Books published by Pennsylvania State University Press

Examines the technology of writing as it existed in ancient Israel. Utilizes the Hebrew Bible as its corpus and focuses on a set of Hebrew terms that designated writing surfaces and writing instruments.

A current grammar of Coptic (the last stage of the ancient Egyptian language) that includes material from all six of its major dialects. Includes a chrestomathy of readings in the six dialects as well as a dictionary.

A critical analysis of the art and career of African American painter Lois Mailou Jones (1905-1998). Examines Jones's engagement with African and Afrodiasporic themes as well as the challenges she faced as a black woman artist.

Explores images of torment and martyrdom that appeared in the German-speaking world in the late medieval period, tying them to premodern conceptualizations of individuality and selfhood.

For many years, the historical-critical quest for a reconstruction of the origin(s) and development of the Pentateuch or Hexateuch has been dominated by the documentary hypothesis, the heuristic power of which has produced a consensus so strong that an interpreter who did not operate within its framework was hardly regarded as a scholar. However, the relentless march of research on this topic has continued to yield new and refined analyses, data, methodological tools, and criticism. In this spirit, the contributions to this volume investigate new ideas about the composition of the Pentateuch arising from careful analysis of the biblical text against its ancient Near Eastern background.Covering a wide spectrum of topics and diverging perspectives, the chapters in this book are grouped into two parts. The first is primarily concerned with the history of scholarship and alternative approaches to the development of the Pentateuch. The second focuses on the exegesis of particular texts relevant to the composition of the Torah. The aim of the project is to foster investigation and collegial dialogue in a spirit of humility and frankness, without imposing uniformity.In addition to the editors, the contributors include Tiago Arrais, Richard E. Averbeck, John S. Bergsma, Joshua A. Berman, Daniel I. Block, Richard Davidson, Roy E. Gane, Duane A. Garrett, Richard S. Hess, Benjamin Kilchör, Michael LeFebvre, Jiří Moskala, and Christian Vogel.

Traces the theme of justice through the whole narrative of Exodus. Explores how YHWH's reclamation of Israel for worship-service reveals a distinct theological ethic of justice that is grounded in YHWH's creational agenda.

Explores forty-six religious, mythical, and imaginary creatures that are integral to the aboriginal worldview of Aymara, Aztecs, Incas, Maya, Nahua, Tabascos, and other cultures of Latin America.

Using an ecomaterialist conceptual framework, addresses interconnected stories from fiction, nonfiction, works of visual art, and physical sites in Italy and elsewhere.

A collection of Egyptological, archaeological, and biblical studies papers dealing with the history, religion, and culture of the ancient Near East, assembled in honor of James K. Hoffmeier.

A collection of essays investigating how Mesopotamian technical specialists interacted with their clients and in doing so forged their social and professional identities.

Documents the results of archaeological research at the Early Bronze Age sites of Numayra and Ras an-Numayra as part of a broader project investigating the emergence of widespread settlement on the southeastern Dead Sea Plain.

Explores the rise of formalism in the visual arts. Employs an expanded sense of form to rethink a range of areas, including the history of writing about art, constructions of high and low culture, and the idea of global modernism.

A collection of essays on the work of Djuna Barnes, including her early journalism, poetry, prose, visual art, and drama.

 Winner of the 2004 Outstanding Academic Title award from the American Library Association!  Filling a gap in classroom texts, more than 60 essays by major scholars in the field have been gathered to create the most up-to-date and complete book available on Levantine and Near Eastern archaeology.

Covers the important finds at Tall al-'Umayri, an archaeological dig site in western Jordan, in 2004. Includes a summary of the cumulative results of all excavation seasons to date, from 1984 through 2004.

A collection of twenty-three essays on the northern and southern Levant in the third millennium BCE, providing scholarly reevaluations of topics including urbanism, heterarchy, nomadism, ruralism, terminology, and cultural continuity/discontinuity.

A comprehensive study of the workings of the administrative machinery of the Ur III state (ca. 2100-2000 BC), based on approximately 250 cuneiform tablets translated into English.

A collection of essays exploring how fiction, life-writing, and comics portray illness, medical treatment, and disability.

A collection of essays exploring how fiction, life-writing, and comics portray illness, medical treatment, and disability.

Explores the history of the postmortem cesarean operation, which was performed in order to extract the fetus and save its soul through baptism. Examines accounts of the operation from across the Spanish empire in the eighteenth century.

Examines how the Spanish monarchy managed an empire of unprecedented linguistic diversity, making only sporadic efforts to propagate Spanish during the sixteenth century. Challenges the assumption that the pervasiveness of the Spanish language resulted from deliberate linguistic colonization.

Explores the sociogenesis and development of the French royal mistress, examining the careers of nine of the most significant holders of that title between 1444 and the final years of the ancien regime.

A collection of essays examining the contentious, dynamic, and ethically complicated relationship between race and religion in Judaism. Includes perspectives from the fields of history, philosophy, sociology, ethics, religious studies, law, psychology, literary studies, and theology.

Addresses the question of how and why Horace Walpole and the men of his circle promoted the Gothic style in art, architecture, and literature in the latter half of the eighteenth century.