by Jean Bottéro translated by Zainab Bahrani and Marc Van De Mieroop
University of Chicago Press, 1992 Cloth: 978-0-226-06726-1 | Paper: 978-0-226-06727-8 Library of Congress Classification DS69.5.B6813 1992 Dewey Decimal Classification 935
ABOUT THIS BOOK | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Our ancestors, the Mesopotamians, invented writing and with it a new way of looking at the world. In this collection of essays, the French scholar Jean Bottero attempts to go back to the moment which marks the very beginning of history.
To give the reader some sense of how Mesopotamian civilization has been mediated and interpreted in its transmission through time, Bottero begins with an account of Assyriology, the discipline devoted to the ancient culture. This transmission, compounded with countless discoveries, would not have been possible without the surprising decipherment of the cuneiform writing system. Bottero also focuses on divination in the ancient world, contending that certain modes of worship in Mesopotamia, in their application of causality and proof, prefigure the "scientific mind."
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chronology
Rules of transcription and translation
Map
The Birth of the West I: Assyriology
1: In Defense of a Useless Science
2: Assyriology and Our History
3: A Century of Assyriology II: Writing
4: The "Avalanche" of Decipherments in the Ancient Near East between
1800 and 1930
5: From Mnemonic Device to Script
6: Writing and Dialectics, or the Progress of Knowledge III: "Reasoning": Institutions and Mentality
7: Oneiromancy
8: Divination and the Scientific Spirit
9: The Substitute King and His Fate
10: The "Code" of Hammurabi
11: "Free Love" and Its Disadvantages IV: "The Gods": Religion
12: The Religious System
13: Intelligence and the Technical Function of Power: Enki/Ea
14: The Dialogue of Pessimism and Transcendence
15: The Mythology of Death
Glossary-Index
References
Bibliographical Orientation
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by Jean Bottéro translated by Zainab Bahrani and Marc Van De Mieroop
University of Chicago Press, 1992 Cloth: 978-0-226-06726-1 Paper: 978-0-226-06727-8
Our ancestors, the Mesopotamians, invented writing and with it a new way of looking at the world. In this collection of essays, the French scholar Jean Bottero attempts to go back to the moment which marks the very beginning of history.
To give the reader some sense of how Mesopotamian civilization has been mediated and interpreted in its transmission through time, Bottero begins with an account of Assyriology, the discipline devoted to the ancient culture. This transmission, compounded with countless discoveries, would not have been possible without the surprising decipherment of the cuneiform writing system. Bottero also focuses on divination in the ancient world, contending that certain modes of worship in Mesopotamia, in their application of causality and proof, prefigure the "scientific mind."
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chronology
Rules of transcription and translation
Map
The Birth of the West I: Assyriology
1: In Defense of a Useless Science
2: Assyriology and Our History
3: A Century of Assyriology II: Writing
4: The "Avalanche" of Decipherments in the Ancient Near East between
1800 and 1930
5: From Mnemonic Device to Script
6: Writing and Dialectics, or the Progress of Knowledge III: "Reasoning": Institutions and Mentality
7: Oneiromancy
8: Divination and the Scientific Spirit
9: The Substitute King and His Fate
10: The "Code" of Hammurabi
11: "Free Love" and Its Disadvantages IV: "The Gods": Religion
12: The Religious System
13: Intelligence and the Technical Function of Power: Enki/Ea
14: The Dialogue of Pessimism and Transcendence
15: The Mythology of Death
Glossary-Index
References
Bibliographical Orientation
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who has a disability that prevents you
from using this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the disability coordinator at your school fill out this form.