https://hcommons.org/groups/assyriologists/ Activity feed for the group, Assyriologists. Wed, 22 Apr 2026 10:45:53 -0400 https://buddypress.org/?v=10.6.0 en-US 30 hourly 2 cf134f95e2bae6df2fd51eac9423d4ec https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1885671/ Thu, 09 May 2024 03:01:10 -0400 This study challenges the 19th-century nationalist assumptions that have informed modern views of Aramean peoplehood in the first half of the first millennium BCE. I revisit the cuneiform sources, which offer the bulk of the existing evidence on the earliest Arameans, and demonstrate that they conceive of Arameans not as a single coherent people,…[Read more]

]]> 0 c20ae54d7cb65d12d3af1661168178ff https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1885669/ Thu, 09 May 2024 03:00:33 -0400 Very brief overview of the parameters of demand and supply for cuneiform knowledge production.

]]> 0 0036e140370d491af20e89cd05202374 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1860452/ Tue, 03 Oct 2023 03:01:23 -0400 Research into emotions is a developing field within Assyriology, and NLP tools for Akkadian texts offers new perspectives on the data. We use PMI-based word embeddings to explore the relationship between parts of the body and emotions. Using data downloaded from Oracc, we ask which parts of the body were semantically linked to emotions. We do this…[Read more]

]]> 0 305bb180e7c7706c5aabb9d550bf4760 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1859984/ Thu, 28 Sep 2023 03:18:36 -0400 Beards were part of a visual matrix of expressing masculinity during the NeoAssyrian period (ca. 934–612 BCE). But masculinity does not exist in isolation and interacts with other aspects of identity. I will examine the beard as an indicator of masculine status during the Neo-Assyrian period. This will be done through investigating the visual a…[Read more]

]]> 0 ede94c398b2606cd456c8d6eb3f3cb16 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1859980/ Thu, 28 Sep 2023 03:17:59 -0400 During the Neo-Assyrian period (approximately 934-612 BCE, based in modern Iraq) the annals and royal inscriptions of several kings mention women with a curious title: ‘Queen of the Arabs’. These women have been included in previous discussions regarding Assyrian interaction with the ‘Arabs’, but a full investigation into their roles as rulers…[Read more]

]]> 0 f05db477f8f530902a69b257bad31b28 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1859396/ Sat, 23 Sep 2023 10:44:18 -0400 CALL FOR PAPERS: The sixth Gender and Methodology in the Ancient Near East (GeMANE 6) will take place as a hybrid event in Malta 8–11 April, 2024. Check the website (https://www.um.edu.mt/events/gemane6workshop2024/callforpapers/) for more information and the full call for papers text. Deadline for abstracts (300-500 words) is 15th October.

]]> 0 39bf8f7186b7ce0348ea69e0a64c2ba8 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1832414/ Fri, 03 Feb 2023 02:24:18 -0500 Assyrian imperialism is closely associated with the practice of mass deportation. This practice has been explained by recourse to many different motivations. But can we hope to pinpoint the logic informing deportation rather than merely identifying its advantages? This paper surveys the evidence of deportation in the Levant in the period 745–620 B…[Read more]

]]> 0 facaed339723b430d9dbd030ea69b503 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1760428/ Fri, 03 Dec 2021 02:24:01 -0500 This paper aims to disambiguate the proper name “Seth” and its cognates or homonyms – perfect or imperfect – in texts from ancient Egypt, the Near East and the Mediterranean. It considers: (1) the Suteans, West Semitic Amorite/Aramean nomads who feature negatively in Mesopotamian records; (2) S(h)eth in the Hebrew bible, in which a dispara…[Read more]

]]> 0 0f0e4726c551dddd0093bb4f5097a13a https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1752430/ Tue, 21 Sep 2021 02:24:50 -0400 Demons and monsters are inherently moveable creatures: from the late second millennium BCE onwards a number of demons and monsters migrate from their native Mesopotamian contexts, moving westward. Of course, these figures do not remain static throughout their journey, instead acquiring the characteristics of the different cultural contexts wherein…[Read more]

]]> 0 9fb20af52286a3ca19d775646e69ec50 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1750080/ Thu, 26 Aug 2021 02:26:28 -0400 A short essay on the different forms of money used in the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Translated into German by Julia Linke.

]]> 0 a5a0a59ad3c4d504ed985353b9f875ae https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1743773/ Sun, 27 Jun 2021 02:23:39 -0400 During the 2nd and 1st millennia BCE, the Nile’s Eastern Delta was supposedly the locale of truculent “shepherds” who were inimical to Egypt. These problematic herdsmen seem largely to have been refractions of foreign powers generated by independent etymological confusions, behind which lie the Hyksos and the Assyrians; however, the caric…[Read more]

]]> 0 17b71336cdd4cc37ae5df2f85d948578 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1729873/ Wed, 03 Mar 2021 02:24:03 -0500 Late Halaf female figurines of clay/pottery from northeastern Syria (Type LH.1A; 6th millennium BCE) have close parallels in predynastic Egyptian figurines (4th millennium BCE) in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. The lack of provenance for the Egyptian statuettes – all of which were purchased – has long inhibited any comparison with the…[Read more]

]]> 0 d65d96a031f8d2e42039269680089508 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1719301/ Wed, 09 Dec 2020 02:24:05 -0500 Much of the surviving text of the Epic of Etana tells the story of an eagle and a snake. The eagle and snake are extraordinary creatures, and their story abounds with mythological subtext. This paper argues that the Neo-Assyrian recension of Etana was amended to include explicit references to the eagle and the snake by the names of their…[Read more]

]]> 0 4cda1690b1ae25d191768eeabfc4ffe0 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1703770/ Fri, 31 Jul 2020 02:24:08 -0400 Overview of demons and monsters in Mesopotamia, highlighting works in the Yale Babylonian Collection.

]]> 0 8e43d3ce63b1aa51b6991b1e56a8e2a2 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1695438/ Mon, 06 Jul 2020 16:25:55 -0400 The iconography of the Horus cippus, an amulet popular in Egypt from the late Third Intermediate Period to Roman times (8th century BCE - 2nd century CE), is unexpectedly recapitulated in bronze “goddess plaques” of the 7-8th centuries CE made by Permian peoples – Finno-Ugric groups from the Ural region of northern Eurasia. The likely expla…[Read more]

]]> 0 d4cd0494a1e0f80a608f08aa6b9e6afb https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1684094/ Wed, 15 Apr 2020 16:35:27 -0400 Review of: Jan J. W. Lisman, Cosmogony, Theogony, and Anthropogeny in Sumerian Texts. Vol. 409 of Alter Orient und Altes Testament. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2013. In Rosetta 18 (2015)

]]> 0 361126b0d34d8155af6c58764a02ff1f https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1684092/ Wed, 15 Apr 2020 16:34:47 -0400 Review of: Michael B. Hundley, Gods in Dwellings: Temples and Divine Presence in the Ancient Near East, vol. 3 in Writings from the Ancient World Supplements. Bethesda: Society for Biblical Literature Publications, 2013. In Rosetta 20 (2017).

]]> 0 9fd48f7af81466ac0d390f7fbae2bbee https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1682844/ Fri, 03 Apr 2020 16:27:50 -0400 Study of inscribed Kassite cylinder seals held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

]]> 0 c4419bda5ee4415c911c82abee776b74 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1682842/ Fri, 03 Apr 2020 16:27:07 -0400 Study of Old Babylonian Sumerian proverbs that speak on authority and how those same proverbs may subtly (or not quite so subtly) rebuke the king and established institutions of power.

]]> 0 19ee23b06c168ab634e5f201520622be https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1682840/ Fri, 03 Apr 2020 16:26:20 -0400 A study of the nature of the udug and lama figures as seen in Mesopotamian (primarily Old Babylonian) incantations, as well as an overview of the nature of demons in Mesopotamia.

]]> 0 3dbf646df1d2f8dd6d289f21a62a26b6 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1682618/ Wed, 01 Apr 2020 16:26:33 -0400 Rm. 714, a first millennium B.C.E. tablet in the collections of the British Museum, is remarkable for the fine carving of a striding pig in high relief on its obverse. Purchased by Hormuzd Rassam in Baghdad in 1877, it lacks archaeological context and must be considered in light of other textual and artistic references to pigs, the closest…[Read more]

]]> 0 b10192e0a975ccf42eab148cdd1a418b https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1682616/ Wed, 01 Apr 2020 16:25:50 -0400 This article serves as introduction to a special double issue of the journal, comprised of seven articles that center on the theme of space and place in the ancient world. The essays examine the ways in which borders, frontiers, and the lands beyond them were created, defined, and maintained in the ancient world. They consider such themes within…[Read more]

]]> 0 a33ad761399acb8e4f5725b49df1fd38 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1674683/ Thu, 09 Jan 2020 16:26:27 -0500 This article examines the description of Persepolis, one of the capital cities of the Achaemenid Persian Empire (ca. 550–330 BCE), by Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri (1651–1725) in his illustrated travelogue Giro del mondo (1699–1700). Gemelli Careri’s extensive description of the site—some twenty pages of text accompanied by two plates en…[Read more]

]]> 0 d954c71bf91f78188858a6876d8a413e https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1672848/ Tue, 17 Dec 2019 16:34:51 -0500 The motif in the centre of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor (ca. 2000-1900 BCE) concerns a star that fell to earth and caused the extinction of a population of giant serpents on an enchanted island, whose location is traditionally ascribed to the Red Sea. These creatures could apparently breathe fire, but they themselves…[Read more]

]]> 0 6f41e44e7857f24e280863fa73b7a034 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1671738/ Tue, 10 Dec 2019 16:25:56 -0500 Ancient pseudo-histories may contain kernels of geographic truth. In the Sumerian King List (SKL) the long and south-focused antediluvian era may reflect a combination of the Ubaid and Uruk periods, while the initial post-Flood period, which was short and ruled from the north, may reflect the Jemdet Nasr phase. The SKL’s subsequent return of k…[Read more]

]]> 0 b72b2ebe7ba9d60b6e95b700d673a22c https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1670967/ Tue, 26 Nov 2019 16:25:51 -0500 Linguistic studies in Egyptology, Assyriology and Biblical Studies harbour a persistent trope in which the inhabitants of the Ancient Near East and Egypt are believed to have visualised the past as in front of them and the future as behind them. Analyses of the spatial conceptualisation of time in language have revealed that the opposite is true…[Read more]

]]> 0 727c32e7871b7db5927139b4e6c62f0e https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1670432/ Mon, 18 Nov 2019 16:26:05 -0500 The practice of a king appointing his daughter as the High Priestess and consort of an important male deity arose independently in the Ancient Near East and Egypt. In Mesopotamia, the prime example of such an appointee was the EN-priestess of Nanna (EPN) at Ur; in Egypt, its most important embodiment was the God’s Wife of Amun (GWA) at Thebes. B…[Read more]

]]> 0 417a8178a22f62011ca9b03e794db4df https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1670287/ Sun, 17 Nov 2019 16:27:26 -0500 In 1st Dynasty Egypt (ca. 3000 BCE), mudbrick architecture may have been influenced by existing Mesopotamian practices such as the complex niching of monumental façades. From the 1st to 3rd Dynasties, the niches of some mudbrick mastabas at Saqqara were painted with brightly-coloured geometric designs in a clear imitation of woven reed matting.…[Read more]

]]> 0 06af9e720aef5aba99f02216914ceb00 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1642497/ Thu, 13 Jun 2019 16:28:55 -0400 The Assyrian King List (AKL) is central to the reconstruction of Assyrian and broader Near Eastern history and chronology. Because of AKL’s significance, locating its original moment of composition has far-reaching historiographical implications. There is no scholarly consensus on the dating of AKL, but a closer look at the internal evidence of A…[Read more]

]]> 0 eecb1a74d699d9cc54c835ed83eb3479 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1633986/ Mon, 04 Mar 2019 16:28:09 -0500 The present study draws on interdisciplinary research to establish an interpretative framework for an analysis of the material and textual evidence concerning infant loss in ancient Mesopotamia (c. 3000-500 BCE). This approach rejects the notion that highinfant mortality rates result in widespread parental indifference to infant loss, arguing…[Read more]

]]> 0 aa0e583d7713ad40e1b96755447eee63 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1633426/ Wed, 27 Feb 2019 16:25:50 -0500 The meaning of the Akkadian term ṭuppi has been hotly debated by Assyriologists for the greater part of a century. The present article argues that ṭuppi, commonly found in temporal expressions, can only refer to a one-year period. This proposal arises out of the observation that, among a substantial corpus of Neo-Babylonian house rental con…[Read more]

]]> 0 9dae71cdc1cc9152226ab47607734e95 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1621254/ Tue, 16 Oct 2018 16:25:54 -0400 Cuneiform scholarly practices systematized an exploration of mean- ing potential. In cuneiform scholarship, knowledge making emerged from multiple scribal practices, most notably list-making, analogical reasoning, and translation. The present paper demonstrates how multilingualism stands at the core of cuneiform scholarly inquiry, enabling…[Read more]

]]> 0 6ef64507ed43622e31c40bf622631cb9 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1588114/ Sun, 12 Nov 2017 18:26:59 -0500 This essay examines what the paradigm of 'globalization' can tell us about the Achaemenid Persian Empire (c. 550-330 BCE).

]]> 0 c2d4ea2df477f86ff93b1f8b1bed31f2 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1588113/ Sun, 12 Nov 2017 18:26:55 -0500 This essay examines what the paradigm of 'globalization' can tell us about the Achaemenid Persian Empire (c. 550-330 BCE).

]]> 0 a6db253f6392182c94d3a55b555cb8c2 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1587777/ Fri, 10 Nov 2017 01:54:11 -0500 The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between dwelling size, household structure and social status in urban Babylonia during the first millennium BC.

]]> 0 67e331b7c94fc00ca4f07cb97301eb49 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1587760/ Fri, 10 Nov 2017 01:53:03 -0500 This paper examines the relationship between house and household in first-millennium BC Babylonia, drawing on both textual and archaeological evidence. It builds on previous research by the author which has focused on elucidating the Babylonian terms for parts of the house and correlating these with architectural forms, based on comparison with…[Read more]

]]> 0 4e3f863dcb385c1490b14c6da196bf2b https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1577458/ Fri, 04 Aug 2017 01:00:11 -0400 This paper presents a newly funded international project for machine translation and automated analysis of ancient cuneiform 1 languages where NLP special ists and Assyriologists collaborate to create an information retrieval system for
Sumerian. This research is conceived in response to the need to translate large numbers of administrative texts…[Read more]

]]> 0 d9a7fc1f3ec95e8c037b6a0c104e523f https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1572149/ Tue, 30 May 2017 01:00:29 -0400 This paper evaluates the recent upsurge of interest in the scribal processes underlying the composition of Hittite ritual text and the implications of this evidence for understanding the compositional history of biblical rituals.

]]> 0 9b2f5aab91b9b377267b731819206b4d https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1571769/ Sat, 27 May 2017 01:24:17 -0400 Edition of cuneiform tablet excavated at Büklükale on the western Kızılırmak in 2010.

]]> 0 2afc676442366e1997f450d8bd282502 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1571494/ Wed, 24 May 2017 14:25:31 -0400 0 9ba16449c7f85d3145271242f30f4535 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1569196/ Thu, 04 May 2017 01:01:54 -0400 First publication of two late period Elamite language cuneiform texts house in the Yale Babylonian Collection

]]> 0 22982f26bb8b7bd59ac96f1084dca747 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1568786/ Wed, 03 May 2017 01:02:45 -0400 In the Ba‘al Cycle’s description of the threshold separating the realms of the dead from that of the living, the key reference point is described as “the two tells (at) the boundary of the netherworld” (CAT 1.4 viii, 4). The specific word used to describe both topographical features is tl, the tell, an object well known in the archaeology of the…[Read more]

]]> 0 469580c6236f1c0e702ebcb8b93b6442 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1567353/ Sun, 30 Apr 2017 01:19:38 -0400 Project Abstract: Ancient Mesopotamia, birthplace of writing, has produced vast numbers of cuneiform tablets that only a handful of highly specialized scholars are able to read. The task of studying them is so labor intensive that the vast majority have not yet been translated, with the result that their contents are not accessible either to…[Read more]

]]> 0 5647989a701be3e100de2047df77d869 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1564416/ Mon, 13 Mar 2017 17:03:37 -0400 Anyone can post an event so please do not hesitate to add conferences to the calendar

]]> 0 fc749dd00e5969ff4005d089601a5628 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1555135/ Fri, 09 Dec 2016 01:04:57 -0500 Talk Abstract

]]> 0 1f3866e22c572bb3bad9e02f1747c699 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1553457/ Tue, 29 Nov 2016 19:21:54 -0500 0