Personal Names in Cuneiform Texts from Babylonia (c. 750–100 BCE)

Personal Names in Cuneiform Texts from Babylonia (c. 750–100 BCE)
Author: Caroline Waerzeggers
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 423
Release: 2024-01-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1009291068

Personal names provide fascinating testimony to Babylonia's multi-ethnic society. This volume offers a practical introduction to the repertoire of personal names recorded in cuneiform texts from Babylonia in the first millennium BCE. In this period, individuals moved freely as well as involuntarily across the ancient Middle East, leaving traces of their presence in the archives of institutions and private persons in southern Mesopotamia. The multilingual nature of this name material poses challenges for students and researchers who want to access these data as part of their exploration of the social history of the region in the period. This volume offers guidelines and tools that will help readers navigate this difficult material. The title is also available Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum

Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum
Author: Terence C. Mitchell
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 327
Release: 1962
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004156151

This volume publishes drawings of the impressions of stamp seals preserved on Babylonian and Assyrian cuneiform tablets, and other clay objects in the collections of The British Museum. The majority of these seals bears precise dates, ranging from the 9th to the 2nd centuries B.C.; represens the Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, Achaemenian and Hellenistic periods; and are set out in chronological order so that the changes in seal design can be clearly seen. Among the images from the Hellenistic period are representations of zodiacal signs.The volume also includes details of seal impressions on the handles of pottery jars from Palestine. Full bibliographical references to previous publications of the cuneiform texts are given, and the volume concludes with concordances and indices, including a pictorial index of all the seal images arranged typologically.

Cuneiform Texts Folios W. G. Lambert Phb

Cuneiform Texts Folios W. G. Lambert Phb
Author: A. R. George
Publisher: Eisenbrauns
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2021-07-08
Genre:
ISBN: 9781646021390

W. G. Lambert's line drawings of cuneiform tablets from the British Museum, together with his meticulous editions of their contents, form a contribution to Assyriology unrivaled in his generation. Upon his death in 2011, Lambert bequeathed his academic legacy to A. R. George, who discovered among its contents approximately 1,400 unpublished pencil drawings. He and Junko Taniguchi took over the task of converting the drawings into images suitable for publication. The first of two planned volumes, this book features drawings of 329 cuneiform tablets found in Lambert's academic papers. Written by Babylonian and Assyrian scribes between 2500 and 35 BC, the texts in this volume are organized by genre and provided with a descriptive catalogue and indexes. The contents include commemorative and votive inscriptions, late copies of royal inscriptions and royal correspondence, historical and historical-literary texts, Sumerian literature, Akkadian-language compositions of mythological and "epic" content, Babylonian and Assyrian hymns, prayers and praise poetry, incantations, wisdom literature, and fragments of unidentified literary works. The mass of unpublished cuneiform tablets in museums remains a largely unexplored resource with enormous capacity to illuminate all aspects of life in ancient Mesopotamia. This collection constitutes an important milestone on the road to a fuller comprehension of the written legacy of the ancient Babylonians.

The Ark Before Noah

The Ark Before Noah
Author: Irving Finkel
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 446
Release: 2014-03-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 0385537123

The recent translation of a Babylonian tablet launches a groundbreaking investigation into one of the most famous stories in the world, challenging the way we look at ancient history. Since the Victorian period, it has been understood that the story of Noah, iconic in the Book of Genesis, and a central motif in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, derives from a much older story that existed centuries before in ancient Babylon. But the relationship between the Babylonian and biblical traditions was shrouded in mystery. Then, in 2009, Irving Finkel, a curator at the British Museum and a world authority on ancient Mesopotamia, found himself playing detective when a member of the public arrived at the museum with an intriguing cuneiform tablet from a family collection. Not only did the tablet reveal a new version of the Babylonian Flood Story; the ancient poet described the size and completely unexpected shape of the ark, and gave detailed boat building specifications. Decoding this ancient message wedge by cuneiform wedge, Dr. Finkel discovered where the Babylonians believed the ark came to rest and developed a new explanation of how the old story ultimately found its way into the Bible. In The Ark Before Noah, Dr. Finkel takes us on an adventurous voyage of discovery, opening the door to an enthralling world of ancient voices and new meanings.