The ancient Near East : an anthology of texts and pictures /

For biblical studies and an introduction to ancient Near East texts such as the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Code of Hammurabi, the various editions of Pritchard's translations are valuable resources. Pritchard's work was preceded by a German work, Hugo Gressmann's Altorientalische Texte und Bilder zum alten Testament (1926-27). For English-speaking researchers, Pritchard called on 13 excellent translators for the first edition of Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (1950). A follow-up volume, The Ancient Near East in Pictures Relating to the Old Testament, appeared in 1954. Pritchard corrected and enlarged the texts volume in a second edition (1955), with an additional supplement of pictures for a third edition of the texts (second of the pictures) in 1969. A less expensive one-volume Anthology appeared in 1958, with a second, distinct collection in 1975. The current reprinted volume adds nothing more than a new foreword, with a slight rearrangement of the order of texts within a single volume, unfortunately omitting details of the separated pictures. Editors W. W. Hallo and K. L. Younger, with contemporary translators, created a modern replacement and selections of texts in the three-volume The Context of Scripture (1997-2002; vol. 1, CH, Nov'97, 35-1473). Kenton Sparks provided Ancient Texts for the Study of the Hebrew Bible: A Guide to the Background Literature (CH, Jan'06, 43-2759), thoroughly referencing both Pritchard and Hall, and adding extensive bibliographies lacking in the 2011 Pritchard edition. Summing Up: Optional. Lower-level undergraduates through graduate students; general readers. C. C. Smith emeritus, University of Wisconsin--River Falls