For The Gods Of Girsu City State Formation In Ancient Sumer
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For the Gods of Girsu: City-State Formation in Ancient Sumer by Sébastien Rey Pdf
This book demonstrates Girsu is a primary locale for re-analyzing, through an interdisciplinary approach combining archaeological and textual evidence, the origins of the Sumerian city-state.
A comprehensive reexamination of the history of the temple site in the sacred Sumerian city of Girsu through modern excavations and the reevaluation of earlier archaeological discoveries. Examines the role of rescue and preventative excavations as a way to stabilize and preserve exposed but inadequately recorded archaeological sites.
The rediscovery of Babylon and Assyria in the 1840s transformed Western views on the origins of civilisation. The excavation of Nineveh proved that even the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians together did not constitute the ancient world. These peoples had nothing to do with the beginnings of civilisation on Earth. It was in Mesopotamia that humanity took the first steps on its path towards the society we know today. The Sumerians inaugurated civilisation itself, but it was the Babylonians and then the Assyrians who fulfilled its potential. Their early experiments in state formation remain fascinating to us today: just like our governments, for a thousand years Babylon and Assyria grappled with the challenges of organising central power, administering distant territories, and engineering social harmony in empires and their cities. These achievements form one of the momentous episodes in human history; the Mesopotamian invention of writing revolutionised our minds and increased our intellectual possibilities a hundredfold. The First Great Powers is a revelation: of kingship, warfare, society and religion. Here at last we can discover what it meant to be an ancient Mesopotamian living in such an extraordinary world.
In Context: the Reade Festschrift by Irving Finkel Pdf
'In Context: the Reade Festschrift' is a collection of invited and peer-reviewed essays by friends and colleagues of Julian Edgeworth Reade, sometime Mesopotamia curator at the British Museum from 1975 to 2000. Here is fresh work from which any reader can gain a new appreciation of the importance of the ancient Near East.
Amongst the Ruins explores the loss of ancient civilizations, the collapse of ruling elites, and the disappearance of more recent communities and their local traditions. Some of these are now sealed under 3,000-year-old peat, others lost to rising seas or sands, and the carcasses of twentieth-century buildings which serve as reminders of the destructive power of war. These compelling stories of fallen or lost places are brought together through themes of war, climate change, natural hazards, human self-destruction, and simple economics. From the ice of the Arctic fringe, through to the desert landscapes of North Africa, by way of South America's high mountains and Southeast Asia's urban sprawl, Amongst the Ruins charts the rise and fall of places and communities around the world, the fascinating characters associated with them, and the important events that punctuate their history. Exploring wide-ranging examples from prehistory to the present day, John Darlington challenges us to recognize past failures and identify what we need to do to protect the cultures of our current world.
2nd Edition Paperback (B&W) There is a strong nexus between the biblical mountains of Ararat and Sumerian Aratta. I believe Alvand Mountain in Iran meets the criteria for this location and where Noah's Ark landed.
Spanning millennia and continents, here is a stunningly revealing history of how the distribution of water has shaped human civilization. Boccaletti, of The Nature Conservancy, “tackles the most important story of our time: our relationship with water in a world of looming scarcity” (Kelly McEvers, NPR Host). Writing with authority and brio, Giulio Boccaletti—honorary research associate at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford—shrewdly combines environmental and social history, beginning with the earliest civilizations of sedentary farmers on the banks of the Nile, the Tigris, and the Euphrates Rivers. Even as he describes how these societies were made possible by sea-level changes from the last glacial melt, he incisively examines how this type of farming led to irrigation and multiple cropping, which, in turn, led to a population explosion and labor specialization. We see with clarity how irrigation’s structure informed social structure (inventions such as the calendar sprung from agricultural necessity); how in ancient Greece, the communal ownership of wells laid the groundwork for democracy; how the Greek and Roman experiences with water security resulted in systems of taxation; and how the modern world as we know it began with a legal framework for the development of water infrastructure. Extraordinary for its monumental scope and piercing insightfulness, Water: A Biography richly enlarges our understanding of our relationship to—and fundamental reliance on—the most elemental substance on earth.
Time and Its Adversaries in the Seleucid Empire by Paul J. Kosmin Pdf
Under Seleucid rule, time no longer restarted with each new monarch. Instead, progressively numbered years, identical to the system we use today, became the measure of historical duration. Paul Kosmin shows how this invention of a new kind of time—and resistance to it—transformed the way we organize our thoughts about the past, present, and future.
A Mysterious Group of People came to settle in southern Mesopotamia, sometime around 5400BC. What is now the modern state of Iraq, the first city of Mesopotamia was founded named Eridu. Although historians have generally regarded this as the world’s first city, we have seen this challenged on numerous occasions by recent discoveries too numerous to mention here. Eridu had all the things we ordinarily associate with an ancient city: temples, administrative buildings, housing, agriculture, markets, art, and, of course, walls to keep out unsavoury characters.The elusive aspect is we have absolutely no idea where they acquired their language, and bizarre language it is, we have no idea what they originally looked like. Their language, which we call Sumerian, and the subsequent Akkadian derivative were linguistic isolates. Sumerian is the oldest known written language on Earth, and any languages it might have derived from or developed alongside have been lost to time. Figuring out what their baffling ethnic identity based on their art is a doomed effort, because their art was so stylized that a good case could be made that it portrays people of any ethnicity, or the people they encountered. The Sumerian language was not Semitic, and the Akkadian conquests of 2334 BCE disrupted the ethnic and cultural isolation of the Sumerian people. By about 2000 BCE, the Sumerians were speaking Akkadian and the Sumerian and Akkadian civilizations were regarded as a single enterprise.Does this mean that we’ll never know how the Sumerian language developed, or where the Sumerians originally came from? Well if any reasonably well-preserved Sumerian bones can be found DNA testing could tell us their ethnic origin. Although this all sounds murky, we have literature left in the form if cuneiform writing that speaks volumes on their day to day life and their highly unusual gods. The Sumerian pantheon reads like wild science fiction at times and although they often speak of their own origins in terms of their gods and family ties many have chosen to label this as mythology, ignore it, or merely treat it in a literature aspect.
Sumerian history and mythology have been shrouded in mystery for thousands of years. These tales of the world's very first civilization is now being exposed to the light of day, fascinating men and women around the world. The stories of Enlil, Enkidu, and Gilgamesh are finding new audiences, people interested in learning about a world where the people felt and experienced very differently from how we do today. Sumerian mythology was so powerful that some of their gods found their way into different cultures, the most famous example of this being Aphrodite who began life as the Sumerian goddess Inanna. In Sumerian Mythology: Fascinating Sumerian History and Mesopotamian Empire and Myths, you will be exposed to the riveting tales of gods and heroes that formed the canon of the Sumerian religion.Sumerian civilization has become an intrinsic part of how we live today, even if most of us are unaware of it. The way that we measure time, observe the stars, and even plant and grow crops has a lot to do with the advancements made by the Sumerians more than six thousand years ago. And heroes like Gilgamesh have helped define what it means to be a hero today. They were men who became gods, earning their place in immortality in more ways than one. The Sumerians used their stories as a way to instruct others and how they lived and even to help themselves understand their world. Sumerian Mythology: Fascinating Sumerian History and Mesopotamian Empire and Myths, you will learn the formative tales of gods and heroes to help you understand who the Sumerians were and why they were important.Sumerian Mythology: Fascinating Sumerian History and Mesopotamian Empire and Myths explores the tales of gods and heroes in a concise, easy-to-read fashion. These tales of heroes and gods were deeply important to the Mesopotamian people and learning about them is the only way to understand the kind of world they lived in and how it was different from our own. It was a world of birds with the faces of lions, gods with the wings of birds, and seductive goddesses who symbolically married the kings of the various city-states. The Sumerians told many tales of gods like Inanna, An, Ashur, and Enlil, tales that helped the civilizations of Mesopotamia endure for nearly 4000 years. Indeed, European travelers to the Orient in the 18th century discovered that there were still districts where the goddess Inanna (more than five thousand years old then) was still worshipped in secret.The world of the Sumerians was unlike our own. The people at the heart of Sumerian civilization - living in modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, Turkey, and other places - these people were part of a culture so far removed from the way that we think and perceive today as to be almost unrecognizable. Sumerian Mythology: Fascinating Sumerian History and Mesopotamian Empire and Myths gives you the binoculars to view their world. It was a world of great empires: the Akkadian, Hurrian, Assyrian, and Babylonian. It was a world of legendary wealth and beauty. In Sumerian Myth, you will understand this world by gaining a summary of the major historical events and an in-depth exposure to the gods.In Sumerian Mythology: Fascinating Sumerian History and Mesopotamian Empire and Myths, you will learn all there is to know about Sumerian myth and history. You will learn about the Gilgamesh and Enkidu, the Anzu bird, who the major gods and goddesses were, who the important heroes were, and how Sumerian society left a legacy that continues with us today. Poets and historians recorded Mesopotamian tales on cuneiform tablets, but we have made the deciphering work easy for you.
A legendary civilization vanished under the Fertile Crescent and escaped a fate worse than death until Sumerologists questioned widely accepted truths. The Sumerians reemerged onto the extraordinary timeline of human history. Their tales of kings and gods, including the Epic of Gilgamesh, and their fearless trade in distant lands, during the remarkable Bronze Age, centered in the world’s first city-states that chronicled ancient rivalries and their enduring impact. Inside you will read about... ✓ How We Know What We Know About Sumerians ✓ The Bronze Age – Sumer And Its Contemporaries ✓ How Did The Sumerians Become Civilized? ✓ How Long Were They Around ✓ Primer Of Impact Of Sumerian Ancient Civilization On Our World ✓ What Did They Look Like? ✓ What Shaped Their Worldview? And much more! Our journey relies on excavated and historical evidence to explore their productive fascinations with order and man’s place in the universe. Their application of impressive knowledge helps us unfold their mysterious civilization.
Enki is a god that has been overlooked in the past, but he is worthy of your attention. He is a figurehead of a society that has remained undiscovered until 200 years ago. The gods and rituals that define a society are often a perfect template to glimpse into how they lived. This book is all about the ancient Sumerians and how they formed a society that is still recognizable today. Enki is just one of the gods who influenced them and made their society so interesting. Welcome to a journey into the past and an introduction to one of the most influential forces of the ancient world. While the rest of the world dealt with living in the Stone Age, the ancient Sumerians started producing metal objects and building huge cities filled with factories and dwellings. The ziggurat that defended their cities were monuments to their most powerful gods and goddesses, and they reflected their importance in the lives of their citizens.
Author : Samuel Noah Kramer Publisher : University of Chicago Press Page : 386 pages File Size : 51,7 Mb Release : 2010-09-17 Category : History ISBN : 9780226452326
The Sumerians, the pragmatic and gifted people who preceded the Semites in the land first known as Sumer and later as Babylonia, created what was probably the first high civilization in the history of man, spanning the fifth to the second millenniums B.C. This book is an unparalleled compendium of what is known about them. Professor Kramer communicates his enthusiasm for his subject as he outlines the history of the Sumerian civilization and describes their cities, religion, literature, education, scientific achievements, social structure, and psychology. Finally, he considers the legacy of Sumer to the ancient and modern world. "There are few scholars in the world qualified to write such a book, and certainly Kramer is one of them. . . . One of the most valuable features of this book is the quantity of texts and fragments which are published for the first time in a form available to the general reader. For the layman the book provides a readable and up-to-date introduction to a most fascinating culture. For the specialist it presents a synthesis with which he may not agree but from which he will nonetheless derive stimulation."—American Journal of Archaeology "An uncontested authority on the civilization of Sumer, Professor Kramer writes with grace and urbanity."—Library Journal
Do you want to discover the Sumerian history and mythology that have inspired men and women around the world for thousands of years? Sumerian history and mythology have been shrouded in mystery for thousands of years. These tales of the world's very first civilization is now being exposed to the light of day, fascinating men and women around the world. The stories of Enlil, Enkidu, and Gilgamesh are finding new audiences, people interested in learning about a world where the people felt and experienced very differently from how we do today. Sumerian mythology was so powerful that some of their gods found their way into different cultures, the most famous example of this being Aphrodite who began life as the Sumerian goddess Inanna. Sumerian civilization has become an intrinsic part of how we live today, even if most of us are unaware of it. The way that we measure time, observe the stars, and even plant and grow crops has a lot to do with the advancements made by the Sumerians more than six thousand years ago. And heroes like Gilgamesh have helped define what it means to be a hero today. They were men who became gods, earning their place in immortality in more ways than one. The Sumerians used their stories as a way to instruct others and how they lived and even to help themselves understand their world. This book explores the tales of gods and heroes in a concise, easy-to-read fashion. These tales of heroes and gods were deeply important to the Mesopotamian people and learning about them is the only way to understand the kind of world they lived in and how it was different from our own. It was a world of birds with the faces of lions, gods with the wings of birds, and seductive goddesses who symbolically married the kings of the various city-states. The Sumerians told many tales of gods like Inanna, An, Ashur, and Enlil, tales that helped the civilizations of Mesopotamia endure for nearly 4000 years. Indeed, European travelers to the Orient in the 18th century discovered that there were still districts where the goddess Inanna (more than five thousand years old then) was still worshipped in secret. The world of the Sumerians was unlike our own. The people at the heart of Sumerian civilization - living in modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, Turkey, and other places - these people were part of a culture so far removed from the way that we think and perceive today as to be almost unrecognizable. This book gives you the binoculars to view their world. It was a world of great empires: the Akkadian, Hurrian, Assyrian, and Babylonian. It was a world of legendary wealth and beauty. In Sumerian Myth, you will understand this world by gaining a summary of the major historical events and an in-depth exposure to the gods. You will learn about the Gilgamesh and Enkidu, the Anzu bird, who the major gods and goddesses were, who the important heroes were, and how Sumerian society left a legacy that continues with us today. Poets and historians recorded Mesopotamian tales on cuneiform tablets, but we have made the deciphering work easy for you.
Author : A. Leo Oppenheim Publisher : University of Chicago Press Page : 494 pages File Size : 40,9 Mb Release : 2013-01-31 Category : History ISBN : 9780226177670
"This splendid work of scholarship . . . sums up with economy and power all that the written record so far deciphered has to tell about the ancient and complementary civilizations of Babylon and Assyria."—Edward B. Garside, New York Times Book Review Ancient Mesopotamia—the area now called Iraq—has received less attention than ancient Egypt and other long-extinct and more spectacular civilizations. But numerous small clay tablets buried in the desert soil for thousands of years make it possible for us to know more about the people of ancient Mesopotamia than any other land in the early Near East. Professor Oppenheim, who studied these tablets for more than thirty years, used his intimate knowledge of long-dead languages to put together a distinctively personal picture of the Mesopotamians of some three thousand years ago. Following Oppenheim's death, Erica Reiner used the author's outline to complete the revisions he had begun. "To any serious student of Mesopotamian civilization, this is one of the most valuable books ever written."—Leonard Cottrell, Book Week "Leo Oppenheim has made a bold, brave, pioneering attempt to present a synthesis of the vast mass of philological and archaeological data that have accumulated over the past hundred years in the field of Assyriological research."—Samuel Noah Kramer, Archaeology A. Leo Oppenheim, one of the most distinguished Assyriologists of our time, was editor in charge of the Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute and John A. Wilson Professor of Oriental Studies at the University of Chicago.
