Divination and interpretation of signs in the ancient world / edited by Amar Annus ; with contributions by Amar Annus ... [and others].

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Annus, Amar.

George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Series:

University of Chicago Oriental Institute seminars ; no. 6.

University of Chicago Oriental Institute seminars

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Omens--History--To 1500--Congresses.

Omens.

Divination--History--To 1500--Congresses.

Divination.

History.

Genre:

Conference papers and proceedings.

Physical Description:

viii, 351 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm.

Place of Publication:

Chicago, Ill. : Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2010.

Summary:

The concept of sign, a portent observed in the physical world, which indicates future events, is found in all ancient cultures, but was first developed in ancient Mesopotamian texts. This branch of Babylonian scientific knowledge extensively influenced other parts of the world, and similar texts written in Aramaic, Sanscrit, Sogdian, and other languages. The seminar will investigate how much do we know about the Babylonian theory and hermeneutics of omens, and the scope of their possible influences on other cultures and regions.

Contents:

On the beginnings and continuities of omen sciences in the ancient world / Amar Annus

"If P, then Q" : form and reasoning in Babylonian divination / Francesca Rochberg

Greek philosophy and signs / James Allen

Three strikes and you're out! A view on cognitive theory and the first-millennium extispicy ritual / Ulla Susanne Koch

Arousing images : the poetry of divination and the divination of poetry / Edward L. Shaughnessy

The theory of knowledge and the practice of celestial divination / Niek Veldhuis

Reading the tablet, the exta, and the body : the hermeneutics of cuneiform signs in Babylonian and Assyrian text commentaries and divinatory texts / Eckart Frahm

"Sign, sign, everywhere a sign" : script, power, and interpretation in the ancient Near East / Scott B. Noegel

The calculation of the stipulated term in extispicy / Nils P. Hee€el

The divine presence and its interpretation in early Mesopotamian divination / Abraham Winitzer

Physiognomy in ancient Mesopotamia and beyond : from practice to handbook / Barbara Böck

On seeing and believing : liver divination and the era of warring states (II) / Seth F.C. Richardson

Divination and oracles at the Neo-Assyrian palace : the importance of signs in royal ideology / Cynthia Jean

Prophecy as a form of divination; divination as a form of prophecy / JoAnn Scurlock

Traces of the omen series Šumma izbu in Cicero, De divinatione / John Jacobs

Prophecy and omen divination : two sides of the same coin / Martti Nissinen.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Proceedings from the fifth annual University of Chicago Oriental Institute Seminar, held March 6-7, 2009.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

ISBN:

9781885923684

1885923686

OCLC:

491909201

Publisher Number:

99937294615