Kingship in Syria-Palestine: Some comments regarding a recent publication

Abstract

Since the inception of modern ancient Near Eastern and Biblical studies in the nineteenth century, the institution of kingship, with the features comprising the monarchical practice and deeds, successions to the throne, etc., has been one of the central topics of historical enquiry in these disciplines.In effect, kings and rulers have been a most studied theme given the positivist nature of modern historical scholarship until the 1930s, with the appearance of the French Annales school in continental historiography widening the field to other analytical pursuits, especially since the 1960s. Ancient Near Eastern historiography not always catches up in time with the theoretical developments in general history studies and thus it is usual to witness approaches to the most recently excavated archaeological data or the most recently deciphered epigraphic materials still from rather positivist perspectives. The publication of Changing Faces of Kingship in Syria-Palestine 1500-500 BCE in 2018, edited by Agustinus Gianto and Peter Dubovský, offers then an opportunity to evaluate?albeit succinctly?this situation, assessing how much the modes of interpreting kingship have changed in ancient Near Eastern scholarship since the nineteenth century, but also exposing some analytical and conceptual issues in need of further study. Although it is not my wish to proceed with such a century-long comparison, one should nonetheless keep in mind this historiographical perspective.