Recherche par auteur > Lätzer-Lasar Asuman

Abstract

Based on a synthesis of the Hellenistic finds, it is the aim of this paper to sketch a picture of lived realities at the Hellenistic settlement of the Tulul adh-Dhahab in the Jordan Valley. By this approach, the multisensorial experiences of urbanity (Haug and Kreuz 2016; Salama and Grierson 2019) as well as urban practices are discussed against the background of contemporary and diverse definitions of urbanity and the concept of the urban in antiquity. (Christ et al. 2023; Rau 2020)

Surveys and small-scale excavations of the last years at the Tulul adh-Dhahab in northwestern Jordan exposed a complex settlement history with a broadly diversified social stratum from the Iron Age period onwards. (Pola et al. 2015) Especially during the Hellenistic period, with the eventful history of territorial occupation by different empires and rulers, and the yet unclear border shifts, the settlement appears to have been more diverse not only socially but also ethnically and religiously, as the archaeological material reveals.

In our paper we focus on three trajectories: Firstly, we discuss the extent to which (architectural) monumentality is a defining category for an urban experience. Using patterns of movement into the settlement, as well as the visualization of visual axes to defensive walls, towers, and the residence, we discuss the atmospheric experience of the ancient inhabitants in the open space. Secondly, we present the remains of an elite dwelling complex that is dated from the from the 2nd to early 1st century BCE. Since the complex is typologically congruent with Hellenistic residences, we reconstruct lived spaces and possible using patterns that blurred the distinction between public and domestic. And thirdly, by an interdisciplinary analysis (typology and evaluation of rabbinic literature) of the adjacent stepped pool within the residence – presumably a jewish mikweh (Hoss 2007) – we discuss the lived religious practices of purification from the perspective of the individual actors. (Albrecht et al. 2018)

Keywords:

Tulul adh-Dhahab (Jordan) – Hellenism – Urban Experience – Ritual Bath (mikveh) – Ancient Judaism

Literature:

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Christ, Martin, Martin Fuchs, Elisa Iori, Sara Keller, Asuman Lätzer-Lasar, Klara-Maeve O'Reilly, Susanne Rau, Jörg Rüpke, Emiliano Rubens Urciuoli, and Simone Wagner. 2023. ‘Entangling Urban and Religious History: A New Methodology'. Archiv Für Religionsgeschichte 25 (1): 1–72. https://doi.org/10.1515/arege-2023-0001.

Haug, Annette, and Patric-Alexander Kreuz. 2016. Stadterfahrung als Sinneserfahrung in der römischen Kaiserzeit. Studies in Classical Archaeology, Volume 2. Turnhout: Brepols.

Hoss, Stefanie. 2007. ‘Die Mikwen Der Späthellenistischen Bis Byzantinischen Zeit in Palästina'. Zeitschrift Des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins (1953-) 123 (1): 49–79.

Pola, Thomas, Hannelore Kröger, Julia Hertzer, Sabine Neumann, Winfried Held, Andrea Büsing-Kolbe, and Boris Dreyer. 2015. ‘Tulul adh-Dhahab. Eine eisenzeitliche und hellenistische Residenz in Jordanien. Vorbericht über die Forschungen 2005-2015'. Edited by Heide Froning, Rita Amedick, and Winfried Held, Marburger Winckelmann-Programm. 2015-2016, , 77–146.

Rau, Susanne. 2020. ‘Urbanity (Urbanitas, Urbanität, Urbanité, Urbanità, Urbanidad...) — An Essay'. In Religion and Urbanity Online, edited by Susanne Rau and Jörg Rüpke. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/urbrel.11276000.

Salama, Ashraf M., and David Grierson. 2019. ‘Urban Performance Between The Imagined, The Measured, and The Experienced'. Open House International 44 (1): 4–7. https://doi.org/10.1108/OHI-01-2019-B0001.