I have found photographs of the Baal Cycle's tablets, transliterations of the original text's cuneiform, translations of the text into English, and the Ugaritic alphabet itself. I cannot seem to find the actual cycle written in its original cuneiform as clear text. As in, 𐎅 𐎍 𐎈 𐎎 𐎖 𐎆 𐎌 𐎗 𐎚 𐎒 𐎋 𐎐 𐎃 𐎁. Can anyone point me to a book or online resource that shows the text clearly typed/printed like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTLt6ROyerQ

From 935 - 745 BCE, the Neo-Assyrian empire built its foundations as the first great and lasting empire of the near east. After 745 it would see a set of reforms that would make it even more remarkable and terrifying, but the military before that is what did so much of the early conquering, leaning heavily on a battle concept centered around armored assault archers. Today, the Oldest Stories podcast is diving deep into the critical features of this early Neo-Assyrian army, covering the mindset and lifestyle of the soldiers, equipment and tactics, and the big picture military strategy of the early kings, at least the most competant among them. Check out the full episode on youtube or spotify or search Oldest Stories on your favorite podcast app, and let me know what you think about the new episodes!

By the way, this is well into year 5 of the show, and while we have only just started doing video stuff on Assyria, the podcast has gotten pretty in-depth covering Sumer and Akkad, the Isin-Larsa period, Old Babylon, the Hittites, Historical Israel, and plenty of other stuff as well. Check it out if it sounds interesting!

I read this article here:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apa.16781

and seems on average 15 was age of marriage for girls. However, I wonder how common were earlier marriages and were the risks known perhaps such as I knew the greeks wrote about it and was any age set or any social norms or any criticism?

I'm fascinated by Mesopotamian mythology from ancient times, and have studied bits of Sumerian and Babylonian texts (or translations thereof), like the Enuma Elish and the Epic of Gilgamesh.

I'm looking for the roots of the modern monotheistic faiths and their polytheistic roots. Where should I start to study Canaanite belief to understand how it developed into the Abrahamic traditions? Are there any particular extant translationsvif texts I should start with?

Thanks!

We are three kings and four episodes deep now, check out the Oldest Stories podcast as we cover the astonishingly violent Neo-Assyrian empire in its rise to power. The framework is the kings and conquests, but from this we get to take long sidetracks to consider why the empire grew the way it did, the effect it had on the people and the ancient world, and what it meant for ancient culture.

You can start out on Spotify or Youtube, but the Oldest Stories podcast is available pretty much anywhere. The Assyria series starts with episode 139: An Iron King for an Iron Age.

This is well into year 5 of the show, and while we have only just started doing video stuff, the podcast has gotten pretty in-depth covering Sumer and Akkad, the Isin-Larsa period, Old Babylon, the Hittites, Historical Israel, and plenty of other stuff as well. Check it out and let me know what you think!

I wanted to share a new podcast episode in which I talk to historian and author Dr. Amanda Podany about her latest publicaton, “Weavers, Scribes, and Kings” and also discuss everything Mesopotamia, ranging from the rise of urban settlements, the invention of writing and so much more.

https://www.diggingupthepast.net/p/mesopotamia-the-land-between-the

I’m starting a PhD in ANE studies this fall and wanted to do some review over the summer. What books do you think would be a good primer to review the geography, history and culture of the ANE?

If anyone is interested in biblical chronology there is information available at the link.

Biblical Chronology

In the book of Ezekiel, it describes women weeping for the god, Tammuz, in the Temple. I've heard that it was supposedly 40 days after 40 years he supposedly lived but I have yet to find any primary or academic sources regarding that. However, the sources I did find only stated that the weeping only lasted 1 day or 3 days at the most during the end of the month that was named after him. Does anyone have some sources that say the weeping of Tammuz took place for 40 days? Below are the relevant sources I've read regarding the duration of the weeping of Tammuz I've read.

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“In Mesopotamia, in the last three days of the month of Tammuz (June/July), there was a funerary ritual called “exhibition, or exposition,” during which an image of the dead god Tammuz was exhibited. In the Northwest Semitic world, Tammuz was associated with vegetation, its sprouting, and its death. In “Ishtar’s Descent to the Netherworld,” Tammuz is Ishtar’s lover, whom she betrays and sends to the Netherworld to take her place, thus putting into effect his cyclic resurrection. This was a Mesopotamian way of explaining the seasons. While Tammuz was in the netherworld, the vegetation on Earth was dying, dried up by the sun. The Gilgamesh Epic mentions the annual rite that Ishtar ordained where the technical term for “lamentation” occurs: “For Tammuz, the lover of your youth, thou hast ordained wailing year after year.”- Voth, Steven M.., Walton, John H.., Ferris, Paul W. Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Ezekiel. United States: Zondervan, 2009. Pg. 142

“The 25th to the 27th days cover the last stages of the moon’s light and influence before the power of death encroaches on the land of the living in the darkness before the new moon. In Mesopotamian tradition, the 28th and 29th days of every month belong to Nergal and the underworld. The end of Du’uzu in the summer (month IV) especially came to be set aside for mourning the dead Dumuzi, who would rise again only with the winter rains. These rites began on the 26th, with the last moonlight, and continued through the 29th.”- Fleming, Daniel E. Time at Emar: The Cultic Calendar and the Rituals from the Diviner's Archive. Germany: Penn State University Press, 2000. Pg. 180

“The 26th of Duʾuzu was the day of uproar; it was a day when a (funerary) display was made in Aššur and Nineveh. The 27th of Duʾuzu was the day of releasing; it was also a day on which a (funerary) display was made in Aššur Nineveh, Kalḫu, and Arbela. The 28th of Duʾuzu was the day of Dumuzi when a further (funerary) display was made in all four cities. In Arbela, yet another (funerary) display was reserved for the 29th, which seems to have been the last day of the rite.”- Scurlock, J. A. "K 164 ('BA' 2, P. 635): New Light on the Mourning Rites for Dumuzi?" Journal of Assyriology and Oriental Archaeology 86, no. 1 (1992): 53–67. Pg. 57-58

“The ghost festival in Abu was not the sole opportunity for ghosts to pay a visit to living relatives; at the end of the legend of Istar's descent to the Netherworld, it is mentioned that not only does the god Dumuzi return every year, but also that the dead are to "come up and smell the incense" during Dumuzi's festivities (that is, from the 27th to the 29th of the month of Du'uzu or roughly July in our calendar).”- Scurlock, J. A. "Magical Uses Of Ancient Mesopotamian Festivals of the Dead". In Ancient Magic and Ritual Power, (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2001) Pg. 96-97

“The third aspect of Dumuzi—and probably the latest to develop—was perhaps the power of the grain. In the first millennium BCE, there was a three-day festival of Dumuzi throughout the cities of AÍÍur. The first day of the festival was called “the screaming” (ikkillu); the second day was “the release” (paÍru); and the third was simply “Dumuzi.” One of the rituals performed at that time reflects a ritual performed also at Nippur, in Babylonia. Cohen understands this ritual as marking the clearing away of the remains of the spring grain harvest in preparation for the fall sowing. In this ritual Dumuzi is the embodiment of the grain harvest; it is his remains, his dead body that is being cleared away. This interpretation agrees with Jacobsen, who early on proposed that Dumuzi embodied the power of the grain. This three-day festival of Dumuzi, which originally concerned the removal of any remains from the last harvest, the demise of Dumuzi, “evolved into a time when the entire community confronted the cycle of life and death, with implications far greater than just the Dumuzi narrative. It was a time of ghosts, of the spirits of the dead, as well as the appropriate moment for rituals against life-threatening conditions” (Cohen 2011: 258) Dumuzi was a god of the netherworld, where he stood at the gate between Heaven and the netherworld. “Dumuzi’s Dream” dramatically describes the hunting down of Dumuzi by the galla-demons of the netherworld and ultimately Dumuzi’s death. The fourth month of the standard Mesopotamian calendar was named for Dumuzi; it fell in mid-summer and was understood as the month when the god was bound and taken into captivity.”- Frayne, Douglas R.., Stuckey, Johanna H.. A Handbook of Gods and Goddesses of the Ancient Near East: Three Thousand Deities of Anatolia, Syria, Israel, Sumer, Babylonia, Assyria, and Elam. United States: Penn State University Press, 2021. Pg. 76-77

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“The matter is quite simple: The 27th of Du’uzu, the date of Nabû-zuqup-kenu’s copy, falls short into the short period during which the Babylonians and Assyrians of the first millennium performed an annual ritual of mourning for the god Dumuzi/ Tammuz, who was allowed to rise from the Netherworld and spend three days among the living before returning to the infernal adobe that had become his dismal home. The festival, invoked in the last lines of the Akkadian myth known as “Ishtar’s Descent to the Underworld” began with ritual preparations on the 26th of Du'uzu (June) and ended on the 29th of the same month. According to a letter from Nineveh, the 27th was the day of the 'release' (pašāru) of Dumuzi, that is, the day when the god was able to leave the shadowy realm of the dead and walk again upon the earth."- Frahm, Eckart “Nabû-zuqup-kenu, Gilgamesh XII, and the Rites of Du’uzu”, N.A.B.U. Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 2005, 4–5 no. 5. Pg. 4