Search results for ""author c. waerzeggers""

This book provides an insight into the world of the priests of the Ezida temple in Borsippa, covering the period when this sanctuary dedicated to the god Nabû was Babylonia’s second most important place of worship (c. 750-484 BC). The backbone of the book is the extensive corpus of cuneiform texts that these priests have left behind. Discovered in the 19th century, these archives have largely remained unstudied. Apart from offering an edition of the texts (Part II), this study reconstructs the professional and social lives of Nabû’s priests, and outlines the workings of the cult of a major Babylonian deity (Part I). A dvd-rom with digital photographs of edited texts is included.

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Marduk-remanni was a Babylonian man who lived in the provincial town of Sippar during the first decades of Persian rule in Mesopotamia (second half of the sixth century BC). His archive of c. 187 cuneiform texts was found in 1881 during excavations carried out on behalf of the British Museum, but since then it has received little attention. On first sight, the historical relevance of Marduk-remanni's records seems minimal. They relate to his private assets, business enterprises, and legal concerns - matters that barely seem to transcend the personal and local spheres. But upon closer scrutiny, it becomes clear that Marduk-remanni was at the centre of a far-flung personal network and that his life, despite his having lived far from the political centre, reflects many of the developments and changes taking place at the highest imperial level. He was a child when Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylonia, and although this regime change caused little upheaval outside the political arena at first, by the time of Marduk-remanni's death several decades later, the world of his childhood had changed. His life had taken a completely different course than that of his father and grandfather. He had traveled near and far, visiting the Persian court at Susa on several occasions. No longer were the horizons of his world confined to the Babylonian heartland, as they had been for his father and grandfather. Marduk-remanni was born in provincial Babylonia, but he died as a citizen of a world empire. This book traces the social, economic and political dynamics that transformed his life.

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In the summer of 484 BCE Babylonia revolted against Xerxes, king of Persia. In recent years, a debate has crystallized around the nature of Xerxes’ response to this challenge. This volume continues and expands this debate. It collects nine essays on the cuneiform text corpus dated to the period before, during and after the revolts. This material enables the authors to evaluate the nature of Xerxes’ policies in the sphere of society, science, religion, law, administration and economy against the long-term history of the region. The contributions are by Paul-Alain Beaulieu, Johannes Hackl, Michael Jursa, Karlheinz Kessler, Mathieu Ossendrijver, Reinhard Pirngruber, Małgorzata Sandowicz and Caroline Waerzeggers.

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