Altorientalistik

This book offers an introduction into the methods and results of Ancient Near Eastern Studies, the academic discipline of the scripts, languages, and cultures of the Middle East from the beginnings of writing in the 4th millennium B.C. to the emergence of Islam in the 7th century A.D. It consists of ten chapters with a focus on Mesopotamia: History, man and nature, history of law, religion, scholarship, cuneiform script, languages, cuneiform texts, the Ancient Near East in the cultural memory of the western world. Each chapter is illustrated by many translations from cuneiform texts and tables and ends with a summary and a bibliography. The author is professor for Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Leipzig university.