To find your way in the vast Hittite Pantheon is by no means an easy task. In his Onomasticon of the Hittite Pantheon Ben van Gessel lists all Hittite gods as known from primary sources. Their names are listed as written in Hittite, Sumerian and Akkadian. Moreover, deities not mentioned by a proper name are given. The work ends with the unclassifiable fragments of names. Apart from answering questions about the (often confusing) orthography of the gods' names, each entry categorizes information on their epithets, shrines, priests and servants, cult places, attributes and feasts, as well as about the actual locations in the texts. Where necessary, the author refers to relevant literature.

Volume II, Part I, deals with the history of the region from about 1800 to 1380 BC.

Sumerian, probably the earliest attested language in human history, has no known cognates. Accordingly, many features of Sumerian grammar are still under discussion. Up to now research has focused primarily on questions of Sumerian phonology and morphology. In this present study the author concentrates on syntactic or pragmatic phenomena, especially on the referential properties of the nominal component of certain so-called compound verbs, the unaccusativity contrast, and the possibility of generic quantification in the double object construction.

In this volume the miscellaneous writings of Arnulf Camps are published. They deal with the activities of Catholic missionaries during the last five centuries in nine countries situated between Turkey and Japan. This research focussed on the discovery of hidden, unknown or forgotten sources. New insights were gained into: the reception of the Christian faith in China and Japan; the missionary efforts to enter the Mogul Empire; the composition of the first Sanskrit grammar by a western scholar; the controversial study of Islam by a Franciscan missionary in China; the vain attempt to enter Afghanistan by Mill Hill missionaries; the pioneering work of the founder of Catholic education in Kandy; the policy and practice of establishing local churches in China, India and Vietnam; and the missionary reform by the first Apostolic Delegate in China. Missiologists and historians will find in this book new material as well as new insights.

In contemporary Western culture, the word "fetus" introduces either a political subject or a literal, medicalized entity. Neither of these frameworks does justice to the vast array of religious literature and oral traditions from cultures around the world in which the fetus emerges as a powerful symbol or metaphor. This volume presents essays that explore the depiction of the fetus in the world's major religious traditions, finding some striking commonalities as well as intriguing differences. Among the themes that emerge is the tendency to conceive of the fetus as somehow independent of the mother's body — as in the case of the Buddha, who is described as inhabiting a palace while gestating in the womb. On the other hand, the fetus can also symbolically represent profound human needs and emotions, such as the universal experience of vulnerability. The authors note how the advent of the fetal sonogram has transformed how people everywhere imagine the unborn today, giving rise to a narrow range of decidedly literal questions about personhood, gender, and disability.

"The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria" by Morris Jastrow. Published by DigiCat. DigiCat publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each DigiCat edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

Babylonian Topographical Texts collects for the first time all Babylonian and Assyrian texts of the first millennium B.C. that belong to what is designated the topographical genre. Much of the material is not previously published. The book is largely concerned with Babylon. Seventeen texts on this city now allow its topography to be properly understood for the first time. Another seventeen texts concern the cities of Nippur, Assur, Kish and Uruk. Also included are thirty miscellaneous texts, mostly new, which bear upon topographical matters. The text editions and translations are supplemented by a philological and topical commentary. The work is concluded with full indices, and 57 plates of cuneiform copies.