Read the latest exciting articles from The Ancient Near East Today

How Did Cyrus the Great Die?

by Morteza Arabzadeh Sarbanani

Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, died around 530 BCE, but the circumstances of his death are shrouded in myth. How did he really die? Read More

Understanding Trade and Power in Early Egypt: A Geopolitical Approach

by Juan Carlos Moreno García

International trade is closely tied to the organization of power in Egypt, but it isn’t all about the royal court. Rather, commercial activity sometimes flourished when monarchies collapsed. Read More

A Minor Biblical Prophet Lives Again—Among the Dead

by Amy Erickson

Jonah is but a blip in the Hebrew Bible, with the thinnest of prophetic credentials. So why is his image so popular in early Christian funerary art? Read More

Jewish Experiences in the Roman Bathhouses of Judaea/Syria Palaestina

by Yaron Z. Eliav

Jews frequented Roman bathhouses like everyone else in the Mediterranean world. How do we reconcile that with the lifestyle of bathhouses, which seems diametrically opposed to Jewish norms? Read More

Cleopatra’s Languages

by Rolf Strootman

Cleopatra is a famous polyglot, as described in Plutarch’s Life of Antony. But what lies behind her multilingualism? Was it just hobby, or is there a more symbolic explanation? Read More