Dumuzi's Dream: Dream Analysis in Ancient Mesopotamia.

Mesopotamian civilization was the first to develop writing and the first from which literary texts remain, dating back to the late 3rd millennium B.C. Some of these texts contain accounts of dreams, especially of royal figures. The earliest of these texts, evidently the earliest recorded dream in history, is the dream of Dumuzi of Uruk. This dream is embedded within the framework of the larger epic of the Descent of Inanna, and not only is the dream text itself included but also its interpretation, by Dumuzi's sister Geshtin-anna. She appears to have played the role of a professional dream interpretress. There are also several cylinder seals that appear to depict the motifs of Dumuzi's dream. This article examines this dream and its interpretation within the Mesopotamian cultural context. It also compares the dream with several other well-known dream texts from Mesopotamia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ancient Mesopotamia: The Eden That Never Was

Ancient Mesopotamia: The Eden That Never Was. Susan Pollock. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.259 pp.     

After the Revolution: Post-Neolithic Subsistence in Northern Mesopotamia

Over the past two decades there has been a proliferation of studies that reveal a far greater diversity in the pathways to food production worldwide than would have been predicted by traditional models of the Neolithic Revolution. It would now appear that, while there are certain universal elements in the origins of food production, each instance of the incorporation of domestic resources into the subsistence economy is shaped by highly localized social and natural forces. It is perhaps not surprising, then, to find that the times after the Neolithic Revolution do not conform to earlier uniformitarian conceptions of the origin of food production as either a technological blessing or an environmental blight that locked people into an economy based solely on domestic resources. This examination of subsistence at Umm Qseir, one small post-Neolithic community in the Khabur Draïnage of Northern Mesopotamia, highlights the remarkable degree of flexibility and individualized response in post-Neolithic economies in the Near East, especially in marginal areas. The incorporation of both domestic and wild resources into the economy of inhabitants of this site is further shown not to be just an isolated curiosity. Rather, Umm Qseir joins a number of other post-Neolithic communities situated in marginal areas, persisting several millennia after the first introduction of domestic crops and animals, that also fashioned highly individualized subsistence economies based on both wild and damestic resources. In the Khabur Drainage, the blending of domestic and wild resources in the subsistence of people situated in more arid areas is replaced by a more "conventional" agropastoral economy only with development of urbanism and the imposition of an agricultural economy of scale on this fragile environment.     

Ocular rhinosporidiosis in Tamil Nadu,India

A high incidence of ocular rhinosporidiosis in Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, India is reported. Among the four taluks (sub-division for administration), highest occurrence was found in Agastheeswaram taluk (51.2%) followed by Kalkulam (24.4%), Thovalai (22%) and Vilavancode (2.4%). The disease occurred among both sexes equally and preponderance of a particular sex was not observed. The young adolescents were found to be more susceptible. The disease was found in all socio-economic strata and among all communities and persons belonging to different religious groups. Most of the patients gave a history of bathing in muddy stagnant pools of water.Retired Professor of Microbiology and Project Leader University Scheme on Electronmicroscopic and Ultrastructural studies on rhinosporidiosis in nasal polyps of animals and man.