Moab in the Iron Age : hegemony, polity, archaeology /

The political complexity of the modern Middle East grows out of centuries of interaction among regional inhabitants and neighboring peoples. The early Iron Age was a critical historical moment during which a number of new states took shape in neighboring territories in the southern Levant. Archaeologist Routledge (Univ. of Liverpool) examines the process of early state formation by focusing on the highlands of central and southern Jordan. This marginal environment was sparsely occupied by pastoralist tribes in the Bronze Age, but the ninth to sixth centuries BCE saw increased settlement by larger groups that were known to biblical writers as the kingdoms of Ammon, Moab, and Edom. The author draws on ancient literary sources and recent archaeological research to examine how area residents adapted to changing environmental, economic, and political conditions. The resulting history of the Moabites traces the intertwined processes of cultural self-identification and state formation from their nomadic origins to their incorporation into the Assyrian empire. The book's strong theoretical orientation provides specialist readers with a critical framework for addressing the vexed concept of the state in the ancient Near East. Lay readers seeking a "life and times" approach will want to look elsewhere. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. S. Langdon University of Missouri--Columbia