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175-587: Archaeological investigation has shown that the nation flourished between the 13th and the 8th centuries BC and was destroyed after a period of decline in the 6th century BC by the Babylonians . After the fall of the kingdom of Edom, the Edomites were pushed westward towards southern Judah by nomadic tribes coming from the east; among them were the Nabataeans , who first appeared in the historical annals of

350-657: A dysphemism for the Roman Empire . Babylon, like the rest of ancient Mesopotamia, followed the Ancient Mesopotamian religion , wherein there was a general accepted hierarchy and dynasty of gods and localized gods who acted as patron deities for specific cities. Marduk was the patron deity of the city Babylon, having held this position since the reign of Hammurabi (18th century BC) in Babylon's first dynasty. Although Babylonian worship of Marduk never meant

525-510: A "house of the crown prince" distinct from the "house of the king" in inscriptions) and under other high officials (such as the royal treasurer). Punctuated equilibrium In evolutionary biology , punctuated equilibrium (also called punctuated equilibria ) is a theory that proposes that once a species appears in the fossil record , the population will become stable, showing little evolutionary change for most of its geological history. This state of little or no morphological change

700-603: A 127 BC legal document). At this time, two major recognized groups lived in Babylon: the Babylonians and the Greeks, who settled there during the centuries of Macedonian and Seleucid rule. These groups were governed by separate local (e.g. pertaining to just the city) administrative councils; Babylonian citizens were governed by the šatammu and the kiništu and Greeks by the epistates . Although no king lists younger than

875-593: A Seleucid general named Gorgias as "Governor of Idumaea"; whether he was a Greek or a Hellenized Idumean is unknown. Some scholars maintain that the reference to Idumaea in that passage is an error altogether. According to Josephus , the Judeans under Judas Maccabeus first defeated the Idumaeans in the two Idumaean border towns of Hebron and Marisa and plundered them around 163 BC. About 50 years later, Judeans under John Hyrcanus I again attacked Marisa and

1050-463: A century after its founding, it was a minor and relatively weak state, overshadowed by older and more powerful states such as Isin , Larsa , Assyria and Elam . But Hammurabi ( r.   c.   1792–1750 BC) turned Babylon into a major power and eventually conquered Mesopotamia and beyond, founding the Old or First Babylonian Empire . After his death, his dynasty lasted another century and

1225-552: A century-long struggle for Babylonian independence against Assyria. Although the Assyrians incorporated the region into their empire and used the title King of Babylon in addition to the title King of Assyria , Assyrian control of Babylonia was neither stable nor entirely continuous and the century of Assyrian rule included several unsuccessful Babylonian revolts. Early in the reign of the Neo-Assyrian king Sinsharishkun ,

1400-465: A corresponding degree, or they will be exterminated. Each new form, also, as soon as it has been improved, will be able to spread over the open and continuous area, and will thus come into competition with many other forms ... the new forms produced on large areas, which have already been victorious over many competitors, will be those that will spread most widely, and will give rise to the greatest number of new varieties and species. They will thus play

1575-771: A cultural heritage common between Edomites and Jews, with the worship of both the Edomite Qaus and the God of the Israelites being described by Egyptians. Qaus's popularity during the Persian and Hellenistic periods appears, according to Tebes, to have forced the purportedly pro-Yahwist authors of the Book of Chronicles to portray several Edomite persons as 'pious Levites '. Clues about their Edomite heritage appear to be hidden in their theophoric names. Josephus states that Costobarus

1750-592: A dependency of the Kingdom of Judah . In the time of Jehoshaphat (c. 870 – 849 BC) the Tanakh mentions a king of Edom who was probably an Israelite deputy appointed by the King of Judah . It also states that the inhabitants of Mount Seir invaded Judea in conjunction with Ammon and Moab, and that the invaders turned against one another and were all destroyed ( 2 Chronicles 20:10–23 ). Edom revolted against Jehoram and elected

1925-433: A different mechanism. Where Simpson relied upon a synergistic interaction between genetic drift and a shift in the adaptive fitness landscape , Eldredge and Gould relied upon ordinary speciation, particularly Ernst Mayr's concept of allopatric speciation. Lastly, and perhaps most significantly, quantum evolution took no position on the issue of stasis. Although Simpson acknowledged the existence of stasis in what he called

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2100-521: A family business. Slave families were most often sold as a unit, children only being separated from their parents once they reached adulthood (or working age). Though slaves probably endured harsh living conditions and poor treatment from others, it would not have been equivalent to the brutal form of slavery in the Roman Empire and in later times. Though there are occasional mentions of slaves escaping, there are no records of slave rebellions in

2275-421: A fee called the mandattu to their masters, which allowed them to work and live independently, essentially "renting" themselves from their master. There are records of slaves paying the mandattu for themselves and for their wives so that they could live freely. There are, however, no records of slaves completely buying their freedom, Babylonian slaves could only be freed by their masters. The establishment of

2450-699: A golden age for Babylon, which became the most powerful kingdom in the Middle East. Nebuchadnezzar's most famous campaigns today are his wars in the Levant . These campaigns began relatively early in his reign and were chiefly conducted to stabilize his reign and consolidate his empire (most of the newly independent kingdoms and city-states in the Levant previously having been vassals of the Neo-Assyrian Empire). His 587 BC destruction of Jerusalem ended

2625-474: A golden age that transformed Babylonia into the greatest empire of its time. Religious policies introduced by the final Babylonian king Nabonidus , who favoured the moon god Sîn over Babylon's patron deity Marduk , eventually served as a casus belli for Persian king Cyrus the Great , who invaded Babylonia in 539 BC by portraying himself as a champion of Marduk divinely restoring order to Mesopotamia. After

2800-711: A half, but the Babylonian Empire quickly collapsed, and Babylon once more became a small state. Babylonia fell to the Hittite king Mursili I c.   1595 BC, after which the Kassites took control and ruled for almost five centuries before being deposed by native Babylonian rulers, who continued to rule the Babylonian rump state . The population of Babylonia in this so-called Post-Kassite or Middle Babylonian period comprised two main groups,

2975-457: A king of its own ( 2 Kings 8:20–22 ; 2 Chronicles 21:8 ). Amaziah attacked and defeated the Edomites, seizing Selah, but the Israelites never subdued Edom completely ( 2 Kings 14:7 ; 2 Chronicles 25:11–12 ). In the time of Nebuchadnezzar II the Edomites may have helped plunder Jerusalem and slaughter the Judaeans in 587 or 586 BCE ( Psalms 137:7 ; Obadiah 1:11–14 ). Some believe that it

3150-518: A letter from an Egyptian scribe at a border fortress in the Wadi Tumilat during the reign of Merneptah reports movement of nomadic "shasu-tribes of Edom" to watering holes in Egyptian territory. The earliest Iron Age settlements—possibly copper mining camps—date to the 11th century BC. Settlement intensified by the late 8th century BC, and the main sites so far excavated have been dated between

3325-542: A level, completely unlike the actual architecture of real ancient Mesopotamian cities, with obelisks and sphinxes inspired by those of Egypt. Ottoman influence came in the shape of cupolas and minarets dotted through the imagined appearances of the ancient city. Babylon is perhaps most famous today for its repeated appearances in the Bible, where it appears both literally (in reference to historical events) and allegorically (symbolizing other things). The Neo-Babylonian Empire

3500-441: A marriage between an Israelite and an Edomite until the fourth generation. This law was a subject of controversy between Shimon ben Yohai , who said it applied only to male descendants, and other Tannaim , who said female descendants were also excluded for four generations. From these, some early conversion laws in halacha were derived. Compared to the neighboring Moabites and Ammonites, the name "Edom" completely disappeared from

3675-575: A massive counterattack in 623 BC. Though this counterattack was initially successful and Sinsharishkun might have been ultimately victorious, he had to abandon the campaign due to a revolt in Assyria threatening his position as king. The absence of the Assyrian army allowed the Babylonians to conquer the last remaining Assyrian seats of power in Babylonia from 622 BC to 620 BC. Both Uruk and Nippur,

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3850-472: A minority of contemporary Jews argued Herod could not be Jewish because of his genealogical origins. These beliefs were promoted by works such as Jubilees and 4QMMT , which were of Essene , Hasidean or Sadducee origin. These Jews did not openly express their views because Herod violently suppressed critics. Evie Gassner believed the sages disparaged Herod because he supported the Sadducees, who opposed

4025-568: A more important role in the changing history of the organic world. Thus punctuated equilibrium is incongruous with some of Darwin's ideas regarding the specific mechanisms of evolution, but generally accords with Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Recent work in developmental biology has identified dynamical and physical mechanisms of tissue morphogenesis that may underlie abrupt morphological transitions during evolution. Consequently, consideration of mechanisms of phylogenetic change that have been found in reality to be non-gradual

4200-577: A notable position in modern cultural memory due to the invidious portrayal of Babylon and its greatest king Nebuchadnezzar II in the Bible . The biblical description of Nebuchadnezzar focuses on his military campaign against the Kingdom of Judah and particularly the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 587 BC, which resulted in the destruction of Solomon's Temple and the subsequent Babylonian captivity . Babylonian sources describe Nebuchadnezzar's reign as

4375-559: A popular audience of nonspecialist readers altered the "climate of specialized scientific discourse" favorably in his promotion of punctuated equilibrium. While Gould is celebrated for the color and energy of his prose, as well as his interdisciplinary knowledge, critics such as Scott, Richard Dawkins, and Daniel Dennett have concerns that the theory has gained undeserved credence among non-scientists because of Gould's rhetorical skills. Philosopher John Lyne and biologist Henry Howe believed punctuated equilibrium's success has much more to do with

4550-509: A result, historians have toned down the Hasmonean history of Idumaea as recounted by Josephus in several ways: (a) Traditional account: Some historians still maintain that the events happened largely as Josephus describes. (b) Moderated Conquest: This view was first moderated by the assumption that only Maresha and Adoraim, located on Idumaea's northern border, were actually conquered, while other Idumeans voluntarily aligned themselves with

4725-473: A revolutionary statement—or appeared to do so—he was criticized, and thus retreated to a traditional neo-Darwinian position. Gould responded to Dennett's claims in The New York Review of Books , and in his technical volume The Structure of Evolutionary Theory . English professor Heidi Scott argues that Gould's talent for writing vivid prose, his use of metaphor, and his success in building

4900-813: A sacred tree or mythological animals and creatures. Cylinder seals increasingly fell into disuse over the course of the Neo-Babylonian century, eventually being entirely replaced by stamp seals. Terracotta figurines and reliefs, made using molds, were common during the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Preserved figurines usually represent protective demons (such as Pazuzu ) or deities but there are also examples of horsemen, naked women, boats, men carrying vases and various types of furniture. Terracotta figurines could be sacred objects intended to be kept in people's homes for magical protection or as decorations, but they could also be objects offered to deities in

5075-499: A set quota of lambs to provide for sacrificial purposes, with wool and hides also being used in the temples for various purposes. Dairy products were less important since the animals would be unavailable for most of the year as the shepherds drove them across the land. Cows and oxen, rare in Mesopotamia due to being difficult to feed and maintain through the summer months, were mainly used as draft animals for plowing. Regions with

5250-545: A swampy environment, unsuited for farming, were used to hunt birds and fish. The most common form of business partnership recorded from Neo-Babylonian sources is called the harrānu , which involved a senior financing partner and a junior working partner (who did all the work, using the money provided by the senior partner). Profit from such business ventures were divided equally between the two partners. The idea allowed rich individuals to use their money to finance businesses by capable individuals who might not otherwise have had

5425-703: A term that was used in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, also mentioned in the New Testament . During the 2nd century BC, the Edomites were forcibly converted to Judaism by the Hasmoneans and were incorporated into the Jewish population . Other scholars believe that the assimilation was voluntary. Edom and Idumea are two related but distinct terms; they relate to a historically-contiguous population but to two separate, if adjacent, territories which

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5600-471: A unified "Babylonian" culture. At the same time, the Chaldeans, though retaining their tribal structure and way of life, were becoming more "babylonized", many adopting traditional Babylonian names. These Babylonized Chaldeans became important players in the Babylonian political scene and by 730 BC, all the major Chaldean tribes had produced at least one Babylonian king . The 9th to 8th century BC

5775-427: A victory for Tiamat until Marduk convinced the other gods to proclaim him as their leader and king. The gods agreed, and Marduk was victorious, capturing and executing Kingu and firing a great arrow at Tiamat, killing her and splitting her in two. With these chaotic primordial forces defeated, Marduk created the world and ordered the heavens. Marduk is also described as the creator of human beings, which were meant to help

5950-445: Is assumed to have died. Sinsharishkun's successor, Ashur-uballit II , the final king of Assyria, was defeated at Harran in 609 BC. Egypt, Assyria's ally, continued the war against Babylon for a few years before being decisively defeated by Nabopolassar's crown prince Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish in 605 BC. Nebuchadnezzar II succeeded Nabopolassar in 605 BC upon the death of his father. The empire Nebuchadnezzar inherited

6125-421: Is called stasis . When significant evolutionary change occurs, the theory proposes that it is generally restricted to rare and geologically rapid events of branching speciation called cladogenesis . Cladogenesis is the process by which a species splits into two distinct species, rather than one species gradually transforming into another. Punctuated equilibrium is commonly contrasted with phyletic gradualism ,

6300-455: Is featured in several prophecies and in descriptions of the destruction of Jerusalem and subsequent Babylonian captivity. Because of its sordid reputation for atrocities, including sexual abuse , in Jewish tradition, Babylon symbolizes an oppressor. In Christianity , Babylon symbolizes worldliness and evil. Prophecies sometimes symbolically link the kings of Babylon with Lucifer . Nebuchadnezzar II, sometimes conflated with Nabonidus, appears as

6475-482: Is for this reason the prophets denounced Edom ( Isaiah 34:5–8 ; Jeremiah 49:7–22 ; Obadiah passim ). Evidence also suggests that at that time Edom may have engaged in a treaty betrayal of Judah. The people of Edom would be dealt with during the Messiah's rulership, according to the prophets. Despite this, many Edomites peacefully migrated to southern Judea, which continued even during the reign of Nabonidus .Regarding

6650-464: Is from 35 BC and contains a prayer to Marduk. The latest known other documents written in Akkadian are astronomic predictions (e.g. planetary movements) for the year 75 AD. The way the signs are written in these astronomic texts means that readers would not have to be familiar with Akkadian to understand them. If the Akkadian language and Babylonian culture survived beyond these sparse documents, it

6825-404: Is increasingly common in the field of evolutionary developmental biology , particularly in studies of the origin of morphological novelty. A description of such mechanisms can be found in the multi-authored volume Origination of Organismal Form (MIT Press; 2003). In linguistics, R. M. W. Dixon has proposed a punctuated equilibrium model for language histories, with reference particularly to

7000-563: Is invoked in the blessing formula in letters and appear in personal names found in ancient Edom. As close relatives of other Levantine Semites and Arabs , they seem to have worshiped such gods as El , Baal and 'Uzza . In some Jewish tradition stemming from the Talmud, the descendants of Esau are the Romans (and to a larger extent, all Europeans). Juan Manuel Tebes argues that Qaus is a similar god to Yahweh . Qaus seems to have descended from

7175-495: Is known to have completely renovated at least 13 cities but spent most of his time and resources on the capital, Babylon. By 600 BC, the Babylonians and possibly their subject peoples saw Babylon as the literal and figurative center of the world. Nebuchadnezzar widened Processional Street and fitted it with new decorations, making the annual New Year's Festival , celebrated in honor of the city's patron deity Marduk , more spectacular than ever before. After Nebuchadnezzar II's reign,

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7350-467: Is of great importance in the production of new species, on the whole I am inclined to believe that largeness of area is still more important, especially for the production of species which shall prove capable of enduring for a long period, and of spreading widely." The importance of isolation in forming species had played a significant part in Darwin's early thinking, as shown in his Essay of 1844. But by

7525-509: Is regarded as evidence of a strong, centralized 10th century BC Edomite kingdom. Neo-Babylonian Empire The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire , historically known as the Chaldean Empire , was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to Mesopotamia until Faisal II in the 20th century. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the King of Babylon in 626 BC and being firmly established through

7700-401: Is still occurring incrementally, with no great change from one generation to the next. To this end, Gould later commented that "Most of our paleontological colleagues missed this insight because they had not studied evolutionary theory and either did not know about allopatric speciation or had not considered its translation to geological time. Our evolutionary colleagues also failed to grasp

7875-436: Is suggested by ancient sources to have had dire consequences for the city. Though no direct evidence exists , Babylon appears to have been severely punished for the revolt. Its fortifications were destroyed and its temples damaged as Xerxes ravaged the city. It is possible that the sacred statue of Marduk , which represented the physical manifestation of Babylon's patron deity, was removed by Xerxes from Babylon's main temple,

8050-507: Is the proper first author in our pairing of Eldredge and Gould." In his book Time Frames Eldredge recalls that after much discussion the pair "each wrote roughly half. Some of the parts that would seem obviously the work of one of us were actually first penned by the other—I remember for example, writing the section on Gould's snails. Other parts are harder to reconstruct. Gould edited the entire manuscript for better consistency. We sent it in, and Schopf reacted strongly against it—thus signaling

8225-481: Is used 69 times in the Tanakh. If the account may be taken at face value, the kingship of Edom was, at least in early times, not hereditary , perhaps elective . The first book of Chronicles mentions both a king and chieftains . Moses and the Israelite people twice appealed to their common ancestry and asked the king of Edom for passage through his land, along the "King's Highway", on their way to Canaan , but

8400-722: The ketubbot used by Jews. However, despite these cultural similarities, some Jews maintained a distinct boundary between themselves and the Idumeans. This is evident in Ben Sira 50:25–26, which expresses disdain for three "nations," including "the inhabitants of Se'ir", referring to the Edomites/Idumeans. During the revolt of the Maccabees against the Seleucid kingdom (early 2nd century BC), II Maccabees refers to

8575-554: The Esagila , at this time. Xerxes also divided the previously large Babylonian satrapy (composing virtually all of the Neo-Babylonian Empire's territory) into smaller sub-units. Babylonian culture endured for centuries under the Achaemenids and survived under the rule of the later Hellenic Macedonian and Seleucid Empires , with the rulers of these empires also listed as kings of Babylon in Babylonian civil documents. It

8750-497: The Kingdom of Judah and scattered its populace, with many of its elite citizens sent back to Babylon, initiating a period known as the Babylonian Captivity . Nebuchadnezzar subsequently besieged Tyre for 13 years. Though he did not capture the city, it surrendered to him in 573 BC, agreeing to be ruled by vassal kings. The length of the siege can be ascribed to its difficulty: Tyre was on an island 800 metres from

8925-528: The Medes , also ancient enemies of Assyria, under King Cyaxares entered Assyria and conquered the region around the city of Arrapha . In July or August of 614 BC, the Medes began attacking the cities of Kalhu and Nineveh . They then besieged Assur , the ancient political (and still religious) capital of Assyria. The siege was successful and the city endured a brutal sack. Nabopolassar arrived at Assur only after

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9100-655: The Pharisees . By 66 CE, during the First Jewish–Roman War , the Zealot leader Simon bar Giora attacked the Jewish converts of Upper Idumaea and brought near complete destruction to the surrounding villages and countryside in that region. It was part of his wider plan to attack Jerusalem and seize authority for himself. According to Josephus, during the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE by Titus , 20,000 Idumaeans, under

9275-559: The Torah . However beginning in the books of the later prophets the word is used to describe Judean generals, for example, in the prophecies of Zachariah twice (9:7, 12:5–6) it had evolved to describe Jewish captains, the word also is used multiple times as a general term for teacher or guide for example in Psalm 55:13. Aluph as it is used to denote teach or guide from the Edomite word for duke

9450-487: The homogenizing effects of gene flow. In addition, pressure from natural selection is especially intense, as peripheral isolated populations exist at the outer edges of ecological tolerance. If most evolution happens in these rare instances of allopatric speciation then evidence of gradual evolution in the fossil record should be rare. This hypothesis was alluded to by Mayr in the closing paragraph of his 1954 paper: Rapidly evolving peripherally isolated populations may be

9625-492: The kings of Edom "before any Israelite king reigned": These are the kings who ruled in the land of Edom before a king ruled the children of Israel. And Bela ben Beor ruled in Edom, and the name of his city was Dinhabah . And Bela died, and Jobab ben Zerah from Bozrah ruled in his place. And Jobab died, and Husham of the land of Temani ruled in his place. And Husham died, and Hadad ben Bedad , who struck Midian in

9800-470: The statue of Marduk usually refers to Marduk's primary statue, placed prominently in the Esagila and used in the city's rituals. The Babylonians themselves conflated the statue with the actual god Marduk – the god was understood as living in the temple, among the people of his city, and not in the heavens. As such, Marduk was not seen as some distant entity, but a friend and protector who lived nearby. This

9975-490: The 4th century BC and had already established their own kingdom in what used to be Edom by the first half of the 2nd century BC. More recent excavations show that the process of Edomite settlement in the southern parts of Judah and parts of the Negev down to Timna had started already before the destruction of the kingdom by Nebuchadnezzar II in 587/86 BC, both by peaceful penetration and by military means and taking advantage of

10150-455: The 8th and 6th centuries BC. The last unambiguous reference to Edom is an Assyrian inscription of 667 BC. Edom ceased to exist as a state when it was conquered by Nabonidus in the 6th century BC. Edom is mentioned in Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions in the form 𒌑𒁺𒈪 Údumi and 𒌑𒁺𒈬 Údumu ; three of its kings are known from the same source: Kaus-malaka at the time of Tiglath-pileser III (c. 745 BC), Aya-ramu at

10325-430: The Achaemenids, like the Assyrians had been resented a century earlier. At least five rebels proclaimed themselves King of Babylon and revolted during the time of Achaemenid rule in attempts at restoring native rule; Nebuchadnezzar III (522 BC), Nebuchadnezzar IV (521–520 BC), Bel-shimanni (484 BC), Shamash-eriba (482–481 BC) and Nidin-Bel (336 BC). The revolt of Shamash-eriba against Xerxes I in particular

10500-443: The Assyrians had been resented by the Babylonians as impious and warlike and the Neo-Babylonian kings preferred to present themselves as devout kings. The king was also the single most important landowner within the empire, with there being several large swaths of land placed under direct royal control throughout Babylonia. There were also large domains placed under other members of the royal family (for instance, there are mentions of

10675-634: The Edomites in the " Valley of Salt " (probably near the Dead Sea ; 2 Samuel 8:13–14 ; 1 Kings 9:15–16 ). An Edomite prince named Hadad escaped and fled to Egypt, and after David's death he returned and tried to start a rebellion but failed and went to Syria ( Aramea ). From that time Edom remained a vassal of Israel. David placed over the Edomites Israelite governors or prefects, and this form of government seems to have continued under Solomon . When Israel divided into two kingdoms Edom became

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10850-458: The Edomites/Idumeans occupied in different periods of their history. The Edomites first established a kingdom ("Edom") in the southern area of modern-day Jordan and later migrated into the southern parts of the Kingdom of Judah ("Idumea", modern-day Mount Hebron ) when Judah was first weakened and then destroyed by the Babylonians in the 6th century BC. The Hebrew word Edom means "red", and

11025-739: The Great , the Achaemenid king of Persia , revolted against his suzerain Astyages , king of Media , at Ecbatana . Astyages' army betrayed him and Cyrus established himself as ruler of all the Iranic peoples, as well as the pre-Iranian Elamites and Gutians , ending the Median Empire and establishing the Achaemenid Empire . Ten years after his victory against the Medes, Cyrus invaded Babylon. Nabonidus sent Belshazzar to head off

11200-675: The Hebrew Bible relates it to the name of its founder Esau , the elder son of the Hebrew patriarch Isaac , because he was born "red all over". As a young adult, he sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for a portion of "red pottage". The Tanakh describes the Edomites as descendants of Esau. Edom in hieroglyphs The Edomites may have been connected with the Shasu and Shutu , nomadic raiders mentioned in Egyptian sources. Indeed,

11375-644: The Idumeans joined Judeans, Jerusalemites, Tyrians , Sidonians and east Jordanians in meeting Jesus by the Sea of Galilee . The Mishnah refers to Rabbi Ishmael 's dwelling place in Kfar Aziz as being "near to Edom." The nature of Edomite religion is largely unknown before their conversion to Judaism by the Hasmoneans. Epigraphical evidence suggests that the national god of Edom was Qaus (קוס) (also known as 'Qaush', 'Kaush', 'Kaus', 'Kos' or 'Qaws'), since Qaus

11550-571: The Jews. Accordingly, one of his first acts was to allow these exiles to return to their homelands, carrying with them the images of their gods and their sacred vessels. The permission to do so was explicitly written in a proclamation, today called the Cyrus Cylinder , wherein Cyrus also justified his conquest of Babylonia as the will of Marduk. Babylon fell as an independent political entity in

11725-534: The Judeans. The reports of forced conversions, in this view, are either anti-Hasmonean propaganda or, conversely, Hasmonean propaganda, which Josephus (mistakenly) incorporated into his historical work. (c) Fictional Conquest: Atkinson takes this further by considering the entire account of the conquest to be fictional. He also believes that "many Idumeans [...] never fully embraced Judaism." (d) No Annexation: However, while Atkinson still maintains that archaeology suggests "the region south of Judea [including Maresha]

11900-499: The Middle East forever. The early Achaemenid rulers had great respect for Babylonia, regarding it as a separate entity or kingdom united with their own kingdom in something akin to a personal union . The region was a major economical asset and provided as much as a third of the entire Achaemenid Empire's tribute. Despite Achaemenid attention and the recognition of the Achaemenid rulers as kings of Babylon, Babylonia resented

12075-539: The Nabateans who were expelled to southern Judea after committing sedition. However, there is evidence for cultural continuity between the Iron Age Edom and Idumea, based on settlement patterns and religious practices. During the Hellenistic period , both Jews and Idumeans spoke Aramaic and used it for literary and legal documents. An Idumean marriage contract from Maresha, dating from 176 BCE, closely resembles

12250-471: The Neo-Babylonian 182, with the average size of these settlements also increasing. This population growth was probably because of increasing prosperity in Babylonia, combined with the resettlement of subjugated peoples and the possible return of peoples that had been resettled under the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Neo-Babylonian period also saw a dramatic increase in urbanization , reversing a trend of ruralization which southern Mesopotamia had experienced since

12425-462: The Neo-Babylonian Empire meant that for the first time since the Assyrian conquest, tribute flowed into Babylonia rather than being drained from it. This reversal, combined with building projects and the relocation of subjugated peoples stimulated both population and economic growth in the region. Although the soil in Mesopotamia was fertile, the average rainfall in the region was not enough to sustain regular crops. As such, water had to be drawn from

12600-735: The Neo-Babylonian Empire were valuable resources, typically sold for money matching several years of income for a paid worker. Slaves were typically from lands outside of Babylonia, becoming slaves through the slave trade or through being captured in times of war. Slave women were often given as part of a dowry to help daughters of free men and women in their household or in raising children. Slaves were not cheap to maintain as they had to be clothed and fed. Because they were expensive to begin with, many Neo-Babylonian slave-owners trained their slaves in professions to raise their value or rented them out to others. Sometimes slaves who showed good business sense were allowed to serve in trade or through managing part of

12775-416: The Neo-Babylonian Empire. Slaves mentioned in connection to farming and agriculture are usually not forced laborers. As farming required diligence and care, slaves at farms were typically given contracts and were allowed to work independently, which would make the slaves more interested in the result of their labor. Some slaves acted as proxies or junior partners of their masters. Slaves were also allowed to pay

12950-400: The Neo-Babylonian Empire. The punishment for these types of crimes and disputes appears, for the most part, to have been money-related, with the guilty party paying a specified amount of silver as compensation. Crimes such as adultery and lèse-majesté were apparently punishable by death , but little surviving evidence exists for the death penalty actually being carried out. Artists in

13125-477: The Neo-Babylonian period continued the artistic trends of previous periods, showing similarities with the artwork of the Neo-Assyrian period in particular. Cylinder seals of the period are less detailed than in previous times and shows definite Assyrian influence in the themes depicted. One of the most common scenes depicted in such seals are heroes, sometimes depicted with wings, about to strike beasts with their curved swords. Other common scenes include purification of

13300-573: The Roman conquest, was of Idumean origin. Under Herod the Great , the Idumaea province was ruled for him by a series of governors, among whom were his brother Joseph ben Antipater and his brother-in-law Costobarus . Overall, Herodian influence on Judea, Jerusalem and the Temple was significant. However, this was obsfucated by later variants of Second Temple Judaism and Rabbinic Judaism . For example,

13475-600: The Seleucid Empire survive, documents from the early years of Parthian rule suggest a continued recognition of at least the early Parthian kings as kings of Babylon. Although Akkadian-language legal documents continued in a slightly reduced number through the rule of the Hellenic kings, they are rare from the period of Parthian rule. The astronomical diaries kept since the days of ancient Babylon survived through Persian and Hellenic rule but stopped being written in

13650-713: The Stenseth-Maynard Smith stability hypothesis, constraints imposed by the nature of subdivided populations, normalizing clade selection, and koinophilia . Evidence for stasis has also been corroborated from the genetics of sibling species , species which are morphologically indistinguishable, but whose proteins have diverged sufficiently to suggest they have been separated for millions of years. Fossil evidence of reproductively isolated extant species of sympatric Olive Shells ( Amalda sp.) also confirm morphological stasis in multiple lineages over three million years. According to Gould, "stasis may emerge as

13825-585: The Temple at Sippar , had to make repeated excavations until he found the foundation deposit of Naram-Sin of Akkad . The discovery then allowed him to rebuild the temple properly. Neo-Babylonians also revived the ancient Sargonic practice of appointing a royal daughter to serve as priestess of the moon-god Sîn . As in most ancient empires, slaves were an accepted part of Neo-Babylonian society. In contrast to slavery in ancient Rome , where slave-owners often worked their slaves to death at an early age, slaves in

14000-466: The already-weakened state of Judah. Once pushed out of their territory, the Edomites settled during the Persian period in an area comprising the southern hills of Judea down to the area north of Be'er Sheva . The people appear under a Greek form of their old name, as Idumeans or Idumaeans , and their new territory was called Idumea or Idumaea ( Greek : Ἰδουμαία, Idoumaía ; Latin : Idūmaea ),

14175-455: The area east of Arabah . The Qedarites controlled the territory, followed by the Nabateans, thus ensuring the end of Iron Age Edom. According to ostraca from sites in Idumaea, i.e. southern Judah after the fall of the kingdom to the Babylonians, dating mainly to the 4th century BCE, a diverse population of Arabs, Edomites as well as Judeans and Phoenicians inhabited the area during the late Persian period . Strabo identifies Idumeans with

14350-568: The assassination, the influential courtier Nabonidus and his son Belshazzar , then took power. Despite the turmoil that had surrounded his rise to the throne, the empire itself had remained relatively calm through the difficult period. Nabonidus began his reign with traditional activities associated with the king: renovating buildings and monuments, worshipping the gods and waging war (also campaigning in Cilicia). Nabonidus wasn't of Babylonian ancestry, originating from Harran in former Assyria, one of

14525-402: The biblical story that there was an Edomite kingdom here." After the conquest of Judah by the Babylonians, Edomites settled in the region of Hebron . They prospered in this new country, called by the Greeks and Romans "Idumaea" or "Idumea", for more than four centuries. Strabo , writing around the time of Jesus , held that the Idumaeans, whom he identified as of Nabataean origin, constituted

14700-460: The bradytelic mode, he considered it (along with rapid evolution) to be unimportant in the larger scope of evolution. In his Major Features of Evolution Simpson stated, "Evolutionary change is so nearly the universal rule that a state of motion is, figuratively, normal in evolving populations. The state of rest, as in bradytely, is the exception and it seems that some restraint or force must be required to maintain it." Despite such differences between

14875-417: The campaign) in northern Arabia . His son Belshazzar was left to govern Babylonia (though with the title crown prince rather than king, a title Nabonidus continued to hold). Why Nabonidus spent a decade away from his capital there is unknown. Nabonidus' return c.   543 BC was accompanied with a reorganization of his court and the removal of some of its more influential members. In 549 BC Cyrus

15050-541: The canals was seen as a royal task and the resources required to construct and maintain the infrastructure necessary, and the manpower itself, was provided by the many temples which dotted the region. The most detailed economical records from Neo-Babylonian times are from these temples. The people who cultivated the temple lands of Babylonia were mostly unfree personnel, so-called temple dependents ( širāku ), which were usually given larger work assignments than they could accomplish. In later times, to increase productivity,

15225-474: The cities who had shifted the most between Assyrian and Babylonian control, were firmly in Babylonian hands by 620 BC, and Nabopolassar had consolidated his rule over all of Babylonia. After further Babylonian conquests and further failures by Sinsharishkun to stop Nabopolassar, despite receiving military aid from Egypt , the Assyrian Empire quickly began to fall apart. In October or November 615 BC,

15400-484: The city of Uruk . Sinsharishkun failed to capture Babylon and Nabopolassar endured the Assyrian siege of Uruk, repulsing the Assyrian army. In November of 626 BC, Nabopolassar was formally crowned as King of Babylon, restoring Babylonia as an independent kingdom after more than a century of direct Assyrian rule. With only small successes during campaigns in northern Babylonia from 625 to 623 BC and more southern cities, such as Der , joining Nabopolassar, Sinsharishkun led

15575-428: The clothes used by the deity's cult, cleaned and moved around the statues of the deities, maintained the rooms within the temple and performed the important rituals, represented the skilled and free urban elite of Babylonian society and were paid through leftovers from meals intended for the gods, barley and beer. The surviving sources suggest that the justice system of the Neo-Babylonian Empire had changed little from

15750-426: The coast and could not be taken without naval support. Though it withstood numerous sieges, it was not captured until Alexander the Great 's siege in 332 BC. It is possible that Nebuchadnezzar campaigned against Egypt in 568 BC, given that a fragmentary Babylonian inscription from that year, given the modern designation BM 33041, records the word "Egypt" as well as possibly traces of the name "Amasis" (the name of

15925-541: The collapse of the Old Babylonian Empire (under Hammurabi ) nearly a thousand years earlier. The period of Neo-Babylonian rule thus saw unprecedented economic and population growth throughout Babylonia , as well as a renaissance of culture and artwork as Neo-Babylonian kings conducted massive building projects, especially in Babylon itself, bringing back many elements from the previous 2,000 years of Sumero-Akkadian culture. The Neo-Babylonian Empire retains

16100-528: The conquest, Babylon remained culturally distinct for centuries, with references to people with Babylonian names and to the Babylonian religion known from as late as the Parthian Empire in the 1st century BC. Although Babylon revolted several times during the rule of later empires, it never successfully restored its independence. Babylonia was founded as an independent state by an Amorite chieftain named Sumu-abum c.   1894 BC. For over

16275-481: The controversial geneticist who advocated the idea of " hopeful monsters ," led some biologists to conclude that Gould's punctuations were occurring in single-generation jumps. This interpretation has frequently been used by creationists to characterize the weakness of the paleontological record, and to portray contemporary evolutionary biology as advancing neo-saltationism. In an often quoted remark, Gould stated, Although there exist some debate over how long

16450-453: The degree of gradualism commonly attributed to Charles Darwin is virtually nonexistent in the fossil record, and that stasis dominates the history of most fossil species. Punctuated equilibrium originated as a logical consequence of Ernst Mayr 's concept of genetic revolutions by allopatric and especially peripatric speciation as applied to the fossil record. Although the sudden appearance of species and its relationship to speciation

16625-520: The denial of the existence of the other gods in the Mesopotamian pantheon , it has sometimes been compared to monotheism . The history of worship of Marduk is intimately tied to the history of Babylon itself and as Babylon's power increased, so did the position of Marduk relative to that of other Mesopotamian gods. By the end of the second millennium BC, Marduk was sometimes just referred to as Bêl , meaning "lord". In Mesopotamian religion, Marduk

16800-399: The elder gods and Abzu decided to rid himself of them by killing them. Alarmed by this, Tiamat revealed Abzu's plan to Enki, who killed his father before the plot could be enacted. Although Tiamat had revealed the plot to Enki to warn him, the death of Abzu horrified her and she too attempted to kill her children, raising an army together with her new consort Kingu . Every battle in the war was

16975-456: The empire fell into political turmoil and instability. Nebuchadnezzar's son and successor, Amel-Marduk , reigned for only two years before being assassinated in a coup by the influential courtier Neriglissar . Neriglissar was a simmagir , a governor of one of the eastern provinces, and had been present during several of Nebuchadnezzar's campaigns. Importantly, Neriglissar was also married to one of Nebuchadnezzar's daughters and thus linked to

17150-448: The everyday tongue, Akkadian was retained as the language of administration and culture. Ancient artworks from the heyday of Babylonia's imperial glory were treated with near-religious reverence and were painstakingly preserved. For example, when a statue of Sargon the Great was found during construction work, a temple was built for it, and it was given offerings. The story is told of how Nebuchadnezzar II , in his efforts to restore

17325-622: The fall of the Assyrian Empire in 612 BC, the Neo-Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Achaemenid Persian Empire in 539 BC, marking the collapse of the Chaldean dynasty less than a century after its founding. The defeat of the Assyrian Empire and subsequent return of power to Babylon marked the first time that the city, and southern Mesopotamia in general, had risen to dominate the ancient Near East since

17500-630: The fall of the Old Babylonian Empire. At the top of the Neo-Babylonian Empire social ladder was the king ( šar ); his subjects took an oath of loyalty called the ade to him, a tradition inherited from the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Neo-Babylonian kings used the titles King of Babylon and King of Sumer and Akkad . They abandoned many of the boastful Neo-Assyrian titles that claimed universal rule (though some of these would be reintroduced under Nabonidus), possibly because

17675-399: The field of Moab , ruled in his place, and the name of his city was Avith . And Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah ruled in his place. And Samlah died, and Saul of Rehoboth on the river ruled in his place. And Saul died, and Baal-hanan ben Achbor ruled in his place. And Baal-hanan ben Achbor died, and Hadar ruled in his place, and the name of his city was Pau , and his wife's name

17850-527: The first edition of On the Origin of Species states that "Species of different genera and classes have not changed at the same rate, or in the same degree. In the oldest tertiary beds a few living shells may still be found in the midst of a multitude of extinct forms... The Silurian Lingula differs but little from the living species of this genus". Lingula is among the few brachiopods surviving today but also known from fossils over 500 million years old. In

18025-591: The first, is that once the caricature of "constant speedism" is dismissed, we are left with one logical alternative, which Dawkins terms "variable speedism". Variable speedism may also be distinguished one of two ways: " discrete variable speedism" and " continuously variable speedism". Eldredge and Gould, proposing that evolution jumps between stability and relative rapidity, are described as "discrete variable speedists", and "in this respect they are genuinely radical." They assert that evolution generally proceeds in bursts, or not at all. "Continuously variable speedists", on

18200-473: The foremost ruler in this narrative. The Book of Revelation in the Christian Bible refers to Babylon many centuries after it ceased to be a major political center. The city is personified by the " Whore of Babylon ", riding on a scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns and drunk on the blood of the righteous. Some scholars of apocalyptic literature believe this New Testament "Babylon" to be

18375-536: The fossil record as documenting migratory events rather than evolutionary events. According to Dawkins, evolution certainly occurred but "probably gradually" elsewhere. However, the punctuational equilibrium model may still be inferred from both the observation of stasis and examples of rapid and episodic speciation events documented in the fossil record. Dawkins also emphasizes that punctuated equilibrium has been "oversold by some journalists", but partly due to Eldredge and Gould's "later writings". Dawkins contends that

18550-424: The fossil record showed that 71% of species exhibited stasis, and 63% were associated with punctuated patterns of evolutionary change. According to Michael Benton , "it seems clear then that stasis is common, and that had not been predicted from modern genetic studies." A paramount example of evolutionary stasis is the fern Osmunda claytoniana . Based on paleontological evidence it has remained unchanged, even at

18725-410: The fossil record. Mayr later complimented Eldredge and Gould's paper, stating that evolutionary stasis had been "unexpected by most evolutionary biologists" and that punctuated equilibrium "had a major impact on paleontology and evolutionary biology." A year before their 1972 Eldredge and Gould paper, Niles Eldredge published a paper in the journal Evolution which suggested that gradual evolution

18900-624: The fourth edition (1866) of On the Origin of Species Darwin wrote that "the periods during which species have undergone modification, though long as measured in years, have probably been short in comparison with the periods during which they retain the same form." Thus punctuationism in general is consistent with Darwin's conception of evolution. According to early versions of punctuated equilibrium, "peripheral isolates" are considered to be of critical importance for speciation. However, Darwin wrote, " I can by no means agree ... that immigration and isolation are necessary elements. ... Although isolation

19075-488: The geologic record and the lack of evidence of substantial gradual change in most species —from their initial appearance until their extinction—has long been noted , including by Charles Darwin , who appealed to the imperfection of the record as the favored explanation. When presenting his ideas against the prevailing influences of catastrophism and progressive creationism , which envisaged species being supernaturally created at intervals, Darwin needed to forcefully stress

19250-482: The geological record, on very rare occasions evolution would proceed very rapidly to form entirely new families , orders , and classes of organisms. This hypothesis differs from punctuated equilibrium in several respects. First, punctuated equilibrium was more modest in scope, in that it was addressing evolution specifically at the species level. Simpson's idea was principally concerned with evolution at higher taxonomic groups. Second, Eldredge and Gould relied upon

19425-401: The goddess Ishtar ) flowers, mušḫuššu (a mythological creature associated with the god Marduk) and oxen (associated with the god Adad ). After Babylonia regained its independence, Neo-Babylonian rulers were deeply conscious of the antiquity of their kingdom and pursued a highly traditionalist policy, reviving much of the ancient Sumero-Akkadian culture. Even though Aramaic had become

19600-414: The gods and for conducting various rituals. Because of their religious significance, temples were present in all major cities, with trade and population growth being stimulated by the presence of a temple. Workers within the temples had to be "fit" for service and were not slaves or temple dependents (unlike those who served the temples by cultivating food and other supplies). These temple workers, who created

19775-469: The gods in defeating and holding off the forces of chaos and thus maintain order on Earth. The Statue of Marduk was the physical representation of Marduk housed in Babylon's main temple, the Esagila . Although there were actually seven separate statues of Marduk in Babylon; four in the Esagila, one in the Etemenanki (the ziggurat dedicated to Marduk) and two in temples dedicated to other deities,

19950-413: The gradual nature of evolution in accordance with the gradualism promoted by his friend Charles Lyell . He privately expressed concern, noting in the margin of his 1844 Essay , "Better begin with this: If species really, after catastrophes, created in showers world over, my theory false." It is often incorrectly assumed that he insisted that the rate of change must be constant, or nearly so, but even

20125-527: The huge Persian army, but the Babylonian forces were overwhelmed at the Battle of Opis . On 12 October, after Cyrus's engineers diverted the waters of the Euphrates, the soldiers of Cyrus entered Babylon without the need for battle. Nabonidus surrendered and was deported. Gutian guards were placed at the gates of the great temple of Marduk, where services continued without interruption. Cyrus claimed to be

20300-490: The hypothesis "does not deserve a particularly large measure of publicity". It is a "minor gloss," an "interesting but minor wrinkle on the surface of neo-Darwinian theory," and "lies firmly within the neo-Darwinian synthesis". In his book Darwin's Dangerous Idea , philosopher Daniel Dennett is especially critical of Gould's presentation of punctuated equilibrium. Dennett argues that Gould alternated between revolutionary and conservative claims, and that each time Gould made

20475-502: The idea that evolution generally occurs uniformly by the steady and gradual transformation of whole lineages ( anagenesis ). In 1972, paleontologists Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould published a landmark paper developing their theory and called it punctuated equilibria . Their paper built upon Ernst Mayr 's model of geographic speciation , I. M. Lerner 's theories of developmental and genetic homeostasis , and their own empirical research . Eldredge and Gould proposed that

20650-564: The implication(s), primarily because they did not think at geological scales". Richard Dawkins dedicates a chapter in The Blind Watchmaker to correcting, in his view, the wide confusion regarding rates of change . His first point is to argue that phyletic gradualism —understood in the sense that evolution proceeds at a single uniform speed, called "constant speedism" by Dawkins—is a "caricature of Darwinism" and "does not really exist". His second argument, which follows from

20825-647: The influx of Idumaeans into the Mount Hebron region, shortly after the demise of the kingdom of Judah and the Judean exile in the 6th-century BC. Strabo describes western Judea as being populated by Idumeans, who commingled with Judeans and adopted their customs. Archaeological records gleaned from Maresha , though largely of Idumaean origin, attest to the region being under the influences of Greek culture , as well as that of Nabatean/Arab, Phoenician , Palmyrene and Jewish culture. The Gospel of Mark states that

21000-488: The king refused permission. Accordingly, they detoured around the country because of his show of force or because God ordered them to do so rather than wage war ( Deuteronomy 2:4–6 ). The king of Edom did not attack the Israelites, though he prepared to resist aggression. Nothing further is recorded of the Edomites in the Tanakh until their defeat by King Saul of Israel in the late 11th century BC ( 1 Samuel 14:47 ). Forty years later King David and his general Joab defeated

21175-470: The laws of the Jews. And so, out of attachment to the land of their fathers, they submitted to circumcision and to make their manner of life conform in all other respects to that of the Jews. And from that time onward they have continued to be Jews. However, since the late 1980s, scholars have increasingly questioned the traditional account of Idumaea's conquest and forced conversion by the Hasmoneans . Several reasons have been proposed for this skepticism. As

21350-607: The leadership of John, Simon, Phinehas, and Jacob, joined the Zealots as they besieged the Temple . Idumean zealotry arguably reflected their attempts to 'prove' their Jewishness. After the Jewish–Roman wars , the Idumaean people disappear from written history, though the geographical region of "Idumea" is still referred to at the time of Jerome . Josephus, when referring to Upper Idumaea, speaks of towns and villages immediately to

21525-400: The legitimate successor of the ancient Babylonian kings and the avenger of Marduk, who Cyrus claimed to be wrathful at Nabonidus's supposed impiety. Cyrus's conquest was welcomed by the Babylonian populace, though whether it was because he was genuinely seen as a liberator or out of fear is unknown. Cyrus's invasion of Babylonia may have been helped along by the presence of foreign exiles such as

21700-498: The level of fossilized nuclei and chromosomes, for at least 180 million years. When Eldredge and Gould published their 1972 paper, allopatric speciation was considered the "standard" model of speciation. This model was popularized by Ernst Mayr in his 1954 paper "Change of genetic environment and evolution," and his classic volume Animal Species and Evolution (1963). Allopatric speciation suggests that species with large central populations are stabilized by their large volume and

21875-446: The local courts would be headed by royal representatives, usually titled sartennu or šukallu . For the most part, surviving sources related to the Neo-Babylonian justice system are tablets containing letters and lawsuits. These tablets document various legal disputes and crimes, such as embezzlement , disputes over property, theft , family affairs, debts and inheritance and often offer considerable insight into daily life in

22050-518: The main places of worship of the god Sîn (associated with the moon). For this, Nabonidus may have faced opposition from the Babylonian clergy. Nabonidus was also opposed by the clergy when he increased governmental control over the temples in an attempt to solve ongoing management problems with the empire's religious institutions. Nabonidus left Babylonia to campaign in the Levant and then settled for ten years in Tayma (which he had conquered during

22225-519: The majority of the population of western Judea , where they commingled with the Judaeans and adopted their customs, a view not necessarily shared by modern scholarly works. The Edomites' original country, according to the Hebrew Bible, stretched from the Sinai Peninsula as far as Kadesh Barnea . It reached as far south as Eilat , which was the seaport of Edom. On the north of Edom was the territory of Moab . The boundary between Moab and Edom

22400-416: The means to carry out their trade (for instance second sons who had not inherited as much money as first-born sons). Records show that some junior partners worked their way up through their businesses to eventually become senior partners in new harrānu arrangements. The Neo-Babylonian period saw marked population growth in Babylonia, with the number of known settlements increasing from the previous 134 to

22575-484: The middle of the 1st century BC. It is likely that only a small number of scholars knew how to write Akkadian by the time of the Parthian kings, and the old Babylonian temples became increasingly undermanned and underfunded as people were drawn to the new Mesopotamian capitals, such as Seleucia and Ctesiphon . The latest dated document written in accordance with the old scribal tradition in Akkadian cuneiform

22750-459: The native Babylonians (composed of the descendants of the Sumerians and Akkadians and the assimilated Amorites and Kassites) and recently arrived, unassimilated tribesmen from the Levant ( Suteans , Arameans and Chaldeans ). By the 8th century BC, the constituent groups of the native Babylonians, the main population in the large cities, had lost their old identities and had assimilated into

22925-500: The nature of the geological record than the nature of Gould's rhetoric. They state, a "re-analysis of existing fossil data has shown, to the increasing satisfaction of the paleontological community, that Eldredge and Gould were correct in identifying periods of evolutionary stasis which are interrupted by much shorter periods of evolutionary change." Evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers accused Gould of being "something of an intellectual fraud" for using claims that were "well known from

23100-489: The nearby Adoraim : according to Josephus and Ammonius Grammaticus , Hyrcanus conquered the cities of Marisa and Adoraim, forcibly converted all Idumaeans to Judaism and incorporated them into the Jewish nation : Hyrcanus also captured the Idumean cities of Adora and Marisa and after subduing all the Idumeans, permitted them to remain in their country as long as they had themselves circumcised and were willing to observe

23275-518: The one it had from inside the temple. The statue was traditionally incorporated into the coronation rituals for the Babylonian kings , who received the Babylonian crown "out of the hands" of Marduk during the New Year's festival, symbolizing them being bestowed with kingship by the patron deity of the city. The temples of southern Mesopotamia were important as both religious and economic centers. The temples were chiefly institutions for caring for

23450-415: The one which functioned during the Old Babylonian Empire a thousand years prior. Throughout Babylonia, there were local assemblies (called puhru ) of elders and other notables from society which among other local roles served as local courts of justice (though there were also higher "royal" and "temple courts" with greater legal prerogatives). In these courts, judges would be assisted by scribes and several of

23625-420: The other hand, advance that "evolutionary rates fluctuate continuously from very fast to very slow and stop, with all intermediates. They see no particular reason to emphasize certain speeds more than others. In particular, stasis, to them, is just an extreme case of ultra-slow evolution. To a punctuationist, there is something very special about stasis." Richard Dawkins regards the apparent gaps represented in

23800-658: The place of origin of many evolutionary novelties. Their isolation and comparatively small size may explain phenomena of rapid evolution and lack of documentation in the fossil record, hitherto puzzling to the palaeontologist. Although punctuated equilibrium generally applies to sexually reproducing organisms, some biologists have applied the model to non-sexual species like viruses , which cannot be stabilized by conventional gene flow. As time went on biologists like Gould moved away from wedding punctuated equilibrium to allopatric speciation, particularly as evidence accumulated in support of other modes of speciation. Gould, for example,

23975-477: The plunder had already begun and met with Cyaxares, allying with him and signing an anti-Assyrian pact. In April or May 612 BC, at the start of Nabopolassar's 14th year as King of Babylon, the combined Medo-Babylonian army marched on Nineveh. From June to August of that year, they besieged the Assyrian capital and in August the walls were breached, leading to another lengthy and brutal sack during which Sinsharishkun

24150-500: The political history, society and appearance of ancient Babylonia was largely a mystery. Western artists typically envisioned the city and its empire as a combination of known ancient cultures—typically a mixture of ancient Greek and Egyptian culture—with some influence from the then-contemporary Middle Eastern empire, the Ottoman Empire . Early depictions of the city show it with long colonnades , sometimes built on more than

24325-459: The prehistory of the indigenous languages of Australia and his objections to the proposed Pama–Nyungan language family there. Although his model has raised considerable interest, it does not command majority support within linguistics. Separately, recent work using computational phylogenetic methods claims to show that punctuational bursts play an important factor when languages split from one another , accounting for anywhere from 10 to 33% of

24500-411: The process of gene flow . New and even beneficial mutations are diluted by the population's large size and are unable to reach fixation, due to such factors as constantly changing environments. If this is the case, then the transformation of whole lineages should be rare, as the fossil record indicates. Smaller populations on the other hand, which are isolated from the parental stock, are decoupled from

24675-429: The prominence of stasis in the fossil record. Before punctuated equilibrium, most evolution biologists considered stasis to be rare or unimportant. The paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson , for example, believed that phyletic gradual evolution (called horotely in his terminology) comprised 90% of evolution. More modern studies, including a meta-analysis examining 58 published studies on speciation patterns in

24850-404: The punctuations last, supporters of punctuated equilibrium generally place the figure between 50,000 and 100,000 years. Quantum evolution was a controversial hypothesis advanced by Columbia University paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson , regarded by Gould as "the greatest and most biologically astute paleontologist of the twentieth century." Simpson's conjecture was that according to

25025-425: The punctuations were, what taxonomic scale their theory applied to, how revolutionary their claims were intended to be, and how punctuated equilibrium related to other ideas like saltationism , quantum evolution , and mass extinction . The punctuational nature of punctuated equilibrium has engendered perhaps the most confusion over Eldredge and Gould's theory. Gould's sympathetic treatment of Richard Goldschmidt ,

25200-481: The remaining Idumeans may have entered into an alliance with the Judeans, within which the Idumaean religion could continue to be practiced. This reinterpretation leaves the prior depopulation of Idumaea as an open question, comparable to the simultaneous depopulation of Galilee and Philistia . Antipater the Idumaean , the progenitor of the Herodian dynasty along with Judean progenitors that ruled Judea after

25375-548: The results of the analysis, the researchers thought that Pharaoh Shoshenk I of Egypt (the Biblical " Shishak "), who attacked Jerusalem in the 10th century BC, encouraged the trade and production of copper instead of destroying the region. Tel Aviv University professor Ben Yosef stated "Our new findings contradict the view of many archaeologists that the Arava was populated by a loose alliance of tribes, and they’re consistent with

25550-457: The royal family. Possibly due to old age, Neriglissar's reign was also short, some of its few recorded activities being the restoration of some monuments in Babylon and a campaign in Cilicia . Neriglissar died in 556 BC and was succeeded by his underage son, Labashi-Marduk . Labashi-Marduk's reign was even briefer; he was assassinated after reigning for just nine months. The perpetrators of

25725-478: The south and south-west of Jerusalem, such as Hebron ( Antiq . 12.8.6, Wars 4.9.7), Halhul , in Greek called Alurus ( Wars 4.9.6), Bethsura ( Antiq . 12.9.4), Begabris ( Wars 4.8.1.), Dura (Adorayim) ( Antiq . 13.9.1, Wars 1.2.5), Caphethra ( Wars 4.9.9), Bethletephon ( Wars 4.8.1), Tekoa ( Wars 4.9.5), and Marissa ( Antiq . 13.9.1, Wars 1.2.5), the latter being a principal city of Idumaea after

25900-434: The southern official or general Nabopolassar used ongoing political instability in Assyria, caused by an earlier brief civil war between Sinsharishkun and the general Sin-shumu-lishir , to revolt. In 626 BC, Nabopolassar assaulted and successfully seized the cities of Babylon and Nippur . Sinsharishkun's response was quick and decisive; by October of that year the Assyrians had recaptured Nippur and besieged Nabopolassar at

26075-537: The species wobbles about its phenotypic mean. Jonathan Weiner 's The Beak of the Finch describes this very process." Punctuated equilibrium has also been cited as contributing to the hypothesis that species are Darwinian individuals , and not just classes , thereby providing a stronger framework for a hierarchical theory of evolution. Much confusion has arisen over what proponents of punctuated equilibrium actually argued, what mechanisms they advocated, how fast

26250-431: The temple as compensation. Although animal husbandry was practiced throughout Mesopotamia, it was the most common form of farming in the south. In Uruk, animals, rather than some type of plant, were the main cash crop . Shepherds could be temple dependents or independent contractors and were entrusted with herds of either sheep or goats. Similar to other farmers working in connection to the temples, these shepherds had

26425-471: The temples began hiring "rent farmers". These rent farmers were given a portion or all of a temple's farming grounds and fields, including the temple dependents and equipment there, in exchange for money and a fixed quota of commodities to supply to the temple. Rent farmers were personally liable for accidents and falling short of the quota and there are many records of rent farmers giving up or sometimes being required to sell their own possessions and assets to

26600-497: The temples. The technique of colored glaze was improved and perfected by Neo-Babylonian artists. In reliefs, such as the ones on the Ishtar Gate in Babylon and along the city's Processional Street (where parades passed through during religious festivals in the city), colored glaze was combined with bricks molded in various shapes to create decorations in color. Most of these decorations are symbols of lions (associated with

26775-422: The tenor of the reaction it has engendered, though for shifting reasons, down to the present day." John Wilkins and Gareth Nelson have argued that French architect Pierre Trémaux proposed an "anticipation of the theory of punctuated equilibrium of Gould and Eldredge." The fossil record includes well documented examples of both phyletic gradualism and punctuational evolution. As such, much debate persists over

26950-485: The territory of Edom, the book of Jeremiah states that "no one will live there, nor will anyone of mankind reside in it". Although the Idumaeans controlled the lands to the east and south of the Dead Sea, their peoples were held in contempt by the Israelites. Hence the Book of Psalms says "Moab is my washpot: over Edom will I cast out my shoe". According to the Torah , the congregation could not receive descendants of

27125-519: The then incumbent Pharaoh, Amasis II , r.   570–526 BC). A stele of Amasis, also fragmentary, may also describe a combined naval and land attack by the Babylonians. But the evidence for this campaign is scant, and historians believe that if Nebuchadnezzar launched another campaign, he was unsuccessful. In addition to his military exploits, Nebuchadnezzar was a great builder, famous for his monuments and building works throughout Mesopotamia, such as Babylon's Ishtar Gate and Processional Street. He

27300-426: The theory's most important contribution to evolutionary science." Philosopher Kim Sterelny in clarifying the meaning of stasis adds, "In claiming that species typically undergo no further evolutionary change once speciation is complete, they are not claiming that there is no change at all between one generation and the next. Lineages do change. But the change between generations does not accumulate. Instead, over time,

27475-553: The time he wrote the Origin he had downplayed its importance. He explained the reasons for his revised view as follows: Throughout a great and open area, not only will there be a greater chance of favourable variations, arising from the large number of individuals of the same species there supported, but the conditions of life are much more complex from the large number of already existing species; and if some of these species become modified and improved, others will have to be improved in

27650-593: The time of Sennacherib (c. 705 BC), and Kaus-gabri at the time of Esarhaddon (c. 680 BC). According to the Egyptian inscriptions, the "Aduma" at times extended their possessions to the borders of Egypt. The existence of the Kingdom of Edom was asserted by archaeologists led by Ezra Ben-Yosef and Tom Levy, by using a methodology called the punctuated equilibrium model in 2019. Archaeologists mainly took copper samples from Timna Valley and Faynan in Jordan’s Arava valley dated to 1300-800 BC. According to

27825-597: The time of Darwin" (that evolution displayed "periods of long stasis interspersed with periods of rapid change") to support distinct but more "grandiose" claims regarding species selection , despite the "rate of species turnover [having] nothing to do with the traits within species—only with the relative frequency of species showing these traits". Some critics jokingly referred to the theory of punctuated equilibrium as "evolution by jerks", which reportedly prompted punctuationists to describe phyletic gradualism as "evolution by creeps." The sudden appearance of most species in

28000-467: The topic of speciation. Gould recalls that "Eldredge's 1971 publication [on Paleozoic trilobites ] had presented the only new and interesting ideas on the paleontological implications of the subject—so I asked Schopf if we could present the paper jointly." According to Gould "the ideas came mostly from Niles, with yours truly acting as a sounding board and eventual scribe. I coined the term punctuated equilibrium and wrote most of our 1972 paper, but Niles

28175-500: The two major rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris, for use in irrigation. These rivers tended to flood at inconvenient times, such as at grain harvest time. To solve these issues and allow for efficient farming, Mesopotamia required a sophisticated large-scale system of canals, dams and dikes, both to protect from floods and to supply water. These structures required constant maintenance and supervision to function. Digging and maintaining

28350-443: The two models, earlier critiques—from such eminent commentators as Sewall Wright as well as Simpson himself—have argued that punctuated equilibrium is little more than quantum evolution relabeled. Punctuated equilibrium is often portrayed to oppose the concept of gradualism , when it is actually a form of gradualism. This is because even though evolutionary change appears instantaneous between geological sedimentary layers, change

28525-417: Was Mehetabel bat Matred bat Mezahab. And these are the names of the clans of Esau by their families, by their places, by their names: clan Timnah , clan Alvah , clan Jetheth , clan Aholibamah , clan Elah , clan Pinon , clan Kenaz , clan Teman , clan Mibzar , clan Magdiel, clan Iram . The Hebrew word translated as leader of a clan is aluf , used solely to describe the dukes of Edom and Moab , in

28700-751: Was a creator god . Going by the Enûma Eliš , the Babylonian creation myth, Marduk was the son of Enki , the Mesopotamian god of wisdom, and rose to prominence during a great battle between the gods. The myth tells how the universe originated as a chaotic realm of water, in which there originally were two primordial deities; Tiamat (salt water, female) and Abzu (sweet water, male). These two gods gave birth to other deities. These deities (including gods such as Enki) had little to do in these early stages of existence and as such occupied themselves with various activities. Eventually, their children began to annoy

28875-578: Was among the most powerful in the world and he quickly reinforced his father's alliance with the Medes by marrying Cyaxares's daughter or granddaughter, Amytis . Some sources suggest that the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon , one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World , were built by Nebuchadnezzar for his wife as to remind her of her homeland (though the existence of these gardens is debated). Nebuchadnezzar's 43-year reign brought with it

29050-466: Was annexed without any significant conflict," Berlin and Kosmin now argue that even the annexation of Idumea and the Idumeans into the Judean state is fictional, noting that, as corroborated by archaeology, after most Idumaeans left Idumaea, Judeans did not settle in this abandoned area. In line with this interpretation, it is now often assumed that Idumaea was not annexed by the Hasmoneans at all. Instead,

29225-481: Was catastrophic for the independent Babylonian kingdom, with many weak kings either failing to control all the groups composing Babylonia's population, failing to defeat rivals, or failing to maintain important trade routes. This collapse eventually resulted in Babylonia's powerful northern neighbor, the Neo-Assyrian Empire , incorporating Babylonia into its empire in 729 BC. The Assyrian conquest began

29400-631: Was decisively wiped out c.   230 AD with the religious reforms introduced in the Sasanian Empire . By this time, the ancient Babylonian cult centres had already been closed and razed. Some temples had been closed during the early Parthian period, such as many temples in Uruk, whilst others lingered on to near the end of the Parthian Empire, such as the Esagila in Babylon. Before modern archaeological excavations in Mesopotamia,

29575-452: Was descended from the priests of "the Koze, whom the Idumeans had formerly served as a god". Victor Sasson describes an Edomite text that parallels the Book of Job , which provides insight on the language, literature, and religion of Edom. Khirbat en-Nahas is a large-scale copper-mining site excavated by archaeologist Thomas Levy in what is now southern Jordan. The scale of mining on the site

29750-407: Was first under the rule of the Parthian Empire that Babylon was gradually abandoned as a major urban center and the old Akkadian culture truly disappeared. In the first century or so of Parthian rule, Babylonian culture was still alive, and there are records of people in the city with traditional Babylonian names, such as Bel-aḫḫe-uṣur and Nabu-mušetiq-uddi (mentioned as the receivers of silver in

29925-412: Was no different from other Mesopotamian cities, who similarly conflated their gods with the representations used for them in their temples. During the religiously important New Year's festival at Babylon, the statue was removed from the temple and paraded through Babylon before being placed in a smaller building outside the city walls, where the statue received fresh air and could enjoy a different view from

30100-491: Was particularly attracted to Douglas Futuyma's work on the importance of reproductive isolating mechanisms. Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain the putative causes of stasis. Gould was initially attracted to I. Michael Lerner 's theories of developmental and genetic homeostasis. However this hypothesis was rejected over time, as evidence accumulated against it. Other plausible mechanisms which have been suggested include: habitat tracking, stabilizing selection ,

30275-425: Was proposed and identified by Mayr in 1954, historians of science generally recognize the 1972 Eldredge and Gould paper as the basis of the new paleobiological research program. Punctuated equilibrium differs from Mayr's ideas mainly in that Eldredge and Gould placed considerably greater emphasis on stasis, whereas Mayr was concerned with explaining the morphological discontinuity (or "sudden jumps") found in

30450-606: Was seldom seen in the fossil record and argued that Ernst Mayr's standard mechanism of allopatric speciation might suggest a possible resolution. The Eldredge and Gould paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America in 1971. The symposium focused its attention on how modern microevolutionary studies could revitalize various aspects of paleontology and macroevolution. Tom Schopf, who organized that year's meeting, assigned Gould

30625-532: Was the brook of Zered . The ancient capital of Edom was Bozrah . According to Genesis , Esau's descendants settled in the land after they had displaced the Horites . It was also called the land of Seir; Mount Seir appears to have been strongly identified with them and may have been a cultic site. According to biblical narrative, at the time of Amaziah (838 BC), Selah was its principal stronghold, Eilat and Ezion-geber its seaports. Genesis 36:31-43 lists

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