About | Members
ABOUT
Changes in biblical texts and traditions never took place in a socioreligious vacuum. To understand them, it is necessary to explore the cultural, religious, and demographic developments in the Near Eastern world preceding and accompanying the emergence of biblical texts and traditions. Team 1 contextualizes these changes by focusing on nonbiblical sources, that is, archaeological records and ancient Near Eastern texts. It investigates (1) changes in religious concepts and practices, for instance, the nature of ancient Near Eastern prophecy and its textualization and literarization in Judah; (2) continuity and change in the settlement patterns, material culture, and religion in Galilee in Iron Age, relying mainly on archaeological sources; and (3) changes in demographic conditions as well as the social location and identity of ethnic minorities, for instance, the Judeans in Babylonia and other ethnic groups in the multicultural setting of Mesopotamian empires.
MEMBERS
| Researchers |
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Izaak de Hulster, Senior member; Vice-Team Leader
izaak.dehulster@helsinki.fi
| Project: |
Images of the Sacred Bridge. Two case studies in comparative iconography: the Aram—Israel border zone and the iconography of Yehud |
| Expertise: |
Iconographic exegesis, aniconism, figurines, Achaemenid period, Aram-Israel border zone (Iron Age), metaphor, translation, angels, ANE cosmography (incl. mountains and islands), (biblical) hermeneutics, Israelite religion, (early) monotheism(s), weather deities, Gospel of John |
| Profiles: |
University of Helsinki |
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Sanae Ito, Post-Doctoral Researcher
Sophia University, Tokyo
sanae-ito@sophia.ac.jp
| Project: |
Scribes and Scribal Cultures in the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Empires |
| Expertise: |
Assyriology |
| Profiles: |
University of Helsinki |
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Gina Konstantopoulos, Post-Doctoral Researcher
gina.konstantopoulos@helsinki.fi
| Project: |
Beyond the Frontier: the Construction of Distant and Imagined Lands in the Ancient Near East |
| Expertise: |
Assyriology, Sumerian, Magic and Ritual, Demons, Monsters, Borders and Frontiers, Imagined Lands |
| Profiles: |
University of Helsinki | Academia.edu |
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Sanna Saari, Doctoral Student
sanna.saari@helsinki.fi
| Project: |
The Image of a Lion: A Literary-Iconographic Approach to Hebrew Bible Narratives |
| Expertise: |
Iconographic exegesis, literary studies, narratives, lion imagery, ancient images |
| Profiles: |
University of Helsinki |
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Andres Nõmmik, Doctoral Student
andres.nommik@helsinki.fi
| Project: |
Transformation of the Socio-Political Order and Ethnic Identity in the Levantine Coast and Cyprus during the Early Iron Age (12th-10th Centuries BC) |
| Expertise: |
History of the Eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age and early Iron Age |
| Profiles: |
University of Helsinki |
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Patrik Jansson, Doctoral Student
patrik.jansson@helsinki.fi
| Project: |
Enemies of My People: Metaphorical and Gendered Construction of False Prophecy in the Book of Ezekiel |
| Expertise: |
Enemy images, Theories of metaphor, Book of Ezekiel |
| Profiles: |
University of Helsinki |
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Lauri Laine, Doctoral Student
lauri.laine@helsinki.fi
| Project: |
Conceptualization of Divinity: Forming of Divine Imagery in Hebrew Bible and Ugaritic Texts in the Light of Cognitive Science of Religion |
| Expertise: |
Ugarit, Divine Imagery, Religion in LBA and EIA Levant, Upper Secondary Level Education of Religion and History |
| Profile: |
University of Helsinki blog |
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ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
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Raija Mattila, Associate Member
raija.mattila@fime.fi
| Project: |
Egyptians in Assyria,
Change and continuity in the administration of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Eponyms of the Neo-Assyrian Empire |
| Expertise: |
Assyriology |
| Profiles: |
University of Helsinki |
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Helen Dixon, Associate Member
Wofford College
helen.dixon@helsinki.fi
| Project: |
Rethinking Levantine Phoenicia in the Neo-Babylonian Period |
| Expertise: |
Iron Age Phoenicia, Levantine Archaeology, Mortuary Ritual |
| Profiles: |
Academia.edu |
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Tuula Tynjä, Associate Member
tuula.tynja@helsinki.fi
| Project: |
From the Field to the Publication: the Retrieval and Presentation of Pottery – a case from Early Iron Age Tel Kinrot, Israel |
| Expertise: |
Early Iron Age Pottery in Israel, Archaeological Fieldwork and Artifact Study |
| Profiles: |
University of Helsinki |
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