The Babylonian World
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THE BABYLONIAN WORLD ᇹᇺᇹ As the layers of the foundations of modern science and mathematics and the builders of a towering, monumental urban city, the Babylonians were by far the most insistent people of the ancient world in addressing an audience beyond their time. This lavishly illustrated volume reflects the modernity of this advanced and prescient civilization with thirty-eight brand new essays from leading international scholars who view this world power of the Ancient Near East with a fresh and contemporary lens. Drawing from the growing database of cuneiform tablets, epigraphic research, and the most recent archaeological advances in the field, Gwendolyn Leick’s collection serves as the definitive reference resource as well as an introductory text for university students. By bringing into focus areas of concern typical for our own time – such as ecology, urbanism, power relations, plurality and complexity – this essential volume offers a variety of perspectives on certain key topics to reflect the current academic approaches and focus. These shifting viewpoints and diverse angles onto the ‘Babylonian World’ result in a truly kaleidoscopic view which reveals patterns and bright fragments of this ‘lost world’ in unexpected ways. From discussions of agriculture and rural life to the astonishing walled city of Babylon with its massive ramparts and towering ziggurats, from Babylonian fashion and material culture to its spiritual world, indivisible from that of the everyday, The Babylonian World is a sweeping and ambitious survey for students and specialists of this great civilization. Gwendolyn Leick is presently senior lecturer at Chelsea College of Art and Design. A specialist in the Ancient Near East, she has published extensively on the topic, including The Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Architecture and Who’s Who in the Ancient Near East. THE ROUTLEDGE WORLDS THE GREEK WORLD Edited by Anton Powell THE ROMAN WORLD Edited by John Wacher THE BIBLICAL WORLD Edited by John Barton THE EARLY CHRISTIAN WORLD Edited by Philip F. Esler THE CELTIC WORLD Edited by Miranda Green THE MEDIEVAL WORLD Edited by Peter Linehan and Janet L. Nelson THE REFORMATION WORLD Edited by Andrew Pettegree THE ENLIGHTENMENT WORLD Edited by Martin Fitzpatrick, Peter Jones, Christa Knellwolf and Iain McCalman THE HINDU WORLD Edited by Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby THE BABYLONIAN WORLD Edited by Gwendolyn Leick Forthcoming: THE EGYPTIAN WORLD Edited by Toby Wilkinson THE VIKING WORLD Edited by Stefan Brink and Neil Price THE RENAISSANCE WORLD Edited by John Jeffries Martin THE ELIZABETHAN WORLD Edited by Susan Doran and Norman Jones THE OTTOMAN WORLD Edited by Christine Woodhead THE BYZANTINE WORLD Edited by Paul Stephenson THE BABYLONIAN WORLD ᇹᇺᇹ Edited by Gwendolyn Leick First published 2007 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. © 2007 Gwendolyn Leick All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data The Babylonian world/edited by Gwendolyn Leick. – 1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Babylonia. I. Leick, Gwendolyn, 1951– DS69.5.B23 2007 935′.02 – dc22 2006102809 ISBN 0-203-94623-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0–415–35346–7 (hbk) ISBN10: 0–203–08945–6 (ebk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–35346–5 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–203–08945–3 (ebk) Lebensalter* Ihr Städte des Euphrats! Ihr Gassen von Palmyra! Ihr Säulenwälder in der Eb’ne der Wüste, Was seid ihr? Euch hat die Kronen, Dieweil ihr über die Gränze Der Othmenden seid gegangen, Von Himmlischen der Rauchdampf und Hinweg das Feuer genommen; Jezt aber siz’ ich unter Wolken, darin Ein jedes eine Ruh’ hat eigen, unter Wohleingerichteten Eichen, auf Der Heide des Rehs, und fremd Erscheinen und gestorben mir Der Seeligen Geister. Friedrich Hölderlin * Translation is on p. 591. CONTENTS ᇹᇺᇹ List of illustrations x List of contributors xiv 1 Introduction 1 Gwendolyn Leick PART I: LAND AND LAND USE 2 The world of Babylonian countrysides 13 Seth Richardson 3 Land and land use: the middle Euphrates valley 39 Lucia Mori 4 Agricultural techniques 54 Blahoslav Hrusˇka 5 Urban form in the first millennium BC 66 Heather D. Baker PART II: MATERIAL CULTURE 6 Architecture in the Old Babylonian period 81 Harriet Crawford 7 Babylonian seals 95 Dominique Collon 8 Babylonian sources of exotic raw materials 124 D. T. Potts 9 Cloth in the Babylonian world 141 Irene Good 10 The Babylonian visual image 155 Zainab Bahrani vii — Contents — 11 Food and drink in Babylonia 171 Frances Reynolds PART III: ECONOMIC LIFE 12 Economy of ancient Mesopotamia: a general outline 187 Johannes Renger 13 The Old Babylonian economy 198 Anne Goddeeris 14 Aspects of society and economy in the later Old Babylonian Period 210 Frans van Koppen 15 The Babylonian economy in the first millennium BC 224 Michael Jursa 16 The Egibi family 236 Cornelia Wunsch (translated from German by Gwendolyn Leick) PART IV: SOCIETY AND POLITICS 17 Social configurations in Early Dynastic Babylonia (c.2500–2334 BC) 251 Petr Charvát 18 The palace and the temple in Babylonia 265 Walther Sallaberger 19 Power, economy and social organisation in Babylonia 276 Gebhard J. Selz 20 Arameans and Chaldeans: environment and society 288 Frederick Mario Fales 21 Women and gender in Babylonia 299 Laura D. Steele PART V: RELIGION 22 The role and function of goddesses in Mesopotamia 319 Brigitte Groneberg 23 Inanna and Ishtar in the Babylonian world 332 Joan Goodnick Westenholz 24 The Babylonian god Marduk 348 Takayoshi Oshima 25 Divination culture and the handling of the future 361 Stefan M. Maul (translated from German by Gwendolyn Leick) 26 Witchcraft literature in Mesopotamia 373 Tzvi Abusch viii — Contents — PART VI: INTELLECTUAL LIFE: CUNEIFORM WRITING AND LEARNING 27 Incantations within Akkadian medical texts 389 M. J. Geller 28 The writing, sending, and reading of letters in the Amorite world 400 Dominique Charpin (translated from French by Dafydd Roberts) 29 Mathematics, metrology, and professional numeracy 418 Eleanor Robson 30 Babylonian lists of words and signs 432 Jon Taylor 31 Gilgamesh and the literary traditions of ancient Mesopotamia 447 A. R. George 32 Mesopotamian astral science 460 David Brown 33 Late Babylonian intellectual life 473 Paul-Alain Beaulieu PART VII: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: BABYLONIA AND THE ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN WORLD 34 Egypt and Mesopotamia 487 David A. Warburton 35 A view from Hattusa 503 Trevor Bryce 36 Relations between Babylonia and the Levant during the Kassite period 515 P. S. Vermaak 37 Looking down the Tigris: the interrelations between Assyria and Babylonia 527 Hannes D. Galter 38 The view from Jerusalem: biblical responses to the Babylonian presence 541 Baruch A. Levine 39 The Persian empire 562 Amélie Kuhrt Index 577 ix ILLUSTRATIONS ᇹᇺᇹ FIGURES 2.1 Sustaining areas of Babylonian settlements 21 3.1 The middle Euphrates valley today, from the ruins of Doura Europos 40 3.2 A map of the middle Euphrates valley showing the different cultivated zones 43 4.1 Archaic sign for ‘ard’, ‘farmer’ and ‘to plough’ 55 4.2 Soil preparation with hoes 57 4.3 Seal impression showing animal traction, working team and seeding plough 61 5.1 Plan of Nippur, c.1500 BC 75 6.1 A hypothetical reconstruction of the temple at Tell Rimah 85 6.2 Plan of the temple at Tell Rimah 86 6.3 ‘Barley sugar’ pillars at Tell Rimah 88 7.1 Warrior king, Lama and small naked woman 96 7.2 Lama, the warrior king and the goddess Ishtar 96 7.3 Representations of the Lama goddess 97 7.4 Presentation scene before seated king 98 7.5 Impressions of seals, probably of the seventeenth century BC, showing the use of cutting wheel and drill 98 7.6 Envelope fragment from Sippar with impressions of a Babylonian presentation scene, and a seal combining Babylonian and Syrian motifs 99 7.7 Impression of purkullu seal 100 7.8 Nude hero fighting bull-man; nude hero fighting lion; naked woman; Ishtar; filling motifs 101 7.9 Four winds; small storm god on lion-dragon; small priest; filling motifs 102 7.10 Presentation scene before seated goddess 102 7.11 Lama; king with offering; the sun god Shamash; lightning fork of the storm god Adad 103 x — Illustrations — 7.12 Warrior god; priest on dais with cup and bucket; warrior god; warrior god brandishing sword, whirling mace and treading on fallen enemy 104 7.13 The gods Amurru (with crooks) and Adad; robed king with offering; robed god 105 7.14 Lama; warrior king; god with ladder-patterned robe; filling motifs 106 7.15 Lion-griffins attacking goat; lion attacking one of two nude heroes fighting lion 106 7.16 Two figures; filling motifs 107 7.17 Seated god; filling motifs 108 7.18 Worshipper with fan before seated figure with cup; filling motifs 109 7.19 Scene based on Egyptian depictions of Levantines 109 7.20 Water god, with flowing vases, between mountains and flowers 110 7.21 Animal; tree; border of triangles 111 7.22 Robed figure holding staff 112 7.23 Votive seal carved in relief (NB).