Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1909 edition. Excerpt: ... AMURRU IN THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS Recent investigations on the part of the writer have resulted in the conviction that most of the deities of the Semitic Babylonians, which have been recognized by scholars as original sun-gods, had their origin in the great solar deity of the Western Semites, known as Amar or Mar and Vr, which was written in the script of the West, or and "UK, or *TI, also known as {POSP. This deity, after having been transplanted to Babylonia by the Semites, appeared under different written forms in different localities, as NE-URU-GAL at Cutha, AMAR-UTUG at Babylon, etc. This is due to the fact that the Semites adopted the non-Semitic cuneiform script of the Sumerians. These Sumerian forms in time were semitized and became Nergal and Marduk, as the Sumerian EN-LIL, "Lord of the LIL," became Ellil and the Sumerian N IN-GAL, "Great mistress," became Nikkal, etc. With later streams of immigration coming from the West, as, for instance, in the Nisin dynasty (third millennium B.C.), the name in its original form continued to be brought into the country; but coming in when the early Sumerian forms of the Semitic names, as well as the religion, had been babylonized, they were treated as distinct deities. These, however, were not admitted at once into the Babylonian pantheon of gods, but were treated for centuries as alien deities, as is shown by the fact that the determinative for deity in many cases was omitted. Naturally an important point to be determined is that these movements from the West actually took place. In a paper read before the American Oriental Society in Philadelphia (Easter week, 1907) the writer referred to the fact that at the time of the First dynasty of Babylon (2000 B.C.), the personal names show that...
