The Ancient Orient: An Introduction to the Study of the Ancient Near East

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ISBN: 9780802801425 | 0802801420
Cover: Paperback
Copyright: 2/1/1994

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""This long-awaited work by the most famous Assyriologist of recent times brings together into a single picture the history, languages, and cultures of the ancient Semitic and Indo-European near East. It embraces intellectual, artistic, economic, political, and social life and brings within the grasp of the nonspecialist the enormous advances that have been made in Assyriology in recent decades"." Philip R. Davies, University of Sheffield

Translator's Preface
Foreword
Abbreviations
The Term "Ancient Orient" and Its Demarcation	p. 1
The Scene	p. 6
Peoples and Cultures in the Ancient Orient	p. 12
The Ancient Oriental Cultures before 3000: The Sumerians	p. 15
The Semites in Western Asia	p. 18
Hurrians and Urartians	p. 24
Peoples and Cultures in Western Iran	p. 25
Asia Minor: Proto-Hattians, Luwians, and Hittites	p. 28
The Coalescence of Peoples	p. 29
Writing and Systems of Writing	p. 31
Sumerian Writing and Cuneiform	p. 31
The Hittite Hieroglyphs (the Luwian Pictograms)	p. 37
The Phoenician Alphabetic Script and Its Predecessors	p. 38
Alphabetic Scripts in Cuneiform: Ugaritic and the Old Persian Script	p. 40
The History of Ancient Western Asia: The Historical Sources	p. 42
Chronology: King Lists, Date Lists, and Eponym Lists	p. 42
Sources for Political History	p. 46
The Early Sumerian Period and Early Dynastic Period	p. 47
The Empire of Akkad and the Neo-Sumerian Period	p. 48
The Beginnings of Assyria and Its Trade Colonies	p. 49
The Old Babylonian Period	p. 50
The Ancient Orient between 1530 and 1000	p. 53
Western Asia from 1000 to 750 and the Rise of the Assyrian Empire	p. 56
The Neo-Assyrian Empire: Its Zenith and Decline: Tiglath-Pileser III and the Sargonids	p. 57
The Neo-Babylonian Chaldean Empire (626-539)	p. 59
Persians, Macedonians, Greeks, and Parthians in Western Asia	p. 60
State and Society	p. 63
The Monarchy	p. 63
The Divinization of the Monarch	p. 67
City, State, and Administration	p. 69
Society and Social Groups	p. 71
The Army and Warfare	p. 82
Nutrition and Agriculture	p. 87
Fishing and Fowling; Hunting	p. 89
Animal Husbandry	p. 91
Farming and Gardening	p. 97
Artisanry	p. 104
The Term; Organization and Instruction; The School	p. 104
Spinning, Weaving, Sewing, and Embroidery	p. 106
The Preparation of Hides: Leather	p. 107
The Use of Reeds: Basketry	p. 109
Woodwork: Carpentry, Joining, and Furniture Making	p. 110
Mud and Clay: Bricks, Ceramics, and Miniature Sculpture	p. 112
Stone for Devices, Monumental and Miniature Sculpture, and Buildings	p. 115
The Smelting and Refining of Metals	p. 117
Trade and Commerce	p. 119
Roads and Highways	p. 119
Water Routes	p. 120
Basic Terms of Trade: Buying and Selling, Money	p. 123
The Organization of Trade: The Merchant	p. 125
The Merchandise	p. 128
Law	p. 131
Legal Prescriptions and Law Codes	p. 131
Documents and Other Legal Sources: Legal Praxis	p. 138
Judges and the Judiciary	p. 141
Sumerian and Babylonian Science	p. 145
The Sumerian Science of Lists as a Science of Order	p. 145
Bilingual Lexical Lists in Ebla and Babylonia: Tri- and Quadrilingual Lists in Asia Minor and Syria	p. 148
Further Functions of Babylonian Word and Name Lists: Inventory Rolls and Compilations of Various Sorts	p. 151
Lists of Analogous Verbal Expressions	p. 153
The Babylonian Science of Omens	p. 153
Theology, Historiography, and Geography	p. 158
The Beginnings of Natural Sciences	p. 160
The Scientific Study of Humanity: Medicine and Pharmacology	p. 162
Mathematics and Astronomy	p. 165
Religion and Magic	p. 173
Basic Problems	p. 173
The Gods of the Sumerians	p. 175
The Gods of the Babylonians and Assyrians	p. 177
God and Mankind: Sin and Ethics, Theodicy, Life after Death	p. 184
Cults and Offerings: Priests, Temple Servants, Prophets	p. 188
Magic, Demons, Evil Powers, Sorcery	p. 198
Death and Burial	p. 201
Literature	p. 203
Overview: Tablet Series: Prose and Poetry	p. 203
Royal Inscriptions	p. 206
Myths and Epics	p. 209
Wisdom Literature and Humorous Poetry	p. 221
Hymns, Prayers, Laments, and Incantations	p. 225
Scientific Literature	p. 230
Building, Art, and Music	p. 232
Cultic Buildings and Palaces: Form and Decoration	p. 232
Sculpture and Modeling, Inlaid Work, and Miniature	p. 238
Music and Musical Instruments	p. 243
Concluding Observations and Remarks	p. 247
Selected Bibliography	p. 251
Index	p. 255
Map of the Near East up to the Persian Period	p. 263
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

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The Ancient Orient: An Introduction to the Study of the Ancient Near East

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The Ancient Orient: An Introduction to the Study of the Ancient Near East

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