Moab in the Iron Age: Hegemony, Polity, Archaeology (Archaeology, Culture, and Society)

Moab was an ancient kingdom located in the highlands east of the Dead Sea in what is now Jordan. Known primarily from references in the Hebrew Bible, Moab has long occupied a marginal position, one defined by the complex interrelationship of history, theology, and politics that underlies biblical archaeology. Moab in the Iron Age: Hegemony, Polity, Archaeology inverts this position, using Moab as the centerpiece of an extended reflection on the nature and meaning of state formation. Focusing on the state as an effect rather than a cause, Bruce Routledge, a leading authority on the archaeology of Iron Age Moab, examines the constitution of the kingdom over a period of some seven hundred years. In particular, he develops Antonio Gramsci's concept of hegemony by examining the ways intellectual products, such as inscriptions, public buildings, and administrative practices, transformed local cultural resources in order to construct political dominance as a moral order. Through a careful analysis that combines archaeology and textual study, Routledge demonstrates how long-established principles underlying local identities were transformed when appropriated for particular state building projects. From this, he offers insights into the realization and historical reproduction of political power in everyday life. Rich in previously unpublished material, Moab in the Iron Age reinvigorates discussions of politics and culture in early complex societies, and presents a novel approach to the study of state formation.

Moab was an ancient kingdom located in the highlands east of the Dead Sea, in what is now Jordan. Known primarily from references in the Hebrew Bible, Moab has long occupied a marginal position, one defined by the complex interrelationship of history, theology, and politics that underlies biblical archaeology. Moab in the Iron Age: Hegemony, Polity, Archaeology inverts this position, using Moab as the centerpiece of an extended reflection on the nature and meaning of state formation.

Focusing on the state as an effect rather than a cause, Bruce Routledge examines the constitution of the kingdom over a period of some seven hundred years. In particular, he develops Antonio Gramsci's concept of hegemony by examining the ways intellectual products, such as inscriptions, public buildings, and administrative practices, transformed local cultural resources in order to construct political dominance as a moral order. Through a careful analysis that combines archaeology and textual study, Routledge demonstrates how long-established principles underlying local identities were transformed when appropriated for particular state building projects. From this, he offers insights into the realization and historical reproduction of political power in everyday life.

Rich in previously unpublished material, Moab in the Iron Age reinvigorates discussions of politics and culture in early complex societies, and presents a novel approach to the study of state formation.

"Moab was an ancient kingdom located in the highlands east of the Dead Sea in what is now Jordan. Known primarily from references in the Hebrew Bible, Moab has long occupied a marginal position, one defined by the complex interrelationship of history, theology, and politics that underlies biblical archaeology." "Focusing on the state as an effect rather than a cause, Bruce Routledge, a leading authority on the archaeology of Iron Age Moab, examines the constitution of the kingdom over a period of some seven hundred years. In particular, he develops Antonio Gramsci's concept of hegemony by examining the ways intellectual products, such as inscriptions, public buildings, and administrative practices, transformed local cultural resources in order to construct political dominance as a moral order. Through an analysis that combines archaeology and textual study, Routledge demonstrates how long-established principles underlying local identities were transformed when appropriated for particular state building projects. From this, he offers insights into the realization and historical reproduction of political power in everyday life."--BOOK JACKET. 1. The "thingness" of the state 2. Hegemony, polity, identity 3. Land and story 4. Beginnings I : the Late Bronze Age 5. Beginnings II : the Early Iron Age 6. Structures and metaphors 7. Mesha and the naming of names 8. Replicative kingship 9. Local space in a global state 10. Once again, the state The state is a problem that subtly persists at the interstices of the words and concepts we use to invoke it.