Interdisciplinarity as Departure and Return: Methodological Boundary Crossing in the Ancient Near East

At the time this inaugural issue of Avar: A Journal of Life and Society in the Ancient Near East heads to press, we are keenly aware of the fact that the number of new journals in the fields of Biblical Studies, Egyptology, and broader Ancient Near Eastern Studies have proliferated in the last decade. Yet, we hope to demonstrate to our readers that Avar fills an important lacuna in the academic study of the ancient past. The title of the journal, Avar, centers interdisciplinarity as the primary framework for illuminating life and society in the ancient Near East. In what follows, we will introduce our vision for such interdisciplinarity.