Near Eastern Myths, Sumerian-Akkadian

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Cale Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Building Block ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
The Third ◽  
Third Millennium ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Enuma Elish

Sumerian-Akkadian mythology reaches back to the earliest lists of gods in the third millennium bce and preoccupied the Mesopotamian intellectuals for more than 2000 years. This overview describes four major moments in the earlier phases of that history, each putting in place a different type of cosmic building block: ontologies, infrastructures, genealogies, and interfaces. These four phases stretch from the first mythological narratives in the mid-third millennium down to the late second and first millennium bce, when Mesopotamian materials are reconfigured and adapted for cuneiform scribal traditions in northern Mesopotamia, Syria and the Levant. Rather than limiting ourselves to late, somewhat heterodox recompilations such as the Enuma Elish or the Baal Epic, this contribution argues that the most important and long-lived features of the mythological tradition in Mesopotamia came into existence between 2500 and 1500bce.

The Deity Kur(r)a in the First Millennium Sources

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Lawson Younger
Keyword(s):  
The Third ◽  
Third Millennium ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Epigraphic Evidence

AbstractRecent epigraphic evidence from Cebel İres Dağı, Çineköy and Tell Šēh Hamad have provided further important additional documentation in Phoenician for a deity Kur(r)a. This article investigates the growing attestations for this deity in the first millennium sources, both cuneiform and alphabetic. In light of the growing occurrences of b'l kr, it proposes a reassessment of the enigmatic phrase b'l krntryš in the Phoenician text from Karatepe. The article also presents the limited second millennium data and evaluates the possible connections with the third millennium Eblaite deity Kura.L'évidence épigraphique récente de Cebel İres Dağı, Çineköy et Tell Šēh Hamad a fourni encore plus de documentation importante en phénicien pour une divinité nommée Kur(r)a. Cet article étudie les attestations croissantes pour cette divinité dans les sources cunéiformes et alphabétiques du premier millénaire av. J.-C. À la lumière des occurrences croissantes de b'l kr, cette étude propose une réévaluation de l'expression énigmatique b'l krntryš dans le texte phénicienne de Karatepe. L'article présente également les données limitées du deuxième millénaire et évalue les liens possibles avec la divinité éblaïte du troisième millénaire Kura.

Aşvan Kale: the Third Millennium Pottery

1973 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 153-158
Author(s):  
David French ◽  
Svend Helms
Keyword(s):  
Small Proportion ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Surface Treatments ◽  
Brick Wall ◽  
The Third ◽  
The North ◽  
Third Millennium ◽  
First Millennium

The pottery illustrated here is only a small proportion of the total recovered; the intention is to present a brief survey of the commoner fabrics and surface treatments.The stratigraphic connections from trench to trench were, as discovered, not entirely satisfactory. Though the lowest two of the four trenches which were dug (1969) into settlement debris on the north scarp, viz. G1d and G2b, produced no substantial structural features, the sequence of surfaces, tip lines and aggradations was reasonably clear (Fig. 1). In the trenches above G2b, i.e. G2d and G3b, stratigraphic observations were limited. No lines of aggradation could be observed, the trenches apparently being taken up by the remains or debris of a thick mud brick wall or walls. Into this mass of mud-brick were dug pits. Above both features (mud-brick and pits) began a series of structures and associated deposits, datable (after the 1972 season) to the middle or second half of the first millennium B.C.The pottery presented here comes from the lowest two trenches, G2b and G1d.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Sara J. Milstein
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Law ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
The Third ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Third Millennium ◽  
Third Millennium Bce ◽  
The Law ◽  
And Function

The law collection genre is rooted in Mesopotamia, beginning with the Sumerian Laws of Ur-Namma in the third millennium BCE. Over the next millennium, similar collections were produced in Mesopotamia, the most famous being the Laws of Hammurabi. The Assyrians and Hittites also put this genre to use in their own contexts. It has long been taken for granted that certain biblical units—specifically, Exodus 20–23, Deuteronomy 12–26, and Priestly law—likewise reflect “native” adaptations of the Near Eastern genre. Close examination of these texts, however, indicates that they are closer in form and function to the Mesopotamian genre of legal-pedagogical texts. Mesopotamian scribes produced a wide range of legal-oriented school-texts, including fictional cases, sample contracts, and legal phrasebooks. When Exodus 20–23 and Deuteronomy 12–26 are examined against the backdrop of these Mesopotamian legal-pedagogical texts, the pedagogical roots of what scholars call “biblical law” begin to emerge.

scholarly journals NEW INSIGHTS ON THE ROLE OF ENVIRONMENTAL DYNAMICS SHAPING SOUTHERN MESOPOTAMIA: FROM THE PRE-UBAID TO THE EARLY ISLAMIC PERIOD

Iraq ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 81 ◽  
pp. 23-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Altaweel ◽  
Anke Marsh ◽  
Jaafar Jotheri ◽  
Carrie Hritz ◽  
Dominik Fleitmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Islamic Period ◽  
The Third ◽  
Third Millennium ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Early Islamic Period ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Southern Iraq

Recent fieldwork and archival sedimentary materials from southern Iraq have revealed new insights into the environment that shaped southern Mesopotamia from the pre-Ubaid (early Holocene) until the early Islamic period. These data have been combined with northern Iraqi speleothem, or stalagmite, data that have revealed relevant palaeoclimate information. The new results are investigated in light of textual sources and satellite remote sensing work. It is evident that areas south of Baghdad, and to the region of Uruk, were already potentially habitable between the eleventh and early eighth millennia B.C., suggesting there were settlements in southern Iraq prior to the Ubaid. Date palms, the earliest recorded for Iraq, are evident before 10,000 B.C., and oak trees are evident south of Baghdad in the early Holocene but disappeared after the mid-sixth millennium B.C. New climate results suggest increased aridity after the end of the fourth millennium B.C. For the third millennium B.C. to first millennium A.D., a negative relationship between grain and date palm cultivation in Nippur is evident, suggesting shifting cultivation emphasising one of these crops at any given time in parts of the city. The Shatt en-Nil was also likely used as a channel for most of Nippur's historical occupation from the third millennium B.C. to the first millennium A.D. In the early to mid-first millennium A.D., around the time of the Sasanian period, a major increase in irrigation is evident in plant remains, likely reflecting large-scale irrigation expansion in the Nippur region. The first millennium B.C. to first millennium A.D. reflects a relatively dry period with periodic increased rainfall. Sedimentary results suggest the Nahrawan, prior to it becoming a well-known canal, formed an ancient branch of the Tigris, while the region just south of Baghdad, around Dalmaj, was near or part of an ancient confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates.

scholarly journals Teologiczne wątki maryjne mozaik Centro Aletti w sanktuarium św. Jana Pawła II w Krakowie

Sympozjum ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1 (40)) ◽  
pp. 103-127
Author(s):  
Lucjan Bartkowiak
Keyword(s):  
Saint Paul ◽  
Free Standing ◽  
Large Format ◽  
Sacred Art ◽  
The Third ◽  
Visible Sign ◽  
Third Millennium ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Theological Concept

Theological Marian Themes of the Centro Aletti Mosaics in the Sanctuary of Saint Paul II in Krakow The post-conciliar liturgical indications, of which the free-standing altar with the priest celebrating the liturgy „facing the faithful” became a visible sign, freed the presbytery walls of newly built churches from large altar extensions. The situation became a kind of call for the creators of sacred art, providing an opportunity to return to the noble mosaic art, whose monumental works of the first millennium have survived to this day. It is enough to mention the temples of Ravenna, Palermo or Rome itself. Their iconographic programs, rich in form and content, are continued in the large-format, contemporary altar mosaics by Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, in which a refined artistic form intertwines with a well-thought-out theological concept, showing the vitality of tradition at the threshold of the third millennium. The aim of this article is to present the basic Marian theological themes present in the largest complex set of mosaics that has been built in Poland in recent years. Abstrakt Posoborowe wskazania liturgiczne, których widomym znakiem stał się wolnostojący ołtarz z kapłanem sprawującym liturgię „przodem do wiernych”, uwolniły ściany prezbiteriów nowobudowanych świątyń od wielkich nadstaw ołtarzowych. Zaistniała sytuacja stała się swego rodzaju wezwaniem dla twórców sztuki sakralnej, stwarzając możliwość powrotu do szlachetnej sztuki mozaikowej, której monumentalne dzieła pierwszego tysiąclecia przetrwały do dziś. Wystarczy wspomnieć chociażby świątynie Rawenny, Palermo czy samego Rzymu. Ich bogate w formę i treść programy ikonograficzne znajdują swoją kontynuację w wielkoformatowych, współczesnych mozaikach ołtarzowych o. Marko Ivana Rupnika, w których wyrafinowana forma artystyczna splata się z przemyślaną koncepcją teologiczną, ukazując żywotność tradycji u progu trzeciego tysiąclecia. Niniejszy artykuł stawia sobie za cel ukazanie zasadniczych teologicznych wątków maryjnych, obecnych w największym kompleksowym zespole mozaik, jaki w ostatnich latach powstał w Polsce.

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