This book focuses on the element of thresholds - makeshift gates, makeshift structures and house doors - as concepts of liminality in ancient Near Eastern magical rituals and the idea of transformation they reflect, specifically concentrating on the geo-cultural spheres of Hatti and Mesopotamia.

Ilan Peled is a historian working at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, Netherlands. He is the author of Masculinities and Third Gender (2016), Law and Gender in the Ancient Near East (2020) and Magic in the Ancient Near East (2026), and the editor of Structures of Power (2017).