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The Ancient Near East, Volume 1: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures
An anthology drawn from two magnificent and widely-praised volumes by the same author: "Ancient Near Eastern Texts, " and "The Ancient Near East in Pictures."
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
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399 people want to read
About the author
James B. Pritchard
48 books7 followersPritchard's archaeological reputation began to be established by his excavations at a site called el- Jib (1956–1962). He identified it as Gibeon by inscriptions on the handles of wine jars. He cataloged these in Hebrew Inscriptions and Stamps From Gibeon (1959), which included the first in-depth discussion of concentric-circle incisions on jar handles associated with LMLK seals. He explained the significance of his finds for a general audience in Gibeon: Where the Sun Stood Still (1962).
He followed (1964–1967) with excavations at Tell es-Sa’idiyeh, on the east bank in the Jordan Valley, Jordan, which revealed itself as a meeting place for disparate cultures during the transition in the late Bronze Age to the use of iron, which he connected to the influence of the Sea Peoples ("New evidence on the role of the Sea Peoples in Canaan at the Beginning of the Iron Age"), in The Role of the Phoenicians, 1968. His work was cut short by the 1967 Six-Day War.
His third and last major excavation at Sarafand, Lebanon (1969–1974) revealed the ancient Phoenician city of Sarepta. It was the first time a major Phoenician city situated in the Phoenician heartland had been fully excavated. His first findings were published in 1975: he described pottery workshops and kilns, artifacts of daily use and religious figurines, a shrine, numerous inscriptions that included some in Ugaritic, and a seal with the city's name that made the identification secure. His article, "Sarepta in history and tradition" in Understanding the Sacred Texts (1972) displays his characteristic research. His book Recovering Sarepta, an Ancient Phoenician City (1978) was written for general readers.
Additional works included Archaeology and the Old Testament (1958), which traced the evolution of modern approaches to archaeology from the first excavations in the Holy Land; and Solomon and Sheba (1974), which separated fact from legend.
Prior to his tenured appointment to the University of Pennsylvania, Pritchard taught at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, 1942–1954, as the chair of Old Testament History and Exegesis. At Crozer, Martin Luther King became the most famous of Pritchard's students. He also taught at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California (1954–1962).
An appreciation of James B. Pritchard appeared in the American Journal of Archaeology, Volume 102, Number 1 (January 1998, pages 175-177).
He followed (1964–1967) with excavations at Tell es-Sa’idiyeh, on the east bank in the Jordan Valley, Jordan, which revealed itself as a meeting place for disparate cultures during the transition in the late Bronze Age to the use of iron, which he connected to the influence of the Sea Peoples ("New evidence on the role of the Sea Peoples in Canaan at the Beginning of the Iron Age"), in The Role of the Phoenicians, 1968. His work was cut short by the 1967 Six-Day War.
His third and last major excavation at Sarafand, Lebanon (1969–1974) revealed the ancient Phoenician city of Sarepta. It was the first time a major Phoenician city situated in the Phoenician heartland had been fully excavated. His first findings were published in 1975: he described pottery workshops and kilns, artifacts of daily use and religious figurines, a shrine, numerous inscriptions that included some in Ugaritic, and a seal with the city's name that made the identification secure. His article, "Sarepta in history and tradition" in Understanding the Sacred Texts (1972) displays his characteristic research. His book Recovering Sarepta, an Ancient Phoenician City (1978) was written for general readers.
Additional works included Archaeology and the Old Testament (1958), which traced the evolution of modern approaches to archaeology from the first excavations in the Holy Land; and Solomon and Sheba (1974), which separated fact from legend.
Prior to his tenured appointment to the University of Pennsylvania, Pritchard taught at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, 1942–1954, as the chair of Old Testament History and Exegesis. At Crozer, Martin Luther King became the most famous of Pritchard's students. He also taught at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California (1954–1962).
An appreciation of James B. Pritchard appeared in the American Journal of Archaeology, Volume 102, Number 1 (January 1998, pages 175-177).
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December 4, 2017
"The Ancient Near East, Volume 1: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures" (1958) is an abridged edition of the now-classic collection "Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament" (1950, corrected 1955: commonly ANET) and its companion volume of "The Ancient Near East in Pictures Relating to the Old Testament" (1954: commonly ANEP). Both volumes were edited by James B. Prichard, and for the first he assembled a stellar cast of scholars active at mid-century. They were well-received, although there were, inevitably, some challenges to particular translation choices, and some outright errors were pointed out (and mostly taken care of in the “corrected” edition).
Both books had a supplement / expanded edition in 1969. The volume under review is based on the 1955 (ANET) and 1954 (ANEP) editions. The supplements were excerpted in a later volume of “The Ancient Near East, Volume 2…,” which I also intend to review.
In 2011, the two volumes were combined by Princeton University Press, under the title of “The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts & Pictures.” I reviewed that version on Amazon,in 2013, but I’m picking up the two separate volumes here on Goodreads, along with a revision of the review of the omnibus (henceforth ANETP, a designation I just made up to simply things here). Naturally, these will all have a family resemblance: I can’t think of three different ways to the convey the same information.
First off, the abridged editions, apart or together, can't be considered to amount to a stand-alone introduction to the world of the Hebrew Bible ("Old Testament"), or some of the literatures it contains, as was probably the case with the full ANET edition, back when it first appeared, sixty-some years ago. Even somewhat later, a library reserve copy of ANET was essential reading for a seminar course on Mesopotamian mythology I took in the 1970s.
And competent scholars have quoted its often felicitous translations for decades; some references I have come across were as recent as 2012 (albeit in a revision of work published in the 1980s).
It is nice to have “greatest hits” version available. However, the present volume has been stripped of most headnotes, footnotes, and bibliographic information; which may leave a reader at a loss for where else to turn.
However, what is included is still impressive. Although technically out of date, due both to new textual discoveries and to advances in knowledge of the ancient languages, the translations included were, as the new Foreword to ANETP points out, the work of eminent scholars, most of which stood up well to the test of readability over the last half-century (and more).
And for readers whose main interest is the "Old Testament,” it can be a less intimidating introductory sampler to a topic that still gives pause to some of the traditionally-oriented. (Those who are upset by the idea that God communicated with ancient Israel in terms that people at the time understood; let alone the notion that Scripture might be a human product....)
I should note that the emphasis on material related to the Hebrew Bible in one way or another, marked by marginal references to biblical passages, was not carried over into the abridged edition (with, if memory serves, a couple of perhaps accidental exceptions), and largely abandoned in the 1969 supplement). However, the translations of new material, and replacement translations, still fit into the old, Biblically-influenced, categories, which had probably helped give the book a wider readership during the 1950s and 1960s than it might otherwise have obtained.
It is good to have some of this material available in paperback.
Unfortunately, there were some less-than-brilliant decisions made in producing selection. The Egyptian material, often abridged in ANET, was truncated again for the anthology. (Fortunately, most of the texts have had new translations in recent decades, notably in the three-volume "Literature of Ancient Egypt" by Miriam Lichtheim, and the third edition of "Ancient Egyptian Literature," by W.K. Simpson, et al.)
Missing too, for example, are the first three tablets of the Babylonian "Creation Epic" (otherwise Enuma Elish). The Prologue and Epilogue to the "Laws of Hammurabi." are gone, although they would have helped clarify why Hammurabi's compilation is now considered more of a propaganda exercise, or a representation to the gods how good a king he was, than it was a working law book, to be consulted by judges.
Some sections were left out almost entirely, without notice to the the reader. Sumerian literature is largely missing. These days, the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, or ETCSL, provides an online-source for almost the whole of the recovered literature: but most readers of the selection would hardly know that such texts existed (let alone whether they were otherwise available).
And so forth.
Unless one has several more modern translations of the material covered — and much of it has been treated more recently — this is still worth getting, for the material it does contain, along with the second volume, or in the combined edition, let alone a whole library of translations from the various languages represented. Especially if one can’t afford the full hardcover editions of ANET and ANEP. (If you can, it does need to be emphasized there are places where work from the 1950s and 1960s is now painfully out-of-date, even for those who happen to have a little familiarity with the material.)
Or maybe you can get the whole package of ANET (but not ANEP).
While looking for something else — I think some even older translations of Egyptian literature — I discovered that the Internet Archive (archive.org) has a copy of the complete third edition of ANET (i.e., the text, *not* the illustrations), which can be downloaded, free. In fact, it appears several times, under the title of one or another section of the book, but all the files appear to be complete copies. However, the simplest search is for "Ancient Near Eastern Texts," which has a copy show up in the top row.
(In this complete third edition, the supplemental material is inserted where it properly belongs, not appended, as in the separate volume of the supplement which was also issued — a great courtesy to those who already owned the first or second editions.)
I have no knowledge of the copyright status of this — they may disappear if Princeton University Press objects. But having the whole book available free, even if it must be read on a screen, and is very hard to work with if you want to make notes, or check cross-references, etc., is very nice.
Unfortunately, I have report that the usually reliable PDF version of the book (others formats are available, too) was processed using Optical Character Recognition (OCR), so it is searchable. That sounds good, and is very convenient given the vast size of the volume, but the OCR from time to time messes up words. This is not a great problem when it is just the English vocabulary that is garbled (e.g., "gready" for "greatly"), but it sometimes happens to ancient names and words. In such cases, only someone who already knows the material quite well is likely to be able to sort out the garble to find the correct reading. Even so, if you are interested in trying it out, I recommend the PDF version. The headnotes are in the right size font, the footnotes are in the right places, and so on, which conversion into other formats often ignores or mixes up.
Both books had a supplement / expanded edition in 1969. The volume under review is based on the 1955 (ANET) and 1954 (ANEP) editions. The supplements were excerpted in a later volume of “The Ancient Near East, Volume 2…,” which I also intend to review.
In 2011, the two volumes were combined by Princeton University Press, under the title of “The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts & Pictures.” I reviewed that version on Amazon,in 2013, but I’m picking up the two separate volumes here on Goodreads, along with a revision of the review of the omnibus (henceforth ANETP, a designation I just made up to simply things here). Naturally, these will all have a family resemblance: I can’t think of three different ways to the convey the same information.
First off, the abridged editions, apart or together, can't be considered to amount to a stand-alone introduction to the world of the Hebrew Bible ("Old Testament"), or some of the literatures it contains, as was probably the case with the full ANET edition, back when it first appeared, sixty-some years ago. Even somewhat later, a library reserve copy of ANET was essential reading for a seminar course on Mesopotamian mythology I took in the 1970s.
And competent scholars have quoted its often felicitous translations for decades; some references I have come across were as recent as 2012 (albeit in a revision of work published in the 1980s).
It is nice to have “greatest hits” version available. However, the present volume has been stripped of most headnotes, footnotes, and bibliographic information; which may leave a reader at a loss for where else to turn.
However, what is included is still impressive. Although technically out of date, due both to new textual discoveries and to advances in knowledge of the ancient languages, the translations included were, as the new Foreword to ANETP points out, the work of eminent scholars, most of which stood up well to the test of readability over the last half-century (and more).
And for readers whose main interest is the "Old Testament,” it can be a less intimidating introductory sampler to a topic that still gives pause to some of the traditionally-oriented. (Those who are upset by the idea that God communicated with ancient Israel in terms that people at the time understood; let alone the notion that Scripture might be a human product....)
I should note that the emphasis on material related to the Hebrew Bible in one way or another, marked by marginal references to biblical passages, was not carried over into the abridged edition (with, if memory serves, a couple of perhaps accidental exceptions), and largely abandoned in the 1969 supplement). However, the translations of new material, and replacement translations, still fit into the old, Biblically-influenced, categories, which had probably helped give the book a wider readership during the 1950s and 1960s than it might otherwise have obtained.
It is good to have some of this material available in paperback.
Unfortunately, there were some less-than-brilliant decisions made in producing selection. The Egyptian material, often abridged in ANET, was truncated again for the anthology. (Fortunately, most of the texts have had new translations in recent decades, notably in the three-volume "Literature of Ancient Egypt" by Miriam Lichtheim, and the third edition of "Ancient Egyptian Literature," by W.K. Simpson, et al.)
Missing too, for example, are the first three tablets of the Babylonian "Creation Epic" (otherwise Enuma Elish). The Prologue and Epilogue to the "Laws of Hammurabi." are gone, although they would have helped clarify why Hammurabi's compilation is now considered more of a propaganda exercise, or a representation to the gods how good a king he was, than it was a working law book, to be consulted by judges.
Some sections were left out almost entirely, without notice to the the reader. Sumerian literature is largely missing. These days, the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, or ETCSL, provides an online-source for almost the whole of the recovered literature: but most readers of the selection would hardly know that such texts existed (let alone whether they were otherwise available).
And so forth.
Unless one has several more modern translations of the material covered — and much of it has been treated more recently — this is still worth getting, for the material it does contain, along with the second volume, or in the combined edition, let alone a whole library of translations from the various languages represented. Especially if one can’t afford the full hardcover editions of ANET and ANEP. (If you can, it does need to be emphasized there are places where work from the 1950s and 1960s is now painfully out-of-date, even for those who happen to have a little familiarity with the material.)
Or maybe you can get the whole package of ANET (but not ANEP).
While looking for something else — I think some even older translations of Egyptian literature — I discovered that the Internet Archive (archive.org) has a copy of the complete third edition of ANET (i.e., the text, *not* the illustrations), which can be downloaded, free. In fact, it appears several times, under the title of one or another section of the book, but all the files appear to be complete copies. However, the simplest search is for "Ancient Near Eastern Texts," which has a copy show up in the top row.
(In this complete third edition, the supplemental material is inserted where it properly belongs, not appended, as in the separate volume of the supplement which was also issued — a great courtesy to those who already owned the first or second editions.)
I have no knowledge of the copyright status of this — they may disappear if Princeton University Press objects. But having the whole book available free, even if it must be read on a screen, and is very hard to work with if you want to make notes, or check cross-references, etc., is very nice.
Unfortunately, I have report that the usually reliable PDF version of the book (others formats are available, too) was processed using Optical Character Recognition (OCR), so it is searchable. That sounds good, and is very convenient given the vast size of the volume, but the OCR from time to time messes up words. This is not a great problem when it is just the English vocabulary that is garbled (e.g., "gready" for "greatly"), but it sometimes happens to ancient names and words. In such cases, only someone who already knows the material quite well is likely to be able to sort out the garble to find the correct reading. Even so, if you are interested in trying it out, I recommend the PDF version. The headnotes are in the right size font, the footnotes are in the right places, and so on, which conversion into other formats often ignores or mixes up.
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October 24, 2020i only read like gilgamesh and a few other things and they find like a new part of gilgamesh in a cave every few weeks so did i really read it at all?
July 31, 2025
The Ancient Near East, Volume 1: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures edited by James B. Pritchard is fascinating but I wish it was laid out differently. I would have also preferred more context as well for the texts included. I don't know if I was supposed to know it already going in?
September 27, 2024
Pritchard gives us a wonderful collection of texts and images, but forgets to relate texts (and in general give context) outside of vague resemblances to biblical importance.
I haven't read volume II and I don't intend to. It is likely another work published in the last 60 years would be better suited to most reader's interest.
If you do end up with a copy, check out: "A Pessimistic Dialogue Between Master And Servant" from the Akkadian Observations on Life section in the Wisdom, Prophecy, and Songs" chapter.
I haven't read volume II and I don't intend to. It is likely another work published in the last 60 years would be better suited to most reader's interest.
If you do end up with a copy, check out: "A Pessimistic Dialogue Between Master And Servant" from the Akkadian Observations on Life section in the Wisdom, Prophecy, and Songs" chapter.
August 9, 2025
An important book I just dipped into here and there. First owned it more than 40 years ago.
July 27, 2011
A collection of translations of texts from the 2nd millennium to early 1st millennium BCE, and with photographs of artifacts accompanying those texts. There are also notations of Bible versus which possibly correlated with the translated passages. Much of it was quite boring, but at times I was quite astounded to learn things that had not changed regarding the human condition for nearly three millennia. I don't know how this and Volume II came into my possession, but know that I've been lugging it around in my personal library for almost thirty years, and I've read this volume before in the 1980s.
August 24, 2016
قرات النسخه المترجمه للعربيه تحت عنوان اساطير بابليه
اعجبتني بعض النصوص الاكدية
اطعني ايها العبد ! نعم . يا سيدي نعم .
سأحب امرأة .
نعم ، احب يا سيدي فالرجل الذي يحب امرأة ينسى الالم و الشقاء
لا ايها العبد ، لن احب امرأة
لا تحب يا سيدي لا تحب فالمرأة بئر و المرأة خنجر حديد حاد تقطع رقبة الرجل
:(
اعجبتني بعض النصوص الاكدية
اطعني ايها العبد ! نعم . يا سيدي نعم .
سأحب امرأة .
نعم ، احب يا سيدي فالرجل الذي يحب امرأة ينسى الالم و الشقاء
لا ايها العبد ، لن احب امرأة
لا تحب يا سيدي لا تحب فالمرأة بئر و المرأة خنجر حديد حاد تقطع رقبة الرجل
:(
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December 20, 2013Just sampling a few things, like The Deluge story, precursor to Noah.
I poked around a bit. Nothing too exhaustive. It is amazing how the stories repeat from culture to culture and century to century.
I poked around a bit. Nothing too exhaustive. It is amazing how the stories repeat from culture to culture and century to century.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews