The Storm-Gods of the Ancient Near East: Summary, Synthesis, Recent Studies*
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Idolatry in the Ancient Near East1
Idolatry in the Ancient Near East1 Ancient Near Eastern Pantheons Ammonite Pantheon The chief god was Moloch/Molech/Milcom. Assyrian Pantheon The chief god was Asshur. Babylonian Pantheon At Lagash - Anu, the god of heaven and his wife Antu. At Eridu - Enlil, god of earth who was later succeeded by Marduk, and his wife Damkina. Marduk was their son. Other gods included: Sin, the moon god; Ningal, wife of Sin; Ishtar, the fertility goddess and her husband Tammuz; Allatu, goddess of the underworld ocean; Nabu, the patron of science/learning and Nusku, god of fire. Canaanite Pantheon The Canaanites borrowed heavily from the Assyrians. According to Ugaritic literature, the Canaanite pantheon was headed by El, the creator god, whose wife was Asherah. Their offspring were Baal, Anath (The OT indicates that Ashtoreth, a.k.a. Ishtar, was Baal’s wife), Mot & Ashtoreth. Dagon, Resheph, Shulman and Koshar were other gods of this pantheon. The cultic practices included animal sacrifices at high places; sacred groves, trees or carved wooden images of Asherah. Divination, snake worship and ritual prostitution were practiced. Sexual rites were supposed to ensure fertility of people, animals and lands. Edomite Pantheon The primary Edomite deity was Qos (a.k.a. Quas). Many Edomite personal names included Qos in the suffix much like YHWH is used in Hebrew names. Egyptian Pantheon2 Egyptian religion was never unified. Typically deities were prominent by locale. Only priests worshipped in the temples of the great gods and only when the gods were on parade did the populace get to worship them. These 'great gods' were treated like human kings by the priesthood: awakened in the morning with song; washed and dressed the image; served breakfast, lunch and dinner. -
Namzitara FS Kilmer
Offprint from STRINGS AND THREADS A Celebration of the Work of Anne Draffkorn Kilmer Edited by WOLFGANG HEIMPEL and GABRIELLA FRANTZ - SZABÓ Winona Lake, Indiana EISENBRAUNS 2011 © 2011 by Eisenbrauns Inc. All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America www.eisenbrauns.com Drawing on the cover and beneath the title on p. iii by Cornelia Wolff, Munich, after C. L. Wooley, Ur Excavations 2 (1934), 105. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Strings and threads : a celebration of the work of Anne Draffkorn Kilmer / edited by Wolfgang Heimpel and Gabriella Frantz-Szabó. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-57506-227-3 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Kilmer, Anne Draffkorn. 2. Music—Middle East—History and criticism. 3. Music archaeology— Middle East. I. Kilmer, Anne Draffkorn. II. Heimpel, Wolfgang. III. Frantz-Szabó, Gabriella. ML55.K55S77 2011 780.9—dc22 2011036676 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. †Ê Contents Preface .............................................................. vii Abbreviations ......................................................... ix GUITTY AZARPAY The Imagery of the Manichean ‘Call’ on a Sogdian Funerary Relief from China ................ 1 DOMINIQUE COLLON Chinless Wonders ................................ 19 JERROLD S. COOPER Puns and Prebends: The Tale of Enlil and Namzitara. 39 RICHARD L. CROCKER No Polyphony before A.D. 900! ...................... 45 DANIEL A. FOXVOG Aspects of Name-Giving in Presargonic Lagash ........ 59 JOHN CURTIS FRANKLIN “Sweet Psalmist of Israel”: The Kinnôr and Royal Ideology in the United Monarchy .............. 99 ELLEN HICKMANN Music Archaeology as a Field of Interdisciplinary Research ........................ -
Burn Your Way to Success Studies in the Mesopotamian Ritual And
Burn your way to success Studies in the Mesopotamian Ritual and Incantation Series Šurpu by Francis James Michael Simons A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology School of History and Cultures College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham March 2017 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract The ritual and incantation series Šurpu ‘Burning’ is one of the most important sources for understanding religious and magical practice in the ancient Near East. The purpose of the ritual was to rid a sufferer of a divine curse which had been inflicted due to personal misconduct. The series is composed chiefly of the text of the incantations recited during the ceremony. These are supplemented by brief ritual instructions as well as a ritual tablet which details the ceremony in full. This thesis offers a comprehensive and radical reconstruction of the entire text, demonstrating the existence of a large, and previously unsuspected, lacuna in the published version. In addition, a single tablet, tablet IX, from the ten which comprise the series is fully edited, with partitur transliteration, eclectic and normalised text, translation, and a detailed line by line commentary. -
ANIMAL SACRIFICE in ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAN RELIGION The
CHAPTER FOURTEEN ANIMAL SACRIFICE IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAN RELIGION JOANN SCURLOCK The relationship between men and gods in ancient Mesopotamia was cemented by regular offerings and occasional sacrifices of ani mals. In addition, there were divinatory sacrifices, treaty sacrifices, and even "covenant" sacrifices. The dead, too, were entitled to a form of sacrifice. What follows is intended as a broad survey of ancient Mesopotamian practices across the spectrum, not as an essay on the developments that must have occurred over the course of several millennia of history, nor as a comparative study of regional differences. REGULAR OFFERINGS I Ancient Mesopotamian deities expected to be fed twice a day with out fail by their human worshipers.2 As befitted divine rulers, they also expected a steady diet of meat. Nebuchadnezzar II boasts that he increased the offerings for his gods to new levels of conspicuous consumption. Under his new scheme, Marduk and $arpanitum were to receive on their table "every day" one fattened ungelded bull, fine long fleeced sheep (which they shared with the other gods of Baby1on),3 fish, birds,4 bandicoot rats (Englund 1995: 37-55; cf. I On sacrifices in general, see especially Dhorme (1910: 264-77) and Saggs (1962: 335-38). 2 So too the god of the Israelites (Anderson 1992: 878). For specific biblical refer ences to offerings as "food" for God, see Blome (1934: 13). To the term tamid, used of this daily offering in Rabbinic sources, compare the ancient Mesopotamian offering term gimi "continual." 3 Note that, in the case of gods living in the same temple, this sharing could be literal. -
The Lost Book of Enki.Pdf
L0ST BOOK °f6NK1 ZECHARIA SITCHIN author of The 12th Planet • . FICTION/MYTHOLOGY $24.00 TH6 LOST BOOK OF 6NK! Will the past become our future? Is humankind destined to repeat the events that occurred on another planet, far away from Earth? Zecharia Sitchin’s bestselling series, The Earth Chronicles, provided humanity’s side of the story—as recorded on ancient clay tablets and other Sumerian artifacts—concerning our origins at the hands of the Anunnaki, “those who from heaven to earth came.” In The Lost Book of Enki, we can view this saga from a dif- ferent perspective through this richly con- ceived autobiographical account of Lord Enki, an Anunnaki god, who tells the story of these extraterrestrials’ arrival on Earth from the 12th planet, Nibiru. The object of their colonization: gold to replenish the dying atmosphere of their home planet. Finding this precious metal results in the Anunnaki creation of homo sapiens—the human race—to mine this important resource. In his previous works, Sitchin com- piled the complete story of the Anunnaki ’s impact on human civilization in peacetime and in war from the frag- ments scattered throughout Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Hittite, Egyptian, Canaanite, and Hebrew sources- —the “myths” of all ancient peoples in the old world as well as the new. Missing from these accounts, however, was the perspective of the Anunnaki themselves What was life like on their own planet? What motives propelled them to settle on Earth—and what drove them from their new home? Convinced of the existence of a now lost book that formed the basis of THE lost book of ENKI MFMOHCS XND PKjOPHeCieS OF XN eXTfCXUfCWJTWXL COD 2.6CHXPJA SITCHIN Bear & Company Rochester, Vermont — Bear & Company One Park Street Rochester, Vermont 05767 www.InnerTraditions.com Copyright © 2002 by Zecharia Sitchin All rights reserved. -
God Among the Gods: an Analysis of the Function of Yahweh in the Divine Council of Deuteronomy 32 and Psalm 82
LIBERTY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AND GRADUATE SCHOOL GOD AMONG THE GODS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE FUNCTION OF YAHWEH IN THE DIVINE COUNCIL OF DEUTERONOMY 32 AND PSALM 82 A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE SCHOOL OF RELIGION IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN RELIGIOUS STUDIES BY DANIEL PORTER LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA MAY 2010 The views expressed in this thesis do not necessarily represent the views of the institution and/or of the thesis readers. Copyright © 2010 by Daniel Porter All Rights Reserved. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To my wife, Mariel And My Parents, The Rev. Fred A. Porter and Drenda Porter Special thanks to Dr. Ed Hindson and Dr. Al Fuhr for their direction and advice through the course of this project. iii ABSTRACT The importance of the Ugaritic texts discovered in 1929 to ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies is one of constant debate. The Ugaritic texts offer a window into the cosmology that shaped the ancient Near East and Semitic religions. One of the profound concepts is the idea of a divine council and its function in maintaining order in the cosmos. Over this council sits a high god identified as El in the Ugaritic texts whose divine function is to maintain order in the divine realm as well on earth. Due to Ugarit‟s involvement in the ancient world and the text‟s representation of Canaanite cosmology, scholars have argued that the Ugaritic pantheon is evidenced in the Hebrew Bible where Yahweh appears in conjunction with other divine beings. Drawing on imagery from both the Ugaritic and Hebrew texts, scholars argue that Yahweh was not originally the high god of Israel, and the idea of “Yahweh alone” was a progression throughout the biblical record. -
Marten Stol WOMEN in the ANCIENT NEAR EAST
Marten Stol WOMEN IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST Marten Stol Women in the Ancient Near East Marten Stol Women in the Ancient Near East Translated by Helen and Mervyn Richardson ISBN 978-1-61451-323-0 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-1-61451-263-9 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-1-5015-0021-3 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs 3.0 License. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-nd/3.0/ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. Original edition: Vrouwen van Babylon. Prinsessen, priesteressen, prostituees in de bakermat van de cultuur. Uitgeverij Kok, Utrecht (2012). Translated by Helen and Mervyn Richardson © 2016 Walter de Gruyter Inc., Boston/Berlin Cover Image: Marten Stol Typesetting: Dörlemann Satz GmbH & Co. KG, Lemförde Printing and binding: cpi books GmbH, Leck ♾ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Table of Contents Introduction 1 Map 5 1 Her outward appearance 7 1.1 Phases of life 7 1.2 The girl 10 1.3 The virgin 13 1.4 Women’s clothing 17 1.5 Cosmetics and beauty 47 1.6 The language of women 56 1.7 Women’s names 58 2 Marriage 60 2.1 Preparations 62 2.2 Age for marrying 66 2.3 Regulations 67 2.4 The betrothal 72 2.5 The wedding 93 2.6 -
From Small States to Universalism in the Pre-Islamic Near East
REVOLUTIONIZING REVOLUTIONIZING Mark Altaweel and Andrea Squitieri and Andrea Mark Altaweel From Small States to Universalism in the Pre-Islamic Near East This book investigates the long-term continuity of large-scale states and empires, and its effect on the Near East’s social fabric, including the fundamental changes that occurred to major social institutions. Its geographical coverage spans, from east to west, modern- day Libya and Egypt to Central Asia, and from north to south, Anatolia to southern Arabia, incorporating modern-day Oman and Yemen. Its temporal coverage spans from the late eighth century BCE to the seventh century CE during the rise of Islam and collapse of the Sasanian Empire. The authors argue that the persistence of large states and empires starting in the eighth/ seventh centuries BCE, which continued for many centuries, led to new socio-political structures and institutions emerging in the Near East. The primary processes that enabled this emergence were large-scale and long-distance movements, or population migrations. These patterns of social developments are analysed under different aspects: settlement patterns, urban structure, material culture, trade, governance, language spread and religion, all pointing at population movement as the main catalyst for social change. This book’s argument Mark Altaweel is framed within a larger theoretical framework termed as ‘universalism’, a theory that explains WORLD A many of the social transformations that happened to societies in the Near East, starting from Andrea Squitieri the Neo-Assyrian period and continuing for centuries. Among other infl uences, the effects of these transformations are today manifested in modern languages, concepts of government, universal religions and monetized and globalized economies. -
Proto-Elamite
L2/20192 20200921 Preliminary proposal to encode ProtoElamite in Unicode Anshuman Pandey [email protected] pandey.github.io/unicode September 21, 2020 Contents 1 Introduction 2 2 Overview of the Sign Repertoire 3 2.1 Sign names . 4 2.2 Numeric signs . 4 2.3 Numeric signs with extended representations . 5 2.4 Complex capacity signs . 6 2.5 Complex graphemes . 7 2.6 Signs in compounds without independent attestation . 10 2.7 Alternate or variant forms . 11 2.8 Scribal designs . 11 3 Proposed Encoding Model 12 4 Proposed Characters 13 4.1 Numeric signs . 13 4.2 General ideographic signs . 17 5 Characters Not Suitable for Encoding 110 6 References 110 7 Acknowledgments 111 1 Preliminary proposal to encode ProtoElamite in Unicode Anshuman Pandey 1 Introduction The term ‘ProtoElamite’ refers to a writing system that was used at the beginning of the 3rd millenium BCE in the region to the east and southeast of Mesopotamia, known as Elam, which corresponds to the eastern portion of presentday Iran. The name was assigned by the French epigraphist JeanVincent Scheil in the early 20th century, who believed it to be the predecessor of a ‘proper’ Elamite script, which would have been used for recording the Elamite language, simply on account of the location of the tablets at Susa, which was the capital city of Elam. While no ‘proper’ descendent of the script has been identified, scholars continue to use the name ‘ProtoElamite’ as a matter of convention (Dahl 2012: 2). ProtoElamite is believed to have been developed from an accounting system used in Mesopotamia, in a manner similar to the development of ‘ProtoCuneiform’. -
Asher-Greve / Westenholz Goddesses in Context ORBIS BIBLICUS ET ORIENTALIS
Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2013 Goddesses in Context: On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Gender in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources Asher-Greve, Julia M ; Westenholz, Joan Goodnick Abstract: Goddesses in Context examines from different perspectives some of the most challenging themes in Mesopotamian religion such as gender switch of deities and changes of the status, roles and functions of goddesses. The authors incorporate recent scholarship from various disciplines into their analysis of textual and visual sources, representations in diverse media, theological strategies, typologies, and the place of image in religion and cult over a span of three millennia. Different types of syncretism (fusion, fission, mutation) resulted in transformation and homogenization of goddesses’ roles and functions. The processes of syncretism (a useful heuristic tool for studying the evolution of religions and the attendant political and social changes) and gender switch were facilitated by the fluidity of personality due to multiple or similar divine roles and functions. Few goddesses kept their identity throughout the millennia. Individuality is rare in the iconography of goddesses while visual emphasis is on repetition of generic divine figures (hieros typos) in order to retain recognizability of divinity, where femininity is of secondary significance. The book demonstrates that goddesses were never marginalized or extrinsic and thattheir continuous presence in texts, cult images, rituals, and worship throughout Mesopotamian history is testimony to their powerful numinous impact. This richly illustrated book is the first in-depth analysis of goddesses and the changes they underwent from the earliest visual and textual evidence around 3000 BCE to the end of ancient Mesopotamian civilization in the Seleucid period. -
Pantes Theoi, Polemos and Ares on the Battlefield. the Greek Concept of the War Deity
SYMBOLAE PHILOLOGORUM POSNANIENSIUM GRAECAE ET LATINAE XXI/1 • 2011 pp. 41–48. ISBN 978-83-7654-160-0. ISSN 0302-7384 Lucyna Kostuch Instytut Historii Uniwersytetu Humanistyczno-Przyrodniczego Jana Kochanowskiego ul. Żeromskiego 5, 25-369 Kielce Polska – Poland Pantes theoi, Polemos and Ares on the Battlefield. The Greek Concept of the War Deity AbstrAct. Kostuch Lucyna, Pantes theoi, Polemos and Ares on the Battlefield. The Greek Concept of the War deity. The Hellenes created a concept of potential military engagement by all the gods. In martial contexts, Greek authors often included the concepts of “all the gods” (pantes theoi), “the gods” (theoi), “god” (theos), divine being (daimonion) and holy power (hieros), which signify interference by unidentified divine forces. The relationship between war and gods may thus be defined ex definitione. The question arises as to the basis of this way of thinking. It seems that the answer should be sought in the basic definition of war – polemos. War is only occasionally personified. The answer to the question of why Polemos never became a clearly defined divine figure and mythological hero can be found in Homer. In the Iliad many deities, although not all, have military might (polemos) at their disposal and participate in directing martial activities. It is for this very reason that this force never became an independent one – war arises as a result of what can be termed a divine “chain reaction”. The existence of war is thus dependent on the gods who make it active as the result of a stimulus. It is significant that Ares, just like Polemos, is not fully autonomous. -
The Perdum-Mule, a Mount for Distinguished Persons in Mesopotamia During the fi Rst Half of the Second Millennium BC By
190 The perdum-mule, a mount for distinguished persons in Mesopotamia during the fi rst half of the second millennium BC by Cécile Michel Fig. 7. Map of the area. [First. Unnumbered note: (*) Bibliography and sigla of Traditionally Mesopotamia defi nes the region bounded the Old Assyrian texts cited in this article are detailed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, but in a more conven- in C. Michel, Old Assyrian Bibliography, Old Assyrian tional way, it covers the whole area where people used Archives. Studies 1, Leiden, 2003.] cuneiform script on clay tablets, from Iran to Anatolia, from the Zagros mountains to the Persian Gulf. The area Abstract: concerned by this study is limited mainly to Anatolia Among the many equids used at the beginning of the second millen- nium B. C. in Northern Mesopotamia, the perdum, an hybrid, is at- and Syria. tested only in few corpuses: the Old Assyrian merchant archives found Equids in the Ancient Near East are divided into in Central Anatolia in the ancient town Kaniš and dated to the 19th and three different groups: asses (equus asinus), half-asses 18th centuries B. C., the royal archives of Mari, Northern Syria, from (equus hemionus) and horses (equus caballus), and their the 18th century B. C., the tablets from Ugarit, half a millennium later, or even in the Bible. The aim of this article is to analyse the use and hybrids. The studies on this subject are already numer- the value of the perdum, compared to the picture given by the other ous, especially for the written documentation of the third equids documented in texts, iconography and by the archaeozoology.