Abstract
This article focuses on issues related to political liminality in the environment of the Levant in the Late Bronze Age. It first defines the term and then identifies key population groups that can be considered politically liminal. The main focus is on the so-called Sherden (Akk. šerdanu, širdanu), a group of persons and individuals, which are found in ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian sources spanning several centuries during the second half of the second half of the second millennium BCE. Whether as incoming enemies or as individuals settled on Egyptian soil, they represent one of the key phenomena of the Egyptian New Kingdom. But who were the Sherden and how did their role in the ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian societies change over time?
Funding source: Grantová Agentura České Republiky
Award Identifier / Grant number: GA ČR 18-01897S
References
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Outside the Pale: Marginality and Liminality in the Bronze Age Near East. Introduction
- Defining Marginality and Liminality for the Study of the Ancient Near East
- Not Marginal, But Marginalised. The ‘Pan-Grave’ Archaeological Culture, Pharaonic Egypt, and Egyptology
- Marginal Communities and Cooperative Strategies in the Kerma Pastoral State
- The Negev in the Intermediate Bronze Age: Questions of Subsistence, Trade, and Status
- Debt and Credit: Entangling the Marginal and Liminal in the Non-monetary Economies of Bronze Age Ugarit
- Sacred Spaces and Liminal Behavior in Levantine Temples in Antis
- Liminal People(s) in the Late Bronze Age Levant? A New Light on Sherden (šerdanu)
- The Participation of Marginal and Liminal Groups in Secondary State Formation under the Third Dynasty of Ur
- Hard Times for Sippar Women: Three Late Old Babylonian Cases
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Outside the Pale: Marginality and Liminality in the Bronze Age Near East. Introduction
- Defining Marginality and Liminality for the Study of the Ancient Near East
- Not Marginal, But Marginalised. The ‘Pan-Grave’ Archaeological Culture, Pharaonic Egypt, and Egyptology
- Marginal Communities and Cooperative Strategies in the Kerma Pastoral State
- The Negev in the Intermediate Bronze Age: Questions of Subsistence, Trade, and Status
- Debt and Credit: Entangling the Marginal and Liminal in the Non-monetary Economies of Bronze Age Ugarit
- Sacred Spaces and Liminal Behavior in Levantine Temples in Antis
- Liminal People(s) in the Late Bronze Age Levant? A New Light on Sherden (šerdanu)
- The Participation of Marginal and Liminal Groups in Secondary State Formation under the Third Dynasty of Ur
- Hard Times for Sippar Women: Three Late Old Babylonian Cases