R.J. van der Spek, J.G. Dercksen, K. Kleber and M. Jursa, 'Money, silver and trust in Mesopotamia'. in: R.J. van der Spek & Bas van Leeuwen (eds.), Money, Currency and Crisis. In Search of Trust, 2000 BC to AD 2000 (London and New York 2018), 102-131, 2018
A discussion of the origin, substance, definition and use of money in Mesopotamia from the third ... more A discussion of the origin, substance, definition and use of money in Mesopotamia from the third to the first millennium BC. The text uploaded is the final manuscript. Attention is paid to the rich documentation of the Old-Assyrian trade between the city of Assur in Northern Mesopotamia and Kanesh in Anatolia (20th-19th century BC), the developments in the use of gold and silver currency (uncoined money) in Babylonia between c. 2000 and the arrival of Alexander the Great in 331 BC. The perception of money and the measure of monetization of the society are key issues.
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Diese gründlich überarbeitete und erweiterte Ausgabe berücksichtigt neueste Forschungserkenntnisse und bietet sowohl Studienanfängern als auch Fortgeschrittenen einen kompakten Querschnitt der Geschichte der Alten Welt – der unverzichtbare Begleiter für Studierende der Altertumswissenschaften.
This third edition is thoroughly updated and some chapters are completely rewritten to cover recent historical research. Changes include:
• more attention to economic structures and developments, and to the history of the later Roman Empire (third to sixth centuries AD);
• incorporation of the results of recent archaeological and historical research, and recently published studies of ancient literature;
• ‘boxes’ that support the main text, on topics including economic and political systems, religion and terminology;
• redrawn maps and new, higher-quality images;
• the inclusion of useful websites in the bibliography.
This volume explores the role of money in economic performance, and focuses on how monetary systems have affected economic crises for the last 4,000 years. Recent events have confirmed that money is only a useful tool in economic exchange if it is trusted, and this is a concept that this text explores in depth. The international panel of experts assembled here offers a long-range perspective, from ancient Assyria to modern societies in Europe, China and the US.
This book will be of interest to students and researchers of economic history, and to anyone who seeks to understand the economic crises of recent decades, and place them in a wider historical context. ---
Contents:
Chapter 1. R.J. van der Spek and Bas van Leeuwen, Money and trust.
Chapter 2. Dennis O. Flynn, Six Monetary Functions over Five Millennia: A Price Theory of Monies.
Chapter 3. Dirk Bezemer, Unproductive Debt Causes Crisis: Connecting the History of Money to the Current Crisis.
Chapter 4. Jan Lucassen, Deep monetization in Eurasia in the long run.
Chapter 5. R.J. van der Spek, J.G. Dercksen, K. Kleber and M. Jursa, Money, Silver and Trust in Mesopotamia.
Chapter 6. J.M. Mooring, Bas van Leeuwen and R.J. van der Spek, Introducing coinage: comparing the Greek world, the Near East and China.
Chapter 7. Bas van Leeuwen, Panagiotis P. Iossif, Peter Foldvari, The Introduction of Coinage in the Seleucid Empire and the Euro in the European Union. A comparison of stock and velocity.
Chapter 8. Kevin Butcher, Monetary Policy in the Roman Empire.
Chapter 9. Nick Mayhew, Money in England from the middle ages to the nineteenth century.
Chapter 10. Jaco Zuijderduijn, Incentives and interests: Monetary policy, public debt, and default in Holland, c. 1466-1489.
Chapter 11. Oscar Gelderblom and Joost Jonker, Enter the Ghost. Cashless payments in the Early Modern Low Countries, 1500-1800.
Chapter 12. Richard von Glahn, The Institutionalization of Paper Money in Song-Yuan China.
Chapter 13. Yi Xu and Bas van Leeuwen, Stagnation Is Silver, but Growth is Gold: China’s Silver Period, ca. 1430-1935.
Chapter 14. Juan Castaneda and Pedro Schwartz, Confronting financial crises under different monetary regimes: Spain in the Great Depression years.
Chapter 15. Alessandro Roselli, Money: the Long Twentieth Century.
Chapter 16. R.J. van der Spek and Bas van Leeuwen, Conclusion: in search of trust.
Valedictory lecture by R.J. (Bert) van der Spek,
professor of Ancient Mediterranean and West Asian history,
10 October 2014, 15.45h in the ‘Aula’ of the VU University (Vrije Universiteit) Amsterdam. ---
In October of the year 133 BC a certain sailor appeared in the streets of Babylon claiming to have a special relation with the gods, especially the goddess Nanaia from the city of Borsippa. “I am a messenger of Nanaia!” he cried. Much to the dismay of the local temple authorities he acquired a lot of followers. Probably this self-appointed prophet was killed. All this is reported in a Babylonian astronomical diary (ADART nos. -132B and C), of which a new transcription and translation is presented in the appendix.
Why is this event so telling and a sign of the times?
The year 133 BC was a turbulent year in the Mediterranean and West-Asian world with comparable phenomena everywhere. In Sicily, Rome, Pergamum (now Turkey) and Jerusalem we find revolutionary leaders with prophetic gifts, who had to pay for it with their lives. Can we speak of a Zeitgeist? The event took place in the middle of the so-called Hellenistic Age, that is the period after Alexander the Great (†323 BC in Babylon), which is seen by some as the preparatory period for the coming of Jesus Christ. It is the time of the emergence of private religion, of religious movements led by enthused leaders outside and sometimes in opposition to the accepted state religions.
This lecture shows that ancient history should not be restricted to Graeco-Roman history. An interdisciplinary approach is a requirement for good research and the Near Eastern languages are as important as Greek and Latin. The Mediterranean and the Middle East are closely intertwined.
Efficient market structures are agreed by most economists to serve as evidence of economic prosperity, and to be prerequisites for further economic growth. However, this is the first study to examine market performance as a whole, over such a large time period. Presenting a hitherto unknown and inaccessible corpus of data from ancient Babylonia, this international set of contributors are for the first time able to offer an in-depth study of market performance over a period of 2,500 years.
The contributions focus on the market of staple crops, as they were crucial goods in these societies. Over this entire period, all papers provide a similar conceptual and methodological framework resting on a common definition of market performance combined with qualitative and quantitative analyses resting on new and improved price data. In this way, the book is able to combine analysis of the Babylonian period with similar work on the Roman, Early-and Late Medieval and Early Modern period.
Bringing together input from assyriologists, ancient historians, economic historians and economists, this volume will be crucial reading for all those with an interest in ancient history, economic history and economics.
This is part of a research project conducted at the VU University (Vrije Universiteit) Amsterdam, funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) on "The efficiency of markets in Pre-Industrial Societies: the case of Babylonia, 485-61 BC".
Please note that meanwhile a third revised edition has appeared, which makes the second edition obsolete.
Consult also later publications in English which deal with these issues.
R.J. van der Spek, ‘The Babylonian City,’ in: Amélie Kuhrt & Susan Sherwin-White, Hellenism in the East. The Interaction of Greek and non-Greek civilizations from Syria to Central Asia after Alexander (London 1987) 57-74.
- ‘New Evidence on Seleucid Land Policy,’ in H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg, R.J. van der Spek, H.C. Teitler and H.T. Wallinga, eds., De Agricultura. In Memoriam Pieter Willem de Neeve (Amsterdam 1993) 61-77
- ‘Land Ownership in Babylonian Cuneiform Documents,’ in M.J. Geller, H. Maehler, A.D.E. Lewis eds., Legal Documents of the Hellenistic World (London 1995), 173-245, which provides new transcriptions and translations of texts 3, 5, 7, 8 and 10.
- ‘Land tenure in Hellenistic Anatolia and Mesopotamia,’ in: H. Erkanal, V. Donbaz, A. Oguroglu edd., XXXIVème Rencontre Assy¬riologique Internationale / XXXIV. Uluslararasi Assirioloji Kongresi. 6-10/VII/1987 - İstanbul. (Ankara, Türk Tarih Kurumu Baslimevi, 1998) 137-147
- ‘How to measure prosperity? The case of Hellenistic Babylonia,’ in: R. Descat ed., Approches de l’économie hellénistique. Entretiens d’archéologie et d’histoire 7 (St-Bertrand-de-Comminges 2005) 287 - 310
- ‘The Hellenistic Near East,’ in: W. Scheidel, I. Morris, R. Saller eds., The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World (Cambridge 2007), 409-433;
- ‘Feeding Hellenistic Seleucia on the Tigris and Babylon,’ in: Richard Alston, O.M. van Nijf, eds., Feeding the Ancient City (Leuven: Peeters 2008) 33-45.
- ‘The “silverization” of the economy of the Achaemenid and Seleukid empires and early modern China,’ in: Archibald, Z.H., Davies, J.K., Gabrielsen, V., eds, The Economies of Hellenistic Societies, Third to First Centuries (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2011), 402-420.
ERRATA
p. 15, line 23 pachtcrediteur - read: pandcrediteur (Pfandgläubiger)
27, 8+9 Kassâ => Kaššâ
33, 20-22 bīt ritti in booglenen => bīt ritti en booglenen (and bow fiefs)
85, 7 Res-heiligdom => Rēš-heiligdom
87, ad 5 De Dioiketēs => De Dioikētēs
111, 1 "Klageverzichtsklausel" => "Verfügungsverbot"
111, 7 no. 4 => no. 3
112, 10 ina E qan-ni-šú => ina É qan-ni-šú
198, 18 ri-bu-ú ina ša-la-ša-mu-ú => ri-bu-ú ina šá-la-ša-mu-ú
250, 8 šalaţu => šalāţu
252, 17 139 B.C. (cf. p. 74 supra) => 139 SE = 173-2 BC (cf.p.74-76 supra)
255, 5 (from bottom) chapter 5 => chapter 4
In the texts: (number and lines)
3: new edition in: Geller/Maehler 1995, no. 3, p. 208ff
4: 9 HE => HÉ
5: new edition in: Geller/Maehler No. 9, p. 238ff
6: 11+15 URÌ => URI
6: 14 iš-sá-am => iš-šá-am
6: 16 šiţ?-ri DU6 => tat-tal-ku (also comm. p. 215)
cf. now, however, A.J. Sachs & H. Hunger, Astronomical Diaries and related texts from Babylonia (Vienna 1988) No. -273 B Obv. 35': tat-tal-ku, `(the parchment letters) arrived'. Cf. Van der Spek, Bibliotheca Orientalis 50 (1993) 97
6: 19 AN.TA u KI.TA E.KI => AN.TA E.KI u KI.TA E.KI
6: 20 BÚR => BUR.MÉŠ
6: 20 UŠ.MEŠ => UŠ.MÉŠ
6: 21 uruduzi-i-pi-tu4-šú => uruduzi-i-pi ep-šú
7: new edition in: Geller/Maehler No. 4, p. 213ff
8: new edition in: Geller/Maehler No. 7, p. 227ff
9: 8 MU-a-ti => MU-a-tì
10: new edition in: Geller/Maehler No. 10, p. 241ff
Diese gründlich überarbeitete und erweiterte Ausgabe berücksichtigt neueste Forschungserkenntnisse und bietet sowohl Studienanfängern als auch Fortgeschrittenen einen kompakten Querschnitt der Geschichte der Alten Welt – der unverzichtbare Begleiter für Studierende der Altertumswissenschaften.
This third edition is thoroughly updated and some chapters are completely rewritten to cover recent historical research. Changes include:
• more attention to economic structures and developments, and to the history of the later Roman Empire (third to sixth centuries AD);
• incorporation of the results of recent archaeological and historical research, and recently published studies of ancient literature;
• ‘boxes’ that support the main text, on topics including economic and political systems, religion and terminology;
• redrawn maps and new, higher-quality images;
• the inclusion of useful websites in the bibliography.
This volume explores the role of money in economic performance, and focuses on how monetary systems have affected economic crises for the last 4,000 years. Recent events have confirmed that money is only a useful tool in economic exchange if it is trusted, and this is a concept that this text explores in depth. The international panel of experts assembled here offers a long-range perspective, from ancient Assyria to modern societies in Europe, China and the US.
This book will be of interest to students and researchers of economic history, and to anyone who seeks to understand the economic crises of recent decades, and place them in a wider historical context. ---
Contents:
Chapter 1. R.J. van der Spek and Bas van Leeuwen, Money and trust.
Chapter 2. Dennis O. Flynn, Six Monetary Functions over Five Millennia: A Price Theory of Monies.
Chapter 3. Dirk Bezemer, Unproductive Debt Causes Crisis: Connecting the History of Money to the Current Crisis.
Chapter 4. Jan Lucassen, Deep monetization in Eurasia in the long run.
Chapter 5. R.J. van der Spek, J.G. Dercksen, K. Kleber and M. Jursa, Money, Silver and Trust in Mesopotamia.
Chapter 6. J.M. Mooring, Bas van Leeuwen and R.J. van der Spek, Introducing coinage: comparing the Greek world, the Near East and China.
Chapter 7. Bas van Leeuwen, Panagiotis P. Iossif, Peter Foldvari, The Introduction of Coinage in the Seleucid Empire and the Euro in the European Union. A comparison of stock and velocity.
Chapter 8. Kevin Butcher, Monetary Policy in the Roman Empire.
Chapter 9. Nick Mayhew, Money in England from the middle ages to the nineteenth century.
Chapter 10. Jaco Zuijderduijn, Incentives and interests: Monetary policy, public debt, and default in Holland, c. 1466-1489.
Chapter 11. Oscar Gelderblom and Joost Jonker, Enter the Ghost. Cashless payments in the Early Modern Low Countries, 1500-1800.
Chapter 12. Richard von Glahn, The Institutionalization of Paper Money in Song-Yuan China.
Chapter 13. Yi Xu and Bas van Leeuwen, Stagnation Is Silver, but Growth is Gold: China’s Silver Period, ca. 1430-1935.
Chapter 14. Juan Castaneda and Pedro Schwartz, Confronting financial crises under different monetary regimes: Spain in the Great Depression years.
Chapter 15. Alessandro Roselli, Money: the Long Twentieth Century.
Chapter 16. R.J. van der Spek and Bas van Leeuwen, Conclusion: in search of trust.
Valedictory lecture by R.J. (Bert) van der Spek,
professor of Ancient Mediterranean and West Asian history,
10 October 2014, 15.45h in the ‘Aula’ of the VU University (Vrije Universiteit) Amsterdam. ---
In October of the year 133 BC a certain sailor appeared in the streets of Babylon claiming to have a special relation with the gods, especially the goddess Nanaia from the city of Borsippa. “I am a messenger of Nanaia!” he cried. Much to the dismay of the local temple authorities he acquired a lot of followers. Probably this self-appointed prophet was killed. All this is reported in a Babylonian astronomical diary (ADART nos. -132B and C), of which a new transcription and translation is presented in the appendix.
Why is this event so telling and a sign of the times?
The year 133 BC was a turbulent year in the Mediterranean and West-Asian world with comparable phenomena everywhere. In Sicily, Rome, Pergamum (now Turkey) and Jerusalem we find revolutionary leaders with prophetic gifts, who had to pay for it with their lives. Can we speak of a Zeitgeist? The event took place in the middle of the so-called Hellenistic Age, that is the period after Alexander the Great (†323 BC in Babylon), which is seen by some as the preparatory period for the coming of Jesus Christ. It is the time of the emergence of private religion, of religious movements led by enthused leaders outside and sometimes in opposition to the accepted state religions.
This lecture shows that ancient history should not be restricted to Graeco-Roman history. An interdisciplinary approach is a requirement for good research and the Near Eastern languages are as important as Greek and Latin. The Mediterranean and the Middle East are closely intertwined.
Efficient market structures are agreed by most economists to serve as evidence of economic prosperity, and to be prerequisites for further economic growth. However, this is the first study to examine market performance as a whole, over such a large time period. Presenting a hitherto unknown and inaccessible corpus of data from ancient Babylonia, this international set of contributors are for the first time able to offer an in-depth study of market performance over a period of 2,500 years.
The contributions focus on the market of staple crops, as they were crucial goods in these societies. Over this entire period, all papers provide a similar conceptual and methodological framework resting on a common definition of market performance combined with qualitative and quantitative analyses resting on new and improved price data. In this way, the book is able to combine analysis of the Babylonian period with similar work on the Roman, Early-and Late Medieval and Early Modern period.
Bringing together input from assyriologists, ancient historians, economic historians and economists, this volume will be crucial reading for all those with an interest in ancient history, economic history and economics.
This is part of a research project conducted at the VU University (Vrije Universiteit) Amsterdam, funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) on "The efficiency of markets in Pre-Industrial Societies: the case of Babylonia, 485-61 BC".
Please note that meanwhile a third revised edition has appeared, which makes the second edition obsolete.
Consult also later publications in English which deal with these issues.
R.J. van der Spek, ‘The Babylonian City,’ in: Amélie Kuhrt & Susan Sherwin-White, Hellenism in the East. The Interaction of Greek and non-Greek civilizations from Syria to Central Asia after Alexander (London 1987) 57-74.
- ‘New Evidence on Seleucid Land Policy,’ in H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg, R.J. van der Spek, H.C. Teitler and H.T. Wallinga, eds., De Agricultura. In Memoriam Pieter Willem de Neeve (Amsterdam 1993) 61-77
- ‘Land Ownership in Babylonian Cuneiform Documents,’ in M.J. Geller, H. Maehler, A.D.E. Lewis eds., Legal Documents of the Hellenistic World (London 1995), 173-245, which provides new transcriptions and translations of texts 3, 5, 7, 8 and 10.
- ‘Land tenure in Hellenistic Anatolia and Mesopotamia,’ in: H. Erkanal, V. Donbaz, A. Oguroglu edd., XXXIVème Rencontre Assy¬riologique Internationale / XXXIV. Uluslararasi Assirioloji Kongresi. 6-10/VII/1987 - İstanbul. (Ankara, Türk Tarih Kurumu Baslimevi, 1998) 137-147
- ‘How to measure prosperity? The case of Hellenistic Babylonia,’ in: R. Descat ed., Approches de l’économie hellénistique. Entretiens d’archéologie et d’histoire 7 (St-Bertrand-de-Comminges 2005) 287 - 310
- ‘The Hellenistic Near East,’ in: W. Scheidel, I. Morris, R. Saller eds., The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World (Cambridge 2007), 409-433;
- ‘Feeding Hellenistic Seleucia on the Tigris and Babylon,’ in: Richard Alston, O.M. van Nijf, eds., Feeding the Ancient City (Leuven: Peeters 2008) 33-45.
- ‘The “silverization” of the economy of the Achaemenid and Seleukid empires and early modern China,’ in: Archibald, Z.H., Davies, J.K., Gabrielsen, V., eds, The Economies of Hellenistic Societies, Third to First Centuries (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2011), 402-420.
ERRATA
p. 15, line 23 pachtcrediteur - read: pandcrediteur (Pfandgläubiger)
27, 8+9 Kassâ => Kaššâ
33, 20-22 bīt ritti in booglenen => bīt ritti en booglenen (and bow fiefs)
85, 7 Res-heiligdom => Rēš-heiligdom
87, ad 5 De Dioiketēs => De Dioikētēs
111, 1 "Klageverzichtsklausel" => "Verfügungsverbot"
111, 7 no. 4 => no. 3
112, 10 ina E qan-ni-šú => ina É qan-ni-šú
198, 18 ri-bu-ú ina ša-la-ša-mu-ú => ri-bu-ú ina šá-la-ša-mu-ú
250, 8 šalaţu => šalāţu
252, 17 139 B.C. (cf. p. 74 supra) => 139 SE = 173-2 BC (cf.p.74-76 supra)
255, 5 (from bottom) chapter 5 => chapter 4
In the texts: (number and lines)
3: new edition in: Geller/Maehler 1995, no. 3, p. 208ff
4: 9 HE => HÉ
5: new edition in: Geller/Maehler No. 9, p. 238ff
6: 11+15 URÌ => URI
6: 14 iš-sá-am => iš-šá-am
6: 16 šiţ?-ri DU6 => tat-tal-ku (also comm. p. 215)
cf. now, however, A.J. Sachs & H. Hunger, Astronomical Diaries and related texts from Babylonia (Vienna 1988) No. -273 B Obv. 35': tat-tal-ku, `(the parchment letters) arrived'. Cf. Van der Spek, Bibliotheca Orientalis 50 (1993) 97
6: 19 AN.TA u KI.TA E.KI => AN.TA E.KI u KI.TA E.KI
6: 20 BÚR => BUR.MÉŠ
6: 20 UŠ.MEŠ => UŠ.MÉŠ
6: 21 uruduzi-i-pi-tu4-šú => uruduzi-i-pi ep-šú
7: new edition in: Geller/Maehler No. 4, p. 213ff
8: new edition in: Geller/Maehler No. 7, p. 227ff
9: 8 MU-a-ti => MU-a-tì
10: new edition in: Geller/Maehler No. 10, p. 241ff
Because the book appeared already quite some time ago, I did not summarize all the chapters; instead I have opted to make some remarks on the following topics:
1. The date of Berossus’ life time
2. Berossus’ sources and the Flood story
3. Berossus’ position in Greek historiography; Greco-Roman reception of the Babyloniaca
4. The Hanging Garden of Babylon
5. Berossus the astronomer
6. Berossus’ Sitz im Leben and the Bible
Note: in the bibliography is missing:
Linssen 2004 = Linssen, M.J.H., The Cults of Uruk and Babylon. The Temple Ritual Texts as Evidence for Hellenistic Cult Practices. Leiden, Boston: Brill-Styx 2004.
Due to copyright restrictions I cannot upload this article on internet.
‘Homer and the Near Eastern Epic.’ -
Introduction to a special issue of Phoenix on Homer and Near Eastern epic with the following contributions: Michèle Meijer on parallels between the Iliad and the Gilgamesh Epic; Klaas R. Veenhof on the Atrahasis myth; Theo Krispijn (with the assistance of Willemijn Waal) on Hittite literature and Homer; Ben Haring on Egyptian stories on heroes. Attention is paid to the knowledge that Homer must have had of eastern epics and stories and on the character of the epics. The usual interpretation (the Parry-Lord thesis or oral-formulaic theory) that Homer's epics are the result of recording in writing of oral poetry, in view of the formulaic phraseology of many Homeric verses, is subject to doubt now, as this formulaic poetry is well established in the Near East, such as in the Gilgamesh epic, where, however, we have a tradition of one thousand years of written predecessors of the standard version (c. 12th century BC). In view of the fact that the Greek alphabet probably was introduced quite some time before Homer (ref. Willemijn Waal), we must assume that also in Greece written epic literature existed before the composition of the standard editions of the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Yugoslav bards, the inspiration of Parry and Lord, used age old written exemplary text books. Lourens de Vries (VU University) informs me that in real oral societies, such as in formerly Dutch New Guinea (Papua), formulaic verses play no role.
The review further has an extensive discussion of the Mnesimachus inscription.
The book is good reading. It gives a lot of information on Assyrian technology. An interesting comparison is made with the Greek attitude of disdain for technology. The Assyrians had concrete and aqueducts long before the Romans had it. The Greek victory in the battle of Marathon may have paved the way for Greek culture, but may have been a step backwards in the history of technology.
A further note might be added regarding no. 43: 2 and 3 and no. 44: 3 and 4, dedication of slave girls resp. boys for doing brickwork in the temple, who are said to be shá i-tur-ru resp. shá ta-tur-ru, following the age. The phrase was discussed before by Gilbert MacEwan, but Michael Jursa finally discovered the true meaning in: 'Sha taturru, nochmals', Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 2001, pp. 100-101, no. 103, where he argued convincingly that the word is derived from târu and has in this context the meaning (under Aramaic influence) of 'to be'. The same expression can be found in other slave dedications and in a well known text from the Parthian period, AB 247: 3-4 (McEwan, Iraq 43 (1981) 140-1): Bel-ahhe-us.ur, son of Itti-Marduk-balat.u, shá i-tur LÚ pu-ru-su-tat-te-su, B, son of I, who is prostates. Hence my translation of this tablet should be corrected too: see 'The Babylonian Temple during the Macedonian and Parthian Domination' Bibliotheca Orientalis 42 (1985) p. 554 (uploaded here on Academia). If I may, I would suggest a minor amendment to this translation. Istead 'to be' I suggest 'to have become', so it is 'to be only recently'. The slaves have become x years of age, and Itti-Marduk-balat.u had become prostates recently (if not his son is intended). The meaning is thus close to the original meaning of târu: 'to turn (to)'. However, if prostates is really the translation of LÚ up-pu-dé-e-tú shá É.MESH DINGIR.MESH, 'overseer of the temples', Itti-Marduk-balat.u had that function already since 11 years. The point at issue in the letter seems to be that Bel-ahhe-us.ur received the astronomer's ration, first assigned to his father, to the amount of 1 1/3 mina, which is in fact an increase as according to BOR 4, 132: 20-1 it was only 1 mina per person.
Farhad Assar suggested me a reading for the name Up-pu-lu (or Ub-bu-lu) in 31:1, 34: 29 and 43:1 (cf. p. 605): Euboulos. Eu is rendered as u and the final -s is missing, just as in Seleukos = Se-lu-ku. The double -bb- is perhaps problematic (one could have written Ú-bu-lu), but I find the suggestion the best option so far.
See also other reviews: R. Wallenfels, NABU 1992, no. 27 and his review article 'A new volume of texts from Hellenistic Uruk', JAOS 114 (1994) 435-9; L.T. Doty, NABU 1995, no. 69; Heather Baker, NABU 2004, no. 4.
Actually so-called orthodox Christians are not more faithful to the Bible than liberals. They select some passages to show that homosexuality is an abomination, like Leviticus 18:22; 20: 13; Deuteronomy 21: 15 and Romans 1: 27, but take them out of context. Are they also in favor of the death penalty for homosexuals (Lev. 20: 13)? In my view liberal vicars and priests should really discuss these texts in sermons, and concede that these hideous texts exist, but that this part of a world used to very harsh penalties and gruesome stories like Homer’s Iliad. According to Jesus and Paul the central message of the Bible is love of your neighbor; without love faith is to no avail (Marc 12: 30-1; Matthew 22:36-8; Corinthians 13:1-13). What is contrary to this can thus be ignored. Most evangelicals fortunately ignore the death penalty for homosexuals, and will not endorse Judges 19: 24 (just two verses after the endorsed text Judges 19: 22, which is taken as refutation of homosexuality), that a host is willing to give over his daughter and the concubine of his guest to abuse by foreigners. And will they reject as members of their churches those who refuse to sell all their goods and give the money to the poor, as Jesus demands and was the custom in the early church (Matthew 19: 21; Hebrews 13: 4; Acts of the Apostles 2: 44-5 [describing a sort of early communism])? Will they throw out the voters of Donald Trump?
What will they do with texts that describe a kind of homo-erotic love between David and Jonathan (1 Samuel 18:1-4; and 2 Samuel 1: 26-7) and Jesus and his ‘disciple, whom he loved’ (John 13:23-5; 19:26-7; 20:2; 21: 20-4), and who was reclining at his bosom at the last Supper.
In conclusion: every Christian reads the Bible selectively, but those who do so in flat denial of the central message of Jesus: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments”, has gone adrift very far.
Annie Schreijer-Pierik, MP for the Christian-Democrats in the European Parliament, has lobbied intensively to stop the changing between winter- and summertime twice a year. The changing would be disturbing, bad for our biorhythm, bad for the agrarian sector. Though she has a private preference for the summertime, she thinks that wintertime is actually “the natural time” and perhaps best after all. In my article I argue that there is no such thing as natural time. It is all about time reckoning. Our system, starting the day at midnight (what is natural about that), dividing the day into 24 hours (what is natural in 24 hours?). Many people think that having midday at 12:00h is natural. But why shouldn’t it be at 13:00h or 14:00h? In the Greek and Roman world the day was divided from sunrise to sunset in 12 hours, so that the day started very naturally at dawn (but with changing lengths of the hour – very natural though). The ancient Mesopotamians (and still Jews and Muslims) start the day at sunset. The point is of course: when do we want to work, and want to have time for recreation, sport and in general profit from daylight. It is clear that having wintertime in the summer would cost one hour of light per day, which we can use for sports (good for our health; provides extra vitamins D) and having fun on terraces and in gardens or balconies at home. Maybe few people have some discomfort from changing the clock, but nearly all people get up two or three hours later every weekend and they get up early on Monday. So abolish the weekend? Problems for the cows’ milking time? Farmers can easily do it one hour later in summer. Cows in the farm industry have more fundamental problems (for which Annie Schreijer is responsible) than this.
And then: we have much difficulty in reaching the Paris agreement on climate. Introducing wintertime in Europe the whole year will cost an extra 14.3 billion kWh per year, which produces extra emission 7.6 billion kg CO2. The average household will spend € 26 per year extra on electricity. Chaos will be there when every country democratically decides for another time reckoning. So leave it as it is.
[Note: on 29 October 2018, the European member states decided to leave it at least until 2021 as it is. Probably my column was read and appreciated! ;). Comment of Bart Eeckhout, chief editor of the Belgian newspaper De Morgen: “The revolutionary idea to leave it as it is, is perhaps not so bad. European politicians are working hard on creating a problem, to show their importance by ‘solving’ it.”]
In the section “Useless Knowledge”, Trouw 24 march 2018, a small contribution on time reckoning.
On 25 March 2018 the summertime started again. We turn the clock one hour ahead, so that we have one hour more light in the evening. I like it very much, but some people argue that ‘summer time’ is ‘unnatural’. In my view nonsensical, as all time reckoning is handswork of man. In Mesopotamia and Israel the day started at sunset, as is also true for Muslims and Jews. The Mesoptamians divided night and day in 12 equal hours. The Greeks, Romans and Mediaeval people started the day at sunrise and counted 12 hours during the day of varying length (longer in the summer). The sixth hour (hora sexta) was about noon (which word is actually derived from hora nona, 9th hour), which was time for a ‘siesta’. In the 14th century clocks were made in which the day started at midnight with 12 hours and anew at noon 12 hours, a system we in general still have today. Very unnatural of course. Most people work from 9h a.m. to 5h p.m., which is unnatural as it is 3 hours in the morning and 5 hours in the afternoon. In summertime this anomaly is corrected somewhat. Whatever the case time reckoning is human invention. Animals do not look at watches.
I also oppose the view that values (such as compassion) are universal over all times and places. This is certainly incorrect. We mentioned the different view of offerings to the gods. Roman generals could only earn a triumph in Rome when they had killed at least 5000 persons. In the world view of Al Qaida and IS there is hardly room for compassion. Even the protagonists of the ‘Enlightenment’ in the 18th century executed thousands of ‘not enlightened’ people.
[Additional note 2017-07-20: the outcome of the referendum in Haarlem conforms to my prediction: 84 % of the voters was against the parking plan. However, the attendance of those entitled to vote was only 18.5 %. This makes the referendum invalid, as an attendance of 30% was required. So 81.5% of the voters was indifferent or stayed home as a matter of principle or because they have read my column in Haarlems Dagblad ;). ]
There is no basis in the Scriptures for having a day of rest on Sunday, the first day of the week. This was introduced by Constantine the Great in 321. Christians met indeed on the first day of the week “to break bread” (Acts 20: 7), because Jesus was resurrected on that day (Marc 16: 2, 9). The first day of the week is called “Day of the Lord” in many languages (Fr. dimanche). In many languages the days (including Sunday and Sabbath) are named after celestial bodies = heathen gods: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercurius, Jupiter, Venus, Saturnus.
Bert Klei (1924-2008), a journalist and column writer of Trouw at the end of the 20th century, suggested to wish each other: “have a nice week change” instead of “have a nice weekend”.
This column takes issue with the statement that the study of history has no direct use, that the interest in the past has an intrinsic value and should not be misused by policy makers who want to manipulate historical research (Jo Tollebeek, Tom Verschaffel). In my view the study of history is not much different from other types of research and many sciences have an historical aspect. In addition, though it is true that the study of history has an intrinsic value, it is basic for any research encompassing developments over time, such as economy, linguistics, medicine, and many others. Understanding economic crises and the functioning of the market is impossible without the study of the past and the Americans could have avoided grave errors after their conquest of Iraq if they would have followed the practice of the Assyrian kings who incorporated defeated armies, rather than disbanding them.