Safran Publishers

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Dendour is a tiny but very interesting temple made by emperor Augustus in the Dodekaschenos, in the south of Egypt, next to the frontier with Nubia. Now, it is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York, USA because it was given to the American government as thanks for help in the Aswan project. It is dedicated to two drowned brothers, venerated as “saints” by the local people. The scenes show these young men (but also divinities particularly venerated in Nubia) honorated by Augustus who give them local goodies as gold, incense, ivory…The cartouche of the king are interesting: some contain his name of pharaoh but some only the title Per- aha. The localisation of these cartouches seems to be not free: it could be an expression of political message of Augustus in this area what suffer of many conflicts and revolts involving Roman Empire and Nubian sovereigns as the queen “Candace”.

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Euhemeros von Messene. Ökonomisches Denken in einer “Utopie” der hellenistischen Zeit

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Dans l’Écriture Sacrée de Evhémère le Messinien, conseiller du roi des Macédoniens, Cassandre décrit la situation socio-économique des îles de l’Océan indien, que lui-même a visitées. Les traits caractéristiques de la structure de la société et de l’économie des îles sont la répartition sociale du travail entre la population, l’évaluation positive du manoeuvre, ainsi que la politique économique centralisée et l’économie des incitations à la partie la plus productive de la population. Un passage souligne ce que possèdent les prêtres, lesquels exercent le pouvoir supérieur. Le travail de Evhémère, relevant du genre littéraire politique “mytho-historique” (Staatsroman) des temps hellénistiques, appartient à la catégorie du mirror for princes, qui aboutit à projeter sur le prince la conception de la société idéale.

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Néron et le "De clementia" de Sénèque, racine ou rupture ?

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At the same time Seneca is the thinker of the government over which the last prince Julio-claudian reigns, and the thinker of the « new » political designation should thus be given to translate the concepts invented by him for Nero’s reign. The Nero’s tutor has been expressed through three types of discourse – one philosophical, one political and a satirical theatrical work. All of them consist of a continous meditation on power. One book emerges from this polyphonical and political discourse ; the De clementia, founding pillar of both the new princely ideology and the shift to the political action of the concepts embodied in the person of Nero. The De clementia gives the impression of being both consistent with the political values developed by the Ancients, and the thought of a new political era. Then, can we consider the De clementia as a root or, alternatively, as a rupture ?

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Urartu. Les sources épigraphiques de la langue

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Following the publication of the Corpus of Urartian Inscriptions, namely of the first three volumes dedicated to the monumental texts (inscriptions on building stones and rocks) it is important to stress the importance of strong epigraphic research for linguistic studies. Apart from the well known methods of interpretation of an ancient language (ethymology, bilinguals, combinatory method) in the case of Urartian there is another one, consisting mainly in the study of the connections between inscriptions and their monumental and archaeological contexts. In this article some rock inscriptions are studied and interpretations of lexical elements and grammatical forms are offered. All these hypotheses are based exclusively on in situ study of inscriptions both in Eastern Turkey and Iranian Azerbaijan.

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La conception des animaux domestiques et des animaux de compagnie dans la Mésopotamie d’époque historique

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In the ancient Near East the animals are very often represented in art and are present mostly in temples but also in houses and in palaces. Wild animals are more frequently reproduced than domesticated. The most represented domesticated animals are those ones mentioned in the texts : first cattle and then goat, sheep, donkey/horse, dog. It’s difficult to establish which kind of animals Mesopotamians considered as domesticated : only those which had an usefulness for milk and meat, for transport, for war and hunting, for ploughing or also those which aroused friendly feelings ? Was there a feeling for animals like that we have today for pets ? In iconography, but chiefly in texts and in archaeozoologic data there are some elements which suggested that there was a feeling for at least some animals, mainly monkey, cattle, dog and horse.

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Les métamorphoses animales des divinités dans la Méditerranée antique

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Looking for the authenticity of the sacred one may find out that the first human’s gods could often take the animal form. Since the prehistoric times, human beings worshipped wild animals and represented them in art with care and precision. During the Antiquity, even the most anthropocentric streams of philosophy couldn’t impede the survival of these popular beliefs. Some peoples, like ancient Egyptians, developed a very sophisticated zoomorphic pantheon. Greece and Rome testified a high level of the animal symbolism in mythology and divination. As for the Asia Minor, according to the old traditions, the idea of the wild nature couldn’t be separated there from the perception of the realm of the gods. This paper gives an approach to some historical evidences of god’s metamorphoses into animals and tries to examine the origins of these beliefs in the ancient Mediterranean world.

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Production céramique et representations animales à l’époque de Halaf

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Fauna is very well represented on Halafian ceramic production. Among it, domestic and wild animals are easily recognized.
Following Levi-Strauss’s point of view which highlighted that the « animals good to eat » are not the only ones « good to think », we will try to demonstrate that behind the picture, imagery, human activities and social orientations are reflected.
After a brief presentation of the halafian ceramic production, a comparitive study with zoological and archeozoological data and iconographic considerations, many observations will be proposed. Firstly, we will focus on the large variety of represented species. Secondly, the importance of the ceramic medium in the image diffusion will be considered. Lastly, the social implications of such a bestiary will be discuss.

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14,50 €

Le “Chien” dans la tradition juive des littératures bibliques et para- et postbiblique (Ahiqar, écrits de Qumrân, pseudépigraphes et littérature rabbinique)

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Dogs in Judaism in biblical and extra- and postbiblical traditions (Ahiqar, writings from Qumran, Apocryphal and Rabbinic literature)
In Judaism, from the Torah until the later writings from Qumran and the Rabbinic literature, dogs are generally considered to be unclean, bad and fierce.
Despite the general negative connation, there are a few exceptional passages where dogs occupy a very positive position as creatures faithful to their masters and as guardians like in the apocryphal book of Tobit where the dog accompanies Tobias on his journey to Ekbatana. A similar role is assigned to the dog in the Midrash where Cain, having killed his brother Abel, is given a dog by God as a symbol of his protection.
In the Rabbinic tradition it is also written that the dogs stayed silent while the Israelites began to exit from Egypt, and the Talmud says that Jews should "tolerate" dogs.

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14,50 €

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