Programme
In historically oriented humanities and cultural studies, the origin of reflection on knowledge, which leads to the documentation and transmission of findings in the cultural process, is often linked to the formation of Greek philosophy since pre-Socratic times. Earlier cultural stages are described as “archaic”, in which reflections on the genesis of knowledge and its documentation are said to have been almost non-existent. With reference to the ancient Near East with its advanced civilizations on the Euphrates, Tigris and Nile, which exerted a significant influence on the formation of Old Testament thought, a projection of mythology onto earthly regulatory processes has been postulated in the course of the history of science. In contrast to this, the session takes aim at creating a concise picture of epistemological approaches in the knowledge cultures of the Ancient Near East. The formation of epistemes and their context, from which an epistemology of the ancient Near East emerges, determine the cultural process on different levels, which will be examined by means of individual contributions.