Time | IL Archive

Before the third millennium BCE

From 13000 BCE to 9500 BCE

Hayonim Cave

Site · A Galilean cave with Natufian graves and ornaments; its long funerary use informs research on identity and place memory.
From 13000 BCE to 9500 BCE

Natufian culture

Period · A late Epipalaeolithic Levantine archaeological culture, with some long-duration settlements before fully developed agriculture.
From 13000 BCE to 9500 BCE

The Natufians: What Happened to Religion When People Began to Settle?

Study · Houses, graves, ornaments, feasts and place memory before fully developed agriculture: Natufian evidence and its limits for reconstructing rituals, ancestors and gods.
From 11750 BCE to 9750 BCE

Raqefet Cave

Site · A Mount Carmel cave with plant-lined burial evidence and mortars whose possible use for brewing has been debated.
From 10450 BCE to 10050 BCE

Hilazon Tachtit

Site · A Late Natufian burial cave in Galilee, with an exceptional woman’s grave and deposits interpreted as funerary feasts.
From 9600 BCE to 8200 BCE

Göbekli Tepe

Site · A Neolithic site in southeastern Turkey, known for communal buildings and T-shaped pillars; the excavation team describes a settlement with a pronounced ritual component.
From 9400 BCE to 7500 BCE

Boncuklu Höyük

Site · A Konya Plain Neolithic settlement with oval houses and burials associated with continued building use.
From 9400 BCE to 7100 BCE

Living Above the Dead: Subfloor Burial Before Çatalhöyük

Study · From Aşıklı and Balıklı to Boncuklu: burial, kinship and building continuity, and the limits of interpretations involving memory, ancestors and the underworld.
From 8500 BCE to 4000 BCE

Why Did People Elongate Their Children’s Skulls? From Neolithic Head Shaping to Ubaid Figurines

Study · Head-shaping evidence from the Zagros, Jericho and Tell Zeidan, and possible identity, beauty and status motives: what bones establish and how far they explain Ubaid figurine heads.
From 8350 BCE to 7300 BCE

Aşıklı Höyük

Site · A Neolithic Cappadocian settlement with successive buildings and selected subfloor burials.
From 8300 BCE to 7950 BCE

Balıklı

Site · A central Anatolian Neolithic site with floor and wall burials and special skull treatment.
From 8200 BCE to 6000 BCE

Jericho’s Plastered Skulls: Faces of the Dead and the Limits of Ancestor Interpretation

Study · From bone and plaster to imaging and facial reconstruction: evidence for mortuary treatment and hypotheses about memory, kinship and worship.
From 7400 BCE to 6200 BCE

Çatalhöyük

Site · A Neolithic site in central Anatolia where domestic houses combined dwelling with burial, symbolism and social memory.
From 7100 BCE to 5950 BCE

Houses and Ancestors at Çatalhöyük: When Architecture Became Memory

Study · Subfloor burial, architectural continuity and the kinship of the dead: what the evidence reveals about memory and affiliation, and the limits of ancestor and descent interpretations.
From 6500 BCE to 3800 BCE

Ubaid culture

Period · An archaeological designation for material traditions originating in southern Mesopotamia with regional diffusion. Broad southern frame c. 6500–3800 BCE; not a known linguistic people, with limits varying by region and phase.
From 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE

Uruk

Site · Ancient city at Warka in southern Iraq, a major urban centre around 3200 BCE that preserved early writing and accounting tablets.
From 3350 BCE to 3000 BCE

Proto-cuneiform

Entity · Early Mesopotamian writing of the late fourth millennium BCE, combining numerical notation and signs, predominantly accounts with limited phonetic use.
From 3350 BCE to 2500 BCE

The Earliest Divine Names in Mesopotamia: When Writing Preserved the Name

Study · From Uruk tablets to Fara lists: Nanna, Ninlil, Inanna, Enlil and An, and what makes a divine name readable without equating first attestation with the beginning of worship.
From 3300 BCE to 2900 BCE

The Warka Vase and Head: When the Sacred Became Recognizable

Study · Offerings, Inanna’s emblems and authority at Uruk, alongside a female face probably from a composite statue: what the objects establish and how far goddess, priestess and ruler can be identified.

Third millennium BCE

From 2600 BCE to 600 BCE

Who Headed the Sumerian Divine Assembly? An or Enlil?

Study · From Fara lists to Lugalzagesi’s inscription and Ekur: An’s seniority, Enlil’s authority and why list order cannot establish a transfer of the throne.
From 2500 BCE to 500 BCE

Widow, Orphan, and Resident Outsider: Did the Torah Inherit a Mesopotamian Language of Justice?

Study · From Urukagina and Ur-Namma to Hammurabi and Deuteronomy: comparing claims of protection and rules on food and justice, while separating rhetoric from practice.
From 2300 BCE to 700 CE

Moses and Sargon: the child in the basket and the limits of comparison

Study · Basket, bitumen, water and adoption: what actually connects Exodus 2 and Sargon’s legend? Witness dates, disputed dependence and the Qur’anic account examined separately.
From 2200 BCE to 2015 CE

Anunna and Anunnaki: What Do the Texts Actually Say?

Study · Names, membership, numbers, the underworld and human creation: Mesopotamian evidence distinguished from Sitchin’s modern orbital, gold-mining and genetic-engineering narrative.
2100 BCE

From the River to “Bitter Water”: How Did the Ancients Seek Divine Judgment?

Study · From Ur-Namma, Hammurapi and Mari to Numbers 5: comparing the river ordeal with the suspected-wife ritual and testing claims about borrowing and the bodily curse.
2100 BCE

Marriage, Inheritance, and a Brother’s Widow: One Law or Different Solutions?

Study · From Hittite and Assyrian laws and Ur-Namma to Deuteronomy, Tamar and Ruth: the differing conditions of levirate marriage and inheritance, and the limits of borrowing claims.

Second millennium BCE

From 2000 BCE to 900 CE

Gehenna and Ancient Underworlds: A Place-Name with Changing Meanings

Study · From Hinnom and Sheol to Enoch, Mark and the Quran: distinguishing the dead’s abode, punishment, waiting and renovation while testing linguistic kinship and transmission.
From 2000 BCE to 500 BCE

Slavery and Debt Service between Hammurapi and the Torah: Are These Texts Describing the Same Institution?

Study · From Hammurapi §117 to Exodus, Deuteronomy and Leviticus: categories, terms, women and fugitives, and the limits of evidence for practice or borrowing.
From 2000 BCE to 650 CE

The Tower of Babel: the city, the tower, and the languages

Study · Genesis 11, Etemenanki and Enmerkar: what the text says, what Babylon’s archaeology attests, and where claims of transmission stop.
From 1900 BCE to 700 CE

Clay, labor, and breath: ancient accounts of human creation

Study · From Enki and Ninmah and Atraḫasīs to Genesis and the Qur’an: earth, breath, divine labor, and the limits of borrowing claims.
From 1900 BCE to 600 BCE

Inanna and Ishtar’s Descent: What Changes between the Narratives?

Study · Seven gates, rescue, substitution and interrupted life: distinguishing the Sumerian and Akkadian narratives and the limits of comparison.
From 1900 BCE to 300 BCE

The Flood Before Noah: Ziusudra, Atrahasis, Utnapishtim and Genesis

Study · Older Mesopotamian flood accounts and Noah: vessels, birds and sacrifice; changing motives and survival; the strength and limits of literary comparison.
From 1800 BCE to 700 CE

Adapa and Adam: wisdom, the food of life, and the limits of comparison

Study · Is Adapa the source of Adam’s story? Sumerian and Akkadian witnesses, Genesis’ two trees, Qur’anic promise and repentance, and the different roles of obedience examined.
From 1800 BCE to 600 BCE

Hammurabi and the Covenant Code: parallels and the limits of borrowing

Study · What happens when an ox kills someone, or an enslaved person’s eye is injured? Reading Hammurabi and Exodus 21 to explain parallels, differences and possible legal transmission.
From 1800 BCE to 500 BCE

Marduk’s Rise: Babylon and the Making of Divine Kingship

Study · Enūma Eliš through battle, creation, recognition and fifty names: one god’s supremacy in a world that remains polytheistic.
From 1700 BCE to 500 BCE

Debt Release and the Jubilee: Did the Torah Borrow Liberation from Babylonian Kings?

Study · From Ammiṣaduqa’s edict to Exodus, Deuteronomy, Leviticus, Jeremiah and Qumran: how do service, debt and land release differ, and what historical link can be established?
From 1600 BCE to 1200 BCE

Late Bronze Age

Period · An archaeological period conventionally around 1600–1200 BCE in much of the Near East, with regional variation.
From 1400 BCE to 1200 BCE

Anat

Entity · An active and violent goddess in Ugaritic literature; pressures El over Baal’s palace and addresses him with paternal and wisdom language.
From 1400 BCE to 1200 BCE

Athirat

Entity · A high-ranking goddess commonly understood as El’s consort in Ugaritic texts; associated with the progenitress epithet and the palace intercession.
From 1400 BCE to 1200 BCE

Baal

Entity · Storm god and protagonist of Ugarit’s Baal Cycle; exercises active kingship while El retains importance and authorizes the palace.
From 1400 BCE to 1200 BCE

Baal Cycle

Entity · A group of Late Bronze Age Ugaritic religious texts recounting Baal’s conflicts, relationships with the gods and the building of his palace.
From 1400 BCE to 500 BCE

Covenant and Imperial Treaties: Was Israel’s Bond with YHWH Expressed in the Language of Ancient Kings?

Study · From Muršili’s Hittite treaty to Esarhaddon’s oath and Deuteronomy 13 and 28: comparing loyalty and curses while distinguishing shared tradition from demonstrable borrowing.
From 1400 BCE to 1200 BCE

Shasu

Entity · Egyptian designation for mobile pastoral groups; Yhw occurs in their lists without automatically identifying a deity or Israel.
1300 BCE

Sabbath and Šapattu: Similar Names, Different Calendars

Study · Did the Hebrew Sabbath come from a Babylonian full-moon day? A comparison of Enūma Eliš, Mesopotamian calendars and Hebrew inscriptions that distinguishes hypotheses from evidence.
From 1200 BCE to 500 BCE

Genesis and Enuma Elish: creation, parallels, and the limits of borrowing

Study · A detailed comparison of waters, heaven, humanity, and rest, separating textual evidence from proposed transmission and seven Tablets from seven days.
From 1200 BCE to 500 BCE

Proverbs and Amenemope: when the sages’ counsel converges

Study · Proverbs 22:17–23:11 and a thirty-chapter Egyptian instruction: strong parallels, meaningful changes, and the disputed “thirty” reading.

First millennium BCE

From 950 BCE to 1506 CE

Judgment Scales: Egypt and the Worlds of Late Antiquity

Study · Heart, destiny and deeds: Egyptian, Greek, Hebrew, Iranian and Quranic witnesses compared through roles, dates and the limits of transmission hypotheses.
From 900 BCE to 801 BCE

Mesha Stele

Artifact · Ninth-century BCE inscription of King Mesha of Moab; line 18 mentions Yahweh’s vessels, clear external evidence for the deity associated with Israel.
From 900 BCE to 800 BCE

Mesha and Chemosh: How a King Narrates Sacred War

Study · A reading of the Moabite inscription through divine anger, Yahweh’s vessels, violence and construction, separating evidence from royal rhetoric.
From 900 BCE to 430 CE

Sons of God and Watchers: How a Brief Story Expanded

Study · From four Genesis verses to angelic descent, teaching and giant spirits in Enoch: texts, manuscripts and limits of comparison with Mesopotamian sages.
From 883 BCE to 165 BCE

Enoch and the Apkallu: Wisdom before the Flood

Study · Kings,sages and the ancient scribe: primeval knowledge,instruction and limits of proposed transmission into Enochic literature.
From 700 BCE to 200 CE

Ptolemy II and the Seventy: Was the Torah Composed in Alexandria?

Study · Aristeas, inspired translation and earlier witnesses: what the Seventy tradition says, and what it cannot establish about Torah composition in Alexandria.
From 650 BCE to 550 BCE

Ketef Hinnom amulets

Artifact · Two silver scroll amulets found in Jerusalem in1979, with wording related to Numbers6. Usually late seventh/early sixth century BCE; they do not date the whole book.
From 525 BCE to 407 BCE

Yahweh’s Temple at Elephantine: Worship beyond Jerusalem

Study · What does the petition of 407 BCE reveal about Yaho’s temple, its priests and their links with Judah and Samaria?
From 419 BCE to 418 BCE

Elephantine “Passover Letter”

Artifact · Fragmentary Aramaic letter, Berlin P.13464, dated 419/418 BCE, on Nisan dates and ritual instructions. “Passover” is restored in a lacuna; no complete Torah is attested.
406 BCE

Euripides

Person · Fifth-century BCE Greek tragedian, died 406 BCE. In his Iphigenia among the Taurians, the heroine recounts a deer substituted for her.
From 400 BCE to 900 CE

Resurrection in Daniel: The Jewish Text and Its Ancient Context

Study · From sleepers in the dust and dry bones to Iranian texts and Qumran: what can we establish about resurrection hope, and what do parallels or manuscript dates leave unproven?
From 300 BCE to 70 CE

Dead Sea Scrolls

Entity · Judaean Desert manuscripts, especially Qumran cave finds. Biblical copies and other works reveal textual diversity; a copy’s age is not the work’s initial date.
From 282 BCE to 246 BCE

Ptolemy II Philadelphus

Entity · Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt, sole reign c.282–246 BCE. Aristeas associates him with Greek Torah translation; royal sponsorship details lack independent confirmation.
From 230 BCE to 150 BCE

Weighing the Heart in Egypt: Justice, Ritual and the Afterlife

Study · Reading judgment before Osiris through Maat, the heart and the Book of the Dead: ethics, texts and ritual without assuming a single timeless scene.
From 200 BCE to 100 BCE

Letter of Aristeas

Entity · Hellenistic Jewish account, commonly dated to the second century BCE, of 72 elders translating Hebrew law in Egypt. Not contemporary minutes or a Torah-composition account.

CE

From 1 CE to 50 CE

Philo of Alexandria

Entity · First-century CE Alexandrian Jewish author. In Life of Moses he presents Greek translation as inspired; the passage does not explicitly assign a separate room to each translator.
From 610 CE to 641 CE

Heraclius, Byzantine emperor

Person · Byzantine emperor who ruled 610–641 CE; his victory over Persia informs dating proposals for some Syriac Alexander texts.
923 CE

Al-Tabari

Person · Abbasid-era historian and Qur'anic exegete (c. 839–923 CE). His commentary records competing views on Abraham's son, then favors Isaac.
1373 CE

Ibn Kathir

Person · Syrian Qur'anic exegete and historian (c. 1301–1373 CE) who favors Ishmael in his reading of the sacrifice account.
From 1835 CE to 1902 CE

Samuel Butler

Person · English writer and translator of Homer who lived from 1835 to 1902.
From 1920 CE to 2016 CE

Joseph A. Fitzmyer

Person · American biblical and Dead Sea Scrolls scholar (1920–2016), who studied Qumran retellings of Abraham’s test.