1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910781311203321

Autore

Fleming Daniel E

Titolo

Time at Emar : The Cultic Calendar and the Rituals from the Diviner's Archive / / Daniel E. Fleming

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Winona Lake, Ind. : , : Eisenbrauns, , 2000

©2000

ISBN

1-57506-522-3

Descrizione fisica

xvi, 352 p. : ill

Collana

Mesopotamian civilizations ; ; 11

Disciplina

299/.2

Soggetti

Religious calendars - Syria - Emar (Extinct city)

Rites and ceremonies - Syria - Emar (Extinct city)

HISTORY / Ancient / General

Electronic books.

Emar (Extinct city) Religion

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 312-330) and indexes.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Figures -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Chapter 1. Emar and the Question of Time -- Chapter 2. The Diviner’s Archive -- Chapter 3. The Zukru -- Chapter 4. The Annual Cycle -- Chapter 5. Calendrical Time in Ancient Syria -- Appendix. Texts and Translations, with Collation Notes -- Bibliography -- Indexes

Sommario/riassunto

The recent large-scale watershed projects in northern Syria, where the ancient city of Emar was located, have brought this area to light, thanks to salvage operation excavations before the area was submerged. Excavations at Meskeneh-Qadimeh on the great bend of the Euphrates River revealed this large town, which had been built in the late 14th century and then destroyed violently at the beginning of the 12th, at the end of the Bronze Age. In the town of Emar, ritual tablets were discovered in a temple that are demonstrated to have been recorded by the supervisor of the local cult, who was called the “diviner.” This religious leader also operated a significant writing center, which focused on both administering local ritual and fostering competence in Mesopotamian lore. An archaic local calendar can be distinguished



from other calendars in use at Emar, both foreign and local. A second, overlapping calendar emanated from the palace and represented a rising political force in some tension with rooted local institutions. The archaic local calendar can be partially reconstructed from one ritual text that outlines the rites performed during a period of six months.The main public rite of Emar’s religious calendar was the zukru festival. This event was celebrated in a simplified annual ritual and in a more elaborate version of the ritual for seven days during every seventh year, probably serving as a pledge of loyalty to the chief god, Dagan. The Emar ritual calendar was native, in spite of various levels of outside influence, and thus offers important evidence for ancient Syrian culture. These texts are thus important for ancient Near Eastern cultic and ritual studies. Fleming’s comprehensive study lays the basic groundwork for all future study of the ritual and makes a major contribution to the study of ancient Syria.