The Anatomy of a Mesopotamian City

The Anatomy of a Mesopotamian City

Author: Elizabeth Caecilia Stone

Publisher: Eisenbrauns

Published: 2004-01-01

Total Pages: 524

ISBN-13: 1575060825

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This substantial volume presents the results of the Mashkan-shapir project which surveyed the extensive remains of this Old Babylonian city to the north of Nippur in the deserts of Iraq.


Divination in Ancient Israel and its Near Eastern Environment

Divination in Ancient Israel and its Near Eastern Environment

Author: Frederick H. Cryer

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 1994-05-01

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 0567059634

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In this revealing study, the author suggests that ancient Israel was a 'magic society' like those around it, and similar in many respects to a number of magic-using 'savage' societies studied by modern social anthropology. Although the Old Testament attempts to distinguish between priestly and prophetic divination, this distinction was not sharply drawn in ancient times. References to divination in fact are found in all genres of Israelite literature, implying that many of these practices were performed throughout Israelite society. 'Cryer's investigation of divination in ancient Israel is a masterful synthesis of social and historical analyses of an important yet neglected topic' (Ronald E. Simkins, Catholic Biblical Quarterly).


Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart

Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart

Author: Enheduanna

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9780292752429

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Around 2,300 BC Enheduanna was high priestess to the moon god Nanna at his temple in Ur, a position she held for almost forty years. This volume translates Enheduanna's three devotional poems to the goddess Inanna accompanied by an extensive commentary and discussion which places these highly personal and unique expressions within the context of Sumerian culture and religion. The author highlights the importance of the poems and the princess for our understanding of the place of women in Near Eastern society and religion.


Weep, O Daughter of Zion

Weep, O Daughter of Zion

Author: F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 9788876533464

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The present study seeks to call attention to a literary genre whose existence in the Hebrew Bible, has gone largely unnoticed or at least not fully appreciated. The city lament is a genre well-known fron ancient Mesopotomia. The laments that make up this genre vividly depict and mournfully lament the destruction of some of the most important cities in Mesopotamia and their chief shrines.


The Date Palm

The Date Palm

Author: The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research

Publisher: Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research

Published: 2003-06-23

Total Pages: 61

ISBN-13:

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The date palm has come of age. Cultivated for millennia in the arid regions of the world, from the Atlantic Ocean across North Africa, through the deserts of Arabia and into the Indus Valley, the importance of the date palm is being rediscovered. Its value as the sustaining pillar of market gardens in marginal agricultural communities cannot be overemphasized. Modern science and technology is also investigating the undisputed usefulness of the date palm in changing arid microclimates, increasing the potential for crop diversity and arresting desertification. Research is additionally directed at countering threats to the date palm emanating from disease and uninformed agricultural practices. As a tree that has emerged from ancient history into the modern world, the date palm is eliciting a great deal of interest in fields as diverse as biotechnology and international marketing. New markets for the date fruit are encouraging production, with the concomitant increase in technological innovation and economic investment. To explore the potential of the date palm and all aspects of its industry, The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research hosted the International Date Palm Forum in Abu Dhabi, on September 15–17, 2002. This book represents a collection of expert papers on the full range of topics pertaining to the date palm, from its archaeology, cultivation and traditional uses, to international marketing and biotech applications in modern propagation methods and disease control. It provides a thorough overview for any reader wanting to gain insight into this industry, from its ancient roots to its modern day practices.


The Old Testament in Its World

The Old Testament in Its World

Author: Robert Gordon

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-11-29

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 9047407245

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This volume published jointly by scholars from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands and Belgium deals with the relationship between the Old Testament and the cultures surrounding ancient Israel. New parallels are indicated and alleged parallels dismantled, methodical issues are discussed. Essential reading for both Hebraists and Orientalists.


Janus Parallelism in the Book of Job

Janus Parallelism in the Book of Job

Author: Scott B. Noegel

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 1996-01-01

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1850756244

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Noegel here examines instances of Janus parallelism in the Hebrew Bible with particular attention to the book of Job, and with excursuses on the device in other ancient Near Esatern literatures. The author finds the punning device integral to the book of Job, serving a referential function. Within the context of dialogue and debate, the polysemous statements resemble a poetry contest among the participants (Job, his friends, and Elihu). The book also treats the relationship between wordplay and wisdom literature; polysemy as preserved in the Greek, Aramaic, Latin, and Syriac translations; and the impact of Janus parallelism on textual criticism and the unity of the book of Job.>


Rethinking World-Systems

Rethinking World-Systems

Author: Gil J. Stein

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2022-08-16

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 0816550530

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The use of world-systems theory to explain the spread of social complexity has become accepted practice by both historians and archaeologists. Gil Stein now offers the first rigorous test of world systems as a model in archaeology, arguing that the application of world-systems theory to noncapitalist, pre-fifteenth-century societies distorts our understanding of developmental change by overemphasizing the role of external over internal dynamics. In this new study, Stein proposes two complementary theoretical frameworks for the study of interregional interaction: a "distance-parity" model, which views world-systems as simply one factor in a broader range of intersocietal relations, and a "trade-diaspora" model, which explains variation in exchange systems from the perspective of participant groups. He tests his models against the archaeological record of Mesopotamian expansion into the Anatolian highlands during the fourth millennium B.C. Whereas some scholars have considered this "Uruk expansion" to be one of the earliest documented world-systems, Stein uses data from the site of Hacinebi in southeastern Turkey to support his alternate perspective. Comparing economic data from pre- and postcontact phases, Stein shows that the Mesopotamians did not dominate the people of this distant periphery. Such evidence, argues Stein, shows that we must look more closely at the local cultures of peripheries to develop realistic cross-cultural models of variation in colonialism, exchange, and secondary state formation in ancient societies. By demonstrating that a multitude of factors affect the nature and consequences of intersocietal contacts, his book advocates a much-needed balance between recognizing that no society can be understood in complete isolation from its neighbors and assuming the primacy of outside contact in a society's development.


Astral Magic in Babylonia

Astral Magic in Babylonia

Author: Erica Reiner

Publisher: American Philosophical Society

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 9780871698544

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Erica Reiner offers a connection between Near Eastern material and their echoes in the West. a foundation for comparisons between the oriental cultures and gtheir echoes in the West. To provide a foundation for comparisons the Near Eastern material needs to be resented in reliable form. Reiner's sources are culled from such scientific texts as medicine, divination, and rituals, which are not usually included in anthologies of Mesopotamian texts and rarely available in translation..