Download or read book Gods Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia written by Jeremy Black and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 1992-05-01 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient Mesopotamia was a rich, varied and highly complex culture whose achievements included the invention of writing and the development of sophisticated urban society. This book offers an introductory guide to the beliefs and customs of the ancient Mesopotamians, as revealed in their art and their writings between about 3000 B.C. and the advent of the Christian era. Gods, goddesses, demons, monsters, magic, myths, religious symbolism, ritual, and the spiritual world are all discussed in alphabetical entries ranging from short accounts to extended essays. Names are given in both their Sumerian and Akkadian forms, and all entries are fully cross-referenced. A useful introduction provides historical and geographical background and describes the sources of our knowledge about the religion, mythology and magic of "the cradle of civilisation".
Download or read book The Triumph of the Symbol written by Tallay Ornan and published by Saint-Paul. This book was released on 2005 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyzes the history of Mesopotamian imagery form the mid-second to mid-first millennium BCE. It demonstrates that in spite of rich textual evidence, which grants the Mesopotamian gods and goddesses an anthropmorphic form, there was a clear abstention in various media from visualizing the gods in such a form. True, divine human-shaped cultic images existed in Mesopotamian temples. But as a rule, non-anthropomorphic visual agents such as inanimate objects, animals or fantastic hybrids replaced these figures when they were portrayed outside of their sacred enclosures. This tendency reached its peak in first-millennium Babylonia and Assyria. The removal of the Mesopotamian human-shaped deity from pictorial renderings resembles the Biblical agenda not only in its avoidance of displaying a divine image but also in the implied dual perception of the divine: according to the Bible and the Assyro-Babylonian concept the divine was conceived as having a human form; yet in both cases anthropomorphism was also concealed or rejected, though to a different degree. In the present book, this dual approach toward the divine image is considered as a reflection of two associated rather than contradictory religious worldviews. The plausible consolidation of the relevant Biblical accounts just before the Babylonian Exile, or more probably within the Exile - in both cases during a period of strong Assyrian and Babylonian hegemony - points to a direct correspondence between comparable religious phenomena. It is suggested that far from their homeland and in the absence of a temple for their god, the Judahite deportees adopted and intensified the Mesopotamian avoidance of anthropomorphic picorial portrayals of deities. While the Babylonian representations remained confined to temples, the exiles would have turned a cultic reality - i.e., the nonwritten Babylonian custom - into a written, articulated law that explicity forbade the pictorial representation of God.
Download or read book The Storm god in the Ancient Near East written by Alberto Ravinell Whitney Green and published by Eisenbrauns. This book was released on 2003 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Green traces these motifs through the Mesopotamian, Anatolian, Syrian, and Levantine regions; he argues that, in the end, Yahweh of the Bible can be identified as a storm-god, though certain unique characteristics came to be associated with him: he was the creator of all that is created and the self-existing god who needs no other."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book The Standards of Mesopotamia in the Third and Fourth Millennia BCE written by Renate Marian van Dijk-Coombes and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 2023-04-05 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Depictions of standards form a fundamental part of the visual repertoire of ancient Mesopotamia. These depictions can offer great insight into the thought world of the peoples with which they are associated, because different standards were associated with different deities, and could be found in multiple contexts. In this book, Renate Marian van Dijk-Coombes examines the standards which are represented in the visual culture of the third and fourth millennia BCE, covering the Uruk, Early Dynastic, Akkadian and Neo-Sumerian periods. She analyses each of the different standards, how they looked, what they symbolised and the context(s) in which they were found. In addition, developments and changes in the representation of these standards are traced across the periods under discussion.
Download or read book The Gordion Wooden Objects Volume 1 The Furniture from Tumulus MM 2 vol set written by Elizabeth Simpson and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010-12-15 with total page 602 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Furniture from Tumulus MM, The Gordion Wooden Objects, volume 1, is a study of the furniture from the largest tomb at Gordion, Turkey, excavated in 1957 by the University of Pennsylvania Museum. The tomb dates to the eighth century BC and is thought to be the burial of the great Phrygian king Midas or his father. The objects, initially misunderstood, are now identified as nine tables, two serving stands, two stools, a chair, and an open log coffin. Three pieces are ornately carved and inlaid with religious symbols and complex geometric motifs. The wooden objects from Gordion are now recognized as the most important collection of well preserved wooden artifacts excavated from the Near East. Included in this volume are new photographs, reconstruction drawings, and eight scientific/technical appendices. Contributors include: Harry Alden, Burhan Aytuğ, Mary W. Ballard, Robert A. Blanchette, Roland Cunningham, Laure Dussubieux, Patrick E. McGovern, Benjamin Held, Walter Hopwood, Joseph Koles, Lynn E. Roller, Krysia Spirydowicz. "...this work goes well beyond a typical site-specific object catalogue and makes important contributions to a wide range of scholarly fields, both technical and conceptual, from textile and wood analysis to anthropological and religious studies." Elizabeth P. Baughan, University of Richmond “The book succeeds in its main aims of making available every scrap of information about the finds, and it illuminates form, techniques, and function in a most convincing and stimulating manner.” Catherine M. Draycott, Courtauld Institute of Art
Download or read book Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia written by Stephen Bertman and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2003 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the lifestyles of ancient Mesopotamia, including the civilization, rulers and leaders, economics, and more.
Download or read book Illustrated Dictionary Of Symbols In Eastern And Western Art written by James Hall and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-05-04 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A Companion volume to James Hall’s perennial seller Dictionary of Subjects & Symbols in Art. which deals with the subject matter of Christian and Western art, the present volume includes the art of Egypt, the ancient Near East, Christian and classical Europe, India and the Far East. Flail explores the language of symbols in art showing how paintings, drawings and sculpture express man shades of meaning from simple, everyday hopes and fears to the profoundest philosophical and religious aspirations. The book explains and interprets symbols from many cultures, and over 600 illustrations clarify and complement the text. There are numbered references throughout the text to the sacred Iitcra-1 ture, myths and legends in which the symbols had their origins. Details of English translations of the works are in the bibliography. The book includes an appendix of the transcription of Chinese, notes and references, bibliography, chronological tables and index."
Download or read book Myths of Babylon written by J.K. Jackson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-12-15 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Babylonian myths, inherited in Mesopotamia from Sumeria, influenced by the ancient Assyrians represent a pinnacle of human achievement in the period around 1800 BC. Here we find humankind battling with the elements in their Flood myth, a grim creation story and the great Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the earliest recorded literary treasures. Babylon, a powerful city state at the time of the ancient Egyptians was a centre of profound spiritual, economic and military power, themes all represented in the fragments and myths of this book of classic tales. FLAME TREE 451: From mystery to crime, supernatural to horror and myth, fantasy and science fiction, Flame Tree 451 offers a healthy diet of werewolves and mechanical men, blood-lusty vampires, dastardly villains, mad scientists, secret worlds, lost civilizations and escapist fantasies. Discover a storehouse of tales gathered specifically for the reader of the fantastic.
Download or read book Art and Immortality in the Ancient Near East written by Mehmet-Ali Ataç and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-08 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Far from being a Judeo-Christian invention, apocalyptic thought had its roots in the ancient Near East and was expressed in its art.
Download or read book Mekal the God of Beth Shan written by Thomas L Thompson and published by BRILL. This book was released on 1970 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Conceptualising Divine Unions in the Greek and Near Eastern Worlds written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2022-01-04 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is an interdisciplinary investigation and contextualization of the various concepts of divine union in the private and public sphere of the Greek and Near Eastern worlds.
Download or read book Dictionary of the Ancient Near East written by Piotr Bienkowski and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2010-03-09 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An authoritative guide to the whole of the cradle of civilization.
Download or read book The Meaning of Color in Ancient Mesopotamia written by Shiyanthi Thavapalan and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-10-21 with total page 523 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In The Meaning of Color in Ancient Mesopotamia, Shiyanthi Thavapalan offers the first in-depth study of the words and expressions for colors in the Akkadian language (c. 2500-500 BCE). By combining philological analysis with the technical investigation of materials, she debunks the misconception that people in Mesopotamia had a limited sense of color and convincingly positions the development of Akkadian color language as a corollary of the history of materials and techniques in the ancient Near East"--
Download or read book Patterns in Comparative Religion written by Mircea Eliade and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2022-11-21 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this era of increased knowledge the essence of religious phenomena eludes the psychologists, sociologists, linguists, and other specialists because they do not study it as religious. According to Mircea Eliade, they miss the one irreducible element in religious phenomena--the element of the sacred. Eliade abundantly demonstrates universal religious experience and shows how humanity's effort to live within a sacred sphere has manifested itself in myriad cultures from ancient to modern times; how certain beliefs, rituals, symbols, and myths have, with interesting variations, persisted.
Download or read book Continuum Encyclopedia of Animal Symbolism in World Art written by Hope B. Werness and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Animals and their symbolism in diverse world cultures and different eras of human history are chronicled in this lovely volume.
Download or read book Symbols in Arts Religion and Culture written by Farrin Chwalkowski and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2016-12-14 with total page 620 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are a product of nature. Every single cell of our body is made of, and depends, on nature. Our inner soul is heavily influenced by nature. We feel sad if the sun is not shining for a few days, and feel pleasure when drawn to the wonder of flowers and uplifted by the song of birds. We came from nature; we are part of nature. In short, we are nature. Nature has been an intimate part of the human experience from the earliest times. Different religions and cultures, from all corners of the world, have honoured and worshipped nature in art, ritual and literature in their own unique ways. This book shows how we learn about our own human nature, our own sense of identity and how we fit into the larger scheme of life and spirit when we come to better understand how our human ancestors, through art, symbol and myth, expressed their relationship with the natural world.
Download or read book Eden s Serpent It s Mesopotamian Origins written by Walter Mattfeld and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2010-10-24 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Several pre-biblical protagonists appearing in Mesopotamian myths are identified as being fused together and recast as the Garden of Eden's serpent.