Chapter Rulership and the Gods: The Role of Cultic Institutions in the Late Bronze to Iron Age Transition in Anatolia and Northern Syria

This paper aims to demonstrate that cults and cultic institutions are a crucial element for understanding the processes producing different regional outcomes after the fall of the Hittite empire. In this paper, cults are understood as normative cosmic forces defining tempo and worldview of ancient s...

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Huvudupphov: d'Alfonso, Lorenzo, Lovejoy, Nathan
Materialtyp: Online
Språk:engelska
Utgiven: Firenze University Press 2023
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author d'Alfonso, Lorenzo
Lovejoy, Nathan
author_browse Lovejoy, Nathan
d'Alfonso, Lorenzo
author_facet d'Alfonso, Lorenzo
Lovejoy, Nathan
author_sort d'Alfonso, Lorenzo
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description This paper aims to demonstrate that cults and cultic institutions are a crucial element for understanding the processes producing different regional outcomes after the fall of the Hittite empire. In this paper, cults are understood as normative cosmic forces defining tempo and worldview of ancient societies. Cultic institutions can be identified as physical spaces defined by purity, charged with real and symbolic value, and led by specialists whose competence is recognised by the community. Instead of being a by-product of political complexity, they are a driving force behind the power dynamics because they are perceived as such in a bottom-up perspective, but also often by main political actors in search of legitimation of their power. This paper examines the interconnections between cultic and political institutions in the territory under the Hittite empire and in the same space after the empire’s demise. We aim to distinguish between processes of resilience, reorganisation, and transformation as they occurred in particular micro-regions previously controlled by the empire, including the Upper Euphrates, South-Central Anatolia, North-Central Anatolia, Cilicia, and the Northern Levant; this will demonstrate both the importance of such a micro-regionally defined study, as well as the shared coincidence of cultic and political institutional change. It will become evident that cultic continuity coincided with the resilience of political institutions, and changes in the cultic landscape corresponded to political reorganisations or transformations in post-Hittite Anatolia and north Syria.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-996622025-07-17T12:15:32Z Chapter Rulership and the Gods: The Role of Cultic Institutions in the Late Bronze to Iron Age Transition in Anatolia and Northern Syria d'Alfonso, Lorenzo Lovejoy, Nathan institution temple kingship Syro-Anatolia post-Hittite thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History This paper aims to demonstrate that cults and cultic institutions are a crucial element for understanding the processes producing different regional outcomes after the fall of the Hittite empire. In this paper, cults are understood as normative cosmic forces defining tempo and worldview of ancient societies. Cultic institutions can be identified as physical spaces defined by purity, charged with real and symbolic value, and led by specialists whose competence is recognised by the community. Instead of being a by-product of political complexity, they are a driving force behind the power dynamics because they are perceived as such in a bottom-up perspective, but also often by main political actors in search of legitimation of their power. This paper examines the interconnections between cultic and political institutions in the territory under the Hittite empire and in the same space after the empire’s demise. We aim to distinguish between processes of resilience, reorganisation, and transformation as they occurred in particular micro-regions previously controlled by the empire, including the Upper Euphrates, South-Central Anatolia, North-Central Anatolia, Cilicia, and the Northern Levant; this will demonstrate both the importance of such a micro-regionally defined study, as well as the shared coincidence of cultic and political institutional change. It will become evident that cultic continuity coincided with the resilience of political institutions, and changes in the cultic landscape corresponded to political reorganisations or transformations in post-Hittite Anatolia and north Syria. 2023-05-02T04:09:52Z 2023-05-02T04:09:52Z 2023-05-01T13:37:13Z 2023 chapter ONIX_20230501_9791221500424_4 2612-808X https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/62588 9791221500424 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/99662 eng Studia Asiana open access image/jpeg image/jpeg Attribution 4.0 International Attribution 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/62588/1/chapter-36904.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/62588/1/chapter-36904.pdf Firenze University Press 10.36253/979-12-215-0042-4.11 10.36253/979-12-215-0042-4.11 2ec4474d-93b1-4cfa-b313-9c6019b51b1a 9791221500424 38 Florence open access
spellingShingle institution
temple
kingship
Syro-Anatolia
post-Hittite
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History
d'Alfonso, Lorenzo
Lovejoy, Nathan
Chapter Rulership and the Gods: The Role of Cultic Institutions in the Late Bronze to Iron Age Transition in Anatolia and Northern Syria
title Chapter Rulership and the Gods: The Role of Cultic Institutions in the Late Bronze to Iron Age Transition in Anatolia and Northern Syria
title_full Chapter Rulership and the Gods: The Role of Cultic Institutions in the Late Bronze to Iron Age Transition in Anatolia and Northern Syria
title_fullStr Chapter Rulership and the Gods: The Role of Cultic Institutions in the Late Bronze to Iron Age Transition in Anatolia and Northern Syria
title_full_unstemmed Chapter Rulership and the Gods: The Role of Cultic Institutions in the Late Bronze to Iron Age Transition in Anatolia and Northern Syria
title_short Chapter Rulership and the Gods: The Role of Cultic Institutions in the Late Bronze to Iron Age Transition in Anatolia and Northern Syria
title_sort chapter rulership and the gods the role of cultic institutions in the late bronze to iron age transition in anatolia and northern syria
topic institution
temple
kingship
Syro-Anatolia
post-Hittite
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History
topic_facet institution
temple
kingship
Syro-Anatolia
post-Hittite
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History
url ONIX_20230501_9791221500424_4
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