RELIGION AND CULTURE IN 2017–2018 Second Term Wed 10:30am-12:15pm (Lecture) & 12:30pm-1:15pm or TBA (Tutorial) CCT T41

Course Code: CURE 3373 Title in English: Religion and Culture in Mesopotamia Title in Chinese: 兩河流域 之宗教與文化

Course Description: The course gives a survey of the sophisticated civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia, “the land between the rivers [Tigris-Euphrates],” of the last three millennia BCE. The ancient world of Mesopotamia in West Asia embodies the human heritage of primeval or early historical experiences inscribed on tablets in Sumerian and Akkadian. There are various literary forms, such as myths, prayers, ritual texts, legal writings and economic and administrative records. In order to appreciate the religio-cultural traditions and concepts preserved in the literary texts of Sumerian and Akkadian, this course will study a sample of relevant literary texts and archaeological artifacts from this region with emphasis on the history, myth, ritual, cosmology, as well as religious and social institutions. A particular focus will be given to how religion permeated different aspects of the everyday life of the ancient Mesopotamians and integrated into the sociopolitical ideologies.

Learning Outcomes: After completing this course, students should: • Acquire an understanding of the religion and culture of Mesopotamia in their historical and socio- political contexts. • Obtain a basic knowledge of the impacts of Mesopotamia on humanity and the modern world through the heritage preserved by the Greco-Roman world and in the Judeo-Christian traditions. • Heighten their sensitivity to the religious and cultural dimensions of Mesopotamian civilizations. • Demonstrate an appreciative, sympathetic attitude to the fresh-and-blood struggles of the ancient Mesopotamians. • Develop a critical and analytic attitude to approaches to and current debates/theories in the ancient Mesopotamian religion and culture. • Be able to synthesize the knowledge acquired from course content, reading materials, and independent research and convey the synthesized knowledge through written assignments, as well as oral and visual presentations. • Develop the skills to conduct independent research, especially in the interpretation of literary texts in the cross-cultural contexts.

Learning Activities: The course consists mainly of lectures, interwoven with tutorial sessions, class discussion, independent reading, class presentation, and research activities. The average time allocation (per week) of the learning activities is as follows: Lecture Class Discussion Student Reading and Written Assignments / / Tutorial Presentation Research Blackboard Posts In class Out of In class Out of In class Out of In class Out of In class Out of Class Class Class Class Class 1 hr 1 hr 0.5 hr 0.5 hr 3 hrs 2.5 hrs M M M M/O M M: Mandatory activity in the course O: Optional activity

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Assessment Scheme: Task nature Purpose Learning Outcomes 1 Tutorial 1. To facilitate the students 1. All tutorial reading assignments are (30%) Participation to critically synthesize compulsory. However, students are only and analyze the course required to submit 5 synopses for 5 out of Weekly reading materials and the 10 class tutorials of their choice. synopsis due by exchange ideas among 2. On the designated Blackboard discussion 11:59pm on the themselves through forum for the tutorial, post a synopsis of the day before the Blackboard’s Discussion tutorial reading materials assigned for the tutorial on Forum. week marked with an asterisk and raise 2 to Blackboard’s 2. To encourage learning 3 critical questions of quality and substance Discussion collaboration and flow of on the content. (You may create a subject Forum ideas among the students title best describe your post or simply use in tutorials. your full English name as the subject title.) 3. To consolidate the students’ understanding * Part of this mark will be given based on the of the reading materials. student’s active engagement with the readings and group members in the tutorial. * Attendance is mandatory. In case of excused absence, prior email notice to the instructor or teaching assistant is required. 2 Optional 1: To develop the students’ Students are to work independently. Each (20%) Student skills to conduct student is required to Presentation independent research, select 1. Search for two to three academic references of good academic essays/articles written on the text; Scheduled in standard, critically analyze 2. Give a 20-minute presentation in class that the weeks as and synthesize the includes a compositional background shown in the references, and finally (historical, social, political, and/or literary Class Schedule. present their conclusions in contexts) of the assigned text, highlights of (Written class. the important issues raised in the academic component on essays/articles, and 2 to 3 further questions Blackboard & to engage the class in a discussion. VeriGuide; non- 3. Submit a report of 1500-2000 words in written in class) English or 2000-2500 words in Chinese on the day of presentation. Optional 2: To engage in the creative 1. Select of a Mesopotamian text of substance. Text transformation of a 2. Trace the afterlife of a text and assess how Transformation Mesopotamian text. the text fares in modern literature and popular culture, especially how it is being Due on handled in the digital world (internet, video Mar 14 (W) games, & films) and/or visual/performing (Written arts (lithography, painting, sculpture, component on music…etc.) Blackboard & 3. Retell the text creatively (e.g., a poem, play VeriGuide; non- script, short film, song, painting…etc.) with written in class) an annotated commentary and a reception history of 1500-2000 words in English or 2000-2500 words in Chinese. 4. Give a 20-minute presentation in class.

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3 Term Paper To evaluate the students’ 1. Write an abstract of no more than 300 (50%) ability to critically engage words as a proposal for the term paper and Proposal and current scholarship in the submit a tentative bibliography. tentative criticism of Mesopotamian 2. Write a term paper of 3000–4000 words in bibliography texts and to analyze and English or 3800–5000 words in Chinese on due on critique different theories’ one of the following topics: Mar 28 (W) strengths and weaknesses (a) A critical reading of a Mesopotamian text (Blackboard) and to synthesize the or a group of texts with respect to its learned ideas from sources. sociocultural and historical contexts. Paper due on (b) A thesis of how the issues raised in the Apr 25 (W) Mesopotamian texts within their (Blackboard & sociocultural and political contexts are VeriGuide) relevant to our modern situations. (c) An in-depth study of the significance of a deity/demon/religious practice within his/her/its ancient contexts and/or to biblical hermeneutics. (d) A critical comparison of a Mesopotamian text or literary text with a biblical text, highlighting their similarities and differences in terms of literary motifs, styles, and rhetorical aims.

Recommended Learning Resource: Required Texts: Foster, Benjamin R., trans. and ed. 2001. The Epic of . New York: Norton. Nemet-Nejat, Karen Rhea. 1998. Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. Westport, CN: Greenwood. [UL DS69.5 N4 1998; on reserve]

Abbreviated Titles: ANET Pritchard, James Bennett. 1969. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. [CC Ref BS1180.P83 1969] CANE Sasson, Jack M., ed. 1995. Civilizations of the Ancient Near East. 4 vols. New York: Scribner. [UL Oversize DS57 .C55 1995] COS Hallo, William W., and K. Lawson Younger, Jr., eds. 2003. The Context of Scripture. 3 vols. Leiden and Boston: Brill. ProQuest Ebook Central. [CC Oversize BS1180.C66 1997] FDD Foster, Benjamin R. 1995. From Distant Days: Myths, Tales, and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia. Bethesda, MD: CDL. HTO Jacobsen, Thorkild. 1987. The Harps That Once…: Sumerian Poetry in Translation. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. [UL PJ4083 .H37 1987; on reserve] LAS Black, Jeremy, Graham Cunningham, Eleanor Robson, and Gábor Zólyomi. 2004. The Literature of Ancient . Oxford: Oxford University Press. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Online Resources: ETCSL The Electronic Text Corpus of . Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford. http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/ Oracc The Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus, University of Pennsylvania. http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/

Assigned Readings: Bahrani, Zainab. 2001. Women of : Gender and Representation in Mesopotamia. London; New York: Routledge. [UL HQ1137.I72 B34 2001; on reserve]

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Barrett, Caitlín E. 2007. “Was Dust their Food and Clay their Bread? Grave Goods, the Mesopotamian Afterlife, and the Liminal Role of Inana/Ishtar.” Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions 7, no 1: 7-65. Beaulieu, Paul-Alain. 2007. “The Social and Intellectual Setting of Babylonian Wisdom Literature.” In Wisdom Literature in Mesopotamia and Israel, edited by Richard J. Clifford, 3-19. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. ProQuest Ebook Central. Bottéro, Jean. 1992. Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning, and the Gods. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [CC DS69.5 .B6813 1992] Bottéro, Jean. 2001a. Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2001. [UL DS71 .B65 2001] Bremmer, Jan N. 2008. Greek Religion and Culture, the Bible, and the Ancient Near East. Leiden, Boston: Brill. ProQuest Ebook Central. Chadwick, Robert. First Civilizations: Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. Quebec: Éditions Champ Fleury, 1996. ProQuest Ebook Central. Charpin, Dominique. 2010. Writing, Law, and Kingship in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia. Translated by Jane Marie Todd. Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press. ProQuest Ebook Central. Cowley, Arthur E. Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B. C. Oxford: The Clarendon, 1923. [UL PJ5208 .E4 1967] Denning-Bolle, Sara J. 1987. “Wisdom and Dialogue in the Ancient Near East.” Numen 34, no.2: 21-34. Harris, Rivkah. 1992. “The Conflict of Generations in Ancient .” Comparative Studies in Society and History 34, no. 4: 621-35. Jacobsen, Thorkild. 1976. The Treasures of Darkness: History of Mesopotamian Religion. New Haven: Yale University Press. [CC BL2350.I7J3; on reserve] Jeyes, Ulla. 1983. “The Naditu Women of Sippar,” in Images of Women in Antiquity, edited by Averil Cameron and Amélie Kuhrt, 260-72. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. [UL HQ1127 .I43 1993] Kuhrt, Amélie. 1983. “The Cyrus Cylinder and Achaemenid Imperial Policy.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 25: 83–97. Lambert, W. G. 1998. “Kingship in Ancient Mesopotamia.” In King and Messiah in Israel and the Ancient Near East, edited by John Day, 54–70. Sheffield, England: Sheffield University Press. [CC BS1199.K5 K55 1998; on reserve] Lambert, W. G. 2008. “Mesopotamian Creation Stories.” In Imagining Creation, edited by Markham J. Geller and Mineke Schipper, 15–60. Leiden and Boston: Brill. ProQuest Ebook Central. Lloyd, Alan B. 1982. “The Inscription of Udjaḥorresnet a Collaborator’s Testament.” The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 68: 166–80. Geller.M. J. 2002. “Mesopotamian Love Magic: Discourse or Intercourse?” In Sex and Gender in the Ancient Near East, edited by S. Parpola and R. M. Whiting, 129-139. Helsinki: University of Helsinki Press. [Blackboard] Oppenheim, A. Leo. 1977. Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization. Revised ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pollock, Susan. 1991. “Women in a Men’s World: Images of Sumerian Women.” In Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehistory, edited by Joan M. Gero and Margaret W. Conkey, 366-87. Cambridge, Mass.: Basil Blackwell. [UL GN799.W66 E54] Pongratz-Leisten, Beate. 2008. “Sacred Marriage and the Transfer of Divine Knowledge: Alliances between the Gods and the King in Ancient Mesopotamia.” In Sacred Marriages: The Divine-Human Sexual Metaphor from Sumer to Early Christianity, edited by Martti Nissinen and Risto Uro, 43-74. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. ProQuest Ebook Central. Teppo, Saana. 2008. “Sacred Marriage and the Devotees of Ištar.” In Sacred Marriages: The Divine-Human Sexual Metaphor from Sumer to Early Christianity, edited by Martti Nissinen and Risto Uro, 75-92. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. ProQuest Ebook Central. Vanstiphout, Herman. 2009. “Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus, Or How and Why Did the Sumerians Create their Gods?” In What Is a God?: Anthropomorphic and Non-Anthropomorphic Aspects of Deity in Ancient

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Mesopotamia, edited by Barbara N. Porter, 15–40. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. ProQuest Ebook Central. Yaron, Reuven. “Social Problems and Policies in the Ancient Near East.” In Law, Politics, and Society in the Ancient Mediterranean World, eds. Baruch Halpern and Deborah W. Hobson, 19-41. Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993. [UL DE71.L38 1993]

Supplemental Bibliography: General Bienkowski, Piotr, and Millard, Alan. 2000. Dictionary of the Ancient Near East. Philadelphia; London: British Museum Press. [ARL DS56.D5 2000b] Kuhrt, Amélie. 1995. The Ancient Near East: c.3000-330 BC. 2 Vols. London, New York: Routledge. [UL DS62.23.K87 1995 v.1-2] Leick, Gwendolyn. 1999. Who's Who in the Ancient Near East. London, New York: Routledge. ProQuest Ebook Central. McIntosh, Jane R. 2005. Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspective. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. [UL DS69.5 .M385 2005] Pollock, Susan. 1999. Ancient Mesopotamia: The Eden that Never Was. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [UL DS73.1 .P65 1999] Van de Mieroop, Marc. 2004. A History of the Ancient Near East, ca. 3000-323 BC. Malden, : Blackwell, 2004. [UL DS62.2 .V36 2004] Culture and Civilization Algaze, Guillermo. 2008. Ancient Mesopotamia at the Dawn of Civilization: the Evolution of an Urban landscape. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ProQuest Ebook Central. Caubet, Annie, and Patrick Pouyssegur. 1998. The Ancient Near East: the Origins of Civilization. Translated by Peter Snowdon. : Terrail, 1998. Kramer, Samuel Noah. 1956. History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-Nine First in Recorded History. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. [UL DS72.K7 1981] Leick, Gwendolyn. 2002. Mesopotamia: the Invention of the City. London: Penguin. [ARL DS69.5 .L45 2002] Roaf, Michael. 1990. Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East. Oxford: Andromeda Books. Sagg, H. W. F. 1989. Civilization before Greece and Rome. New Haven: Yale University Press. [UL DS57.S28] Saggs, H.W.F. 1988. The Greatness That Was Babylon: A Survey of the Ancient Civilization of the Tigris- Euphrates Valley. London: Sidgwick & Jackson. [UL DS70.7.S27 1988] Snell, Daniel. 1997. Life in the Ancient Near East, 3100-332 B.C.E. New Haven: Yale University Press. EBSCOhost Ebooks. Law Codes and Legal Documents Roth, Martha Tobi. 1995. Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. Altanta, GA: Scholars. [UL KL210.R68 1995] Weinfeld, Moshe. 1995. Social Justice in Ancient Israel and in the Ancient Near East. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press; : Magnes. [CC BS1199.J8 W45 1995] Westbrook, Raymond, and Deborah Lyon, eds. 2005. Women and Property in Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean Societies. Conference held August 2003. Cambridge: Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University. [Online] Westbrook, Raymond. 2009. Law from the Tigris to the Tiber: The Writings of Raymond Westbrook. 2 vols. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. ProQuest Ebook Central. Literary Culture & Intellectual History Frankfort, Henri, H. A. Frankfort, John A. Wilson, and Thorkild Jacobsen. 1946. The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man; An Essay on Speculative Thought in the Ancient Near East. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. [UL BF96.I5] (Republished as in 1949 as Before Philosophy. Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books. [CC BL96.F8 1949].)

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Literature Clifford, Richard J. 2007. Wisdom Literature in Mesopotamia and Israel. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. ProQuest Ebook Central. Foster, Benjamin R. Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature. (Vol.I & II) Potomac, MD: CDL Press, 1996. [UL PJ3951 .B44 1996 v.1-2] Heidel, Alexander. 1946. The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. [UL PJ3771.G6 H4 1949] Lambert, W. G. 1960. Babylonian Wisdom Literature. Oxford: Clarendon Press. [CC PJ3941.L26] Lambert, W. G., and A. R. Millard. 1969. Atra-Hasåis: The Babylonian Story of the Flood. Oxford: Clarendon P. [CC PJ3771.A8 1969] Liverani, Mario. 2007. Myth and Politics in Ancient Near Eastern Historiography. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ProQuest Ebook Central. Meador, Betty De Shong. 2000. Lady of Largest Heart: Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess . Austin: University of Texas Press. O’Brien, Joan V. 1982. In the Beginning: Creation Myths from Ancient Mesopotamia, Israel, and Greece. Chico, Calif.: Scholars Press. [CC BL226.O27] Rubio, Gonzalo. 2011. “Sumerian Literature.” In From an Antique Land: Introduction to Ancient Near Eastern Literature, edited by Carl S. Ehrlich, 19–78. New York: Rowman & Littlefied. ProQuest Ebook Central. Sandars, N. K. trans. 1971. Poems of heaven and hell from Ancient Mesopotamia. Penguin: Harmondsworth. [UL PJ3953.S3] Love, Sex, Gender, and Sexuality Harris, Rivkah. 2000. Gender and Aging in Mesopotamia: The Gilgamesh Epic and Other . Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. EBSCOhost Ebooks. Kloppenborg, Ria, and Wouter J. Hanegraaff. 1995. Female Stereotypes in Religious Traditions. Leiden, New York: E.J. Brill. [CC BL458.F45 1995] Leick, Gwendolyn. 1994. Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature. London and New York: Routledge. ProQuest Ebook Central. Lesko, Barbara S. 1987. Women’s Earliest Records: From Ancient Egypt and Western Asia. Atlanta, GA: Scholars. [UL HQ1137.M628W65 1987] Marsman, Hennie J. 2003. Women in Ugarit and Israel: Their Social and Religious Position in the Context of the Ancient Near East. Leiden, Boston: Brill. [CC BS575.M338 2003] Reese, Lyn. 1999. Women in the Ancient Near East: Stories and Primary Sources from the Sumerians Through the Early Israelites. Berkeley, CA: Women in World History Curriculum. [UL Oversize HQ1726.5 .R437 1999] Stol, Marten. 2016. Women in the Ancient Near East. Berlin and New York: W. de Gruyter. ProQuest Ebook Central. Westenholz, Joan Goodnick. 1990. “Towards a New Conceptualization of the Female Role in Mesopotamian Society.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 110: 510-521. Mesopotamia in Relation to the Bible Arnold, Bill T., and Bryan E. Beyer, eds. 2002. Readings from the Ancient Near East: Primary Sources for Old Testament Study. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic. [CC BL1060 .R42 2002] Bottéro, Jean. 2000. The Birth of God: the Bible and the Historian. Translated by Kees W. Bolle. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. [CC BS1173.B6813 2000] Clifford, Richard J. 1994. Creation Accounts in the Ancient Near East and in the Bible. The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monography Series 26. Washington, DC: The Catholic Biblical Association of America. Ferris, Paul Wayne. 1986. The Genre of Communal in the Bible and the Ancient Near East. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International. [CC BS1199.L27 F47] Frymer-Kensky, Tikva. In the Wake of Goddesses: Women, Culture and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth. New York: Free, 1992.

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Gordon, Cyrus H., and Gary A. Rendsburg. 1997. The Bible and the Ancient Near East. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. [CC BS635.G73 1997] Kang, Sa-Moon. 1989. Divine War in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East. Berlin and New York: W. de Gruyter. ProQuest Ebook Central. Matthews, Victor H., Bernard M. Levinson, and Tikva Frymer-Kensky. 1998. Gender and Law in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East. Sheffield, Eng.: Sheffield Academic Press. [CC BS1199.W7 G48 1998] Roberts, J. J. M. 2002. The Bible and the Ancient Near East: Collected Essays. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns. [CC BS1171.3 .R63 2002] Sparks, Kent L. 2005. Ancient Texts for the Study of the Hebrew Bible: A Guide to the Background Literature. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson. Politics and Warfare Gibson, McGuire, and Robert D. Biggs. 1991. The Organization of Power: Aspects of Bureaucracy in the Ancient Near East. Chicago, Ill.: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. [UL DS70.5.U7 O74 1991] Launderville, Dale. 2003. Piety and Politics: The Dynamics of Royal Authority in Homeric Greece, Biblical Israel, and Old Babylonian Mesopotamia. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans. [CC BL325.K5 L38 2003] Religion Black, Jeremy, and Anthony Green. 1992. Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary. Austin: University of Texas. [CC Ref BL2350.I7 B57 1992] Bottéro, Jean. 2001b. Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [CC BL2350.I7 B6713 2001] Cartledge, Tony W. 1992. Vows in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East. Sheffield, England: JSOT Press. [CC BS1199.V67 C37 1992] Dick, Michael B., ed. 1999. Born in Heaven Made on Earth: The Making of the Cult Image in the Ancient Near East. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. Frankfort, Henri. 1948. Kingship and the Gods: A Study of Ancient Near Eastern Religion as the Integration of Society and Nature. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. [CC BL325.W5F7] Goetze, Albrecht, ed. 1947. Old Babylonian Omen Texts. New York: AMS. [UL PJ3711 .Y3 v.10] Green, Alberto R. W. 1975. The Role of Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East. Missoula, MT: Scholars Press and the American Schools of Oriental Research. [CC BL570.G7] Green, Alberto R. W. 2002. The Storm-God in the Ancient Near East. Biblical and Judaic Studies 8. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. ProQuest Ebook Central. Henshaw, Richard A. 1994. Female and Male: the Cultic Personnel: the Bible and the Rest of the Ancient Near East. Allison Park, PA: Pickwick. [CC BS1199.S45H46 1994] Mikasa, Prince Takahito. 1992. Cult and Ritual in the Ancient Near East. Wiesbade: Otto Harrassowitz. [UL DS56.C85 1992] Porter, Barbara B., ed. 2009. What Is a God?: Anthropomorphic and Non-Anthropomorphic Aspects of Deity in Ancient Mesopotamia. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. ProQuest Ebook Central. Snell, Daniel C. 2011. Religions of the ancient Near East. New York: Cambridge University Press. [CC BL1060.S64 2011] Van der Toorn, Karel, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst. 1999. Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. 2d ed. Leiden and Boston: Brill. [CC Ref BS680.G57 D53 1999] Wiggermann, F. A. M. 1992. Mesopotamian Protective Spirits: The Ritual Texts. Groningen: STYX & PP Publications. [CC BL2350I7W54 1992] Society Chirichigno, Gregory. 1993. Debt-Slavery in Israel and the Ancient Near East. Sheffield: JSOT Press. [CC BS680.L33 C54] Epsztein, Leon. 1986. Social Justice in the Ancient Near East and the People of the Bible. Bowden, John. trans. London: SCM Press. [UL HM671.E6513 1986] Postgate, J. N. 1992. Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History. London, New York: Routledge. [UL DS73.1.P67]

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Powell, Marvin A. ed. 1987. Labor in the Ancient Near East. New Haven, Conn.: American Oriental Society. [UL HD8656.L33] Pu, Muzhou. 2005. Enemies of Civilization: Attitudes toward Foreigners in Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China. Albany: State University of New York Press. [UL DS71.P89 2005] Silver, Morris. 1985. Economic Structures of the Ancient Near East. London: Croom Helm. [UL HC415.15 .S55]

Class Schedule: Class Date Lecture / Student Presentation Tutorial Reading Requirements Week 1 Jan 10 1. Course Outline Nemet-Nejat, 1-10, 305-07 (W) 2. Introduction to Ancient Oppenheim, 31-63 (optional) Mesopotamia and its Influence on Today’s Culture 3. Documentary “The Gardens of Babel”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VXBeNWfjyQ Week 2 Jan 17 1. Geographical Setting of Nemet-Nejat, 11-45 (W) Mesopotamia The Song of the Hoe (ETCSL t.5.5.4 or COS 2. A Rundown of Historical Periods 1.157: 511) Week 3 Jan 24 1. The First Writing System * Writing and State Administration (W) 2. The City-States and the First Empire Nemet-Nejat, 47-76 3. Assyria, , and Persia Vanstiphout, “Memory and Literacy in 4. Historical Writings: Assyrian Annals Ancient Western Asia,” in CANE 2181-96 and Babylonian Chronicles Postgate, “Royal Ideology and State Administration in Sumer and Akkad,” in CANE 395-411 Week 4 Jan 31 1. The World of the Deities and Demons * Sacred Marriage (W) 2. The Cultic Institution A Hymn to Inana (LAS 92-99) 3. Sacred Marriage Love Lyrics of Rim- (FDD 342-43) Pongratz-Leisten, 43-74 Presentation Options: Teppo, 75-92 (1) A Love Song for Šu-Suen (LAS 88-90) Vanstiphout, 15-40 (optional) (2) Inana and Išme-Dagan (LAS 90-92) Bottéro, 1992: 201-31 (optional) Jeyes, 260-72 (optional) A šir-namursaģa to Inana and Iddin- Dagan (LAS 262-69; optional) Week 5 Feb 7 1. Love and Sex * Femininity and Representation (W) 2. Gender and Sexuality Pollock, 366-387 3. Love Songs (Inanna-Dumuzi Corpus) Bahrani, 28-39, 141-60 Ploughing with the Jewels (LAS 84-86) Presentation Options: and (LAS 86-88) (3) The Exaltation of Inana (LAS 315-20) Bottéro 2001a, 90-126 OR (4) and (COS 1.110- Jacobsen, 25-47 111: 383-90) Week 6 Feb 14 1. The * Is the Epic of Gilgamesh an Ancient (W) 2. The Quest for Immortality Masterpiece? 3. Life, Death, and the Afterlife Foster, xi-xxii, 3-95, 129-43, 171-218 Bendt Alster, “Epic Tales from Ancient Presentation Options: Summer,” in CANE 2315-26 (5) The Story (FDD 97-101) Barrett, 7-65 (optional) (6) Inana’s Descent to the Underworld LAS xix-lxiii (optional) (LAS 65-76)

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Week 7 Feb 28 1. Creation Stories and Flood Stories * Parallel Creation Stories in (W) 2. New Year Festival Mesopotamia and the Bible Enuma Elish (FDD 9-51) Presentation Option: Genesis 1–9 (7) The Atra-Ḫasis Story (COS Lambert, “Myth and Mythmaking…,” in 1.130:440-52) CANE 1825-35 Lambert 2008, 1-37 OR Bottéro 2001a, 213-45 Harris 1992, 621-35 (optional) Jacobsen 1976, 165-91 (optional) The Sumerian Flood Story (LAS 212-15; optional) Week 8 Mar 7 1. Social Institutions * Social Instituions (W) Nemet-Nejat, 99-153 Presentation Option: Lambert 1998, 54-70 (8) Etana, the King without an Heir (FDD 102-14) Week 9 Mar 14 1. Law Codes and Political Institution * The Social Functions of Law Codes (W) 2. The The Code of Hammurabi (COS 2.131: 335- 3. Social Reform and Social Justice 53) Bottéro 1992, 156-184 Presentation Options: Yaron, 19-41 (9) The Middle Assyrian Laws (COS Charpin, 71-82 & 97-114 (optional) 2.132: 353-60) (10) The Poor Man of (FDD 357- 62) Week 10 Mar 21 1. Dynastic Continuity * Kingship and Legitimation (W) 2. Anomalous Ascension Cyrus Cylinder (COS 2.124: 314-16) 3. Kudurra (Boundary Stones) Kuhrt 1983, 83-97 Lloyd 1982, 166-80 Presentation Options: Ezra 1:1-11 (11) Curse of Akkade (HTO 359-74) Darius’s Bīsitūn Inscription (Aramaic (12) Birth Legend of Sargon of Akkad version) in Cowley, 248-71 (COS 1.132: 461) The Autobiography of Idrimi (COS 1.148: 479-80) OR Nabondius and His Mother (ANET 560-62) Week 11 Mar 28 1. Trauma, Disaster, and * Response to Human Suffering (W) 2. Wisdom and Pessimism Beaulieu 3-19 Denning-Bolle 214-34 Presentations: Babylonian Theodicy (COS 1.154: 492-95) (13) Lamentation over the Destruction Poem of the Righteous Sufferer (FDD 298- of Sumer and (COS 1.166: 535-39) 313) (14) The Dialogue of Pessimism (FDD A Sufferer’s Salvation (FDD 314-15) 370-72) (HTO 447-74) (optional) Week 12 Apr 4 (No Class. Reading Week.) (W) Week 13 Apr 11 1. Prayers and Praises * Magic as Religion (W) 2. Magic Spells and Incantations Love Charms (FDD 331-41, 344-50) 3. Divination and Prophecy Divine Speech (FDD 213-220) Prayers (FDD 221-27, 245-46. 249-51, 267-68)

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Magic Spells (392-94, 397-98, 400-05 Bremmer, 347-52 Geller, 129-39 Farber, “Witchcraft, Magic, and Divination in Ancient Mesopotamia,” in CANE 1895-1909 Week 14 Apr 18 Concluding Remarks (W)

Contact Details for Teacher and Teaching Assistant: Lecturer: WONG Kwok Sonia (王珏) Office: Room G07B, CCT Tel: 39435150 Email: [email protected] Office Hour: By Appointment (schedule via email)

Teaching Assistant: CHAN Hiu Kwan Natalie Email: [email protected] Academic Honesty and Plagiarism: Attention is drawn to University policy and regulations on honesty in academic work, and to the disciplinary guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such policy and regulations. Details may be found at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/. With each assignment, students will be required to submit a signed declaration that they are aware of these policies, regulations, guidelines and procedures. In the case of group projects, all students of the same group should be asked to sign the declaration, each of whom is responsible should there be any plagiarized contents in the group project, irrespective of whether he/she has signed the declaration and whether he/she has contributed directly or indirectly to the plagiarized contents. For assignments in the form of a computer-generated document that is principally text-based and submitted via VeriGuide, the statement, in the form of a receipt, will be issued by the system upon students’ uploading of the soft copy of the assignment. Assignments without the properly signed declaration will not be graded by teachers. Only the final version of the assignment should be submitted via VeriGuide. The submission of a piece of work, or a part of a piece of work, for more than one purpose (e.g. to satisfy the requirements in two different courses) without declaration to this effect shall be regarded as having committed undeclared multiple submission. It is common and acceptable to reuse a turn of phrase or a sentence or two from one’s own work; but wholesale reuse is problematic. In any case, agreement from the course teacher(s) concerned should be obtained prior to the submission of the piece of work. Grade Rubric: A (+/–) B (+/–) C (+/–) D (+) F - Astral, insightful, - Adequate, - Lack of - Misconception in - Content reflective thoughtful, understanding of subject matter irrelevant to - Exceeds expectations descriptive, the subject matter - Below subject - Original & creative relevant - Below expectations expectations matter thesis with - Meets expectations - Unclear thesis - Unclear thesis - Fail to meet contributions to - Thesis built on the without adequate without adequate any of the scholarship theses & findings of support from support from expectations - Content consistent current scholarship current scholarship current scholarship - Persuasive & logical - Content consistent - Some arguments - Arguments arguments - Adequate & clear Unconvincing, unconvincing, - Excellent integration & line of arguments unclear unclear synthesis of different - Good integration & - Lack of integration - Neither integration views synthesis of & synthesis of nor synthesis of - Implications well different views different views different views observed - Implications noted - Implications unclear - Implications not - Excellent organization - Good organization - Lack of relevant noted - Rich & relevant - Relevant references references with - Incorrect citation references with correct with correct citation some issues in citation format format citation format

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