Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man: An Essay on Speculative Thought in the Ancient Near East

Science & Math

Jacobsen, Thorkild

Wilson, John A.

Frankfort, Henri

Behavioral Sciences

University of Chicago Press

Frontis. + viii + 273 pp. with 8 illus., 8vo.

The treasures of darkness: A history of Mesopotamian religion

History

Ancient Civilizations

Yale University Press

“The Treasures of Darkness is the culmination of a lifetime’s work, an attempt to summarize and recreate the spiritual life of Ancient Mesopotamia. Jacobsen has succeeded brilliantly. . . . His vast experience shows through every page of this unique book, through the vivid, new translations resulting from years of careful research. Everyone interested in early Mesopotamia, whether specialist, student, or complete layman, should read this book. . . . It is, quite simply, authoritative, based on a vast experience of the ancient Mesopotamian mind, and very well written in the bargain.”―Brian M. Fagan, History “Professor Jacobsen is an authority on Sumerian life and society, but he is above all a philologist of rare sensibility. The Treasures of Darkness is almost entirely devoted to textual evidence, the more gritty sources of archaeological knowledge being seldom mentioned. He introduces many new translations which are much finer than previous versions. . . . Simply to read this poetry and the author’s sympathetic commentary is a pleasure and a revelation. Professor Jacobsen accepts the premise that all religion springs from man’s experience of a power not of this world, a mysterious ‘Wholly Other.’ This numinous power cannot be described in terms of worldly experience but only in allusive ‘metaphors’ that serve as a means of communication in religious teaching and thought. . . . As a literary work combining sensibility, imagination and scholarship, this book is near perfection.”―Jacquetta Hawkes, The London Sunday Times “A brilliant presentation of Mesopotamian religion from the inside, backed at every point by meticulous scholarship and persistent adherence to original texts. It will undoubtedly remain for a long time a classic in its field.”―Religious Studies Review “A fascinating book. The general reader cannot fail to admire the translated passages of Sumerian poetry with which it abounds, especially those illustrating the Dumuzi-Inanna cycle of courtship, wedding and lament for the god’s untimely death. Many of these (though not all) are new even to the specialist and will repay close study.”―B.O.R. Gurney, Times Literary Supplement

The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion

Sumerian, the oldest language known, is represented by hundreds of thousands of clay tablets inscribed in the cuneiform writing system. Most of the tablets are devoted to mundane matters -- ration lists, annual accounts, deeds, contracts -- but a substantial number contain examples of perhaps the earliest poetry extant. In this volume, the eminent Assyriologist Thorkild Jacobsen presents translations of some of these ancient poems, including a number of compositions that have never before been published in translation."this elegantly written work is a basic resource for the full understanding of early Mesopotamia. It includes translations of the Cylinders of Gudea and other poems that have been accessible only in outdated versions". -- Daniel Snell, author of Life in the Ancient Near East, 3100-322 B.C.E."What a wonderful bouquet; a gift to us all from a master Sumeriologist, a singer of human achievement, and a lover of words. Jacobsen needs no introduction and this work is special, and should be found in the home of all human and literate persons. It gives access to the mind of ancient Mesopotamia in a manner rarely duplicated heretofore.... Jacobsen has chosen widely from Sumer's rich literature -- myth, epics, hymns, boasts, epithalamia, love songs, lamentations, fables -- nad has presented us with perspective renderings". -- Jack M. Sasson, Religious Studies Review

The Harps that Once...: Sumerian Poetry in Translation

Literature & Fiction

Literary

The eminent Assyriologist Thorkild Jacobsen, author of Treasures of Darkness, here presents translations of ancient Sumerian poems written near the end of the third millennium b.c.e., including a number of compositions that have never before been published in translation. The themes developed in the poems—quite possibly the earliest poems extant—are those that have fascinated humanity since the time people first began to spin stories: the longings of young lovers; courage in battle; joy at the birth of a child; the pleasures of drink and song.

In this volume, William L. Moran has collected seventeen of Jacobsen's widely scattered essays. Dealing with religion, history, culture, government, economics, and grammar, these pieces are representative of all aspects of Jacobsen's work, but stress his studies in history and religion, the fields in which he made his most important contributions to our knowledge of Mesopotamian culture and the origins of Western civilization. Moran has also included a bibliography of and a lexical index to Jacobsen's writings. Thorkild Jacobsen (Danish pronunciation: [yahkobsen]) was a renowned historian specializing in Assyriology and Sumerian literature. Jacobsen received an MA from the University of Copenhagen and then came to the United States to study at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, where he received his PhD. He became a Field Assyriologist for the Iraq Expedition of the Oriental Institute (1929-1937) and in 1946 became Director of the Oriental Institute. In 1962, Jacobsen became a professor of Assyriology at Harvard University, where he remained until his retirement in 1974. He died in 1993. William Lambert Moran (1921-2000) was an esteemed Assyriologist and Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University.

Toward the Image of Tammuz and Other Essays on Mesopotamian History and Culture (Harvard Semitic Series, 21)

Religion & Spirituality

Harvard University Press

Studying the interplay of figurative language, law, and religious thought, Yochanan Muffs brings us a new understanding of both the Bible and ancient Near Eastern cultures. This first single-volume collection of the pivotal writings of this great religious humanist includes his studies of love and joy as metaphors, the laws of war in ancient Israel, the figurative nature of legal language, the role of the prophet and prophetic speech, and the expressions of belonging which united a culture.

Love and Joy: Law, Language, and Religion in Ancient Israel (Jewish Theological Seminary of America)

Muffs, Yochanan

The Jewish Theological Seminary of America

Studying the interplay of figurative language, law, and religious thought, Yochanan Muffs brings us a new understanding of both the Bible and ancient Near Eastern cultures. This first single-volume collection of the pivotal writings of this great religious humanist includes his studies of love and joy as metaphors, the laws of war in ancient Israel, the figurative nature of legal language, the role of the prophet and prophetic speech, and the expressions of belonging which united a culture.

Love and Joy: Law, Language, and Religion in Ancient Israel

Judaism

Toward the Image of Tammuz and Other Essays on Mesopotamian History and Culture (Semitic, 21)

The ninth published volume of twelve, presenting the whole work off the Oriental Institute's Iraq Expedition in the Diyala region. This volume focuses on Ishchali (usually identified as ancient Nêribtum), which belonged to the independent kingdom of Eshnunna. The bulk of the report is devoted to the Kitîtum Temple.

Old Babylonian Public Buildings in the Diyala Region. Part One: Excavations at Ishchali, Part Two: Khafajah Mounds B, C, and D. (Oriental Institute Publications)

Delougaz, Pinhas

Hill, Harold D.

Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Jacobsen, Thorkild. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Jacobsen, Thorkild

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Jacobsen, Thorkild. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man: An Essay on Speculative Thought in the Ancient Near East

The treasures of darkness: A history of Mesopotamian religion

The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion

The Harps that Once...: Sumerian Poetry in Translation

The Harps that Once...: Sumerian Poetry in Translation

Toward the Image of Tammuz and Other Essays on Mesopotamian History and Culture (Harvard Semitic Series, 21)

Love and Joy: Law, Language, and Religion in Ancient Israel (Jewish Theological Seminary of America)

Love and Joy: Law, Language, and Religion in Ancient Israel

Toward the Image of Tammuz and Other Essays on Mesopotamian History and Culture (Semitic, 21)

Old Babylonian Public Buildings in the Diyala Region. Part One: Excavations at Ishchali, Part Two: Khafajah Mounds B, C, and D. (Oriental Institute Publications)