Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia.

• Position: Book Review

Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia. By JEAN BOTTERO. Translated by TERESA LAVENDER FAGAN. Chicago: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, 2001. Pp. xiii + 246. $30.

Recognized as a leading authority on the religion of ancient Mesopotamia, as well as an effective interpreter of recondite material for a popular audience, in 1998 Jean Bottero revised an earlier brief work (published in 1952) and presented his mature reflections as La plus vielle religion: En Mesopotamie (Gallimard). The present translation makes Bottero's systematic depiction of the spiritual life of the Sumerians and particularly the Akkadians available to an Anglophone audience.

Beginning with a short sketch of the historical background, Bottero succinctly sets forth the basics of Mesopotamian belief, piety, and cult, illustrating his points with translations of key passages. While not all will be comfortable with his idealist interpretation of the material, every Assyriologist will admire his erudition and thorough command of the sources. Particularly welcome are Bottero's reprise of his influential discussion of Mesopotamian divinatory science (pp. 170-85), and his elucidation of the changes which astral religion/astrology underwent with its transition from Babylonia to the Hellenistic world (pp. 212ff.).

One quibble: I wonder how to reconcile the...