Ricerc@Sapienza

A large part of the archaeological remains still to be discovered and excavated are not in remote and depopulated areas of the earth but are often beneath urban centres that have buried them with centuries of debris and later constructions. Excavating in these contexts is much more complex than digging in rural or sparsely inhabited areas because of the constraints imposed by existing buildings and infrastructure.

In this paper I discuss the Mesopotamian concept of time, from its mythological foundation to its ritual reckoning in calendrical festivals, taking the Babylonian Poem of Creation as a main guideline. From the creation, and conception, of time in cosmogonies I proceed to treat the dichotomy mythical vs. historical time and the preeminent theories on time when applied to religious phenomena. The recitation of the Poem of Creation during the New Year festival (ak?tu) is taken as a key element to deal with the function and relation of rituals with time marking, creation, and control.

The hypostyle hall of the Minaean temple Qabḍum in Barāqish (ancient Yathil), dedi- cated to ʿAthtar dhu-Qabḍ, is characterised by the presence of four long offertory tables that were discovered in situ in an overall good condition. This article presents an analysis of these objects together with their epigraphic material with the aim of better understand- ing the rituals that may have been connected to them.