259 BOEKBESPREKINGEN — ASSYRIOLOGIE 260 ASSYRIOLOGIE Babylonian Corpus” by S. Tinney. On the other hand, we have texts dealing with specific aspects of the contributors’ RADNER, K., and E. ROBSON (eds.) — The Oxford Hand- interests. These articles might give a summary of the con- book of Cuneiform Culture. Oxford University Press, tributors’ current research or might be an article with new Oxford, 2011. (25 cm, XXI, 805). ISBN 978-0-19- insights in its own right eg.; “The Scribe of the Flood Story 955730-1. £ 110.00; $ 150.00. and his Circle” by F. van Koppen, “Learned, Rich, Famous The last couple of years the field of Assyriology has seen and Unhappy: Ur-Utu of Sippar” by M. Tanret, “Music, the the publication of many reference works. These books fall Work of Professionals” by N. Ziegler, and “From Street broadly into one of three categories: Altar to Palace: Reading the Built Environment of Urban (1) Translations of groups of cuneiform texts. Examples are; Babylonia” by H.D. Baker. the long-running TUAT series (since 1982), the three- Both the “overview/general” and more “specific” contri- book series The Context of Scripture, edited by W.W. butions have their merits. As somebody with an interest in Hallo and K. Lawson Younger jr., and the volume His- Old Babylonian studies, the following four contributions torical Sources in Translation, The Ancient Near East caught my eye. In “Music, the Work of Professionals” N. edited by M. Chavalas from 2006. Ziegler has made her research from Florilegium Marianum (2) Encyclopaedic works. The most famous example in IX available to the English-speaking public. M. Tanret has Assyriology is of course the Reallexikon der Assyriolo- written a very useful introduction to the still largely unpub- gie (started in 1932 and continuing up to this day). Other lished Ur-Utu archive in “Learned, Rich, Famous and examples are Dictionnaire de la civilization mésopotam- Unhappy: Ur-Utu of Sippar”. “The Scribe of the Flood ienne, edited by F. Joannès (2001), Mesopotamia: assiri, Story and his Circle” presents original research by F. van sumeri e babilonesi by E. Ascalone from 2005, Hand- Koppen into the life of a scribe from Sippar. D. Charpin’s book to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia by S. Bertman “Patron and Client: Zimri-Lim and Asqudum the Diviner” from 2003, and the Dictionary of the Ancient Near East, reprises the dossier from ARM XXVI/1 around the influential edited by P. Bienkowski and A. Millard, published in Asqudum. 2000. The earlier mentioned book The Babylonian World and (3) Handbooks. These are often books written by one or two The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture are very similar authors on a specific subject. For example; the series in goal and purpose. This is seen by the fact that six con- Guide to the Mesopotamian Textual Record or the OBO tributors are to be found in both books; both have seven 160 series edited by M. Wäfler, P. Attinger and W. Sal- thematic chapters and a lot of the contributions resemble laberger. Another type of handbook typically contains each other thematically; e.g., “Literacy and Gender” by B. several contributions by scholars in the field. Under this Lion in The Oxford Handbook and “Women and Gender” by latter heading fall books like The Babylonian World L.D. Steele in The Babylonian World, or “Numeracy and edited by G. Leick in 2007, but also the book under Metrology” in The Oxford Handbook by G. Chambon, and review; The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture. “Mathematics, metrology, and professional numeracy” by E. Robson in The Babylonian World. The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture represents a There is a clear trend among publishing houses to publish collection of thirty-five articles by some of the world’s most more and more reference works, not only in Assyriology but prominent assyriologists. The book is edited by the noted also other academic domains. Fortunately, this trend has not scholars K. Radner and E. Robson, who categorized the influenced the quality of scholarship in The Oxford Hand- contributions around seven themes (Materiality and Litera- book of Cuneiform Culture. Thanks are due to the K. Radner cies, Individuals and Communities, Experts and Novices, and E. Robson for the care with which they edited this volu- Decisions, Interpretations, Making Knowledge, and Shap- minous book. ing Tradition). Each theme carries an introduction with bib- liographical references written by the editors. Leiden University Rients DE BOER The editors aim to bridge the gap between socio-eco- nomic studies and intellectual/culture studies. By doing so, * the book seeks; “to restore context and coherence to the * * study of cuneiform culture by approaching it holistically” (p. xxviii). In order to accomplish this, the contributors SCHNEIDER, T.J. — An Introduction to Ancient Mesopo- were asked; “to transcend the political, geographical, tamian Religion, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., chronological, and linguistic boundaries that have been con- Grand Rapids, 2011. (23 cm, X, 146). ISBN 978-0- structed by modern research over the past century or more, 8028-2959-7. $ 18.00 and to cut across conventional temporal and spatial catego- ries” (p. xxix). Recently we have seen an increase in the number of books Despite these words we see in practice that most of the published on ancient Mesopotamian religious thought. After contributors are doing what they do best: writing about their the masterful La plus vielle religion; en Mesopotamie by respective specializations. This results in two types of con- Bottéro (Gallimard, Paris 1998, which in 2001 was translated tributions (or a mix of them); on the one hand texts that aim into English, titled Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia) to give an overview of a certain subject; examples are appeared, in chronological order, Brigitte Groneberg, Die “Accounting in Proto-cuneiform” by R.K. Englund, “The Götter des Zweistromlandes. Kulte, Mythen, Epen, Artemis Person in Mesopotamian Thought” by B. Foster, “Freedom & Winkler, Stuttgart 2004, a few years later followed by my in Ancient Near Eastern Societies” by E. von Dassow, or La religione dell’antica Mesopotamia, Carocci, Roma 2009, “Tablets of Schools and Scholars: A Portrait of the Old and finally the book considered here. 995569_Bior_2012_3-4_03_Boekbesp.indd5569_Bior_2012_3-4_03_Boekbesp.indd 259259 117/09/127/09/12 113:543:54 261 BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS LXIX N° 3-4, mei-augustus 2012 262 One should also take into account the book by D. Snell, chooses to deal with the lexical lists of names of gods, in Religions of the Ancient Near East, Cambridge University which it is difficult to visualize the arranging principle. The Press, Cambridge 2010, and the booklet by M. Krebernik, Author comes close to Veldhuis’ interpretation2), who recog- Götter und Mythen des Alten Orients, C. H. Beck, München nises in the god-lists “the place where all things divine did 2012 which both are dedicated to the more general topic of come together”. the religions of the Ancient Near East. Treating the principal divine figures, she considers them This rich offering of studies geared towards the non-spe- not only synchronically, but also along the diachronic axis cialized world of educated people, might be the result of an (“History and Evolution of the Pantheon”, pp. 54-57). A acquired stabilized level of knowledge. In this regard I have paragraph on the Personal God(s) concludes the chapter (pp. another point of view than that of the Author, as expressed 63-65). on p. 128 “modern study of ancient Mesopotamia is still Very suitably Schneider dedicates chapters 6 (“The Tem- fairly young”. It could be, hopefully, that the ‘mythical’ ples pp. 66-78) and 7 (“Religious Personnel”, pp. 79-90) to moment Michalowski referred to has finally arrived when he the cultic aspects of the ancient Mesopotamian religion, with stated “the immense difficulties involved with basic matters inclusion of not only textual data, but archaeological as well. of establishing reliable text editions, … have provided a Both chapters put into social context concepts regarding the seemingly impenetrable barrier of arguments against critical divinities and their mythology which she had addressed ear- reflection, and have conspired to postpone interpretative lier in the book. issues to a mythical time when groundwork will have been All of the textual material that could be considered stricto laid, and a happy generation of grateful scholars will have sensu not pertinent to the topic of religion is the object of the leisure to indulge in such undignified and unscholarly chapter 8 (“Religious Texts” pp. 91-100). The inclusion in labors”1). this chapter of texts of different categories enables the reader The book by Tammi J. Schneider confirms this hope of to have a wider understanding of the specific peculiarities of mine. It is, in fact, a valuable tool for those who are new to the Mesopotamian thought. The Author describes texts the Mesopotamian religious world: the central features and belonging to the category of the belles-lettres, which contain traits are logically arranged, making it easy to get acquainted mythological tales, i. e. the “Disputes”, which refer to cos- with this ancient civilization. Between the pages of the book, mogonic concepts, the lexical lists and the “Wisdom Litera- the Author also highlights the problems and limits of our ture”, which all introduce the less familiar reader to the current knowledge. She has included an extensive bibliogra- extent of religious concepts, therefore leading to a wider phy (pp. 131-140), thus making the book a useful instrument. breadth of thought. It is divided into 11 chapters, a chronological table is pro- A rare balance is found in chapter 9 (“Rituals” pp. 101- vided, and an analytical index of proper names and notable 116).