11 Primary Sources: Ancient Near East

Primary Sources: The Ancient Near East

 

Individual rulers

The Sumerian King List, c. 2125 BCE

The Emergence of Kingship: Inscription of Umma and Lagash, c. 2500BCE

The Legend of Sargon of Akkadê, c. 2300 BCE

The Ludlul Bêl Nimeqi, c. 1700 BCE

Tiglathpileser I (r. 1115-1077 BCE): Inscription

Two Accounts of the Campaign of Sennacherib, 701 BCE

Royal Archives of Assyria, The Banquet of Ashurnasirpal II: (7th century BCE)

Inscription of Nebuchadnezzar (r. 604-561 BCE)

 

 

Politics, War, and the State

Collection of Contracts from Mesopotamia, c. 2300 – 428 BCE

Code of Hammurabi, extracts

The Code of the Nesilim (Excerpts on sex and gender matters), c. 1650-1500 BCE

The Code of the Assyrians, excerpts on sex and gender matters, c. 1075 BCE

Account of Revolt of the City of Suru of Bit-Halupe 7th Cent BCE

Treaty between Mursilis and Duppi-Tessub

Some Neo-Babylonian Legal Decisions, c. 555-427 BCE

Herodotus (c.490-c.425 BCE): Hellenes & Phoenicians, c. 430 BCE

 

 

Literature and Culture

Proverbs from Ki-en-gir (Sumer), c. 2000 BCE

Enki and the World Order: A Sumerian High God

Epic of Gilgamesh

Epic of Gilgamesh, selections

Enkidu’s Dream

Gilgamesh Flood Story

Mesopotamian Legend on The Creation of the Pickax

The Advice of an Akkadian Father to His Son, c. 2200 BCE [At this Site]

Some Babylonian Proverbs from the Library of Ashurbanipal, c. 1600 BCE

The Enuma Elish (Babylonian Creation Myth)

Tablet I-III

Tablet IV

Legend of Ahikar the Wise

Herodotus: Greek Reports of Babylonia, Chaldea, and Assyria

 

Religion

Enheduanna, Hymn to Inanna

Penitential Prayer to Every God

Great Hymn to Shamash

A Collection of Babylonian Prayers, c. 1600 BCE

The Descent of Ishtar into the Netherworld

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

License

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Primary Sources: Ancient Near East Copyright © by Scott Rausch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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