In his 2021 monograph The Valediction of Moses, Idan Dershowitz argues that the manuscripts offered for sale by Moses Wilhelm Shapira in 1883, generally considered to have been forged, were genuine... Show moreIn his 2021 monograph The Valediction of Moses, Idan Dershowitz argues that the manuscripts offered for sale by Moses Wilhelm Shapira in 1883, generally considered to have been forged, were genuine and contained a pre-exilic source text of Deuteronomy he refers to as V. Based on Dershowitz’s new critical edition of the text, this paper examines the historical and philological evidence for this thesis. V’s literary dependence on the Masoretic Text can be demonstrated on text-critical and linguistic grounds, which makes a pre-exilic date of composition highly unlikely. An analysis of the historical, literary, and linguistic arguments presented by Dershowitz moreover shows that nothing in V proves its authenticity, while the orthography and certain linguistic features strongly support the identification of this text as a forgery produced between 1870 and 1880. Show less
44 years after the first – and so far, last – major publication on the issue of the narrative function(ing) of ancient Egyptian images, N. Braun’s Bilder erzählen. Visuelle Narrativität im alten... Show more44 years after the first – and so far, last – major publication on the issue of the narrative function(ing) of ancient Egyptian images, N. Braun’s Bilder erzählen. Visuelle Narrativität im alten Ägypten sets out to explore this field anew. On the basis of this monograph, this article discusses trends and problems in the discussion of visual narrativity and pictorial narration in ancient Egypt and other (visual) cultures. Part I gives an overview of the book and presents the author’s main hypotheses. Part II introduces three major problems that lead to contradictions in many narratological analyses of images and to the almost complete neglect of basic characteristics of the perception of images. In Part III the model of visual narrativity developed by the reviewer himself is introduced. By establishing a systematic distinction between visual narrativity and pictorial narration (or storytelling) it avoids many difficulties of previous studies. Part IV looks into the contexts of particularly strongly narrative images in ancient Egypt, especially in the New Kingdom (ca. 1550–1050 B.C.), and into the use of images to tell stories by themselves. Show less
In the field of Hittite linguistics there is a longstanding debate on the phonetics of the Hittite fortis and lenis stops in intervocalic position, and on how to phonologically interpret the... Show moreIn the field of Hittite linguistics there is a longstanding debate on the phonetics of the Hittite fortis and lenis stops in intervocalic position, and on how to phonologically interpret the distinction between these two series. Although it is usually assumed that the two series were distinct in voice, /t/ vs. /d/, respectively, arguments in favor of a length distinction, /tː/ vs. /t/, have been put forward as well (Melchert 1994 and Kloekhorst 2008; 2014; 2016). This article will discuss two recent treatments of this topic: one by Simon (2020), who specifically argues against a length distinction, and adduces new arguments in favor of the traditionally assumed voice distinction; and one by Patri (2009; 20191)), who rather posits a distinction /th / vs. /d/. It will be argued that the arguments used by both Simon and Patri are untenable, and that all evidence rather points to a length contrast, /tː/ vs. /t/. Show less
