Fields of Blood (77 page)

33.
Schneider,
Ancient Mesopotamian Religion,
p. 45.

34.
Keegan,
History of Warfare,
p. 128.

35.
Epic of Gilgamesh,
Standard Version, tablet 2:109–110, George translation.

36.
Epic of Gilgamesh,
tablet 1:220–23, George translation.

37.
Ibid., Yale Tablet, 18, George translation.

38.
O’Connell,
Ride of Second Horseman,
pp. 96–97.

39.
A. L. Oppenheim, “Trade in the Ancient Near East,”
International Congress of Economic History
5 (1976).

40.
Kautsky,
Politics of Aristocratic Empires,
p. 178.

41.
Thorstein Veblen,
The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions
(Boston, 1973), pp. 41, 45, 30; my emphasis.

42.
Gilgamesh,
Yale Tablet, 97; Standard Version, tablet 3:54.

43.
Kautsky,
Politics of Aristocratic Empires,
pp. 170–72, 346.

44.
Gilgamesh,
Standard Version, tablet 2:233, Yale Tablet, 149–50.

45.
Gilgamesh,
185–87; Mitchell’s emphasis.

46.
Gilgamesh,
Standard Version, tablet 3:44.

47.
Chris Hedges,
War Is a Force That Give Us Meaning
(New York, 2003), p. 21.

48.
Gilgamesh,
Yale Tablet, line 269.

49.
Gilgamesh,
Standard Version, tablet 11:322–26.

50.
R. L. D. Cribb,
Nomads and Archaeology
(Cambridge, UK, 1999), pp. 18, 136, 215.

51.
O’Connell,
Ride of Second Horseman,
pp. 67–68.

52.
K. C. Chang,
The Archaeology of Ancient China
(New Haven, CT, 1968), pp. 152–54.

53.
O’Connell,
Ride of Second Horseman,
pp. 77–78.

54.
Ibid.

55.
Tacitus,
Germania,
14, quoted in Kautsky,
Politics of Aristocratic Empires,
p. 178.

56.
Veblen,
Theory of Leisure Class,
p. 45.

57.
Bruce Lincoln, “Indo-European Religions: An Introduction,” in Lincoln,
Death, War, and Sacrifice: Studies in Ideology and Practice
(Chicago and London, 1991), pp. 1–10.

58.
Mary Boyce, “Priests, Cattle and Men,”
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
50, no. 3 (1998).

59.
For example,
Yasna
30.7c, 32, 49:4b, 50:7a, 30:106, 44:4d, 51:96; Bruce Lincoln, “Warriors and Non-Herdsmen; A Response to Mary Boyce,”
Death, War, and Sacrifice,
pp. 147–60.

60.
Lincoln, “Indo-European Religions,” pp. 10–13.

61.
Ibid., p. 12.

62.
Bruce Lincoln, “War and Warriors: An Overview,” in
Death, War, and Sacrifice,
pp. 138–40.

63.
Homer,
Iliad,
12:310–15, in
The Iliad of Homer,
trans. Richard Lattimore (Chicago and London, 1951). All quotes from the
Iliad
are from this translation.

64.
Lincoln, “War and Warriors,” p. 143.

65.
Georges Dumézil,
The Destiny of the Warrior,
trans. Alf Hiltebeitel (Chicago and London, 1969), pp. 64–74.

66.
Iliad,
20:490–94.

67.
Iliad,
20:495–503; Seth L. Schein,
The Mortal Hero: An Introduction to Homer’s Iliad
(Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1984), pp. 145–46.

68.
Lincoln, “Indo-European Religions,” p. 4.

69.
Dumézil,
Destiny of Warrior,
pp. 106–7.

70.
Iliad,
4:492–88.

71.
Homer,
Odyssey,
11:500 in
Homer: The Odyssey,
trans. Walter Shewring (Oxford and New York, 1980).

72.
James Mellaart,
Neolithic of the Near East
(New York, 1976), pp. 119, 167, 206–7; O’Connell,
Ride of Second Horseman,
pp. 74–81.

73.
J. N. Postgate,
Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History
(London, 1992), p. 251.

74.
O’Connell,
Ride of Second Horseman,
pp. 132–42.

75.
Keegan,
History of Warfare,
pp. 130–31.

76.
John Romer,
People of the Nile: Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt
(New York, 1982), p. 115.

77.
Keegan,
History of Warfare,
pp. 133–35.

78.
Yigal Yadin,
The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands,
2 vols. (New York, 1963), 1:134–35; Robert McAdams,
The Evolution of Urban Society: Early Mesopotamia and Prehispanic Mexico
(New York, 1973), p. 149.

79.
Kramer,
Sumerian Mythology,
pp. 123, 120.

80.
Kautsky,
Politics of Aristocratic Empires,
p. 108. See Carlo M. Cipolla,
Before the Industrial Revolution: European Society and Economy, 1000
—
1700
(New York, 1976), pp. 129–30, 151.

81.
Robert L. O’Connell,
Of Arms and Men: A History of War, Weapons, and Aggression
(New York and Oxford, 1989), p. 38; O’Connell,
Ride of Second Horseman,
pp. 100–101; William H. McNeill,
The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force, and Society Since A.D. 1000
(Chicago, 1982), pp. 2–3; Schneider,
Ancient Mesopotamian
Religion,
pp. 22–23; Oppenheim,
Ancient Mesopotamia,
pp. 153–54; Gwendolyn Leick,
Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City
(London, 2001), pp. 85–108.

82.
Joseph A. Schumpeter,
Imperialism and Social Classes: Two Essays
(New York, 1955), p. 25; Perry Anderson,
Lineages of the Absolutist State
(London, 1974), p. 32.

83.
Anderson,
Lineages,
p. 31; Anderson’s emphasis.

84.
Kautsky,
Politics of Aristocratic Empires,
pp. 148–52.

85.
Marc Bloch,
Feudal Society
(Chicago, 1961), p. 298.

86.
Leick,
Mesopotamia,
pp. 95, 100. The “Lower” and “Upper Seas” were, respectively, the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean.

87.
J. B. Pritchard, ed.,
Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament
(Princeton, NJ, 1969), p. 164.

88.
F. C. Fensham, “Widows, Orphans and the Poor in Ancient Eastern Legal and Wisdom Literature,”
Journal of Near Eastern Studies
21 (1962).

89.
Pritchard,
Ancient Near Eastern Texts,
p. 178, my emphasis.

90.
Marshall G. S. Hodgson,
The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization
(Chicago and London, 1974), pp. 1:108–10.

91.
Schneider,
Ancient Mesopotamian Religion,
pp. 105–6. The meaning and derivation of
akitu
is unknown; see Jacobsen, “Cosmos as State,” p. 169.

92.
Nancy K. Sandars, ed. and trans., “The Babylonian Creation Hymn,” in Sandars,
Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia
(London, 1971), pp. 44–60.

93.
Jonathan Z. Smith, “A Pearl of Great Price and a Cargo of Yams: A Study in Situational Incongruity,” in
Imagining Religion,
pp. 90–96; Mircea Eliade,
A History of Religious Ideas,
trans. Willard R. Trask, 3 vols. (Chicago, 1978), 1:72–76; Sandars, “Babylonian Creation Hymn,” pp. 47–51.

94.
Smith, “Pearl of Great Price,” p. 91.

95.
Sandars, “Babylonian Creation Hymn,” section I, p. 73.

96.
Ibid., pp. 73, 79.

97.
O’Connell,
Ride of Second Horseman,
pp. 141–42.

98.
Leick,
Mesopotamia,
pp. 198–216.

99.
A. K. Grayson,
Assyrian Royal Inscriptions,
2 vols. (Wiesbaden, 1972, 1976), 1:80–81.

100.
H. W. F. Saggs,
The Might That Was Assyria
(London, 1984), pp. 48–49; I. M. Diakonoff,
Ancient Mesopotamia: Socio-Economic History
(Moscow, 1969), pp. 221–22.

101.
Grayson,
Assyrian Royal Inscriptions,
pp. 123–24.

102.
Saggs,
Might That Was Assyria,
pp. 62, 61.

103.
Ludlul Bel Nemeqi,
in Jacobsen, “Cosmos as State,” pp. 212–14.

104.
Yasna 46. Norman Cohn,
Cosmos, Chaos and the World to Come: The Ancient Roots of Apocalyptic Faith
(New Haven, CT, and London, 1993), p. 77; Mary Boyce,
Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices,
2nd ed. (London and New York), p. xliii; Peter Clark,
Zoroastrians: An Introduction to an Ancient Faith
(Brighton and Portland, OR, 1998), p. 19.

105.
Yasna 30.

106.
Boyce,
Zoroastrians,
pp. 23–24.

107.
Lincoln, “Warriors and Non-Herdsmen,” p. 153.

108.
Yasna 44.

109.
Lincoln, “Warriors and Non-Herdsmen,” p. 158.

1.
Jarrod L. Whitaker,
Strong Arms and Drinking Strength: Masculinity, Violence, and the Body in Ancient India
(Oxford, 2011), pp. 152–53.

2.
Rig Veda 3:32:1–4, 9–11.

3.
Edwin Bryant,
The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan
Debate
(Oxford and New York, 2001); Colin Renfrew,
The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins
(London, 1987); Romila Thapar,
Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300
(Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2002), pp. 105–7.

4.
Whitaker,
Strong Arms,
pp. 3–5; Wendy Doniger,
The Hindus: An Alternative History
(Oxford, 2009), pp. 111–13.

5.
Louis Renou,
Religions of Ancient India
(London, 1953), p. 20; Michael Witzel, “Vedas and Upanishads,” in Gavin Flood, ed.,
The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism
(Oxford, 2003), pp. 70–71; J. C. Heesterman, “Ritual, Revelation, and the Axial Age,” in S. N. Eisenstadt, ed.,
The Origins and Diversity of Axial Age Civilizations
(Albany, NY, 1986), p. 398.

6.
Heesterman, “Ritual, Revelation,” pp. 396–98;
The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays on Indian Ritual, Kingship and Society
(Chicago and London, 1985), p. 206; John Keay,
India: A History
(London, 2000), pp. 31–33; Thapar,
Early India,
pp. 126–30.

7.
Rig Veda 1:32:5,
The Rig Veda,
trans. Ralph T. H. Griffith (London, 1992).

8.
Shatapatha Brahmana (SB), 6.8.1.1, in J. C. Heesterman,
The Broken World of Sacrifice: An Essay in Ancient Indian Religion
(Chicago and London, 1993), p. 123.

9.
Rig Veda 8:16:1, 8:95:6, 10:38:4.

10.
Whitaker,
Strong Arms,
pp. 3–5, 16–23; Catherine Bell,
Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice
(New York, 1992), pp. 180–81, 221.

11.
Renou,
Religions of Ancient India,
p. 6; Witzel, “Vedas and Upanishads,” p. 73.

12.
Whitaker,
Strong Arms,
pp. 115–17.

13.
Rig Veda 2:22:4.

14.
Rig Veda 3:31, 10:62:2.

15.
Witzel, “Vedas and Upanishads,” p. 72.

16.
Doniger,
Hindus,
p. 114.

17.
Heesterman, “Ritual, Revelation,” p. 403.

18.
SB 7:1:1:1–4, in Mircea Eliade,
The Myth of the Eternal Return: Cosmos and History,
trans. Willard R. Trask (Princeton, NJ, 1974), pp. 10–11.

19.
Maitrayani Samhita 4:2:1:23:2, in Heesterman,
Broken World,
pp. 23–24, 134–37.

20.
SB 2:2:2:8–10; Heesterman,
Broken World,
p. 24.

21.
Georges Dumézil,
The Destiny of the Warrior,
trans. Alf Hiltebeitel (Chicago and London, 1970), pp. 76–78.

22.
John H. Kautsky,
The Political Consequences of Modernization
(New Brunswick, NJ, and London, 1997), pp. 25–26.

23.
Whitaker,
Strong Arms,
p. 158.

24.
Louis Renou, “Sur la notion de ‘brahman,’ ”
Journal Asiatique
237 (1949); Jan Gonda,
Change and Continuity in Indian Religion
(The Hague, 1965), p. 200.

25.
Rig Veda 1:164:46. Garatman was the Sun.

26.
Rig Veda 10:129:6–7.

27.
Jan Gonda,
The Vision of the Vedic Poets
(The Hague, 1963), p. 18.

28.
Renou,
Religions of Ancient India,
pp. 220–25; R. C. Zaehner,
Hinduism
(London, New York, and Toronto, 1962), pp. 219–25.

29.
Rig Veda 10:90.

30.
Rig Veda 10:90:11–14, Griffiths translation, modified.

31.
Bruce Lincoln, “Indo-European Religions: An Introduction,” in Lincoln,
Death, War, and Sacrifice: Studies in Ideology and Practice
(Chicago and London, 1991), p. 8.

32.
Bruce Lincoln, “Sacrificial Ideology and Indo-European Society,” in Lincoln,
Death, War, and Sacrifice,
p. 173.

33.
Thapar,
Early India,
p. 123.

34.
Lincoln, “Sacrificial Ideology,” pp. 174–75.