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Literature
(23,376 words)
[German version] I. General Literary communication is communication by means of texts - stabilized, coherent and substantial statements. These may be written or eventually put down in writing, but they may also remain oral ( Literacy). Since for earlier societies as a rule only written texts can be studied, the term ‘literature’ focusses on such sedimented media of literary communication. Nevertheless, particularly for ancient societies the mainly oral character of literary communication must be emp…
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Brill’s New Pauly
Ceremony
(3,932 words)
[German version] I. Mesopotamia In contrast with cultic rituals, the secular ceremonies of Mesopotamia have up to now rarely been the subject of academic research. On the whole, it has to be assumed that individual and communal life in the societies of the Ancient Orient in general and that of the ruler in particular were dominated by numerous rules, resulting in more or less standardized patterns of behaviour. The reconstruction of such non-cultic ceremonies is largely dependent on secondary refe…
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Brill’s New Pauly
Tabal
(46 words)
[German version] Name of a region and a principality in the southeast of central Anatolia. On its political role in the late Hittite period see Asia Minor III.C.1. Cancik-Kirschbaum, Eva (Berlin) Bibliography S. Aro, T. Zur Gesch. und materiellen Kultur des zentralanatolischen Hochplateaus von 1200-600 v. Chr., 1998.
Source:
Brill’s New Pauly
Time, concepts of
(3,691 words)
[German version] I. Ancient Orient The concept of time in cuneiform cultures is characterized by cyclic and linear rhythms, ideas of beginning and end, before and after, repetition and change, progress, past, present, future, and 'eternity'/perpetuity. All these aspects can be grasped both notionally and conceptually in the transmitted sources, but are not the subject of a systematic, theoretical discourse. The languages of the cuneiform cultures had several means available to describe events, circum…
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Brill’s New Pauly
Chronography
(3,691 words)
I. General [German version] A. Notions of measuring time Most cultures have some method of measuring time, frequently based on periodical changes within nature or the stars. The oldest of these is the
pars-pro-toto method, in which it is not a certain period of time as a whole that is connected, but a regularly recurring phenomenon within that time [1. 9 f.] (e.g. lunar phases). Metaphors of time or the measuring thereof play no great role in antiquity, with the exception of the field of metrics. Usually, the focus was not on …
Source:
Brill’s New Pauly
Science
(3,548 words)
[German version] I. Mesopotamia The framework for the emergence of science, i.e. of a socially organized, systematic search for discoveries and their transmission, existed in Mesopotamia from the early 3rd millennium BC. It included social differentiation and the development of a script (Cuneiform script) which was soon applied outside administrative and economic contexts. The potential of numeracy and literacy, sustained by the professional group of scribes, was developed beyond concrete, practical…
Source:
Brill’s New Pauly
Rulership
(2,483 words)
[German version] I. General Rulership is here understood as political rulership, i.e. a reciprocal social relationship serving to create and permanently preserve the social order through political organization. Rulership is based on fixed rules applying both to the ruler(s) and the ruled; thus those ruled generally assent blindly to the authority of the ruler(s), or are at least so minded as to tolerate it. As a system of order, rulership appears in different forms: in the ancient Near East and Egyp…
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Brill’s New Pauly
Rulers
(2,915 words)
I. Ancient Orient [German version] A. Terminology Designations for rulers include: (1) descriptive terms like the Sumerian
LUGAL (literally 'big man'), equated in vocabularies with the Akkadian
šarru ('shining one(?)'),
malku ('adviser', Hebrew
melek), Hittite
ḥaššu- ('well-born one'); furthermore, Sumerian
NUN and Akkadian
rubāum ('most excellent one'), and Sumerian
EN, Akkadian
bēlu, Hittite
išḫa- ('lord'); these apply regardless of the size and structure of the area of rule. Feminine forms are recorded. (2) Culture and epoch specific titles (a…
Source:
Brill’s New Pauly
Number
(5,221 words)
I. Mesopotamia [German version] A. Numerical systems Before systems for representing numbers in writing were (further) developed, counting stones, known as
calculi or tokens, were used in arithmetic. As first-order representations they enabled operations such as increasing, decreasing, combining, separating, and distributing. Their relationship to the numerical notations recorded in the oldest ‘texts’ (
c. 3300 BC; Uruk) is still discussed [2]. The numerical signs in these texts do not represent absolute numbers but context-dependent units of count…
Source:
Brill’s New Pauly