Bottero J., Herrenschmidt C., Vernant J.-P. Ancestor of the West: Writing, Reasoning and Religion in Mesopotamia, Elam and Greece

Originally published as L'Orient ancien et nous: L'e criture, fa raison, fes dieux / Translated by Teresa Lavender Fagan. — The University of Chicago Press, 2000. — 208 pp. — ISBN: 0-226-06715-7.With Ancestor of the West, three distinguished French historians reveal the story of the birth of writing and reason, demonstrating how the logical religious structures of Near Eastern and Mesopotamian cultures served as precursors to those of the West."Full of matter for anyone interested in language, religion, and politics in the ancient world." — R. T. Ridley, Journal of Religious History."In this accessible introduction to the ancient world, three leading French scholars explore the emergence of rationality and writing in the West, tracing its development and its survival in our own traditions...Jean Bottero focuses on writing and religion in ancient Mesopotamia, Clarisse Herrenschmidt considers a broader history of ancient writing, and Jean-Pierre Vernant examines classical Greek civilization in the context of Near Eastern history." — Translation Review.Foreword by François Zabbal.
Religion and Reasoning in Mesopotamia (Jean Bottéro).
The Birth of Civilization.
First Writing.
The Intelligence of the World.
The Gods: A Reasonable Religion.
Writing Between Visible and Invisible Worlds in Iran, Israel, and Greece (Clarisse Herrenschmidt).
Elamite Civilization and Writing.
Consonant Alphabets, the Greek Alphabet, and Old Persian Cuneiform.
Old Persian Cuneiform: Writing as Cosmological Ritual and Text Writing—and Some Thoughts on Hebrew and Greek.
Writing and Civil Religion in Greece (Jean-Pierre Vernant).
Myths and Reasonings.
The Polis: Shared Power.