7. Annotated bibliography

In this essay, the author traces the history of the major versions (Old Babylonian, eleven-tablet, and twelve-tablet) of the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh and examines the development of meaning from one version to the next. Abusch discusses the changing emphases in contents and sensitivity of the three versions of the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh: in particular, he offers a detailed analysis of the different reactions of the hero in front of the death of his friend Enkidu.

In all three versions, Gilgamesh seeks immortality as a human being, and yet he always comes to the conclusion that his desire cannot be accomplished. In the Old Babylonian version, he has to accept the fact that immortality may only be obtained within the bosom of the family, by giving life to children who will represent him in the future. In the eleven-tablet version, he ultimately becomes a responsible ruler whose wisdom leads to the creation of such achievements that will outlast his own reign. Finally, in the twelve-tablet version, he prepares himself to become a god whose reign is the Netherworld itself, and whose task is to judge the dead for eternity.

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

«This volume is about the history, literature, ritual, and thought associated with ancient Mesopotamian witchcraft. With chapters on the changing forms and roles of witchcraft beliefs, the ritual function, form, and development of the Maqlû text (the most important ancient work on the subject), and the meaning of the Maqlû ceremony, as well as the ideology of the final version of the text. The volume significantly contributes to our understanding of the Maqlû text, and the reconstruction of the development of thought about witchcraft and magic in Mesopotamia.» (author’s abstract)

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

Decades in the making, this massive four volume work brought together by Abusch et. al. is a new edited comprehensive collection of relevant Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft ritual texts (i.e, those which were created to ward off the effects of witchcraft, or black magic). The authors describe the nature of anti-witchcraft literature (in essence, a subsidiary of divination) in brief, but succinct detail at the outset of the first volume. They then proceed to organize the massive text corpus in a somewhat ‘non user-friendly’ way. Texts from the same collection of texts (named as Groups) are interspersed throughout the three volumes (the fourth volume is a collection of the glossary and indices). The interested reader will get the impression as to how normative these texts were; individuals (who had the resources), regularly consulted the religious technicians to determine which ritual text would help them in their romantic, personal, business, or legal dealings.

– Mark Chavalas, 2020

This volume brings together the proceedings of a conference on Mesopotamian magic and divination which was held in 1995 at the ‘Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences’: the result is a most useful collection of some significant contributions to the study of Mesopotamian magic - of which we provide a very short synthesis below.

The book opens with an article by W. van Binsbergen and F. Wiggermann’s (“Magic in history: A theoretical perspective, and its application to ancient Mesopotamia”, pp. 1-34) in which the authors discuss the role of magic within the Mesopotamian society. In “The poetry of magic,” (pp. 35-48). N. Veldhuis offers an analysis of various Old-Babylonian incantations used in magic rituals in order to influence the course of the earthly events. M.J. Geller’s “Freud and Mesopotamian magic” (pp. 49-55) attempts to assess the psychological impact of magic both on Mesopotamian society as a whole, and on the individual’s psyche. A similar topic is the center of the following article, written by M. Stol (“Psychosomatic suffering in ancient Mesopotamia,” pp. 57-68). J.A. Scurlock’s “Physician, Exorcist, Conjurer, Magician: A Tale of Two Healing Professionals” (pp.69-79) investigates and tries to better delineate the two professions attested in ancient Mesopotamia - that of the physician and of the pharmacist.

Tz. Abusch, “Witchcraft and the anger of the personal god” (pp. 83-121) describes how different evils and calamities that were originally attributed to entities of the divine realm, especially to the anger of the personal god, came to be interpreted as induced by witches. In “How the Babylonians protected themselves against calamities announced by omens” (pp. 123-129), S.M. Maul demonstrates how each stage of the Mesopotamian mental construction of evil and protection against evil had its material counterpart in the namburbi ritual procedures. A. Livingstone’s “The magic of time” (pp. 131-137) examines some temporal expressions found in magical texts, while K. van der Toorn (“Magic at the cradle: A reassessment”, pp. 139-147) focuses on a small group of incantations against crying babies. E. A. Braun-Holzinger, in “Apotropaic figures at Mesopotamian temples in the third and second millennia” (pp. 149-172) analyzes the apotropaic figures set up at the facades of Mesopotamian public buildings; in “The poetics of spells: Language and structure in Aramaic incantations of Late Antiquity. 1: The divorce formula and its ramifications” (pp. 173-195)

Sh. Shaked discusses the magical formulae attested in divorce spells used to drive away demons from possessed patients. In her article “Interrelations between Mandaic lead rolls and incantation bowls” (pp. 197-209) Ch. Miiller-Kessler suggests that a continuation of an older Babylonian magical tradition may be recognized in some parts of these Mandaic magic texts of Late Antiquity. I.L. Finkel’s “On some dog, snake and scorpion incantations” (pp. 213-250) offers the edition for 16 Old- and Late-Babylonian incantations against venomous and dangerous creatures. A. Cavigneaux, “A scholar’s library in Meturan? With an edition of the tablet H 72 (Textes de Tell Haddad VII)” (pp.251-273) examines the Old-Babylonian literary lot excavated in Me-turan - while W.W. Hallo, in “More incantations and rituals from the Yale Babylonian Collection” (pp. 275-289) offers editions with copies of two Old-Babylonian Lamastu-incantations and a late astronomical omen tablet. The last contribution to this volume is W.G. Lambert’s “Marduk’s Address to the Demons” (pp. 291-296), in which the scholar outlines and analyzes in detail the different sections of the text.

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

This dictionary displays many entries in alphabetical order dedicated to many aspects related to the Bible, including historical, philological, and social aspects, with some insights on Ancient Near Eastern culture. The entries are correlated with many colourful plates and geo-historical maps, helping the reader in better contextualizing the topics described in the textual sections.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This contribution to the Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls investigates the meaning and role of horoscopes found at Qumran, specifically on scroll 4Q186.

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

In this article Albright stresses the limitations with comparing «religious literature of the Ancient Near East», emphasizing the need for philological reliability. He assigns three qualifiers needed before achieving a legitimate basis for interpretation: decipherment, philological study, and “detailed dialectic and syntactic research”. Citing philological developments in Egyptology and Assyriology, with some advancement in Anatolian languages, Albright notes that the study of Hittite and West Semitic has not yet achieved the same status. Thus, religious interpretation should remain limited as the grounds for «philological interpretation» are minimal. Albright also provides concise summaries of philological advancements in Ugaritic and South Arabian.

Juxtaposing developments made within these ancient cultures, Albright is heavily critical of methodologies within Old Testament studies, often citing blatant disregards by notable OT scholars. Albright directly attacks and illustrates the limitations of «Hegelianism», notably the evolutionist models reflecting positivism as the preferred methodology within the «philosophy of histories» prevalent in OT scholarship. Following this extensive critique, Albright goes on to give a systematic analysis comparing «religious qualities of the Ancient Near East», citing cross-cultural similarities while also highlighting notable differences.

– Iman Nagy, 2020

An interesting paper about possible contacts and relationships between Canaanite-Phoenician and Hebrew wisdom traditions

PDF available online on Brill website.

– Marco De Pietri, 2023

This volume publishes in extenso the text of many scrolls found at Qumran, in the Judaean Desert, particularly part of those found in Cave 4Q.

The parchment scrolls from Qumran include biblical texts of the Old Testament (also apocrypha), sectarian sources, and various other texts including comments to the Bible (the Hebrew Tanakh, but mostly the Torah).

They present sometimes variants to the Masoretic Text and offer a useful insight on the cultural milieu of the people living at Qumran, a very peculiar and specific Jewish group.

[The volume also published a scroll (4Q186) containing horoscopes, a king of texts unattested elsewhere in Hebrew canonical literature]

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The paper briefly displays the development (during the Middle Ages) of the euhemerism as a way of interpreting history of religious phaenomena, and the nature of gods as perceived during the classical times and the later Middle Ages. According to the Alphandéry, during this last period, many intellectuals read the classical authors trying to find in their compositions (both in prose and in verses), the origin of specific religious (and consequently, also literary) features (such as the ‘hermeticism’, the magic, and the alchemy), sketching (throughout many literary exemplifications) a useful history of euhemerism.

[Euhemerism is a topic discussed by G. Buccellati in his volume; the reader will find in this paper a useful historical reconstruction, along with a critical comment, of the development of euhemerism, particularly during the Middle Ages.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This volume offers the transliteration and translation of texts related to the figure of Dumuzi (specifically, the composition known as Dumuzi’s Dream), particularly focusing on the analysis of formulaic structure of the text, presenting textual variants and some philological notes; the aim of the contribution is to offer a complete description of Dumuzi, insisting on his role in Mesopotamian mythological sources.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

In this paper, Alster describes a peculiar aspect of Sumerian wisdom texts, i.e. the use of proverbs and satirical expressions. The study underlines how humour, irony, and sarcasm are deliberately applied by ancient scribes as «indirect means of communication which only make sense when seen in a tacit opposition to something else» (p. 201). The rhetorical use of proverbs and satirical expressions aims at provoking an indirect effect on the reader: «The effect of the indirect expression is much stronger than that of the direct one, but of course only if it is understood by the one to whom it is addressed. An even sharper effect will appear if the message is understood by a third person, but not by the one to whom it is addressed, or if it is placed in the mouth of one who does not himself understand it» (p. 201).

[This paper well exemplifies the mindset of ancient Sumerian scribes in writing wisdom compositions, recurring also to rhetorical expedients which allowed them to obtain an indirect, stronger, and sometimes alienating effect on the reader.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The volume, after an introduction about the definition of Mesopotamian wisdom literature, collects many wisdom texts from ancient Sumer, including Sumerian, Akkadian, Hurrian compositions of different genres: instructions, counsels, proverbs, fables, and folktales. A final glossary offers to the reader a list of the main terms (in Sumerian, Akkadian, Hurrian, and Urartian) related to wisdom sources.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

«The article contains a summary of sources for the Sumerian composition Dumuzi’s Dream that have become known since the edition by Alster (1972). A particularly interesting tablet from Susa published by Durand (1990) with many unusual syllabic writings is edited in its entirety. Two new sources from the California Museum of Ancient Art in Los Angeles are published for the first time, resulting in an improved reconstruction of lines 71-89. Two sources from the Schøyen collection in Oslo are also published here for the first time. One of these adds considerably to the reconstruction of the same part, and differs from the main sources in adding some lines that cannot yet be fully reconstructed» (author’s abstract).

The contribution can be considered as a continuation of the previous publication Alster 1972 Dumuzi, presenting new sources related to the topic of Dumuzi’s Dream.

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This book describes the origins and development of rituals from the antiquity to the present, together with their meaning and functions, stressing similarities and differences. A specific focus is on aspects related to Mesopotamian rituals, considered among the first attestation of this religious aspect recorded by writing.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

“How and when did religions originate? The study of prehistoric art is revolutionizing our knowledge of prehistoric religions. The rock art sites have been places of worship and tribal identity for millennia, serving as archives of myths, beliefs and rites, all of which evolved, diversified and acquired regional and ethnic features. Visual art, however, is not the earliest evidence of the presence of religion. Archeological discoveries of burial customs and burial goods accompanying the dead in their journey to the other world, and newly discovered prehistoric shrines, reveal concepts and beliefs going back even before the origins of art. When and how were the first religious concepts and rituals conceived? And how did religions acquire their present shape? As presented in this book, the evolution of archeological and anthropological evidence and analysis contribute a new look to the origins and history of religion.” [Editor’s summary]

– Jonah Lynch, 2020

«The study of signs, portents observed in the physical and social worlds indicating the will of supernatural agents and the course of future events, was undoubtedly important in all ancient cultures. The first written evidence for a concept of signs, however, comes from cuneiform texts of ancient Mesopotamia. The study of signs from gods was vitally important for ancient Mesopotamians throughout their history. … Subsequently, consulting the will of gods is a well-attested practice in ancient Mesopotamia, accompanying every significant political or private action or undertaking.» (from editor’s Introduction on p. 1)

[This volume collects many contributions regarding ancient Mesopotamian divinatory practices, aiming at grasping an interpretation of signs which were considered as a manifestation of gods’ will.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

Author’s summary: The biblical god is often an angry god. The lexical fields of divine wrath as well as the wide number of references leave no doubt about this statement. However, the biblical god manifests no such anger in the flood story whereas in Mesopotamian sources the flood itself has come to symbolize divine wrath. Even more, it is divine repentance that enacts the biblical flood and the destruction of humanity. It is the object of this communication to analyze the literary structures and the narrative function of wrath and repentance in the Mesopotamian flood story Atra-hasis and the biblical flood narrative (Gn 6–9:17), compare them and show their ideological and theological differences.

[Anthonioz emphasizes the differences between the Biblical flood narrative in Gn 6 and the Mesopotamian flood story Atra-hasis. She describes the two main interpretations of the Mesopotamian flood. First, the moral cause that men carried in themselves the rebellion of the Igigi and made ‘noise’ (see Buccellati When 8.5) (rigmu). Second, that there were too many people, and that their ‘noise’ was proportional to their number, so they were killed in order to reduce the disturbance. The myth follows by explaining Enlil’s actions as deriving from a paroxysm of anger toward another god, Enki. The flood is later mitigated because of the action of the goddess. Note that in all of this, anger and repentance in the god do not refer to man as their object or real cause. They serve more of a «narrative purpose». (p. 306)

The Biblical story is quite different. The cause of the flood is sin, a direct and personal affront to the creator. (See Buccellati When chapter 8.) YHWH does not become angry; he simply responds to corruption with destruction. Human ‘noise’ or multiplication is not the cause of his action, so much so that after the flood, he repeats the commandment to multiply. The flood happens «in order to never happen again» (p. 310), and signals the end of divine anger. The many occurrences of divine anger later in the Bible happen only after the alliance on Sinai, in reference to human disobedience.]

– Jonah Lynch, 2020

This volume aims to investigate the way divine speech is articulated and mediated in various societies of the past by making use of a comparative approach. It has a strong focus, thus, on the ‘materialization’ of divine speech and the importance of artefacts as media. Two contributions are particularly relevant for Buccellati’s discussion on prophecy in Ancient Mesopotamia and the Bible.

Martti Nissinen (“Oracles as Artefacts: The Material Aspect of Prophecy”, pp. 49-64) shares with Buccellati’s approach a particular attention towards the temporal and cultural gap that exists between the modern readers and the people who produced and used the original texts. In this essay, he gives a brief presentation of four case-studies: an oracle collection from Nineveh; the Deir Alla inscription; the compilation of inscriptions from the Phrygian Hierapolis; and the scrolls containing “biblical” texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls. He considers these sources as material objects which are ultimately the results of a process of communication starting from the (possible) prophetic performance, the writing of the text to the audience, and the afterlife of the artefact carrying the message.

Stéphanie Anthonioz (“Biblical Prophecy: Writing and Media Associated”, pp. 65-80) opens her contribution with a definition of prophecy: «when a person, through some cognitive experience (vision, audition, apparition, dream or else) becomes the recipient of a divine revelation and is conscious to be sent to reveal it by speech or symbolical gesture to a precise audience.» (p. 65) She is aware, however, that this is an ‘-etic’ definition, which highlights the principle of communication upon which the prophetic practice is based. Prophecy, she maintains, is subject to a continuous recontextualizations, linked to its transmission - and the question of the medium becomes essential to the very definition of prophecy and of its function. The author, thus, addresses the question of the relation between the prophetic word and its medium in biblical texts, analysing two specific instances: the book of the law as divine speech revealed to Moses, and prophetic books in relation with the scrolls when these are textually referred to.

PDF available here

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

This volume collects the acts of a convention held in Bergamo, Italy in 1996. The five parts of the volume cover main areas and themes in Eliade’s production: the geographical and historical context of Eliade’s work; folklore and ethnographic work; eastern religious cultures; the religious history of the west; and a critical analysis of some of Eliade’s major categories (sacred, hierophany, archetype, symbol, homo religiosus).

See also Mander 1998 Prospettive; Faivre 1995 Ambiguita; Spineto 1998.

– Jonah Lynch, 2020

Beginning with a royal inscription from Gudea, thrones belonging to many gods were worshipped in temples during every period of Mesopotamian history. This article discusses the importance of divine thrones in Mesopotamian religious imagery and how this cultic practice can elucidate understanding of religious belief. Despite being listed in royal inscriptions and other textual sources, the author notes that material culture is the common basis for interpreting religious imagery as textual evidence is limited to de facto statements of name and length of reign (despite some descriptions of throne designs). Citing royal inscriptions that describe the manufacturing of thrones, Arkhipov suggests an investigation to correlate materials mentioned with iconography.

Information from the Old Babylonian Mari archives mentions a throne dedicated to Dagan of Terqa was constructed during the reign of Zimri-Lim. In addition to a letter from Zimri-Lim’s secretary, the throne is mentioned in two letters and 16 accounting documents from Mari - all of which describe the illustrious manufacturing process and raw material materiality of the throne with emphasis on gold, silver, and precious stones used. The letter cites seven goldsmiths tasked with construction, four mentioned by name, all of whom are known from other accounting documents detailing the processes of their manufacturing and the corresponding information with respect to materials used. Arkhipov offers a hypothetical sketch of how the throne may have looked in accordance with descriptions made from texts where the throne of Dagan is mentioned, in addition to correlations made from iconography.

The article sheds light on throne construction and the relevance to religious iconography. Arkhipov lists the Akkadian names given to significant materials used in the construction of thrones. His methodology utilizes text and material culture to reproduce a hypothetical sketch.

– Iman Nagy, 2020

A volume treating the affective dimension of human behavior, especially in the Yoruba population, as the basis for a wide-ranging theory of artistic expression. In the present context, the work’s title has been borrowed by Buccellati as a way of speaking about the divine.

– Jonah Lynch, 2021

[Author’s summary] The narrative of Num 11:4-34 emphasizes the particular authority and prophetic status of Moses. It thus contradicts the hierocratic perspective and the overall composition of the book of Numbers, and can be connected to texts which, in the formation of the Pentateuque, underline Moses’ specific prophetic authority. Verses 26-29 of the pericope however express a reservation regarding mosaic mediation of the gift of the spirit, and thus contests the scribes’ claim to consider the Torah as the exclusive expression of revelation.

– Jonah Lynch, 2020

Asad challenges the category of belief and of religion itself. The author rejects essentialist definitions of religion and advocates an entirely different conceptual and methodological framework from that developed by symbolic anthropology. He is more concerned with power and discipline, and in fact he begins with the assumption that religion and power cannot be separated - stating that «this separation of religion from power is a modern Western norm, the product of a unique post-Reformation history.» In order to prove his theory, Asad starts from Clifford Geertz’s “Religion as a Cultural System” (Geertz 1973 Religion Cultural System), maintaining that his intention «is to try to identify some of the historical shifts that have produced our concept of religion as the concept of a transhistorical essence». Asad claims that there cannot be «a universal definition of religion, not only because its constituent elements and relationships are historically specific, but because that definition is itself the historical product of discursive processes.»

He therefore analyses Geertz’s definition of religion to prove that «a transhistorical definition of religion is not viable.» Asad sees the end of the eighteenth century as the moment in which the very idea that religion is essentially a matter of symbolic meanings linked to ideas of general order (expressed through either or both rite and doctrine) ultimately arose as part of the Christian history. In his own words, from Kant onwards «From being a concrete set of practical rules attached to specific processes of power and knowledge, religion has come to be abstracted and universalized.»

Asad ultimately maintains that «Geertz’s treatment of religious belief, which lies at the core of his conception of religion, is a modern, privatized Christian one because and to the extent that it emphasizes the priority of belief as a state of mind rather than as constituting activity in the world.»

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

The present publication is divided into 5 chapters about gender of divinities:

Chapter 1, “Gender Theory and Issues” (gender categories, changing gender, marginalization of goddesses);

Chapter 2, “Plethora of Female Deities” (processes of syncretism, fusion, fission and mutation; first stage of profusion followed by a second stage of recession and by a third one of conflation; general trends);

Chapter 3, “Facets of Change” (the case of Ninhursaga and related mythological messages);

Chapter 4, “Images” (image and religion; visualizing deities; statues, terra-cotta figurines, seals and their role in visualization; power of presence);

Chapter 5, “Epilogue” (summary of the previous chapters).

[The volume discusses the description and the definition of the gender of ancient Mesopotamian divinities, displaying their singular features and their physical representations.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

«Standing at the very foundation of monotheism, and so of Western culture, Moses is a figure not of history, but of memory. As such, he is the quintessential subject for the innovative historiography Jan Assmann both defines and practices in this work, the study of historical memory – a study, in this case, of the ways in which factual and fictional events and characters are stored in religious beliefs and transformed in their philosophical justification, literary reinterpretation, philological restitution (or falsification), and psychoanalytic demystification. To account for the complexities of the foundational event through which monotheism was established, Moses the Egyptian goes back to the short-lived monotheistic [henotheistic; mDP] revolution of the Egyptian king Akhenaten (1360-1340 BC). Assmann traces the monotheism of Moses to this source, then shows how his followers denied the Egyptians any part in the origin of their beliefs and condemned them as polytheistic idolaters. Thus began the cycle in which every ‘counter-religion,’ by establishing itself as truth, denounced all others as false. Assmann reconstructs this cycle as a pattern of historical abuse, and tracks its permutations from ancient sources, including the Bible, through Renaissance debates over the basis of religion to Sigmund Freud’s Moses and Monotheism» (after book’s presentation online).

[The book faces the discussion of the role of history, fiction, and memory in the construction and build-up of a religious, monotheistic thought. Despite the Egyptian apports on Hebrew monotheism and the history of Exodus from Egypt is still on debate (cf. e.g. Liverani 2009 Oltre), this book well sets and critically discusses the fundamental questions still opened on this topic.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2021

«This paper focuses on such initiatic aspects of the Netherworld. Especially two poems composed in the Standard Babylonian dialect of Akkadian, the Standard Babylonian Version of the Epic of Gilgamesh, a work long ingrained in the Mesopotamian religious consciousness, and the poem known as the Underworld Vision of an Assyrian Prince, may be thought to shed light on this more covert perception of the Netherworld» (p. 67).

[This paper helps the reader in better understanding the meaning of the Underworld Vision of an Assyrian Prince, a text mentioned by G. Buccellati to describe the ancient Mesopotamian perspective on the Netherworld.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The author’s purpose is to focus, within the realm of ancient Mesopotamian religion, on the cosmology and mysticism of the melammu - which is defined as «a dazzling radiance of a fearful sort associated with certain divine beings and objects» (p. 295). Ataç believes that, in ancient Mesopotamian literature, a few instances may be identified in which an individual exposed to the sight of the melammu undergoes such a religious experience that he/she is ultimately transformed; the author also maintains that the mythical description of the usurpation of melammu from one deity to another actually alludes to shifts within the perceived cosmic power structure. In order to explain and strenghten his argument, Ataç makes use of parallels from the mythology and literature of ancient Greece.

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

The paper focuses on the different meanings of the Sumerogram AK, generally translated as ‘to do, to build, etc.’, and expressions compounded with this verb.

[This contribution is relevant to the discussion on the Sumerian expression ša₃ zi-ga (= šaziga) AK, ‘to elevate the heart’ = ‘to provoke sexual (male) desire’, discussed by G. Buccellati in his volume.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This handbook contains many references to many ritual practices attested in the Bible, compared with similar or antithetic ritual traditions in the Ancient Near East.

[The volume allows a comparative approach on the figure and function of rituals, distinguishing their roles according to their specific background.]

PDF preview available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2021

A volume very useful to better understand some dynamics explained by G. Buccellati in section 2.6, offering archaeological examples from Çatal-Höyük (for which cf. also Mellaart 1967 Catal and Hodder 2010 Emergence).

On the topic of the “goddess and the bull”, cf. also Mes-Rel/Cauvin 2008 Birth.

– Marco De Pietri, 2023

This article explores the theme of the «sleeping God» as it appears in different Ancient Near Eastern Motifs. Batto contrasts the themes of God(s) sleeping, arising, and exacting divine reign during the night, to instances in «Psalms», «Canaanite» and «Mesopotamian» traditions. Batto illustrates his stance clearly, suggesting that the biblical motif directly reflects a more ancient Near Eastern origin. He suggests that two principals properly characterize the sleeping god motif: A) “rest as a divine preogrative” and B) “sleeping as a symbol of divine rule”. Batto cites instances from Mesopotamian/Ancient Near Eastern stories wherein «cries» awaken sleeping gods, intimating that this trope may reflect periods of hardship (famine, drought, etc.). Despite mentioning texts and traditions from an array of cultures within the Near East, Batto’s focus remains with the «Enuma Elish» and the «Chaoskampf» motif. Building on this, he contrasts these tropes with those in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, making direct correlations to Chaoskampf motifs that he believes are utilized to convey the need for God’s intervention, his divine authority, and his effectiveness - permeated by rest.

– Iman Nagy, 2020

Author summary: The mythical structure of the Primeval History offers an image of God which seems at first glance to admit a God who repents his acts of formation and world ordering. Gen 2-4 describes, however, a dynamic God, moved, motivated and pushed by needs of human and world. God is changing by acting in a process-related way. Instead of an anthropomorphic notion of God (in the sense of «repentance» or «failing»), the narration presents God in an anthropo-praxis («changing of mind») pattern within a narrative function.

[Bauks’ idea is that in Gn 2-4 God changes his mind several times, to accommodate the choices made by men. While in the Mesopotamian parallel myths it is the gods who make decisions and change the course of the story (as is somewhat typical in polytheism, the gods are like copies of men), in Genesis it is men and women who do so. God is represented as completing his creation little by little (p. 333) and he thereby flexibly permits other freedoms to coexist with his own, and guarantee an order that can last in time.]

– Jonah Lynch, 2020

«Five of the nine essays in this volume concern the Roman Republic and Empire. Pagan Priests opens with Mary Beard’s “Priesthood in the Roman Republic”, followed by John North’s “Diviners and Divination in Rome” (also Republican in focus). Three pieces by Richard Gordon on Roman Imperial religion close the work: “From Republic to Principate: Priesthood, Religion and Ideology”; “The Veil of Power: Emperors, Sacrificers and Benefactors”; and “Religion in the Roman Empire: The Civic Compromise and its Limits”. Classical Athens, Ptolemaic Memphis, the Babylonian priesthood and Mycenaean Pylos each receive one chapter, sandwiched between the Roman bits» (review by T.C. Brennan, Bryn Mawr College, on Bryn Mawr Classical Review).

[Within this book dedicated to the topic of ‘pagan priesthood’, a chapter specifically deals with the role of religious power in ancient Babylon.]

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The author discusses and recontextualises in this contribution the very definition of Wisdom literature in ancient Mesopotamia, also considering ancient Sumerian and Akkadian (and also Hebrew) terms which could be translated as ‘wisdom (literature)’. Throughout the analysis of some of the most important literary compositions on this theme (such as the Ludlul bēl nēmeqi, passages from the Epic of Gilgamesh, the so-called Babylonian Theodicy, and also prayers, hymns, invocations, and rituals).

[This contribution, published in the volume Clifford 2007 Wisdom, helps in re-defining the very concept of ‘wisdom literature’ according to ancient Mesopotamian background and mindset, by applying a kind of -emic approach to the analysis of ancient literary sources.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

«The view of ancient Israelite religion as monotheistic has long been traditional in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, religions that have elaborated in their own way the biblical image of a single male deity. But recent archaeological findings of texts and images from the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah and their neighbourhood offer a quite different impression. Two issues in particular raised by these are the existence of a female consort, Asherah, and the implication for monotheism; and the proliferation of pictorial representations that may contradict the biblical ban on images. Was the religion of ancient Israel really as the Bible would have us believe? This volume provides a comprehensive introduction to these issues, presenting the relevant inscriptions and discussing their possible impact for Israelite monotheism, the role of women in the cult, and biblical theology» (summary on Bloomsbury).

[This book is noteworthy for the analysis of historical sources about the figure of the goddess Asherah, considered as a paredra of YHWH, a topic also discussed by G. Buccellati in his volume.]

PDF preview available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This volume explores little known aspects of religion as it intersects with politics in ancient Mesopotamia, biblical Israel, the Qumran community, and Roman Palestine, from the second millennium BC to the early centuries AD. Topics include the Bible as a political document, the cultic calendar of Ur, Mesopotamian witchcraft in an increasingly urbanized society, and the Christianizing of cities in the Roman Empire.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

“This contribution mentions Urkesh in connection with Abraham’s family, suggesting an equation of Urkesh with Terah’s homeland, i.e. Ur-Kesh, read as ‘Ur of the Chaldee’. The author also discusses the possible location of ancient Urkesh. For a short while, in the winter 2008, the conclusions reached by the author found their way into the Urkesh entry of Wikipedia. The contributors who provided these additions used the sigla Tomakiv and Hosnann38. A representative text version, dated February 20, 2008, reads as follows: “Urkesh, Ur-Kesh is often identified by schoolars as originated from Ur-Kesed (English “Ur of the Chaldee”), where “kesed” is a Chaldean name of the Chaldees”. Abraham and his family were originally from the city of Ur. His father, Terah, came from Ur of the Chaldees Mesopotamia which was under the rule of the Chaldeans – although Josephus, Islamic tradition, and Jewish authorities like Maimonides all concur that Ur of the Chaldees was in Northern Mesopotamia identified with Urkesh or with nearby Urfa, or in Urartu” [after Giorgio Buccellati’s summary and abstract on Urkesh.org/E-Library].

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2021

«If one starts from the principle that the gods are many, the motivations for affirming that the gods of others are false gods or demons is removed. Within our societies, adopting the mental schemes proper to polytheism would certainly reduce the levels of conflict between the different monotheistic religions and their internal subdivisions.» 2000 years of monotheism have made us used to think that God cannot be but one, exclusive, true. On the contrary, ancient polytheism foresaw the possibility of making the gods of different cultures correspond to each other (the Greek Artemis to the Roman Diana, the Egyptian Isis to the Greek Athena), and thus welcome foreign gods into its own pantheon. This open position meant that the ancient world did not see the religious violence that has bloodied, and still bloodies, monotheistic cultures. Is it possible to draw on the resources of polytheism today in order to render easier and more serene the relationships between various religions? [Editor’s summary]

– 2020

These publications offer information and description of cuneiform inscriptions from Kouyunjik (Nineveh). Supplemented by King 1914 Catalogue.

[These volumes are used as basic reference for cuneiform tablets mentioned in section SOURCES.]

Vol. 1 : PDF available here Vol. 3 : PDF available here Vol. 4 : PDF available here Vol. 5 : PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2021

Bianchi’s article presents his position regarding the study of religion using a historical and comparative methodology. He engages alternative methods, and concludes that “only historical comparison will progressively detect the ‘historical universal’ which we call religion.” (p. 67)

– Jonah Lynch, 2021

Bianchi’s short article summarizes years of defense of the notion of “history” and “history of religions” in the context of the International Association for the History of Religions at a time when this approach was heavily criticized.

– Jonah Lynch, 2021

«The akitu festival is one of the oldest recorded religious festivals in the world, celebrated for several millennia throughout ancient Mesopotamia. Yet, the akitu was more than just a religious ceremony; it acted as a political device to ensure the supremacy of the king, the national god, and his capital city. Using tools of social anthropology and ritual analysis, this book presents a detailed reconstruction of the festival events and its attendant rituals to demonstrate how the festival became a propagandistic tool wielded by the monarchy and ruling classes. The akitu festival demonstrates the effectiveness of religion as a political tool.» (author’s abstract)

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

This volume introduces the study of polytheistic religions of the Ancient Near East according to a historical and comparative methodology. It allows to look at the various expressions of religion as fundamental elements for understanding each specific civilization, which in the formulation of religious structure manifests the definition of its own cultural identity.

– Marco De Pietri, 2024

This contribution publishes some Mesopotamian šà.zi.ga texts, specific potency incantations. Some of these texts are mentioned by G. Buccellati in his book on Mesopotamian religion, specifically in Appendix 14.

[The book is listed in this bibliography since it is used as the basic reference to šà.zi.ga texts in G. Buccellati’s volume.]

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This book describes the nature and meaning of offerings to the gods in Babylon and Israel, describing the many things offered to the deities and distinguishing between the concepts of offering and sacrifice.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

An analysis of the biblical story of the tower of Babel, seen as the condemnation of the builders who transgress «the biblical law for which man can name everything, but not himself» (p. 189), seeming thus to «arrive, naming himself, to a direct link with his own essence, and clumsily imitate in this way the creative action of God» (p. 191). Quoting Petrosino: «one wanted to mimic the Word with a language», while the divine intervention reaffirms «the essential, creaturely link between the unicity of the Word and the unique multiplicity of words» (p. 192).

– Jonah Lynch, 2020

This volume offers an illustrated presentation of many ancient Mesopotamian divine entities (both gods and demons) along with symbols related to them.

The book is structured in alphabetical order and displays many useful illustrations (by Tessa Rickards) of the described entities, taken from different iconographical sources, such as reliefs, seals, and archaeological artefacts.

In the Introduction, the authors set the chronological and geographical framework of their work, describing the many different people inhabiting the ancient Mesopotamian area.

[This book represents a compact but complete handbook for the description of many supernatural entities in Mesopotamia.]

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

«This contribution discusses new hypotheses that attempt to explain the pre-exilic prophets’ of doom Utterances over Israel/Judah as literary fiction ex eventu. These approaches are based on external evidence of prophetic oracles which are known from royal archives in Mesopotamia, and whose content is different from the biblical texts with regard to addressing and form of transmission. An extrapolation of this evidence to ancient Near Eastern prophecy in general, would, however, be short-sighted – as is indicated by methodological considerations, as well as the Bileam text of Tell Dēr ‘Allā. A more precise interpretation already proves the latter as a kind of tradition literature (Traditionsliteratur) which reflects the concept of a prophecy of doom (not directed towards the king). In contrast to the discussed views this contribution argues that while, on the one hand, the assumption of a radical prophecy of doom in Judah after 587 B.C.E. lacks any evidence and inner plausibility there were, on the other hand, fundamental conceptual prerequisites for prophecies of doom (such as those of Amos or Isaiah) already present in the ancient Near East […]» (from author’s abstract on p. 81).

[The contribution is very helpful in re-defining the concept of prophecies ex eventu in ancient Israel, between reality and literary fiction, and offers a comparative approach with Mesopotamian prophecies.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This book «explores emerging trends in trauma studies and biblical interpretation. In recent years there has been a surge of interest in trauma, trauma theory, and its application to the biblical text. This collection of essays explores the usefulness of using trauma theory as a lens through which to read the biblical texts. Each of the essays explores the concept of how trauma might be defined and applied in biblical studies. Using a range of different but intersection theories of trauma, the essays reflect on the value of trauma studies for offering new insights into the biblical text. Including contributions from biblical scholars, as well as systematic and pastoral theologians, this book provides a timely critical reflection on this emerging discussion.

Features: 1. Implications for how reading the biblical text through the lens of trauma can be fruitful for contemporary appropriation of the biblical text in pastoral and theological pursuits. 1. Articles that integrate hermeneutics of trauma with classical historical-critical methods. 1. Essays that address the relationship between individual and collective trauma» [abstract from JSTOR].

[This volume focuses on traumatic experiences narrated in the Hebrew Bible as a source to better understand the elaboration of these traumas by the ancient Israelites and the creation of literary compositions (mostly wisdom literature and tales) with the purpose of making/giving sense of/to these traumatic situations.]

Alternative PDF can be found here.

– Marco De Pietri, 2023

The first part of this article deals with the four agents of divine wrath mentioned in connection with the Flood. They are enumerated in the Epic of Gilgamesh tablet XI:181-198, as lion, wolf, famine and the god Erra who personifies war, destruction and epidemic. They are suggested by Ea as a punitive option instead of the radical destruction that Enlil provoked by sending the Deluge. They are comparable to the four agents of divine wrath mentioned in Ezekiel 14:12-23: famine, evil beasts, sword, and pestilence. Ever since S. Daiches, scholars argued that Ezek. 14 reflects the influence of Gilg. XI. In the second part, the article analyses the phenomenon of indiscriminate slaughter of the just and the wicked in Ezekiel, or the innocent and the culprits in the Poem of Erra by the wrathful divinity that necessitates the presence of a watchman as a means of grace, so that a remnant may escape the slaughter and destruction. In the Poem of Erra, the role of the watchman against the indiscriminate slaughter by the god of war and destruction is assumed by Išum, Erra’s lieutenant. Similarly, the tenebrous nature of the Yhwh’s wrath and its unpredictable consequences represent some of the reasons why Ezekiel was appointed as a watchman. His task is to warn the people of Judah against Yhwh (Ezek 3:17; 33:7, “Mortal, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel, when you hear a word from my mouth, you must warn them against me!”). A certain similarity exists between Išum the intercessor for the Babylonians who tries to placate Erra’s wrath, and the prophet Ezekiel who attempts to appease Yhwh’s anger against the people of Judah. [Author’s summary]

– Jonah Lynch, 2020

This publication offers some autographs of cuneiform inscriptions related to presages and other omens.

[This volume is used as basic reference for pictures of cuneiform tablets mentioned in section SOURCES.]

– Marco De Pietri, 2021

This paper analyses the occurrence of some peculiar terms connected to specific cultic activities performed at Ebla/Tell Mardikh. The author starts outlining some recurrent elements:

1) the presence of specific priests;

2) an offering, to the god ^dKura (the polyad deity of Ebla);

3) the recurrence of specific syntagma;

4) the presence of the term da-mi-mu (‘reciter, lamenter’).

As stressed by the author, «the value that these elements assume is based on the meaning of some keywords, as indicated by Ebla’s lexical lists, both on the basis of prosopographic analysis, suggests the identification of an act of worship» (p. 131; English translation by mDP).

Throughout the article, the author presents many texts from Ebla to better determine the exact meaning of the aforementioned elements, also providing a relative chronology as the examined terminology, thus investigating the diachronic development of the present ritual.

[This paper shows philological accuracy in the analysis of the original terminology (Sumerian and Akkadian) referring to specific cultic activities, priestly figures involved in rites, and peculiar offerings to the gods of the Eblaite pantheon. The philological scrupulousness strengthens the analysis, avoiding any superposition of modern concepts far from the original mind of ancient Mesopotamian worshippers.]

[A critical review of this paper can be found in Bonechi 1989.]

[A further discussion on cultic rituals at Ebla can be found in Cultic Rituals at Ebla.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This paper focuses on the relationship between divination and rational thought in ancient Mesopotamian religion system.

– Marco De Pietri, 2021

«Our ancestors, the Mesopotamians, invented writing and with it a new way of looking at the world. In this collection of essays, the French scholar Jean Bottéro attempts to go back to the moment which marks the very beginning of history. To give the reader some sense of how Mesopotamian civilization has been mediated and interpreted in its transmission through time, Bottéro begins with an account of Assyriology, the discipline devoted to the ancient culture. This transmission, compounded with countless discoveries, would not have been possible without the surprising decipherment of the cuneiform writing system. Bottéro also focuses on divination in the ancient world, contending that certain modes of worship in Mesopotamia, in their application of causality and proof, prefigure the “scientific mind”.» (from editor’s webpage).

[The author explains in this volume how a ‘scientific mind’, i.e., a mindset able to reflect and reason on the complexity of reality, did exist already in ancient Mesopotamia, before the advent of Greek philosophy. Bottéro exemplifies this assumption by analysing concrete phaenomena as they are mirrored in specific literary texts, such as divinatory documents, law codes, and wisdom text. In the end of such an analysis, it results that ancient Mesopotamians had a profound and complex capability of investigating and understanding many aspects of reality, showing a logical mind (although sometimes shadowed by religious thought) which can be considered as an antecedent of later Greek logic. On this topic, cf. also Frankfort 1949 Before.]

PDF preview available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

– 2020

An interpretative study by an eminent scholar who, besides describing mythology and cults, also faces the question of religious “sentiment”: this treatise comes close to my emphasis on spirituality, but remains on rather general lines. An important contribution of this volume lies in the rich repertory of texts given in translation.

– Giorgio Buccellati, 2020

«In 2011, we launched new excavations and a re-analysis of one of the key sites for such early discoveries, the collapsed rock shelter of Abri Blanchard. In 2012, we discovered in situ a limestone slab engraved with a complex composition combining an aurochs and dozens of aligned punctuations. … The aligned punctuations find their counterparts at Chauvet, in the south German sites and on several other objects from Blanchard and surrounding Aurignacian sites. In sum, we argue that dispersing Aurignacian groups show a broad commonality in graphic expression against which a certain number of more regionalized characteristics stand out, a pattern that fits well with social geography models that focus on the material construction of identity at regional, group and individual levels» (from authors’ abstract).

[In this paper, the authors describe some artefacts found at the site of Abri Blanchard, in SE France: specifically, one relevant object is presented, a bone fragment (dated ca. 30.000 BP) with a registration of the moon phases, interpreted by scholars (including Buccellati, G. 2014, pp. 28-29 as one of the most ancient calendars found thus far.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This paper (derived from a previous publication; see at this link) aims at rethinking the concept(s) of the term “Bible(s)”, on the base of past or recent discoveries (e.g. the Cairo Geniza, the Oxyrhynchus papyri, the Nag Hammadi corpus, other European and Middle Eastern manuscript collections, rabbinic and post-rabbinic citations, and the Dead Sea Scrolls).

In the introduction, some passages help in underlining the topic of the contribution: «…what we as moderns term “the Bible” in actuality displays a wide variety of formats which feature conflicting tables of contents, different texts, variant forms of the “same” texts, texts translated from diverse languages, and divergent arrangements of parts or groups of texts. These discrepancies are not minor and they make loose references to “the Bible” unfortunate. Instead of “the Bible,” there are “Bible(s),” containing particular forms of certain texts in one or more specific arrangements used in individual communities. … Succinctly stated, “the Bible” is not and furthermore never was» (p. 4).

Paragraph 2 (the pars destruens) focuses on four basic statements:

1) «we can no longer speak of “the canon” without extensive qualifications» (p. 5);

2) «under these circumstances we can no longer rely upon certain longstanding and usually unquestioned assumptions about the editorial structure, the contents, the date of final formulation, and the textual integrity of those literary works presently collected together under the rubric of “Bible”» (p. 8);

3) «we can no longer speak of the “final form” of any particular text» (p. 10);

4) «we can no longer speak of “the Masoretic Text” as the benchmark of Hebrew texts which best represents a pristine original form» (p. 11).

Paragraph 3 (the pars costruens) presents four main assessments:

1) «while the term “the Bible” without qualifiers may be confusing and clumsy, the adjective “biblical” still proves useful as a classificatory tool» (p. 14);

2) «the history of “books” in the Second Temple period in their diverse textual forms is qualitatively similar to the hypothesized earlier developments in the composition of biblical texts by classical source criticism» (p. 14);

3) «there is an urgent need for a thoroughgoing reassessment and revision of the current terminology used in the study of early Judaism”s rich literary traditions» (p. 15);

4) «reading any biblical book involves a choice of reading not “the text,” but one particular form of the text, one which is merely a stage in the developmental history of an ancient scroll» (p. 17).

Here are the conclusions: «The discipline of biblical studies lives and thrives today as never before. That is so even though “the Bible” does not exist, if by that we mean a canonically and textually defined entity held in common by all interpreters throughout the ages. There are only Bible(s), and they all include texts which exhibit a great deal of diversity in their family history. … Yet thanks to the remarkable modern-day retrieval of a representative assemblage of Second Temple writings that had been concealed within some caves near the Dead Sea, we now have a much more nuanced grasp of the intellectual and literary environments amidst which our earliest exemplars of texts, later to be called “Bible,” were emerging» (pp. 17-18).

[This paper questinos the actual existence of a unique and definitive “canon” for the Bible. Presenting many references to sources displaying texts of the Scripture outside the Masoretic “canon”, the author redefines the same definition of Bible, reaching the conclusion that it could be more appropriate to speak of “Bibles”. The analysis of the historical development to the definition of the Bible as it is known today provides the author”s idea with a solid critical background.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

«The Apocalypse of Abraham, which has been preserved in old Slavonic literature, falls into two distinct parts …. The first part … consists of a Midrashic narrative based upon the legend of Abraham’s conversion from idolatry, which has several peculiar features. The second part … is purely apocalyptic in character, and contains a revelation made to Abraham about the future of his race, after his (temporary) ascent into the heavenly regions, under the guidance of the archangel Jaoel, who here seems to play the part of Metatron- Michael. It is based upon the account of Abraham’s trance-vision described in Genesis xv. – a favourite theme for apocalyptic speculation» (from authors’ Introduction).

[This book re-interprets the account and description of Abraham’s conversion from idolatry, as interpreted in this late commentary to Genesis, probably composed between 70 and 150 AD but preserved only in a later Old Slavonic translation, whose dating is still debated.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The scholar presents a study on the first attested representations of gods in Mesopotamia. An introduction about cultic statues, cultic symbols and their attributes leading to the identification of specific gods is followed by chapters dedicated to foundation figurines, statuettes, representations of gods in scenes from reliefs and seals. Further chapters deal with early mythology, themes related to vegetation and farming, the role of gods represented on glyptic material, and a general summary on the topics of the horned-crown and denominations of deities.

[The volume investigates the topic of the first representations of divinities in Mesopotamia, and is strengthened and supported by its approach considering literary sources, archaeological materials, and iconographical elements.]

PDF available at this link.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This introduction to the volume Storia delle religioni. I. L’Oriente e l’Europa nell’antichità. Tomo primo, focuses on the definition of some basic aspects of the methodology behind a scientific comparative history comparison of religions.

Chapter 1 displays the basic question: “What is religion?”. The author stresses at the very beginning how the comparative history of religions, as many others, needs a deontological definition and a clear field of investigation, in this case, the term/concept of ‘religion(s)’.

Chapter 2 moves to another question: “What is the history of religions?”. After a presentation of different opinions or definitions of this topic, the author concludes with a basic methodological statement: the only way to conduct a proper and effective history of religions is to consider and analyse any specific religion in its cultural and historical milieu.

[This contribution helps in defining the concept of ‘religion’ in ancient times, stressing how superimpositions of modern terminology can be misleading and must therefore be avoided in the historical and comparative analysis of ancient religious systems. The definition of ancient ‘religion’ is outlined by the author of the base on its actual manifestations and representations, a topic often discussed by G. Buccellati (see e.g. Chapter 4).]

PDF available at this link.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The date of publication (2007) can be seen from the printing indications on the last page. It is an edition of course notes written by the author for a class given in 1957-1958 at the University of Rome. In an appendix there is the Italian translation (by P. Xella) of an article by Brelich of the same title, published in 1960 in Numen.

The interest of this volume lies in the fact that the phenomenon of polytheism is studied from a phenomenological point of view, instead of describing one or more cultures, although there is a rich and interesting comparative section. The author underlines the fact that the phenomenon had not yet been studied in these terms (pp. 23, 136).

– Giorgio Buccellati, 2020

There are many studies exploring the idea of innocent suffering and the concept of theodicy as it occurs in the literature of ancient Mesopotamia and Israel, but this is not the case with ancient Egyptian literature. This article explores the factors in Egyptian culture that led to the exclusion of theodicy and the idea of innocent suffering from their world view and literature. Bricker bases his analysis on van Soden’s four criteria for theodicy: (1) a clear sense of right and wrong, so that a sufferer could reasonably claim to be suffering undeservedly; (2) significant individual worth, so that personal suffering must be justified; (3) minimal competition within the godhead or pantheon, so that suffering cannot be blamed on one deity due to human loyalty to another; and (4) a limited view of judgment in the afterlife.

He concludes that “theodicy is not an appropriate category for discussion of Egyptian literature due to the Egyptian view of a judgement in post-mortem existence.” Furthermore, “in Egypt the gods are almost never questioned or blamed for injustices. … For the Egyptians, evil was generally associated with isft, ‘disorder’, the opposite of ma’at. Those who did not do or speak according to the standards of ma’at allowed disorder into their lives. For the Mesopotamians evil was often seen as a result of demonic activity, hence a result of living forces or beings. Even a ‘friendly’ personal god may allow suffering to occur in an individual’s life if offended, so the rituals in Mesopotamian worship often functioned as appeasement so that suffering was avoided or halted.”

– Jonah Lynch, 2020

«This volume represents a collection of contributions presented during the Third Annual University of Chicago Oriental Institute Seminar “Religion and Power: Divine Kingship in the Ancient World and Beyond,” held at the Oriental Institute, February 23-24, 2007. The purpose of this conference was to examine more closely concepts of kingship in various regions of the world and in different time periods. The study of kingship goes back to the roots of fields such as anthropology and religious studies, as well as Assyriology and Near Eastern archaeology. More recently, several conferences have been held on kingship, drawing on cross-cultural comparisons. Yet the question of the divinity of the king – the king as god – has never before been examined within the framework of a cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary conference. Some of the recent anthropological literature on kingship relegates this question of kings who deified themselves to the background or voices serious misgivings about the usefulness of the distinction between “divine” and “sacred” kings. Several contributors to this volume have pointed out the Western, Judeo-Christian background of our categories of the human and the divine. However, rather than abandoning the term “divine kingship” because of its loaded history it is more productive to examine the concept of divine kingship more closely from a new perspective in order to modify our understanding of this term and the phenomena associated with it» (summary on Oriental Institute’s webpage).

[The book offers an example of analysis of the relationship between political power and religious beliefs in different historical periods and various geographical areas, including also ancient Mesopotamia (chapters 3, 5, 7, and 14).]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

Brisch considers the phenomenon of deification of kings in ancient Mesopotamia “a short-lived but nevertheless interesting phenomenon”. In this article, she offers a short chronological overview of the most relevant chases from the third millennium BCE.

In the opening paragraphs, particularly interesting because they provide the author’s methodological approach to this issue, Brisch investigates how the distinction between humans and god(s) could be perceived in a given cultural context - since divinity is indeed a concept that has been understood very differently throughout history and divine kingship has been adapted and creatively modified to each specific circumstance. As for ancient Mesopotamia, Brisch highlights a relevant inconsistency which may be often found in scholarly literature: «some scholars use the term “divine kingship” interchangeably with “sacred kingship,” whereas others make a clear distinction: one refers to the act of making a king into a god (although it is not always clear whether this refers to the deification of kings during their lifetimes or also after death), the other indicates the king’s closeness to the sacred but may not necessarily imply that a king was venerated as god.» (pp. 38-39). After having provided a useful review of bibliographical references on this topic, the author makes it clear that, in her article, with “divine kingship” she refers to the deification of kings during their lifetimes.

At the end of her review of case-studies of divinized kings in third-millennium BCE Mesopotamia, Brisch concludes that such phenomenon manifested itself very differently across cultures: in some cases kings were apparently deified (or deified themselves) shortly after overcoming a crisis or achieving extraordinary deeds), and in other cases deification seems to have been associated with political expansion.

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

This atlas briefly deals with the history of the Ancient Near East from prehistoric times to the Roman imperial period.

Each part (ten in total) of the volume is devoted to a specific period, describing both historical events and the geographical and chronological framework of each described timespan.

Parts I and II describe some cultural traits and features of the Ancient Near East, focusing on geography, economy, writing systems, main archaeological sites, and trades.

In each section, brief chapters are devoted to specific chronological periods; a final Timeline (pp. 288-290) helps the reader in having a summarized view on all the history of the Ancient Near East, from ca. 3100 BC (Early Bronze Age) to AD 661, when Damascus became capital of the first Muslim empire.

[This book is a compact but complete handbook for the history of Ancient Near East and its people.]

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

Written when Buber was 45, I and Thou explores human existence through the lens of three nouns, I, it, and Thou, which in Buber’s view form two essential kinds of relationships. Buber asserts that the «I – it» relationship pertains to the world of things, techniques, power, objectivity, and the «I – Thou» relationship pertains to the world of persons. «The primary word I – Thou can only be spoken with the whole being. The primary word I – it can never be spoken with the whole being.» (p. 3) Human life is twofold, and Buber clarifies that he does not mean to disparage the objective, «I – it» relationships that make up much of the life and activity of humans. But the «I» in relation to objects is not the same as the «I» that relates to persons. «When Thou is spoken, the speaker has no thing for his object.» (p. 4) Buber struggles with words in order to present a rich distinction between objects and the «mysticism of presence» of the «Thou», and to insist upon the incommensurable value of a person. Famously, he wrote that «all real living is meeting». Buber’s prophetic voice is attractive, but it is also limited by its lack of reference to sources and anchoring in history. It is a personal theory: interesting, sometimes poetically beautiful, sometimes penetrating in its description of the way we live. For a more in-depth analysis, see plato.stanford.edu. There are several points of contact with Buccellati’s thesis commented in the notes.

– Jonah Lynch, 2020

Since this contribution is very brief, I offer here a full translation from Italian to English:

«‘People of the country’ (‘m h’rṣ [؜הָאָֽרֶץ עַם]) is a technical expression of the Old Testament which has been explained in various ways, at least for the time before the exile. The most likely interpretation is the one proposed most recently by R. De [sic] Vaux, Les institutions de l’Ancien Testament I, Paris 1958, pp. 111-113, 326 ff. [available on Archive.org in Spanish translation], according to whom the term designates the free population of a state, the ‘citizens’, by right: see, among the most significant biblical examples, 2 Kings 16, 15; 23, 30; 24, 14; Ger. 1, 18. This is the sense that is clearly evident also from an inscription of the king of Byblos Jehawmilk, datable to the 5^th or 4^th cent. BC, and known since 1869, but integrated for the part that interests us only in 1950; we report lines 9-11 according to the reconstruction by A. Dupont-Sommer in ‘Sem.’ 3, 1950, pp. 35-44: ‘And may give / [to him (= to the king) the Sovereign, La]dy of Byblos favour to the eyes of the gods and to the eyes of the people of this country (‘m ’rṣ z) [and favour to the eyes] of every king and every man!» (p. 77).

PDF available here.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The author presents a review of the book by H. Richard Niebuhr, The Kingdom of God in America, New York: Harper, 1959 (first edition: 1937).

The basic question advanced by the author is the following: «What was the impact of the Bible on this evolution [i.e. the history of the faith of American Protestants]?» (p. 189).

The answer is that this impact was not so considerable, and the explanation is given under these respects: «Niebuhr thinks (pp. 172-76) that the prevalence of the first element, the objective criterion [of God’s Word], which occurred after moments of religious awakening, coincides with an institutionalist stiffening of the worst kind, against which today’s Protestantism must guard» (p. 190; English translation by mDP).

[This paper offers an example of how the interpretation of the Bible could (or could not) influence modern societies (in this case, American Protestantism).]

PDF available here.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The starting point for this contribution is the well-known passage of 2 Chr. 36, 20-21, recounting the deportation of the Jews from Jerusalem to Babylonia by Nebuchadnezzar II in 568 BC.

After having recalled two other Biblical passages relating to the same event (or to the same exile period), i.e. Jer. 37-42, 52, and 2 Chr. 36, 20-21, the author summarizes the historical events of that period as they can be reconstructed on a quite stark floor, devoting the whole article to the presentation of the role of the Israelites remained at Jerusalem (or at least in Palestine) during the period of the exile (i.e. from the conquering of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II in 568 BC to the ‘edict of liberation’, as it is inscribed on a cylinder of Cyrus I (text in ANET), in 539 BC (for further information see at this link).

The author sketches out the history of the period as it is narrated in some specific books written in Palestine in the 6^th cent. BC, i.e. Lamentations, and the prophetic books of Haggai and Zecharia, telling the events involving the ‘People of the country’ (‘m h’rṣ) (cf. for this term Buccellati 1959 B O 3).

The author concludes: «The Lamentations give the testimony of the presence in Palestine (well in Jerusalem) of Israelites profoundly Yahwist and distinct from the group of Godolia: there is therefore reason to think that they remained in Palestine even after the turbulent period of the first months after the capture of Jerusalem and culminated in the killing of Godolia. The books of Haggai and Zechariah testify that the rebuilding of the temple, led by returnees from the exile, was the work of a population in which there is no trace of radical contrast between returnees and those left behind: indeed, from a tenuous but seemingly safe testimony, we can conclude that there was substantially collaboration. Without wondering to draw a direct line between the Israelites of Lamentations and the Palestinian Israelites of the time of Haggai and Zechariah … it is certain, however, that both groups are part of the same Yahwist tradition that continued on Palestinian land» (p. 290).

PDF available here.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The author presents a review of the book by J.H. Breasted, Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, (Introduction by J.A. Wilson), New York: Harper, 1959 (first edition: 1912).

The book collects a series of academic lectures given by James Henry Breasted at the Oriental Institute, Chicago. The wider part of the book is devoted to the Pyramid Texts, followed by a discussion about the historical development of Egyptian religion, explaining myths, the evolution of a moral consciousness, the influence of social conditions, and the expansion of political power.

The publication ends with a discussion about the 13^th-12^th cent. BC, a period defined by G. Buccellati as «an age of ‘personal piety and inner aspiration towards God’, ‘the deepest expression of the Egyptian religious spirit’» (p. 101). Breasted also mentions texts which recall very often some Biblical composition, mostly for what concerns the wisdom and lamentation texts, compared with the Psalms.

PDF available here.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The volume is divided into two parts, dealing with linguistic affiliation of the Amorites and their history, respectively.

PDF volume 1. PDF volume 2.

See also abstract.

Reviewed in Liverani 1968.

– Marco De Pietri, 2023

This paper presents some reflections about the methodological approach in comparing texts of the Bible with the documentation of ancient Near East and Egypt.

On the occasion of a celebration in honour of Giovanni Rinaldi (promoter of the periodical Bibbia e Oriente), the author presents some remarks on the comparative method, considered by G. Rinaldi as «one exegetic method», aiming at «grasping the spirit of the world in which the Bible is, so to speak, embodied … [to] acquire the sensitivity necessary to assimilate and enjoy its values» (p. 152). As scholars, our aim is «to recreate the historical conditions which facilitate the understanding of past events and institutions» (p. 152). This research of the ancient Weltanschauung leads the author to explain his view and method through three practical examples: a first comparison of the list of the tribes of Israel (Jos. 15-19) with a similar Sumerian list; a second comparison is presented offering in synopsis Ps. 104 and the text of the Hymn to Aten; the last comparison is offered displaying a passage from the New Testament (Jms. 5, 12) with an Akkadian compendium of magical spells known as shurpu; see Shurpu II 6, in Reiner, E. 1958, Shurpu. A Collection of Sumerian and Akkadian Incantations, Graz, p. 13 (Reiner 1958 Surpu); cf. also Appendix 1 and Appendix 15.

The relationships and communal features between the three examples are explained on p. 156: «The common denominator of all three examples is the fact that the texts are close enough to justify their comparison, but at the same time they are different enough to make the comparison mutually fruitful and clarifying».

PDF available here.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The author presents in this paper a comparison between the two pericopes related to the Beatitudes (as recounted in the Gospels of Matthew Mt. 5, 3-12 and Luke Lk. 6, 20-26) and texts from the ancient Near East and Egypt.

After having recalled that the ‘genre’ of the beatitudes can be found also in the Old Testament, both in the ‘non-paradoxical’ and ‘paradoxical’ forms (the latter only in few instances, such as Job 5, 17), the author moves to retrace some ‘beatitudes-schemes’ also in Mesopotamian and Egyptian texts, underlying some previous studies which recognized a kind of ‘beatitude-scheme’ also in the Aristotelian concept of περιπέτεια (peripéteia) (see p. 243, notes 7-11 for bibliographical references).

After this statement, the author moves to analyse some Mesopotamian texts which could represent an antecedent to the evangelical Beatitudes: despite the difficulty in identify a specific form of Beatitudes, it is possible to envisage in Mesopotamian literature some texts presenting the same perspective of a regular changing of the lots in the life of specific human beings.

The first ‘genre’ of texts analysed by the author is that of the so-called prophecies or apocalypses of the Akkadian tradition. Another category of texts comparable to the Beatitudes is that of the omina presenting sentences in hypothetical form (“if A happens, thus B will happen”. The result of this comparison is stressed on p. 248: «The comparison between the Mesopotamian canon and the Beatitudes therefore has value not on the level of the collection as a single literary whole, that is, not on the level of literary forms and genres, rather on the level of the content proper to the individual clauses, isolated from their context» (English translation by mDP).

The author then presents (pp. 249-261) a synoptic view of the evangelic beatitudes with the texts of the aforementioned omina (also including in the analysis some Akkadian personal names), outlining several comparison dealing with eight specific topics: 1) poverty and humility, strength and weakness, ignorance; 2) weeping and suffering; 3) hunger and thirst; 4) justice (and binary opposition ‘light vs. darkness’); 5) mildness; 6) mercy; 7) purity of heart; 8) peace.

Here are the general conclusions: «(1) The form of the Beatitudes dates back to the Old Testament and is also found in ancient Egypt [for Mesopotamia see the observation above on p. 255]; this form, and its use in a non-paradoxical sense is therefore parenetic, probably refers to a cultic Sitz im Leben. (2) The paradoxical aspect of the Beatitudes (or at least most of them) can be explained basing on an influence by the wisdom tradition. Paradoxical indications are found in various points of this tradition; one of the most suitable documents for comparison is the Canon, which not only includes the same themes present in the Beatitudes, but also presents them in a codifying and programmatic form. The new elements of the Beatitudes are the messianic and eschatological ones» (pp. 263-264).

PDF available here.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This paper analyses a famous text of the Mesopotamian literature known as Babylonian Theodicy, which is close to the Biblical composition regarding Job. The author leads the reader through an analysis of the conceptual scheme of the composition, underlining the dialogic form of the text, involving a discussion between the suffering man (called by his interlocutor as na’du ibru, ‘honoured friend’) and a sage (called in Akkadian āšišu).

Several questions are presented by the ‘friend’, followed by an answer given by the ‘sage’. In general, the ‘sage’ answers question by question, revealing in sum that the only solution to fight all the aforementioned evils are two virtues: piety and humility, based on faith in gods’ willing.

Nevertheless (and that is the topic of the present contribution) the ‘friend’ stresses the apathy (‘abulia’) of the general people towards the suffering condition of the simple man (a topic that recalls many other wisdom composition, such as the aforementioned Book of Job, but also some Egyptian text, such as the Dispute between a man and his Ba (see here for a preview by J.P. Allen); the ‘sage’ provides the ‘friend’ with a theological explanation for such a human behaviour: the gods, indeed, creating mankind, gave to each man «as heredity forever not the truth, but the falseness» (p. 162), from the original Akkadian sarrāti u lā kīnāti išrukūšu (line 280).

On p. 163 the author offers a discussion about the compositive unity of the poem, presenting a first section of questions and answers, a turning point (an acme) of reflections on the human condition, and a third, conclusive, part where the ‘sage’ embeds the pains of his ‘friend’, communicating the universality of the human condition of suffering, underlining how the origins of all the evils is the apathy (or a lack in empathy [for this topic, see e.g. Buccellati, Kelly Buccellati 2014]) of the humankind: the only possible solution is to trust gods’ good-willing.

An appendix (pp. 165-178) offers a formal and thematical analysis of the composition.

[The contribution displays an example of the comparative approach, presenting texts from the Bible, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian literature, all related to the topics of the ‘righteous sufferer’, theodicy, and human apathy towards the suffering of another man. Since men seem not to prove any empathy for the sorrow of another human being, the only solution against desperation is in the end faith in the impenetrable will of god(s).]

PDF available here.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The author begins with a presentation of the figure of Adapa, «summoned by Anu for having ‘broken the wing of the South wind’ (ša Šūti kappaša ištebir, 11 f.)» (p. 61). Adapa’s father, the god Ea, advises his son about to avoid Anu’s wrath. Adapa presents himself to Anu in mourning garb and the god become favourable to Adapa; nevertheless, Ea also advised his son not to accept deadly bread or water from Anu; however and unexpectedly, Anu offers to Adapa not the bread and water of death, but those of life; notwithstanding, Adapa remembers his father’s admonition and does not accept Anu’s gifts.

The author advances five explanations of Adapa’s refusal, and points out that whatever the explanation could be, this is the only Babylonian myth where the phenomenon of faith is present.
On pp. 64 ff., the author moves to compare the figure of Adapa with that Adam (see mostly Gen. 3): both Adapa and Adam «are faced with the prohibition of partake a certain food»; «the occasion to circumvent the prohibition coincides in both cases with a temptation coming from a third party, supernatural in character» (Ea and God); «both traditions present the culprit as summoned directly by god into his presence»; and «a specific similarity which remains to be stressed is the presumed ignorance of the events on the part of god».

The author also stresses a basic difference between the two stories: «The main difference between Adapa and Adam is that the former remains obedient, whereas the latter betrays his trust. In this respect, Adapa calls to mind other Biblical figures». Buccellati continues with a comparison between Adapa and heroes of other Mesopotamian stories, sketching the character of men of faith, facing specific “tests of faith”: Ut-napištim and Atram-ḫasīs, compared to Noah (see mostly Gen. 6-7), but also displaying some differences, and with Abraham (see mostly Gen. 12).

Here are the conclusions: «Abraham too was called … to abandon his land and his home …; his response was given in the darkness and was based on faith toward the divine source of the command – and thus made him the prototype of the man of faith for a long and lasting religious tradition. … In Mesopotamia, on the other hand, the notion of faith remained much less pervasive than in the Biblical tradition. … They [i.e., all the aforementioned figures] reflect basic dimensions of a religious sensitivity which, though receiving its classical expression in the Biblical tradition, was not wholly alien from the surrounding ancient Near Eastern cultures» (pp. 65-66).

[The author presents in this paper a comparison between Mesopotamian and Biblical figures, focusing on the topic of the ‘man of faith’, stressing a basic difference in personal sensitivity: while Biblical figures totally obey to the God’s will, the Mesopotamian ones are more forced by the gods to be persuaded to follow their orders, sometimes refusing to respect their commands.]

PDF available here.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The paper presents a description of the Mesopotamian pantheon as an ‘open’ and ‘closed’ system at the same time. This basic dichotomy is exemplified by means of some specific features of Mesopotamian wisdom literature (and also cultic practices), involving the topics of ‘fate’, ‘destiny’, ‘theodicy’, and ‘revelation’.

Paragraph II.A (pp. 36-37) specifically focuses on religion, defined as «an institution which may be said, briefly, to regulate the relationship between man and the absolute. One pivotal point in this relationship is the very concept of the absolute» (p. 36).

In Mesopotamian thought, a dichotomy is emphasized, between an open system, the pantheon («a kaleidoscopic repertoire of divinities who personify various aspects of reality», p. 36), and a closed system, because «the corollary intrinsic in a polytheistic system is that the components of the system, the gods, place limits on each other» (p. 36). Under this respect, «we find in Mesopotamia, as a counterpart of the polytheistic system, a closed system which views the absolute as being above internal variation» (p. 36).

This dichotomy is clearly evident in the Mesopotamian concept of fate: «Fate is not a god because it is not the personification of any single aspect of reality» (p. 36); nevertheless, fate is embedded «for instance, in those myths where fate is presented as an object, the tablets of destiny» (p. 36). Fate is also involved in two aspects of Mesopotamian practices and concepts, i.e. those of divination and Theodicy: «Divination may be considered as the ritual pertaining to fate’s causality in human affairs. Similarly, we may say that some of the reflective literature, such as the Theodicy, may be viewed as the correlative of a mythological statement about fate. … the Theodicy is not the vindication of a given god or of the open polytheistic system, but rather a statement about the ultimate validity of the absolute» (p. 36).

Furthermore, «the texts which deal with the open polytheistic system propound an axiomatic view of the divine world. It can be compared to an immanent revelation, i.e. an obvious reality which makes itself known simply by being there. Transcendent revelation is not unknown, but is limited to the communication of specific messages, rather than being the self-revelation of the divine sphere … . Normally, therefore, knowledge of the divine world is simply assumed as obvious, without transcendent revelation and without theological reasoning: the metaphor is the main device to convey, present and describe what is already apparent. In contrast with this, we have texts [i.e., divination texts and omina] exhibiting a more inquisitive attitude-and these are the same texts which presuppose a closed system of the absolute» (p. 37).

PDF available here.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

In this paper, the author suggests a cultic setting for the Sumerian story of the Descent of Inanna (p. 7).

In the first paragraph, the itinerary of Inanna’s journey is reported, describing the geographical framework of her peregrination towards Kutha, the residence of the Netherworld gods and her coming back to the city of Uruk. The author proposes to recognise a physical, geographical journey, starting from Uruk (through Larsa, Bad-Tibira, Umma, Zabalam, Adab, Nippur, Kish, and probably Akkad) and leading the goddess northwards to the city of Kutha, located to the north of Akkad (see Map on p. 4).

The second paragraph deals with the possible interpretation of such an itinerary as a cultic journey regarding the renewal of the goddess’ statue (following a suggestion by Paul Gaebelein).

Hence the conclusion: «Within these limitations, we may conjecture further on a possible Sitz im Leben for the assumed ritual. This may have been an annual renewal ceremony, which may have been a part of the regular, recurrent caring of the goddess, and might have originated in response to the breaking of a given statue, whether accidental or through enemy intervention» (p. 6).

PDF available here.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The aim of this volume is «to provide a description of Babylonian which may serve both as a systematic theoretical statement of the structure of the language, and as a guide towards a better understanding of the textual record» (p. VIII). The Grammar analyzes mostly Old Babylonian in a synchronic way, but it also quotes examples from later periods when Old Babylonian instances are lacking; it is also enriched by several sections which refer to the historical background of specific phenomena.

PDF available here

Review by N.J.C. Kouwenberg in BiOr 55/1-2 (1998)

See also the companion website

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

In this paper, the author discusses the patriarchal tradition of Israel, arguing for an essential historical kernel that underlies not only events and individuals, but also the ideological innovation embodied in the tradition of ancient Israel.

PDF available here.

– Marco De Pietri, 2023

The purpose of this paper is the publication of the outcomings of the 16th excavation season at Tell Mozan (2003) focused on the exploration of the monumental urban complex of the ancient city of Urkesh, underlining the importance of some peculiar structures, such as the necromantic pit (the ābi, i.e. unit A12) intended by archaeologists as a KASKAL.KUR.

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2023

The author reflects in this paper about the distinction between the concepts of -emic and ethic under a linguistic and archaeological perspective: «In my view, the basic underlying concept is the distinction between an open and a closed system, where -etic refers to the first, and -emic to the second» (p. 12). The last concept is then well-explained with a concrete example, i.e. the perception and formal definition of colours in the archaeological recording process and in the common life, too (mentioning the example of the spotlights).

[The paper helps the reader in better understanding the author’s approach in analysing ancient cultures, on the base of an -emic perspective.]

PDF available here.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

In this paper, the second in a series of three (before Buccellati 2013 Trinity), the author discusses the epistemological and theological nature of Trinity.

There are several issues which are worth mentioning in this context, since they are relevant to the description of the “absolute”:

• ancient and even modern names for personal g/God, like Elohim, Ba’al, and Allah became proper names from the common nouns they originally were (p. 40; cf. Excerpt);
• God is at the very same time absolute and enmeshed in the details of a human group, ancient Israel (pp. 43-44; cf. Excerpt);
• the radical contrast between polytheism and monotheism (p. 44; cf. Excerpts);
• specific features of the God of Israel are innumerability, particularity, and relatability (pp. 45-46; cf. Excerpt);
• the unpronunciability of God’s name in Israel, sometimes replaced with the euphemistic expression “The Power” (p. 63; cf. Excerpt);
• the concept of “waiting” as typical of Israel Messianism (pp. 292-294; cf. Excerpt);
• the particularity of the call of Abraham and the fact that the God of Israel often manifests himself as “the God of Abraham” (pp. 296-297; cf. Excerpt);
• the contrast, in the episodes of the manifestation of God to Moses (Ex 3:14) and that of Jacob’s fight at Peni’el (Gn 32:24-32), between revealing the face and hiding the name (pp. 298-300; cf. Excerpt);
• the relevance in revelation of the word of God (pp. 306-308; cf. Excerpt);
• the God of Israel speak in a first person; he is an “I” entity, personal and aadressing his word to another specific personal or collective entity (pp. 308-310; cf. Excerpt);
• Yahweh is a living God with a peculiar self-awareness (pp. 310-312; cf. Excerpt);
• a chapter (3.10) is entirelly devoted to “The articulation of the absolute” (pp. 312-314; cf. Excerpt).

PDF of part one (pp. 38-75) available here.

PDF of part two (pp. 292-327) available here.

The paper in a single PDF version can be downloaded at this link.

– Marco De Pietri, 2023

The paper is devoted to a re-analysis of EA (Amarna Letter) 164, written by Aziru, king of Amurru, to the high Egyptian official Tutu at Akhetaten, during the Amarna period (ca. 1353-1336 BC). The focus of the contribution deals with the re-interpretation of the mention of an Egyptian deity, whose name is written in Akkadian as ^DINGIRA, previously interpreted as a reference to the god Amun (in 1915, by Otto Schroeder).

PDF available here.

– Marco De Pietri, 2023

The contribution traces the development of the perception of the absolute in ancient Mesopotamian culture. It posits that the encounter with the absolute can be fulfilled only through the self-consciousness of the human being, which is embedded in the elaboration of writing systems, at the base of any order and historical perception.

Extended summary in excerpts Buccellati 2012 Coerenza.

PDF available here.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The fundamental volume of G. Buccellati about critical comparing ancient Mesopotamian and Israelite religion (the book to which the present website is the companion).

– Giorgio Buccellati, 2023

The present contribution, stemming from a conference given in November 2011 at the Catholic University of Milan, investigates the concept of the Trinitarian aspect within the theological, historical, and philosophical background of ancient Mesopotamian culture. This comparison may seem odd, and the author explains the reasons of such an enquiry under three points (pp. 29-30):

1) the theological aspect hidden behind the concept of Trinity is strictly linked to fundamental and universal characteristics of the human spirit: thus, any theological issue needs to face this peculiar conception of the divine sphere;

2) the historical aspect concerns Mesopotamia as the cradle where the Biblical tradition grew from: hence, Mesopotamia can be perceived as the background where the Biblical message partially shaped from;

3) the philosophical aspect involves the Mesopotamian religion as a kind of matrix (a ‘fossil’) expressing and representing our contemporary view on the world where our modern thought is still strictly informed by.

In the first part of the contribution [see infra for TOC], the author explains the diversity between polytheism and monotheism is much more complex that what we could think: polytheism expresses a richness in spirituality which must be understood in its own original nature.

In the second part of the paper, G. Buccellati investigates how the Mesopotamian religiosity led to a clear and mere perception of the absolute.

In the third section, the ‘Trinitarian implications’ of this Mesopotamian view are enlightened, dismantling any contraposition and underlining how this ‘non-conflictual dynamics’ led to a sublimation of the notion of ownership, reaching a connection with the notion of ‘gift and communion’.

The author concludes: «The idea derived from Mesopotamia is therefore indicative of the fact that the continuity and coherence of human experience comes to our aid when we try to understand our reality today, to understand the motivation behind the altars still erected today to the unknown gods. … It is therefore up to us, if Christians, to reveal the nature of the desire behind the altar. It is a remote and perennial desire, and the study of aspirations and intuitions of the past must serve to galvanize our conscience as scholars and men. Bending over the factuality of the past and tracing its history must help us regain the vitality of the great clashes and spiritual confrontations found in it, and convey its deepest meaning, as well as when we try to discover the sense of an epochal transformation in the perception of the absolute» (pp. 47-48).

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

G. Buccellati’s volume about the origins or political institutions in Ancient Mesopotamia.

See also the companion website.

– Giorgio Buccellati, 2016

This paper is the third (after Buccellati 2007 Yahweh) about Trinity and its presuppositions/anticipations in the Old Testament.

Many aspects can be mentioned, since they deal with the concept of “absolute” and its progressive definition:

• the concept of monotheism as a “one-theism” (p. 597; cf. Excerpt);
• Trinity seen as the «inner articulation of the absolute» (p. 598; cf. Excerpt);
• the definition of the “beyondness” of the absolute and that of “nullification” of the absolute (p. 603; cf. Excerpt);
• the “vectoriality” of the absolute (pp. 604, 610; cf. Excerpt);
• the description of the “dynamics” of the absolute (pp. 605-606, 609, 612; cf. Excerpt);
• the conception of the absolute in the Babylonian frame, peculiarly in the Enūma elīsh (pp. 608-609; cf. Excerpt);
• the emptiness of the absolute in Buddhism (pp. 611-612; cf. Excerpt);
• the definition of “non-absolute”, as something involving change in time and space (p. 612; cf. Excerpt);
• the concept of the “metaphysical original sin” of polytheism recognized in the fragmentation of the absolute (pp. 612-613; cf. Excerpt);
• nothingness seen as «the place where we do indeed find the absolute» (pp. 613-614; cf. Excerpt);
• the identification of love as the very structure of the absolute (pp. 614-615; cf. Excerpt);
• the clarification of the notion of “ideal” absolute in the Idealism (pp. 620-621; cf. Excerpt);
• the distinction between personal absolute (involving trust) and impersonal absolute (connected to an expectation) (p. 629; cf. Excerpt).

PDF of part one (issue 39, pp. 594-640) available here.

PDF of part two (issue 40, pp. 99-131) available here.

The paper in a single PDF version can be downloaded at this link.

– Marco De Pietri, 2023

After a foreword (by Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati) and an introduction by the author, the book is divided into 4 chapters, dealing with topics about Urkesh/Tell Mozan and another site in Georgia, namely Dmanisi.

Specifically interesting to our purposes are Chapters 2 and 3: the first focuses on the recent excavations at Dmanisi, Georgia: the human finds can tell us a story of people who lived some millennia BP, presenting some important and profound interrogatives about humanity in general and also about the development of the first hominids, at the dawn of the first human communities elaborating craft skills, special competence, religious thoughts, and aspects related to sociality and mutual assistance.

Chapter 3 deals with some aspects on these first community of hominids (around 30000 BP) who started elaborating some abstract concepts (in logical thought) related to time-calculation (the ability of observe and record on artefacts, the first calendars, the moon phases), the growing of an extra-somatic perspective, the elaboration of language as a base for the elaboration of writing systems.

Moreover, the last part of Chapter 4 particularly focuses on the so-called ‘necromantic pit’ discovered at Urkesh/Tell Mozan, known as âbi in the Hurrian language.

PDF (Italian version) available here

PDF (Arabic version) available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This paper describes the development of the perception of time and for the relationship between human beings and the absolute, conceived and assimilated in different cultures, throughout many millennia, on the basis of three subsequent steps:

1) the first step implies the development of a ‘meta-perception’, strictly linked to language, which began in prehistorical times (ca. 60,000 years BP), culminating in the Mesopotamian culture in the 4^th millennium BC;

2) a further step was achieved with the biblical perception of transcendence (i.e. from a mere, empirical perception of something regulated by specific patterns and regular norms to the existence and presence of an absolute embedded onto time);

3) the third step is represented by the Christian perception of time, moving from the simple notion of Genesis’ ‘beginning’ (ראשׁית, see Gen. 1, 1), ‘inventing’ a new ‘Christian horizon’ involving the new concept of ‘trans-temporality’.

– Marco De Pietri, 2021

In A Critique of Archaeological Reason, Giorgio Buccellati presents a theory of excavation that aims at clarifying the nature of archaeology and its impact on contemporary thought. Integrating epistemological issues with methods of data collection and the role and impact of digital technology on archaeological work, the book explores digital data in order to comprehend its role in shaping meaning and understanding in archaeological excavation.

Wider description available here. See also the companion website.

– Giorgio Buccellati, 2017

In this article, the author examines «the evidence of material culture with the attendant degree of inference that seems plausible. The argument is relatively simple: on the basis of the formal attributes of an artifact as we have it today it is possible to establish formal patterns that imply a certain type of operational procedures; these in turn imply a sense of the whole that goes beyond the primary perception.»

From the observation of patterns of development in stone tools, the author infers the existence of patterns of ordered thought in prehistoric humans. The structure of the tools, the author suggests, can be seen as an example of the development of an ever-greater awareness of patterns in the world, and therefore of ever-greater control of the world.

– Jonah Lynch, 2020

«Awīliš īwē. It is one of the most beautiful sentences in Mesopotamian literature: Enkidu ‘transformed himself into the nature of man.’ But more properly we should translate: ‘into the nature of a civilized being’ -because to be truly man (awīlum) means to be ‘a son of a city.’ As for Enkidu in the Gilgamesh poem, ‘naturalize’ therefore means, ‘civilize,’ and not ‘humanize,’ a not insignificant difference. In this short essay I wish to explore this difference in more detail […].» (p. 37, English translation by mDP.)

[This paper deals with the topic of human nature and the concept/process of civilization as it is described in ancient Mesopotamian literature.]

PDF available here.

– Marco De Pietri, 2023

The author interprets the book of Job as a four-part text that follows the major divisions in the Tanakh: chapters 1-2 echo Genesis; 3-27 engages an “ideological” versus a “prophetic” view of history; 28-31 is related to the Wisdom literature; and the remainder of Job regards revelation understood as a mystical encounter with the living God. “The adherence to the ‘living’ God means precisely this: that the heavens narrate the glory of the creator, but that the ultimate goal is neither the construct (the heavens) nor the narration (the books), but rather the constructor and the narrator.”

This original interpretation develops a central intuition in Quando: that the major difference between polytheism and monotheism lies in the perception (in monotheism) of God as an “affecting presence”, unpredictable but personal, and with whom a relationship is possible. Indeed, this relationship is more important than any goods to be had from him, even in a state of terrible suffering.

In Buccellati’s interpretation, Job can be seen as part of the trend toward the formation of a canon, since it treats the individual writings of the Tanakh as parts of a coherent whole. This is a further reason for seeing Job as emphasizing the single human confrontation with God, and the Tanakh as the result of a “single inspiration, translated into a multitude of different stylistic embodiments”. This would place the final redaction of Job in the “prehistory of the canon”, somewhere in the postexilic period.

In closing, Buccellati also proposes that the connection between Job and Ludlul be understood not merely because both texts deal with suffering, but because the main reason for this suffering is God’s incomprehensible silence. There is perhaps a hint of movement (in Ludlul) toward a personal understanding of fate itself, “the closest one gets, in Mesoptamian religion, to something that tends, at least, toward a ‘mystical’ dimension”; in Job, suffering leads to direct confrontation with the Creator. “Creation is not really the final answer to Job’s quest; rather, the Creator is the answer.”

– Jonah Lynch, 2020

«This English translation of Giorgio Buccellati’s ambitious work offers readers an insightful discussion of ancient Mesopotamian religion and spirituality in its relationship to the biblical ethos.

Our understanding of ancient Mesopotamian religion, while shaped by a wealth of archaeological, artistic, and epigraphic evidence, remains limited with regard to a proper hermeneutic approach. In this volume, Buccellati sheds light on the spirituality of Mesopotamian polytheism by drawing comparisons with that of biblical monotheism. These comparisons are used to better understand the divine-human relationship in the Mesopotamian context, as both individuals and members of a wider community. In addition, Buccellati provides detailed discussions on divination and the central role of fate in ancient Mesopotamia. Buccellati’s understanding of Mesopotamian religion and spirituality as illuminated by biblical texts, now available to an Anglophone audience, offers much food for thought on this challenging subject.

“When on High the Heavens…”: Mesopotamian Religion and Spirituality with Reference to the Biblical World provides a wide-ranging and thorough exploration of Mesopotamian religion for students, scholars, and researchers in Near Eastern archaeology and history, biblical studies, and the history of religion and spirituality» (from publisher’s website).

[The reference book of Giorgio Buccellati about Hebrew and Mesopotamian spirituality (cf. Buccellati 2012 Quando for the Italian edition.), the book to which the present website is the companion.]

– Marco De Pietri, 2023

Report of DOG’s excavation season in 2004 (connected to the previous UCLA’s 15th campaign in 2002): a wide description is provided about the Royal Palace of Tell Mozan and about the stratigraphy and finds of the ābi.

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2023

The focus of this contribution is firstly on the peculiar role of Urkesh (from, at least, the third millennium BC) as a Hurrian religious centre.

After having completed the building of the Excavation House (paragraph 1), the UCLA team (joined by some members of the DOG) aimed in this season to better investigate and clarify the ethnic valence of Urkesh’s sacral and political spaces: the Temple Terrace (together with the ābi) and the Royal Palace, respectively (paragraph 2); the Temple Terrace, composed by the main High Temple (Temple BA of Kumarbi and the vast open Plaza JP were strictly linked to the Royal Palace and the ābi, with a progressive shifting of political importance from the temple to the palace, which was probably abandoned in a later time when a settlement (represented by private houses) developed on the top of the palace area.

Two aspects regarding ābi must be underlined: 1) the presence of some rituals similar to the kispum ceremony attested in Mesopotamian texts and 2) the attestation of practices of secondary burial. Sub-paragraph 5.5 describes the stratigraphic sequence of the ābi, situated in area A14, along the southern wall of the service wing AK of the Royal Palace AP (see Plan) and interpreted as a necromantic structure introduced by an access equated to a KASKAL.KUR.

Paragraph 7 offers new insights into Urkesh’s history: sub-paragraph 7.1 focuses specifically on Temple BA, whose construction started in ED III.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The monumental structures on the top of the mound of Urkesh/Tell Mozan are composed of a stairway (leading to temple BA), flanked by an apron, probably «serving to accommodate an audience that might witness the early phase of a ritual, starting in the plaza in front of the staircase and then leading up to the temple above» (p. 66).

The composite structure was abandoned around 1350 BC, with the coming of the Assyrians. Very likely, the cultic use of the area already started during the Late Chalcolithic and the sacrality of the place during the centuries can be argued from the absence of other installations in the area. The temple itself could be connected to a Hurrian origin, and the dedication of a first temple by king Tish-atal to Nergal (attested on the inscriptions on two copper alloy lion statuettes kept at the MET and the Louvre Museum) who can be better interpreted as Kumarbi, the polyad deity of the ancient site.

The other stone lion sculpture B1.164 (for further bibliography, see Urkesh/Search/Topical index, under “Sculpture/Stone lion statue (B1.164)”) found within the sacral area could have been placed near to the temple’s altar, while two smaller lion-shaped statuettes were place as a foundation deposit nearby the temple.

The paper focuses in the end on the Royal Palace (slightly later than the temple, probably around 2250 BC) and on the ābi, the necromantic pit leading to the Netherworld. Both the sacral area of the temple and the necromantic pit represent a ‘trait d’union’ between the living and the ancestors, defining «a very special Hurrian ideological landscape» (p. 69).

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The Hurrian homeland is the topic of this contribution. Urkesh is perceived as one of the most important Hurrian centers and its structures are here described: the Palace of Tupkish, the ābi, and the Temple Terrace. The connections of the site with the North and mostly with the Northern Early Transcaucasian culture and Anatolia in general are presented, discussing the Hurrian identity of Urkesh, moving from a historical question to its following historiographical interpretation, defining methodological criteria and data connected to semiotics, linguistics, onomastics, cults and mythology.

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2023

The report of the 18^th excavation season (2005) at Urkesh/Tell Mozan is entirely devoted to the description and interpretation of the Temple Terrace, with a reconsideration of the two lion statuettes of Tish-atal (see here, for an overview].

Paragraph 1 described the Temple Terrace and the main goals of the season, aiming at better understanding the development of the temple (from the postulated, and later confirmed, idea of tracing back to the mid-fourth millennium BC the first foundation of temple BA), to gain an interpretation of the god who was worshipped therein (i.e. the polyad god Kumarbi). A history of the research is sketched, describing previous excavations on the High Mound (from 1984 to 2004), providing also the elevation of temple BA as 470.00 m on the sea-level (sub-paragraphs 1.1 and 1.2); sub-paragraph 1.3 focuses on 2005 activities, while sub-paragraph 1.4 investigates the development and the structural components of the Temple Terrace: the escarpment, the Plaza JP, the revetment wall J5, the monumental access J2, the glacis and the temple BA itself (the present form attested at least from 2400 to 2350 BC, according to middle chronology).

Paragraph 2 describes the stratigraphy: specifically, sub-paragraph 2.9 describes the scattered occupation after the end of Urkesh as sacral center (ca. 1300 BC).

Paragraph 3 focuses on other structures related to the Temple Terrace: the revetment wall, the packing and the glacis, and the escarpment.

Paragraph 4 deals with the monumental staircase, presenting structural considerations, perceptual perspectives and projections, while paragraph 5 focuses on the Plaza, considered as a sacred space.

Paragraph 6 displays major objects from the Mittanian strata, such as the clay figure of pig/boar’s snout, probably connected to ritual activities in the area (see here for pictures), ceramics from phase 1 strata, and Late Chalcolithic sherds.

Paragraph 7 discusses two hypotheses dealing with the two lion-shaped statuettes of Tish-atal (revisiting their provenance and dating) and with the equation at Urkesh of NERGAL=Kumarbi, retracing (sub-paragraph 7.9) the idea of an ideological landscapes of the temple mound.

[The authors attempt an interpretation of the function of different spaces on the basis of the archaeological evidence and the features of each structure; moreover, moving to the ideological perception of the sacred area, it is interesting to note how the location and physical features of the Temple mound hint to the building of an ideological landscape, affecting the mind of people living at Urkesh or in its neighbourhood.]

PDF available here.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

«Sacrifice—ranging from the sacrifice of virgins to circumcision to giving up what is most valued—is essential to all religions. Could there be a natural, even biological, reason for these practices? Something that might explain why religions of so many different cultures share so many rituals and concepts? In this extraordinary book, one of the world’s leading authorities on ancient religions explores the possibility of natural religion—a religious sense and practice naturally proceeding from biological imperatives.

Because they lack later refinements, the earliest religions from the Near East, Israel, Greece, and Rome may tell us a great deal about the basic properties and dynamics of religion, and it is to these cultures that Walter Burkert looks for answers. His book takes us on an intellectual adventure that begins some 5,000 years ago and plunges us into a fascinating world of divine signs and omens, offerings and sacrifices, rituals and beliefs unmitigated by modern science and sophistication. Tracing parallels between animal behavior and human religious activity, Burkert suggests natural foundations for sacrifices and rituals of escape, for the concept of guilt and punishment, for the practice of gift exchange and the notion of a cosmic hierarchy, and for the development of a system of signs for negotiating with an uncertain environment. Again and again, he returns to the present to remind us that, for all our worldliness, we are not so far removed from the first Homo religiosus.» [Publisher’s summary]

– Jonah Lynch, 2020

Numbers 5 and 6 constitute an insertion of legal material into the account of the preparations for the march through the wilderness. Scholars have long since noted that the laws are united by their concern to prevent and eliminate sources of impurity. Many semantic and thematic links suggest that this section is a well structured composition, with the three main laws corresponding to the three purity laws mentioned at the beginning of the section (5.1-4). This article proposes to take this structure seriously, reading the law on restitution for wrongs (5.5-10) as a specification of the purity law concerning scale diseases, the suspected adulteress or sotah (5.11-26) as an amendment to the discharge regulation, and the law on the nazir (6.1-21) as a particular case of contact with a corpse. These connections shed light on the particular logic of these laws and point to the social function of purity laws, with each law defining the boundary separating each different group. [Author’s summary]

– Jonah Lynch, 2020

This volume offers an English translation of the fundamental work of Diels 1960 Fragmente, collecting fragments of Pre-Socratic philosophers.

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The volume deeply analyses the structure and the way of interpreting dreams in ancient Mesopotamia, recurring also to results of scientific research (in psychoanalysis and medicine) on the REM sleep and Simplified Sleep Cycles. The author further discusses the connection between dream interpretation and the conception and role of fate/destiny in human life, a link clearly exemplified by Mesopotamian oneirology.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

[Available online at this link.

Usually abbreviated as “CAD”.]

– Marco De Pietri, 2023

«Prayer, including praise as well as supplication, tends to be understood as the offering up of words that are enunciated and heard. However, prayer also has an important visual component, especially in the context of the temple, where ritual actions are a focus. The quintessential type of gesture associated with prayer in the ancient world was the lifting of the hands, a visual sign that accompanied verbal expressions of praise and entreaty» (from author’s incipit).

[This online paper offers some insights on the actual praying gestures in ancient Israel and Mesopotamia, underlining how prayer needs to be analysed in all its components, both textual and ritual aspects, with a specific focus of the ‘hand-lifting praying’ attitude.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This contribution publishes some Akkadian namburbi texts, specific rituals and incantations aiming at averting the action of malefic or evil entities. Some of these texts are mentioned by G. Buccellati in his book on Mesopotamian religion, specifically in Appendix 13. The paper is continued in Caplice 1967 Namburbi.

[The book is listed in this bibliography since it is used as the basic reference to namburbi texts in G. Buccellati’s volume.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This contribution publishes some Akkadian namburbi texts, specific rituals and incantations aiming at averting the action of malefic or evil entities. Some of these texts are mentioned by G. Buccellati in his book on Mesopotamian religion, specifically in Appendix 13. The paper represents the continuation of Caplice 1965 Namburbi.

[The book is listed in this bibliography since it is used as the basic reference to namburbi texts in G. Buccellati’s volume.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This book collects many Akkadian namburbi texts, specific rituals and incantations aiming at averting the action of malefic or evil entities.

Some of these texts are mentioned by G. Buccellati in his book on Mesopotamian religion, specifically in Appendix 13.

[The book is listed in this bibliography because it is used as the basic reference to namburbi texts.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

“In this important study Ernst Cassirer analyzes the non-rational thought processes that go to make up culture. He demonstrates that beneath both language and myth there lies an unconscious “grammar” of experience, whose categories and canons are not those of logical thought. He shows that this prelogical “logic” is not merely an undeveloped state of rationality, but something basically different, and that this archaic mode of thought still has enormous power over even our most rigorous thought, in language, poetry and myth. The author analyzes brilliantly such seemingly diverse (yet related) phenomena as the metaphysics of the Bhagavat Gita, the Melanesian concept of Mana, the Naturphilosophie of Schelling, modern poetry, Ancient Egyptian religion, and symbolic logic. He covers a vast range of material that is all too often neglected in studies of human thought.

These six essays are of great interest to the student of philosophy or the philosophy of science, the historian, or the anthropologist. They are also remarkably timely for students of literature, what with the enormous emphasis placed upon “myth” in modern literary speculation. This book is not superficial speculation by a dabbler, but a penetrating study by one of the most profound and sensitive philosophic minds of our time” (Publisher’s description).

– Marco De Pietri, 2023

«Jacques Cauvin has spent many years researching the beginnings of the Neolithic in the Near East, excavating key sites and developing new ideas to explain the hugely significant cultural, social and economic changes which transformed mobile hunter-gatherers into the first village societies and farmers in the world. In this book, first published in 2000, the synthesis of his mature understanding of the process beginning around 14,000 years ago challenges ecological and materialist interpretations, arguing for a quite different kind of understanding influenced by ideas of structuralist archaeologists and members of the French Annales school of historians. Defining the Neolithic Revolution as essentially a restructuring of the human mentality, expressed in terms of new religious ideas and symbols, the survey ends around nine thousand years ago, when the developed religious ideology, the social practice of village life and the economy of mixed farming had become established throughout the Near East and east Mediterranean, and spreading powerfully into Europe» (description on editor’s webpage).

The volume analyses the development of first spiritual symbolism or religious beliefs in the prehistory of ancient Near East, specifically in the Neolithic period.

[The contribution is particularly relevant as an introduction to the first attested forms of spiritual symbolism and religious beliefs in ancient Near East, specifically in the Neolithic period.]

A further insight on this book offering passages (quoted verbatim) on specific topics, can be found on Excerpts.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This essay on the figure of prophets in the Amorite ancient Near East focuses on the nature of prophetism in a specific geographical area (between Syria and Mesopotamia), connecting the function of the prophets to the legitimation of kings and their political power.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

«In ancient Mesopotamia, the divinity that chastises is not conceived as a sort of impassible judge who delivers sentences in a detached manner: the god punishes because the fault of man has provoked his anger.» (p. 1) Charpin supports this thesis with texts taken from four centuries at the beginning of the second millenium BCE in Aleppo. The first examples given are invocations of maledictions on enemies. They express the desire that, given certain conditions, the rage of the god be expressed toward a guilty party. A second group of examples regard situations in which divine rage is used to explain common events, especially sickness and sudden death.

A third example regards a text in which Addu of Kallassu asks the reigning king to give him what he asks, and threatens revenge if he does not. The text continues with a request from Addu of Aleppo, who simply asks that the king render justice to the people, and makes no counter-threat. To Charpin, this last, for the first time in recorded history, seems to presage a future in which justice for all is more important than the god’s feelings of anger.

[Charpin and Buccellati are at odds regarding whether or not the god passes judgement on the basis of a pre-existing law or not. See 8.4.]

– Jonah Lynch, 2020

This dialog, about two-thirds conserved, develops a deep, and in a certain sense heartfelt, critique of polytheism. Three different positions are expressed, of which two are ideological (epicurean and stoic), while the third properly treats the relationship with the gods, and thus with religion as practice: this last is substantially agnostic. The author does not take a clear position, but leans toward the stoic ideology.

Of particular interest is the third part, which refers the point of view of Aurelio Cotta, formally the most engaged in the practice of religion (as supreme priest), yet declares himself agnostic, to the point that he approvingly refers the use of the term “atheist” (the term explicitly appears in III 89). Cotta develops the argument according to which the intrinsic validity of the cult resides in the fact that it is a purely external form, socially valuable, but lacking any spiritual depth. This exposition seems to be coherent with the majority of sentiments in a polytheistic world, a substantially skeptical sentiment that indicates a deep crisis.

[The divorce between ideology and religion illustrates very well one of the main conclusions of my work, which is that spirituality (as an authentic form of ideology) must remain alive if one wants religion to maintain its vital reality. It also illustrates how religion can become an instrument of social control, which excludes the possibility for spirituality to have an influence on public life–which is a very present question in the contemporary world. Note how the first two interlocutors do not actually speak of religion, while the third (Cotta) speaks of the gods only in function of the formal practices of the cult.]

Text available online on Perseus at this link (Latin only).

– Giorgio Buccellati, 2012

Cicero presents many arguments in favor of his central thesis, that gods exist, care for humans, and provide indications about future events that can be discerned through various techniques. His major evidence lies in the observations collected over the course of many years in many different places, that in his opinion show underlying consistency and evidence that authentic predictions took place. A pattern develops in time. «If a sow should form the letter A on the ground with its snout, surely on that basis you couldn’t think that Ennius’ Andromache could be written by it?» (23) Cicero is careful to distinguish between knowledge of the fact that foreknowledge has occurred, and the possible causes of it. He does not investigate the latter, whereas he presents hundreds of examples of the former. Divination is to be distinguished from other technical foreknowledge: «Doctors, pilots, and also farmers all sense many things in advance, but I call none of them ‘divination’» (111) Error is possible; «although many things deceive those who evidently divine the future by means of art or conjecture, nonetheless divination exists; but human beings can make mistakes in this art as in every other.» (123)

Text available online on Perseus at this link (Latin only).

– Jonah Lynch, 2020

«“Farmer’s Instructions […] is the title given here to a brief, simple didactic text that gives advice on cereal cultivation. […] The title adopted here is based on the one given by the text itself (na-de₅-ga “instruction,” “advice,” line 108)» (from author’s Introduction on p. 1)

[This text, sometimes considered as the Mesopotamian Georgica, is relevant to the topic of Mesopotamian wisdom literature, since it reports many (sapiential) instructions to be given to farmers in order to perform their job. It is a clear manifestation of how sapiential clues can be found also in compositions which could, at a first glimpse, not to be inherent to this topic.]

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

«The last fifty years have seen a dramatic increase of interest in the wisdom literature of the Bible, as scholars have come to appreciate the subtlety and originality of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes as well as of Sirach and Wisdom of Solomon. Interest has likewise grown in the wisdom literatures of the neighboring cultures of Canaan, Egypt, and especially Mesopotamia. To help readers understand the place of biblical wisdom within this broader context, including its originality and distinctiveness, this volume offers a rich collection of essays by distinguished Assyriologists and biblicists on the social, intellectual, and literary setting of Mesopotamian wisdom; on specific wisdom texts; and on key themes common to both Mesopotamian and biblical culture. Scholars, pastors, and laity will find these essays both fascinating and enriching. Contributors to the volume include Paul-Alain Beaulieu, Richard J. Clifford, James L. Crenshaw, Edward Greenstein, Victor Avigdor Hurowitz, Karel van der Toorn, and Raymond C. Van Leeuwen» (editor’s presentation of the book on Brill webpage).

[The volume is a perfect example of comparative approach in analysing wisdom literature in Israel and Mesopotamia. Specific contributions within this book (such as Beaulieu 2007 Wisdom) are better described in other entries on this page.]

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

«The Cultic Calendars incorporates recently discovered material to reconstruct the calendars and their associated festivals in the ancient Near East from Ugarit to Mesopotamia to Iran from 2500 to 100 B.C.E. Among the many cultic calendars discussed are those of Ebla, Nuzi, Mari, Emar, Ugarit, the Sumerians, Amorites, Israelites, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Elamites. Among topics discussed are the akitu-festival, spring, summer, and fall New Years, the lunar vs. solar calendar, festivals for the netherworld, and theories on the origin of the Nisannu-calendar» (after publisher’s website).

Available online on Archive.org.

– Marco De Pietri, 2024

«Writings from the Ancient World is designed to provide up-to-date, readable English translations of writings recovered from the ancient Near East. The series is intended to serve the interests of general readers, students, and educators who wish to explore the ancient Near Eastern roots of Western civilization or to compare these earliest written expressions of human thought and activity with writings from other parts of the world. It should also be useful to scholars in the humanities or social sciences who need clear, reliable translations of ancient Near Eastern materials for comparative purposes» (from author’s Foreword on p. vii).

[This volume specifically deals with wisdom texts of the Late Bronze Age.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This volumes aims to investigate the many cultic calendars which were used throughout the ancient Near East during a 2500-year period (i.e. from the 3rd millennium BCE to the end of the 1st millennium BCE): it therefore discusses the structure of each calendar, the month names, and the associated annual and monthly festivals. The narrative is divided by epoch and by location, and it also offers indices of month names, deities, general terms, and selected subjects. Cohen makes a clear distinction between different types of calendars: those which were “parochial or native”, i.e. observed within one city and its metropolitan area; ethnic calendars followed in territories that exceeded the boundaries of one single city or kingdom; and national calendars, defined as «mandated for use in all cities, including those previously using a parochial or ethnic calendar, comprising a ruler’s kingdom.» (p.2). Finally, Cohen mentions the existence of universal calendars, which transcended the borders of cities, kingdoms, and ethnic areas. All the ancient Near Eastern calendars discussed in this volume were lunar, and Cohen discusses also the available evidence for intercalation, i.e. additional months which were used to synchronize the lunar calendar with the seasonal year. The author presents the rituals celebrated during each month under discussion: he provides information on the available primary sources, the scholarly research made for each festivals, and the information which may be gathered with regard to specific cultic acts, symbolism and religious significance. Also the political implications of the introduction and variation of religious calendars, the change of month names and the use of intercalation are thoroughly discussed.

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

Cohen traces the evolution of the attitude towards divine retribution through its inception during the Sumerian civilization to its culmination amid the post-Kassite period, citing an increasing nihilism reflective of extensive socio-economic inequality. Through close readings and subsequent critiques of interpretations by four scholars, as well as an investigation into the socio-political climate of the Kassite/Post-Kassite period, Cohen wishes to debunk the notion that historical circumstances were the underlying impetus in the development of wisdom literature.

Thorkild Jacobsen likens the intellectual development of questioning the nature of the divine to the evolution of a child into adulthood. He suggests that at the earliest stage, man’s relationship with the divine is like that of a child who sees its parents without flaw. Upon maturity, it realizes a growing deception, or more so, inability, for the gods to reign righteously - considering the unjust nature of society and retribution. Jacobsen rationalizes this development from an evolutionary perspective, a combination of the transition from communal to individual worship and historical realities. The despair inherent to wisdom texts is reflective of the Assyrian domination of the Near East, which saw an increasingly lawless, less civilized society. 

W.G. Lambert cites the arrival and socialization of the Amorites as a factor in the emergent theology of the problem of theodicy. The rising intellectual nihilism reflected in literature during the Kassite period was circumstantial to the failing conditions of Babylon under Kassite rule. 

Whether social conditions were reflected in religious doctrine was the concern of Rainer Albertz, who conflates ideology in the Book of Job with the Babylonian Theodicy. Transformations in religious ideology were congruous to a Post-Kassite weakening state during the Second Dynasty of Isin, which experienced many invasions and increasing economic instability. Albertz reconciled the newfound wealth of a rising neo-nobility with an increase in doubt towards the validity of the gods divine order, in his view most apparent in the Babylonian Theodicy. 

Karel van der Toorn detects a shift in the psyche of Babylonia which manifested after the emergence of the “nouveau riche”. This new class of nobility caused a social rift which saw concepts of divine justice transform into the dualism of wicked and righteous. This social transformation birthed the nihilism apparent in the Babylonian Theodicy. However, van der Toorn also postulates the genesis of a “counter-dogma” evident in texts such as Enmeduranki. He suggests that this was a last-ditch attempt to aggrandize Mesopotamian wisdom, endowing it with ancient roots to increase its validity. 

Cohen rebukes the evolutionary model of the development of social thought as reactionary, which he suggests is convenient and dismissive of complex phenomena. He broadens the definition of theodicy to include the sufferer’s point of view as relevant and non-consequential. Historical and textual evidence is found to be insufficient for the supposition that social conditions influenced nihilistic attitudes. Cohen illustrates that Mesopotamian wisdom literature had a long-standing history of questioning the nature of the divine, suggesting the tradition to be inherent of Mesopotamian culture. The problem of Theodicy is far more complex than previous scholarship inferred and cannot be reduced to the response of a particular historical event or the fruit of social evolution.

The economic status and abandonment of urban centers during the First Dynasty of Babylon was not reflective of a failing state. Cohen suggests that due to a lack of textual evidence from the Kassite period, socio-political commentary is premature and speculative. Similarly, Post-Kassite Babylonia, although stricken with many afflictions, was not as disastrous as previous scholarship inferred. The negative outlook towards this period developed as a result of the emergence of a neo-nobility, explicitly mentioned in the Babylonian Theodicy, which gained wealth from land/entitlement grants and tax exemption. However, Brinkman warns that the inference of a weak state during the Kassite period, citing kudurrus as a source of information, is faulty and inconsistent with other known sources. Cohen argues the documentary evidence is insufficient to conclude that Babylonian society was in a state of despair following the collapse of the First Dynasty of Babylon through the Post-Kassite period, and thus the literature produced in that time-frame is not reflective of social transformations or theological reactions. 

The questioning of philosophical tradition, divine retribution and nihilistic attitudes towards general social conditions has a long-standing history in Mesopotamia, in both Sumerian and Akkadian texts. This genre of literature co-existed with religious texts that expressed exaltation towards the gods and state. Cohen goes on to cite examples from Sumerian and Akkadian texts that exemplify the longevity of a philosophical tradition of examining the nature of divine retribution. He finds that what is perceived as nihilism by modern scholarship is actually an understanding by the ancient authors that the gods may have never been concerned with the behavior of people; they are exclusively driven by the promise of offerings. Thus the relationship one has with the divine is one of mutual concession. Even then, the fate of humanity is unpredictable, as is expressed in literature where a sufferer is plagued by misfortune despite being well-versed in the necessary rituals to expel it. The inferred nihilism is reflective of the inability to understand the actions of the gods. Cohen notes the scribal traditions of later periods were endowed with a rich corpus of ideas to build upon, and developed the critique of divine retribution as well as the condition of the sufferer more finely over time, thus concluding his argument.

A succinct overview of the perception of wisdom literature from past scholars. Cohen offers new insight into Mesopotamian literary tropes and their historical influences.

– Iman Nagy, 2020

Cohen traces the evolution of the attitude towards divine retribution through its inception during the Sumerian civilization to its culmination amid the post-Kassite period, citing an increasing nihilism reflective of extensive socio-economic inequality. Through close readings and subsequent critiques of interpretations by four scholars, as well as an investigation into the socio-political climate of the Kassite/Post-Kassite period, Cohen wishes to debunk the notion that historical circumstances were the underlying impetus in the development of wisdom literature.

Thorkild Jacobsen likens the intellectual development of questioning the nature of the divine to the evolution of a child into adulthood. He suggests that at the earliest stage, man’s relationship with the divine is like that of a child who sees its parents without flaw. Upon maturity, it realizes a growing deception, or more so, inability, for the gods to reign righteously - considering the unjust nature of society and retribution. Jacobsen rationalizes this development from an evolutionary perspective, a combination of the transition from communal to individual worship and historical realities. The despair inherent to wisdom texts is reflective of the Assyrian domination of the Near East, which saw an increasingly lawless, less civilized society. 

W.G. Lambert cites the arrival and socialization of the Amorites as a factor in the emergent theology of the problem of theodicy. The rising intellectual nihilism reflected in literature during the Kassite period was circumstantial to the failing conditions of Babylon under Kassite rule. 

Whether social conditions were reflected in religious doctrine was the concern of Rainer Albertz, who conflates ideology in the Book of Job with the Babylonian Theodicy. Transformations in religious ideology were congruous to a Post-Kassite weakening state during the Second Dynasty of Isin, which experienced many invasions and increasing economic instability. Albertz reconciled the newfound wealth of a rising neo-nobility with an increase in doubt towards the validity of the gods divine order, in his view most apparent in the Babylonian Theodicy. 

Karel van der Toorn detects a shift in the psyche of Babylonia which manifested after the emergence of the “nouveau riche”. This new class of nobility caused a social rift which saw concepts of divine justice transform into the dualism of wicked and righteous. This social transformation birthed the nihilism apparent in the Babylonian Theodicy. However, van der Toorn also postulates the genesis of a “counter-dogma” evident in texts such as Enmeduranki. He suggests that this was a last-ditch attempt to aggrandize Mesopotamian wisdom, endowing it with ancient roots to increase its validity. 

Cohen rebukes the evolutionary model of the development of social thought as reactionary, which he suggests is convenient and dismissive of complex phenomena. He broadens the definition of theodicy to include the sufferer’s point of view as relevant and non-consequential. Historical and textual evidence is found to be insufficient for the supposition that social conditions influenced nihilistic attitudes. Cohen illustrates that Mesopotamian wisdom literature had a long-standing history of questioning the nature of the divine, suggesting the tradition to be inherent of Mesopotamian culture. The problem of Theodicy is far more complex than previous scholarship inferred and cannot be reduced to the response of a particular historical event or the fruit of social evolution.

The economic status and abandonment of urban centers during the First Dynasty of Babylon was not reflective of a failing state. Cohen suggests that due to a lack of textual evidence from the Kassite period, socio-political commentary is premature and speculative. Similarly, Post-Kassite Babylonia, although stricken with many afflictions, was not as disastrous as previous scholarship inferred. The negative outlook towards this period developed as a result of the emergence of a neo-nobility, explicitly mentioned in the Babylonian Theodicy, which gained wealth from land/entitlement grants and tax exemption. However, Brinkman warns that the inference of a weak state during the Kassite period, citing kudurrus as a source of information, is faulty and inconsistent with other known sources. Cohen argues the documentary evidence is insufficient to conclude that Babylonian society was in a state of despair following the collapse of the First Dynasty of Babylon through the Post-Kassite period, and thus the literature produced in that time-frame is not reflective of social transformations or theological reactions. 

The questioning of philosophical tradition, divine retribution and nihilistic attitudes towards general social conditions has a long-standing history in Mesopotamia, in both Sumerian and Akkadian texts. This genre of literature co-existed with religious texts that expressed exaltation towards the gods and state. Cohen goes on to cite examples from Sumerian and Akkadian texts that exemplify the longevity of a philosophical tradition of examining the nature of divine retribution. He finds that what is perceived as nihilism by modern scholarship is actually an understanding by the ancient authors that the gods may have never been concerned with the behavior of people; they are exclusively driven by the promise of offerings. Thus the relationship one has with the divine is one of mutual concession. Even then, the fate of humanity is unpredictable, as is expressed in literature where a sufferer is plagued by misfortune despite being well-versed in the necessary rituals to expel it. The inferred nihilism is reflective of the inability to understand the actions of the gods. Cohen notes the scribal traditions of later periods were endowed with a rich corpus of ideas to build upon, and developed the critique of divine retribution as well as the condition of the sufferer more finely over time, thus concluding his argument.

A succinct overview of the perception of wisdom literature from past scholars. Cohen offers new insight into Mesopotamian literary tropes and their historical influences (Iman Nagy).

Author’s summary: The present essay has come to challenge the idea that the Problem of Theodicy was introduced to Mesopotamian literature as a reaction to social or historical circumstances. First, support for historical or social catastrophic scenarios that allegedly promoted the rise of the critical discussion of divine retribution was denied.

It was demonstrated that the Kassite and Post-Kassite periods, considered at times the «Middle Ages», were not as dire as portrayed. Moreover, it was shown that these historical eras were reconstructed from the very sources they were supposed to have inspired, when literature was understood as a historical document in its narrowest sense.

Secondly, it was argued that with a growing and substantial corpus of works dating to the Old Babylonian and Post-Old Babylonian period, it is now possible to trace some of the ideas found in Kassite and Post-Kassite texts to older proverbs and wisdom compositions. The questioning of divine retribution by the Righteous Sufferer in a number of works, the realization of the incomprehensibility of the god(s)’s way, the reversibility of man’s fate, and the rejection of material wealth or goods, as part of a nihilistic trend, were all seen to be found, in one way or the other, in these early compositions. They all stem from the confrontation with the Problem of Theodicy, without any particular catastrophe looming in their background, either explicitly or implicitly, wishing to answer a question common to many religious systems, Why is there suffering in the world of the (innocent) believer. (p. 270)

[Cohen’s article examines and refutes the explanations of Thorkild Jacobsen, Wilfred Lambert, Rainer Albertz, and Karel van der Toorn. In his view, their theories about theodicy suffer from a lack of independent historical data, which relativizes or contradicts the assumptions upon which their explanations rest. Cohen therefore attempts to rectify the situtation with new data and arrives at the conclusion that the problem of Theodicy accompanied Babylonian religious reflection from its beginning, and did not arise in reaction to a cultural or economic shift, as claimed for instance by Nagy. «Questioning divine reward and punishment and the introduction of sceptical or critical attitudes are constant themes in Mesopotamian wisdom literature; hence an evolutionist historical scenario is not needed to explain their appearance and development.» (p. 245) Cohen also expands the concept of theodicy to refer not only to a blameless sufferer (as Bricker proposed), but more broadly to the «attempt to explain in religious terms suffering or evil.» (p. 246) From the beginning, religious people have reflected on the failure of the principle of divine retribution to explain the actual situation of the world.] (Jonah Lynch).

PDF available online on Academia.edu.

– Iman Nagy, Jonah Lynch, 2020

Cohen seeks to understand why texts specifically containing proverbial wisdom were utilized in the scribal tradition of Mesopotamia. Citing the persistence of the Sumerian Proverb Collection in the Old Babylonian scribal school and beyond, Cohen argues that specific themes were valued and integrated into the curriculum. Wisdom literature was not studied solely for the sake of linguistic practice but more so because the inherent themes had intellectual value. The existence of tablets containing texts of similar topics, “compilation tablets”, illustrate the value of the content. Cohen argues the presence of wisdom texts in Old Babylonian literary catalogues exemplifies their status as a distinct genre. An Akkadian-Hittite text, of which only the Hittite translation survives, emphasizes the cultural weight that the transmission of wisdom carried, suggesting that practitioners should memorize and observe wisdom literature. The value of wisdom texts was two-part - they were esteemed by the scribal tradition for their intellectual value and were permeated into the collective culture as a benefit for humanity. Cohen argues these qualities define the purpose of their authorship to great antiquity or divinity.

Upon examining literary inventories that seem to classify texts in accordance to genre, Cohen finds the Series of Sidu, a great sage of Nippur known for producing wisdom literature, present and cherished in the intellectual tradition and collection of scholarly texts.

Proverbs from the Series of Sidu were utilized in commentaries of omen texts seeking affirmations of efficacy, further illustrating the author’s point that wisdom held high precedence in the Mesopotamian world. Thus, wisdom literature had multiple functions outside of literary and scribal traditions, it was also valued for its intellectual weight and instructional capacity for the betterment of mankind.

This article investigates the relationships between texts and scribal traditions, with a focus on the development of wisdom as a genre which held significant cultural value throughout the civilization’s lifespan.

– Iman Nagy, 2020

This brief article summarises one of the main discoveries made the Urkesh/Tell Mozan’s team in 1999: a structure consisting of a circular chamber with a square antechamber (added later), a pit (at least six metres in depth, and five metres in diameter) found in an area of the exterior southern wall of the Royal Palace; the pit was probably covered by a vaulted ceiling, unfortunately not preserved. The structure can be dated around 2300 BC, existing already before the palace.

Then the quest for an interpretation of the structure started: a cist burial? A well? A place for making offerings to the dead? The filling of the pit helped in understanding the function of the structure: after having removed some layers of ashes, pebbles and seeds, remains of dozens of animals (including sixty pigs, twenty puppies, sixty sheep or goats and twenty donkeys), all butchered, were found. Furthermore, also copper/bronze pins and silver or lead rings were discovered alongside anthropomorphic vessels and clay animal figurines (see here for pictures). Faunal evidences attested in all the strata stand for long-time activities in the pit.

Archaeologists immediately linked these finds with Hittite-Hurrian sources describing offerings (usually made by the royal couple) to appease the gods of the Underworld, put inside a pit, and sacrifices of animals whose blood was poured in a pit. A question arises: «If the monumental structure at Urkesh was a channel to the Underworld, in which animals were sacrificed either for food or for purification to the chthonic powers, who used it? Who would have had a problem so serious that he would have undertaken an activity as dangerous as raising the inhabitants of the Underworld?» (p. 56). Eventually, the structure has been identified as an ābi.

And this is a compelling answer: «The location of the structure at Urkesh adjacent to the royal palace suggests a similar royal use at this ancient Hurrian capital and the Buccellati’s believe that a platform situated between the structure and the palace may have connected them in a kind of ritual complex» (p. 56).

[The contribution is particularly relevant for the identification and functional use of the ābi, an underground structure uncovered at Urkesh/Tell Mozan, where necromantic practices connected to ancestor cult where performed.]

PDF available at this link.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This article stems from a preliminary preassumption: «kingship in Mesopotamia was always sacred, but only rarely divine» (p. 261). Cooper, then, tries to find answers to three research questions: what impelled some Mesopotamian kings of the third millennium BCE (Naram-Sin and Shulgi in particular) to break with the traditional model of kingship and become gods? How did divine kingship differ from traditional kingship? And why was divine kingship in Mesopotamia a fleeting phenomenon?

While discussing these issues, Cooper provides a review of the existing bibliography for this topic, taking into consideration both epigraphical and archaeological evidence. From his investigation of primary sources, Cooper comes to several conclusions: firstly, that the deification of a ruler was mostly purely ideological, and that it changed the practice of kingship little - if at all. A strong rule gained no additional power from his godship, nor was a weak ruler protected by it. Cooper also infers that a divinized king was no god but partook of the divine, and he remained human - but without many of the limitations typical of a human being.

He concludes that «since divine kingship cross-culturally seemes to be the exception rather than the rule, ther could well be some basic human cognitive resistance to pushing any living mortal fully into the category of the divine» (p. 264).

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

In this book, the author retraces the paths towards the construction of some modern concepts belonging to Western philosophy and related to speculation on religion. More in detail, Cornford addresses some topics also discussed in the volume “When on High the Heavens…”: the concept of destiny and fate, the relationship between gods, nature, and soul, and their interpretation through the spectrum of philosophical, scientific, and mystical traditions.

[With regards to G. Buccellati’s volume, it is interesting a consideration expressed by the author in the Praface, p. v, about the interpretation of natural and religious phaenomena in pre-classical times on the base of mythological accounts: «The modes of thought that attain to clear definition and explicit statement in philosophy were already implicit in the unreasoned intuitions of mythology». The author recognizes that later philosophical speculations on religious phaenomena were already present also in ‘pre-philosophical times’, specifically in the realm of mythological intuitions.]

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This paper surveys the onomastics of Babylonian women in the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid periods (from the end of the 8th century BC to the end of the 4th century BC). In the third section of the article (pp. 17-22), in particular, the authors analyze the recurrence of some particular theophoric elements, which allows for an assessment of the roles and statues of several Mesopotamian goddesses, such as Ba’u, Mullissu, Ištar and Nanaya.

Cousin and Watai divide personal names into two main categories, rather than the three suggested by Buccellati in §14.2; their analysis, however, deepens rather than opposes Buccellati’s reasoning. With regard to theophoric names in particular, the two authors offer an interesting social and cultural description of the use of divine names for women, also taking into consideration historical and political events which might have had an influence on the phenomenon of name-giving.

From this study of onomastics, they conclude that in the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid periods the Sumero-Akkadian pantheon was still in force - even after the rising of Marduk, the tutelary god of Babylon, to the head of the pantheon during the Neo-Babylonian period. They identify a sort of antiquarianism which led to the use of theophoric elements like Ba’u, which was common in the “ancient” pantheon.

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

«This study aims to examine the view that in Ancient Mesopotamia the lay citizen was relatively devoid of personal religious devotion and beliefs» (from author’s abstract on p. ii).

[This thesis focuses on aspects of personal prayer in ancient Mesopotamia, with a particular focus on the participation of people in liturgies, personal devotion in ritual practices, and private devotion towards personal gods.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

A very useful and deep insight into the momentous passage regarding the Biblical necromancy attested in 1 Sam. 28.

«Chapter 28 of the second book of Samuel contains a remarkable story: the evocation of Samuel, dead for some time, by the king of Israel Saul, worried on the eve of a decisive battle and disappointed at not having received an answer from God; this evocation takes place thanks to a woman able to invoke the dead. This story has raised many questions among Jewish and Christian exegetes. In no case, however, is the interpretation defi nitive or normative: with caution and rigor, commentators offer nuanced and different answers. The two main questions concern the prohibition of necromancy and all divinatory practices, set out for example in Leviticus 19:31 or Deuteronomy 18:10-12 and taken up by Saul, and the reality or otherwise of the apparition: illusion, demonic trickery…

The character of Saul is at the heart of the story and elicits various judgments from exegetes, some unreservedly blaming him, others defending him. Against the backdrop of the confrontations of the 16th century, a polemic developed over the rites associated with death. After an innovative analysis of the pericope in the light of cognitive linguistics, the history of exegesis is outlined, including ancient Jewish texts, patristic exegesis, medieval exegesis, and Catholic and Reformed exegesis in the 16th century.» (publisher’s presentation of the book, translated into English by mDP).

Link to publisher website.

Cf. Schmidt 2020 Necromancy.

– Marco De Pietri, 2023

An English edition of Mesopotamian myths, including the Enūma elīš.

– Marco De Pietri, 2023

This contribution describes the dichotomy between a popular/private religion and the State religion in the ancient Near East. Besides the official gods and cultic rituals performed by State entities (the temple), in specific circumstances or occasions and within specific deputed places, in ancient Mesopotamian sources there are also glimpses (supported also by archaeological finds) on popular cults and veneration of personal or family gods.

[This dichotomy between official (i.e. State) religion and private worshipping is not attested only in Mesopotamia; a well-known parallel can be found in Egypt during the so-called ‘Amarna period’, when, besides the official pharaonic ‘henotheism’ leading to the veneration of a unique god (Aton), the popular religion continued to worship, locally or privately, all the gods of the ‘ancient’ (i.e. traditional) Egyptian pantheon.]

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice envisions a macrocosmos Temple conceived on the model of the earthly Tabernacle and the Temple in Jerusalem. (Of course, the composers of the work would see it the other way around: the cosmos Temple is the archetype and the model for the earthly sanctuaries.) This paper seeks to reconstruct some of the implicit exegetical strategies used by the composers of the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, and probably their predecessors, to support their mining of biblical accounts of the Tabernacle, the Temple in Jerusalem, and Ezekiel’s imagined Temple for details of the cosmic temple. (Author’s summary)

– Iman Nagy, 2020

«The prayers of ancient Israel and Mesopotamia are rare windows into how ancient peoples interacted with their gods. Much work has already been done to describe how social conventions are important driving factors behind these interactions with deities. In order to utilize these observations and further understand the relationships between humans and gods, it is important to understand the ritual environment in which these relationships are created. A performance approach to ritual allows us to properly contextualize the human-divine relationships that are attested in prayers within their ritual environments. In both Israel and Mesopotamia, actions within rituals take place in framed domains; because all social action occurs in framed domains as well, rituals can be profitably compared to other domains, such as theatre or sports. This dissertation uses a performance approach to analyze four different groups of prayers from the first-millennium BCE. Two groups of prayers are from Mesopotamia and are clustered around two rituals: the Akkadian šuilla and the dingiršadabba. The other two groups of prayers come from the Book of Psalms: the individual and communal laments» (from author’s abstract on pp. vi-vii).

[This thesis presents a comparative approach in the analysis of Mesopotamian and Israelite prayer, understood as a personal way to communicate with the divine sphere.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

«Recently, while preparing for publication two new oracular texts from the archive of the Old Babylonian Kititum temple of Ishchali, I had occasion to review the literature dealing with ancient Mesopotamian prophetic texts and practices. Much of that literature focuses on the reports of prophetic activities found at Old Babylonian Mari and on the so-called “Akkadian prophecies.” Several much-discussed problems concern terminology: What terms should be used to describe the Mesopotamian texts? Do they reflect prophetic practice or an apocalyptic world-view, or are they merely the result of scholarly speculation? Are they native, or imported from the West? Beyond the basic problem of labelling the Mesopotamian sources and the phenomena they portray loom other questions: How do they relate to other Mesopotamian practices vis-a-vis communication with the divine? What are the connections between the various types of Mesopotamian texts that use the same or related materials? Even a cursory appraisal of the available literature shows the existence of a number of assumptions that on closer examination can be demonstrated to need modification or even to be altogether untenable. The material for the Mesopotamian side of the discussion includes both newly available texts and new interpretations» (from author’s Introduction, p. 127).

[This paper raises some fundamental questions about ‘Assyrian prophecies’, rediscussing some terms referring to oracular texts and questioning the possible connection between oracular texts and other Mesopotamian documents.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

«The chronology of the ancient Near East (2000-1500 B.C.) is not well established. A much debated anchor point for this chronology is provided by a series of observed dates of the first appearance and the disappearance of the planet Venus during the reign of the Babylonian king Ammisaduqa. The Venus observations allow four different chronologies: Ammisaduqa year 1 = 1702 B.C. (the Long Chronology), 1646 and 1638 B.C. (the High and Low Middle Chronologies), and 1582 B.C. (the Short Chronology). In this paper we reanalyse the Venus observations using a physical model of the visibility of Venus in a twilight atmosphere. … The Santorini eruption serves as an important calibration point for the Aegean Late Bronze Age chronology (1700-1400 B.C.)» (from authors’ abstract).

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The stated goal of this article is to provide an introduction to the historical phenomenon of prophecy in the Ancient Levant and Old Babylonian Mari. It focuses on several topics, such as the terminology for prophetic personnel, prophecy as a system of communication, the link between prophecy and monarchy at Mari, and the question of biblical prophetic books and their relationship to prophetic practice.

The approach is comparative, similar to the one used by Buccellati in his volume, and the author surveys several ancient sources from both the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East (with a particular focus on the Old Babylonian archives of the 18th century BCE kingdom of Mari). Overall, Biblical and Mesopotamian sources are very well delineated and contextualized (§2). Additionally, Hebrew and Akkadian terminology are analysed in detail (§3). Also, the article offers throughtout a rich and updated bibliography on the topic of prophecy in the Bible and in Mari.

Deluty provides a useful analysis of two topics which are relevant also for Buccellati’s discussion on prophetism: firstly, she discusses whether ancient prophecy could be considered as a sub-type of divination and, if so, if it should indeed be labeled as “noninductive” or “intuitive” divination - extispicy being, instead, a sort of technical divination. Then, the author highlights an aspect which has often been underestimated by modern scholars: namely, the human intermediary who often stands between the prophet and the final recipient of the message. In investigating this issue, Deluty aims to offer a new perspective in the history of prophecy in the Ancient Levant and Old Babylonian Mari - revealing the human networks at play in the delivery of a divine message, a process which the author considers to be inextricably related to the practice of prophecy and to the central role of the prophet within ancient monarchies.

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

Dempsey’s study focuses on specific examples of comparative religion in India, New York, and Iceland. In so doing, she accepts the challenge of entering a “disciplinary minefield” regarding comparison in general. She maintains that “depending on how comparisons are conceived and executed, the game need not be unfair, uninteresting, or over” (p. 4). The introduction is particularly relevant to the present website.

– Jonah Lynch, 2021

A volume entirely dedicated to thoughts on the phenomenon of persistence of religions.

– Marco De Pietri, 2024

«Several documents from Egypt and Ḫatti (especially the Amarna letters and the Egyptian-Hittite correspondence) mention envoys and messengers in charge of diplomatic contacts between the two countries. Cuneiform and hieroglyphic transcriptions of Egyptian names at Ugarit hint at an actual presence (in Ugarit and Karkemish) of officials coming from Egypt or, at least, carrying Egyptian names. Furthermore, some Hittite envoys present clear Egyptian names, e.g. Amanmašu, Mizramuwa, and Wašmuarianaḫta. This paper aims at providing an overview of the documentation quoting names of messengers, pinpointing a brief prosopography of these officials, and offering an insight on these functionaries, investigating their role within the ‘Great Powers’ Club’ in connecting Egypt and Ḫatti during the Late Bronze Age» (Author’s abstract).

PDF available at this link.

Alternative online version on the publisher’s webpage.

– Marco De Pietri, 2023

While divine anger is a normal feature of mythological representations of the gods, and is present throughout the Hebrew Bible, it is remarkably absent from the Priestly narrative (Pg) as defined by de Pury (a detailed outline is provided in appendix to the article). The author notes that while the Deuteronomic narrative presents a relation between humans and YHWH that looks like a vassal-sovereign relation, the Pg narrative expresses a much more open dynamic: «In the narratives of Gen 1, 9, 17, or 23, one has the impression of the elaboration of an autonomously functioning system, a system which strives to leave each of the different partners their own dynamics, interests, and spontaneity, without measuring their behaviors by a pre-fixed standard. The divine word takes the form of an invitation rather than an order.» (p. 193)

The author briefly explains his reasons for accepting the Pg narrative as an autonomous document, and for believing that it was written in the window between 539 and 525 BC. His thesis fits the euphoric character of the beginning of the post-exilic period: God is not angry because he has no enemies.

Creation is without enemies, there is no adversary in Gen 1 (de Pury criticizes the traditional reading in which the creator creates through the word: rather, in his view, the creator explains, defines, and announces with the word). Relations between humans and animals are admittedly violent. Pg is pragmatic: these relations are inevitable violent; the important thing is to preserve the long term coexistence of the inhabitants of the earth, and this is accomplished by returning the blood of the victim to the earth.

Relations between the nations, according to Pg, are essentially peaceful and inclusive. Only later, proposes de Pury, did further scribes add negative descriptions of other nations. The same is true of the Abraham’s family relations: in Pg, on the contrary of the canonical version of Gen 17, the whole land of Canaan is given to all the descendants of Terah, not only Abraham. Only in relation to Pharaoh does de Pury see a somewhat less irenic situation; but even in relation to Egypt, the God of Pg acts with calm force, not with anger.

[De Pury’s observations support Buccellati’s emphasis on the radical difference between the polytheistic pantheon, which acts in anthropomorphic ways, and the absolute transcendence of the one god of Israel, who creates and saves with «calm force». This is interesting, especially because the two scholars have a nearly opposite explanation of the origin of the biblical text. For Buccellati, the Mesopotamian material in the Bible, especially the Abraham story, is much more ancient than the exilic period.]

– Jonah Lynch, 2020

An interesting review of De Santillana’s work on fate, focused on the question of human freedom, is here

– Giorgio Buccellati, 2012

A typological classification of the omina according to the formal organization of body parts in the malformed fetus reduces the entire corpus to five categories: malformation, absence, incompleteness, misplacement, excess.

A “hermeneutic” analysis recognizes sets of symbolic associations that pertain to discrete elements, e. g.: “the head, the upper part of the body, is associated with the king; the neck, which anatomically connects the head with the rest of the body, symbolizes royal power” (p. 54), and to the nature of the malformation, e.g., if the fetus looks like a lion, then the reference is to “the king, royal power and military strength” (p.61).

The concluding part “investigates mechanisms of association that create links between protases and apodoses through the use of paronomasia and other words of word-play” (p. 67). The article gives a large number of well chosen examples, and includes an up-to-date bibliography.

[The paper describes the formal structure of the omen series Šumma izbu, see Appendix 5, investigating the logical mental process behind the cause-consequence mechanism of this text; note by mDP.]

PDF available here

– Giorgio Buccellati, 2012

«Mesopotamia can be characterized as a “divination culture” more than any other ancient civilization. Because divination plays a pivotal role in the Mesopotamian belief system, understanding its hermeneutic apparatus becomes crucial to any study devoted to it. This two-volume book provides a comprehensive analysis of one of the most important divinatory compositions from ancient Mesopotamia, the series known in the field as Šumma izbu “If a malformed birth,” which deals mostly with malformed human and animal births.

The main part of the first volume elucidates the inner structure, the building principles and the hermeneutic code of Šumma izbu. The volume also provides a typological analysis of the textual sources used for the reconstruction and the study of the series and gives an overview over their chronological and archaeological distribution. Moreover, it surveys the structure and diachronic development of the Mesopotamian teratomantic corpus, from the Old Babylonian omen compendia to the so-called ‘canonical’ series of the first millennium, and explores its social setting. An English summary of nineteen pages concludes the first volume of the book. The second volume offers a full edition of Šumma izbu, the first after Erle Leichty’s pioneering edition of 1970. This new score edition draws on a substantial number of unpublished sources, for the most part housed in the British Museum, and a collation of those already published. It represents a significant step forward in the reconstruction of the series. A detailed commentary discusses philological, lexicographical and interpretative issues and attempts at contextualizing Šumma izbu within the ancient Mesopotamian divinatory corpus» (Author’s abstract).

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

The author discusses dedicatory inscriptions as examples of communication with the divine. The paper argues that divinatory inscriptions communicate with the god(s) not only by means of the written message they carry, but also by means of their very existence: the materiality and presence in the sanctuary, close to the divine presence.

The author considers divinatory inscriptions as forms of both “vertical communication” (i.e., with the divine, based on the assumption that deities dwell in heaven) and “horizontal communication” (i.e., with the surrounding society), and uses the dedicatory inscriptions which were found in the Yahwistic sanctuary from the Persian and Hellenistic Period excavated on Mount Gerizim (Nablus) as a case-study.

The authors also consider the function of dedicatory inscription as a proxy for its donor: as such, the inscription becomes the eternal presence which allows for a perpetual display of the giver’s ritual participation and devotion.

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

The monumental edition of the Pre-Socratic fragments collected by H. Diels, with the collaboration of W. Kranz, from ancient secondary sources directly quoting these fragments otherwise irretrievably lost, being attested only through an indirect tradition. The volumes of this edition provide both the original Greek version, a German translation, together with a philological apparatus. This first volume includes fragments from Orpheus (DK 1) to Pythagoreans (DK 58).

For an English translation, see Burnet 1920 Early.

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

An overview on faunal osteological remains from Tell Mozan/Urkesh (Area A12, the ābi) is offered in this paper: around 1037 samples have been analysed, belonging to mammals, birds and rodent.

In general, we can reconstruct that sheep were more consumed than goats and that also wild animal (such as the onager) were present on the site.

A NMI (‘minimal number of individuals’) ratio was calculated, the results being displayed in tables 2-3, on p. 70. Traces of butchering and the presence of some specific bones of the animal could hint to a deliberate selection of some anatomical parts for ritual purposes (considering the peculiar emplacement of the items).

Some animals were bred for practical goals (to obtain meat, milk, wool or for working force) or for specific intents (such as the dogs, probably used in sacrifices).

The osteometrical study of the bones can also provide us with information about the age of death and the actual size of the various animals (for specific details, see tables on pp. 77-79).

[The contribution is particularly relevant for the identification and functional use of the ābi, an underground structure uncovered at Urkesh/Tell Mozan, where necromantic practices connected to ancestor cult where performed. In this contribution, the author analysis the type of animals sacrificed in the necromantic pit, on the base of a precise osteometrical study.]

PDF available at this link.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The basic text of the Hebrew Bible in use by the Italian Jewish communities, with the original Masoretic Hebrew, Italian translation and a brief commentary.

– Marco De Pietri, 2023

While investigating the corpus of texts which may be considered as part of the “Near Eastern laws”, Doak starts from the assumption that “the search for a comprehensive logic or rationale behind the desire to ensure social justice in the ancient Near East is destined to fall short of the goal” (§II). He observes that there was no Aristotelian logic in the ancient Mesopotamian juridical concept, nor were abstract ideas such as “equality” or “justice” ever defined in the Mesopotamian lexicon. Likewise, there was no such a thing as a Near Eastern treatise on the subject of fairness or social justice.

Doak analyzes many Near Eastern legal texts, including the Code of Ur-Nammu, the inscriptions related to juridical reforms left by Lipit-Ishtar, the Code of Hammurabi, and the “social reforms” promoted by Uruinimgina/Urukagina - looking for their social and cultural background and significance in terms of justice and the law. The role of kings and judges is investigated, considering each case in its peculiar chronological context. The author also describes, by making use of written sources beginning with the Hymn to Shamash (Buccellati’s text App. 3), how Shamash/UTU came to be the main ancient Mesopotamians god who embodied the ideals of - and looked after - social justice.

Also the connection between writing and orality of law in the ancient Near Eastern social context is considered: Doak suggests that the relationship between “formal law” and practice was fluid and allowed for some sort of flexibility to meet local needs, though in many cases probably at the expense of consistency. Ancient Mesopotamian legal context, thus, was not characterized by that sense of anonymity and objectivity that is associated with modern legal systems.

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

«While preparing the edition of the letters of the first Babylonian dynasty, volumes XVII and XVIII of the Textes cunéiformes du département orientales du Musée du Louvre, I had the good fortune to come across whom by its form, its writing and the arrangement of lines, recalled the epistolary of the first Babylonian dynasty, but which was, in fact, religious in the category of prayers to the “gods of the night” (ik-ri-ib mu-ši-tim). The tablet is listed under the number AO 6769; it is in clay tinted light brown and measures 9.6 cm long by 4.9 cm wide and average thickness. It has on both sides 42 lines of text that even overflows on the upper and lower edges. The scribe has grouped tablet three prayers to the “gods of the night”, whose importance varies …» (p. 179; English translation by mDP).

[This edition of tablet Louvre AO 6769 is used as basic reference for Appendix 4.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This publication shows many examples of female correspondence in Ancient Mesopotamia.

[This edition is here mentioned since it is used as basic reference by G. Buccellati in his Appendix 9.]

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This publication (continuation of Dossin 1967 Correspondance) shows many examples of female correspondence in Ancient Mesopotamia.

[This edition is here mentioned since it is used as basic reference by G. Buccellati in his Appendix 9.]

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This publication (supplement to Dossin 1967 Correspondance and Dossin 1978 Correspondance) shows many examples of female correspondence in Ancient Mesopotamia. This edition is a basic reference for G. Buccellati in his Appendix 9.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

Durand’s wide ranging text principally examines the creation myth involving the mythologem of a battle between Marduk (storm-god) and Tiamat (goddess of the sea). On the basis of ARMT XXVI/3, he proposes that this theme existed already in 1800 BC, in an area far from Babylon. He also believes it is found in an Akkadian myth involving a battle between Tispak and the sea, dating a millenium earlier than Marduk. This myth could have influenced the culture of Ugarit, and from there it could have influenced Babylon. This conclusion responds to the question posed by (Jacobsen 1968 Battle): the mythologem could have traveled from west to east, from Ugarit to Babylon.

Durand notes that the mythologem is known not from a literary text, but from a foundational text for Amorite royalty, and expects that something similar will one day be found in a text from Babylon proper. The victory of Ba’al over the sea preluded to his building a palace and taking the throne, and his weapons are sent to the king in order to begin a sacred ceremony. In the same way that the god of order triumphed over the goddess of chaos, so the king must bring about justice in his potentially chaotic realm. These and other reasons lead Durand to propose that “l’accession de Marduk à la qualité de dieu d’Empire s’est passée par une adéquation progressive à l’image radieuse d’Addu d’Alep”.

– Jonah Lynch, 2020

This paper describes, on the one hand, some rituals attested at Mari which can be sometimes compared with other cultic activities performed in Mesopotamia; on the other hand, rituals peculiar of this city (or, more generally, of the Syrian area) are presented by the author as specific traits of the local communities influenced by both Mesopotamian and Amorite customs.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

Durand offers a close examination of the words indicating fault, sin, regret, and repentance. He begins by noting that action was essentially referred to humans, as the gods spent their eternity asleep (if possible). «All lack and all error had to be first of all, or rather uniquely, on the part of humans.» (p. 377).

His basic criterion for discerning the original meaning of words is a «translation in the negative», of which he offers three examples. For instance, rather than «make peace», the word salamum means to «not kill each other». This criterion is then applied in determining the Babylonian concept of sin, which is first of all «material loss» in Durand’s estimation. A word often rendered as moral fault, arnum, should be understood primitively as a «stain» caused by contact with a sacred object.

The words indicating the consequences of an immoral act carry the sense of being the immediate consequence of the action: «committing a sin immediately involves punishment» (p. 385). However, the «sinner» does not necessarily intend to not commit the same action again. He may wish to avoid the bad consequences, but the actions are not understood as moral or immoral in themselves.

Durand concludes that the translation «sin» of Mesopotamian words is erroneous, and causes a misleading and fruitless search for a corresponding category of «repentance». Before the Christian era, «if people were afraid…of the consequences of an act, they consecrated all their energy to annul those consequences; they never pose the question of never doing it again. Their acts… are measured by their consequences, not in themselves. A successful action is, by this fact, judged good.» (p. 388)

– Jonah Lynch, 2020

The volume collects twenty-one papers which were presented at the Interdisciplinary Colloquium organized by the “Chaire Milieux Bibliques” at the Collège de France in Paris, in 2012. The aim of the conference was to investigate the intrinsic need of every human society of disciplining itself by means of various taboos. Such discipline entails several possible transgressions, which inevitably lead to sanctions: all these aspects are discussed in the volume.

The approach used in the volume is interdisciplinary and comparatist: four main topics are discussed by the authors - 1. linguistic issues and terms used to express the concept of “interdiction”; 2. the economic and social context in which different ideas of taboos arose, or sanctions were conceived; 3. contact taboos, including sexual regulations; 4. food taboos and table matters.

Overall, this book offers several causes for reflection. The most evident one is the clear absence of a specific term or phrase used by members of ancient societies to express the equivalent of the modern word “taboo”. Durand’s analysis of the Mesopotamian corpus, Démare-Lafont’s new interpretation of the expression “to eat a taboo” in a legal text dating to the Third Dinasty of Ur, as well as Erbele-Küster’s analysis of the term niddâ as it appears in the Leviticus: these three papers prove that “taboo” and “transgression” were flexible and dynamic categories. This holds true particularly for the Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultures, while in Israel interdictions have been more clearly defined through the words written in the Bible.

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

This volume collects a series of Assyrian religious texts, including many epiphanic dreams. The author publishes only the Akkadian cuneiform transcription of the original texts.

[This book is useful as a collection of epiphanic dreams mentioned in G. Buccellati’s volume, specifically in Appendix 11.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This volume collects a series of Akkadian “hand-lifting” prayers attested on many clay tablets today kept in many museums. The author displays the Akkadian transliteration of the original text, together with a German translation and a brief commentary.

[This book is a collection of Akkadian “hand-lifting” prayers; cf. Frechette 2012 Mesopotamian.]

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This contribution publishes some Akkadian namburbi texts, specific rituals and incantations aiming at averting the action of malefic or evil entities. Some of these texts are mentioned by G. Buccellati in his book on Mesopotamian religion, specifically in Appendix 13.3.

[The book is listed in this bibliography since it is used as the basic reference to namburbi texts in G. Buccellati’s volume.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The most recent and complete grammar of Sumerian available in English.

The author presents the Sumerian language structuring the grammar in a thematic way, discussing firstly the phonology and then the morphology and the syntax. A final chapter is devoted to the so-called “EME.SAL”, a kind of ‘dialect’ or variant of the ‘formal’ Sumerian, with interesting suggestions for a better understanding of this ‘dialect’.

PDF preview available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

«Professor Eliade states that the aim of the book is to deal “with a twofold problem: first, what is religion and, secondly, how far can one talk of the history of religion?” (p. xii). In regard to the first of these problems, dispensing with any a priori definition of religious phenomena, the author, with great erudition and drawing upon innumerable examples from widely different cultures and varying levels of religious experience, attempts the examination of various “hierophanies”, or manifestations of the sacred. Beginning with hierophanies at different cosmic levels, - sky, waters, earth, stones - he goes on to consider biological hierophanies - the rhythm of the moon, the sun, vegetation and agriculture, sexuality - and then to local hierophanies - consecrated places, temples - and finally, in two interesting chapters, he discusses the significance of myths and symbols. As to how far we can talk of the history of religion, Professor Eliade hardly comes to grips with the problem at all, but suggests that this subject will be dealt with later in a companion volume.» (From a review by D. Howard Smith, 1959)

– Jonah Lynch, 2021

A recent and updated Italian translation of the well-known Akkadian epic of Atrahasis.

The author, after an Introduction presenting the topic, the history of the findings, and the core themes of the text, offers the Italian translation and comment of different recensiones: the Paleo-Babylonian, the, Middle-Babylonian, the Neo-Assyrian, the Neo-Babylonian, and finally the Achaemenid one, showing how this story benefited of a great and wide success in ancient Mesopotamian tradition (also in the philological meaning of this term).

A final synoptic table and an index of the divine names are presented at the end of the volume.

[The publication provides for the first time a faithful Italian translation of the epic of Atrahasis. It is included in this bibliography also because it represents, as far as I am aware, the most recent translation and commentary of this text.]

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The purpose of this article is to investigate the significance of the calendar and time manipulation in first millennium BC Assyria through the analysis of a variety of written sources, which provide useful information with regard to the perception that the Neo-Assyrian society had of calendrical issues. From such analysis, it may be inferred that not only there was a considerable awareness of the importance of the religious calendar and the observance of festivals in the proper days, but also that the control of timing was so developed that it was even incorporated into the semantics of the royal propaganda. Among the many powers that a Neo-Assyrian king could boast, thus, there was also the one of ruling over time. At first, the article refers to some specific characteristics of the Assyrian calendar of the first millennium BC, introducing the individuals who were involved in the determination of the days and months and discussing the system that was in use. Then, it discusses how calendrical issues were used in the Neo-Assyrian royal propaganda to convey the idea of a universal central power. Finally, the article presents an updated cultic calendar for the period under investigation.

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the topic of divine repentance in Near Eastern literary sources, offering a comparative analysis of texts stemming from Mesopotamia and Israel. While doing this, the author also investigates the theme of divine anthropopatism, its religious implications and the role of repentance in the story of the Flood, in Mesopotamia and in the Hebrew Bible.

The subject of God’s repentance in the Hebrew Bible has been discussed several times by scholars in light of its profound theological implications, but this topic did not raise a similar interest in scholars of the ancient Mesopotamia. This may be due primarily to the lack of Sumerian or Akkadian words that could express the concepts of repentance and/or remorse. An analysis of the accounts of the Flood as reported in When Gods Were Men and Genesis 6-9, however, shows that both these narratives refer more or less explicitly to the presence of divine repentance: the different rendering finds its justification in the cultural milieu within which these texts were written, in the different way to express feelings and emotions according to a very specific lexicon, and in the contrasting perception of man’s relationship with the supernatural.

Indeed, despite being described in the available original written sources in unequivocal anthropomorphic and anthropopathic terms, Mesopotamian gods do not (or, better said, they cannot) repent. Conversely, YHWH does repent - and he does so more than once, according to the Hebrew Bible. The main reason for these different attitudes should be detected in the fact that Near Eastern gods do not love their human creatures nor do they feel any emotional attachment towards humankind; on the contrary, YHWH is profoundly and directly involved in the destiny of humanity and deeply concerned by the way humans live.

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

This article investigates the relationship between men and gods in first millennium BCE Assyria within the specific realm of cultic commensality, which is considered to be a particularly significant and expressive moment of such relationship. In this perspective, ceremonial banquets were the physical tool through which direct contact with the supernal world was possible.

At first, daily meals consumed in Assyrian temples are described, with their main phases and specific human agents who performed well-defined task in well-defined moments. Once the food had been set on the tables placed in front of the divine statues, it assumed a special nature: its consumption normally took place in the innermost areas of temples, at the presence of only the gods themselves. Cases in which a few privileged men (usually the king alone) could share the same food and drinks with the deities were indeed extremely rare. However, even in these cases it was not a true act of sharing food: men ate their meal in the courtyard of the shrines, along with the gods - who simultaneously consumed their food a few meters away, in the privacy of their private apartments.

At pp. 322-326, one specific issue is addressed: “How did gods eat?”. There is no Neo-Assyrian source - nor any written text from any other period of the entire Mesopotamian history - that provides an answer about how gods could effectively eat their meals. This question was raised also in ancient times, as the account of the “Bel and the Dragon” (in the 14th chapter of the Biblical book of Daniel) testifies. Gods partook of meals through the physical presence of their icons and statues, which underwent two specific rituals designated as “mouth-washing” and “mouth-opening”.

It is stated that the focus of the entire sacred meals in ancient Near Eastern cultures was actually on the favourable receiving of the offerings presented to the gods by their devotees: indeed, there was no need to hide the fact that the food did not actually “disappear” into the stomachs of the deities. The very fact that food was accepted triggered a series of causes and effects which, ultimately, had tangible and positive outcomes for those who performed the rituals.

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

This article sets out to investigate the essence and purpose of prohibitions concerning meat in first millennium Mesopotamian society. Among the edible substances, meat has been considered throughout human history as a supreme food, the core around which the main meals and feasts can and should be arranged - meat, however, is also the most likely target of vetoes and regulations, when compared with other edible substances. The article at first considers the Sumerian and Akkadian words referring to interdictions and their relevance in the realm of dietary regulation, and then presents the texts dated to the first millennium BCE that provide the most useful information on the relationship between Mesopotamian people and meat, with a particular reference to its ban. Then, it discusses in detail the types of prohibited animals and the particular circumstances in which vetoes were observed. Finally, the consequences of the infringement of dietary proscriptions are discussed, together with the countermeasures taken in order to appease the gods and regain a pure status.

In first-millennium BCE Mesopotamia, dietary rules seem to have been effective almost exclusively in a religious context, and even more so, for special rites or religious performances. The observance of rules, including the dietary ones, was crucial for positive maintenance of the mutual relations between worshippers and deities. Indeed, purity in ancient Assyria was not an absolute concept, but it depended on the time of the year and the specific circumstance. In particular, meat prohibitions were a transitory reality: there were no permanent, unchangeable food regulations which remained valid across the Near East, but rather multiple well-defined, temporary prohibitions which targeted different members of the society in different social contexts.

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

A brief introduction to Estes’ book-length work of the same name, this text offers an parallel treatment of the issues Parpola examines in his Parpola 1993 Tree. Full text available here.

– Jonah Lynch, 2020

Two chapters are of particular interest: «Homo religiosus: Le origini e le manifestazioni. Paleoanthropology and paleolithic» (pp. 177/210) and «Il senso religioso nell’uomo paleolitico» (pp. 211-222). A survey of the data on the origin of religion, that leads to the conclusion that the religious sense derives from the very beginnings of humanization (p. 210). In particular, the author develops (pp. 185-189; 213-217) the argument in support of a variety of symbolisms that demonstrate the existence of a “universe of values”: functional symbolism (symmetry in the production of bifacials, the domestication of fire, etc.), social symbolism (linguistic communication «since the most ancient phase of humanity»), spiritual symbolism (funerary practices and art).

[The notion of a “functional symbolism” seems particularly useful, but the consequences that the author draws (see also the chapter «Origins and development of human language», on pp. 109-119) seem excessive, in that they are not sufficiently attentive, in my opinion, to the central role of articulate language and the substantial difference between it and embryonic forms of proto-language, on which see D. Bickerton.)

– Giorgio Buccellati, 2013

Eliade often «gives the impression of positing the existence of something non-temporal, eternal, existent ‘in itself’, independently of the experience that humans can have of it», which is a «solipsistic proposal» (p. 366). It follows that this type of research belongs «less to the history of religions than to the study of the Imaginary» (p. 367). In other words, there is «an underlying ontology» (p. 368), which follows a concept of «Nature… which… evokes most of all the traces of a rural imagination, especially from Central Europe» (p. 369).

[My effort to distinguish between perception and the perceived (between “touched” and “touching presence”) seeks to avoid this problem.]

– Giorgio Buccellati, 2013

This volume collects some Sumerian hymns and prayers to gods, offering an authoritative German translation.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This volume collects some Sumerian hymns to gods and goddesses, offering an authoritative translation of the Sumerian cuneiform sources.

[The volume is included in this bibliography because it is used as the basic reference by G. Buccellati for Appendix 2.]

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This article gives a concise overview of the practices of idolatry in the Ancient Near East that were viewed with contempt from the biblical perspective. The author cites passages in the Bible that illustrate specific rejections of paganism. Faur also gives an overview of Kaufmann’s interpretations that can be found in Kaufmann 1951 Idolatry.

– Iman Nagy, 2020

The author analyses in this contribution the main features of Sumerian and Akkadian proverbs attested in literary compositions of different ‘genres’. The aim of the paper consists in retracing the origin of these proverbs (sometimes deriving from situations of common life), and investigating the historical development of the proverbial literature along the many centuries of the Mesopotamian scribal tradition, stressing common traits and peculiar differences between Sumerian and Akkadian sources.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This essay presents narratology as a strategy for analysis of written myths. It analyses the narrative form of a written religious narrative from ancient Mesopotamia known as The Epic of Anzû, suggesting that the narrative form of myths is a necessary object of inquiry for historians of religion; one that has consequences for our understanding of the meaning and functions of myths, of the religions that make use of them, as well as for broader discussions of religious narrative. (Author’s abstract)

– Iman Nagy, 2020

This paper exemplifies how Hebrew Psalms were structured. The author presents a specific analysis on the internal structure of Ps. 84-88, taken as an example of a typical prayer of the Israelite community. Such a structural analysis underlines how the elaboration of these prayers was indeed profound, later becoming the basic ‘prayer-format’ for both the Jewish and Christian religions.

[Since the Book of Psalms is the basic source for Israelite prayer, it is noteworthy to better analyse and understand the internal structure of these prayers: this enquiry reveals how the inner structure of this book is a symptom of an elaboration of what was, in the beginning, a personal prayer later assumed as official or communal prayer.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The volume collects many chapters written by different authors related to the various aspects of Plato’s philosophical thought.

[In many instances, Buccellati presents in his volume some topics which recall aspects of Plato’s philosophy.]

– Marco De Pietri, 2021

In this article, S. Fink investigates three literary documents that might reveal a measure of intellectual opposition in ancient Mesopotamia. The scholar first analyzes The Instructions of Shupe-ameli: a dialogue between a father and a son in which the latter questions the established customs and values of his father by a radical way of seeing all these deeds in the light of the inevitability of death. The second poem to be investigated is The Babylonian Theodicy - a text which is also written in a dialogic form, and that investigates the question of suffering (usually explained by the causal relationship of sin and sanction), and that of the existence of a just world order by ultimately questioning the justice of the gods. Finally, Fink analyzes The Dialogue of Pessimism - once again a dialogue, this time between a master and his slave.

Fink’s conclusion is that these three texts reveal that at least by the first millennium BCE, there was in Mesopotamia a group of people who argued against the rules of behaviour and the traditional values established by society. Such poems «demonstrate that there were doubts about the justice of the gods and the king. This implies that people were searching for something else or at least seemed not to be confident with the way things were organized by the state. They did not believe in an overall justice anymore.» (p. 177).

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

This article asserts that the «flood story», common to both Mesopotamian and Biblical narratives, reflects an “essentially identical flood tradition”, retold and contextualized within the framework of «Biblical culture». Not until the retrieval of the Atrahasis Epic could the flood tradition be truly related to aspects in Genesis, due to the fragmentary nature of the Sumerian Flood Story and the lackluster account given by Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh. In addition to establishing mankind’s reason for existence, the Atrahasis Epic is comparable to Genesis in that it presents a “primeval history”, detailing the creation of the earth.

– Iman Nagy, 2020

The authors suggest that a linear trajectory towards inequality accompanied the advent of temples as they evolved from smaller “ritual houses”, implying that societal growth and development laid the foundation for hierarchical injustice. This chapter seeks to investigate whether inequality can be detected through archaeology. “Elite” child burials, a trade economy of luxury goods, and evidence of deliberate burning of residences linked with nobility all suggest the growing presence of socio-economic division. The chapter is divided by focus between Northern and Southern Mesopotamia, recognizing societal differences between regions and attributing that to rainfall and proximity to river systems. It is argued that the growth of agricultural industries saw an increase in the division of labor ultimately leading to the extension of familial units. Development of defensive boundaries at sites such as Tell es-Sawwan and Tell Hassuna illustrate heightened tensions. Halaf ware pottery types are investigated with respect to long-distance trade and within their archaeological provenience to suggest patterns of social inequality. Case studies of Tepe Gawra and the Temple of Eridu are highlighted for the continued use from the earliest Ubaid levels, tracing their architectural development over time, detailing the socio-economic aspects that can be deduced archaeologically.

– Iman Nagy, 2020

«This essay has a two-fold purpose: to survey cuneiform texts that can be considered humorous, and to outline, if only in brief, the social context of Mesopotamian humor. Whether or not it is true that man alone of the animals is able to laugh, laughter is loss of inhibition, and the man who laughs is at once most human and most himself. The sense of humor revels in the inevitable gap between what is and what is supposed to be: for example, the pleasant delusion of self-presentation and the self as others see it, the reality of the body and the pretense of clothes and scents, ambition as opposed to performance. Humor is aware of this gap, wit expresses it, and laughter is the grateful acknowledgment of that expression» (p. 69).

[The paper investigates the sense and hidden meaning of humor in ancient Mesopotamian wisdom literature, used to convey messages of sageness in an elaborate (and sometimes elusive) literary-rhetorical way.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

In this article, Foster analyzes the few works of Akkadian literature whose authors can be identified - thus including the poem of Erra. At pp. 19-21, the author discusses the final lines of the composition and he synthesizes its contents as follows: «This passage contains [1] a summary of the story (lines 40 4l), and then [2] increasingly elaborate references to the text of the poem itself: first as a text with a human author (line 42), then as a revelation of Ishum, the divine protagonist of the poem, a revelation acceptable and pleasing to Erra, the subject (lines 45 46). Thereupon, with that divine acceptance, the text becomes [3] a “sign” (ittu) of Erra (line 47), that all the gods will heed and respect to their advantage (lines 49 50), and then [4] a “naming” of Erra (lines 51, 56, 6l), [5] a “praising” of him (lines 52, 60), and, at last, [6] a “song” to be performed as well as studied and transmitted in centers of learning (lines 53 57). Actual manuscripts of the poem could be talismans against harm (lines 57 58).»

Interestingly, Foster looks for - and finds - similar features in other Akkadian texts whose explicitly-mentioned author refers to the genesis, divine approval of, composition and authority of his text. And yet, Erra is the only poem in which all these features are present at the same time.

The scholar then explains the presence (or, rather, absence) of the author’s name in Akkadian literature in light of the preference of Mesopotamian artistic tradition to stress the outside source of the inspiration for the text, so as to make the works unique and significant. Indeed, the “inspired uniqueness” of such works was stressed by poets themselves - so that the texts represented the climax of their own narratives. Considered to be an act of naming or praise (see points [4] and [5], above), it was paramount to give the name of the subject praised - while the absence of the praiser’s name provided the text with an aura of universality.

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

Foster investigates the “scanty but suggestive” Mesopotamian sources which shed light on the ancient eschatological thought - defined as «a message of hope that good will be rewarded and evil punished, or, at least, the world will be remade so as to justify a specific religious belief in the face of greater, non-believing political and military power.» (p. 25). He focuses in particular on a small group of late documents (dated to the Achaemenid and Hellenistic time), called ‘prophecies’ or ‘apocalypses’ by the scholars.

Foster identifies in these texts «a Mesopotamian background to Jewish apocalyptic, originating perhaps in Babylonia under Achaemenid rule, even as a protest to it» (p. 25). The scholar maintains that such eschatological thought was a late development in Mesopotamia, and looks for the reason for the absence of such thought in earlier times. He finds the answer in the Mesopotamian account of the Deluge: indeed, Foster maintains that, from an ancient Near Eastern perspective, the world had already ended in that remote past and therefore men were not expecting any other apocalypse. «(Third)… the flood is clearly understood … to be a one-time event, never to recur. There was no waiting for a second flood and computing the time until it would occur. Fourth, no era of bliss followed.» (pp. 27-28).

The “end of the world” was unthinkable in the Mesopotamian view also because gods needed men to work the fields and maintain order on the earth, so that they could continue to be properly venerated, nourished, dressed and looked after in temples. Foster agrees that scholars of ancient Mesopotamia thought deeply about human suffering, but he comes to the conclusion that «a Babylonian might have considered eschatological dreams absurd, based on the experiences of real life, and possibly blasphemous, as human beings were scarcely in a position to redesign the world.» (p. 31).

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

This volume collects the English translation of many texts, representative of the richness of ancient Akkadian literature.

After a general Introduction on the topic, including a presentation of Semitic languages (focusing of course on Akkadian), a history of the research and excavations, and the major sources (including a noteworthy paragraph on poetry and prose), the author displays the texts in chronological order (from the Archaic Period, ca. 2300-1850 BC, until the Late Period, ca. 1000-100 BC), grouping the texts thematically.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This book offers an analytic study of the Akkadian period of Mesopotamian history, which saw the rise and fall of the world’s first empire. The author offers his definition of “empire” at p. 83: «”Empire” is used here in its conventional sense of supreme and extensive political dominion, presided over by dynastic rulers, who claimed extraordinary, even superhuman or divine powers. It was an entity put together and maintained by force, with provinces administered by officials sent out from the capital in the heartland.» (p. 6). The book begins with a well-grounded historical framework of the rise and fall of Akkad, from Sargon to Sharkalisharri. Foster offers an overview of the people and land of Akkad, including the socio-religious structures of the empire; he makes use of both epigraphical and archaeological sources. Within his discussion of Akkadian centers and settlements, the author offers two maps (at pp. 51, 81) which help conceptualizing the geography of the Akkadian Empire and the relationship between the various civic centers. Foster then analyzes many aspects of the everyday life in this period: agriculture (and diet), ceramic, economy and production; he discusses at length religion and temples as well as politics and military - through which the Akkadian Empire enabled trade, business, and economic growth. Finally, the scholar discusses art and literacy in this historical period (a few original sources are also available in translation in the appendixes at the end of the book), including the human values and expression of identity of this specific culture. The last chapter, then, explores how the Empire has been presented in modern historiography, from the decipherment of cuneiform to the present.

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

The paper presents an Old Babylonian bilingual (Sumerian and Akkadian) text (UCLM-9-1910), kept at the University of California at Berkeley, reporting instructions for a sacrifice and inspection of liver of a sheep.

[The contribution is relevant as an exemplification of sacrificial and divinatory procedures in Ancient Mesopotamia.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

«This book provides a new introduction to the text commentaries from Babylonia and Assyria. It first describes the Mesopotamian philological and divinatory traditions from which the commentaries emerged […], then discusses their temporal and geographic distribution […], and in the following chapters deals with their typology […], hermeneutical techniques […], and sources» (p. 6)

[The volume illustrates through the analysis of Mesopotamian commentary tablets the way Ancient Babylonians and Assyrians made commentaries to texts of different genres. It is a clear exemplification of how ancient Mesopotamians approached their own literature.]

A further insight on this book offering passages (quoted verbatim) on specific topics, can be found on Excerpts.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

«The article discusses the Mesopotamian commentary corpus, assesses its intellectual underpinnings, explores its place within Mesopotamia’s scholarly tradition, and addresses the question of whether Mesopotamian hermeneutics should be considered a “philosophical” pursuit. It is argued that the cuneiform commentaries are characterized, on one hand, by certain limitations and, on the other, by an overabundance of interpretational opportunities, and that the answer should therefore be negative; but it is admitted that, depending on what one considers the defining features of philosophy, other views are possible» (author’s abstract on p. 107).

[This article heps to understand the meaning of compiling “lexical lists” and the logic of thinking in the ancient Mesopotamian scribal milieu, used to write texts in a “protasis-apodosis style”.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

«Frankfort’s central thesis in Kingship and the Gods is that the Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations differed fundamentally and profoundly despite their superficial resemblances, and that kingship, an institution which the ancients themselves regarded as the very foundation of all civilized life, was conceived of quite differently in the two lands. Kingship and the Gods is divided into two books and seven parts: Book I, in four parts, is devoted to Egypt; Book II, in three parts, is devoted to Mesopotamia. Preceding Book I is a brief Introduction that focuses on the contrasting views of kingship in the two societies as expressed in their art» (from OI’s website).

[In Book II, the author presents a discussion on the origin and nature of Mesopotamian kingship, specifically focusing on the relationship between king, gods, and nature (Part VII), analysing also the topic of the identification of the king with specific gods and the deification of kings in Mesopotamia.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This book offers useful insights on speculative thought in ancient Mesopotamia, stressing the existence of a ‘philosophic mind’ before the birth of Greek philosophy as ‘science’. More in detail, section 2 on Mesopotamia (by Th. Jacobsen) focuses on the description of Mesopotamian view on the ‘cosmos’, perceived as a primeval ‘order’ acting in all realms of common life, influencing both the political and personal sphere of interaction with reality. On the same topic, cf. also Bottero 1992 Reasoning.

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This paper provides evidence of the inaugural lecture given by Frankfort as Director of the Warburg Institute and Professor of the History of Pre-Classical Antiquity in the University of London (in 1949). Frankfort selected the topic of the figure of the “dying god” as case-study aimed at investigating the relations between the Greeks and their predecessors in and around the Eastern Mediterranean. He believed that «the variations in the cults and myths of this god are a good illustration of the extraordinary complexity which the problem of the survival of cultural forms may assume» (p. 141).

In the opening paragraphs, Frankfort warns against the application of modern concepts to ancient ideas, and points out how a wrong approach, characterized by the use of abstractions and generalization in the analysis of other cultures, would prevent a profound comprehension of the phenomenon under investigation. «The dying god is one of those imaginative conceptions in which early man made his emotional and intellectual preoccupations explicit. We disregard a great deal if we say that it expresses only man’s concern with the course of the seasons» (p. 143).

Frankfort describes in details, mentioning literary and mythical sources, different cases of dying gods in their specific cultural contexts, beginning with Tammuz in ancient Mesopotamia and continuing with Osiris (Egypt), Adonis and Attis (Syria and Anatolia). Then, turning to Greece, he discusses the divine figures of Hyakinthos, Persephone, and the mythus of Orpheus. Finally, the scholar asks whether the various conceptions of the dying god can be said to survive the cultural setting in which they were born. He admits that he himself had firstly said that only by avoiding generalizations a modern reader could do justice to the evidence. «The most characteristic features, which are also the dominant features of each cult, never survive because each cult reflects the view which an ancient people took of the world in which it found itself» (p. 150). And yet, Frankfort at the same time maintains that «to deny survival in any form is surely absurd. (…) Our understanding of the Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Greek beliefs about a dying god is to some extent determined by a religious experience with which we ourselves are familiar» (pp. 150-151).

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

«A world classic. The Golden Bough describes our ancestors’ primitive methods of worship, sex practices, strange rituals and festivals. Disproving the popular thought that primitive life was simple, this monumental survey shows that savage man was enmeshed in a tangle of magic, taboos, and superstitions. Revealed here is the evolution of man from savagery to civilization, from the modification of his weird and often bloodthirsty customs to the entry of lasting moral, ethical, and spiritual values» (Publisher’s abstract).

PDF available here.

Other online version downloadable here.

Even available for free on Google Books.

Another available edition can be found on Archive.org.

– Marco De Pietri, 2023

This volume aims to be a specific investigation on a peculiar kind of Akkadian prayers called šuillas, i.e., “hand-lifting” prayers.

The author specifically focuses on the analysis of the rubrics of these texts, discussing the many terms used in Akkadian to express the concept of ‘prayer’, trying to distinguish actual differences in praying attitudes of ancient Akkadian people.

The analysis is enriched by and benefits of many images illustrating the physical gesture and attitude of the beseechers as depicted or carved on seals, monumental reliefs, stelae, obelisks, or other monuments, linking textual attestations to iconography.

[This book is an in-depth discussion and analysis of Akkadian “hand-lifting” prayers; cf. Ebeling 1953 Gebetsserie.]

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This article proposes a dating for the Song of the Sea (Ex 15) and the Song of Deborah (Judg 5). Freedman proposes that the former should be assigned to about 1175 BCE, and the latter to about 1125. One important piece of information that leads to this dating is the coexistence of the four peoples mentioned in Ex. 15:14-15. The Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, and Canaanites coexisted only during the 12^th century BCE. (The apparent contradiction with the Marniptah victory stele can be resolved by proposing, as Freedman does, that a political unit called Israel already existed in Syria-Palestine, but had neither attained statehood nor adopted Yahwism.)

Thus Freedman conjectures that the group referred to in the Song of the Sea brought Yahwism to the northern territory and later became an integral part of that political and tribal group. This conclusion is supported by the lack of any mention of conquest of Canaan and no mention of the patriarchs or a promised land: “there is no obvious link between Yahweh and the God of the Fathers.” (p. 11) In Freedman’s view, the Egyptian slaves were an “undefined mixture of stateless people” who secured a unique leader, and emerged as the “people of Yahweh”. Later, they would become part of Israel, as the Song of Deborah suggests.

The Song of Deborah (Judg 5) celebrates the victory in battle at the Kishon river. It contains a list of ten tribes, lacking Judah, Simeon, and Levi, which Freedman interprets to mean that “Israel” was in the twelfth century a confederation of ten tribes. The complete 12 tribe lists are to be dated later: “It is my contention that an original twelve-tribe league in Canaan bore the name Israel, and included Simeon, Levi, and the ten tribes mentioned in the Song of Deborah, but not Judah, which had a separate history. The two tribes, Simeon and Levi, were dropped from membership, and the remaining ten-tribe group, pictured in the Song of Deborah, constituted the Israelite federation in the twelfth and early part of the eleventh century B.C. It is possible that efforts were made to reconstitute a twelve-tribe league including Judah and Simeon during the eleventh century under the leadership of Samuel, but clear evidence is lacking. Out of this league, the monarchy emerged, with Saul as the first king (melek) or dynastic ruler (nagid) of Israel. A similar development took place in the south with David becoming king of Judah, apparently before the death of Saul. After the death of Ishbaal, under David’s forceful leadership the two kingdoms were united, only to fall apart again after the death of his son Solomon.” (p. 17)

– Jonah Lynch, 2020

The first part describes the “disappearance of God” in the Bible. That is to say, the progressive diminishment of public manifestations: the emblematic contrast is between Exodus on one hand (from the miracles in Egypt up to the conquest) and the reconstruction with Esdra on the other (where the emphasis is exclusively on the institutional ordering of the temple.)

The second part deals with the concept of the “death of God” as it was elaborated especially by Nietzsche, in contrast with a surprisingly similar theme in Dostoyevsky. “Death” as such is referred to “a situation which existed and which is finished” and in this sense does not coincide perfectly with the notion implicit in the title of the book, which is the disappearance or the self-hiding of God. What changes is in fact “the perception of the presence of God by humans” (p. 208).

[See the theme Modes of Presence.]

– Giorgio Buccellati, 2013

This volume collects in alphabetical order many entries describing terms (personal names, toponyms, etc.), concepts, and historical events attested in the Bible (both Old and New testament). The entries are enriched with many references to biblical passages, better illustrating the lemma discussed in this dictionary. After each lemma, a short bibliographical reference is offered.

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– Marco De Pietri, 2020

In this contribution, Freud tries to explain (on the base of a psychoanalytical approach) the origin and the modern decline of religious thought. To sum up in few words, religious thought originated from the incapability of human beings (mostly during their childhood) to explain natural phaenomena. Hence the origin (the ‘creation’ or ‘invention’) of gods and religion. Due to the modern, increasing development of scientific speculation, this ancestral need for a religious explanation of ununderstood natural phaenomena is no more active (or needed at all).

[A very good epitome (by Brad Lancaster) of the entire Freud’s contribution can be found here.]

[In his volume G. Buccellati deals with the topic of ‘psychological attitudes’ on religion; this paper by Freud helps in better understanding how psychoanalysis describes and interprets the origin of and the need for a religious explanation of natural phenomena.]

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

«There is no equivalent expression for the word ‘demon’ in the Semitic languages and furthermore, in the Old Testament no conjuration ritual is mentioned. That leads to a diverse and divergent use of the term ‘demon’ in scholarly literature. The author suggests we avoid the use of the word ‘demon’ for the interpretation of Old Testament texts and Syro-Palestinian iconography. It seems to be more helpful to interpret the texts and pictures individually and to analyze the functions of the so-called ‘demons’ in their own special context» (author’s abstract on p. 38).

[The author addresses in this paper the problem of the definition of ‘demons’ in the Bible and in the Ancient Near East, both on a philological and a conceptual level. The same topic is specifically dealt with by G. Buccellati in his volume. Both the authors randomly reach the same conclusion: a general and all-comprehensive definition of ‘demons’ in the Bible and in The Ancient Near East is elusive; therefore, the best approach is to consider each specific case as a unicum.]

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– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The author collects and comments in this volume many sacrificial and divinatory texts of Babylonian and Assyrian origin, dividing them into different, specific categories, such as the series Maqlû, Šurpu, and sacrifices performed at Babylon during the akītu festival, i.e. the New-Year Festival in honour of the polyad god Marduk.

[The volume exemplifies sacrificial and divinatory practices in both Babylonia and Assyria during a long chronological span, focusing on the most important texts reporting such practices, many of them specifically mentioned by G. Buccellati in his book.]

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This article provides a thorough analysis and contextualization of the cuneiform tablet K.5268+K.5333a, which is a bilingual hymn to Nergal written not only as a prayer for the benefit of Bel-remanni, but first and foremost as a thanksgiving hymn to Nergal following Bel-remanni’s salvation. In order to provide the proper backround for this source, Gabbay discusses the existence of other thanksgiving hymns in Sumerian and Akkadian literature; he focuses his attention in particular on those compositions that name the individual who has experienced salvation. Gabbay, then, asks what is the significance of naming an individual in a prayer?

The scholar states that, in addition to apotropaic, theological, and liturgical functions, prayers also had another function: they bore witness to (supposedly) actual events that were experienced by actual individuals. «Testimony to an act of salvation by a god substantiates and validates the belief system relating to this god, and consequently strengthens it. (…) These texts declare the society’s acknowledgement of the power of the god and then ask for the god’s blessing, which explicitly or implicitly indicates that receipt of the blessing will be a further testimony that will validate this widespread belief and further confirm the power of the god in society» (p. 226).

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

“Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, has yielded thousands of written sources about many facets of its inhabitants’ lives. Among others, the roles and positions which women held in society are well documented […]. Archaeological and artistic evidence is also informative, as successfully demonstrated, for example, by J. Asher-Greve (1997) and Z. Bahrani (2001). It is, however, important to note that most of this evidence was produced by men, usually for men, and, in the case of art, it was most likely commissioned by men. Indeed, none of the extant documents was deliberately written or created with the intent to document Mesopotamian women’s gender roles […]. This chapter focuses on the religious and cultic roles of Mesopotamian women between the late third and early second millennia BCE (c. 2350-1720 BCE)” [Author’s abstract on p. 64].

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

«Ancient religions are definitely complex systems of gods, which resist our understanding. Divine names provide fundamental keys to gain access to the multiples ways gods were conceived, characterized, and organized. Among the names given to the gods many of them refer to spaces: cities, landscapes, sanctuaries, houses, cosmic elements. They reflect mental maps which need to be explored in order to gain new knowledge on both the structure of the pantheons and the human agency in the cultic dimension. By considering the intersection between naming and mapping, this book opens up new perspectives on how tradition and innovation, appropriation and creation play a role in the making of polytheistic and monotheistic religions.

Far from being confined to sanctuaries, in fact, gods dwell in human environments in multiple ways. They move into imaginary spaces and explore the cosmos. By proposing a new and interdiciplinary angle of approach, which involves texts, images, spatial and archeaeological data, this book sheds light on ritual practices and representations of gods in the whole Mediterranean, from Italy to Mesopotamia, from Greece to North Africa and Egypt. Names and spaces enable to better define, differentiate, and connect gods» (Publisher’s summary)

PDF available online on De Gruyter.

– Marco De Pietri, 2024

«“This volume seeks to make a modest contribution to the intellectual and social history of Israel and the ancient Near East. As the title of the volume suggests, the focus is upon those wise men and women in ancient Israel who composed Israel’s wisdom literature, counseled her kings, and consoled – and sought to guide – her people on the basis of Israel’s sapiential tradition” (from the Preface). With 37 contributions from an international pool of authors, each of whom is known for his/her contributions in the area assigned, the volume is intended to provide comprehensive coverage of the state of research and point to further direction for investigation» (from editor’s webpage)

[This miscellanea collects many contributions describing how sages where defined and perceived in ancient Israel, and how they actually acted on a cultural, social and political level, presenting also a comparative approach on ancient Mesopotamia.]

A further insight on this book offering passages (quoted verbatim) on specific topics, can be found on Excerpts.

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

«The objective of the present study is to present a new, coherent scheme for Mesopotamian chronology during the second millennium. Because Susa is one of the few excavated sites that shows a continuity in occupation between the time of the fall of Babylon and c. 1400 BC and, in addition, yields ceramic information for the Babylonian corpus, we also connect the Elamite chronology with the Babylonian system of dating. On the other hand, although the absolute chronologies throughout the Ancient Near East are largely dependent on Babylonian data, they are given less consideration here because the archaeological evidence from there areas is only remotely related to the stemming from Mesopotamia and therefore lies outside the scope of this study» (from authors’ Preface, p. 2).

[This volume enriches the discussion that G. Buccellati presents in his volume about the definition of a Mesopotamian chronology based on astronomical observations.]

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– Marco De Pietri, 2020

In this contribution, Geertz aims to define religion from a cultural standpoint. Thus, he provides at first his definition of “culture” and “religion” - the first being «an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life» (p. 89). Religion is then defined as «(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic» (p. 90). At the core of this definition is the idea that religion consists of a set of interrelated (elsewhere referred to as “sacred”) symbols that fuse an ethos, i.e. a set of «powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations», with a world view, i.e., a set of «conceptions of a general order of existence».

In order to explain why men create religious symbols, Geertz looks at the kinds of problems that religion aims at solving for people; with regards to the “problem of evil”, he maintains that men formulate, by means of religious symbols, «an image of such a genuine order of the world which will account for, and even celebrate, the perceived ambiguities, puzzles, and paradoxes in human experience.» (p. 107f).

Geertz also provides a definition for ritual: «a consecrated behavior» in which «the world as lived and the world as imagined, fused under the agency of a single set of symbolic forms, turn out to be the same world» (p. 112). And he stresses that it is in ritual, especially in its more elaborate and public forms, that ethos and world view can best be observed by an external observer. According to Geertz, while we cannot perceive the world exactly as it is perceived by the believer, one can still study how the believer uses symbols thus gaining an idea of how a religion is understood by its adherents.

Finally, Geertz highlights how «religion is sociologically interesting not because it describes the social order, but because, like environment, political power, wealth, jural obligation, personal affection, and a sense of beauty, it shapes it» (p. 119).

[20 years after the publication of this volume, Geertz’s view has been challenged by Asad in his article “The Construction of Religion as an Anthropological Category” (Asad 1993 Religion Anthropological Category)]

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

«Alfred Gell puts forward a new anthropological theory of visual art, seen as a form of instrumental action: the making of things as a means of influencing the thoughts and actions of others. He argues that existing anthropological and aesthetic theories take an overwhelmingly passive point of view, and questions the criteria that accord art status only to a certain class of objects and not to others. The anthropology of art is here reformulated as the anthropology of a category of action: Gell shows how art objects embody complex intentionalities and mediate social agency. He explores the psychology of patterns and perceptions, art and personhood, the control of knowledge, and the interpretation of meaning, drawing upon a diversity of artistic traditions — European, Indian, Polynesian, Melanesian, and Australian.» [Editor’s summary]

[Gell suggests that commensality must be considered as a tool for recognising the role of non-human entities within the human and social universe: thus, serving food to an inanimate being, such as a statue or an icon, had sense because it prompted a causal sequence, which had an impact on human life. In his work, Gell does not explicitly mention Mesopotamia but he discusses similar Egyptian religious practices, see pp. 134-135.]

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

«With the increase in knowledge of Mesopotamian incantations, through the publication of the new edition of Akkadian and Sumerian incantation series, it is now possible to search for closer cultural ties between Mesopotamian and Israelite rituals. In this vein, a comparative study of Lev. V. 1-5 and the magical text Šurpu suggests that the Leviticus expiatory sacrifice and Šurpu ritual were prescribed under similar conditions» (from p. 181)

[This paper perfectly exemplifies the comparative approach between Mesopotamian and biblical sources, a topic investigated by G. Buccellati in his volume. Furthermore, the contribution offers a concrete exemplification of the comparative approach in the analysis of the šurpu incantations (see Appendix 1 and Appendix 15); cf. also Reiner 1958 Surpu.]

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– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The volume mainly focuses on the description of medical practices in ancient Mesopotamia, including the presentation of divinatory rituals which where sometimes strictly connected to medical practices and spells for chasing away the action of evil demons, such as the šurpu ritual.

[The contribution exemplifies how in ancient Babylonia medicine and divinatory ritual were interconnected and were perceived as two disciplines aiming at a similar purpose, i.e. the treatment of patients affected by physical diseases sometimes provoked by demons.]

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– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This paper presents a text (KAR 44), considered as a kind of ‘exorcist’s manual’, used in Ancient Mesopotamia.

[The paper is a comparison to G. Buccellati’s Appendix 15.6, describing the figure of Marduk as the prototype of the Mesopotamian exorcist.]

PDF available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2020

In this volume, George offers a philological edition of Akkadian texts which together make a useful collection of information regarding the Babylonian gods and their cult places within the temple complexes in Mesopotamian cities such as Babylon, Nippur, and Assur. The book also includes many details regarding the topography of Babylon.

While investigating the main text analyzed in the volume, i.e. the one named “Tintir = Babylon”, George also discusses relevant historical issues such as the “syncretism” of Babylon and the ancient city of Eridu which took place in the Kassite period, following the syncretism between Enki and his son Asalluhi (patron gods of Eridu) with the Babylonian god Ea and his son Marduk. It is also likely that the description of Babylon included in “Tintir = Babylon” may reflect an idealised record of the city, with exact measurements of its streets, gates, and major buildings, rather than a realistic depiction of Babylon itself.

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

This volume consists in a complete edition of all cuneiform tablets inscribed with list of temples, plus a complete ‘gazetteer’ of ceremonial temple names. Within temple lists, a number of semantic principles according to which the ancient shrines were ordered in the written sources may be recognized: thematic, acrographic, theological, hierarchial, and topographical. The ‘gazetteer’ provides (where known) location, divine owner, and other relevant information for each temple listed. It may be noted that some temple names are rather elaborate, with cosmic or cultic allusions that are not always clear for a modern reader.

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

This book offers a new, recent English translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh, including both Akkadian and Sumerian versions (for the latter, see also texts 1.8.1.1 and followings on ETCSL). In two appendices, the author discusses the methodology he applied in translating the texts from the original tablets (Appendix 1, pp. 209-221) and offers a complete and updated (up until 2000) list of other editions of the same Epic (Appendix 2, pp. 226-228).

[For a wider translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh, including also the transliteration of the Akkadian text and the facsimile of the cuneiform tablets, cf. George 2003 Gilgamesh.]

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– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This book offers a complete philological English edition, including pictures and facsimiles of the cuneiforms tablets, together with the transliteration of the Akkadian texts, of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

[For a briefer edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh, with the English translation of the text, only, cf. George 2000 Epic]

PDF preview of Volume 1 available here

PDF preview of Volume 2 available here

– Marco De Pietri, 2021

This contribution republishes the text of an Assyrian elegy, left by an anonymous poet of the 7^th cent. BC, presenting a dialogue in front of a woman’s grave, previously published (only in English translation) in Foster 2005 Before, p. 949 (Text G.IV.29).

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– Marco De Pietri, 2020

The first part consists in the first version of The Religious Sense, published originally in 1966.

– Giorgio Buccellati, 2013

Glassner opens his text with a clear statement: there is an indissoluble bond between the Power and the Sacred: the sacred is part of the very structure of power («Il existe entre le Pouvoir et le Sacré un lien indissoluble: le sacré fait partie de la structure même du pouvoir.», p.9).

In this paper, the scholar reviews the many theories proposed in Assyriology on the topic of “king-priest”, from Deimel (1920) onward - with many bibliographical references. Then, he offers his own assessment based on philological, iconographical and historical evidence. Ultimately, Glassner states that - though the religious character of the royalty in Mesopotamian cannot be doubted, we do not see that the Mesopotamian kings ever exercised, in the first half of the third millennium BCE, the functions of priests. There is, moreover, no evidence of a Mesopotamian society where the king-priest had the exclusivity of any ritual. However, Glassner identifies an exception in the figure of the king Lugalzage.si - particularly on the basis of an inscription in which he presented himself as the king of Uruk and priest of the goddess Nisaba. Indeed, this may be explained by the fact that Lugalzagesi was the son of a priest - a function which the son probably took up as an inheritance: that a high-ranking priest could rise to royal dignity is not strange in Mesopotamia: two similar cases are known, those of Il (sanga of Zabalam who became king of Umma) and of En.entar.zi (sanga of the god Ningirsu who became king of Lagash).

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

This paper begins by questioning the assumption that the ancient Mesopotamian society made no distinction between an offering, a libation, or a sacrifice - an assumption that arose in the Assyriological discipline from the fact that one same word could designate either of these acts. Indeed, Glassner begins his text with an accurate analysis of the lexicon which was used in ancient Akkadian texts to describe actions connected to offerings and sacrifices.

Glassner intends “sacrifice” as a ritual oblation to invisible forces, characterized by the voluntary abandonment, sometimes destruction, of the offered thing. The bloody sacrifice is only one particular case, but the main focus of such act is the idea of renunciation that is at the center of the procedure. He also notes that, since the same words for “to slaughter” or “to kill” are used in different contexts (whatever the purpose of the act), the priest’s gesture was distinguishable from that of the butcher only by the pronunciation of different words.

Glassner analyzes every aspect of the Mesopotamian sacrifice: at first, its aetiology (by taking into consideration Sumerian and Akkadian literaty texts) - then its practical features, with a particular focus on the daily meals offered to the gods in the Temple of Anu at Uruk during the Seleucid times. The scholar also discusses the ingredients that were brought to the divine tables, as well as every aspect of the divinatory sacrifice (preparatory phases, the oracular consultation, and conclusive moments of the ceremony).

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

This publication offers information, description, and transcription of some cuneiform tablets related to Babylonian omen texts.

[This volume is used as basic reference for pictures of cuneiform tablets mentioned in section SOURCES.]

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– Marco De Pietri, 2021

This article analyses the iconographical representation of gestures in Assyrian reliefs and it provides a useful list of the conventional gestures (for a total of 35) that were most commonly represented in Assyrian art, as well as in some earlier Old Babylonian and Akkadian examples. The variety of iconographies described in this article indicate different emotions: piety, salutation, surrender, intercession, acknowledgment, humility, adoration, prayer, etc. The most documented are the devotional gestures, which might also be aligned with textual references (for example the so-called laban appi - the touching of the nose as a mark of prayer -, and the “lifting of the hand”).

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

[Author’s summary] The concept of divine wrath is important in the Hebrew Bible not only in explaining the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile at the hands of the Babylonians, but also in interpreting the reconstruction of the temple and the city during the early Persian period from a theological perspective. This essay investigates the role of Yhwh’s anger in Zech 1-8, where it is given a special emphasis in the context of the reconstruction. Two conceptions of divine wrath are highlighted within this composition, which, it is argued, result from a complex literary growth involving a process of successive reinterpretations. The central section (Zech 1:7-6:15), recounting Zechariah’s visions, depicts the wrath of Yhwh against Jerusalem and Judah as temporary and limited in intensity, in contrast to his overwhelming anger against the foreign nations; this conception serves to stress that Yhwh has not reneged on his choice of Jerusalem as his cultic place. It is best understood as legitimating the reconstruction of the second temple in the early Persian period and promoting its cult. By contrast, the oracles in Zech 1:1-6; 7-8 that frame the visions present Yhwh’s anger against his people as strong and also unstable, in that it can be triggered at any time if the Judeans behave wrongly. This conception of divine wrath served to promote social justice within Judea and to enhance the authority of prophetic texts. It is best read as a later explanation of why the promises of restoration of Jerusalem and Judah were not fulfilled; moreover, the emphasis on social justice in these oracles points to a social setting among a scribal group that was involved in the regulation of socio-economical relations within the province.

– Jonah Lynch, 2020

«The importance of proverbs for understanding a people has been long known; as Francis Bacon put it, “The genius, wit and spirit of a nation are discovered in its proverbs.” To quote a modern writer, proverbs “are the safest index to the inner life of a people. With their aid we can construct a mental image of the conditions of existence, the manners, characteristics, morals and Weltanschauung of the community which used them. They present us with the surest data upon which to base our knowledge of Volkspsychologie”» (from author’s Introduction, p. 1).

This paper collects some Sumerian proverbs exemplifying the subtle wisdom literature of ancient Mesopotamian people, with a look on Sumerian everyday life or, even more worthy, on their way to interpretate events and behaviours of their daily experience.

[This volume is considered as the basic reference for Appendix 12 in G. Buccellati’s volume.]

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– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This volume collects the contributions to a conference entitled “Approaches in Comparative Religion Reconsidered” held in Helsinki in 2002.

– Jonah Lynch, 2021

In this paper the author displays some texts regarding dedication inscription from Nippur, specifically focusing on those inscriptions related to the goddess Inanna.

[The contribution is helpful in supporting the argumentation of G. Buccellati about the function of dedication inscriptions to Inanna.]

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– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This article aims to investigate the role of perception, beliefs, and norms internalised by relevant social actors within the context of foreign relations in the ancient Near East. The author focuses in particular on covenant treaties, defined as «a highly stylised ceremonial performance of a treaty or agreement» which he considers to be the most obvious link between oaths and curses (p. 664).

Grassi Freire firstly discusses the practice of covenanting and the stylised format of a covenant treaty. Then, he discusses the background of covenantal oaths and curses, and the notion of covenant-breaking as a sin that attracts divine curses. Afterwards the author analyzes the representative position of kings in the execution of oaths and curses, to conclude with a discussion on the role played by prophets in linking specific curses (or blessings) to specific patterns of political behaviour.

– Stefania Ermidoro, 2020

«In historical times, and doubtless in the prehistoric period also, the ancient peoples of Mesopotamia – Assyria in the north and Babylonia to the south, the land roughly corresponding to the present-day state of Iraq – were believers in contending forces of good and evil and in a plethora of different more-or-Iess distinct demons whose good services would benefit the individual or the community or whose evil deeds, and malicious instincts, might bring hardship, ill fortune, disease or death. This may have been particularly marked in the late second and in the first millennia B.C., when the higher forms of religious expression may have been in decline and have given way to such superstitions. Probably, however, it had from the earliest times been a major concern of man in his ritual observances as in his daily life to invoke and propitiate the good spirits and to harness their powers in the constant battle against the forces of evil» (p. 80).

[This contribution tries to define the entity and role of demons (divided into good and evil) in ancient Mesopotamian, retracing their origin in the interpretation of natural phaenomena through the scope of ritual activities.]

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– Marco De Pietri, 2020

This paper tries to identify and describe some specific demons by analysing both textual and iconographical evidence from ancient Mesopotamia. Specifically, the paper deals with three figures of demons, called ‘Goat-Fish’ (Šuḫurmaš(š)u), ‘Fish-Man’ (Kulul(l)u), and ‘Fish-Woman’ (Kuliltu).

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– Marco De Pietri, 2020