Looking for information about ancient Mesopotamia

Hello all,

I'm new here, and I'm looking for information regarding gods, religions and general beliefs. I need reliable, quotable sources of non-biblical writings and scriptures. If anyone has any good links or sources of information, I'd be much obliged!

Cheers

Carl

just do a google search for sumerian and babylonian history...you should be able to find everything you need on a plethora of reliable sources

i've recently developed an obsession with sumeria and the annunaki(the creation gods of sumerian mythology). the term has been translated as "those who came to earth from the heavens." interesting stuff, especially when delving into sumerian astronomy, and how ridiculously accurate they were in mapping out our solar system

I've done a few, however most sources are geocities sites by over-eager amatures or wikipedia. I'm looking for translations done on a university or government site of some kind, you know, something authentic.

I too am obsessed with the fact that ancient mesopotamia seems to be utterly mythological!

Did you hear about the chinese village of 1.2m tall people who "came from the stars, crashed and were unable to repair their ship"?

reply to post by C.C.Benjamin


www.sacred-texts.com...

www.ccds.charlotte.nc.us...

Try those to start with, if you want some more links send me a u2u.

Have fun.

mojo

btw Mesopotamia is far from mythological, where did you get that idea?


(edit to fix links)

[edit on 6/9/07 by mojo4sale]

[edit on 6/9/07 by mojo4sale]

If you are going to look for historic events about ancient Mesopotamia, then do a search about Assyrians, Sumerian's, Babylon, and such. There is too much historic events in that area, so I do not know where to start, and even if I did it would be way to much to post.
Give me a few days when I get in the mood, I will make a historic post about each nation that was in Mesopotamia. I would have to break it down into different posts, but none the less I will do it in the near future.

Are you searching for general information on the area, or do you want specific things? I use Wikipedia if I need a quick intro, but if I want a quick overview of the whole field, I look at several university sites to see what's being taught in courses in these fields (example: humanities.uchicago.edu... ) because the teachers will often post a syllabus for the course with recommended readings.

That gives you names that you can google for.

Usenet also has FAQs from the scholars on the discussion lists. They're a handy way to get an overview:
sumerian - home.comcast.net...

Assyro-Babylonian FAQ: home.comcast.net...

The Sacred Texts site has reliable information on the mythology:
www.sacred-texts.com...

Although the scholarship here is old (books are dated 1900-1950), it serves as a good introduction to the beliefs and mythologies of the whole area:
www.sacred-texts.com...

And after you've gotten your feet wet with that, then the next thing to look at is the archaeology of the regions you're interested in and THEN hop over to scholar.google.com... and read up on all the new findings and interesting developments in the scholarly fields.

Originally posted by Equinox99
If you are going to look for historic events about ancient Mesopotamia, then do a search about Assyrians, Sumerian's, Babylon, and such. There is too much historic events in that area, so I do not know where to start, and even if I did it would be way to much to post.
Give me a few days when I get in the mood, I will make a historic post about each nation that was in Mesopotamia. I would have to break it down into different posts, but none the less I will do it in the near future.

That would be wonderful! Please do that!

Thanks for the help all.

Mojo4sale - I know it isn't actually mythological, I was exaggerating! Thanks for the links, when i'm not at work, i'll check those out.

Byrd - Cheers for the ideas, if you do happen to have a list of universities, I'm sure posting them here would help everyone. Thanks!