Editor's Note

The JOURNAL OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS(JAC)is published annually by the Institute for the History of Ancient Civilizations(Northeast Normal University,Changchun,Jilin Province,People’s Republic of China).JAC provides 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 fi elds as Assyriology,