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
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
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)
Herodotus: Greek Reports of Babylonia, Chaldea, and Assyria
Religion
Enheduanna, Hymn to Inanna
Penitential Prayer to Every God
A Collection of Babylonian Prayers, c. 1600 BCE
The Descent of Ishtar into the Netherworld