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Saki Kikuchi: Mesopotamische Hemerologien und ihre gesellschaftliche Bedeutung. Münster 2025.

In ancient Mesopotamia, days were interpreted as inherently positive or negative, which affected the results of activities or what happened on that day. This doctrine of essentially good and bad days was documented in a group of calendrical texts called "hemerologies" in modern terminology. Hemerologies determine whether a certain day is positive or negative. In addition, we have texts that ask about the appropriateness of a certain activity based on the quality of the day. These texts thus offered advice on everyday life about whether the desired action should be carried out or not on the day in question. - The aim of this work is to present a systematic presentation of hemerologies from Mesopotamia in the first millennium BC with thematic studies on various aspects. The study begins with a general overview of hemerologies in ancient Mesopotamia (Chapter 2): the terminology in modern scholarship, the divinatory tradition to which hemerologies belonged, as well as the sources and their temporal and geographical distribution.

Chapter 3 presents the calendars that served as the basis for the temporal orientation of the prescribed activities of the hemerologies and of everyday life. Chapter 4 deals with the collective tables and compilations that are products of scholarly editorial work. On the one hand, their creation reflects a certain interest of the authors, which is a key to the use of hemerologies in practice. On the other hand, the active processing of the existing texts through compilation is important when considering the role of the hemerological corpus in the scholarly tradition and the question of standardization. Chapter 5 explains the logic and systematics by which a certain hemerological idea was associated with a specific calendar day. Chapter 6 examines how hemerologies were used in practice, based on the texts themselves, the archival context, and the texts that cite or refer to hemerologies (chapters 6.1–4). They provide information on the people who copied and studied hemerologies, as well as on the academic, political dimensions of hemerologies, while subsection 6.5 examines the social influence by comparing it with everyday texts. The last chapter presents the changes in the hemerological tradition in the last centuries of cuneiform culture and the influence of Mesopotamian hemerologies on later ancient cultures.

The study is supplemented by editions of 14 selected hemerologies, hemerological compilations and relevant texts (transcription, transliteration, translation and commentary) that have not yet been published, have only been published in autographs or that update the known text with newly identified text representatives. The appendices provide a systematic overview of evaluated letters and royal inscriptions as well as dated everyday documents (marriage certificates, purchase documents) and requests for viewing sacrifices, which were used to examine the practical use of the hemerologies in Chapter 6.

Loredana Filip: Self-Help in the Digital Age. TED Talks, Speculative Fiction, and the Role of Reading. Berlin/Boston 2024.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111389929

In an age where science and technology hold sway and the humanities face a crisis, this book explores the evolving role of literature. It delves into how American self-help culture shapes contemporary ideals of success, mindfulness, and happiness, with a particular focus on its influence in science communication, notably in TED talks. Moreover, it underscores the enduring relevance of literature in the digital era by analyzing speculative novels that challenge established norms, including those propagated by TED. These novels include Richard Powers’ Generosity: An Enhancement, Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy and Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story. They question the Western preference for visual perception, which perpetuates a human-centric worldview. By focusing on literary synesthesia in the readings, this book emphasizes sensory experiences and human-nonhuman interactions. It adopts the concept of research as assemblage and uses a diverse range of theories and approaches, while it foregrounds critical posthumanism and new materialism. Ultimately, it advocates for a less anthropocentric approach to reading and presents literature as a "transdisciplinary life science" capable of fostering a "kinship of posthumanity."