Download or read book The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate written by Lyon Sprague De Camp and published by Donning Company Publishers. This book was released on 1982-01-01 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Wonder to Behold written by Anastasia Amrhein and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-12-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In the ancient Near East, expert craftspeople were more than technicians: they numbered among those special members of society who could access the divine. While the artisans' names are largely unknown today, their legacy remains in the form of spectacular artworks and monuments. One of the most celebrated works of antiquity--Babylon's Ishtar Gate and its affiliated Processional Way--featured a dazzling array of colorful beasts assembled from molded, baked, and glazed bricks. Such an awe-inspiring structure demanded the highest level of craft; each animal was created from dozens of bricks that interlocked like a jigsaw. Yet this display of technical and artistic skill also served a ritual purpose, since the Gate provided a divinely protected entrance to the sacred inner city of Babylon. 'A Wonder to Behold' explores ancient Near Eastern ideas about the transformative power of materials and craftsmanship as they relate to the Ishtar Gate. This beautifully illustrated catalogue accompanies an exhibition at New York University's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. Essays by archaeologists, art historians, curators, conservators, and text specialists examine a wide variety of artifacts from major American and European institutions."--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book The Evolution of the Dragon written by Grafton Elliot Smith and published by Library of Alexandria. This book was released on 1919-01-01 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is commonly assumed that many of the elementary practices of civilization, such as the erection of rough stone buildings, whether houses, tombs, or temples, the crafts of the carpenter and the stonemason, the carving of statues, the customs of pouring out libations or burning incense, are such simple and obvious procedures that any people might adopt them without prompting or contact of any kind with other populations who do the same sort of things. But if such apparently commonplace acts be investigated they will be found to have a long and complex history. None of these things that seem so obvious to us was attempted until a multitude of diverse circumstances became focussed in some particular community, and constrained some individual to make the discovery. Nor did the quality of obviousness become apparent even when the enlightened discoverer had gathered up the threads of his predecessor's ideas and woven them into the fabric of a new invention. For he had then to begin the strenuous fight against the opposition of his fellows before he could induce them to accept his discovery. He had, in fact, to contend against their preconceived ideas and their lack of appreciation of the significance of the progress he had made before he could persuade them of its "obviousness". That is the history of most inventions since the world began. But it is begging the question to pretend that because tradition has made such inventions seem simple and obvious to us it is unnecessary to inquire into their history or to assume that any people or any individual simply did these things without any instruction when the spirit moved it or him so to do. The customs of burning incense and making libations in religious ceremonies are so widespread and capable of being explained in such plausible, though infinitely diverse, ways that it has seemed unnecessary to inquire more deeply into their real origin and significance. For example, Professor Toy disposes of these questions in relation to incense in a summary fashion. He claims that "when burnt before the deity" it is "to be regarded as food, though in course of time, when the recollection of this primitive character was lost, a conventional significance was attached to the act of burning. A more refined period demanded more refined food for the gods, such as ambrosia and nectar, but these also were finally given up." This, of course, is a purely gratuitous assumption, or series of assumptions, for which there is no real evidence. Moreover, even if there were any really early literature to justify such statements, they explain nothing. Incense-burning is just as mysterious if Prof. Toy's claim be granted as it was before. But a bewildering variety of other explanations, for all of which the merit of being "simple and obvious" is claimed, have been suggested. The reader who is curious about these things will find a luxurious crop of speculations by consulting a series of encyclopædias. I shall content myself by quoting only one more. "Frankincense and other spices were indispensable in temples where bloody sacrifices formed part of the religion. The atmosphere of Solomon's temple must have been that of a sickening slaughter-house, and the fumes of incense could alone enable the priests and worshippers to support it. This would apply to thousands of other temples through Asia, and doubtless the palaces of kings and nobles suffered from uncleanliness and insanitary arrangements and required an antidote to evil smells to make them endurable."
Download or read book The Excavations at Babylon written by Robert Koldewey and published by . This book was released on 1914 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Babylonian Topographical Texts written by A. R. George and published by Peeters Publishers. This book was released on 1992 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Babylonian Topographical Texts collects for the first time all Babylonian and Assyrian texts of the first millennium B.C. that belong to what is designated the topographical genre. Much of the material is not previously published. The book is largely concerned with Babylon. Seventeen texts on this city now allow its topography to be properly understood for the first time. Another seventeen texts concern the cities of Nippur, Assur, Kish and Uruk. Also included are thirty miscellaneous texts, mostly new, which bear upon topographical matters. The text editions and translations are supplemented by a philological and topical commentary. The work is concluded with full indices, and 57 plates of cuneiform copies.
Download or read book The Babylon Game written by Katherine Roberts and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-02-15 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When one of Babylon's fabled dragons licks Tiamat's hand, her luck begins to change. A humble perfume-maker's daughter from the outer city, she is chosen to play in the Twenty Squares championships in the blue and gold palace against the best teams in the country. But with a mad king on the throne and the Persian army at the gates, Tiamat's gift is in demand for much higher stakes. Her lucky hand holds the key to the magical gateways that can get the Persians into the heart of the palace without a drop of blood being shed. When the writing is on the wall for the Babylonians, can Tiamat and her friends save the dragons from extinction? Book 2 of the action-packed Seven Fabulous Wonders series by award-winning author Katherine Roberts.
Download or read book Ancient Cities written by Charles Gates and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Well illustrated with nearly 300 line drawings, maps and photographs, Ancient Cities surveys the cities of the ancient Near East, Egypt, and the Greek and Roman worlds from an archaeological perspective, and in their cultural and historical contexts. Covering a huge area geographically and chronologically, it brings to life the physical world of ancient city dwellers by concentrating on evidence recovered by archaeological excavations from the Mediterranean basin and south-west Asia Examining both pre-Classical and Classical periods, this is an excellent introductory textbook for students of classical studies and archaeology alike.
Download or read book The Babylonian Legends of the Creation written by E. A. Wallis Sir Budge and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2019-11-19 with total page 81 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Babylonian Legends of the Creation" presents the texts of the first Babylonian clay tablets presented to the scientific world in 1848. Many of the stories reflected the mythical history of creation. The authors of this book were among the pioneers of archaeology, who made the earliest attempts to see and analyze these artifacts. The presented here book covers the history of discoveries of the tablets, their contents, and comments regarding Babylonian mythology.
Download or read book How to Kill a Dragon written by Calvert Watkins and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1995 with total page 630 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In How to Kill a Dragon Calvert Watkins follows the continuum of poetic formulae in Indo-European languages, from Old Hittite to medieval Irish. He uses the comparative method to reconstruct traditional poetic formulae of considerable complexity that stretch as far back as the original common language. Thus, Watkins reveals the antiquity and tenacity of the Indo-European poetic tradition. Watkins begins this study with an introduction to the field of comparative Indo-European poetics; he explores the Saussurian notions of synchrony and diachrony, and locates the various Indo-European traditions and ideologies of the spoken word. Further, his overview presents case studies on the forms of verbal art, with selected texts drawn from Indic, Iranian, Greek, Latin, Hittite, Armenian, Celtic, and Germanic languages. In the remainder of the book, Watkins examines in detail the structure of the dragon/serpent-slaying myths, which recur in various guises throughout the Indo-European poetic tradition. He finds the "signature" formula for the myth--the divine hero who slays the serpent or overcomes adversaries--occurs in the same linguistic form in a wide range of sources and over millennia, including Old and Middle Iranian holy books, Greek epic, Celtic and Germanic sagas, down to Armenian oral folk epic of the last century. Watkins argues that this formula is the vehicle for the central theme of a proto-text, and a central part of the symbolic culture of speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language: the relation of humans to their universe, the values and expectations of their society. Therefore, he further argues, poetry was a social necessity for Indo- European society, where the poet could confer on patrons what they and their culture valued above all else: "imperishable fame."
Download or read book Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia written by Stephen Bertman and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2005-07-14 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modern-day archaeological discoveries in the Near East continue to illuminate man's understanding of the ancient world. This illustrated handbook describes the culture, history, and people of Mesopotamia, as well as their struggle for survival and happiness.
Download or read book The Akit u Festival written by Julye Bidmead and published by Gorgias Press LLC. This book was released on 2002 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using tools of social anthropology, this book describes the ancient Babylonian akntu, or New Year festival. It reconstructs the festival and its customs.
Download or read book An Instinct for Dragons written by David E. Jones and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-06 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Download or read book Beyond the Ishtar Gate written by Joshua Free and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2011-12-01 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the author's widely successful "Mardukite Year-3" series of works culminating an in-depth examination of Mesopotamian Magic, Sumerian Sorcery and the Dark Arts of Babylon, Joshua Free's "Beyond the Ishtar Gate" (Liber-C) completes the trilogy launched from "Magan Magic" (Liber-E) and "Maqlu Magic" (Liber-M); simultaneously released by the Mardukite Chamberlains as the "Necronomicon Spellbook" trilogy series. BEYOND THE ISHTAR GATE (also released as "Necronomicon Spellbook III") is concerned with the 'other side' of the tradition, parts that have been concealed and yet also what made the tradition famous - mainly, the connection to the "Other," that which we have been programmed to perceive as 'separate' from this reality. By whatever names it has been given, the part of this 'advanced', 'esoteric' or 'inner circle' work connected directly to the "Other," in whatever tradition it is realized from, is the highest part of the 'Great Work' - that which all the rest seemingly culminates into or points toward. It has been considered 'divine communication' by some and 'trafficking with the devil' to others - but regardless of the view taken, the knowledge and experience of these crossings is never held without some regard, for better or worse. "Liber-C" also contains the unpublished conclusion to Series-U and Series-V tablet cycles not found in the "Necronomicon Anunnaki Bible" anthology.
Download or read book The Bronze God of Rhodes written by Lyon Sprague De Camp and published by . This book was released on 1963 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Wisdom of the Mythtellers Second Edition written by Sean Kane and published by Broadview Press. This book was released on 1998-10-06 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mythtelling: the ideas and emotions of the Earth expressed through stories—stories distilled from millennia of treading warily in nature, rather than undertaking to rearrange her furniture. Wisdom of the Mythtellers uncovers four kinds of ancestral dream-mapping: Native Australian, Native American, Celtic, and Greek.
Download or read book Glazed Brick Decoration in the Ancient Near East written by Anja Fügert and published by . This book was released on 2020-08-31 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Glazed bricks applied as a new form of colourful and glossy architectural decor first started to appear in the early Iron Age on monumental buildings of the Ancient Near East. This volume provides an updated overview of the development of glazed bricks and scientific research on the topic.
Download or read book The Babylonian Genesis written by Alexander Heidel and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-06-24 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is a complete translation of all the published cuneiform tablets of the various Babylonian creation stories, of both the Semitic Babylonian and the Sumerian material. Each creation account is preceded by a brief introduction dealing with the age and provenance of the tablets, the aim and purpose of the story, etc. Also included is a translation and discussion of two Babylonian creation versions written in Greek. The final chapter presents a detailed examination of the Babylonian creation accounts in their relation to our Old Testament literature.
