T H E B A B Y L O N I A N W O R L D
As the layers of the foundations of modern science and mathematics and the builders of a towering, monumental urban city, the Babylonians were by far the most insistent people of the ancient world in addressing an audience beyond their time. This lavishly illustrated volume reflects the modernity of this advanced and prescient civilization with thirty-eight brand new essays from leading international scholars who view this world power of the Ancient Near East with a fresh and contemporary lens.
Drawing from the growing database of cuneiform tablets, epigraphic research, and the most recent archaeological advances in the field, Gwendolyn Leicks collection serves as the definitive reference resource as well as an introductory text for university students.
By bringing into focus areas of concern typical for our own time such as ecology, urbanism, power relations, plurality and complexity this essential volume offers a variety of perspectives on certain key topics to reflect the current academic approaches and focus. These shifting viewpoints and diverse angles onto the Babylonian World
result in a truly kaleidoscopic view which reveals patterns and bright fragments of this lost world in unexpected ways.
From discussions of agriculture and rural life to the astonishing walled city of Babylon with its massive ramparts and towering ziggurats, from Babylonian fashion and material culture to its spiritual world, indivisible from that of the everyday, TheBabylonian World is a sweeping and ambitious survey for students and specialists of this great civilization.
Gwendolyn Leick is presently senior lecturer at Chelsea College of Art and Design.
A specialist in the Ancient Near East, she has published extensively on the topic, including The Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Architecture and Whos Who in theAncient Near East.
THE ROUTLEDGE WORLDS
THE GREEK WORLD
Edited by Anton Powell
THE ROMAN WORLD
Edited by John Wacher
THE BIBLICAL WORLD
Edited by John Barton
THE EARLY CHRISTIAN WORLD
Edited by Philip F. Esler
THE CELTIC WORLD
Edited by Miranda Green
THE MEDIEVAL WORLD
Edited by Peter Linehan and Janet L. Nelson
THE REFORMATION WORLD
Edited by Andrew Pettegree
THE ENLIGHTENMENT WORLD
Edited by Martin Fitzpatrick, Peter Jones,
Christa Knellwolf and Iain McCalman
THE HINDU WORLD
Edited by Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby
THE BABYLONIAN WORLD
Edited by Gwendolyn Leick
Forthcoming:
THE EGYPTIAN WORLD
Edited by Toby Wilkinson
THE VIKING WORLD
Edited by Stefan Brink and Neil Price
THE RENAISSANCE WORLD
Edited by John Jeffries Martin
THE ELIZABETHAN WORLD
Edited by Susan Doran and Norman Jones
THE OTTOMAN WORLD
Edited by Christine Woodhead
THE BYZANTINE WORLD
Edited by Paul Stephenson
T H E B A B Y L O N I A N
W O R L D
Edited by
Gwendolyn Leick
First published 2007
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.
To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledges collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.
2007 Gwendolyn Leick
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
The Babylonian world/edited by Gwendolyn Leick. 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Babylonia.
I. Leick, Gwendolyn, 1951
DS69.5.B23 2007
935.02 dc22
2006102809
ISBN 0-203-94623-5 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0415353467 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0203089456 (ebk)
ISBN13: 9780415353465 (hbk)
ISBN13: 9780203089453 (ebk)
Lebensalter*
Ihr Stdte des Euphrats!
Ihr Gassen von Palmyra!
Ihr Sulenwlder in der Ebne der Wste,
Was seid ihr?
Euch hat die Kronen,
Dieweil ihr ber die Grnze
Der Othmenden seid gegangen,
Von Himmlischen der Rauchdampf und
Hinweg das Feuer genommen;
Jezt aber siz ich unter Wolken, darin
Ein jedes eine Ruh hat eigen, unter
Wohleingerichteten Eichen, auf
Der Heide des Rehs, und fremd
Erscheinen und gestorben mir
Der Seeligen Geister.
Friedrich Hlderlin
* Translation is on p. 591.
C O N T E N T S
List of illustrations
List of contributors
Introduction
Gwendolyn Leick
The world of Babylonian countrysides
Seth Richardson
Land and land use: the middle Euphrates valley
Lucia Mori
Agricultural techniques
Blahoslav Hruska
Urban form in the first millennium BC
Heather D. Baker
Architecture in the Old Babylonian period
Harriet Crawford
Babylonian seals
Dominique Collon
Babylonian sources of exotic raw materials
D. T. Potts
Cloth in the Babylonian world
Irene Good
The Babylonian visual image
Zainab Bahrani
vii
C o n t e n t s
Food and drink in Babylonia
Frances Reynolds
Economy of ancient Mesopotamia: a general outline
Johannes Renger
The Old Babylonian economy
Anne Goddeeris
Aspects of society and economy in the later Old Babylonian Period
Frans van Koppen
The Babylonian economy in the first millennium BC
Michael Jursa
The Egibi family
Cornelia Wunsch (translated from German by Gwendolyn Leick)
Social configurations in Early Dynastic Babylonia ( c.25002334 BC)
Petr Charvt
The palace and the temple in Babylonia
Walther Sallaberger
Power, economy and social organisation in Babylonia
Gebhard J. Selz
Arameans and Chaldeans: environment and society
Frederick Mario Fales
Women and gender in Babylonia
Laura D. Steele
The role and function of goddesses in Mesopotamia
Brigitte Groneberg
Inanna and Ishtar in the Babylonian world
Joan Goodnick Westenholz
The Babylonian god Marduk
Takayoshi Oshima
Divination culture and the handling of the future
Stefan M. Maul (translated from German by Gwendolyn Leick) 26
Witchcraft literature in Mesopotamia
Tzvi Abusch
viii
C o n t e n t s
Incantations within Akkadian medical texts
M. J. Geller
The writing, sending, and reading of letters in the Amorite world
Dominique Charpin (translated from French by Dafydd Roberts)
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