Epic Of Creation Research Articles

Fortune-Telling in Mesopotamia

Previous articleNext article No AccessFortune-Telling in MesopotamiaErica ReinerErica Reiner Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Near Eastern Studies Volume 19, Number 1Jan., 1960 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/371554 Views: 21Total views on this site Citations: 12Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1960 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Deniz Atik, Damla Aktan, Ece Çam Fortune-telling as a leisure activity, World Leisure Journal 64, no.22 (May 2021): 142–155.https://doi.org/10.1080/16078055.2021.1919921 Andrew T. Creekmore III Landscape and Settlement in the Harran Plain, Turkey: The Context of Third-Millennium Urbanization, American Journal of Archaeology 122, no.22 (Dec 2021): 177–208.https://doi.org/10.3764/aja.122.2.0177Adam T. Smith and Jeffrey F. Leon Divination and Sovereignty: The Late Bronze Age Shrines at Gegharot, Armenia, American Journal of Archaeology 118, no.44 (Dec 2021): 549–563.https://doi.org/10.3764/aja.118.4.0549Francesca Rochberg The Heavenly Writing, 50 (Jan 2010).https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511617409Chaim Cohen The Biblical Priestly Blessing (Num. 6:24–26) in the Light of Akkadian Parallels, Tel Aviv 20, no.22 (Jul 2013): 228–238.https://doi.org/10.1179/tav.1993.1993.2.228John Boardman, I. E. S. Edwards, E. Sollberger, N. G. L. Hammond The Cambridge Ancient History, 20 (Mar 2008).https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521227179D. J. Wiseman Babylonia 605–539 B.C., (Jan 1992): 229–251.https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521227179.008M. A. Dandamaev Neo-Babylonian society and economy, (Jan 1992): 252–275.https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521227179.009Asger Aaboe Babylonian mathematics, astrology, and astronomy, (Jan 1992): 276–292.https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521227179.010Erica Reiner First-millennium Babylonian literature, (Jan 1992): 293–321.https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521227179.011 Piotr Michalowski On the Early History of the Ershahunga Prayer, Journal of Cuneiform Studies 39, no.11 (Nov 2018): 37–48.https://doi.org/10.2307/1359984 Nathan Sivin , Harry Woolf , and Phyllis Brooks Bosson Eighty-Fifth Critical Bibliography of the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (To 1 January 1960), Isis 51, no.33 (Oct 2015): 371–484.https://doi.org/10.1086/348933

Three Fragments: Era Myth; ḪAR-ra = ḫubullu; And a Text Related to the Epic of Creation

Three Fragments: Era Myth; ḪAR-ra = <i>ḫubullu</i>; And a Text Related to the Epic of Creation

The Mythological Background of Habakkuk, Chapter 3

IN THE first number of the Journal of Near Eastern Studies I published a study of the Psalm of Habakkuk in which I pointed out that the relationship of the chapter to the ancient myth of the divine combat had long been recognized, and that some scholars had actually identified allusions to the Babylonian Epic of Creation. I showed, however, that this clue had been inadequately exploited, for in reality the poem related a course of action which follows, with only slight deviation in order at a few points, the story of Marduk's acceptance by his colleagues, his arming, his advance to the fight with Tiamat, the course of the conflict, his victory, and the slaughter of the foe.' It became apparent then that, with the theme and the movement of the chapter thus made clear, the textual critic possessed a highly important clue with which to approach the problems that this passage manifests in more than normal profusion. I set myself to the task, and presented results which, I stated, were of varying cogency all the way from mere guesses to somewhat probable readings. I concluded with a few comments on the

Mesopotamian Laws and the Historian

THE STUDY of cuneiform tablets, in over a century of patient research, has opened up a new world which in terms of time covers several millennia-all of them before the beginning of the Christian era-and, as far as subject matter is concerned, every conceivable kind of human pursuit. Students of the Ancient Near East, when faced with cuneiform inscriptions, could not avail themselves of a stream of living tradition leading from the present back to the past. Everything that man may have known about them at some remote day, had long since been forgotten; what remained of the glory of the ancient empires lay buried in the ground. Thus modern scholars had to decipher the script anew, philologists had to reconstruct unknown languages, excavators had to search for the remains of forgotten civilizations, before the historian could begin to piece together into a more or less comprehensive picture the innumerable details which slowly emerged. Even today our knowledge of ancient Mesopotamia is still fragmentary. Only too often we lack reliable information, or must laboriously obtain it by fitting a fragment picked up here to another fragment recovered there. The outsider, who from his schooldays remembers Gilgamesh and the Epic of Creation, Hammurapi, Assurbanipal, and Nebuchadrezar, imagines that one has only to set to work on any mound in Mesopotamia and there will appear libraries of tablets inscribed with the literature of the ancients. This is an illusion. Not only does it require hard work and some kind of a sixth sense to find anything worthwhile, but libraries have been found so far only a very few times. For the most part, what is dug up-a small batch here, another one there-are the modest documents of daily life, the letters, deeds and contracts, the business notes and accounts which were kept in shops, in offices and in private houses. In consequence, cuneiformists are compelled to pay much attention to legal matters. From contracts, briefs and protocols, and from the formulae used, they try

New Fragments of the Commentaries on the Ritual of the Death and Resurrection of Bel

The texts which narrated the episodes of the death, burial in a tomb, the sojourn in Hades, and the resurrection of Marduk, have not been recovered. The contents of this remarkable myth, which transferred the Tammuz legends to Bel-Marduk, must be reconstructed from the rituals and commentaries. On it the Babylonians based a ritual or mystery play in which the entire myth was represented. The rubrics which contained full directions of the details of this play also remain unknown. If they are ever recovered they will correspond to the directions for the zagmuk or New Year's festival at Babylon and Erech. The only sources for reconstructing this mystery play are the commentaries of the scribes on the mythical meaning of each act in this play, corresponding to one fragment of a commentary on the ritual of the zagmuk at Babylon. Two large fragments of the commentary on the Death and Resurrection of Bêl as celebrated at Assur, are published by E. Ebeling, Keilschrifttexte aus Assur Religiösen Inhalts, Nos. 143 and duplicate, No. 219, both of which were used for an edition by Professor Zimmern. The writer gave an edition in his Babylonian Epic of Creation, pp. 34–49, together with two fragments from the library of Asurbanipal, Rm. 275 and K. 9138. Soon after the appearance of my book, Mr. C. J. Gadd found two more fragments of the same collection in the British Museum, K. 6330, which joins K. 9138, and K. 6359. Both fragments are published here, by permission of the Trustees of the Museum. As with the previously published fragments no connected text can be extracted from them. In my notes to the transcription, the passages in the large Assur texts which seem to be parallels have been noted; any new information on this remarkable myth and ceremony which can be gleaned from them has been indicated in the notes. At Assur the national of god Assyria replaced BS1- Marduk in the ceremony, but the texts of the commentaries were undoubtedly copied from the original tablets at Babylon. The contents leave no doubt at all but that the mystery play refers to Bel-Marduk.

Babylonian HymnsBabylonian Penitential Psalms, to Which Are Added Fragments of the Epic of Creation from Kish. S. Langdon

Babylonian Hymns<i>Babylonian Penitential Psalms, to Which Are Added Fragments of the Epic of Creation from Kish</i>. S. Langdon

The Babylonian Epic of Creation. Restored from the recently recovered Tablets of Aššur. Transcription, Translation, and Commentary by S. Langdon, M.A. 8vo, pp. 227. Oxford: at the Clarendon Press, 1923.

The Babylonian Epic of Creation. Restored from the recently recovered Tablets of Aššur. Transcription, Translation, and Commentary by S. Langdon, M.A. 8vo, pp. 227. Oxford: at the Clarendon Press, 1923. - Volume 3 Issue 4

The Babylonian Epic of Creation, Restored from the Recently Recovered Tablets from Aššur; Transcription, Translation and Commentary

The Babylonian Epic of Creation, Restored from the Recently Recovered Tablets from Aššur; Transcription, Translation and Commentary