Babylonian History Research Articles

Mesopotamian medical information in the divination series Šumma ālu

The proposed communication aims at presenting the preliminary results of my pilot research project “Mesopotamian medical notions in the divination series Šumma ālu”. Thanks to the endowment of a Henri Frankfort Short-Term Fellowship, I have conducted this study at the Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Study, University of London (January-April 2019). The aim of this research was to conduct a first survey of all medical-related information comprised in the terrestrial omens of the series Šumma ālu. Medical sources provide useful information to the reconstruction of Babylonian scientific and intellectual history; however, if considered alone, they do not allow us to understand various aspects of medical rationale. For this reason, scholars have been interested also in sources outside the medical corpus. I decided to follow their footsteps by focusing on Šumma ālu, which has been labelled as an encyclopaedia for every aspect of ancient Mesopotamian everyday life. This line of enquiry has never been attempted before, as the medical corpus has been compared usually with magic, not divination. Moreover, the difficulties embodied by the processes of the textual edition of the divination series have slowed its accessibility. However, the edition of the first half of Šumma ālu has been completed recently, and two ongoing projects (Geneva, Vienna) are aimed at completing this task. The communication will present the general context of this pilot project, its preliminary results and its possible future developments.

Realistic Dimension in the Embodiment of King Hammurabi’s Shape on Sculptures

The research focuses on the analysis of the shape of the king Hammurabi (1792-1750BC);linking the artistic aspect with the scientific one which is documented by modern theories and the accuracy of the artist at the time to bring into view the technical details for implementing the two specimens which have been selected to be studied and analyzed due to the lack of the discovered art models belong to the king himself, as well as giving his works of art their right entitlement with in contemporary studies knowing that he had represented one of the most important figures that have had an influential role in Iraqi history in general and the ancient Babylonian history in particular.

History of liver anatomy: Mesopotamian liver clay models

A common method of divination in antiquity was the inspection of sacrificed animals. The liver was the single organ which summarized the custom of predicting the future among the Babylonians, Etruscans, Greeks and Romans.1 The liver was considered the site of the soul, the vital organ and the central place of all forms of mental and emotional activity. It was not until much later that the heart began to serve this function in these civilizations. The association between divination and anatomy came from the interest of the priests in locating the souls of men and animals. Therefore, theologians of antiquity became the first students of human and comparative anatomy. The Babylonian rituals of divination can be dated to the earliest period of Babylonian history, about 3000 years before the birth of Christ. It can therefore be stated that the study of anatomy began in that period, with the detailed analysis of the sheep liver. Although Mesopotamian clay liver models are part of the history of liver anatomy, few have survived to the present. Model ME92668, held at the Middle East Department of the British Museum, dates back to 2000BC (Figs 1,​,22). Figure 1 Visceral surface of the clay model Figure 2 Diafragmatic surface of the clay model Priests recognized that although the basic configuration of organs of the same type remained, two livers never looked the same. Prediction of the future was therefore based on specific findings of the liver surface. These priests developed sheep liver clay models that were used to instruct those aspiring to the priesthood. Through the study of Babylonian writing, several terms in this model were translated and many were later incorporated to current anatomical terminology. The right and left lobes were designated as ‘right and left wings of the liver’. The gallbladder fossa was called ‘the river edge of the liver’ and the umbilical fissure, ‘River of the liver’ or ‘gate of the palace.’ The caudate lobe was appropriately identified as the ‘middle of the liver’ and its processes described as papillary and pyramidal (caudate) of the ‘finger of the liver’ and ‘fruit’ or ‘lower’, respectively. The gallbladder was given the name ‘bitter part’. The hepatic duct was known as ‘output’ and the common bile duct as ‘the junction’. As might be expected, the porta hepatis was called ‘the gate’. In addition, the subsidiary hepatic ducts were specifically named ‘branches’ and the portal triads represented as ‘holes’, ‘passages’ or ‘weapons’. Because liver surgeons use surface anatomical landmarks on the liver to help perform procedures, ancient liver clay models should be considered part of the history of liver anatomy and surgery. Furthermore, modern liver anatomical terminology2 has its roots in the nomenclature used by Babylonians.

An Adventure of Great Dimension: The Launching of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (review)

Reviews21 1 An Adventure of Great Dimension: The Launching of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary. By Erica Reiner. Transactions of the American Philological Society 92.3. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. 2002. Pp. xvi + 140. $30.00. O; inly with the death of Erica Reiner (1924-2005) did I learn that she had written this memoir of the early days of one of the great reference works, the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (CAD). A generous obituary described the vast range of her scholarship: "Dr. Reiner's knowledge of Babylonian history of science was legendary among scholars" (Saxon 2005, A-25). Her association with the dictionary lasted for 44 years. She was editor-incharge from 1973 until her retirement in 1996 and continued to review and edit until the end of her life. So far, 23 volumes have been published, two more are in press, and the final volume is promised by the end of 2006. Reiner saw parallels between the CAD and the MiddleEnglish Dictionary (MED). Both were planned in thel920s; both began publishing in the mid1950s with a letter in the middle of the alphabet; both were finished at (nearly) the same time. She was happy to be present when DSNA met in Ann Arbor in 2001 to celebrate the completion of the MED, and in her book she mentions an influential visit she made in 1954 to Hans Kurath, the editor who first brought the MED to print. Subsequent participation in DSNA meetings included chats with Sherman M. Kuhn and Robert E. Lewis, Kurath's successors , and she recalls the value of those conversations to her and to her work. Adventure is a remarkable story of life inside the dictionary offices on the third-floor of the Oriental Institute in Chicago. For other dictionaries, we must rely on scattered remarks and highly circumspect memoirs to learn the inside work of lexicography. A telling detail in Herbert Morton's account of the editing of Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1961) suggests something of the austere chill of the work room in Springfield: Philip Gove communicated with his colleagues, even those in adjoining offices, by letter (Morton 1994, 72-73). Rarely, the historical record reveals the competition and acrimony that often accompany lexicography — for instance, Michael Adams's account of the unhappy collaboration of Sanford Brown Meech and Hope EmilyAllen while they were working at the MED and the Early Modern English Dictionary, respectively. As the CAD moved toward publication, the editorial board consisted of Ignace J. Gelb, Thorkildjacobsen, Benno Landsberger, and A. Leo Oppenheim . All four were eminent scholars, but it was not easy for them to work together . Oppenheim was determined to see the dictionary into print, but there were controversies over the format of entries. GeIb, an enthusiast of Leonard Bloomfield's version of structuralism, circulated a model entry that was roundly criticized for being impractical. This first step made Assyriologists skeptical, though Reiner believes that Gelb's schematic might have been a model for further work, but "not with the highly individualist staff of the CAD" 21 2 Reviews (16) . A second effort, consisting of a quire of the letter H, was prepared under Oppenheim's direction. One conscientious evaluator checked every single quotation and found "countless errors" (36). "The Chicago team was shocked" (36). Finally the first volume appeared in print, and outsiders were far more satisfied with the finished work than they had been with the specimens. Now the criticism came from inside the dictionary. "Thorkild Jacobsen ... having initially given his support to the project and to its director, found that he could not go along with it; tragically, he chose not simply to withdraw but to try to stop the project altogether" (39). His efforts were unstinting, and he attempted (without success) to draw the director of the Oriental Institute and the President of the University of Chicago to his side of the dispute. He even attempted to sabotage the idea of giving Reiner a tenured position, and, only after she had received two offers from Harvard, did the promotion take place. Though far more supportive, Benno Landsberger thought the schedule was too ambitious, and he objected vehemently to the "insane speed" of production (39...

Calcareous dunes of the United Arab Emirates and Noah's Flood: the postglacial reflooding of the Persian (Arabian) Gulf

Abstract Aeolian dunes cover most of the United Arab Emirates and a large part of the eastern Arabian Peninsula. Although these sands, as well as older aeolianites, are largely composed of quartz, there is a high percentage of detrital carbonate in them south of the Persian (Arabian) Gulf for more than 40 km; this percentage decreases inland. These carbonate grains consist mainly of marine bioclastic fragments and calcareous ooids, and were derived from the floor of the Persian Gulf, which was exposed during low sea level of the last glacial period. The postglacial rise in sea level rapidly reflooded the floor of the Persian Gulf, cutting off the source for these aeolian sediments. Between 12 and 6 ka, the sea transgressed more than 1000 km, inundating the extended route of the Tigris–Euphrates River and forcing people living on the exposed floor of the Gulf to abandon their settlements. Because of the varying rate of eustatic sea level rise, these waters at times flooded across the flat floor of the Persian Gulf at more than a kilometer per year. We proposed that the stories of a great flood, recorded in the Bible as Noah's Flood and in Babylonian history on clay tablets (excavated in the Tigris–Euphrates delta) as the Epic of Gilgamesh, are a record of this rapid postglacial flooding of the floor of the Persian Gulf.

Lunar Eclipse Times Recorded in Babylonian History

Commment du temps des babyloniens, les astronomes mathematiciens arrivaient-ils a mesurer les durees des phases des eclipses totales ou partielles de la lune?

Zabaya, an Early King of the Larsa Dynasty

Looking back at the period subsequent to the decline of the Ur III kings,' C. J. Gadd characterized it as one of the dimmest in Babylonian history.2 For the early of the dynasty we have the king lists.3 What is the currently known situation with regard to the first four Larsa kings listed there: Naplanum, Emisum, Samium, and Zabaya? D. O. Edzard as late as 19574 called them but passed over them, having nothing to say about them other than to discuss the linguistic affiliation of their names.5 However, W. W. Hallo in 1971 suggested that they never ruled, pointing out that the names at the beginning of the king lists must be interpreted differently from those starting with Gungunum. Of the first four rulers of the dynasty6 Hallo said: Its earliest members figure at the head of these lists not as ruling kings, but as ancestors, tracing their descent back to a certain Naplanum, well known as an Amorite from beyond Mari in the account texts of the time of Shu-Sin and Ibbi-Sin.' The origin of these four names appears to be mixed.s

On Studying Old Babylonian History: A Review Article

Previous articleNext article No AccessOn Studying Old Babylonian History: A Review ArticleNorman YoffeeNorman Yoffee Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Cuneiform Studies Volume 30, Number 1January 1978 A journal of ASOR Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/1359931 Views: 6Total views on this site Copyright 1978 American Schools of Oriental ResearchPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Old Babylonian Letters and Economic History A Review Article with a Digression on Foreign Trade

Old Babylonian Letters and Economic History A Review Article with a Digression on Foreign Trade

Old Babylonian Letters and Economic History

Old Babylonian Letters and Economic History

The Biblical Nimrod and the Kingdom of Eanna

IN THIS ARTICLE I am going to advance a hypothesis concerning the Biblical Nimrod, a man of Cushitic origin who became a Babylonian ruler. It has been suggested that Nimrod is identical with one of the kings of the first dynasty of Uruk, Gilgamesh (commonly) or Lugalbanda (Deimel). We have at present no certain historical reports of that old epoch. We know only the views of the Babylonian historians who left us the lists of Babylonian kings of the oldest times. The lists we have were written about 2000 B. C. Their truthfulness for later periods is generally proved by historic inscriptions from the time of Lugalzaggisi, king of Uruk. As for the older epoch the value of these lists is not yet certain. Besides, there are in the Babylonian literature some historical legends concerning the oldest kings of Uruk, but we have no means of learning their historical values. These conditions cannot encourage anyone to make an inquiry concerning the Biblical Nimrod. My reason for trying it lies in the curious notice that Nimrod was of Cushitic origin. In the Babylonian tradition we find Meskingasher, the founder of the first dynasty of Uruk, bearing some Hiamitic (Egyptian) features. Perhaps there is some connection between the Hamite of Uruk and the Cushite Nimrod. It is worth while to compare the Biblical notice of Nimrod with the views of the Babylonian historians concerning the first dynasty of Uruk. The results cannot be quite certain, but they can give some useful hints concerning the Old Babylonian history. The first book of the Bible says in the tenth chapter, vv. 8-12, as follows:

Babylonian Life and History. By Sir E. A. Wallis Budge.

<i>Babylonian Life and History</i>. By Sir E. A. Wallis Budge.

Babylonian Life and History

Babylonian Life and History

Note on Dr. Peters' Notes and Suggestions on the Early Sumerian Religion and Its Expression

THE TEXTS PUBLISHED in my Miscellaneous Babylonian Inscriptions are most of them extremely difficult, especially in their present fragmentary condition. I have read Dr. Peters' comments on them with much interest and am grateful to him for his attempt to elucidate their meaning from the knowledge gained by his experience in Babylonia. His observations in most instances commend themselves. It is a question whether he has not at times over-worked the liturgical idea. While I have that feeling in reading his notes, I am not prepared to say that he has. The object of the present note is to discuss Dr. Peters' suggestion that text No. 1 is a hymn or liturgy in part in praise of a king of Kesh, who had rebuilt the temple at Nippur. This possibility, though it occurred to me when editing the text, was not seriously entertained, because so little is known historically of Kesh, that such a consideration seemed to land us in an historical mist. The suggestion is, however, worthy of more serious consideration than was then given it. If it should turn out to point to an historical fact, it might open a new vista in Babylonian history. The ideogram employed in our text for Kesh is Brinnow, No. 10859 (= CT 11.49, 32 ab). The question is, does this ideogram designate a city that was later designated by another ideogram, or does it refer to a city never designated by another ideogram? If the latter alternative is true, then Kesh disappeared at the dawn of written history and we know practically nothi'ng about it. If the former is true, then it is possible that something of its later history is known, or at least ascertainable. Clay (Empire of the Amorites, p. 104) identifies Kesh with Opis. He does this on the authority of Thureau-Dangin, who in SAK, pp. 20, 21, read the ideogram UUU-Kesh. Later in his work, however, (p. 225 note d) Thureau-Dangin recognized UTJU as referring to Opis. Clay's identification is accordingly erroneous. Kesh is designated by quite a different ideogram. If Kesh were the same as Opis,

Assyrian Government of Dependencies

The labor member of the Belgian ministry, M. van der Velde, has drawn a parallel between the Assyrian methods of deportation and those practiced by the Germans. An orientalist has developed this theme with chapter and verse citation. Whatever our sympathies in this present world catastrophe and however close we find the analogy, the episode has undoubtedly excited a certain amount of curiosity as to the methods used by the Assyrians in the government of their dependencies. To the more scientific student there must be great interest in a system which furnished the model to the Persians, to the Hellenistic rulers, to the Romans, and so to the modern systems of provincial government.As in so many other phases of their civilization, the Assyrians built upon Babylonian foundations, and, as in so many other cases, the Assyrians profoundly modified what they took over. In truth, the Babylonian foundation was comparatively slight. At the beginning of Babylonian history we have the completely independent city state. As one conquered the other, there was no attempt at incorporation, and the patesi, who as vice regent of god on earth ruled the dependent state, was permitted complete autonomy, subject only to the payment of a small tribute and to certain acts which acknowledged foreign suzerainty.

XXX. Some Case-Tables from Tel-Loh

Though many tablets from Tel-loh have been published, both by the Trustees of the British Museum, the Berlin Museum, and others, but little has been written about their contents, the principal work upon the subject being Radau's most noteworthy Early Babylonian History, in which many of the tablets of the Very Rev. E. A. Hoffman's collection are dealt with—a collection apparently rich in rare dates. It has therefore seemed to me that it would be of interest to contribute a few notes upon a section of these documents, as far as I have been able to study them. The collection upon which I have been more especially engaged is that of Lord Amherst of Hackney, to whom I am indebted for kind permission to publish transcriptions and translations of two of these texts, for which I express my sincerest thanks.

Early Babylonian History. Hugo Radau

Previous articleNext article FreeBook NoticesEarly Babylonian History. Hugo Radau Ira M. PriceIra M. Price Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 17, Number 3Apr., 1901 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/369411 Views: 35 Journal History This article was published in The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures (1895-1941), which is continued by the Journal of Near Eastern Studies (1942-present). Copyright 1901 University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Early Babylonian History down to the end of the Fourth Dynasty of Ur, with an account of the E. A. Hoffman Collection of Babylonian Tablets in the General Theological Seminary, New York. By the Rev. Hugo Radau A.M., B.D., Ph.D., (New York: Oxford University Press, American Branch. London: Henry Frowde. 1900.)

Early Babylonian History down to the end of the Fourth Dynasty of Ur, with an account of the E. A. Hoffman Collection of Babylonian Tablets in the General Theological Seminary, New York. By the Rev. Hugo Radau A.M., B.D., Ph.D., (New York: Oxford University Press, American Branch. London: Henry Frowde. 1900.) - Volume 33 Issue 1

Babylonians and Assyrians: Life and Customs

THIS little book belongs to a projected series of volumes which we gather are intended to deal with the Babylonians and Assyrians and other allied Semitic races, “the object of the series” being, according to the prospectus, “to state its results in popularly scientific form.” The volume assigned to Prof. Sayce, which is the first of the series to make its appearance, describes the life and customs of the Babylonians and Assyrians, a subject which offers many points of interest to the general reader. Moreover, within recent years much new material has been published which has thrown considerable light on the social condition of the Babylonians and Assyrians during both the earlier and the later periods of their history. Thousands of clay tablets, which were unearthed at Telloh in Southern Babylonia and have found their way into the museums of Europe, contain temple-records, lists and inventories, receipts and tablets of accounts, and furnish a glimpse of the daily life of the early inhabitants of Babylonia at about 2500 B.C. The letters and commercial documents of the period of the First Dynasty of Babylon enable us to form a still more intimate acquaintance with the life of the Babylonians under some of the earliest of their Semitic kings; while the systematic publication of the legal and epistolary literature in the great collection of tablets from Kouyunjik has increased our knowledge of the social condition of Mesopotamia under the later Assyrian kings. Finally, the large collections of tablets of the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods, which are now available for study, make it possible to trace the development of laws and customs down to the latest periods of Babylonian history. There is, therefore, no lack of material on which to base a sketch of the manners and customs of the Babylonians and Assyrians.

Babylonian Chronology and History

Many attempts have been made to establish with a degree of accuracy the Babylonian chronology, but all have failed from want of sufficient documents. Previous to the Assyriological discoveries the historians depended mainly, if not altogether, on the relations of Herodotus and Ctesias, and both lived a long time after the Persian conquest of Babylon; mere travellers besides, and unacquainted with the language of the country, they were often imposed upon by their dragomans or misunderstood them.