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Kardunias, as the kingdom of the Kassites in Babylonia was called in ancient times, was the neighbor and rival of great powers such as Egypt, the Hittites, and Assyria. But while our knowledge of the latter kingdoms has made huge progress in the last decades, the Kassites have until recently been largely ignored by modern scholarship. Recently a number of scholars have embarked on research into different aspects of Late Bronze Age Babylonia. The desire to share the results of these new investiga...

This book argues that within Germanic paganism, considered not as mere cult but as a system of beliefs, it is possible to identify a conceptually coherent understanding of fate which detaches that idea from time, and connects it instead with an implicit theses about the nature of truth as written. Germanic cosmogony, as represented in such precise images as a world-tree, provides a context for an analysis of specific metaphors for the workings of fate as woven or spun by such figures as the Norn...

David Creech explores at length the Apocryphon of John's ambivalent treatment of the Jewish and Christian scriptures. Although Moses is explicitly corrected at five points in the text, Genesis' account of creation is nonetheless the basis for the Apocryphon's cosmogony and anthropogony. Its uneven treatment of the biblical text is the result of a dispute between the authors of the Apocryphon and other early Catholics. At the earliest stage of the text the Christians who wrote and read the Apocry...

Most of us associate Aphrodite - also known as Venus - with love, beauty and fertility, but the symbolic value of this goddess is by far more complex than we would have known or dared to believe. Aphrodite - a hermaphrodite? The book examines a rather obscure side of the cult surrounding this illustrious fertility goddess. How many of us would have guessed that one of Aphrodite's most famous representations was in fact a figurine from Ayia Irini, Cyprus, that portrays this female deity as The Be...

This volume comprises the conference proceedings of the international and interdisciplinary meeting held in Leipzig from November 9 to 11, 2015. Scholars from different research areas present masks from Egypt, Israel/Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Greece, mainly from the third to the first millennium BCE. The masks are analyzed from archaeological, iconographical, anthropological, philological, and theological perspectives. In many cases, the masks refer to gods, ancestors...

This groundbreaking, five-volume series offers a comprehensive, fully illustrated history of Egypt and Western Asia (the Levant, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Iran), from the emergence of complex states to the conquest of Alexander the Great. Written by a diverse, international team of leading scholars whose expertise brings to life the people, places, and times of the remote past, the volumes in this series focus firmly on the political and social histories of the states and communities of the anc...

Enki und Ninmah ist die moderne Bezeichnung einer mythischen Erzahlung in sumerischer Sprache, deren Hauptakteure Enki, der Gott der Kunstfertigkeit und der Weisheit, und Ninmah, die Muttergoettin, sind. Der Text schildert zuerst die Erschaffung des Menschen als Ersatzarbeiter fur die Goetter und berichtet dann von einem Wettstreit zwischen Enki und Ninmah um die Fahigkeit, das Schicksal der Menschen zu bestimmen. Ninmah erschafft sieben kranke Wesen, Enki ist jedoch in der Lage, ihnen eine pass...

Franz Delitzsch's lectures in 1902 and 1903 set off the Babel-Bible controversy, which rocked Europe and North America. In this searing critique of Delitzsch, Gunkel provides his own analysis of the relationship between ancient Israel and Babylon. In this edition, Gunkel's original work is newly translated, with a new Foreword, notes, bibliographies, and indexes.

In attempting even a brief and imperfect outline of the history of Egyptian queens the author has undertaken no easy task and craves indulgence for its modest fulfillment. The aim has been merely to put the little that is known in a readable and popular form, to gather from many sources the fragments that remain, partly historic, partly legendary, of a dead past. To present -- however imperfectl -- sketches of the women who once lived and breathed as Queens of Egypt.

Mysteries, myths, sacred rituals and hieroglyphic writings - the ancient Egyptians left many questions unanswered. This easily accesssible book gives both a historical context of ancient Egyptian culture and a contemporary interpretation. It includes: a complete analysis of the art of mummification; a listing and description of the known royal mummies, their subsequent unwrappings, X-rays and CAT scans, and where they are now housed; stories of grave robberies and stolen mummies, as well as the...