[Query] "The Assyrian Tree of Life: Tracing th....

[madness]

Naomi: Hit me with your email add and I will send you a copy of the article.


We have looked at Parpola's theory, and criticism of it, in this thread (see reply posts #3 and #4, also a few online downloadable resources in first post):
enenuru.proboards52.com/index.cgi?board=explore&action=display&thread=173


While appealing, there is no textual evidence to support his theory, and so it remains improbable. See Cooper's review here:
findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go2081/is_3_120/ai_n28810360


On the Assyrian tree, I highly recommend:
Mariana Giovino
The Assyrian Sacred Tree: A History of Interpretations

[madness]

And I'll note here that there does exist a syncretic text where each part of the body of Ninurta is equated with a deity, and thus the body of Ninurta can be seen as a macrocosmic totality (and this text does NOT reflect Parpola's structure).

See Amar Annus, The God Ninurta, pp. 159, 205-206; Barbara N. Porter, One God or Many?, pp. 240-251.


In fact the human ritual actor also equates deities with the parts of his body*, and himself with stars, with wind, with a rainbow, etc., in the Maqlu text. Here Abusch explains this as astral identification so that the ritual actor remains awake through the night, as the stars do, and possibly having a wakeful dream or going into an ecstatic trance.

See Tzvi Abusch, "Ascent to the Stars in a Mesopotamian Ritual," in Death, Ecstasy, and Other Worldly Journeys

* These incantations (Maqlu 6.1-18 and 7.50-57) are "part of a late revision that represents the introduction of an Ekur related tendancy that centers upon dreams."

[us4-he2-gal2]

I resemble that remark!

[madness]

For anyone that is still looking for this article, it has been made available online by the atour.com website:

www.atour.com/education/pdf/SimoParpola-TheAssyrianTreeOfLife.pdf


Cooper's review article should also be consulted before accepting Parpola's theory:

www.atour.com/education/pdf/SimoParpola-AssyrianProphecies-AssyrianTree-MesopotamianOrigins.pdf


Parpola's lengthy introduction to Assyrian Prophecies is also available online:

knp.prs.heacademy.ac.uk/downloads/parpola_saa9intro.pdf
knp.prs.heacademy.ac.uk/downloads/parpola_saa9intro_notes.pdf

[xuchilpaba]

Is this the guy who proposed the Kabbalah Tree of Life is from the Assyrian one?

[madness]

That's right. You can download the whole article to read, in the links above.


An interesting program I came across: at the 56th RAI, JoAnn Scurlock is presenting a paper named "Ancient Roots for the Sefirothic Tree?"

www.rai-barcelona.org/program.html

We'll have to wait for the proceedings to be published, which could take a year or longer (unless someone here happens to be taking a trip to Barcelona this week). Scurlock's findings should be quite illuminating.


Fortunately the abstract is available:

SCURLOCK, JoAnn - Ancient Roots for the Sefirothic Tree?
Was there an origin in Assyrian monotheistic mysticism for the Sefirothic Tree? Probably not. Assyrian religion was henotheistic, never monotheistic, and mysticism was not, insofar as we know, practiced by Mesopotamian intellectuals before the Persian period at the earliest. However, we can still ask with all seriousness whether the Sefirothic Tree has Assyrian roots by exploring a series related questions: Is there any iconographic and/or textual evidence from the Hellenistic period indicating equations of Mesopotamian divinities with Persian and/or Classical gods in such a way as to suggest connection with a putative ancestor of the Sefirothic Tree. If so, is this a spontaneous development of the Hellenistic age as part of "Chaldean" Hellenism or is there an Assyrian ancestor to the Sefirothic Tree?

[madness]

Rather irritating that although RAI 56 has been published this year by Eisenbrauns:

Time and History in the Ancient Near East
www.eisenbrauns.com/item/RAI56

Whatever it was that Scurlock presented at the conference appears to have not been included in the publication.

[us4-he2-gal2]

hmm - so how do you know about what Scurlock presented then? And do you want a copy of that paper?

[madness]

Well I pasted the whole abstract in the post above from 3 years ago.

If you are able to get a copy of her contribution that would be appreciated.

[madness]

ok then, a couple more papers to look at:

Symmetry and the Sacred Date Palm in the Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, King of Assyria
Sarah C. Melville
archive.bridgesmathart.org/2005/bridges2005-155.html


The Tree of Life Design: From Central Asia to Navajoland and Back (With a Mexican Detour) - Part 1
Sandra Busatta
Full paper freely downloadable in the Antrocom Journal (vol. 9.1): www.antrocom.net/

Part 2 of this paper should be in the next issue when it comes out. Busatta connects the tree to shamanism. It would be interesting to see how much of Mesopotamian belief could be traced to shamanistic practice.

[madness]

I know you want more. That's why I'm going to give you more.

Diana Stein has put her papers up and you can download them for free:
birkbeck.academia.edu/DianaSteinWuenscher

I noticed this when I came across her article on the 'Winged Disks and Sacred Trees of Nuzi' (the article really is as good as it sounds).

I originally discovered Stein's work a few years ago when looking through The Iconography of Cylinder Seals in which she contributed the paper 'Palaeolithic Iconography on Bronze Age Seals' - this quickly became one of my favourite, as she discusses drug use in the ancient near east and the recording of altered states of consciousness (e.g. so called "out of body experiences") on seals.

Stein builds on this research in both 'Winged Disks and Sacred Trees' and in 'Drug Consumption and its Social Context in the ancient Near East'. So, the connection between the sacred tree and altered states (and shamanism as in the above post) is one that now appears worth exploring.

[us4-he2-gal2]

Lol - you are indeed are ceaseless and relentless on the sacred tree stuff Madness, we must be going on 6 straight years of sacred tree excitement So, maybe its about time that you write a paper on this stuff hm?