The Hellenistic World through the lens of the Esagila priests: the evolution of geographical referents in Babylonian historical texts (4th–2nd centuries BCE)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2316-9141.rh.2025.239209Keywords:
Hellenistic Babylonia, Seleucid Empire, Esagila Temple, Global History, Land of ḪanaAbstract
This article investigates how the integration of Babylon into the Hellenistic world reshaped the worldview of the learned priests of the Esagila temple, the city’s principal institution. Drawing on a Global History perspective and the concept of globality consciousness, it examines how geographical knowledge was articulated in the writings of these temple scholars. Methodologically, the study identifies and categorizes toponyms attested in the historical-literary texts produced within this scholarly milieu. The article is structured into four sections. The first outlines the political context of Hellenistic Babylon. The second discusses the theoretical and methodological framework as well as the sources. The third classifies the toponyms and analyzes their dynamics, with particular attention to the enigmatic reference to the land of Ḫana. The final section reconstructs the main channels of information that enabled such dynamics. The central argument is that Babylon’s incorporation into the Hellenistic world brought about both an expansion and a clearer definition of the priests’ geographical horizons, while the millennia-old toponyms of the local scholarly tradition continued to shape their understanding of Hellenistic geopolitics.
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