Ritual and Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the International Conference Organized by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven fron the 17th to the 20th of April, 1991.

• Author: Parker, Simon B.

This well-edited collection of articles includes several valuable surveys, as well as more specialized studies on a variety of topics. Many of the contributions are informative, illuminating, or persuasive. One is nevertheless left, perhaps not surprisingly, with a very superficial sense of what ritual and sacrifice meant to the peoples of the ancient Near East. In this respect, the first paper (by a classicist - Bergquist) presents a model and challenge for a broader approach which is rarely achieved in these papers: the integration of textual, archaeological, and iconographic data. I would only add that such studies might have the best chance of penetrating the human and social dimensions of such institutions in the ancient Near East when they are further informed by knowledge of ethnographic descriptions of the place of rituals and sacrifices in the social lives of communities (cf. Schoors' remark on p. 507).

1. Schoors' opening paper on "100 Years Ancient Near East at Leuven/Louvain" (pp. 3-10) and concluding summary ("Synthesis" [pp. 501-7]) frame thirty papers on the theme of the conference (presented in the volume in alphabetical order by author). Two of the papers listed in the program of the 1993 conference (printed on pp. ix-xi) are not included in the volume: M. I. Bakr, "Ritual and Sacrifice in the Eastern Delta," and J. Kinnaer, "Le Sacrifice du taureau dans les temples egyptiens de l'epoque greco-romaine." In their place are two articles submitted later by Labrique and Wasilewska.

Only two of the contributions are systematically comparative or cross-cultural: B. Bergquist, "Bronze Age Sacrificial Koine in the Eastern Mediterranean? A Study of Animal Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East" (pp. 11-43); and E. Lanciers, "Die Opfer im hellenistischen Herrscherkult und ihre Rezeption bei der einheimischen Bevolkerung der hellenistischen Reiche" (pp. 203-23). I list the rest by region.

Egypt. E. Bresciani, "Elements de rituel et d'offrande dans le texte demotique de 'l'Oeil du Soleil'" (pp. 45-49); Ph. Derchain, "Du Temple cosmique au temple ludique" (pp. 93-97); M.-Th. Derchain-Urtel, "Les Scenes rituelles des temples d'epoque greco-romaine en Egypte et les regles du jeu 'Domino'" (pp. 99-105); P. Dils, "Wine for Pouring and Purification in Ancient Egypt" (pp. 107-23); E. Graefe, "Die Deutung der sogenannten 'Opfergaben' der Ritualszenen agyptischer Tempel als 'Schriftzeichen'" (pp. 143-56); P. Koemoth, "Le Rite de redresser Osiris"...