Download or read book The Image of the Netherworld in the Sumerian Sources written by Dina Katz and published by Penn State University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discussion of the Sumerians' concept of the afterlife. Topics investigated include: the location of the netherworld, the way to the netherworld, life in the netherworld; the gods of the netherworld, and more.
Download or read book Death rituals ideology and the development of early Mesopotamian kingship written by Andrew C. Cohen and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2005 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the beginning of Mesopotamia s Early Dynastic period, the political landscape was dominated by temple administrators, but by the end of the period, rulers whose titles we translate as king assumed control. This book argues that the ritual process of mourning, burying, and venerating dead elites contributed to this change. Part one introduces the rationale for seeing rituals as a means of giving material form to ideology and, hence, structuring overall power relations. Part two presents archaeological and textual evidence for the death rituals. Part three interprets symbolic objects found in the Royal Cemetery of Ur, showing they reflect ideological doctrines promoting the office of kingship. This book will be particularly useful for scholars of Mesopotamian archaeology and history.
Download or read book The Descent of the Soul and the Archaic written by Paul Bishop and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-09-30 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Descent of the Soul and the Archaic explores the motif of kátabasis (a "descent" into an imaginal underworld) and the importance it held for writers from antiquity to the present, with an emphasis on its place in psychoanalytic theory. This collection of chapters builds on Jung’s insights into katabasis and nekyia as models for deep self-descent and the healing process which follows. The contributors explore ancient and modern notions of the self, as obtained through a "descent" to a deeper level of imaginal experience. With an awareness of the difficulties of applying contemporary psychological precepts to ancient times, the contributors explore various modes of self-formation as a process of discovery. Presented in three parts, the chapters assess contexts and texts, goddesses, and theoretical alternatives. This book will be of interest to scholars and analysts working in wide-ranging fields, including classical studies, all schools of psychoanalysis, especially Jung’s, and postmodern thought, especially the philosophy of Deleuze.
Download or read book Gilgamesh Enkidu and the Netherworld and the Sumerian Gilgamesh Cycle written by Alhena Gadotti and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2014-08-08 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alhena Gadotti offers a much needed new edition of the Sumerian composition Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld, last published by Aaron Shaffer in his 1963 doctoral dissertation. Since then, several new manuscripts have come to light, prompting not only a new edition of the text, but also a re-examination of the composition. In this book, Gadotti argues that Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld was the first, not the last of the Sumerian stories about Gilgamesh. She also suggests that a Sumerian Gilgamesh Cycle, currently only attested in old Babylonian manuscripts (ca. 18th century BCE), was in fact developed during the Ur III period (ca. 2100-2000 BCE). Providing a new way to look at the Sumerian Gilgamesh stories, this book is relevant not only to scholars of the ancient Near East, but also to anyone interested in epic and epic cycle.
Download or read book Puzzling Out the Past written by Marilyn J. Lundberg and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2012-05-03 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bruce Zuckerman has transformed the way we look at ancient Semitic inscriptions. Through his efforts, the most important inscriptions of biblical times have been reread and the history of the biblical and Second Temple periods reimagined. He has made contributions to the fields of biblical studies and modern Judaism, and, in founding Maarav: A Journal for the Study of the Northwest Semitic Languages and Literatures, has made the research of many scholars available to the scholarly community. The series of articles included here honor his many contributions through discussions of a wide variety of inscriptional materials, Biblical texts, archaeology, lexicography and teaching methodology. Included in the volume is a republication of his path breaking exhibition catalogue, Puzzling Out the Past.
Download or read book Early Greek Ethics written by David Wolfsdorf and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 828 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Early Greek Ethics is the first volume devoted to philosophical ethics in its "formative" period. It explores contributions from the Presocratics, figures of the early Pythagorean tradition, sophists, and anonymous texts, as well as topics influential to ethical philosophical thought such as Greek medicine, music, friendship, and justice.
Download or read book Living and Dying in Mesopotamia written by Alhena Gadotti and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-10-17 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring life, death, and the afterlife in Mesopotamia, Alhena Gadotti and Alexandra Kleinerman examine how life and death experiences continually developed over the course of nearly three millennia of Mesopotamian history. To achieve this, the book follows the life cycle of the people of the Tigris and Euphrates River valleys from 3000 BCE to 300 BCE, from birth, through death, and beyond. This book is the first to interrogate the relationships between living and dying through case studies and primary evidence. Including letters written by both women and men, the book allows readers to enter the minds of the ancients. First, the authors focus on life through topics such as the rituals surrounding birth, marriage, and religion. The authors then examine the common causes of death, the rituals associated with death, and the Mesopotamian views of the netherworld, its gods, and inhabitants. Concepts of gender fluidity, both in life and death, are considered alongside evidence from epigraphic data. Illustrating daily life as a multifaceted subject affected by time, space, location, socioeconomics, and gender, this book creates a window into the conditions and concerns of the Mesopotamian people.
Download or read book Translation as Scholarship written by Jay Crisostomo and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2019-01-14 with total page 775 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the first half of the 2d millennium BCE, translation occasionally depicted semantically incongruous correspondences. Such cases reflect ancient scribes substantiating their virtuosity with cuneiform writing by capitalizing on phonologic, graphemic, semantic, and other resemblances in the interlingual space. These scholar–scribes employed an essential scribal practice, analogical hermeneutics, an interpretative activity grounded in analogical reasoning and empowered by the potentiality of the cuneiform script. Scribal education systematized such practices, allowing scribes to utilize these habits in copying compositions and creating translations. In scribal education, analogical hermeneutics is exemplified in the word list "Izi", both in its structure and in its occasional bilingualism. By examining "Izi" as a product of the social field of scribal education, this book argues that scribes used analogical hermeneutics to cultivate their craft and establish themselves as knowledgeable scribes. Within a linguistic epistemology of cuneiform scribal culture, translation is a tool in the hands of a knowledgeable scholar.
Download or read book Iconographic Exegesis of the Hebrew Bible Old Testament written by Izaak Jozias de Hulster and published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. This book was released on 2015-10-28 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Iconographic exegesis combines the study of biblical texts (exegesis) with the study of ancient expressions of visual art (iconography). Studying ancient visual art that is contemporary with the documents of the Old Testament gives remarkable insight, not only on the meaning and historical context of the biblical text, but also because it facilitates greater understanding of how the ancient authors and audiences saw, thought, and made sense of the world. Iconography thus merits close attention as another avenue that can lead to a more nuanced and more complete understanding of the biblical text. Each chapter of this book provides an exegesis of a particular biblical text or theme. The book is organized around the tripartite structure of the Hebrew Bible, and demonstrates that iconographical exegesis is pertinent to "every nook and cranny" of the Bible. Within the three parts, there is special emphasis on Genesis, Isaiah, and the Psalms in order to make the book attractive for classes that deal with one or more of these books and might therefore include an iconographic perspective. In addition to connecting with a major issue in biblical interpretation, theology, or visual studies each chapter will end with one or two exercises directing the reader/student to comparable texts and images, enabling them to apply what was described in the chapter for themselves. This approach enables beginners as well as advanced readers to integrate iconography into their toolbox of exegetical skills.
Download or read book The First Ghosts written by Irving Finkel and published by Hodder & Stoughton. This book was released on 2021-11-11 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'It's enthralling stuff, mixing the scholarly with the accessible and placing storytelling right at the heart of the human experience.' - History Revealed 'A fascinating journey' - Yorkshire Post 'Marvellous...Finkel is an expert in Mesopotamian cultures at the British Museum, and is one of the most clever, and nicest, of people it has ever been my pleasure to encounter...A fascinating journey' - The Scotsman There are few things more in common across cultures than the belief in ghosts. Ghosts inhabit something of the very essence of what it is to be human. Whether we personally 'believe' or not, we are all aware of ghosts and the rich mythologies and rituals surrounding them. They have inspired, fascinated and frightened us for centuries - yet most of us are only familiar with the vengeful apparitions of Shakespeare, or the ghastly spectres haunting the pages of 19th century gothic literature. But their origins are much, much older... The First Ghosts: Most Ancient of Legacies takes us back to the very beginning. A world-renowned authority on cuneiform, the form of writing on clay tablets which dates back to 3400BC, Irving Finkel has embarked upon an ancient ghost hunt, scouring these tablets to unlock the secrets of the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians to breathe new life into the first ghost stories ever written. In The First Ghosts, he uncovers an extraordinarily rich seam of ancient spirit wisdom which has remained hidden for nearly 4000 years, covering practical details of how to live with ghosts, how to get rid of them and bring them back, and how to avoid becoming one, as well as exploring more philosophical questions: what are ghosts, why does the idea of them remain so powerful despite the lack of concrete evidence, and what do they tell us about being human?
Download or read book Phaethon written by and published by Kronos Press. This book was released on 2017-07-01 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Phaethon offers a comparative study of the Phaethon myth.
Download or read book When Writing Met Art written by Denise Schmandt-Besserat and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2007-02-01 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Denise Schmandt-Besserat opened a major new chapter in the history of literacy when she demonstrated that the cuneiform script invented in the ancient Near East in the late fourth millennium BC—the world's oldest known system of writing—derived from an archaic counting device. Her discovery, which she published in Before Writing: From Counting to Cuneiform and How Writing Came About, was widely reported in professional journals and the popular press. In 1999, American Scientist chose How Writing Came About as one of the "100 or so Books that shaped a Century of Science." In When Writing Met Art, Schmandt-Besserat expands her history of writing into the visual realm of communication. Using examples of ancient Near Eastern writing and masterpieces of art, she shows that between 3500 and 3000 BC the conventions of writing—everything from its linear organization to its semantic use of the form, size, order, and placement of signs—spread to the making of art, resulting in artworks that presented complex visual narratives in place of the repetitive motifs found on preliterate art objects. Schmandt-Besserat then demonstrates art's reciprocal impact on the development of writing. She shows how, beginning in 2700-2600 BC, the inclusion of inscriptions on funerary and votive art objects emancipated writing from its original accounting function. To fulfill its new role, writing evolved to replicate speech; this in turn made it possible to compile, organize, and synthesize unlimited amounts of information; and to preserve and disseminate information across time and space. Schmandt-Besserat's pioneering investigation of the interface between writing and art documents a key turning point in human history, when two of our most fundamental information media reciprocally multiplied their capacities to communicate. When writing met art, literate civilization was born.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture written by Karen Radner and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-09-22 with total page 838 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The cuneiform script, the writing system of ancient Mesopotamia, was witness to one of the world's oldest literate cultures. For over three millennia, it was the vehicle of communication from (at its greatest extent) Iran to the Mediterranean, Anatolia to Egypt. The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture examines the Ancient Middle East through the lens of cuneiform writing. The contributors, a mix of scholars from across the disciplines, explore, define, and to some extent look beyond the boundaries of the written word, using Mesopotamia's clay tablets and stone inscriptions not just as 'texts' but also as material artefacts that offer much additional information about their creators, readers, users and owners.
Download or read book How To Do Things With Tears written by Paul Delnero and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-08-10 with total page 676 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In contrast to other traditions, cultic laments in Mesopotamia were not performed in response to a tragic event, such as a death or a disaster, but instead as a preemptive ritual to avert possible catastrophes. Mesopotamian laments provide a unique insight into the relationship between humankind and the gods, and their study sheds light on the nature of collective rituals within a crosscultural context. Cultic laments were performed in Mesopotamia for nearly 3000 years. This book provides a comprehensive overview of this important ritual practice in the early 2nd millennium BCE, the period during which Sumerian laments were first put in writing. It also includes a new translation and critical edition of Uruamairabi (‘That city, which has been plundered’), one of the most widely performed compositions of its genre.
Download or read book Christian Theology written by Adam Harwood and published by Lexham Academic. This book was released on 2022-10-19 with total page 656 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The church has been entrusted with God's revelation—and to steward the word of truth, we must confess the Bible's teaching with clarity and conviction. Adam Harwood's Christian Theology is both biblically faithful and historically informed, providing a fresh synthesis of the essential doctrines of the faith. Writing from a Baptist perspective, Harwood brings fresh insights that many systematic theologies lack. With readable prose, suggestions for further study, and discussion questions, Christian Theology will equip students and pastors to clarify and articulate what they believe and why.
Download or read book Din micas sociales y roles entre mujeres written by Beatriz Noria-Serrano and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2023-07-13 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Papers in this volume aim to reevaluate the importance of women as active and powerful social agents in the definition of ancient cultures, their contribution to the economic and social development of the community and to the position, reputation, and prestige of their families.
Download or read book Gilgamesh written by Louise M. Pryke and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-03-15 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gilgamesh focuses on the eponymous hero of the world’s oldest epic and his legendary adventures. However, it also goes further and examines the significance of the story’s Ancient Near Eastern context, and what it tells us about notions of kingship, animality, and the natures of mortality and immortality. In this volume, Louise M. Pryke provides a unique perspective to consider many foundational aspects of Mesopotamian life, such as the significance of love and family, the conceptualisation of life and death, and the role of religious observance. The final chapter assesses the powerful influence of Gilgamesh on later works of ancient literature, from the Hebrew Bible, to the Odyssey, to The Tales of the Arabian Nights, and his reception through to the modern era. Gilgamesh is an invaluable tool for anyone seeking to understand this fascinating figure, and more broadly, the relevance of Near Eastern myth in the classical world and beyond.
