Coping with time and death in the Ancient Near East

Abstract

All humans, past and future, are forced to grapple with the abstract phenomenon of passing and ending time, as well as ideas about time, such as eternity and finality. Death especially is a confrontation with the passing, ending, irreversibility, and unpredictability of time, over which humans have little to no power. In response to the threat of time and death, humans employ coping mechanisms, a common and perhaps universal example of which is anthropomorphization. Fashioning events and phenomena into social agents with human-like characteristics and abilities reduces their uncertainty and unpredictability. It increases comprehension of and control over them, and renders them more manageable, palpable, and familiar. This paper explores how this process can be recognized in textual and iconographic sources from the Ancient Near East. Firstly, it gives an overview of what people expected and thought of lifetime and death, and demonstrates that the daily confrontation with uncontrollable time and what may be the biggest challenge of life, namely accepting its inevitable end, was perceived as a struggle. Secondly, it provides insight in how the personification of time and death as well as the responses to these phenomena, such as fear and grief, contributed to coping with these difficult experiences.