Women, Travel and Transformation from the Bible to Bar-Kokhba

PART I: INTRODUCTION; 1. Rethinking Ancient Travel; 2. From Text to Cultural History; PART II: DAILY COMINGS AND GOINGS; 3. (Semi)nomads, Habitual Migrants; 4. Enslaved Women and Slave-Wives: Homemaking in Unexpected Places; 5. Experts: Mapping out Everyday Movers; PART III: WARFARE AND WAYFARING; 6. War Captives and Hostages: Moving Women Around as Property; 7. Forced Migrants: Memories of Mobility in Near Eastern Empires; 8. Refugees: Making Proactive Choices in the Middle of Chaos; 9. Leaders, Fighters, Companions: Other Women Mobilised by War; PART IV: NEW CHAPTERS IN LIFE; 10. Brides and Wives: Relocations for the Sake of Marriage and Family; 11. Economic Migrants: Families and Widows in Search of a Better Life; PART V: GROWING HORIZONS; 12. Shrine Visitors: Divine-Human Communication in Temples; 13. Tourists and Sightseers: Reexperiencing the Past; 14. Sages and Lovers of Learning: Intersections of Travel and Knowledge; PART VI: AT THE INTERSECTION; 15. Conclusion: Remarks on Travellers Known and Unknown.

Biography

Elisa Uusimäki is a professor of biblical studies at Aarhus University. She has published widely on topics such as travel history, gender, lived ancient religion, wisdom traditions, and early biblical reception. In 2021–2026, she was the PI of the ERC funded project An Intersectional Analysis of Ancient Jewish Travel Narratives.

“This fascinating study examines the ways in which women’s travel experiences are imagined and reflected in the Bible and Second Temple literature, correcting the traditional stereotype that women were home-bound and immobile. It constitutes an indispensable contribution to scholarship on travel in antiquity.” - Catherine Hezser, SOAS, University of London