Bernard J. Siegel. Slavery during the Third Dynasty of Ur.Isaac Mendelsohn. Slavery in the Ancient near East. A Comparative Study of Slavery in Babylonia, Assyria, Syria, and Palestine from the Middle of the Third Millennium to the End of the First Millennium.

1951 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-44
Author(s):  
Josef Klíma
1956 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Noah Kramer

The sumerians failed to develop a systematic philosophy in the accepted sense of the word. In particular it never occurred to them to raise any questions concerning the fundamental nature of reality and knowledge, and therefore they evolved practically nothing corresponding to the philosophical subdivisions commonly known as metaphysics and epistemology. They did, however, speculate on the nature and, more particularly, the origin of the universe, as well as on its method of operation. And there is good reason to infer that in the course of the third millennium B.C. there emerged a group of Sumerian thinkers and teachers who, in the course of their quest for satisfactory answers to some of the problems raised by their cosmic speculations, evolved a systematic cosmology and theology carrying such high intellectual conviction that they became the basic creed and dogma of much of the ancient Near East.


1986 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 165-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Engin Özgen

Four-wheeled wagons, which can be considered as one of the major breakthroughs of man's technological evolution and range over a considerable period of time, seem to appear as pictographic signs on inscribed clay tablets from Uruk in southern Mesopotamia during the fourth millennium B.C. These simple vehicles which are depicted with a roofed superstructure were probably drawn by a pair of bovids the existence of which is attested in the ancient Near East both by literary sources and osteologically. The evidence for four-wheeled wagons, this time without a roof, becomes extensive in the following millennium as represented on the “Standard of Ur”, the “Vulture Stele”, specimens of vase painting, sealing and seals, terracotta and metal wagon models and actual wagon remains. In the beginning of the third millennium B.C. they are depicted in military contexts, hence the name “battle cars”, whereas there is no evidence for a similar use towards the end of the period and following millennia. It seems that they were relegated to cult use in the later third millennium B.C. and continued to the early second millennium B.C.


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Lawson Younger

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.


Author(s):  
Kamran Vincent Zand

The chapter compares the find-spots of lexical and literary texts from three different places: Shuruppag and Tell Abu Salabikh in Mesopotamia and Ebla situated in modern-day Syria. In Shuruppag and Ebla lexical and literary texts have been found in official buildings of the ruling elite, also combination with a massive amount of administrative texts. It can be seen that lexical and literary texts were produced, kept, and transmitted by scribes in the context of the administration of the different cities. They played therefore not only an important role in transmission and mastery of the cuneiform writing system, the main administrative tool. Their importance for the elites resulted in the development of a network of knowledge that spread Mesopotamian myths and lore over the Near East in the third millennium BCE.


The manner in which government practices and personnel survive the violent disruption of regime change is an issue of current relevance, yet it is a subject that has largely been ignored by modern scholarship. These chapters, covering more than 4,000 years of history, discuss the continuity of administration and royal iconography in successful changes of regime in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Iran. Recurring patterns are identified in ten case studies, ranging from late third millennium Mesopotamia to early Islamic Egypt. A summary of the recent history of Iraq suggests that these regularities have lessons for modern geopolitics.


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