ENGLISH

Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning, and the Gods

By Jean Bottero

Book information

Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Year
1995
ISBN
0226067270, 9780226067278
Open Library ID
OL7415488M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
23 MB (24397269 bytes)
Pages
311\162
Orientation
no
Scanned
yes
Time added
2011-08-31 04:54:40

Description

Our ancestors, the Mesopotamians, invented writing and with it a new way of looking at the world. In this collection of essays, the French scholar Jean Bottero attempts to go back to the moment which marks the very beginning of history.To give the reader some sense of how Mesopotamian civilization has been mediated and interpreted in its transmission through time, Bottero begins with an account of Assyriology, the discipline devoted to the ancient culture. This transmission, compounded with countless discoveries, would not have been possible without the surprising decipherment of the cuneiform writing system. Bottero also focuses on divination in the ancient world, contending that certain modes of worship in Mesopotamia, in their application of causality and proof, prefigure the "scientific mind."

Similar books