Department of Archaeology and the Ancient Near East
Subject: At the Gates of All Nations: Exiles and Foreigners at the Center of the Persian Empire
Supervisor: Prof. Wayne Horowitz
Abstract: My research deals with displaced and migrant minority groups such as Greeks, Judeans, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Bactrians and people from the Indus valley, at the center of the Persian Empire. The research is based on c. 2000 administrative and legal documents in Akkadian, Elamite and Aramaic, all dealing with foreigners in the Imperial center, and is accompanied by an appendix of newly identified and translated texts. The first part of the work discusses each foreign group and compares the situation of ethnically similar communities that lived in different places. Following this discussion, the study compares the reactions of various groups and individuals to key issues in identity and acculturation strategies of foreign groups.
Bio: PhD student in Assyriology, Ancient Near Eastern Studies. Title of the PhD: " From India to Kush- Acculturation processes among selected displaced and migrant minority groups in the Persian Achaemenid Empire" (adviser: Prof. Wayne Horowitz).
Publications:
Co-Authored Books
1. Horowitz W., Greenberg Y., and Zilberg P., with Pearce L. and Wunsch C., 2015, By the Rivers of Babylon- Cuneiform Documents from the Beginning of the Babylonian Diaspora (In Hebrew), Jerusalem: The Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem and the Israel Exploration Society.
2. Garfinkel Y., Kreimerman I., and Zilberg P., 2016, Debating Qeiyafa: a Fortified City in Judah from the Time of King David, Jerusalem: The Israel Exploration Society.
3. Horowitz W., Oshima T., Sanders S., with Bloch, Y., Safford, J., Wilson, J. and Zilberg, P. , 2018, Cuneiform in Canaan- The Next Generation, University Park, Pennsylvania: Eisenbrauns.
Articles in Journals
4. Zilberg, P., 2015, A New Edition of the Tell-Keisan Cuneiform Tablet, Israel Exploration Journal 65/ 1 : 90-95.
5. Horowitz, W., Stillman, L., and Zilberg, P., 2015, Cuneiform Texts in the Otago Museum, Nouvelles Assyriologiques Bréves et Utilitaires 2015/2, No. 65.
6. Horowitz, W., Reeves, S., Stillman, L., White, M. and Zilberg, P., 2015, Cuneiform Texts in The Otago Museum: A preliminary report, Buried History 51: 51-56.
7. Zilberg P., and Horowitz W., 2016, A Medico-Magical Text from the Otago Tablets, Dunedin New Zealand, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie 106/2: 175-184.
8. Zilberg P., 2018 Lands and Estates around āl-Yāhūdu and the Geographical Connection with the Murašû Archive, Archiv für Orientforschung 54, (Forthcoming, accepted for publication )
9. Golub, M., and Zilberg, P. 2019, From Jerusalem to Āl-Yāhūdu: Judean Onomastic Trends from the Beginning of the Babylonian Diaspora, Journal of Ancient Judaism. (Forthcoming, accepted for publication)
Articles in Books
10. Zilberg, P., 2018, The Socio-Historic Context of the Mesopotamian Population in the Assyrian Provinces of the Southern Levant, in: Aster, S.Z and Faust, A. (eds.) The Southern Levant under Assyrian Domination in, University Park, Pennsylvania: Eisenbrauns.
11. Zilberg, P., 2018 From Dragomans to Babel- The role of interpreters in the first Millennium BCE, pp. 193-207 in: Keimer, K. and Davis, G. (eds.), Registers and Modes of Communication in the Ancient Near East: Getting the Message Across, London: Routledge.
12. Zilberg, P., 2018, The Simple Clay Shrine, pp. 73-81, in: Garfinkel, Y., Ganor, S., Klingbeil, M. (eds.), Khirbet Qeiyafa Vol. 4: Art, Cult, Epigraphy (Eds.), Jerusalem: The Israel Exploration Society.
13. Zilberg, P., 2018, The Language of the Khirbet Qeiyafa Ostracon, pp. 291-305, in: Garfinkel, Y., Ganor, S., Klingbeil, M. (eds.), Khirbet Qeiyafa Vol. 4: Art, Cult, Epigraphy, Jerusalem: The Israel Exploration Society.
14. Zilberg, P., 2016, The Debate on Writing and Language, pp. 157-172, in: Debating Qeiyafa: a Fortified City in Judah from the Time of King David, Jerusalem: The Israel Exploration Society.
15. Zilberg, P., At his Majesty’s Service: Semites in the Achaemenid Heartland, in: Hacham, N., Hermann, G., Leibner, U., Sagiv, L., and Katz D. (eds.), A question of Identity- Formation, Transition, Negotiation, Jerusalem: Magness Press. . (Forthcoming, accepted for Publication)
Rotenstreich Stipend 2016/17