Impact Factor: 0.9

Journal

Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History

Editor-in-Chief: Steven Garfinkle
Founded by: Marc Van De Mieroop
Editorial Board: Heather D. Baker , Michael Kozuh , Jacob Lauinger , Cécile Michel , Francesca Rochberg and Michael Sommer

Languages: English, German, French

First published: February 26, 2014

Publication Frequency: 2 issues per year

View latest issue

Published by

Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Submit Manuscript Author Information

About this journal

Objective
The Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History seeks to encourage and stimulate the study of the history of the ancient Near East, which is broadly defined to include areas from Iran to the western Anatolian coast and the Black Sea to Southern Arabia from its prehistoric foundations to the Late Antique period. The journal is also interested in interactions with other regions and cultures, such as Ancient Egypt, the Mediterranean World, the Indian Ocean and Central Asia. Articles may focus on any aspect of history (political, social, economic, cultural, intellectual, etc.) and of modern historiography. The journal seeks to integrate the study of the ancient Near East firmly in the historical discipline in general and encourages its authors to take into account current methodological debates and approaches.

Topics

Near Eastern History
Ancient Cultures
Political, social, economic, cultural, intellectual and other aspects of history
Modern Historiography

Article formats
Original research articles

Your Benefits

Your benefits

Interdisciplinary outlook on Ancient Near Eastern History
Modern historiographical methods
Open access publication
Ahead of print publishing

Open Access
Information Revolutions and Information Transitions: Counting, Sealing, Writing in Iran 10,000–300 BC

April 23, 2025

Roger Matthews, Amy Richardson, Hassan Fazeli Nashli, Donna de Groene

Download PDF

In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis of counting, sealing, and writing practices in ancient Iran, spanning approximately 9000 years from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. The survival of clay (and occasionally stone or metal) media for administration in early Iran provides direct evidence for the development of bureaucratic practices. These materials reveal how such practices were situated within a broad range of socio-political, cultural, and environmental circumstances. Through systematic review and statistical analysis of the surviving material residues of Iranian bureaucracy, we identify distinctive deep-time diachronic trends and patterns. Our findings examine the ways in which Iranian societies exhibited a more hesitant and episodic engagement with sealing and writing compared to their Mesopotamian neighbours. We consider how these differences may be contingent on the inherent fragility of the agricultural systems that underpinned Iranian societies from the Neolithic onwards. This research underscores the interconnectedness of environmental factors, social organization, and technological development in ancient Iran. By understanding the interplay of these factors, we gain valuable insights into the formation and evolution of Iranian societies over millennia.
Requires Authentication Unlicensed
Licensed

Neo-Assyrian Deportations, the Moon God of Harran, and the Shaping of the Biblical Ancestral Traditions

April 8, 2025

John Will Rice

Download PDF

Through annexation and two-way deportations, the Neo-Assyrian conquest of the southern Levant in the late eighth century BCE resulted in a complete sociopolitical reorganization of the northern Palestinian highlands. The imperial apparatus exiled Israelites to Upper Mesopotamia and likewise forced Mesopotamian populations into the region to fill the demographic void in their stead. Cuneiform texts from the period attest to both Israelite deportees in Upper Mesopotamia and Mesopotamian deportees in the Neo-Assyrian province of Samerina, as well as to the persistence of previous identities in these new contexts and, more generally, to the heterogeneity that seemed to define provincial life in the empire. One of the most visible signs of Neo-Assyrian imperialism in the southern Levant is the appearance in the local glyptic of the cult standard of Sin, the moon god of Harran. Harran functioned as the de facto “western capital” of the Neo-Assyrian empire during the Sargonid period, and it also enjoyed special status later under Nabonidus, the last king of the Neo-Babylonian empire. Conspicuously, both Harran and Ur – another prominent home of a temple to Sin – appear in the narratives of Genesis as the homes of the biblical ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Against the background of the two-way deportations and their lasting effects on southern Levantine society, it appears that certain aspects of these ancestral narratives were constructed to reflect and respond to the societal heterogeneity brought about by annexation into the Mesopotamian imperial sphere. The Abraham and Jacob stories attest to heavy southern Levantine adaptation of Mesopotamian themes and motifs, such as Assyrian and Babylonian city theology and allusions to the Epic of Gilgamesh. In particular, Harran and Ur appearing as the hometowns of Abraham can be placed alongside iconographic evidence in evincing the localization of aspects of the Mesopotamian lunar deity in the southern Levant during the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods. Moreover, the placement of the Israelites’ origins in Upper Mesopotamia according to the earlier Jacob story paints them as close relatives to the Aramean population of the region, thereby seeming to construct a history of “Israel” that blurs the lines between Mesopotamians and Levantines – presumably serving to promote and facilitate social cohesion as a reaction to forced imperial heterogeneity.
Requires Authentication Unlicensed
Licensed

A Study of Temporality in West Semitic Royal Inscriptions

April 3, 2025

Daniel Pioske

Download PDF

This study examines how the experience of time is articulated in West Semitic royal inscriptions from the Iron Age Levant. To do so, I examine two temporal indices or scaffolds on which the broader architecture of temporal experience is constructed within this corpus. The first is what I term dynastic time, a perspective organized around a ruler’s life and lineage that governs how past, present, and future are conceived within these writings. The second is the time attributed to material remains, or how these inscriptions account for the age of ruins and the dilapidated structures that are often referred to within them. What is historically meaningful about these descriptions and their attendant references, I argue, is a specific reckoning with the flow of time, where we are offered insights into how these writings apprehend a sense of temporal duration. When compared to royal inscriptions commissioned by contemporaneous Assyrian and Babylonian rulers, what appears in the West Semitic corpus, I contend further, is a reduced temporal framework whose retrospective and prospective visions rarely exceed a generation and, at most, extend roughly a century into the past or future. This investigation then concludes by examining what historical factors may have shaped this distinct sense of time conveyed in the West Semitic tradition of royal inscriptions.

Issue 0

Issue 1

Special Issue: Beyond Slavery and Freedom in Ancient Mesopotamia; Guest Associate Editors: Vitali Bartash and Andrew Pottorf

Issue 2

Special Issue: Dress for Success. Textiles, Furniture, and Power Accessories Expressing Status in the Ancient Near East and the Aegean (3rd—1st millennia BCE); Guest Associate Editors: Noemi Borrelli and Rachele Pierini

Special Issue: Outside the Pale: Marginality and Liminality in the Bronze Age Near East; Guest Associate Editors: Susan L. Cohen and Jana Mynářová

Issue 1

Issue 1-2

Special Issue: Scholars, Priests, and Temples: Babylonian and Egyptian Science in Context; Guest Associate Editor: Mathieu Ossendrijver

Special Issue: Approaching a Critique of Mesopotamian Reason

Issue 1-2

Special Issue: Hic Sunt Dracones: Creating, Defining, and Abstracting Place in the Ancient World

Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History publishes special and thematic issues focussed on important and emerging topics in the field of study. The journal has established a rigorous process to ensure that any special issue manuscripts follow the same high-quality standards and peer review processes as regular manuscripts. For further information on the journal’s peer review policy please see the "Instructions for Authors".

Recent Special Issues

Journal Impact Factor	0.9	2024, Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate, 2025)
Journal Citation Indicator	1.12	2024, Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate, 2025)
Agenzia Nazionale di Valutazione del Sistema Universitario e della Ricerca	CA

More information about journal rankings

Submission
Submit your article through our Online Submission Tool

As per De Gruyter policy, no author list changes are permitted after acceptance of an article. The De Gruyter production team is instructed to enforce this policy during the production/proofing process.

Your benefits of publishing with us

Insightful reviews
Wide abstracting and indexing
Every article easily discoverable because of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and comprehensive abstracting and indexing services
Secure archiving by De Gruyter and the independent archiving service Portico
Professional sales and marketing activities

Submission process

Get familiar and set your manuscript according to our Style Guide
Submission of your paper via Online Submission Tool
Peer review process
Decision on your paper
Print / online publishing
You will be guided through the whole process of submission
In case of any problems editorial assistance will be provided

Please note

Before submitting your article please have a look at Ethical Guidelines and our Copyright Transfer Agreement
Once your article is accepted you have the option to publish it open access
Our Repository Policy allows you to distribute 30 PDF copies of your published article to colleagues (the PDF has to include the information that it is an author's copy). Please also feel free to distribute the link to the online abstract
If you have any general questions please visit our FAQ page for authors

Peer Review Process

JANEH follows a double-blind peer review process. All submitted articles are first assessed by the primary editors for their relevance, academic quality, and contribution to the scholarly mission of the journal. The editors then select at least two external reviewers for each submission who are specialists in the subject area. These decisions are taken in consultation with the international editorial board when appropriate. Each reviewer submits a report and fills in an evaluation form. We strive to communicate initial decisions to authors within 7–10 weeks of submission.

We look forward to receiving your manuscript!

Founding Editor:
Marc Van De Mieroop, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

Editor in Chief:
Steven Garfinkle, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, USA

Editorial Board:
Heather Baker, University of Toronto, Canada
Michael Kozuh, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA
Jacob Lauinger, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
Cécile Michel, Université Paris Nanterre, France, Directrice de Recherche au CNRS
Francesca Rochberg, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
Michael Sommer, Universität Oldenburg, Germany

Editorial Office:
Steven J. Garfinkle
History Department/ MS 9061
Western Washington University
Bellingham, WA 98225-9061
T: 360-650-3456
F: 360-650-7789
e-mail: steven.garfinkle@wwu.edu

Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History is covered by the following services:

ATLA Religion Database
Baidu Scholar
CNKI Scholar (China National Knowledge Infrastructure)
CNPIEC - cnpLINKer
Dimensions
EBSCO Discovery Service
Google Scholar
J-Gate
Naver Academic
Naviga (Softweco)
Primo Central (ExLibris)
ProQuest (relevant databases)
Publons
QOAM (Quality Open Access Market)
ReadCube
ScienceON (Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information)
Scilit
Semantic Scholar
Sherpa/RoMEO
Summon (ProQuest)
TDNet
Ulrich's Periodicals Directory/ulrichsweb
WanFang Data
Web of Science - Emerging Sources Citation Index
WorldCat (OCLC)
X-MOL
Yewno Discover

JANEH_Style_Guide_en

Journal information

Additional information

eISSN:

2328-9562

ISSN:

2328-9554

Languages:

English, German, French

Publisher:

De Gruyter

Additional information

First published:

February 26, 2014

Publication Frequency:

2 issues per year

eISSN: 2328-9562

ISSN: 2328-9554

Audience(s) for this journal

All those interested in the history and culture of the ancient Near East, including Assyriologists, historians, archaeologists, and students and scholars in Biblical Studies

Safety & product resources

Manufacturer information:
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Genthiner Straße 13
10785 Berlin
productsafety@degruyterbrill.com

Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History

Overview

About this journal

Your Benefits

Ahead of Publication / Just Accepted

Issues

Special issues

Ranking

Submit

Editorial

Abstracting and Indexing

Supplementary Materials

Supplementary Materials

Topics

Topics

External Links

Bibliographic data