First, two responses to this review from March:
Bar-Kochva on Wyrick on Bar-Kochva, The Image of the Jews in Greek Literature.
Pelling on Bar-Kochva on Wyrick on Bar-Kochva.
Then, a couple of recent review of possible interest:
Daniel C. Snell, Religions of the Ancient Near East. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Pp. xii, 179. ISBN 9780521683364. $25.99 (pb).
Reviewed by Corinne Bonnet, Université de Toulouse II – Le Mirail & Institut Universitaire de France (cbonnet@univ-tlse2.fr)
Preview
Présenter l’ensemble des religions du Proche-Orient en 179 pages est un défi. Daniel C. Snell l’a courageusement relevé et propose à ses lecteurs une synthèse agréable à lire qui balaie les principales thématiques, aires géographiques et périodes en 17 chapitres. La qualité majeure de cet ouvrage est la conjonction entre une érudition vaste et profonde et une présentation accessible aux non spécialistes. Certes, parfois, on y perd en précision ou l’on tombe dans certaines généralisations que les spécialistes regretteront, mais l’objectif est de fournir un premier panorama que les indications bibliographiques permettront, le cas échéant, d’approfondir.
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Dominique Charpin, Writing, Law, and Kingship in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia (translated by Jane Marie Todd). Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 2010. Pp. 182. ISBN 9780226101583. $55.00.
Reviewed by Rochelle Altman, Sivan College (willaa@netvision.net.il)
Preview
In Classical studies, since the 1990s, it has become increasingly clear that literacy was more widespread in society than had been previously thought. While many Assyriologists maintain that literacy was the exclusive domain of professional scribes and even kings, clergy, and generals are classed among the illiterate, Dominique Charpin has come to similar conclusions about Classical Babylonia. In this volume, Charpin focuses on the relationship between writing and law and, as we could expect from his previous works, makes a strong and convincing case for writing as a more wide-spread phenomenon than has been assumed.
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