Thesis--Copenhagen. / Errata slip inserted. Includes indexes. Includes bibliographical references (v. 2, p. 173-197).

Thesis--Copenhagen. / Errata slip inserted. Includes indexes. Includes bibliographical references (v. 2, p. 173-197).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Anthropology. / Includes bibliographical references.

The present study argues that a series of programmatic additions were made to the oracles concerning the nations in Isa 13-23 during the late-exilic period by the same circle of writers who were responsible for Isa 40-55. These additions were made to create continuity between the ancient oracles against the nations from the Isaiah tradition and the future fate of the same nations as the late-exilic redactor(s) foresaw. The additions portray a two-sided vision concerning the nations. One group of passages (14:1-2; 14:32b; 16:1-4a; 18:7) depicts a positive turn for certain nations while the other group of passages (14:26-27; 19:16-17; 23:8-9, 11) continues to pronounce doom against the remaining nations. This double-sided vision is set out first in Isa 14 surrounding the famous taunt against the fallen tyrant. 14:1-2, before the taunt, paints the broad picture of the future return of the exiles and the attachment of the gentiles to the people of Israel. After the taunt and other sayings of YHWH against his enemies, 14:26-27 extends the sphere of the underlying theme of 14:4b-25a, namely YHWH's judgement against boastful and tyrannical power(s), to all nations and the whole earth. The two sides of this vision are then applied accordingly to the rest of the oracles concerning nations in chs 13-23. To the nations that have experienced similar disasters as the people of Israel, words of hope in line with 14:1-2 were given. To the nations that still possessed some prominence and reasons to be proud, words of doom in line with 14:26-27 were decreed. Only later in the post-exilic period, for whatever reason, be it changed international political climate or further spread of the Jewish diaspora, was the inclusive vision of 14:1-2 extended even to the nations that were not so favourably viewed by our late-exilic redactor (19:18-25; 23:15-18).

La thèse est composée de trois chapitres, le premier traite le problème de la ville de Larsa d'un point de vue historique et archéologique. J'ai étudié l'histoire de tous les rois qui sont montés sur le trône de Larsa. J'ai trouvé de nouvelles données. Il y a des problèmes qui restent sans réponses certaines à cause de l'absence de fouilles archéologiques sur le site de Larsa. Dans la partie d'archéologie de cette ville, j'ai étudié toute la ville : la forteresse/ les portes, les rues, le temple, le palais royal, et les maisons avec trois maisons comme exemples. Puis, une illustration de certains objets importants révélés grâce à des fouilles françaises dans cette ville. Le deuxième chapitre est une étude sur une nouvelle archive royale du palais de Larsa. Cette archive donne beaucoup de nouvelles données historiques sur la vie de Larsa surtout sur la vie dans le palais royal. J'ai trouvé dans cette archive quelques réponses pour certaines questions historiques. Cette archive nous a montré que Larsa était une centre administrative remarquable dans la partie sud de la Mésopotamie. Finalement, j'ai étudié dans le troisième chapitre des tablettes de différent nature : contrats administratifs, scolaires, et incantations. Cette collection de textes ne pose pas de problèmes. Les textes sont classiques et comparables. / The thesisis is composed of three chapters, the first deals with the problem of the city of Larsa from two sides : historical and archaeological. I studied the history of all the kings that are mounted on the throne of Larsa. I found some news informations. There are some problems still without answer because of the absence of archaeological excavations on the site of Larsa. In the archeology of this city, I studied all of city : the fortress / doors, streets, the temple, the royal palace and the houses with three houses as examples. Then, an illustration of some important objects revealed by the French excavations in this city. The second chapter is a study of a new royal palace archive of Larsa. This archive provides many new historical informations about the life in Larsa especially the life in the royal palace. I have found in this archive some answers to some historical questions. This archive has shown us that Larsa was a remarkable administrative center in the southern part of Mesopotamia. Finally, I studied in the third chapter somme texts from different kinds : contracts, administrative, schooler texts, and incantations. This collection of texts poses no problems. The texts are classics and

This dissertation addresses the relationship between modern art in Iraq and the region’s antique past, particularly as it was constituted through archaeological, artistic, museological, and critical developments within the context of Iraqi cultural nationalism. I argue that Iraqi modern artists in the last four decades of the twentieth century harnessed the iconographic, symbolic, and aesthetic tropes associated with ancient Mesopotamia in service to the larger project of participating in and contributing to a locally constructed modality of modern time. Although it is generally acknowledged that modern Iraqi artists drew from an adopted antiquity, the intellectual utilization of “Mesopotamia” as an aesthetic and historical category within the context of modern art formation and assertion has not been adequately explored for significance and meaning. In a series of three case studies, I explore the modern category of “Mesopotamia” as it was employed in the aesthetic, stylistic, and narratological practices of three Iraqi artists – Mohammed Ghani Hikmat (1929-2011), Dia al-Azzawi (b. 1939), and Faisel Laibi Sahi (b.1947). These artists – representing three successive generations – are emblematic of the primary ways Iraqi artists of the latter half of the twentieth century sought a relationship with an ancient past that not only exemplified provocative and enduring artforms, but also civilizational achievement and resilience. Furthermore, their practices point to a new understanding of modern time that was taking shape in the discursive structures of Iraqi art beginning in the 1960s. The artists that occupy the pages of this study engaged a vision of time that moved away from the linear models of European historicism and embraced a localized perception of temporality that was shaped by spatial paradigms of coexistence wherein civilizational categories operated on the coterminous plane of heterochronicity. This marks a shift wherein claims of contemporaneity, a self-conscious positioning of Iraqi modernism on a parallel trajectory with European modernism, gave way to an exploration of internal temporal relationships that allowed for synchronic interactions with history even within diachronic narratives of progress. Each case study operates within individual spheres of interpretation whilst also sharing broader characteristics of analysis. In the hands of my chosen artists, time became a medium of expression and antiquity became the formal and subjective substance of that expression. My study utilizes theories of time coupled with various methods of visual deconstruction to investigate this claim. Part One considers the career of sculptor Mohammed Ghani Hikmat by reading his relief sculptures and their preparatory sketches through the lens of narrative space-time, examining the artist’s techniques of visual storytelling to determine how his use of ancient sculptural models created heterochronic spaces of encounter. Part Two takes an archaeological and geological perspective of time, as one that is simultaneous, stratified, and rooted in the land, to think about the print works of Dia al-Azzawi within the intertwined contexts of art, antiquity, and oil. Part Three reflects on the affective artistic production of Faisel Laibi Sahi by identifying his use of ancient iconography as a mechanism whereby he heightens the emotive address of his paintings and drawings. In all three studies, I employ iconographic and semiotic methodologies to perform detailed visual analyses of a wide range of artworks. Additionally, I survey a cache of archival documents that elucidate various discursive spaces in the Iraqi modern intellectual milieu to ascertain attitudes toward antiquity and its role in contemporary cultural spheres. Thus, this dissertation pulls multiple strands of time, modernity, and visuality together to investigate the ways Iraqi modern artists transformed the notion of “Mesopotamia” into a viable aesthetic and a powerful representational model.

This work aims to provide a thematic typology for Old Babylonian divination apodoses, predictions known from early lists of omens and models from Ancient Mesopotamia and the Levant. The primary objective of this study is to present the Old Babylonian divination apodoses as a system, placing each prediction in its appropriate context, together with thematically related material from other compendia. There are altogether 272 reported Old Babylonian compendium-tablets and inscribed clay models, dedicated to thirteen different divinatory practices, of which 157 are examined in this work. Methodologically, the work combines elements of a traditional Assyriological edition and a motif index. The typology is to provide a systematic approach to the study of the apodosis from the perspective of the problem it was meant to answer. Such an approach would lead to a better understanding of the apodosis as an element of a comprehensive system of beliefs, shed light on the early development of the Mesopotamian divinatory written tradition, and help bring to clearer order the imprints of hopes and fears of the Old Babylonian society, that apodoses bear. As a part of the Old Babylonian divination corpus remained beyond the scope of this study, the choice of material has regard to tablets published solely in copies, as well as older editions that can be improved and extended. The bulk of the edited texts were also newly examined and subjected to philological analysis. This approach has yielded a solid number of new reading and interpretations, included in this study. Philological commentaries, together with brief notes on peculiarities of script and language are likewise a crucial part of this research. The introduction starts with a synopsis of the research in the field and offers an overview of the sources. Some basic components of the apodosis, such as problem, motif, outcome, and other elements, important for the classification are also explored here. Additionally, this part of the work examines incidental aspects of space and time, as well as involved characters. The typology itself has 2,367 entries in total, which amount to 2,675 attestations of full apodoses or 3,362 attestations of simple apodoses and parts of compound apodoses counted altogether. The classification of the material is developed on three levels. The twenty-eight sections define the sphere of interest in general. Subsections address particular problems or aspects within the wider topic. The lowest level of the classification, the motif formula, constitutes an exact prediction in terms of motif, involved characters, and other peculiarities. In addition, the work includes a catalog of Old Babylonian compendia and a concordance of predictions in the relevant manuscripts. The thematically organized catalog of predictions is to benefit future theoretical studies on Mesopotamian divination, culture, and realia, as well as to assist textological work on divination-related cuneiform materials.

Traiter de l'armée en Babylonie du VIe au IVe siècle av. n. è. consiste moins en une étude sur la guerre qu'en un essai d'histoire économique, sociale et institutionnelle, puisque la documentation cunéiforme produite à cette époque est constituée essentiellement de sources de la pratique. La nature de l'armée qui permit l'émergence et l'expansion de l'empire néo-babylonien (622-539 av. n. è.) a été étudiée à partir de trois milieux sociaux qui contribuaient à sa construction: Les temples qui fournissaient à l'armée royale des troupes d'appoint, formées par leurs oblats, une catégorie d'individus non libres qui leur avaient été dédiés, parmi lesquels certains étaient formés au maniement des armes. Les élites babyloniennes qui payaient une redevance en compensation du service, mais dont la participation se développe surtout à l'époque achéménide. Les colons militaires, des soldats souvent non babyloniens qui avaient reçu une parcelle allouée de la Couronne en échange d'une redevance en nature et d'une obligation de service militaire. À partir de 539 av. n. è. l'armée néo-babylonienne est démantelée suite à la conquête de Babylone par Cyrus le Grand et la région est intégrée au nouvel empire achéménide (539-331 av. 11.-è.). Cependant, les structures institutionnelles qui permettaient sa construction sont maintenues, voire développée dans le cas des notables, non plus uniquement pour fournir des soldats, mais aussi des travailleurs qui allaient se rendre en Perse participer aux grands chantiers organisés par l'administration royale. Pareillement, les souverains achéménides profitèrent du riche espace agricole pour poursuivre la politique d'attribution de terres aux soldats. / Studying the Army in Babylonia between the 6th and the 4th century BCE consists less of a "war study” than an essay on economic, social and institutional history as Cuneiform documentation originating from this period consist essentially of administrative and economic texts. The composition of the military which allowed the emergence and expansion of the Neo Babylonian empire (622 -539 BCE), is studied from the perspective of three social backgrounds which contributed to its establishment: The temples which provided the royal army with support troops, issued from their oblates, a category of individuals denied of freedom who were dedicated to the temple. Some of them were trained in handling weapons. The Babylonian traditional elites who paid a fee to compensate for the service. Their participation developed mainly from the Achaemenid Period Military colonists who were non-Babylonian soldiers receiving an allotment from the Crown in exchange of a fee paid in kind and a duty of military service From 539 BCE onward, the Babylonian army was probably dismantled following the Babylonian conquest by Cyrus the Great and the region was integrated to the new Achaemenid empire (539 -331 BCE). Nonetheless, institutional structures enabling its establishment were maintained or developed in the case of the contribution of the notability, providing soldiers but also workers travelling to Persia to participate in the large construction works of the Royal administration. In a similar way, the Achaemenid kings made use of the rich agricultural lands in order to pursue the policy consisting of allocating lands to soldiers.

RESUME FRANCAIS La société en Mésopotamie du Sud, à lépoque de la Dynastie de Larsa, est fondée sur une économie qui possède des caractéristiques particulières et uniques. Cette économie « sui generis », parce que adaptée à une situation donnée, présente lefficacité nécessaire au maintien et au développement dune civilisation remarquable. La période de la Dynastie de Larsa est une période charnière entre la fin de lépoque dUr III et la domination babylonienne sous le règne de Hammurabi, car on peut percevoir que la société a alors subi une véritable évolution. Les centres administratifs, qui, à lépoque dUr III, contrôlaient léconomie, ont progressivement tendance à faire intervenir dans leur gestion des personnes indépendantes, mais il existe une différence bien nette entre la situation à Larsa et celle à Ur : - A Larsa, la gestion des centres administratifs passe par des personnes dont on ignore souvent la fonction, mais la nouveauté est bien évidemment lindépendance dans la gestion des ressources agricoles que vont acquérir de grandes familles comme celle de Balmunamhe. - A Ur, le complexe religieux de Nanna et de Ningal tient dans léconomie une place aussi considérable quà lépoque dUr III. Un bon nombre de personnes, qui nont pas la qualité de membre à part entière du complexe, va cependant soccuper de diverses choses, telles que le bétail et la pêche. On ignore toutefois la marge dindépendance que ces personnes ont par rapport au complexe. La politique tient par ailleurs un rôle primordial dans léconomie. Les misharû sont des actes politiques forts qui vont contribuer à lajustement des prix et des salaires. Les bouleversements politiques vont singulièrement modifier les comportements économiques, le bouleversement politique le plus fort étant sans doute la prise du pouvoir à Larsa par Nûr-Adad, les prix ayant chuté à ce moment précis. La prise du pouvoir à Larsa par les descendants de Kudur-mabuk na pas eu un impact aussi considérable. *********************** ENGLISH SUMMARY The society in southern Mesopotamia at the time of the Dynasty of Larsa, is based on an economy that has particular characteristics and unique. The economy "sui generis" because adapted to a given situation, present this efficiency for the maintenance and development of a remarkable civilization. The period of the Dynasty of Larsa is a pivotal period between the end of the period of Ur III and Babylonian domination under the reign of Hammurabi : we can perceive that the society then suffered a real evolution. The administrative centers, which at the time of Ur III, controlled the economy, gradually tend to intervene in their management of independent persons, but there is a clear difference between the situation in Larsa and Ur: - At Larsa, the management of administrative centers through which people often ignore the function, but the novelty is obviously independence in the management of agricultural resources that will acquire large families like Balmunamhe. - A Ur, the complex religious of Nanna and Ningal takes a considerable at the time of Ur III in the economy. A great number of people who do not qualify as a full member of the complex will deal with various things, such as livestock and fisheries. It is unclear, however, the margin of independence that these people have over the complex. The policy also holds a key role in the economy. The misharû are strong political act that will contribute to the adjustment of prices and wages. The political changes will significantly alter economic behavior, the political upheaval is the strongest probably took power in Larsa by Nur-Adad, prices fell at that time. The seizure of power in Larsa by the descendants of Kudur-Mabuk has not had a considerable impact.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, June 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.