Gudea and His Dynasty

Gudea and His Dynasty
Author: Sibylle Edzard
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 264
Release: 1997-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780802041876

This volume of RIM focuses on the Second Dynasty of Lagas, and concentrates mainly on the inscriptions of Cylinders A and B of the most important king of that dynasty, Gudea.

The New Documents in Mycenaean Greek: Volume 2, Selected Tablets and Endmatter

The New Documents in Mycenaean Greek: Volume 2, Selected Tablets and Endmatter
Author: John Killen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 764
Release: 2024-02-15
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1009546554

In 1952 Michael Ventris deciphered the script found on the Linear B tablets from Crete and the Greek mainland, therefore revealing the earliest known form of Greek. In 1956 he and John Chadwick published Documents in Mycenaean Greek, which gave an account of the decipherment, of the language of the tablets, of the society and economy revealed by the documents and a series of chapters giving texts, translations and commentary of the most important tablets. Though partially updated in 1973, Documents is now very much outdated: there has been a vast accrual of bibliography on the subject since 1973, and discoveries of tablets at new sites. This new survey, written by fourteen of the world's leading experts, will bring the reader fully up-to-date with developments in all aspects of Mycenaean studies, concluding with a new, full glossary of all the most recently discovered words.

Hittite Studies in Honor of Harry A. Hoffner, Jr

Hittite Studies in Honor of Harry A. Hoffner, Jr
Author: Harry A. Hoffner
Publisher: Eisenbrauns
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2003-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1575060795

A tribute to America's preeminent scholar of Hittite language and culture, Professor Harry A. Hoffner, Jr., of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. The thirty-four contributors, students, and colleagues treat topics as diverse as Hittite contacts with the Mycenaean Greeks, the topography of the Hittite capital, and various aspects of Hittite grammar and etymology.

Origins

Origins
Author: William W Hallo
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 381
Release: 2023-08-21
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9004668853

Modern western culture owes much to ancient Near Eastern precedent. Origins documents that debt in specific terms, covering a variety of topics from the alphabet and its order to the system of dating by eras, and including many of the institutions most essential to contemporary life -- and most often taken for granted.

The World's Oldest Literature

The World's Oldest Literature
Author: William W. Hallo
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 801
Release: 2010
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004173811

Literature begins at Sumer, we may say. Given that this ancient crossroads of tin and copper produced not only bronze and the entire Bronze Age, but also by neccesity, the first system of record-keeping and the technique of writing. Scribal schools served to propogate the new technique and their curriculum grew to create, preserve and transmit all manner of creative poetry. In a lifetime of research, the author has studied multiple aspects of this most ancient literary oeuvre, including such questions as chronology and bilingualism, as well as contributing fundamental insights into specific genres such as proverbs, letter-prayers and lamentations. In addition, he has drawn conclusions for the comparative or contextual approach to biblical literature. His studies, widely scattered in diverse publications for nearly fifty years, are here assembled in convenient one-volume format, made more user-friendly by extensive cross-references and indices.

The Pantheon of Uruk During the Neo-Babylonian Period

The Pantheon of Uruk During the Neo-Babylonian Period
Author: Paul-Alain Beaulieu
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2021-11-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004496807

This book is about the pantheon of the Babylonian city of Uruk, between the 9th and 5th centuries BC. It is a careful analysis of the archive of the Eanna temple in Uruk, the sanctuary of the goddess Ishtar, containing well over 8,000 cuneiform tablets in the Akkadian language. The tablets date in their majority to the Neo-Babylonian and early Achaemenid period. Paul-Alain Beaulieu sheds light on the hierarchy of the local pantheon, providing a wealth of data concerning the cult of each deity, such as identity and theology, ornaments and clothing of the divine image, offerings ceremonies, temples, and cultic personnel. An important contribution to our knowledge of the functioning of religion in Neo-Babylonian society.

Law from the Tigris to the Tiber

Law from the Tigris to the Tiber
Author: Raymond Westbrook
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 1109
Release: 2009-06-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1575066378

Raymond Westbrook (1946–2009) was acknowledged by many as the world’s foremost expert on the legal systems of the ancient Near East and a leading scholar in the study of biblical and classical law. This collection brings together the 44 most important articles that Westbrook published in the 25 years following the completion of his Ph.D. at Yale University in 1982. The first volume, The Shared Tradition, contains 16 articles that lay out Westbrook’s theory of a common legal tradition that spanned the ancient world from Mesopotamia to Israel and even to Greece and Rome. The second volume, Cuneiform and Biblical Sources, provides 28 articles that demonstrate Westbrook’s unique method of legal analysis that he applied to the numerous texts he worked with as an Assyriologist and biblical scholar, from law codes to contracts to narratives. Each volume contains its own comprehensive bibliography, as well as subject, author, and text indexes. Together, they represent the life’s work of one of the most important legal historians of our era.

The Healing Goddess Gula

The Healing Goddess Gula
Author: Barbara Böck
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2013-10-10
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 900426146X

Providing a comprehensive examination of the traits and areas of authority Ancient Babylonians attributed to their healing goddess, this book draws on a wide range of Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform sources, including god lists, literary compositions, lexical lists, prognostic texts, incantations, and prescriptions. Analysing the use of selected metaphors associated with the goddess, a new perspective is offered on the explanation for disease as well as the motivation for particular treatments. Special chapters deal with the cuneiform handbook on prognosis and diagnosis of diseases, medical incantations appealing to the healing goddess, and the medicinal plants attributed to her. For the first time a body of evidence for the use of simple drugs is brought together, elaborating on specific plant profiles. The result is a volume that challenges many long-held assumptions concerning the specialized cuneiform medical literature and takes a fresh look on the nature of Ancient Babylonian healing.

Male and Female in the Epic of Gilgamesh

Male and Female in the Epic of Gilgamesh
Author: Tzvi Abusch
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2014-04-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1575067188

The deeds and struggles of Gilgamesh, legendary king of the city-state Uruk in the land of Sumer, have fascinated readers for millennia. They are preserved primarily in the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the most well-known pieces of Mesopotamian literature. Studying the text draws us into an orbit that is engaging and thrilling, for it is a work of fantasy and legend that addresses some of the very existential issues with which contemporary readers still grapple. We experience the excitement of trying to penetrate the mind-set of another civilization, an ancient one—in this instance, a civilization that ultimately gave rise to our own. The studies gathered here all demonstrate Tzvi Abusch’s approach to ancient literature: to make use of the tools of literary, structural, and critical analysis in service of exploring the personal and psychological dimensions of the narration. The author focuses especially on the encounters between males and females in the story. The essays are not only instructive for understanding the Epic of Gilgamesh, they also serve as exemplary studies of ancient literature with a view to investigating streams of commonality between ancient times and ours