Ideas: A History from Fire to Freud

68. Nissen, Op. cit., page 95.

69. Ibid.

70. H. and H. A. Frankfort et al., Before Philosophy, London: Penguin, 1949, page 224. Andrew R. George, The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts (2 vols), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

71. Contenau, Op. cit., page 204.

72. Frankfort et al., Op. cit., page 225.

73. Ibid., page 226.

74. Contenau, Op. cit., page 205.

75. Frankfort et al., Op. cit., page 226.

76. Lionel Casson, Libraries in the Ancient World, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001, page 4.

77. Ibid., page 7.

78. Ibid., page 13.

79. Charvát, Op. cit., page 101.

80. Ibid., page 210.

81. Ibid.

82. Leick, Op. cit., page 90.

83. Stuart Piggott, Wagon, Chariot and Carriage, London and New York: Thames & Hudson, 1992, page 16.

84. Ibid., page 21, map.

85. Ibid., page 41.

86. Ibid.

87. Ibid., page 44.

88. Yuri Rassamakin, ‘The Eneolithic of the Black Sea steppe: dynamics of cultural and economic development 4500–2300 BC’, in Marsha Levine et al., Late Prehistoric Exploitation of the Eurasian Steppe, Cambridge, England: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research Monographs, 1999, pages 136–137.

89. Ibid., pages 5–58.

90. Ibid., page 9.

91. Quoted in Saggs, Op. cit., page 176.

92. Arthur Ferrill, The Origins of War, London and New York: Thames & Hudson, 1985, page 15.

93. Ibid., pages 18–19.

94. Ibid., page 21.

95. Ibid., page 26. In Sumer, writing provides evidence that they had no compunction in raiding mountain peoples to kill, loot and enslave. The ideogram for ‘slave-girl’ is a combination of ‘woman’ and ‘mountain’. Saggs, Op. cit., page 176.

96. Ferrill, Op. cit., page 46.

97. Ibid., pages 66–67.

98. Ibid., page 72. The Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin has used Assyrian sculptural reliefs to study the development of siege techniques in warfare. Sieges became necessary after the rise of armies in the second and first millennia BC had stimulated the building everywhere of fortified sites. Assyrian generals developed a variety of specialised equipment. There was the battering ram and the mobile tower, both on wheels. The discovery of carburised iron encouraged the development of special poles and pikes to scrape away at weak point in city walls. Sieges were never easy: most cities kept enough food and water to live on for more than a year, by which time anything could have happened (when the Assyrians were besieging Jerusalem in 722 BC, they were decimated by plague). Assault was always preferred to a waiting game. See Ferrill, Op. cit., pages 76–77.

99. Saggs, Op. cit., page 156.

100. Roux, Op. cit., page 185.

101. W. G. De Burgh, The Legacy of the Ancient World, London: Penguin, 1953/1961, page 25.

102. Saggs, Op. cit., pages 156–158.

103. Roux, Op. cit., page 187.

104. Ibid., page 171.

105. Ibid., page 173.

106. Saggs, Op. cit., page 160.

107. Ibid., page 161.

108. Ibid., page 162.

109. Ibid.

110. Ibid., page 165.

111. Charvát, Op. cit., page 155.

112. Ibid., page 230.

113. Ibid., page 236.

CHAPTER 5: SACRIFICE, SOUL, SAVIOUR: THE ‘SPIRITUAL BREAKTHROUGH’

1. Brian Fagan, From Black Land to Fifth Sun: The Science of Sacred Sites, Reading, Massachusetts: Helix/Perseus Books, 1998, pages 244–245.

2. The Khonds, a Dravidian tribe of Bengal, offered sacrifices to the earth goddess. The victim, known as Meriah, was either bought from his parents, or born of parents who were themselves victims. The Meriahs lived happily for years, and were regarded as consecrated beings; they married other ‘victims’ and were given a piece of land as a dowry. About two weeks before the sacrifice, the victim’s hair was cut off in a ceremony where everyone assisted. This was followed by an orgy and the Meriah was brought to a part of the nearby forest ‘as yet not defiled by the axe’. He was anointed in melted butter and other oils, and flowers, and then drugged with opium. He was killed by being either crushed, strangled, or roasted slowly over a brazier. Then he was cut into pieces. These remains were taken back to nearby villages where they were buried to ensure a good harvest. Mircea Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, London: Sheed & Ward, 1958, pages 344–345.