Assyriology

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For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria by Gaston Maspero Honorable Doctor of Civil Laws and Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford Member of the Institute and Professor at the College of France Edited by A.H. Sacy, Professor of Assyriology, Oxford Translated by M.L. McClure, Member of the Committee of the Egypt Exploration Fund Editor's Preface Professor Maspero does not need to be introduced to us.

His name is well known in England and America as that of one of the chief masters of Egyptian science, as well as of ancient Oriental history and archaeology.

Alike as a philologist, a historian, and an archaeologist, he occupies a foremost place in the annals of modern knowledge and research.

In the case of Babylonia and Assyria he no longer, it is true, speaks at first hand.

But he has thoroughly studied the latest and best authorities on the subject, and has weighted their statements with the judgment which comes from an exhaustive acquaintance with a similar department of knowledge.

Naturally, in progressive studies like those of Egyptology and Assyriology, a good many theories and conclusions must be tentative and provisional only.

Discovery crowds so quickly on discovery that the truth of today is often apt to be modified or amplified by the truth of tomorrow.

Were it not that the Chaldean historian Berossos writes the name Zesthros we should have no clue to its Semitic pronunciation.

Professor Maspero's learning and indefatigable industry are well known to me, but I confess I was not prepared for the exhaustive acquaintance he shows with Assyriological literature.

Nothing seems to have escaped his notice.

Papers and books just published and half-forgotten articles in obscure periodicals which appeared years ago have all alike been used and quoted by him.

Such cylinders may, of course, have been brought to the island in later times, but when we remember that a characteristic object of prehistoric Cypriot art is an imitation of the seal cylinder of Chaldea, their discovery cannot be wholly an accident.

Professor Maspero has brought his facts up to so recent a date that there is very little to add to what he has written.

Since his manuscript was in type, however, a few additions have been made to our Assyriological knowledge.

A fresh examination of the Babylonian dynastic tablet has led Professor Delitzsch to make some alterations in the published account of what Professor Maspero calls the ninth dynasty.

It describes a familiar sounding story, a story about an ancient flood and a man who built a huge boat to survive it.

Yeah, you don't need a PhD in Assyriology to realize that this sounds a lot like the story of Noah's Ark.

This story, however, was composed in Akkadian, not Hebrew.

It featured a hero named Atrahasis, not Noah.

I would say there is no textual, there is no philological basis for this relationship between fear and holiness.

This goes back to a kind of German phenomenology of religion with Rudolf Otto's ideas and how they were picked up in both biblical studies and Assyriology in the 20th century in ways that were not terribly helpful.

What is this book's contribution to the site, to the history of psychology and the history of psychological concepts? In this context, can you say something about David Hume's ideas on fear? Similarly, can you say something about Thomas Brown's perspectives on fear in his lectures on the philosophy of the human mind?

Sure.

Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian, layer after layer of tablets recording contracts, harvests, lawsuits, star charts, and complaints about the quality of copper.

That entire world belongs to Assyriology.

an established field with its own journals and its own specialists.

Then cuneiform stops.

All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.

For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria by Gaston Maspero Honorable Doctor of Civil Laws and Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford Member of the Institute and Professor at the College of France Edited by A. H. Sacy, Professor of Assyriology, Oxford Translated by M. L. McClure, Member of the Committee of the Egypt Exploration Fund Editor's Preface Professor Maspero does not need to be introduced to us.

His name is well known in England and America as that of one of the chief masters of Egyptian science, as well as of ancient Oriental history and archaeology.

Alike as a philologist, a historian, and an archaeologist, he occupies a foremost place in the annals of modern knowledge and research.

In the case of Babylonia and Assyria he no longer, it is true, speaks at first hand.

But he has thoroughly studied the latest and best authorities on the subject, and has weighted their statements with the judgment which comes from an exhaustive acquaintance with a similar department of knowledge.

Naturally, in progressive studies like those of Egyptology and Assyriology, a good many theories and conclusions must be tentative and provisional only.

Discovery crowds so quickly on discovery that the truth of today is often apt to be modified or amplified by the truth of tomorrow.

For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria by Gaston Maspero, Honorable Doctor of Civil Laws and Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford, Member of the Institute and Professor at the College of France.

Edited by A.H. Sayce, Professor of Assyriology, Oxford.

Translated by M.L. McClure, Member of the Committee of the Egypt Exploration Fund.

Editor's Preface Professor Maspero does not need to be introduced to us.

In the case of Babylonia and Assyria he no longer, it is true, speaks at first hand.

But he has thoroughly studied the latest and best authorities on the subject, and has weighted their statements with the judgment which comes from an exhaustive acquaintance with a similar department of knowledge.

Naturally, in progressive studies like those of Egyptology and Assyriology, a good many theories and conclusions must be tentative and provisional only.

Discovery crowds so quickly on discovery that the truth of today is often apt to be modified or amplified by the truth of tomorrow.

Isn't that just a classic case of humans making gods in their own image?

Well, Jacobsen's theory is the cornerstone of modern Assyriology for a very good reason.

It provides a very coherent, rational explanation for why the pantheon looks the way it does based strictly on human psychological projection

Right, which makes sense to our modern brains

All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.

For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria by Gaston Maspero Honorable Doctor of Civil Laws and Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford Member of the Institute and Professor at the College of France Edited by A.H. Sayce, Professor of Assyriology, Oxford Translated by M.L. McClure, Member of the Committee of the Egypt Exploration Fund Editor's Preface Professor Maspero does not need to be introduced to us.

His name is well known in England and America as that of one of the chief masters of Egyptian science, as well as of ancient Oriental history and archaeology.

Alike as a philologist, a historian, and an archaeologist, he occupies a foremost place in the annals of modern knowledge and research.

In the case of Babylonia and Assyria he no longer, it is true, speaks at first hand.

But he has thoroughly studied the latest and best authorities on the subject, and has weighted their statements with the judgment which comes from an exhaustive acquaintance with a similar department of knowledge.

Naturally, in progressive studies like those of Egyptology and Assyriology, a good many theories and conclusions must be tentative and provisional only.

Discovery crowds so quickly on discovery that the truth of today is often apt to be modified or amplified by the truth of tomorrow.