The Irish Society for the Study of the Ancient Near East
CALL FOR PAPERS
“Money and Cult”
The Role of the Temple in the Ancient Economy
23 - 25 May 2014
Dublin, Ireland
As major social and administrative institutions, often with
substantial assets, temples played an important role within the
economies of the Ancient Near East. Not only were resources diverted
to them for building and cultic use, but many temples also played a
role in the creation of wealth and the employment of various strata of
society, from priests to scribes to slaves. Similarly, kings both
patronised temples and used them as convenient sources of revenue. The
interactions between religious needs and economic practicalities were
complex and varied significantly over time and location. We therefore
invite papers which examine the intertwined roles of cult and economy
in the Ancient Near East.
Papers which explore a wide-range of economic aspects of temple cults
or the cultic ramifications of economic realities are expected.
Appropriate topics include building programmes, educational
programmes, sacrificial economies, trade in cultic paraphernalia,
systems of tithing and temple taxation, and the relationship of
priests to royal administrations. We are also interested in the
relationships between temples, such as the temples in Jerusalem,
Elephantine, Leontopolis, and on Mount Gerizim (and elsewhere), and
how much their interaction may have been aided or hindered by economic
aspects.
Depending on received submissions, sessions will be structured in
chronological order with the days divided as follows:
Friday, 23 May 2014: Early First Millennium (to the
Neo-Babylonian Period)
Saturday, 24 May 2014: From the Persian to the Seleucid Era
Sunday, 25 May 2014: Roman Period (from the reign of Herod
the Great to the end of the Bar Kokhba Rebellion)
We invite abstracts of no more than 500 words to reach us by email at
[log in to unmask] by 28 February 2014.
Please note, presentation of papers at this conference will be 40
minutes within a one-hour slot, allowing time for ample discussion
after each paper.
(For further details, see Hekhal website
http://hekhal.wordpress.com/)
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