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[German version] I. Mesopotamia Mesopotamia did not develop a generic term for demons. A large number of immortal beings was known that each had their own name and acted as servants of the gods and as enemies or helpers of humans. They did not have cults of their own. Since demons were only able to exercise their limited powers, which manifested themselves in physical and psychological illnesses, with the approval of the gods, they were part of the existing world order. Thus, in the Babylonian tale …

[German version] The Enūma eliš (EE) [1; 2], the so-called Babylonian creation epic, received its name in accordance with the beginning words, ‘When up there [heaven not yet being named]’. The song, written down on seven tablets and probably created in the 12th cent. BC, is counted among the most important witnesses to ancient Oriental literature. Following a theogony leading up to  Marduk, it describes his battle against  Tiamat (‘the Sea’) who embodies the original chaos, and whom he defeats and…

[German version] (Chaldaeans). Originally the term describing a tribe of western Semitic origin, attested from the early 1st millennium BC in Babylonia. The most important tribes -- named after their ancestral heros eponymos as ‘house ( bīt) of [personal name]’ -- lived in far-flung settlements in the extreme south of Mesopotamia (Bīt Amukani, Bīt Jakīn) and south of  Borsipa (Bīt Dakkuri). Babylonia's resistance to Assyrian overlordship essentially originated with the C. The final Babylonian dynasty, which under  Nebuchadnezzar I…

[German version] One of the most significant and oldest festivals of Mesopotamian culture. It was documented in Nippur as early as the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. The festival lasted many days and was celebrated in many cities of Mesopotamia. The dates would vary from city to city, but it usually took place semi-annually at six month intervals. In a ceremonial procession, the city ruler or king would accompany the cult image of the city's patron god along with statues of other gods to a shrin…

I. Library buildings [German version] A. Definition A library is a depository or building for books of all kinds. Libraries could be part of private houses, royal palaces, public and religious buildings ( Gymnasium, Forum, Thermae [1]), sanctuaries, or be independent buildings. Only few libraries have been secured or preserved, because most of their constituent elements, including bookcases ( armaria) and furnishings, were made of wood. Nielsen, Inge (Hamburg) [German version] …

[German version] The city god and chief god of Babylon was only a local god of lowly im…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Achaemenids | Xenophon | Zenobia | Diadochi and Epigoni | Alexander | Commerce | Hellenistic states | India, trade with | Limes | Mesopotamia | Rome | Rome Capital of Babylonia, on the river Euphrates south of Baghdad, near today's city of Hilleh. The Greek form of the name goes back to a place name in an unknown linguistic substratum of Mesopotamian (Babillu), which was interpreted by the popular Babylonian etymology of the Semitic population as Bāb-ili(m), ‘God's gate’. In the 3rd millennium BC it was a scarcely known settlement, but gained more and more political importance as a city st…

[German version] (Sumerian abzu; recorded in Greek as Ἀπασών; Apasṓn [1]). Apsû was the name given by the Mesopotamians to the ‘ocean of fresh water’ beneath the earth's surface which fed streams and springs. The fairly high level of the water table in Babylon must have given rise to the idea of the apsû. The apsû c…

[German version] Babylonian clay tablets with cuneiform script text in Sumerian or Akkadian on one side and its transliteration in Greek on the other side are called Graeco-Babyloniaca. The total of less than 30 tablets and fragments of tablets were written between the 2nd cent. BC and the 2nd cent. AD and come from Babylon, as far as their origin is known. They contain excerpts from lexical tex…

[German version] Numerous cuneiform sources on physicians and their activities show that Herodotus (1,197) was misled in his view that the Babylonians had no physicians. Physicians are attested in the next to oldest comprehensible written documents of Mesopotamia (middle of the 3rd millennium BC). Precision tools were manufactured for them [2]. Prescriptions for producing medicines and therapeutic instructions are known from the end of the 3rd millennium BC [3]. Medical care was provided by casual…

[German version] I. Mesopotamia While attention in old Egyptian culture was largely centred on existence after death, the concerns of Mesopotamia were almost exclusively with the present. A significant part of the cultural …

[German version] (Esagila). ‘House whose top is high’, Sumerian name for the temple …

[German version] (Assyrian Aššur-ban-apli; Greek Σαρδανάπαλ(λ)ος, Σαρδάπαλος; Sardanápal(l)os, Sardápalos). The last important king of the Assyrian empire (669 to c. 627 BC). Although not the eldest son of the king, he was appointed by his father  Asarhaddon to be the successor to the Assyrian throne and his elder brother Šamaš-šum-ukīn to be king of Babylon. Sovereignty of Babylon was, however, subject to A. A. was able to maintain the territory only by constant campaigns. Egypt, however, was lost in 655 BC. At times even Lydia recognized Assyrian sovereignty. A. supported Gyges against the Cimmerians and fought successfully against the Mannaeans. An upri…

[German version] I. Mesopotamia The push of the Arabian peninsula to the north-east against the Eurasian plate caused the uplift of the Zagros and Taurus mountains. Seismic release of tensions can lead to earthquakes in the whole of Mesopotamia, particularly in the north. Earthquakes were considered to be expressions of wrath by  Enlil, king of the gods, by various  chthonic gods and by Inanna/Ištar as the star of Venus. They were regarded as severe warnings to the king and as precursors of further disasters. Earthquake omens were recorded from the middle of the 2nd millennium BC on and are preserved in cuneiform script from as late as Hellenistic times. They were incorporated into Greek tradition with almost no changes [1]. From observation stations all over Mesopotamia, reports were made to the Neo-Assyrian kings  Asarhaddon and  Assurbanipal (7th cent. BC) not only about astrological omens, but also about earthquakes. Thanks to the preserved reports [3], several earthquakes of the 7th cent. can be dated accurately. In order to calm the wrath of the gods, the king had to carry out extensive expiatory rites. The oldest historical report about earthquake damage can be found in an Assyrian royal inscription of 13th cent. BC. Earthquake damage can also be detected …