention to the Kneeling Pose. Egyptological Memoirs, vol. 3. By MARSHA HILL. Leiden: BRILL-STYX, 2004. Pp. xi + 367, plates. $92. Until the 1990s the only available detailed studies...

Tod: Les Inscriptions du temple ptolemaique et romain.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Tod: Les Inscriptions du temple ptolemaique et romain, vol. II: Textes et scenes nos. 173-329; vol. III: Releve photographique. By CHRISTOPHE THIERS and J.-FR. GOUT. Fouilles de l'IFAO, vol. 18/2-3. 2 volumes. Cairo: INSTITUTE FRANCAIS...

Deux tombes de la XVIIIe dynastie a Deir el-Medina.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Deux tombes de la XVIIIe dynastie a Deir el-Medina. By NADINE CHERPION. MIFAO, vol. 114. Cairo: INSTITUT FRANCAIS D'ARCHEOLOGIE ORIENTALE, 1999. Pp. 124, plates. FF 260 (paper). The toponym Deir el-Medina is immediately recognizable to...

Das agyptische Konigtum im Spannungsfeld zwischen Innen-und Aussenpolitik im 2. Jahrtausend v. Chr.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Das agyptische Konigtum im Spannungsfeld zwischen Innen-und Aussenpolitik im 2. Jahrtausend v. Chr. Edited by ROLF GUNDLACH and ANDREA KLUG. Konigtum, Staat und Gesellschaft Fruher Hochkulturen, vol. 1. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2004. Pp....

Egypt, Israel, and the Ancient Mediterranean World: Studies in Honor of Donald B. Redford.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Egypt, Israel, and the Ancient Mediterranean World: Studies in Honor of Donald B. Redford. Edited by GARY N. KNOPPERS and ANTOINE HIRSCH. Probleme der Agyptologie, vol. 20. Leiden: BRILL, 2004. Pp. viii + 524, plates. $222. As all readers...

Catalogue des ostraca hieratiques non litteraires de Deir el-Medineh, vol. 9: nos. 831-1000.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Catalogue des ostraca hieratiques non litteraires de Deir el-Medineh, vol. 9: nos. 831-1000. By PIERRE GRANDET. Documents de Fouilles de l'IFAO, vol. 41. Cairo: INSTITUT FRANCAIS D'ARCHEOLOGIE ORIENTALE, 2003. Pp. xix + 448, illus. (paper). ...

Ein Ritualbuch fur Goldamulette und Totenbuch des Month-em-hat.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Ein Ritualbuch fur Goldamulette und Totenbuch des Month-em-hat. By IRMTRAUT MUNRO. Studien zum Altagyptischen Totenbuch, vol. 7. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2003. Pp. x + 64, plates, CD. [euro]58 (paper). L'ouvrage d'I. Munro permet de...

Encounters with Ancient Egypt.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Encounters with Ancient Egypt. A series of eight collections of essays, under the general editorship of PETER UCKO. London: UCL PRESS, 2003. [Distributed in the U.S.A. by International Specialized Book Services, Portland, Oregon] $47.50 each...

From Slave to Pharaoh: The Black Experience in Ancient Egypt.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... From Slave to Pharaoh: The Black Experience in Ancient Egypt. By DONALD B. REDFORD. Baltimore: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2004. Pp. ix + 218. $44.95. With a profound interest in the sources and the story they have to tell, Donald B....

Hittite Studies in Honor of Harry A. Hoffner Jr. on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Hittite Studies in Honor of Harry A. Hoffner Jr. on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday. Edited by GARY BECKMAN, RICHARD BEAL, and GREGORY MCMAHON. Winona Lake, Indiana: EISENBRAUNS, 2003. Pp. xxiv + 406, illus. $59.50. This volume is a...

Drehem Administrative Documents from the Reign of Amar-Suena.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Drehem Administrative Documents from the Reign of Amar-Suena. Cuneiform Texts from the Ur III Period in the Oriental Institute, vol. 2. By MARKUS HILGERT, with a contribution by Clemens D. Reichel. Oriental Institute Publications, vol. 121....

Nimrud und seine Funde: Der Weg der Reliefs in die Museen und Sammlungen.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Nimrud und seine Funde: Der Weg der Reliefs in die Museen und Sammlungen. By KLAUDIA ENGLUND. Orient-Archaologie, vol. 12. Rahden/Westf.: VERLAG MARIE LEIDORF, 2003. Pp. 201, plates. More than 150 years have passed since the discovery of...

Einfuhrung in die Geo-Archaologie des Vorderen Orients.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Einfuhrung in die Geo-Archaologie des Vorderen Orients, by WERNER NUTZEL. Wiesbaden: REICHERT VERLAG, 2004. Pp. xviii + 291, illus. [euro]29 (paper). This book begins with a somewhat awkward definition of geoarchaeology. Nutzel argues that...

The Babylonian Correspondence of Sargon and Sennacherib.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... The Babylonian Correspondence of Sargon and Sennacherib. By MANFRIED DIETRICH. Translated by Inka Parpola and Ronald Mayer-Opificius. State Archives of Assyria, vol. 17. Helsinki: HELSINKI UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2003. Pp. xlv + 214, illus. (paper)....

The Earliest Text of the Hebrew Bible: The Relationship between the Masoretic Text and the Hebrew Base of the Septuagint Reconsidered.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... The Earliest Text of the Hebrew Bible: The Relationship between the Masoretic Text and the Hebrew Base of the Septuagint Reconsidered. Edited by ADRIAN SCHENKER. Septuagint and Cognate Studies, vol. 52. Atlanta: SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE,...

The Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Koy Sanjaq (Iraqi Kurdistan).(Book review)
April 1, 2005... The Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Koy Sanjaq (Iraqi Kurdistan). By HEZY MUTZAFI. Semitica Viva, vol. 32. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2004. Pp. xviii + 260. [euro]58 (paper). In the last ten years or so two scholars, Geoffrey Khan and...

Early Beth Shan (Strata XIX-XIII): G. M. FitzGerald's Deep Cut on the Tell.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Early Beth Shan (Strata XIX-XIII): G. M. FitzGerald's Deep Cut on the Tell. By ELIOT BRAUN. University Museum Monographs, vol. 121. Philadelphia: UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA MUSEUM, 2004. Pp. xiv + 78, plates. The site of Tel Beth Shan is...

The Archaeology of the Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... The Archaeology of the Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine. By JODI MAGNESS. Winona Lake, Ind.: EISENBRAUNS, 2003. Pp. xi + 223, illus., CD. $49.50. In the last decades several studies have been published dealing with the question of the...

Mediterranean Archaeological Landscapes: Current Issues.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Mediterranean Archaeological Landscapes: Current Issues. Edited by EFFIE ATHANASSOPOULOS and LUANN WANDSNIDER. Philadelphia: UNIVERSITY MUSEUM, 2004. Pp. xii + 242, illus. $39.95. Ever since the onset of regional archaeological survey...

Armenian And Iranian Studies.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Armenian and Iranian Studies. By JAMES R. RUSSELL. Harvard Armenian Texts and Studies, vol. 9. Belmont, Mass.: ARMENIAN HERITAGE PRESS, 2004. Pp. xxix + 1462, illus. $75. [Distributed by Harvard Univ. Press] James R. Russell is surely one...

Early Riders: The Beginnings of Mounted Warfare in Asia and Europe.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Early Riders: The Beginnings of Mounted Warfare in Asia and Europe. By ROBERT DREWS. New York: ROUTLEDGE, 2004. Pp. xi + 218, illus. $90. In this significant book Robert Drews sets out to review all the evidence for the use of the horse in...

Jewels of Authority: Women and Textual Tradition in Hindu India.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Jewels of Authority: Women and Textual Tradition in Hindu India. Edited by LAURIE L. PATTON. New York: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2002. Pp. 256. $55 (cloth); $22.50 (paper) (pub. in 2005). This book contains essays written by nine authors,...

Bactrian Documents from Northern Afghanistan, I: Legal and Economic Documents.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Bactrian Documents from Northern Afghanistan, I: Legal and Economic Documents. By NICHOLAS SIMS-WILLIAMS. Studies in the Khalili Collection, vol. 3. Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum, part II, vol. VI. Oxford: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2000. Pp....

Beitrage zur Erklarung der Senavarma-Inschrift.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Beitrage zur Erklarung der Senavarma-Inschrift. By OSKAR VON HINUBER. Akademie der Wissen-schaften und der Literatur, Abhandlungen der Geistesund sozialwissenschaftlichen Klasse 2003 Nr. 1. Mainz: AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN UND DER...

The Bhagats of the Guru Granth Sahib: Sikh Self-Definition and the Bhagat Bani.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... The Bhagats of the Guru Granth Sahib: Sikh Self-Definition and the Bhagat Bani. By PASHAURA SINGH. New Delhi: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2003. Pp. xviii + 210. $27.50. In 2000 Pashavra Singh, in an important work of scholarship, The Guru...

Seeking Bauls of Bengal.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Seeking Bauls of Bengal. By JEANNE OPENSHAW. University of Cambridge Oriental Publications, vol. 60. Cambridge: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2002. Pp. xii + 288, illus. Bauls are idealized as emblems of Bengali folk culture. In popular...

China-Literatur in der Universitatsbibliothek Leipzig, 1500-1939: Eine systematische Bibliographie.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... China-Literatur in der Universitatsbibliothek Leipzig, 1500-1939: Eine systematische Bibliographie. Two volumes. By THOMAS JANSEN, with the assistance of Gabriele Schlesinger, Richard Teschke, and Katharina Zinn. Leipzig: LEIPZIGER...

Balanced Discourses: A Bilingual Edition.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Balanced Discourses: A Bilingual Edition. Translated by JOHN MAKEHAM. The Classical Library of Chinese Literature and Thought. New Haven: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS; Beijing: FOREIGN LANGUAGES PRESS, 2003. Pp. xl + 366. $45. Xu Gan [TEXT NOT...

Turkish Islam and the Secular State: The Gulen Movement.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Turkish Islam and the Secular State: The Gulen Movement. Edited by M. HAKAN YAVUZ and JOHN L. ESPOSITO. Syracuse: SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2003. Pp. 280. $24.95. Paper. The Gulen movement, a non-political Turkish Islamic group, has...

Measures and Weights in the Islamic World: An English Translation of Walther Hinz's Handbook.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Measures and Weights in the Islamic World: An English Translation of Walther Hinz's Handbook Islamische Masse und Gewichte. Translated by M. ISMAIL MARCINKOWSKI. Kuala Lumpur: INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ISLAMIC THOUGHT AND CIVILIZATION, 2003....

The Reformation of Morals: A Parallel Arabic-English Edition.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... The Reformation of Morals: A Parallel Arabic-English Edition. Translated by SIDNEY H. GRIFFITH. Provo: BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2002. Pp. xlvi + 133. $35. Griffith, a specialist of Syriac and Arabic Christianity and translator of A...

The Position of Women in Islam: A Progressive View.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... The Position of Women in Islam: A Progressive View. By MOHAMMAD SYED ALI. Albany: STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS, 2004. Pp. xiv + 135. $59.50 (cloth), $19.95 (paper). Publishing the work of a Muslim who proposes a "progressive" view is...

The Priest and the Great King: Temple-Palace Relations in the Persian Empire.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... The Priest and the Great King: Temple-Palace Relations in the Persian Empire. By LISBETH S. FRIED. Biblical and Judaic Studies from the University of California, San Diego, vol. 10. Winona Lake, Indiana: EISENBRAUNS, 2004. Pp. xv + 266. $39....

Sefer Moshe: The Moshe Weinfeld Jubilee Volume: Studies in the Bible and the Ancient Near East, Qumran, and Post-Biblical Judaism.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Sefer Moshe: The Moshe Weinfeld Jubilee Volume: Studies in the Bible and the Ancient Near East, Qumran, and Post-Biblical Judaism. Edited by HAYIM COHEN, AVI HURVITZ, and SHALOM M. PAUL. Winona Lake, Indiana: EISENBRAUNS, 2004. Pp. xlvi + 513,...

Civilization at the Foot of Mount Sham-po: The Royal House of lHa Bug-pa-can and the History of g.Ya'-bzang.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Civilization at the Foot of Mount Sham-po: The Royal House of lHa Bug-pa-can and the History of g.Ya'-bzang. By GYALBO TSERING, GUNTRAM HAZOD, and PER K. S[empty set]RENSEN. Vienna: VERLAG DER OSTER-REICHISCHE AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN, 2000....

Three Mountains and Seven Rivers: Prof. Musashi Tachikawa's Felicitation Volume.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Three Mountains and Seven Rivers: Prof. Musashi Tachikawa's Felicitation Volume. Edited by SHOUN HINO and TOSHIRO WADA. Delhi: MOTILAL BANARSIDASS, 2004. Pp. x + 903. Rs. 1800. It is the rare felicitation volume that does justice to its...

The Many Canons of Tibetan Buddhism: PIATS 2000: Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the Ninth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Leiden 2000.(Book review)
April 1, 2005... The Many Canons of Tibetan Buddhism: PIATS 2000: Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the Ninth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Leiden 2000. Edited by HELMUT EIMER and DAVID GERMANO. Brill's Tibetan Studies Library, 2,...

Rasa: Performing the Divine in India.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2005... Rasa: Performing the Divine in India. By SUSAN L. SCHWARTZ. New York: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2004. Pp. xv + 118. $59.50 (cloth); $22.50 (paper). This little book is not aimed at a scholarly audience, but at "a variety of interested...