The treasures of darkness : a history of Mesopotamian religion
" ... No one can plausibly deny that the religious development of the peoples of Canaan (and indeed of all the ancient world around the eastern Mediterranean to the Indus river) were affected by the cultural and religious developments in Mesopotamia, the centre of the region, and a fertile region second to none known in the world, on a par with the Nile, around which another major civilization arose. This is a text of history of Mesopotamia in its own right. By the time history gets back this far, the lines become very blurred, rather like parallel lines intersecting on the horizon. Literature, religion, archaeology, sociology, psychology -- all of these disciplines become intertwined in Jacobsen's text as he looks at Sumerian society. The book is organized with an introduction, then according to time divisions of fourth, third, and second millennia, then concludes with an epilogue into the first millennium, during which the Bible as we know it (and most ancient history such as is commonly known occurred) came to be"-- Amazon.com
273 pages : illustrations, charts ; 25 cm
9780300018448, 9780300022919, 0300018444, 0300022913
2601378
Ancient Mesopotamian religion : the terms
Fourth millennium metaphors : the gods as providers
dying gods of fertility
Third millennium metaphors : the gods as rulers
the cosmos a polity
Third millennium metaphors : the gods as rulers
individual divine figures
Second millennium metaphors : the gods as parents
rise of personal religion
Second millennium metaphors : world origins and world order
the creation epic
Second millennium metaphors : "and death the journey's end"
the Gilgamesh epic