Literature and Writing in the Ancient Near East part 2 3101-DWPL2-OG

Following subject-matters shall be treated:

Ist semester
1. Basic information on languages and scripts; terminology (linguistic families and groups; pictographic/ideographic/syllabic-ideographic/alphabetic scripts).
2. Methods of documenting and presenting ancient texts – copy, transliteration, transcription, translation. Techniques of writing (materials, tools, objects). Deciphering ancient scripts.
3. Archives and libraries of the East – history of discoveries.
4. The corpus – publications, series, chrestomaties, translations, popularization; syllabaries, dictionaries.
5. A history of writing – “from pictograph to alphabet”. Cultural roles of writing; literacy vs. orality.
Literary works andf the practical writing – from “high end literature” to daily life:
6. Myths, epics, hymns.
7. Small format literature – proverbs, wisdom literature, humoresque.
II semester
8. Royal inscriptions – historical sources and propaganda monuments.
9. Religious texts – cult and rituals.
10. Magic and divination.
11. Laws.
12. Administrative and economic texts.
13. Epistolography – official and private.
14. „Science” – astronomy and astrology, maths and geometry, „chemistry” and medicine.
15. A summary: Oriental heritage in Classical and European culture.

Type of course

general courses

Mode

Classroom

Prerequisites (description)

Lecture addressed both to these who specialize (or intend to specialize) in archaeology of the Ancient Near East and “non-archaeologists”. Literary output of the East shall be presented in a possibly legible form, based mainly on texts in the cuneiform script. Besides their “own” content, the texts shall be also treated as sources of reference in interpreting archaeological objects and features, with their broad cultural context. Nb.: it will be also possible to finalize the participation after one semester (the Ist or the IInd), with the scope of subject-matters as indicated below

Learning outcomes

General knowledge on the textual corpus of the Ancient Near East, as reflecting the “high culture” and the daily life, in its ethnic, social and intellectual context, the “materiality of writing” stressed. An introduction to ways and means of the work of assyriologists, sumerologists, hittitologists, etc. – for an introductory acquaintance with the problems of deciphering and interpreting ancient texts.

Assessment criteria

The exam form to be discussed (oral or in writing). General knowledge on the variety of languages, scripts and texts should be reported, and a presentation shall be requested, of a particular text (or a fragment of a longer text), from its original form (photography/copy), to transliteration, to translation (as available in literature), supplemented by its historical and cultural context.

Bibliography

L. Adkins, Runą mury Babilonu. Jak Henry Rawlinson poprzez odczytanie pisma klinowego odkrył klucz do tajemnic starożytnego imperium, Warszawa 2005
J. Assmann, Pamięć kulturowa. Pismo, zapamietywanie i polityczna tożsamość w cywilizacjach starożytnych, Warszawa 2008
R. Borger, Handbuch der Keilschriftliteratur I/II/III, Berlin-New York 1967/1975
J. Chadwick, Pismo linearne B i pisma pokrewne, Warszawa 1998
S. Dalley, Myths from Mesopotamia, Oxford 2000
Do boga, pana mego, mów! Babilońskie i asyryjskie hymny, modlitwy, zaklęcia i rytuały, Warszawa 2005
W.V. Davies, Egipskie hieroglify, Warszawa 1998
Epos o Gilgameszu, tłum. K. Łyczkowska, P. Puchta, M. Kapełuś, Warszawa 2002
Eposy sumeryjskie, tłum. K. Szarzyńska, Warszawa 2003
B.R. Foster, Before the Muses. An Anthology of Akkadian Literature, 2 t., Bethesda 1993
A. Frutiger, Człowiek i jego znaki, Warszawa 2003
A. R. George, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Harmondsworth 1999
S.D. Houston (red.), The First Writing. Script Invention as History and Process, Cambridge 2004
Hymny i pieśni sumeryjskie, tłum. K. Szarzyńska, Warszawa 2005
S.N. Kramer, Historia zaczyna się w Sumerze, Warszawa 1966
M. Kuckenburg, Pierwsze słowo. Narodziny mowy i pisma, Warszawa 2006
B. Lion, C. Michel (red.), Odczytanie pisma klinowego, Warszawa 2010
E. Lipiński, Języki semickie rodziny afroazjatyckiej. Zarys ogólny, Warszawa 2001
K. Łyczkowska, Babilońskie zaklęcia magiczne, Warszawa 1995
K. Łyczkowska, Babilońska literatura mądrości, Warszawa 1998
K. Łyczkowska, K. Szarzyńska, Mitologia Mezopotamii, Warszawa 1981
S. Maul, Das Gilgamesch-Epos, München 2005
H. McCall, Mity Mezopotamii, Warszawa 2000
B. Meissner, K. Oberhuber, Die Keilschrift, Berlin 1967
Mity akadyjskie, tłum. O. Drewnowska-Rymarz et al., Warszawa 2000
Mity sumeryjskie, tłum. K. Szarzyńska, Warszawa 2000
H.J. Nissen, P. Damerow, R.K. Englund, Archaic Bookkeeping. Early Writing and Techniques of Economic Administration in the Ancient Near East, Chicago 1993
L.E. Pearce, Secret, Sacred and Secular: Mesopotamian Intertextuality, CSMSJ 1/1 (2006), 11-21
O. Pedersén, Archives and Libraries in the City of Assur, Part I, II, Uppsala 1985, 1986
O. Pedersén, Archives and Libraries of the Ancient Near East 1500-300 B.C., Bethesda 1998
„Polskie tłumaczenia tekstów klinowych” – zbiór nadbitek (Biblioteka IA UW)
M. Popko, Mitologia hetyckiej Anatolii, Warszawa 1976
M. Popko, Ludy i języki starożytnej Anatolii, Warszawa 1999
J.B. Pritchard (red.), Ancient Near Eastern Text Related to the Old Testament [ANET], Princeton 1955 (i wydania późniejsze)
J.B. Pritchard (red.), The Ancient Near East, vol. I: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures, Princeton 1958, vol II: A New Anthology of Textes and Pictures, Princeton 1975
W. Röllig, Literatur (hasło w Reallexikon der Assyriologie, t. VII, 35-66)
D. Schmandt-Besserat, Jak powstało pismo, Warszawa 2007
M. Stępień, Kodeks Hammurabiego, Warszawa 1996
M.P. Streck, Groβes Fach Altorientalistik: Der Umfang des keilschriftlichen Textkorpus, MDOG 142 (2010), 35-58
K. Szarzyńska, K. Łyczkowska, E. Lipiński, M. Popko, Miłość i seks w kulturach Starożytnego Wschodu, Warszawa 1966
J.A. Święcicki, Historya literatury babilońsko-assyryjskiej i egipskiej, Warszawa 1901
Traktat sukcesyjny Asarhaddona króla Asyrii (681-669 p.n.e.), przekład oraz wstęp
J. Maniaczyk, Poznań 1997
W. Tyloch, Odkrycia w Ugarit a Stary Testament, Warszawa 1980
W. Tyloch, Dzieje ksiąg Starego Testamentu, Warszawa 1981
C.B.F. Walker, Pismo klinowe, Warszawa 1998
M.L. West, Wschodnie oblicze Helikonu. Pierwiastki zachodnioazjatyckie w greckiej poezji i micie, Kraków 2008

[oraz serie: Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, State Archives of Assyria, Texte aus dem Umwelt des Alten Testaments]

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