The course provides the students with an introduction to the religions of the ancient Near East (Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Syro-Palestine). The areas in discussion provide us with a rich material for cultural analysis of close and interwoven cultural systems. Every topic provides an overview across the discussed areas, showing both similarities and differences. Therefore, the course combines the descriptive historical approach with interpretative approaches of religious studies. In form, the classes are combined of introductory lectures and seminars where various primary sources are discussed (ritual and narrative texts, iconographic material, or archaeological reports). The course is open to all students from the university and is concluded with an oral exam testing that the students are able not only to describe the discussed material (based on lectures, seminars, and obligatory reading), but that they also understand the subject in its complexity. 1. What is ancient Near East and how can we study it? (geography, history, languages, societies, sources, history of research, how to approach ancient sources) 2. What is religion in the ancient Near East? (approaches to defining religion, etic and emic concepts, basic religious categories and phenomena, relationship of religion and "non-religious" phenomena) 3. Conceptions of divinity in the ancient Near East (what were gods in the ancient Near East?; development throughout history; materiality of divine agency, divine presence on earth) 4. Pantheons of the ancient Near East (mutual influences, lexical lists, local pantheons, diffusions, contextual interchangeability) 5. Narratives in the ancient Near East (myths, epics, sapiential literature, royal inscriptions, purpose and use of narratives) 6. Cosmologies in the ancient Near East (creation of the cosmos, organization of cosmos, nature x culture) 7. Anthropologies in the ancient Near East (human nature, human-divine relationship, rites of passage, death and afterlife) 8. Cults in the ancient Near East (caring for the deities, sacrifice, access to cults, sacra privata, clergy) 9. Sacred spaces in the ancient Near East (temples, sanctuaries, men-made and natural sacred spaces) 10. Divination in the ancient Near East (techniques, meaning, personal use, political use, divination as science) 11. Magic and medicine in the ancient Near East (divine involvement in magic and medicine, ritual nature of magic and medicine, healers/doctors/exorcists) 12. Religion and politics in the ancient Near East (religion and power, divine/sacred/secular kingship, religion in international politics, royal presentation) 13. Final discussion, evaluation
|
-
Bottéro, J. Religion in ancient Mesopotamia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.
-
Cohen, Y. Wisdom from the Late Bronze Age. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2013.
-
Dalley, S. Myths from Mesopotamia: creation, the flood, Gilgamesh, and others. Oxford. 2008.
-
George, A. The epic of Gilgamesh: the Babylonian epic poem and other texts in Akkadian and Sumerian. London: Penguin Books, 2003.
-
Hoffner, H. A. and G. M. Beckman. Hittite myths. Atlanta. 1998.
-
Hundley, M. B. Gods in Dwellings: Temples and Divine Presence in the Ancient Near East. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2013.
-
Liverani, M. The Ancient Near East: History, Society and Economy. New York: Routledge, 2014.
-
Olmo Lete, G. del. Canaanite Religion according to the Liturgical Texts of Ugarit. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2014.
-
Parker, S. B. Ugaritic Narrative Poetry. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1997.
-
Popko, M. Religions of Asia Minor. Warszawa: Academic Publications Dialog, 1995.
|