Bronze Age World

Reading ancient testimony

Ask who produced the document, for whom, and for what purpose. Distinguish its ancient creation from its modern edition or translation. Survival and excavation shape what can be read today.

Use the linked edition and reliability notes for the author, audience, transmission and limits of this particular source. Missing information is not an assurance of neutrality.

Document and modern access

Type: edited academic volume
Publication: Scholars Press

Open DOI or stable record (opens in a new tab)

Records informed by this source

myth interpretation Mesha Stele and Kings as competing royal-historical memories
Evidence confidence: high
informs · contextualizes · comparative historical essays
Provides source criticism.
event Mesha Stele records Moabite rebellion and state-building claims
Evidence confidence: very high
informs · contextualizes · historical and philological essays
Provides source criticism.
date assertion Mesha Stele records Moabite rebellion and state-building claims — date assertion
Evidence confidence: very high
informs · contextualizes · historical and philological essays
Provides source criticism.
date assertion Mesha Stele — date assertion
Evidence confidence: high
informs · contextualizes · chronology essays
Provides historical discussion.
entity Mesha Stele
Evidence confidence: high
informs · contextualizes · essays on text, language, and history
Provides critical historical and philological perspectives.
geography assertion Moab plateau — geography assertion
Evidence confidence: low
informs · provides primary evidence · Mesha Stele lines 1-34 and historical commentary
Provides later ninth-century textual geography that must not be projected unchanged backward.
claim The Mesha Stele directly attests Moabite state claims and Israel-Moab conflict, but its campaign sequence and territorial totality are royal propaganda rather than neutral repor…
Evidence confidence: very high
informs · provides source criticism · historical/philological essays
Provides critical interpretation.
relationship Research record — associated with
Evidence confidence: high
supports · contextualizes · comparative historical essays
Provides source criticism.