Leick - The Babylonian World

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, The Babylonian 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 the Ancient Near East.

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

Edited by

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: 0-415-35346-7 (hbk)

ISBN10: 0-203-08945-6 (ebk)

ISBN13: 978-0-415-35346-5 (hbk)

ISBN13: 978-0-203-08945-3 (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 sizich 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

.

Gwendolyn Leick

Seth Richardson

Lucia Mori

Blahoslav Hruka

Heather D. Baker

Harriet Crawford

Dominique Collon

D. T. Potts

Irene Good

Zainab Bahrani

Frances Reynolds

Johannes Renger

Anne Goddeeris

Frans van Koppen

Michael Jursa

Cornelia Wunsch (translated from German by Gwendolyn Leick)

Petr Charvt

Walther Sallaberger

Gebhard J. Selz

Frederick Mario Fales

Laura D. Steele

Brigitte Groneberg

Joan Goodnick Westenholz

Takayoshi Oshima

Stefan M. Maul (translated from German by Gwendolyn Leick)

Tzvi Abusch

M. J. Geller

Dominique Charpin (translated from French by Dafydd Roberts)

Eleanor Robson

Jon Taylor

A. R. George

David Brown

PaulAlain Beaulieu

David A. Warburton

Trevor Bryce

P. S. Vermaak

Hannes D. Galter

Baruch A. Levine

Amlie Kuhrt

Tzvi Abusch is Rose B. and Joseph Cohen Professor of Assyriology and Ancient Near Eastern Religion at Brandeis University. He received his Ph.D. in Assyriology from Harvard University. He has taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has held a number of awards and fellowships. Most recently, he was a member of the Institutes for Advanced Study in Princeton (20034) and in Jerusalem (2006). His primary fields of research and publication are Mesopotamian religion, magic, literature and thought, as well as biblical and Babylonian interconnections. A number of his studies on magic and mythology are to be found in his