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This thesis is concerned with the origins and developments of a British-initiated force, known as "The Iraq Levies", which was raised during the Mesopotamian campaign of the First World War. This is a subject which had previously received very little rigorous historical study. The Force began with some forty mounted Arab scouts, recruited from Zubair in southern Mesopotamia by the Field Intelligence unit of the Imperial Expeditionary Force (I.E.F. 'D') in July 1915. By May 1922, the Force had expanded to approximately 6,000 officers and men, as against a planned 7,500 at the Cairo Conference. A survey of the performance and military background of several British officers who served with the Levies, was considered worthy of study. Mostly they came from the Indian Army, and thus were experienced in what may be described as "political soldiering" - an invaluable qualification for their service in Iraq. It was felt important that the different ethnic backgrounds and political aspirations, as well as religious loyalties represented in the ranks of the Levies required investigation to assist in an understanding of their motivation and service. Without a detailed review of these factors, it would be difficult to comprehend how a force which could be considered to owe its allegiance to its pay-masters, could undertake the task of internal security in so volatile a region as that of Iraq, especially during and after the First World War. When its political problems, both internal and external, had to be resolved by the British government which became the mandatory power. This thesis ends with the achievement of Iraq's independence in 1932. The Levies, however, were not finally disbanded until May 1955. That final section of their history was not to be without drama and incident; but it awaits the attention of another student who is interested in the nature and evolution of British Imperial Forces in the Middle East. Their day has now ended, but this thesis hopes to illuminate a little of their history and significance.

Doctor of Philosophy / Umman-manda (literally “Troops of Manda”) is an Akkadian compound expression used to denote military entities and/or foreign peoples in a diverse number of texts pertaining to separate periods of ancient Near Eastern history. The dissertation initially discusses the various difficulties in ascertaining the etymology of the second component of the term Umman-manda. A very plausible etymology is proposed based on new research on the semantic range of the Sumerian word mandum. The thesis then focuses mainly on the references made to the Umman-manda in the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian sources, where it is used to denote the Cimmerians and Medes respectively. The starting point is that these references are making literary allusions to the Standard Babylonian version of the Cuthaean Legend. New information gained from these literary allusions provides insight into the significance of the term Umman-manda in the first millennium B.C.: it recalls the various attributes of the Umman-manda depicted in the Cuthaean Legend and applies these attributes to contemporary political events. The Cuthaean Legend envisions a powerful enemy that emerges unexpectedly from the distant mountains and establishes hegemony after a sudden burst of military power. This enemy will eventually be destroyed without the intervention of the Mesopotamian king. The thesis studies how the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian sources allude to the Cuthaean Legend and in this way they identify the Cimmerians and the Medes as the Umman-manda.

The important historical role of pastoral nomads in Mesopotamia stands in stark contrast to the dearth of archaeological data on pastoral nomadic groups of any pre-modern period. Archaeological models neglect not just a significant segment of past populations; they also lack data on a substantial portion of the past food and textile production systems. Historical records and excavation have demonstrated that the resilience of Mesopotamian economy depended in part on pastoralism, but archaeologists know very little about the long-term management of the pastoral landscapes beyond core agricultural areas. This study examines empirical evidence for pastoral nomadic modes of inhabiting and transforming the landscape over the last 500 years in the upland fringes of the Upper Tigris River Valley in southeastern Turkey. Four seasons of archaeological survey mapped diachronic patterns in pastoral nomadic winter land-use, including patterns of campsites and spatially associated landscape features such as cisterns, corrals, caves, cairns, and check dams. Ethnographic and historical data as well as satellite imagery aided in archaeological interpretation. Three main conclusions about pastoral nomads are drawn from the characteristics and spatial distributions of the surveyed features. 1) Pastoral nomads altered their local landscapes for the purposes of sheltering humans and animals, collecting water, and improving pastures. Areas surrounding campsites contained abundant evidence of landscape management and capital investments in the herding potential of the area. 2) These investments were fixed, re-usable, and encouraged seasonal re-inhabitation of certain areas. Over time, these features became “landscape anchors”—geographic foci that structured the spatial organization of local landscapes. 3) The topographical position of domestic and herding features would have resulted in vertical daily movement patterns for humans and animals. These results force a reassessment of widely-held assumptions about the invisibility of campsites and the role of pastoral nomads in the transformation of Near Eastern landscapes. Although limited in time and space, this study presents grounds for optimism for a robust landscape archaeology of pastoral nomads. Intensive surveys, targeted excavations, and radiometric dating programs have enormous potential to provide more complex diachronic understandings of pastoral nomadic land-use strategies, sustainability, quotidian movement, and senses of place. / Anthropology

Doctor of Philosophy / Umman-manda (literally “Troops of Manda”) is an Akkadian compound expression used to denote military entities and/or foreign peoples in a diverse number of texts pertaining to separate periods of ancient Near Eastern history. The dissertation initially discusses the various difficulties in ascertaining the etymology of the second component of the term Umman-manda. A very plausible etymology is proposed based on new research on the semantic range of the Sumerian word mandum. The thesis then focuses mainly on the references made to the Umman-manda in the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian sources, where it is used to denote the Cimmerians and Medes respectively. The starting point is that these references are making literary allusions to the Standard Babylonian version of the Cuthaean Legend. New information gained from these literary allusions provides insight into the significance of the term Umman-manda in the first millennium B.C.: it recalls the various attributes of the Umman-manda depicted in the Cuthaean Legend and applies these attributes to contemporary political events. The Cuthaean Legend envisions a powerful enemy that emerges unexpectedly from the distant mountains and establishes hegemony after a sudden burst of military power. This enemy will eventually be destroyed without the intervention of the Mesopotamian king. The thesis studies how the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian sources allude to the Cuthaean Legend and in this way they identify the Cimmerians and the Medes as the Umman-manda.

This dissertation investigates the manner in which animals are treated, respected, and thought about In ancient Mesopotamia. The animals are seen in every level of culture and in a variety of roles. The dissertation tries to unravel how humans thought about animals as seen through Akkadian literature. The Akkadian literature is an excellent source of information since it has a long literary tradition with a conglomeration of text genres providing an opportunity to observe the attitudes, emotions, and beliefs Babylonian and Assyrian cultures had towards wild animals.

Cette recherche est centrée sur l'habitat dans les marais mésopotamiens en Iraq et l'aménagement actuel et futur d'établissements humains durables dans cette région. Elle poursuit l'objectif de contribuer à une meilleure compréhension des transformations de la nature à l'œuvre et du fonctionnement de la société, de ses dynamiques, de son rapport à l'espace et de sa façon de se projeter dans le temps, dans cette aire géographique. Saisir comment, dans le contexte actuel de multiplication de facteurs mutagènes, parfois antagonistes, la société des marais assure sa continuité et adapte son habitat est fondamental pour établir une base de connaissances sur la culture constructive locale des marais mésopotamiens et éclairer les décisions concernant le projet gouvernemental de stabilisation de la population. L'habitat et la préservation du mode de vie ainsi que du milieu naturel restent des sujets d'interrogation fertile pour la recherche qui pose la question de leur évolution soutenable « située » plutôt que celle du développement. Les résultats de cette recherche peuvent constituer une base de réflexion chez les architectes, les urbanistes, les aménageurs et d'autres chercheurs traitant la question de l'habiter face à la dégradation environnementale globale. / This work focuses on housing in the Mesopotamian marshlands in Iraq and the current and future human settlements in this region. Its aim is to gain a better understanding of the transformations of nature at work and functioning of the society; its dynamics, its relation to space and the way to project over time. With the goal of understanding how, in the current multiplication mutagenic factors, sometimes antagonistic, the society ensures its continuity and adjusts its home, is essential in establishing a base of knowledges on the local construction culture and to inform decisions regarding the government's project to stabilize the population. The habitat and the preservation of the traditional lifestyle, as well as of its natural environment are subjects of fertile interrogation for the research which points out the question of their located and sustainable evolution rather than their development. The results of this thesis can be a basis for discussion among architects, planners, developers and others researchers dealing with the issue of living in the face of a global environmental degradation.

The Role of Religion in Ancient Civilizations: Select Readings addresses the importance of religion in ancient civilizations and encourages readers to evaluate these civilizations both historically and critically. The selected readings help readers understand civilizations as whole systems with not only social and political characteristics, but also religious ones. Topics include the establishment of patriarchal civilizations, Mesopotamian and Egyptian religion, and the early civilizations of Northwest India. Students also learn about the religions of ancient China and Japan, traditional African religions and belief systems, religion and burial in Roman Britain, and the great temples of Meso-American religions. The final selections are devoted to early Christianity, the Byzantine Empire, and Islam. Original introductions place the readings in context. Taken as a whole, these carefully curated articles demonstrate both the uniqueness of each religion and the traditions and practices that, over time, became interconnected and sometimes even fused to form new religions. The Role of Religion in Ancient Civilizations is well-suited to survey courses in world and ancient religions, as well as classes on religious history and the history of the ancient world. Kim Woodring earned her M.A. in history at East Tennessee State University and her M.L.I.S. in library and information science at the University of Tennessee. She is now a faculty member at East Tennessee State University where she teaches courses in American and world history and digital history. In addition to teaching, Professor Woodring also serves as the history department's webpage administrator and social media editor. Her professional writing has appeared in The Social Science of War Encyclopedia and Historical Archaeology. / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1162/thumbnail.jpg

La thèse recense les textes médicaux cunéiformes traitant les symptômes mentaux. Elle tente de les insérer dans une conception médicale globale et analyse les expressions employées ainsi que leurs occurrences dans les textes. / The purpose of the dissertation is to gather medical texts with a mental symptomatology. The work introduces the Mesopotamian conception of medicine and analyses the expressions present in the texts.

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.