The Civilization of Babylonia and Assyria: Its Remains, Language, History, Religion, Commerce, Law, Art and Literature

What we understand about ancient cultures of Mesopotamia we know mostly from the Babylonians and Assyrians. These ancient peoples had developed a manner of writing, known as cuneiform, that were well preserved onto clay tablets, and survive to this day. As a result of the combined efforts of explorers, decipherers, archaeologists, and many others, the fantastic histories of these lost civilizations have been raised from beneath the mounds that hid their secrets for countless centuries. These early city-states are credited with developing some of civilization's firsts, from the first experiments in agriculture, the domestication of animals, and the establishment of a marketplace, to the origin of mathematics, our concept of time reckoning and a fundamental understanding of our code of laws . The Babylonians and Assyrians, along with their predecessors, the Sumerians, provided subsequent civilizations, including our own, the basis for civilized living. This work attempts to present a study of the unprecedented civilizations that flourished in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley many thousands of years ago. Spreading northward into present-day Turkey and Iran, the land known by the Greeks as Mesopotamia flourished until just before the Christian era. When know a great deal about these peoples, how they lived, the organization of their palaces, temples and homes; as well as much regarding their daily life and religious ambitions. Many of the tablets unearthed so far have revealed the nature of commercial intercourse, of judicial disputes, and of the burgeoning complexities of social life. Also found on the clay tablets was a great deal of literary material, dating from the earliest periods and continuing to the fall of Babylonia and further into the era of Persian and Greek dominion. As the author of a number of books on the religious traditions in the Near and Middle East, Morris Jastrow, Jr. has utilized his expertise, and that of others in the field, to compile this impressive discourse on Babylonia and Assyria that was first published nearly one hundred years ago. This two-volume set contains over 75 illustrations that detail all facets of Babylonian and Assyrian life. Volume two includes discussion of the cults and temples of Babylonia and Assyria, which include the close interdependence between the position of the gods and the ever-changing political climate in the Euphrates Valley. The polytheistic nature of Babylonian and Assyrian religious practice is exemplified by the pantheon to which their people worshipped. Such members included Shamash, the sun god, Sin, the moon-god, Ea, the water-god, Nabu, the fire-god and Ishtar, the mother-goddess. The law and commerce of the region is explained at length, including the Code of Hammurapi, dating from the second millennium B.C.E., the oldest compilation of laws in the world. A lengthy chapter on the art of the Babylonian and Assyrian people follows. Many of the lithographs found in this artisan section contain many exquisite and rarely seen portrayals from the earlier periods. The book concludes with specimens from Babylonian and Assyrian literature, including excerpts from the story of creation, the Babylonian story of the deluge and the story of the descent of the goddess Ishtar into the lower world. There is also commentary on the epic of Gilgamesh, a number of common prayers and psalms, as well as letters and reports from various sources. ISBN 1-59016-121-1 o 277 + xx + 45 illustrated pages o 6 x 9 o tradepaper o illustrated. See also volume one ISBN 1-59016-120-3.