The Ugaritic ritual texts, which date to ca. 1200 B.C.E, provide the only extensive body of pre-biblical data on cultic practice in Syria-Palestine. This volume, aimed at biblical scholars and historians of religion, contains the original texts a general introduction, an English translation, and interpretative notes for each text. Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)

This book compiles on nearly 1,400 pages all the sources, giving for every single text extensive information: about findspots, citations by other authors and a thorough discussings about terms and grammar problems. An introduction and a conclusion complete the book, as well in three appendices "concordances", "ritual sources" and "ritual archives and areas", followed by a selected bibliography and indices.

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- Ugaritic Texts -- Biblical Texts -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index of Citations -- Author Index.

Ugaritic literary and ritual studies have often neglected or even ignored the Akkadian material from the same archives, which can be used as a frame of reference for the Ugaritic texts. The aim of this work is to offer a comprehensive study of the consonantal (Ugaritic) as well as the syllabic (Akkadian) incantation and anti-witchcraft texts from Ras Shamra as a unified corpus. These texts, dealing with impending dangers (mainly snakebites) and witchcraft attacks, are placed in the context of Ancient Near Eastern magic literature. A discussion of general topics, including magic and religion, the Ugaritic gods of magic, and the definition of incantation, is followed by a new collation and translation of the Akkadian texts, as well as new photographic material for both series. The main focus of this book is the close reading of the consonantal texts in the context of the much larger and better analyzed corpus of Akkadian magic literature.

Eisenbrauns has reprinted in convenient paperback this standard work on Ugaritic religion by the well-known Ugaritologist, del Olmo Lete. The book discusses the role of the priests, kings, gods, and common man in the ritual and religion of the Canaanites. Based upon the texts from Ugarit, this work updates previous studies by Prof. del Olmo Lete, and includes new texts, citations, and his most recent analysis of the material.

In the spring of 1928, a Syrian farmer was plowing on the Mediterranean coast near a bay called Minet el-Beida. His plow ran into a stone just beneath the surface. When he examined the obstruction, he found a large man-made flagstone that led into a tomb, in which he found some valuable objects that he sold to a dealer. Little did he know what he had discovered. In April of 1929, C. F. A. Schaeffer began excavation of the tombs, but a month later he moved to the nearby tell of Ras Shamra. On the afternoon of May 14, the first inscribed clay tablet came to light--thus the beginnings of the study of Ugarit and the Ugaritic language. Seventy-five years have passed, and the impact of this extraordinary discovery is still being felt. Its impact on biblical studies perhaps has no equal. In February 2005, some of the preeminent Ugaritologists of the present generation gathered at the Midwest Regional meetings of the American Oriental Society to commemorate these 75 years by reading the papers that are now published in this volume. The first five essays deal with the Ugaritic texts, while the last three deal with archaeological or historical issues.