The Ammonites: Elites, Empires, and Sociopolitical Change (1000-500 BCE)

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This book investigates the archaeological, epigraphic, and biblical evidence for the course of Ammon's history, setting it squarely within the context of ancient Near Eastern imperialism. Drawing on cross-cultural parallels from the archaeology of empires, Tyson elucidates the dynamic processes by which the local Ammonite elite made the cousins of biblical Israel visible to history. Tyson explains changes in the region of Ammon during the Iron Age II, namely the increasing numbers of locally produced elite items as well as imports, growth in the use of writing for administrative and display purposes, and larger numbers of sedentary settlements; in the light of the transformative role that the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires played in the ancient Near East. The study also widens the conversation to consider cross-cultural examples of how empires affect peripheral societies.

Reviews

Readers who come to this volume for bibliography and discussion of data relevant to ancient Ammon will find Tyson a reliable and insightful guide -- J. Andrew Dearman, Fuller Theological Seminary, USA * Journal of Theological Studies, vol. 65 *
I enjoyed and appreciated reading this book ... that genuinely moves our understanding of this component of the biblical world forward. Tyson has achieved this, and he is to be commended for it. * Biblica *
A very well-crafted volume that summarizes the archaeology of Iron Age Ammon in an up-to-date and state-of-the-art fashion. Tyson deals with a broad range of topics and manages to weave them together into a coherent and convincing picture of this fascinating Iron Age culture. * Review of Biblical Literature *
Tyson ... takes a multifaceted approach for reconstructing the history of the Ammonites. The book is well organized and clearly written. It deals sequentially with material archaeology, epigraphic sources, biblical and postbiblical sources, the impacts of Mesopotamian imperialism, and the economy and processes of sociopolitical change in the Ammonites region ... [Ammonites] adds new interpretations and new data from the ongoing Madaba Plains Project. * Religious Studies Review *

Author Bio

Craig W. Tyson, Ph.D. (University of Michigan) is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at D'Youville College in Buffalo, NY, USA. His publications and research interests focus on the social history of the Levant and literary readings of the Hebrew Bible.