The JOURNAL OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS (JAC) is published annually in two fascicles by the Institute for the History of Ancient Civilizations (IHAC, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, Jilin Province, People’s Republic of China).

The aim of JAC is to provide a forum for the discussion of various aspects of the cultural and historical processes in the Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean world, encompassing studies of individual civilizations as well as common elements, contacts, and interactions among them (e.g. in such traditional fields as Assyriology, Egyptology, Hittitology, Classics, Byzantine Studies, and Sinology, among others). Hence, we publish the work of international scholars while also providing a showcase for the finest Chinese scholarship, and so welcome articles dealing with history, philology, art, archaeology, and linguistics that are intended to illuminate the material culture and society of the Ancient Near East, the Mediterranean region, and ancient China. Articles discussing other cultures will be considered for publication only if they are clearly relevant to the ancient Mediterranean world, the Near East, and China. Information about new discoveries and current scholarly events is also welcome. Publishers are encouraged to send review copies of books in the relevant fields.

JAC is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal. Articles must not have been published in, or submitted to, another publication at the time of submission. All submitted articles are first carefully read by at least two editors of JAC, who will give a feedback to the author. Articles (excluding book reviews or research reports) are afterwards reviewed anonymously by at least two referees in the specific field, appointed by the editorial board. The whole peer-review process as well as any judgment is based on the quality of the article and the research conducted therein only. In cases where the reviewers recommend changes in the manuscript, authors are requested to revise their articles. The final approval of articles is at the editorial board. Throughout the whole peer-review process, articles are treated confidentially. In case of (alleged or supposed) interest conflict, misconduct, or plagiarism of any party involved the editor in chief and/or the executive editor in chief (or, if necessary, another member of the editorial board) will pursue the case and should the situation of taking action arise, will notify the respective party. From time to time, we will publish a list of the referees on our homepage (http://ihac.nenu.edu.cn/JAC.htm), to make the double blind peer-review process transparent and comprehensible.

In this fascicle, the authors go beyond borders. Comparing ancient and modern concepts, Wayne Horowitz looks at the color terms used to describe sky and heaven in ancient Mesopotamia. Søren Lund Sørensen and Klaus Geus question the traditional dating of an Minaean inscription and ascribe it to the second invasion of Egypt by the Seleucid king Antiochus IV during the Sixth Syrian War. Peter Rothenhöfer carefully interprets a small silver object with an inscription from Roman Spain: materiality and text are not discussed separately but are combined, in order to argue for a miniature offering. The three following articles are based on selected papers from the Melammu workshop “At the Edges of Empires: Territories and Processes Nearby and Between Emerging Great Powers in Antiquity,” held from 30 August to 3 September 2018 at IHAC, NENU. They deal with important questions such as: what happened at the fringes of ancient empires? which exchanges, mutual influences, and entanglements took place at these contact zones? and, to what extent were concepts and categories of fringes, contact zones, frontiers, and edges applied in ancient sources? Gina Konstantopoulos discusses the role of seas in Sumerian and Akkadian inscriptions and texts that mirror certain realities and ideologies. Then, Kai Ruffing explores the economic exchange occurring at the frontiers of the Roman Empire, and its impact on these border regions. He is followed by Stefanie Schmidt who investigates the continuities and changes occurring after the Muslim took over the rule over Egypt from the Byzantine Empire. Both can show that in the two cases discussed, “borders” in territorial or temporal sense reflect only one, mainly an ideological, part of reality while an effective functioning of economic transactions as well as a continued, steady, and stable influx of public revenues formed the major incentives on the operational level of these rules.

Continuity and stability have also become heavily desired and discussed topics in the current situation. For JAC, we are happy to have the constant support from our readers, authors, reviewers, and editors. With the appointment of new members of the consulting editorial board in the past months, we have taken care to equip our ship with the international crew we need to cross all seas in the future, may they be stormy or quiet. More than ever we see our task, aim, and duty in bringing together different disciplines and people for a fruitful and benefitting exchange based on scholarly argument and discussion.

All communications, manuscripts, disks and books for review should be sent to the Assistant Editor, Journal of Ancient Civilizations, Institute for the History of Ancient Civilizations, Northeast Normal University, 130024 Changchun, Jilin Province, People’s Republic of China (e-mail: jac@nenu.edu.cn), or to the Executive Editor in Chief, Prof. Dr. Sven Günther, M.A. (e-mail: svenguenther@nenu.edu.cn or sveneca@aol.com).