Tempo, passato e memoria nella Mesopotamia antica (original) (raw)
Related papers
Morte e rinascita delle iscrizioni nell’antica Mesopotamia
Studi e testi di epigrafia, 2020
This contribution focuses on the ‘death’ (cancellation and destruction) and ‘rebirth’ of ancient Mesopotamian inscriptions, and provides several examples of reuse. The latter can be grouped in two main categories: inscribed objects reused in archaeological contexts different from the original, often accompanied by the incision of a new inscription, and copies on clay tablets of ancient inscriptions.
Aspetti spaziali nella costruzione dell’immaginario infero dell'antica Mesopotamia
2014
In the ancient Mesopotamian traditions, as it is also the case in other cultures, the Netherworld is conceived from a double, antagonistic per- spective. On the one hand, being a place of “non-life”, it is perceived and built through the negation or inversion of those symbolic principles which found and distinguish the realm of the living. On the other hand, as “after-life”, the Netherworld is conceived as an extension of life. How- ever, even when it reproduces the world of the living, the Netherworld distinguishes itself from the sphere of life through a series of spatial, tem- poral, and regulatory principles. From a spatial point of view, the image of the Netherworld is built upon two perspectives, that of communica- tion/separation, and that of opposition/similitude. Topographically, the Netherworld is connected to the world of the living through a series of symbolic elements, particularly the river. These symbolic elements, to- gether with others such as the mountain, mark the border between the two worlds, as well as establishing the passage from one dimension to the other. From the point of view of representation, as a place that mirrors life, the Netherworld is conceived as both the human and divine place per excellence, the city. At the opposite side, the Netherworld is identified with the mountain/KUR, place and symbol of otherness. In this study I will analyse the spatial elements that characterize the image of death and the netherworld in the Mesopotamian literary tradi- tion through the perspectives of communication/separation and opposi- tion/similitude. Nelle tradizioni mesopotamiche, così come in molte altre culture, l’al- dilà è concepito come un duplice e contrapposto concetto. Da una parte, in quanto “non vita”, si delinea come una realtà opposta e rappresentata mediante una negazione o inversione di quei valori simbolici della vita stessa. D’altra parte, in quanto “vita oltre la morte”, rappresenta un prolungamento dell’esistenza terrena di cui è una riproduzione, pur es- sendone separata e distinta per una serie di principi spaziali, temporali e normativi. A livello spaziale si delineano due concetti in cui si collocano e strutturano gli Inferi, espressione di quei principi contrapposti di co- municazione/separazione e opposizione/similitudine. Topograficamente, gli Inferi sono collegati al mondo dei vivi attraverso una serie di elementi simbolici, in particolare il fiume, che permettono un contatto e un flusso, sebbene unidirezionale. Questi stessi elementi, assieme ad altri (la mon- tagna), tuttavia, costituiscono anche i confini che separano i due mondi e marcano il passaggio da una dimensione all’altra. Dal punto di vista della rappresentazione, in quanto riflesso della vita terrena, gli Inferi ne riproducono l’organizzazione e sono rappresentati mediante il luogo umano e divino per eccellenza, la città. In quanto opposizione, gli Inferi sono identificati con il KUR, sintesi dell’alterità. In questo contributo analizzerò gli elementi spaziali che connotano l’immagine della morte e del regno infero nella tradizione letteraria me- sopotamica, alla luce dei principi dicotomici di comunicazione/separa- zione e opposizione/similitudine. KEYWORDS Mesopotamia, morte, viaggio agli Inferi, fiume, alterità Mesopotamia, death, descent to the Netherworld, river, otherness (Khabur, Hubur, SiluLIM, Enlil, Ereškigal, KUR, Netherworld geography)
The theoretical and methodological approaches of Cultural and Social Anthropology have long since become indispensable for the study of classical antiquity, so much so that we can speak of a Historical Anthropology of the Ancient World. On the contrary, the dialogue between historians and philologists on the one hand and anthropologists, on the other hand, has been less developed concerning the cultures of the ancient Near East. There are several reasons for this lack of dialogue, the most important of which is the fact that the multilingual cuneiform textual corpus is still largely unpublished and characterized by philological difficulties that make it inaccessible to non-specialists. This volume aims, therefore, to contribute to enriching the debate and discussion between anthropologists and scholars of the ancient Near East. It includes contributions that cover a broad chronological spectrum, from the 3rd to the 1st millennium BC, and concern the cultures of ancient Mesopotamia from both Sumerian and Akkadian sources. Among the analyzed topics are: the relationship between mythology and royal ideology and the capacity of words to act in the ritual context in the Sumerian world; the interconnection between the divine, human and natural worlds in Mesopotamian religious thought read in the light of the debate on Ecological Anthropology and the "ontological turn"; ritual as a means of communication between the human and extra-human worlds (ritual for the activation of the cult statue, offerings, and sacrifices); the nature of demons; the materiality of religious practices; the Near Eastern vision of the past and wisdom.
L. Peyronel, Oranti di Mesopotamia antica
in E.M. Menotti – F.E. Betti (a cura di), L’Orante ...nel tuo nome alzerò le mie mani… Catalogo della mostra (Milano, 13 ottobre 2022-15 gennaio 2023), Arbor Sapientiae Editore, Roma 2022, pp. 81-84.