ESKİ YAKINDOĞU’DA RİTÜEL ŞİDDET, KURBAN BUNALIMI VE TOPLUMSAL DÜZENİN KONSOLİDASYONU: İNSAN KURBANI VE TOPLUMSAL ETKİLERİ

Seçkinler sınıfının oluşmaya başladığı, toplumsal eşitsizliğinin arttığı dönemlerde, Eski Yakındoğu’da, insan kurbanıyla ilgili çok önemli buluntular açığa çıkarılmıştır. Sosyal ve ekonomik dinamiklerin değişmeye başladığı bu tür toplumlarda, toplumsal eşitsizliğin yarattığı gerilim ve şiddetin önüne geçebilmek için paradoksal olarak hem eşitsizliği besleyen hem de çatışma ve anlaşmazlığı görünür olmaktan çıkaran ritüel davranışlar artmaya başlamıştır. Kendi simgesel kimliğinin sınırlarının dışında kalanı kötü, kirli ve varlığına tehdit olarak gören bu topluluklar için ritüel şiddetin besleneceği kaynaklar, düşük statüdeki bireyler, yeni doğanlar ve esirler üzerinden karşılanmaktaydı. Eski Yakındoğu’da yaşamın, ölümün ve yer altı dünyasının algılanış biçimi modern toplumlardaki seküler dünya görüşü ve kavramlarıyla açıklanamaz. Arkeolojik kazılar sonucunda elde edilen bulgular dışında Sumerce yazılı belgelerde ve çeşitli mühürler üzerinde insan kurbanına dair önemli bilgiler elde edilmiştir. Sumerce yazılı belgelerde çok sık olmamakla birlikte iki yerde insan kurbanına dair bilgiler öne çıkmaktadır. İkonografik buluntular üzerinde ise insan kurbanı genelde bir tanrısal şiddetle ilintili görülmektedir.

Ritual Violence, Sacrificial Crisis and Consolidation of the Social Order in the Ancient Near East: Human Sacrifice and Its Social Effects

In periods, during which elite class began to arise, social inequality increased, in ancient Near East, quite significant findings about human sacrifice has been uncovered. In such societies, where social and economic dynamics began to change, to be able to prevent the tension created by social inequality and the violence, ritual behaviors that paradoxically both fed inequality and made conflict and disagreement invisible began to increase. For these societies seeing the rest as out of bounds of their own symbolic identity as bad, filthy and a threat to their existence, the sources, on which ritual violence was fed, were met through individuals in low status, new born and slaves. Perception manner of life, death and underworld in ancient Near East cannot be explained with secular world view and its concepts in modern societies. Except from findings obtained as a result of archeological excavations, in documents written in Sumerian language and on various seals, important information has been attained related to human sacrifice. Although not frequently, in the documents written in Sumerian information about human sacrifice has come to the forefront in two points. On iconographic findings human sacrifice has in general been seen as connected to divine violence.

PDF

___

Abusch, T. 2002, “Sacrifice in Mesopotamia”, Sacrifice in Religious Experience. A. I. Baumgarten (ed.), BRILL, Leiden & Boston: 39-48.
Akkuş Mutlu, S. 2014, “Eski Mezopotamya’da Tanrılara Sunulan Kurbanlar”, Tarih Okulu Dergisi 7/XVII: 1-17.
Amiet, P. 1980, La Glyptique Mésopotamienne Archaïque. Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris.
Baadsgaard, A., J. Monge, S. Cox, ve R. L. Zettler 2011, “Human sacrifice and intentional corpse preservation in the Royal Cemetery of Ur”, Antiquity 85: 27-42.
Baudrillard, J. 2016, Simgesel Değiş Tokuş ve Ölüm. (Çev. O. Adanır), Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Yayınları, 4. Baskı, İstanbul.
Bataille, G. 1989, Theory of Religion. Zone Books, New York.
Bell, C. 2009, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. Oxford University Press, New York.
Black, J. ve A. Green, 1992, Gods, Demons and Symbols in Ancient Mesopotamia. The British Museum Press, London.
Boehmer, R. M. 1999, Uruk: Früheste Siegelabrollungen. Ausgrabungen in Uruk-Warka Endberichte 24. Mainz: P. Von Zbern.
Bottéro, J. 1992, Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning, and the Gods. (Çev. Z. Bahrani ve M. V. De Mieroop), The University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London.
Buchanan, B. 1970, “Cylinder Seal Impressions in the Yale Babylonian Collection Illustrating a Revolution in Art Circa 1700 B.C.”, The Yale University Library Gazette 45/2: 53-65.
Buchanan, B., 1981, Early Near Eastern Seals in the Yale Babylonian Collection. Yale University Press, New Haven-London.
Burkert, W. 1983, Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth. (Çev: Pter Bing), University of California Press, Berkeley.
Carter, E. 2012, “On Human and Animal Sacrifice in the Late Neolithic at Domuztepe”, Sacred Killing The Archaeology of Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East, A. M. Porter and G. M. Schwartz (eds.), Eisenbrauns Inc. Winona Lake, Indiana: 97-124.
Clastres, P. 2006, Devlete Karşı Toplum. (Çev. M. Sert ve N. Demirtaş), Ayrıntı Yayınları, 2. Baskı, İstanbul.
Cohen, A. C. 2005, Death Rituals, Ideology, and the Development of Early Mesopotamian Kingship: Toward a New Understanding of Iraq’s Royal Cemetery of Ur. BRILL, Leiden.
Collon, D. 1987, First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East. British Museum Publications, London.
Collon, D. 1995, Ancient Near Eastern Art. University of California Press, Berkeley & Los Angeles.
Çetin, Ö. 2009, “Kurban Teorileri”, Çukurova Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 9/1: 189-221.
Erdal, Ö. D. 2012, “A Possible Massacre at Early Bronze Age Titriş Höyük, Anatolia”, Internatiaonl Journal of Osteoarcheology 22: 1-21.
Erdal, Y. S. ve Ö. D. Erdal 2012, “Organized violence in Anatolia: A retrospective research on the injuries from the Neolithic to Early Bronze Age”, International Journal of Paleopathology 2: 78-92.
Estabrook, V. H. ve D.W. Frayer 2014, “Trauma in the Krapina Neandertals: Violence in the Middle Paleolithic”, The Routledge Handbook of Bioarchaeology of Human Conflict. C. Knüsel and M. J. Smith (eds.), Routledge, New York: 67-89.
Frangipane, M. 2002, Yakındoğu’da Devletin Doğuşu. (Çev. Z. Z. İlkgelen), Arkeoloji ve Sanat Yayınları, İstanbul.
Frangipane, M. 2007-2008, “The Arslantepe << Royal Tomb >>: New Funerary Customs and Political Changes in the Upper Euphrates Valley at the Beginning of the Third Millennium BC”, Scienze Dell’ AntichitÀ, Storia Archaologia Antropologia 14/1: 169-194.
Frankfort, H. 1934, “Gods and Myths on Sargonid Seals”, Iraq 1/1: 2-29.
Frankfort, H. 1939. Cylinder Seals: A Documentary Essay on the Art and Religion of the Ancient Near East. Gregg Press, London.
Frazer, J. 1922, The Golden Bough: A study in Magic and Religion. Abridged edn., Collier Books, New York.
Gadotti, A. 2014, Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld and the Sumerina Gilgamesh Cycle. Untersuchungen zur Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archäologie Vol. 10, Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin.
Girard, R. 1986, The Scapegoat. (Çev. Y. Freccero), The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
Girard, R. 2003, Şiddet ve Kutsal. (Çev: N. Alpay), Kanat Kitap, İstanbul.
Glencross, B. ve B. Boz 2014, “Representing Violence in Anatolia and the Near East during the Transition to Agriculture: Reading from Contextualized Human Skeletal Remains”, The Routledge Handbook of Bioarchaeology of Human Conflict. C. Knüsel and M. J. Smith (eds.), Routledge, New York: 90-108.
Green, A. 1983, “Neo-Assyrian Apotropaic Figures: Figurines, Rituals and Monumental Art, with Special Reference to the Figrurines from the Excavations of the British School of Archaeology in Irak at Nimrud”, Irak 45/1: 87-96.
Hooke, S. H. 2002, Ortadoğu Mitolojisi. (Çev. A. Şenel), İmge Yayınları, 4. Baskı, Ankara.
Hubert, H., ve M. Mauss 1964, Sacrifice: Its Nature and Functions. (Çev: W. D. Halls), University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Huot, J.L., J.P. Thalmann ve D. Valbelle 2000. Kentlerin Doğuşu. (Çev. A.B. Girgin), İmge Kitabevi Yayınları, 1. baskı, Ankara.
Katz, D. 1996, “How Dumuzi Became Inanna’s Victim: On the Formation of ‘Inanna’s Descent’”, Acta Sumerologica 18: 93-102.
Katz D. 2003. The Image of the Netherworld in the Sumerian Sources, CDL Press, Bethesda.
Kearney, R. 2012, Yabancılar, Tanrılar ve Canavarlar: Ötekiliği Yorumlamak. (Çev. B. Özkul), Metis Yayınları, İstanbul.
Kramer, S. N. 1944, “The Death og Gilgamesh”, Bulletin of American Schools of Oriental Research 94: 2-12.
Kramer, S. N. 1960, “Death and Nether World According to the Sumerian Literary Texts”, Iraq 22: 59-68.
Kristeva, J, 2004, Korkunun Güçleri – İğrençlik Üzerine Deneme. (Çev. N. Tutal), Ayrıntı Yayınları, İstanbul.
Laneri, N. 2007, “Burial Practices at Titriş Höyük, Turkey: An Intrerpretation”, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 66/2: 241-266.
Leeuw, G. van der, 1963, Religion in Essence and Manifestation. (Çev. J. E. Tumer), Vol. II, Harper and Row Publishers, New York.
Lévi-Strauss, C. 1994, Yaban Düşünce. (Çev. T. Yücel), Yapı Kredi Yayınları, İstanbul. Loy, T. H. ve A. R. Wood 1989, “Blood Residue Analysis at Çayönü Tepesi, Turkey”, Journal of Field Archaeology 16/4: 451-460.
McCarthy, D. J. 1969, “The Symbolism of Blood and Sacrifice”, Journal of Biblical Literature 88/2: 166-176.
McMahon, A., A. Soltysiak, J., Weber 2011, “Late Chalcolithic mass graves at Tell Brak, Syria, and violent conflict during the growth of early city-states”, Journal of Field Archaeology 36/3: 201-220.
Morris, E. F. 2007, “Sacrifice for the State: First Dynasty Royal Funerals and the Rites at Macramallah’s Rectangle”, Performing Death – Social Analyses of Funerary Traditions in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean. N. Laneri (ed.), The Oriental Insittute of the University of Chicago, Oriental Institute Seminars 3, Chicago, Illinois: 15-37.
Moses, S. 2008, “Çatalhöyük Foundation Burials: Ritual child sacrifice or convenient death?”, Babies Reborn: Infant/Child Bruials in Pre- and Protohistory. K. Bacvarov (ed.), BAR Internatinonal Series 1832, Oxford: 45-52.
Nakamura, C. 2004, “Dedicating Magic: Neo_Assyrian Figurines and the Protection of Assur”, World Archaeology 36/1: 11-25.
Nigro, L. 1998, “A Human Sacrifice Associated with a Sheep Slaughter in the Sacred Area of Ishtar at MB I Ebla”, Journal of Prehistoric Religion XI-XII: 22-36.
Pollock, S. 2007, “Death of A Household”, Performing Death – Social Analyses of Funerary Traditions in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean. N. Laneri (ed.), The Oriental Insittute of the University of Chicago, Oriental Institute Seminars 3, Chicago, Illinois: 209-222.
Pongratz-Leisten, B. 2007, “Ritual Killing and Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East”, Human Sacrifice in Jewish and Christian Tradition. K. Finsterbusch, A. Lange ve K. F. D. Römheld (eds.), BRILL, Leiden & Boston: 3-33.
Porter, A. 2012, “Mortal Mirror: Creating Kin through Human Sacrifice in Third Millennium Syro-Mesopotamia”, Sacred Killing: The Archaeology of Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East. Anne M. Porter ve Glenn M. Schwartz (eds.), Winona Lake, Indiana Eisenbrauns:191-2016.
Recht, L. 2010, “Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East”, Trinity College Dublin Journal of Postgraduate Research 9: 168-180.
Recht, L. 2015a, “Symbolic Order: Liminality and Simulation in Human Sacrifice in the Bronze-Age Aegean and Near East”, Journal of Religion and Violence 2: 403-432.
Recht, L. 2015b, “Identifying sacrifice in Bronze Age Near Eastern iconography”, Defining the Sacred: Approaches to the Archaeology of Religion in the Near East. N. Laneri (ed.), Oxbow Books, Oxford & Philadelphia: 24-37.
Rendu Loisel, A. C. 2011, Gods, Demons, and Anger in the Akkaddian Literature”, Demoni mesopotamici, Studie materiali di storia dele religioni 77/2: 323-332.
Robbins, E. 1996, “Tabular Sacrifice Records and the Cultic Calendar of Neo-Babylonian Uruk”, Journal of Cuneiform Studies 48: 61-87.
Schwartz, G. M., H. Curvers, S. Dunham, B. Stuart ve J. Weber 2006, “A Third Millennium B.C. Elite Mortuary Complex at Umm el- Marra, Syria: 2002 and 2004 Excavations”, American Journal of Archaeology 110/4: 603-641.
Schwartz, G. M. 2012, “Archaeology and Sacrifice”, Sacred Killing: The Archaeology of Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East. Anne M. Porter ve Glenn M. Schwartz (eds.), Winona Lake, Indiana Eisenbrauns: 1-32.
Spencer, H. 1882, The Principles of Sociology. Vol. I, D. Appleton and Company, New York.
Stol, M. 2016, Women in the Ancient Near East. De Gruyter, Berlin.
Tylor, E. B. 1871, Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology Philosophy, Religion, Language, Arts, and Custom. Bretano’s Books, New York.
Wengrow, D. 2005, “Violence into Order: Materiality and Sacred Power in Ancient Iraq”, Rethinking Materiality. The Engagement of Mind with the Material World. E. DeMarrais, C. Renfrew ve C. Gosden (eds.), McDonald Institute Monographs, Cambridge: 261-270.
Ward, W. H. 1889, “Notes on Oriental Antiquities. VIII. “Human Sacrifices” on Babylonian Cylinders”, The American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of the Fine Arts 5/1: 34-43.
Whitney Green, A. R. 1975, The Role of Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East. D. N. Freedman (ed.), Scholars Press for The American Schools of Oriental Research, Montana.
Woolley, Sir L. 1934, The Royal Cemetery (Ur Excavations 2). Trustees of the British Museum & Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, London.
Wiggerman, F. A. M. 2011, “Agriculture as Civilization: Sages, Farmers and Barbarians”, Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture, K. Radner ve E. Robson (eds.), Oxford University Press, Oxford: 663-689.
Van Buren, E. D. 1952, “Places of Sacrifice”, Iraq 14/2: 76-92
Verhoeven, M. 2002, “Ritual and Ideology in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B of the Levant and Southeast Anatolia”, Cambrdige Archaeological Journal 12/2: 233-258.