Corpus of Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals.
:
Among the most important sources for understanding the cultures and systems of thought of ancient Mesopotamia is a large body of magical and medical texts written in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages. An especially significant branch of this literature centres upon witchcraft. Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals and incantations attribute ill-health and misfortune to the magic machinations of witches and prescribe ceremonies, devices, and treatments for dispelling witchcraft, destroying the witch, and protecting and curing the patient. The Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals aims to present a reconstruction of this body of texts; it provides critical editions of the relevant rituals and prescriptions based on the study of the cuneiform tablets and fragments recovered from the libraries of ancient Mesopotamia. This is the first volume in the three-part Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals series . Volumes two and three are expected in 2015 and 2018 respectively. \'Even in its incomplete form, Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals is a major contribution to the study of witchcraft, supernatural belief, folk medicine (both supernatural and non-supernatural), theories of magic, incantations, and ritual. This edition is required reading for any scholar with an interest in these topics.\' David Elton Gay, Indiana University
:
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004214897 :
1566-7952 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
In the shadow of Bezalel : Aramaic, biblical, and ancient Near Eastern studies in honor of Bezalel Porten /
:
Twenty nine scholars from Israel, Europe and the Americas came together to honor and celebrate Prof. Bezalel Porten's (Emeritus, Dept. of History of the Jewish People, Hebrew University of Jerusalem) academic career. Covering a wide variety of topics within Aramaic, Biblical, and ancient Near Eastern Studies, In the Shadow of Bezalel offers new insights and proposals in the areas of Aramaic language, paleography, onomastica and lexicography; ancient Near Eastern legal traditions, Hebrew Bible, and social history of the Persian period.
:
1 online resource (l, 429 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004240841 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Life at the bottom of Babylonian societ y servile laborers at Nippur in the 14th and 13th centuries, B.C. /
:
Life at the Bottom of Babylonian Society is a study of the population dynamics, family structure, and legal status of publicly-controlled servile workers in Kassite Babylonia. It compares some of the demographic aspects proper to this group with other intensively studied past populations, such as Roman Egypt, Medieval Tuscany, and American slave plantations. It suggests that families, especially those headed by single mothers, acted as a counter measure against population reduction (flight and death) and as a means for the state to control this labor force. The work marks a step forward in the use of quantitative measures in conjunction with cuneiform sources to achieve a better understanding of the social and economic forces that affected ancient Near Eastern populations.
:
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004207042 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Les representations architecturales dans l'iconographie Neo-Assyrienne /
:
In this book Nicolas Gillmann provides scholars as well as non-specialists with a comprehensive study of architectural representations in Neo Assyrian iconography. The author answers three important questions: How are Mesopotamian images conceived? What rules are presiding over them and how are they to be interpreted by modern viewers? Can the architectural representations be of some use to archaeologists or are they merely schematic depictions of given building types? Nicolas Gillmann shows that new conclusions can be reached once the reader is given the right reading keys and interpretation framework.
:
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004324015 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Scribal Education in the Sargonic Period /
:
Scribal Education in the Sargonic Period is an in-depth analysis of the process of education for scribes during the period of Sargonic hegemony in ancient Mesopotamia (c. 2335-2150 BCE). The book provides a holistic study of the topic, addressing the technology of writing, the school texts used in education, the languages of instruction, and the social and historical context of scribal life and an education in cuneiform writing. The topic of scribal education at such an early period of Mesopotamian history has never been addressed at length before. Nicholas Kraus convincingly argues that scribal education during the Sargonic period was closely tied to the administrative institutions of the Sargonic Empire and prepared a scribe to become an effective administrator. The Harvard Semitic Studies series publishes volumes from the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East. Other series offered by Brill that publish volumes from the Museum include Studies in the Archaeology and History of the Levant and Harvard Semitic Monographs , https://hmane.harvard.edu/publications.
:
Based on the author's dissertation (doctoral)--Yale University, 2018. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004443242
9789004443228
The seal of the sanga : on the old Babylonian sangas of Šamaš of Sippar-Jaḫrūrum and Sippar-Amnānum /
:
This study assembles and examines all available documentation on the first and second sangas of Šamaš of the Ebabbar temple in Old Babylonian Sippar as well as on those in the Edikuda temple in neighbouring Sippar-Amnānum. Their succession, family links and the length of their careers are discussed and newly completed drawings of their seals are provided, described and analyzed. The author addresses the evolving patterns of sealing and the changes in the seal legends, which yield information on the growing influence of the Marduk circles and thus of the kings of Babylon. The seal stones have been reconstructed from the impressions and conclusions are drawn concerning the choice of seal scenes by the different sangas as well as the use of family seals.
:
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047443889 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
In the path of the moon : Babylonian celestial divination and its legacy /
:
Celestial divination, in the form of omens from lunar, planetary, astral, and meteorological phenomena, was central to Mesopotamian cuneiform scholarship and science from the late second millennium BCE into the Hellenistic period. Beyond the boundaries of ancient Mesopotamia, the ideas, texts, and traditions of Babylonian celestial divination are traceable in Hellenistic sciences and philosophies. This collection of essays investigates features of Babylonian celestial divination with special focus on those aspects that influenced later Greco-Roman astronomy, astrology, and theories of signs. A multi-faceted collection of philological, historical, and philosophical investigations, In the Path of the Moon offers Assyriologists, Classicists, and historians of ancient science a wide-ranging series of studies unified around the theme of Babylonian celestial divination's legacy. \'The collected essays in this volume, successive steps in an ordered path, constitute an invaluable contribution to a better understanding of Babylonian divination.\' Lorenzo Verderame, \'Sapienza\' Università di Roma \'The reader interested in the multifaceted presentation of the problems related to the explanation of Babylonian celestial divination and well equipped with the knowledge of Akkadian will certainly be rewarded by the study of Rochberg's latest publication.\' Henryk Drawnel, SDB
:
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004189614 :
1566-7952 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The new Babylonian diaspora : the rise and fall of the Jewish community in Iraq, 16th-20th centuries C.E. /
:
The New Babylonian Diaspora: Rise and Fall of Jewish Community in Iraq, 16th-20th Centuries C.E. provides a historical survey of the Iraqi Jewish community's evolution from the apex of its golden age to its disappearance, emergence, rapid growth and annihilation. Making use of Judeo-Arabic newspapers and archives in London, Paris, Washington D.C. and other sources, Zvi Yehuda proves that from 1740 to 1914, Iraq became a lodestone for tens of thousands of Jewish immigrants from Kurdistan, Persia, the Mediterranean Basin, and Eastern and Central Europe. After these Jews had settled in Baghdad and Mesopotamia, they became "Babylonians" and 'forgot' their lands of origin, contrary to the social habit of Jews in other communities throughout history.
:
"Published in partnership with The Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center (BJHC)." :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004354012 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Le Devin historien en Mésopotamie
:
Le devin historien en Mesopotamie is a combined study of divination and historiography. More than mere custodians of historical memory, diviners approached omens as written signs and developed a sophisticated semiology to recognize and order them. Diviners perceived omens as potentially rich in various meanings and cultivated an elaborate hermeneutic for working these out using hypothetical and inductive reasoning. Even if omens were removed from the recorded facts, diviners endowed them with a wide range of possibilities. Divination sought to establish links among historical, cosmic, and natural events because it investigated at once the past, present, and future. The first study of its kind since 1946, when only about 60 historical omens were known, this work presents 385 in a comprehensive edition.
:
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004390065 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Glass and glass production in the Near East during the Iron Age : evidence from objects, texts and chemical analysis /
:
Glass and Glass Production in the Near East during the Iron Age Period' examines the history of glass in Iron Age Mesopotamia and neighbouring regions (1000-539 BCE). This is the first monograph to cover this region and period comprehensively and in detail and thus fills a significant gap in glass research. It focuses on an identification of the different types of glass objects and their respective manufacturing techniques that existed in the Iron Age period. Both the material glass and individual glass objects are investigated for such topics as how raw glass (primary production) and glass objects (secondary production) were manufactured at that time, how both these industries were organized, and how widespread glass objects were in Mesopotamian society in the Iron Age period. Such a comprehensive picture of glass and its production in the Iron Age can only be achieved by setting archaeological data in relation to cuneiform texts, archaeometric analyses and experimental-archaeological investigations. With regard to the different disciplines incorporated into this study, an attempt was made to view them together and to establish connections between these areas.
:
viii, 315 pages : illustrations, maps ; 29 cm. :
9781789691542