Description
Book SynopsisEditing and examining source-critically for the first time the Late Babylonian ritual texts dealing with the New Year Festival, this book proposes an incisive re-interpretation of the most frequently discussed of all Mesopotamian rituals. The festival’s twelve-day paradigm is dissolved in favor of a more historically dynamic model, with the ritual texts being firmly anchored in the Hellenistic period. As part of a larger group of texts constituting what can be called Late Babylonian Priestly Literature, they reflect the Babylonian priesthoods’ fears and aspirations of that time much more than an actual ritual reality.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Figures and Tables Abbreviations 1 Introduction 1.1 Definitions and Conventions 1.2 Contents of the Book 2 Status Quaestionis 2.1 History of Scholarship 2.2 History of the Babylonian New Year Festival 2.3 The Reconstructed Twelve Days 2.4 Function and Meaning 2.5 If There Are Altars, There Must Be Gods: Problems and Questions 3 Textual Sources for the Babylonian New Year Festival During the First Millennium BCE 3.1 The Neo-Assyrian Period 3.2 The Neo-Babylonian and Early Persian Period 3.3 Hellenistic Babylon 3.4 Summary and Outlook 4 The New Year Festival Texts 4.1 NYF1: DT 15 4.2 NYF2: DT 114 4.3 NYF3: BM 32485+DT 109 4.4 NYF4: MNB 1848 4.5 NYF5: BM 41577 4.6 NYF6: BM 32655//BM 32374 5 Analyses 5.1 Philological Analysis 5.2 Analysis of the Paratextual Notes and Material Aspects 5.3 Analysis of the Ritual Instructions 5.4 Analysis of the Prayers 5.5 Conclusion 6 The Historical and Textual Framework of the NYF Texts 6.1 A Concise History of the Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Periods (484 BCE–80 CE) 6.2 Temple Ritual Texts 6.3 Astronomical Diaries 6.4 Chronicles 6.5 Historical-Literary Texts 6.6 Summary 7 Conclusion Appendix 1: Correlation NYF2–3//NYF4 Appendix 2: Glossary of Akkadian Words in the NYF Texts Bibliography Referenced Sources General Index Geographical Locations Temples and Temple Features Deities and Divine Beings Stars, Planets and Constellations Persons Akkadian and Sumerian Terms
