Description: 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 CONTENTSChronologyRules of transcription and translationMapThe Birth of the WestI: Assyriology1: In Defense of a Useless Science2: Assyriology and Our History3: A Century of AssyriologyII: Writing4: The “Avalanche” of Decipherments in the Ancient Near East between1800 and 19305: From Mnemonic Device to Script6: Writing and Dialectics, or the Progress of KnowledgeIII: “Reasoning”: Institutions and Mentality7: Oneiromancy8: Divination and the Scientific Spirit9: The Substitute King and His Fate10: The “Code” of Hammurabi11: “Free Love” and Its DisadvantagesIV: “The Gods”: Religion12: The Religious System13: Intelligence and the Technical Function of Power: Enki/Ea14: The Dialogue of Pessimism and Transcendence15: The Mythology of DeathGlossary-IndexBook is in very good condition, no underling, foxing or curling of pages
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All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Subject Area: Ancient History
Publication Name: Mesopotamia : Writing, Reasoning, and the Gods
Item Length: 0.9in
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Subject: Archaeology, History, Science
Publication Year: 1995
Type: Textbook
Format: Book, Paperback
Language: English
Item Height: 0.1in
Author: Jean Bottero
Item Width: 0.7in
Item Weight: 16.4 Oz
Number of Pages: 326 Pages
