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Books by Lorenzo Verderame

Introduzione alle culture dell'antica Mesopotamia, 2017

This volume is an introduction to the ancient Mesopotamia societies and cultures. Una civiltà dim... more This volume is an introduction to the ancient Mesopotamia societies and cultures.
Una civiltà dimenticata da millenni emerge dalla decifrazione dei più antichi documenti scritti. Questo volume guida il lettore alla riscoperta delle culture della Mesopotamia in tutta la loro ricca complessità. Gli elementi che appartengono all'immaginario comune quando si pensa alla Mesopotamia, come l'astrologia, la torre di Babele, l'Eden, sono qui presentati in una sintesi organica. L'autore passa in rassegna concetti fondamentali, come la geografia terrestre e celeste, la percezione e il computo del tempo, gli aspetti fisici e metafisici della persona, le vicende politiche e militari che hanno segnato l'evoluzione storica dell'area. Le pagine di questo volume dischiudono i grandi argomenti, come la cultura materiale, la società e la religione, ma anche quelli che sono gli aspetti più rilevanti della vita quotidiana, nel passato come nel presente, quali il cibo e il sesso, la cura della persona e il vestiario, la percezione del male e il timore della morte.

Il testo Dimenticate per secoli, le civiltà dell'antica Mesopotamia sono state riscoperte solo ne... more Il testo
Dimenticate per secoli, le civiltà dell'antica Mesopotamia sono state riscoperte solo nell'Ottocento. Migliaia di tavolette di argilla incise in scrittura cuneiforme hanno permesso di portare alla luce una tradizione letteraria che, attraverso due lingue, il sumerico e l'accadico, si è sviluppata nell'arco di tre millenni. Dal primo racconto del diluvio e della creazione dell'uomo alle discese infere e le battaglie contro mostri caotici, dalle vicende epiche dei sovrani mitici alle gesta dei loro successori, dai grandi inni alle preghiere quotidiane e gli scongiuri, dalla riflessione teologica sulla vita a quella filosofica e umoristica, le composizioni sumeriche e accadiche costituiscono una delle più antiche, varie e lunghe tradizioni letterarie dell'uomo. La letteratura sumerica del III millennio a.C. e quella accadica (assira e babilonese) del II e I millennio a.C. sono qui presentate attraverso una descrizione dei diversi generi e l'analisi di contenuti e motivi. Una scelta di testi letterari, pubblicata in digitale sul sito www.mondadorieducation.it, completa il volume.

L'autore
Lorenzo Verderame insegna lingua e letteratura sumerica e accadica alla «Sapienza» Università di Roma. È autore di numerose monografie e articoli scientifici dedicati a differenti aspetti delle culture dell'antica Mesopotamia, tra cui l'editio princeps dei primi sei capitoli del compendio astrologico Enūma Anu Enlil (2002) e diversi volumi con l'edizione di documenti neo-sumerici. Le sue ricerche si sono concentrate sull'amministrazione e la cultura materiale della Mesopotamia del III millennio così come su vari aspetti della religione e della letteratura mesopotamica. Svolge attività di ricerca e collabora con diverse istituzioni universitarie e musei, tra i quali il British Museum e la Yale Babylonian Collection, dove dirige, rispettivamente, un progetto di edizione dei testi neo-sumerici e delle lettere paleo-babilonesi. Dal 2014 è l'epigrafista della missione archeologica italiana a Nina (Tell Surghul) nell'Iraq meridionale.

Indice
Prefazione; 1. Introduzione; 2. Le vicende divine; 3. Le gesta dei re; 4. L'uomo si rivolge al dio; 5. Le riflessioni sulla vita; 6. Composizioni varie; Schema delle principali divinità mesopotamiche; Quadro cronologico; Appendice cartografica. La Mesopotamia e il Vicino Oriente tra il III e il I millennio a. C.; Bibliografia; Opere citate; Indice dei nomi, delle opere e delle cose notevoli.

Testi tradotti disponibili gratuitamente online : http://www.mondadorieducation.it/media/contenuti/universita/verderame_letterature_mesopotamia/index.html

Umma Messenger Texts in the British Museum, Part Three (UMTBM 3)

Drehem Texts in the British Museum (DTBM)

This volume presents the edition of the corpus of Drehem texts (391 documents) belonging to the c... more This volume presents the edition of the corpus of Drehem texts (391 documents) belonging to the collections of the British Museum.
Il volume contiene l’edizione del corpus di testi amministrativi provenienti da Drehem, 391 documenti, appartenenti alle collezioni del British Museum.
[Keywords: Neo-Sumerian; Drehem; administration; Mesopotamia; cuneiform]

Testi amministrativi neo-sumerici da Umma conservati al British Museum (NATU II)

Neo-Sumerian Ĝirsu Texts of Barley and Cereal Products, kept in the British Museum

Neo-Sumerian Administrative Texts from Umma Kept in the British Museum, Part Three (NATU III)

Il volume contiene l’edizione di 156 documenti neo-sumerici, precedentemente inediti, provenienti... more Il volume contiene l’edizione di 156 documenti neo-sumerici, precedentemente inediti, provenienti dalla provincia di Umma, relativi a lavoratori, lavori agricoli e interventi alla rete di canali.

This volume presents an edition of 156 unpublished Neo-Sumerian texts from the province of Umma, consisting of lists of workers and personnel, or dealing with agricultural labour and work on canals.

Papers by Lorenzo Verderame

Verderame, L. (2025) ‘From the marshes to the sea: The waterscape of ancient Sumer’, in L. Romano (ed.) Sumer and the Sea: Deltas, Shoreline, and Urban Water Management in 3rd Millennium Mesopotamia. Proceedings of the 1st ARWA International Research Workshop (Rome, 2-4 June 2021). Turnhout: Brep..., 2025

The urbanized landscape of ancient Mesopotamia is dominated by water. Southern Mesopotamian citie... more The urbanized landscape of ancient Mesopotamia is dominated by water. Southern Mesopotamian cities lie on the seashore or in lagoons. They are encircled by marshes and crossed and connected by rivers and canals. In this chapter, I discuss in detail three waterscapes that are culturally and linguistically distinguished in Sumerian sources: the watercourses, rivers, and canals (i7/id2); marshes and lagoons (ambar/sug); and the sea (ab/a-ab-ba). I analyse the third-millennium written sources from different points of view, from economy to ecology, politics to religion. I argue that the three waterscapes (watercourse-marsh/lagoon-sea) constitute a water continuum where the elements follow each other without interruption.

Origini, 2024

Verderame, L. (2024) ‘The family in Early Mesopotamia’, Origini, 48, pp. 191–206. The article ... more Verderame, L. (2024) ‘The family in Early Mesopotamia’, Origini, 48, pp. 191–206.

The article examines the family in Early Mesopotamia from a broad perspective. The study starts with a lexicographic and theoretical analysis, addressing various issues related to the interpretation and reconstruction of familial structures and their dynamics within Sumerian sources. An introductory section is dedicated to the overview of written evidence on family and the history of studies. The article subsequently examines kinship terminology and explores its application in conveying socioeconomic relationships beyond familial connections (pseudo-or fictive kinship). It provides a description of the structure and general features of marriages, addressing terminology for spouses, polygyny, celibacy, and the exchange of women in the framework of "interdynastic" marriages. Ultimately, it explores the various terminologies for in-laws and the broader socioeconomic concepts and networks (house, clan, lineage).

Verderame, Lorenzo. 2025. “The Seal of Hašhamer, Iškun-Sîn, and Ur III Kingdom’s Early Development.” In “And I Have Also Devoted Myself to the Art of Music” Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honor of Franco D’Agostino Presented on His 65th Birthday by His Pupils, Colleagues, and Friends, edited by ..., 2025

The paper addresses the seal of Hašhamer, ensi of Iškun-Sîn, dated to the Neo-Sumerian period. Th... more The paper addresses the seal of Hašhamer, ensi of Iškun-Sîn, dated to
the Neo-Sumerian period. This object and its inscription show a fascinating array
of features and firsts that render it a one-of-a-kind artefact. The first part of the
paper examines the chronological aspects, both contemporary and historical, of
the seal. The seal was donated to the British Museum (BM 89126) in 1880 but it
has been referenced and discussed in publications since 1820. This likely repre-
sents the earliest known Neo-Sumerian text to be published. The cylinder seal,
which bears an inscription mentioning the king Ur-Namma, must be acknowl-
edged as the earliest Neo-Sumerian seal. The second part of the article discusses
the name of the owner, Hašhamer, and the location of Iškun-Sîn, which are not
found in any other Ur III sources. Nevertheless, the article contends that Iškun-
Sîn can be associated with the same-named place referenced in Old Babylonian
texts and situated to the east of the Tigris River, in the Susa region. In the conclu-
sions, the paper provides insight on the early expansion of the Ur III kingdom
towards the Iranian plateau, based on the analysis of the titles of Ur-Namma (king
of Ur) and Hašhamer (ensi), as well as on the location of Iškun-Sîn.

Ash-sharq, 2024

Among the animals documented in archaeological and epigraphic sources from ancient Mesopotamia, t... more Among the animals documented in archaeological and epigraphic sources from ancient Mesopotamia, the bear has received little or no attention. This contribution aims to fill this gap by providing an overview of all the available sources –textual, archaeozoological and iconographical– and discussing the relationships between bears and the human community.
Keywords: bear, Mesopotamia, lexical lists, literature, personal names, archaeozoology, iconography

Index
Introduction
The terms for bear in Sumerian and Akkadian
The bear in lexical lists
The earliest evidence of bears in written evidence
The bear in literature and other non-documentary sources
The bear in iconography
The brown bear and its faunal remains in the Near East
Bears and human communities: predators, game, entertainment, delicacies
The ambiguity of the bear? From lexicography to sex
Conclusions

Verderame, L. (ed.) (2024) L’eroica nutrice guarda a Oriente: Studi orientalistici in onore di A.M.G. Capomacchia. Roma: Sapienza Università di Roma (Studi Semitici NS, 26)., 2024

The article addresses terms that pertain to the semantic sphere of the warrior and are com-monly ... more The article addresses terms that pertain to the semantic sphere of the warrior and are com-monly translated by modern scholars as “hero”. The study concentrates on the Sumerian term ur-saĝ and its Akkadian equivalents derived from the root *qrd, with a primary focus on qarrādu / qurādu. It assesses the etymology, use context, and semantic sphere of these terms. The discussion is expanded to encompass the associations between ur-saĝ / qarrādu and other Sumerian and Akkadian words found in lexical lists and bilingual texts. Specifically, it analyses the Akkadian synonyms in Malku and similar lists as well as the Sumerian and Akka-dian terms with which qarrādu is often associated: gud/gu4-ud/ šahāṭu “to jump” and raqādu “to jump, to dance”, gu3-mur-ak/ ragāmu “to scream”, an-gar3 / gar3-an. The conclusion delineates the broader semantic field of the terms ur-saĝ / qarrādu and the related domains suggested by the associations with the other terms investigated: war, hair and animality, leadership, dance (the battle as “dance of Inanna/Ištar”), and (battle) cry.

Notizia, P., Rositani, A. and Verderame, L. (eds) (2024) Il nuovo Centro di Ricerca Interdisciplinare sull’Economia del Vicino Oriente antico (CRIEVOA): Atti della Giornata di studio (Messina, 29 novembre 2022). Messina: DICAM., 2024

This essay focusses on the issue of poverty in ancient Mesopotamia. This topic has received minim... more This essay focusses on the issue of poverty in ancient Mesopotamia. This topic has received minimal or no attention in Assyriological studies and in the broader field of ancient Near Eastern studies. The purpose of this study is to provide a broad overview of the issue in order to stimulate additional research. With the aim of achieving this objective, an initial presentation is made, which includes a thorough examination of the definitions of poverty and an analysis of relevant studies on the topic. The following discussion focusses on the Sumerian and Akkadian vocabulary related to poverty and the disadvantaged individual, as well as riches and the wealthy individual. An analysis is conducted on key elements pertaining to poverty, which is defined as the absence of necessities such as food, property, and hygiene. This leads to the poor striving to obtain these necessities and the rich being envied. A separate section is dedicated to the societal conflicts linked to poverty. The outcomes of the study provide potential research directions for further investigations.

Verderame, L. (2024) ‘On the oldest references to Šauška, the Ištar of Nineveh’, in E. Cianfanelli and F. Gori (eds) níĝ-ba dub-sar maḫ: Studies on Ebla and the Ancient Near East presented to Amalia Catagnoti. Roma: Quasar (Documenta Asiana, 14), pp. 487–495., 2024

The article addresses the oldest references to the Hurrian goddess Šauška, the Ištar of Nineveh. ... more The article addresses the oldest references to the Hurrian goddess Šauška, the Ištar of Nineveh. It surveys the Neo-Sumerian administrative texts from the 21st century BCE. In 1988, Claus Wilcke collected the known evidence and proposed that the cult of the goddess was introduced into Southern Mesopotamia during the Ur III period by the lukur of Šū-Sîn, Ti’āmat-bāštī. There are several reasons to review the evidence and reconsider the date of the introduction of Šauška’s cult in Sumer. First, new Neo-Sumerian documents mentioning Šauš(k)a have been published since Wilcke’s article. Second, the latter is poorly known outside Neo- Sumerian studies and the evidence there presented are often overlooked in the debate on early Hurrian contacts with Southern Mesopotamia. Finally, in the light of the new evidence, the date of the introduction of Šauš(k)a in South Mesopotamia may be antedated to at least the reign of Šulgi.

Verderame, L. (2020) ‘The Substitute King (šar pūḫi): An Assyrian Ritual of the First Millennium’, in P. Cotticelli-Kurras and V. Sadovski (eds) The Ritual Sphere in Cultic Texts and Practices from the Ancient and Early Medieval East. Oslo: The Norwegian Institute of Philology / Hermes Academic P..., 2020

The paper addresses the "substitute king" (or "king of substitution), šar pūḫi. This apotropaic r... more The paper addresses the "substitute king" (or "king of substitution), šar pūḫi. This apotropaic ritual, documented by Neo-Assyrian sources, was performed on the occasion of a particular lunar eclipse and involves the enthronement of a substitute to fulfil the forecasted inauspicious omen by dying instead of the king. It overviews all the sources available, from the presumed "ritual tablet" to the letters sent to the king Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal and the administrative texts. It analyzes the evidence from the "ritual tablet" and discusses the different procedures documented by the letters. Furthermore, it investigates the identity of the substitute and the political use of the ritual.

Verderame, L. (2024) ‘L’écriture du corps : forme, destin, et prédestination dans la Mésopotamie ancienne’, Mythopoeïa, 1, pp. 89–111., 2024

The focus of this article is the human body and its parts; in particular, the integrity of the bo... more The focus of this article is the human body and its parts; in particular, the integrity of the body parts and their relationship in what we could call a body semantic where the body is a medium. The article begins with the discussion of the Sumerian myth Enki and Ninmah, focusing on the creation of six “imperfect” beings by Ninmah. It examines the relationship between physical shape (me-dim2) and destiny (nam-tar), which is the cause of the dispute between Enki and Ninmah, and how this myth conceives “destiny” as social integration and capability of providing “daily bread”, according to Enki’s words. Ninmah’s claim for a relationship between the body and the destiny is furtherly investigated in the article, that continues with the analysis of the body as message and the relation among its parts as grammar. It discusses teratology and physiognomics, where the shape of the body is a divine encrypted message to be deciphered by human beings. This message, namely the presage, refers to the community’s fate in teratology and to the person’s destiny in physiognomic, thus the person bearing his/her future written in his/her own body.

Verderame, L. (2024) ‘La casa di Abramo’, SMSR - Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni, 90(1), pp. 68–97, 2024

The article addresses the “house of Abraham”, from the identification of “Ur of the Chaldees” to ... more The article addresses the “house of Abraham”, from the identification of “Ur of the Chaldees” to its use as a motif in interreligious dialogue. The first part of the article is devoted to the excavation of the Mesopotamian city of Ur (Tell al-Muqayyar) in the 1920s and the interpretation of the findings by archaeologist C. Leonard Woolley. The determination to find archaeological corroboration of the Old Testament text, is examined alongside the volume Abraham: Recent Discoveries and Hebrew Origins, in which Woolley identifies traces and premises of Abrahamic monotheism in the vestiges he has discovered. The second part addresses the consecration of Mesopotamian Ur as Abraham’s birthplace, as well as the relocation and abstraction of “Abraham’s home” in UAE religious policy. The article discusses the construction of an “Abraham’s house” among the Old Babylonian houses excavated by Woolley, and how it became a destination for “religious tourism” by American soldiers during the occupation of Iraq, as well as the setting for the pope’s interfaith meeting with other religious dignitaries in 2021. Finally, the article examines the UAE’s cultural and religious policies, focusing on the establishment of the Abrahamic Family House.
L’articolo si occupa della “casa di Abramo”, dalla questione della localizzazione dell’originale “Ur dei Caldei” fino all’uso dell’espressione nel recente progetto di dialogo interreligioso. La prima parte dell’articolo è dedicata allo scavo della città mesopotamica di Ur (Tell al-Muqayyar) e all’interpretazione dei ritrovamenti data dall’archeologo C. Leonard Woolley. La volontà di trovare conferme archeologiche del testo veterotestamentario sono analizzate assieme al volume Abraham: Recent Discoveries and Hebrew Origins, in cui Woolley identifica nelle vestigia da lui portate alla luce le tracce e i presupposti delle origini del monoteismo di Abramo. La seconda parte è dedicata alla consacrazione della Ur mesopotamica come luogo di origine di Abramo e alla delocalizzazione e astrazione della “casa” nella politica religiosa degli EAU. L’articolo discute della realizzazione di una “casa di Abramo” sui quartieri abitativi scavati da Woolley e di come questa sia divenuta meta del “turismo religioso” da parte dei soldati americani durante l’occupazione dell’Iraq e scenografia dell’incontro interreligioso tra il pontefice e le altre cariche religioso nel 2021. Infine, l’articolo analizza le politiche culturali e religiose degli Emirati Arabi Uniti, in particolare la creazione della Abrahamic Family House.

Henoch 45/2, 2023

This article looks at the materiality and mundanity of the divine through the analysis of the god... more This article looks at the materiality and mundanity of the divine through the analysis of the god’s statue daily routine. In ancient Mesopotamia, the divine presence among the human community is ensured by the god’s or god- dess’ statue in the temple. This has been the focus of several studies that have been devoted to the divine materiality and presence in recent years. These works, that starts from interpretative model borrowed from other social sci- ences or compare distant cultures, are, however, limited to the discussion of few basic and recurrent topics, i.e. the terms for statue and the “Washing of the mouth” ritual.
This article, instead, takes a step back and looks at the materiality of the god’s statue discussing the divine daily routine in the light of literary and documentary sources. It starts analysing the fashioning, the materials, other components (accessories, dresses, jewels), and, none the least, the dimension of the divine statue. The article describes the space where the god/statue dwells, the “house” of the god (temple), discussing its structure, its parts, and its furniture and the daily rituals. The consumption of the divine meal and the sensorial dimension of the divine experience of music is discussed together with the care of the “divine body”, i.e. bathing and anointing of the statue, as well as its clothes, jewels, accessories, and the dressing ceremony.
Lastly, the article addresses the matter of the relationship the statue main- tains with objects (throne, bed) and space, discussing its movement inside and outside the temple (the New Year procession, the godnapping practice).

Verderame, L. (2024) ‘Ibridità e indefinitezza: La rappresentazione dei demoni nell’antica Mesopotamia’, in R. Perricone (ed.) Imaginis tempora currunt. Palermo: Museo Pasqualino (Testi e atti, 20), pp. 141–151, 2024

Introduzione alle culture dell'antica Mesopotamia, 2017

Testi tradotti disponibili gratuitamente online : http://www.mondadorieducation.it/media/contenuti/universita/verderame_letterature_mesopotamia/index.html

Umma Messenger Texts in the British Museum, Part Three (UMTBM 3)

Drehem Texts in the British Museum (DTBM)

Testi amministrativi neo-sumerici da Umma conservati al British Museum (NATU II)

Neo-Sumerian Ĝirsu Texts of Barley and Cereal Products, kept in the British Museum

Neo-Sumerian Administrative Texts from Umma Kept in the British Museum, Part Three (NATU III)

This volume presents an edition of 156 unpublished Neo-Sumerian texts from the province of Umma, consisting of lists of workers and personnel, or dealing with agricultural labour and work on canals.

Origini, 2024

Verderame, L. (2024) ‘The family in Early Mesopotamia’, Origini, 48, pp. 191–206. The article ... more Verderame, L. (2024) ‘The family in Early Mesopotamia’, Origini, 48, pp. 191–206.

Ash-sharq, 2024

Verderame, L. (ed.) (2024) L’eroica nutrice guarda a Oriente: Studi orientalistici in onore di A.M.G. Capomacchia. Roma: Sapienza Università di Roma (Studi Semitici NS, 26)., 2024

Verderame, L. (2024) ‘L’écriture du corps : forme, destin, et prédestination dans la Mésopotamie ancienne’, Mythopoeïa, 1, pp. 89–111., 2024

Verderame, L. (2024) ‘La casa di Abramo’, SMSR - Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni, 90(1), pp. 68–97, 2024

Henoch 45/2, 2023

L. Verderame, A New Set of Strings for the Lute of Dada, Rivista degli studi orientali 96/2–4 (2023), pp. 243–247, 2023

The first historical mention of musical strings is addressed in this article. It begins with an o... more The first historical mention of musical strings is addressed in this article. It begins with an overview of the literary references to the ĝiˇs-gu3-di-da "longnecked lute; musical instrument" before delving into a dossier of Neo-Sumerian texts that record the yearly delivery of "sheep sinews" (sa udu) for the lute of Dada, the lamentation priest (gala). It is hypothesized that the Sumerian word sa refers to gut or catgut, which was the material used to make lute strings.

L. Verderame, La destruction d'une ville mésopotamienne. Une étude des Lamentations sumériennes, in I. Calini (ed.), Les Récits de destruction en Méditerranée orientale ancienne, Classiques Garnier, Paris, 2024, pp. 21-37, 209-246, 2024

VERDERAME (Lorenzo), « La destruction d'une ville mésopotamienne. Une étude des Lamentations sumé... more VERDERAME (Lorenzo), « La destruction d'une ville mésopotamienne. Une étude des Lamentations sumériennes », in CALINI (Ilaria) (dir.), Les Récits de destruction en Méditerranée orientale ancienne, p. 21-37
Les Lamentations sumériennes décrivent la destruction des villes mésopotamiennes comme dissolution sociale et matérielle. Le liens familiaux et sociaux se dissolvent, tandis que la matière brute, dont la potentialité (ME) a été réalisée par les artisans en la transformant en objets qui distinguent l’homme faber urbain mésopotamien du barbare non-constructeur, retourne à ses origines.
The Sumerian Lamentations describe the destruction of Mesopotamian cities as a social and material dissolution. Family and social ties disintegrate, while raw material, whose potential (ME) has been realised by craftsmen by transforming it into objects that distinguish the urban Mesopotamian faber from the non-constructing barbarian, returns to its origins.

L. Verderame, Animal horns as musical instruments and containers: Neo-Sumerian evidence, Oriens Antiquus NS 5 (2023), 123–125, 2023

The paper reviews the references to animal horns in Neo-Sumerian administrative documents and Sum... more The paper reviews the references to animal horns in Neo-Sumerian administrative documents and Sumerian literature. It discusses the use of the “ibex horn” (a2 dara3) as a musical instrument, blown by the herald to call the assembly, the levy, and the battle, or struck as an idiophone. Furthermore, it presents evi- dence for the use of different types of animal horns as containers in rituals.
Keywords · Sumerian Literature, Neo-Sumerian Docu- ments, Animals, Musical Instruments, Containers.

F. Di Filippo, L. Milano, and L. Mori (eds) ‘I Passed over Difficult Mountains’: Studies in Honor of Mario Liverani. Münster: Zaphon (DUBSAR, 28), pp. 313–328., 2023

Verderame, L. (2023) ‘I sovrani della Terza Dinastia di Ur nella letteratura sumerica e accadica’, in F. Pomponio (ed.) Il regno della III Dinastia di Ur. Roma: Sapienza Università di Roma (Studi Semitici NS, 25)., 2023

Overview of the literature from the Neo-Sumerian period and of the Ur III kings in Sumerian and A... more Overview of the literature from the Neo-Sumerian period and of the Ur III kings in Sumerian and Akkadian literature.

F. Pomponio (ed.), Il regno della III Dinastia di Ur, Studi Semitici NS 25, Roma, 2023, 23-37, 2023

History of Neo-Sumerian studies from the beginnings to present days.

LMDP 5 1 Demoni mostri e altri prodigi, 2023

Verderame, L. (2022) ‘Autrici e autori nella letteratura sumerica: Fonti e studi’, Seminari romani di cultura greca, 11, pp. 1–53., 2022

This article discusses authors and authorship in Sumerian literature. This is a topic that has be... more This article discusses authors and authorship in Sumerian literature. This is a topic that has been neglected in Assyriological studies, which have limited the discussion to the figure of Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon, alleged author of several hymns. In the first part, the article presents the historical and literary evidence for Enheduanna and analyzes the recurrence of the term en-he2-du7-an-na (Ninmešarra/ Inanna B, Inninšagurra/Inanna C, Temple Hymns, Nanna C, Fragments of a hymn to Nanna). The arguments of scholars claiming Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon, to be the author of various literary texts are scrutinised and some criticism is advanced. In the sec- ond part, the article takes a forward look at authors of hymns (Ninšatapada), elegies (Lu-diĝirra), letters and other texts (Lugal-nesaĝe, Inannaka, Lu-Inanna). This article also examines the hypothesis of “erotic” literature’s authorship by royal women and the identification of some of the authors with scribe and officials of Neo-Sumerian period Nippur. Lastly, it addresses the matter of royal and divine authorship. In the conclusions, methodological and theoretical approaches to the matter of authorship in Sumerian literature are outlined.

Verderame, L. (ed.) (2024) L’eroica nutrice guarda a Oriente: Studi orientalistici in onore di A.M.G. Capomacchia. Roma: Sapienza Università di Roma (Studi Semitici NS, 26)., 2024

Collection on papers dedicated to Anna Maria Gloria Capomacchia, professor of History or religion... more Collection on papers dedicated to Anna Maria Gloria Capomacchia, professor of History or religions at Sapienza Università di Roma.

SOMMARIO vii

PREFAZIONE ix

PUBBLICAZIONI DI A. M. G. CAPOMACCHIA xi

ANCORA SUL GRANDE RITUALE DELLA REGALITÀ DI EBLA (SIRIA, 24° SEC. A.C.) (M. G. BIGA) 1

GLORIA, ANNIBALE ED IO (A. CAMPUS) 9

DIVINE CROMIE E LUSSO BARBARICO. LA NOZIONE DI POIKILIA NELL’ANTICA CULTURA ELLENICA (A. LOCCHI) 17

ESTETICA - MEDIUM - COMUNICAZIONE. APPUNTI PER UNA SCIENZA DELLE IMMAGINI (D. NADALI) 35

LA RICOSTRUZIONE DELLA NARRAZIONE MITICA ALL’INTERNO DI UN ALLESTIMENTO MUSEALE: LA COLLEZIONE GUEST. METAFORA E/O MITO? (C. PEZZETTA) 47

DA ADONIS AD ANNIBALE. VISIONI CLASSICHE DELL’UNIVERSO FENICIO (S. RIBICHINI) 81

IL MITO DELLA SCOMPARSA DEL DIO DELLA TEMPESTA DELLO SCRIBA PIRWA (G. TORRI) 95

DA GUERRIERO A EROE. INDAGINE LESSICOGRAFICA E SEMANTICA SUI TERMINI UR-SAĜ E QARRĀDU (L. VERDERAME) 107

ANNA MARIA GLORIA CAPOMACCHIA O DELL’EROICA NUTRICE (E. ZOCCA) 131

RINGRAZIAMENTI 5 ABSTRACTS 7 Giuseppe Ucciardello Introduzione. Il nuovo Centro di Ricerca interd... more RINGRAZIAMENTI 5 ABSTRACTS 7
Giuseppe Ucciardello
Introduzione. Il nuovo Centro di Ricerca interdisciplinare
sull’economia del Vicino Oriente antico (CRIEVOA) 13
Pierluigi Ciocca
Ricchi/Poveri. Uno schema e i suoi limiti 25
Giovanni Iuzzolino
Cosa è nata prima? La moneta o la finanza? 29
Francesco Pomponio
I contratti di Fāra 51
Lorenzo Verderame
La povertà nell’antica Mesopotamia.
Prolegomeni a un tema di ricerca negletto 113
Odoardo Bulgarelli
Ricchezza e Povertà negli archivi della Mesopotamia.
Ruolo delle Istituzioni e dei privati (IV-inizi II millennio a.C.) 133
Daniele Castrizio
Contare moneta o pesare moneta? 153
Mariangela Puglisi
L’uso del bronzo in Sicilia.
Dal metallo pesato al metallo monetato (XIII - V secolo a.C.) 171
Licia Romano
Città d’acqua.
La gestione delle acque all’interno dei siti sumerici del III mill. a.C. 193
Matteo Vigo
Economia e amministrazione nell’Anatolia ittita: una panoramica 201
Andrea Rebecca Marrocchi Savoi
Dimmi con chi vai e ti dirò chi sei:
studio preliminare sull’identità e l’attività creditizia di Ur-Šulpa’e a Nippur 215
Annunziata Rositani
Pubblico e privato nell’economia del periodo paleo-babilonese 231
Annunziata Rositani
Conclusioni 261

Droß-Krüpe, Kerstin, Agnès Garcia-Ventura, Kai Ruffing, e Lorenzo Verderame eds. 2023. Orientalist Gazes: Reception and Construction of Images of the Ancient Near East since the 17th Century. wEdge 3. Münster: Zaphon., 2023

Studies on the reception of Antiquity are booming, and the volume is a further reflection of this... more Studies on the reception of Antiquity are booming, and the volume is a further reflection of this process. It brings together thirteen articles with a focus on the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th. During the 19th century, the (re)discovery through archaeology of Assyrian sites such as Nineveh triggered enormous interest among Europeans, who had previously known of these cities only through Biblical texts. The new findings challenged previous discourses about the region that were circulating in Europe at that time. However, the ancient materials were not received directly through primary sources; rather, their reception might be expanded or modified depending on the current prevailing discourse. This means that a subject can be (re)modified almost arbitrarily and interpreted for a variety of contexts. The question of interest for those working in reception studies, therefore, is not to assess whether the past is represented “correctly” (a normative approach), but rather to understand the situation in which it is received and ultimately instrumentalised (a constructivist approach). For this reason, the focus of several chapters is placed on the discursive interplay between the (re)discovery itself and its processing in politics, architecture, and art. Moreover, even though the archaeological excavations and the shaping of Assyriology as a new academic discipline were clearly a catalyst for this reception, one also has to pay attention to other chronologies that have so far been considered more peripheral. Therefore, the volume also includes studies dealing with sources from the 17th century onwards. – Among others the contributions study “The Ancient Near East in German textbooks around 1900” (B. Onken), “Reconstruction drawings of Ancient Near Eastern architecture as inspiration for building in the 1920ies in Germany” (B. Pedde), “The German novelist Karl May as a multiplier of knowledge about the Ancient Near East” (F. Pedde), “Fashion and the Ancient Orient” (F. Pinnock) and “Arnaldo Momigliano and his picture of the Orient” (A. Marcone), to list just a few.

Pierluigi Ciocca Omaggio a Francesco Pomponio....................................................... more Pierluigi Ciocca
Omaggio a Francesco Pomponio.................................................................... xxvii
Sergio Alivernini
A New Text Belonging to the Collections of the British Museum .......................1
Maria Giulia Amadasi Guzzo
Le dieu de Phrangissa (Chypre) ............................................................................5
Maria Giovanna Biga
Francesco Pomponio and His Place in the History of Eblaite Studies................15
Noemi Borrelli
Symbolic and Economic Institutions in 3rd Millennium
Southern Mesopotamia: The Household of the ereš-diĝir of Bau.......................25
Odoardo Bulgarelli
La Mesopotamia: commercio, strumenti economico-finanziari
e mezzi di pagamento (fine IV – inizi II millennio a.C.) ....................................57
Franco D’Agostino
Stealing Barley in Ur III: a Detective Story? ......................................................73
Benjamin R. Foster
When the Phoenicians Came to Cornwall...........................................................87
Angela Greco
Neglected Source of Prosperity: Marsh Resources and the Role
of the enku in Third Millennium BC Southern Mesopotamia...........................95
Massimo Maiocchi
Current Approaches towards Ancient Near Eastern Textual Sources:
Some Remarks on Contemporary Methodologies
for Philological Research..................................................................................117
Pietro Mander
Die Bedeutung des fließenden Wassers in der
sumerischen Kosmologie..................................................................................129
Gianni Marchesi
A New Manuscript of Ana ittišu II from Nimrud .............................................147
Manuel Molina
Court Cases on Burglaries, Fugitives, Debts and Other Matters
in Ur III Times ..................................................................................................155
Salvatore F. Monaco
Meannedu, Ruler of Umma ..............................................................................175
Palmiro Notizia
Money-Lenders and Merchants from Central Babylonia:
Unpublished Ur III Documents in the Yale Babylonian Collection .................181
David I. Owen
New Sources from the Garšana and Iri-Saĝrig Archives..................................199
Sergio Ribichini
Euripide et le sacrifice humain à Carthage : notes de lecture ...........................237
Annunziata Rositani
War Prisoners as Gifts of the King Rīm-Anum for Goddesses
and Gods: Two New Texts ...............................................................................249
Cristina Simonetti
The River Ordeal in the Third Millennium BC.................................................277
Gabriella Spada
“I Want to Break Free”: Model Contracts Recording Slave
Self-Emancipation ............................................................................................283
Marten Stol
Esip tabal in Agriculture...................................................................................301
Die Berufsbezeichnung lú-igi............................................................................319
Lorenzo Verderame
Fashioning of Statues in Three Neo-Sumerian Unpublished Texts
from Ur ..............................................................................................................341
Paolo Xella
Nergal in Phoenician Context ...........................................................................357

The present volume collects eighteen essays exploring the history of ancient Near Eastern studies... more The present volume collects eighteen essays exploring the history of ancient Near Eastern studies. Combining diverse approaches—synthetic and analytic, diachronic and transnational—this collection offers critical reflections on the who, why, and how of this cluster of fields. How have political contexts determined the conduct of research? How do academic agendas reflect larger social, economic, and cultural interests? How have schools of thought and intellectual traditions configured, and sometimes predetermined, the study of the ancient Near East? Contributions treating research during the Nazi and fascist periods examine the interpenetration of academic work with politics, while contributions dealing with specific national contexts disclose fresh perspectives on individual scholars as well as the conditions and institutions in which they worked. Particular attention is given to scholarship in countries such as Turkey, Portugal, Iran, China, and Spain, which have hitherto been marginal to historiographic accounts of ancient Near Eastern studies.
Introduction: Perspectives on the History of Ancient Near Eastern Studies: An Introduction

Lorenzo VERDERAME / Agnès GARCIA-VENTURA

Part I. The Edge of the Abyss: the Study of Antiquity under the Totalitarism Threat

1. Hittite Studies at the Crossroads: Albrecht Goetze’s and Hans Gustav Güterbock’s Flight from Nazi Germany

Silvia ALAURA

2. Language and Race in Assyriology: from Benno Landsberger to Wolfram von Soden

Sebastian FINK

3. Assyriology in Nazi Germany: the Case of Wolfram von Soden

Jakob FLYGARE

4. Carthage the Deceitful and Perfidius Albion: the Phoenicians and the British in Fascist Italy

Pietro GIAMMELLARO

5. The sharing out of Antiquities in Syria during the Interwar Period: Sir Leonard Woolley’s Excavation at Tell Sheikh Yusuf (Al Mina).

Patrick Maxime MICHEL

6. “Die Assyriologie nicht weiter unberücksichtigt bleiben dürfte…”: On the (Non-)Existence of Assyriology at the German University in Prague (1908–1945)

Ludìk VACÍN / Jitka SÝKOROVÁ

Part II. Intellectual History and Ancient Near Eastern Studies: some Case Studies

7. Notes on the History of the Historiography of Cuneiform Mathematics

Carlos GONÇALVES

8. Feudalism and Vassalage in Twentieth-Century Assyriology

Emanuel PFOH

9. Nation-building in the Plain of Antioch, from Hatti to Hatay

Eva VON DASSOW

Part III. From our Stories to the History of Ancient Near Eastern Studies

10. The Historiography of Assyriology in Turkey: A Short Survey

Selim Ferruh ADALI / Hakan EROL

11. Ancient Near Eastern Studies and Portuguese Academia: a Love-affair under Construction

Isabel ALMEIDA

12. Near Eastern Archaeology and the Czech-speaking Lands

Petr CHARVÁT

13. Tintin in Mesopotamia. The Story of Belgian Assyriology (1890-2017)

Katrien DE GRAEF

14. Assyriology in Iran?

Parsa DANESHMAND

15. Assyriology in China

Changyu LIU

16. Looking for a Tell. The Beginnings of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Barcelona

Jordi VIDAL

Part IV. Current Prospectives, Future Perspectives

17. Big Data, Big Deal: Use of Google Books Ngram Viewer and JSTOR Data for Research for Charting the Rise of Assyriology

Steven W. HOLLOWAY

18. The Future of the Past. How the Past Contributes to the Construction of Syrian National Identity

Ahmed Fatima KZZO

Notes on Contributors

Index of Authors

This book is an enthusiastic celebration of the ways in which popular culture has consumed aspec... more This book is an enthusiastic celebration of the ways in which popular
culture has consumed aspects of the ancient Near East to construct new
realities. The editors have brought together an impressive line-up of
scholars-archaeologists, philologists, historians, and art
historians-to reflect on how objects, ideas, and interpretations of
the ancient Near East have been remembered, constructed, reimagined,
mythologized, or indeed forgotten within our shared cultural memories.
The exploration of cultural memories has revealed how they inform the
values, structures, and daily life of societies over time. This is
therefore not a collection of essays about the deep past but rather
about the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.

Table of Contents
Foreword
Paul Collins

Preliminary Considerations
Agnès Garcia-Ventura and Lorenzo Verderame

Visual Arts
Pedro Azara and Marc Marín
Mesopotamia in Miró. Miró in Mesopotamia

Jean M. Evans
Case Studies in the Popular Reception of the Tell Asmar Sculpture Hoard

Silvana Di Paolo
Images of Ruins as Metaphorical Places of Transformation: The Case of Persepolis

Performing Arts
Kerstin Droß-Krüpe
Artaserse: An Ancient Oriental Ruler on Modern Opera Stages?

Valeska Hartmann
When Imitation Became Reality: The Historical Pantomime Sardanapal
(1908) at the Royal Opera of Berlin

Daniele Federico Rosa
Ye Go to Thy Abzu: How Norwegian Black Metal Used Mesopotamian
References, Where It Took Them from, and How It Usually Got Them Wrong

Film and Television
Kevin McGeough
“Babylon’s Last Bacchanal”: Mesopotamia and the Near East in Epic
Biblical Cinema

Eva Miller
He Who Saw the Stars: Retelling Gilgamesh in Star Trek: The Next Generation

Lorenzo Verderame
Evil from an Ancient Past and the Archaeology of the Beyond: An
Analysis of the Movies The Exorcist (1973) and The Evil Dead (1981)

Novels and Comics
Jana Mynářová and Pavel Kořínek
The Ancient Near East in Czech Comics and Popular Culture: The Case of
Jáchym and the Printer’s Devil

Luigi Turri
Gilgamesh, The (Super)Hero

Francesco Pomponio
Mystery Literature and Assyriology

Ryan Winters
Ancient Aliens, Modern Cosmologies: Zecharia Sitchin and the
Transformation of Mesopotamian Myth

Archaeologist in the Middle
Davide Nadali
The (In)visibility of Archaeology

Juan-Luis Montero Fenollós
Imagining the Tower of Babel in the Twenty-First Century: Is a New
Interpretation of the Ziggurat of Babylon Possible?

Silvia Festuccia
Athletic Disciplines in the Ancient Near East: Representation and Reconstruction

Afterword. Memory and Memories: From the Ancient Near East to the Modern West
Frances Pinnock

Contributors
Subject Index

Agnès Garcia-Ventura, Claudia Tavolieri, Lorenzo Verderame, The Study of Musical Performance in Antiquity: Archaeology and Written Sources, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2018, 2018

This collection of eleven essays provides the reader with some valuable insights into the richnes... more This collection of eleven essays provides the reader with some valuable insights into the richness of sources dealing with music and musical performance scattered over 3000 years and covering a wide range of geographies, from Syria to Iberia, through Greece and Rome. The volume, then, offers a series of examinations of literary data and materials from different areas of the Classical World and the Near East in ancient times and in late Antiquity, examined both synchronically and diachronically, in some cases in dialogue with one another.

This broad treatment makes this collection of interest to historians, archaeologists, philologists and musicians, providing them with a multi-faceted volume which guides them towards a fuller understanding of ancient societies and which heightens the awareness of the importance of music as a transversal phenomenon.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Illustrations and Tables .................................................................. vii
Preface ........................................................................................................ xi Eleonora Rocconi
Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 The Study of Musical Performance in Antiquity
Agnès Garcia-Ventura, Claudia Tavolieri and Lorenzo Verderame
Chapter One................................................................................................. 9
The First Ancient Near Eastern Written Sources on Musicians’ Activity and Performance: The Ebla Archives—A Glance at the 3rd Millennium BCE Syrian Evidence
Maria Vittoria Tonietti
Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 39
“The Poor Musician” in Ancient Near Eastern Texts and Images
Regine Pruzsinszky
Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 59
Singing and Singers in 2nd Millennium Babylonia: A New Look
at Selected Texts and Images
Dahlia Shehata
Chapter Four.............................................................................................. 93
Textual, Iconographical, and Archaeological Evidence for the Performance of Ancient Egyptian Music
Heidi Köpp-Junk
Chapter Five ............................................................................................ 121
Potential Musical Instructions in Ancient Israel
Theodore W. Burgh
Chapter Six .............................................................................................. 137
Dancing Myths: Musical Performances with Mythological Subjects
from Greece to Etruria
Daniele F. Maras
Chapter Seven.......................................................................................... 155
Performative Aspects of Music in Sacred Contexts of the Western Greeks Angela Bellia
Chapter Eight........................................................................................... 173
The Aulos and the Trumpet: Music, Gender and Elites in Iberian Culture (4th to 1st Century BCE)
Raquel Jiménez Pasalodos and Peter/Pippa Holmes
Chapter Nine............................................................................................ 207
Clues of Roman Soundscapes around Vesuvius: Some Case Studies
Mirco Mungari
Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 227
Tibia multifora, multiforatilis, multiforabilis...
Depictions of a “Many-holed” Tibia in Written Sources
Kamila Wysłucha
Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 247
Body and Soul: The Dangers of Music and Song in Syriac Christianity
Claudia Tavolieri

LORENZO VERDERAME, Editorial SEZIONE MONOGRAFICA / THEME SECTION Demoni mesopotamici / Mesopota... more LORENZO VERDERAME, Editorial
SEZIONE MONOGRAFICA / THEME SECTION
Demoni mesopotamici / Mesopotamian Demons
- ANNA MARIA GLORIA CAPOMACCHIA – LORENZO VERDERAME, Some Considerations about Demons in Mesopotamia
- FRANS A.M. WIGGERMANN, The Mesopotamian Pandemonium. A Provisional Census
- ANNE-CAROLINE RENDU LOISEL, Gods, Demons and Anger in the Akkadian Literature
- MARKHAM J. GELLER, The Faceless Udug-demon
- TZVI ABUSCH, Witches and Demons in Ancient Mesopotamia
- NILS P. HEEßEL, Evil against Evil. The Demon Pazuzu
- PIETRO MANDER, Non-corporeal Beings in Iamblichus’ Chaldean Doctrine and in Mesopotamia

Aestimatio, Jul 31, 2022

Review of the following chapters: 1 Where Next for “Ancient Science”? 1 G.E.R. Lloyd 2 Crow Ome... more Review of the following chapters:
1 Where Next for “Ancient Science”? 1 G.E.R. Lloyd
2 Crow Omens in Mesopotamia 15 Ann Kessler Guinan
3 Old Signs in New Dress? On the Meaning of Inanna’s Symbol as Sign and “Presence” in Early Babylonian Divination 26
Abraham Winitzer
4 Material, Constellation, Image, God: The Fate of the Chosen Bull according to kar 50 and Duplicates 58
Alan Lenzi
5 A Late Babylonian Compilation Concerning Ritual Timing and
Materia Medica 97 Matthew Rutz
6 bm 40187: A Birthnote for Two Named Individuals 113 M. Willis Monroe
7 Converging Fortunes—Links between Celestial and Intestinal Divination 120
Ulla Koch
8 Sumerian Divination 148 C. Jay Crisostomo
9 The Form and History of a Babylonian Prayer to Nabû 169 Tzvi Abusch
10 Translation in the Elevation of Ištar 183 Niek Veldhuis
11 Judean Scribalism, Documentary Epistemology, and the Name 207 aישׂראל
Jeffrey L. Cooley
12 Dating eae. When was the Astrological Series Enūma Anu Ellil Created? 253
Nils P. Heeßel
13 Bricoleurs in Babylonia: The Scribes of Enūma Anu Enlil 264 Eduardo A. Escobar and Laurie E. Pearce
14 The Date of the Accession of Nabonidus to the Throne of Babylon: A Reappraisal of the Evidence 287
Grant Frame
15 Intercalary Months in Achaemenid Elamite Administrative Documents from Persepolis 296
Matthew W. Stolper
16 The Importance of Experts: Agents in the Transfer of Astral Knowledge between Hellenistic Mesopotamia and the Greek- speaking World 317
Zoë Misiewicz
17 Diodorus on the Chaldeans 333 Alexander Jones and John Steele
18 Observing Eclipses: An Optical Question in Problemata 15.11 353 Alan C. Bowen
19 Chaldeans on the Nile: Two Egyptian Astronomical Procedure Texts with Babylonian Systems A1 and A2 for Mercury 382
Mathieu Ossendrijver and Andreas Winkler
20 Clever Machines and the Gods Who Make Them: The Antikythera Mechanism and the Ancient Imagination 420
Daryn Lehoux

BMCR 2018.08.17, 2018

Il nuovo volume di Francesca Rochberg si interroga sui rapporti tra la tradizione cuneiforme e la... more Il nuovo volume di Francesca Rochberg si interroga sui rapporti tra la tradizione cuneiforme e la storia della scienza, come ben evidenzia il sottotitolo. Questa relazione è declinata sotto diversi punti di vista, ma principalmente l'autrice si concentra su due aspetti. Il primo riguarda le possibili relazioni e confronti tra la conoscenza e spiegazione del mondo da parte degli scribi mesopotamici e la scienza occidentale. Il secondo riguarda il modo in cui questa concezione mesopotamica è stata descritta e recepita in seno all'assiriologia e alla storia della scienza. Il volume è composto di quattro parti, ciascuna di due capitoli, precedute da un'introduzione (1-14) e chiuse da una conclusione (274-284). La prima parte ("Historiography") è dedicata alla storia degli studi. Il primo capitolo ("Science and Nature", 17-37) si occupa del concetto e dell'evoluzione del termine "natura" in seno alla tradizione occidentale e di una sua possibile rappresentazione nella cultura mesopotamica. Partendo dalla relazione o contrapposizione tra le due visioni, la Rochberg conclude il capitolo tracciando i rapporti della tradizione cuneiforme con le culture coeve e successive, alla luce di una continuità (e relativa trasmissione e debito nei confronti della civiltà mesopotamica) e di una discontinuità. Il secondo capitolo ("Old Ideas about Myth and Science", 38-58) si concentra sulla storia degli studi e ruota attorno al famoso volume curato da Henri Frankfort et al., Before Philosophy: The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man, Middlesex: Penguin, 1949. L'autrice analizza come la "mentalità" mesopotamica è stata descritta (o costruita) in questo volume e quali sono state le fonti utilizzate; su questa base discute il modo in cui la tradizione cuneiforme è stata trattata dal punto di vista della storia della scienza e recepita dagli specialisti di questa disciplina. La seconda parte ("Cuneiform Knowledge and Its Interpretative Framework") tratta specificamente della conoscenza o percezione dei fenomeni "naturali" nella tradizione cuneiforme. Il capitolo terzo ("On Knowledge among Cuneiform Scholars", 61-102) affronta il concetto stesso di conoscenza in Mesopotamia. L'autrice descrive gli specialisti della conoscenza, raggruppandoli sotto il titolo di ummânū, e alcune espressioni della loro attività, come i testi divinatori e le liste lessicali. La questione sottostante l'osservazione di fenomeni "eccezionali" ovvero il concetto di ordine e norma è affrontata nel quarto capitolo ("A Cuneiform Modality of Order", 103-127). Qui l'autrice analizza la funzione del segno, tra regolarità e anomalia, alla luce dei repertori divinatori relativi alla teratologia e ai segni celesti. La terza parte ("Rationality, Analogy, and Law") è dedicata a quella che potremmo definire la visione emica mesopotamica. Il concetto di razionalità e la legge di causalità nella percezione degli scribi mesopotamici sono affrontati

Review of Sarah C. Melville, The Campaigns of Sargon II, King of Assyria, 721-705 B.C. Campaigns ... more Review of Sarah C. Melville, The Campaigns of Sargon II, King of Assyria, 721-705 B.C. Campaigns and commanders, 55. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016. Pp. xvi, 300. ISBN 9780806154039. $32.95.

review of Matthew T. Rutz, Morag M. Kersel (ed.), Archaeologies of Text: Archaeology, Technology,... more review of Matthew T. Rutz, Morag M. Kersel (ed.), Archaeologies of Text: Archaeology, Technology, and Ethics, Joukowsky Institute Publication 6. Oxford; Philadelphia: Oxbow Books, 2014.

Review of W. Farber, Lamaštu (2014)

RECENSIONES Faist, B. (2007): Alltagstexte aus neuassyrischen Archiven und Bibliotheken der Stadt... more RECENSIONES Faist, B. (2007): Alltagstexte aus neuassyrischen Archiven und Bibliotheken der Stadt Assur (Studien zu den Assur-Texten, vol. 3). Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden (xx + 250 pp.). ISBN: 978-3-447-05647-2. (€ 54). Este tercer volumen de la serie Studien zu den Assur-Texten presenta las transliteraciones y traducciones de los documentos cuyas copias la misma B. Faist publicara dos años antes: Neuassyrische Rechtsurkunden III (KAN 3), WVDOG 110. Se trata de más de cien documentos de entre los seis mil excavados en Assur (Qalat Sharqat) entre 1903 y 1914, que se dividieron entre Berlin y Estanbul. Los ciento quince textos estudiados por Faist pertenecen a los fondos del Vorderasiatisches Museum de Berlín.

[Keywords: assyriology, Mesopotamia, cuneiform, review, astronomy, astrology, neo-assyrian]

[Keywords: assyriology, Mesopotamia, cuneiform, review, astronomy, astrology, calendar]

Ur, cemetery, royal tombs, ritual, human sacrifice

Questa è la prima ragione di segnalare il lavoro di Tottoli: segnalazione che si vorrebbe -tempi ... more Questa è la prima ragione di segnalare il lavoro di Tottoli: segnalazione che si vorrebbe -tempi di stampa permettendo -tempestiva: segnalazione si è detto, non recensione in senso proprio, operazione quest'ultima che deve comportare anche un'analisi puntuale della traduzione che spetta solo a uno studioso di diritto islamico. Ci si limita qui a condividere i criteri esposti da Tottoli nella densa "Introduzione" (pp.

T K. K , Studien zu Ritual und Sozialgeschichte im Alten Orient / Studies on Ritual and Society i... more T K. K , Studien zu Ritual und Sozialgeschichte im Alten Orient / Studies on Ritual and Society in the Ancient Near East. Tartuer Symposien -, Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft , de Gruyter, Berlin-New York, , pp. , .

volume qui presentato è il secondo tomo dell'edizione dei testi amministrativi neosumerici della ... more volume qui presentato è il secondo tomo dell'edizione dei testi amministrativi neosumerici della collezione del Princeton Theological Seminary, raccolti e trascritti da M. Sigrist. Il totale dei documenti editi è di cinquecentonove, provenienti dai principali archivi risultato di scavi clandestini a cavallo del secolo scorso e acquistati sul mercato antiquario (Drehem, Lagaš, Umma). Il catalogo dei testi e gli indici precedono la trascrizione. Nella copia giunta in recensione, il volume è corredato da un errata corrige di quattro pagine, da cui risulta che alcuni testi sono stati già pubblicati nel primo tomo ( , , , , , , , -, ; aggiungi , ) e, in un caso ( ) in altro luogo (PTS ); un errore frequente quando si lavora con grandi collezioni di tavolette. All'errata corrige va aggiunta un'ulteriore correzione, per cui le osservazioni al testo sono state erroneamente riportate sotto il testo .

EN: In ancient Cultures, childhood –whatever the time frame assigned– is characterized as a bord... more EN: In ancient Cultures, childhood –whatever the time frame assigned– is characterized as a border territory between non-being and being, between a still "formless" individual and a fully "formed" adult. This is a transition area, in which one remains for a certain time, but where might not even enter. In fact, the alternative between acceptance and refusal is preliminary. Each other are rooted in their own sacred tradition, from which inclusion and exclusion procedures originate. These are generally strongly ritualized and connected with extra-human entities, responsible for controlling specific spheres of existence. Rites and practices are more and more rigid and codified, as it happens in the Christian context, determining the spread of complex anthropological and theological reflections. Moreover, child, because is perceived in relation with extra-human beings, in some cases is set to be the medium between two worlds, both in the exercise of ritual functions generally precluded to adults, as by making himself "significant" of messages that only divinatory practice will be able to decode.
ITA: Nelle culture antiche, l’infanzia, quale che sia l’arco cronologico ad essa assegnato, si configura come un territorio di confine fra il non essere e l’essere, fra l’individuo ancora “informe” e l’adulto pienamente “formato”, una zona di passaggio, nella quale si permane per un certo tempo, ma in cui si potrebbe anche non entrare. Risulta, infatti, preliminare l’alternativa fra accettazione e rifiuto. Un’alternativa che trova fondamento nella tradizione sacrale di appartenenza e dà origine a procedure di inclusione ed esclusione, per lo più fortemente ritualizzate e connesse con entità extraumane, preposte al controllo di specifiche sfere dell’esistenza. Riti e pratiche si codificano così sempre più rigidamente e talvolta, come avviene in ambito cristiano, determinano l’emergere di complesse riflessioni di ordine antropologico e teologico. Il bambino, inoltre, proprio perché percepito in rapporto con l’alterità extraumana, viene in alcuni casi chiamato a farsi tramite fra due mondi, sia nell'esercizio di funzioni rituali generalmente precluse agli adulti, sia facendosi egli stesso “significante” di messaggi che solo la pratica divinatoria potrà decodificare.

PPT of the conference held in Barcelona (UB; 27/11/2016). Literatura sapiencial; Dialogo del pesi... more PPT of the conference held in Barcelona (UB; 27/11/2016).
Literatura sapiencial; Dialogo del pesimismo y Teodicea babilonica

PPT of the conference held at the UAB Barcelona (27/10/2016).

Clothing, Body, and Identity in 1st Millennium Rituals

In this paper I deal with the role dress and clothing play in the constitution and shaping of ind... more In this paper I deal with the role dress and clothing play in the constitution and shaping of individual identity. Through the close analysis of a number of case studies taken from Neo-Assyrian letters and rituals, namely the substitute king (“King of substitution” šar pūḫi) and “A man’s substitute for Ereškigal” (Ana pūḫi amēli Ereškigal) rituals, as well as the practice of exposing royal robes as representation of the king in his absence, I explore the mechanisms that make possible for clothing to both represent and substitute the individual. Three ritual aspects related to garments are analyzed: transmission, substitution, embodiment. The three aspects work on the concrete, symbolical, or metaphorical use of garments. They may overlap in their uses or may be embedded in order to create ad hoc or more efficacious rituals.

In this paper I will investigate the different features of the Pleiades in the astronomical, astr... more In this paper I will investigate the different features of the Pleiades in the astronomical, astrological, and calendrical interpretation as well as the mythical and cultural background that relates the Pleiades, on the one hand, to the “Bull of Heaven” constellation (Taurus), and, on the other, to the Seven demons. According to cuneiform sources, the Pleiades figure are among the most important stars. They are simply known in Sumerian as “the Stars” (MUL.MUL), while their Akkadian name, “the Bristle” (zappu), links them to the imagery and the cultural milieu of the “Bull of Heaven” constellation (Taurus), to which they belong. Pleiades are frequently depicted as seven dots or seven stars, and identified on a mythological level with groups of seven divine beings.
In fact, the Sumerian ideogram for “seven”, if preceded by the determinative for divine beings (dIMIN.BI), can be used as an alternative name for the Pleiades. Besides, they also show a close relation to the seven demons, called the Seven (Sebettu), a well-known group of evil beings that, according to an etiological myth, causes the eclipse of the moon. The relation of the Pleiades to the war and death sphere is strengthened by their association with the Netherworld god Nergal/Erra, as well as their identification with the god’s planet (Mars). Finally, the Pleiades are among the few celestial bodies that receive a cult, and specific prayers are dedicated to them. From the sources it emerges that the Pleiades are mainly related to the movement of the Moon, and it is worth noting that the list of constellations of the ecliptic begins precisely with the Pleiades. Furthermore,the Pleiades play an important part in the calendrical reckoning, a role that is clearly stated in almanacs as the MUL.APIN, as well as in the intercalation scheme based on the conjunction of the Moon and the Pleiades.

Davide Nadali and Lorenzo Verderame, 2015, Neo-Assyrian Statues in Context

Neo-Assyrian letters are a broad and interesting corpus of data to detect how ancient Assyrians d... more Neo-Assyrian letters are a broad and interesting corpus of data to detect how ancient Assyrians dealt with the creation of images, namely statues of the kings, the shaping of decoration of royal and divine effigies, and the working of lamassu.
The present paper aims to analyzing the ritual and practical aspects of the making of images in the Neo-Assyrian time, taking into account terminology, occasions for the creation, and presentation.
of the statues referring to how Assyrian
kings and sculptors worked and cooperated
for this purpose

Gilgamesh 2 (Uomini e profeti - Radio Rai 3, 04/01/2015)

Un buon anno nuovo da Uomini e Profeti, che oggi riprende la lettura e l’analisi dell’epopea di G... more Un buon anno nuovo da Uomini e Profeti, che oggi riprende la lettura e l’analisi dell’epopea di Gilgamesh, l’antico poema sumerico in cui si formulano le grandi domande dell’umanità, riprese poi nelle epopee dei popoli vicini, come ci illustrano l’assiriologo Lorenzo Verderame e il biblista Jean Louis Ska. Celebre, ad esempio, è l’episodio del diluvio universale mandato dagli dèi per punire le malefatte degli umani e ripreso poi dal testo biblico come paradigma di un limite che va in ogni caso posto al dilagare della malvagità umana. Ma è sul tema della morte, conosciuta attraverso la morte dall’amico/alter ego Enkidu che Gilgamesh – come sottolinea Americo Sbardella – offre i più profondi spunti di meditazione. La vita degli umani è come un canna recisa dal vento, e il dolore per la separazione non trova spiegazione, lacera il cuore di Gilgamesh come il cuore di ogni essere vivente.

Suggerimenti di lettura
La saga di Gilgamesh, a cura di Giovanni Pettinato, Oscar Mondadori 2008
L'Epopea di Gilgames, a cura di N.K.Sandars, Adelphi 1986
Americo Sbardella, Gilgamesh - Colui che tutto conobbe - Versione teatrale dell'Epopea - Lalli editore 2014

Musica
Bohuslav Martinů, The Epic of Gilgamesh

Parole
Io ho avuto paura della morte, ho cominciato
a tremare e ho vagato nella steppa.
La sorte del mio amico pesa su di me,
per sentieri lontani ho vagato nella steppa.
L’amico mio, che amo, è diventato argilla.
E io non sono come lui? No dovrò
giacere pure io e non alzarmi mai più per sempre?
Gilgamesh IX, 65-70

Gilgamesh 1 (Uomini e profeti - Radio Rai 3, 28/12/2014)

A cavallo tra il 2014 e il 2015, abbiamo pensato di dedicare questo tempo sospeso della festa da ... more A cavallo tra il 2014 e il 2015, abbiamo pensato di dedicare questo tempo sospeso della festa da un lato guardando (in “Storie”) al travaglio del mondo, dall’altro andando a rileggere (in “Questioni”) uno dei grandi testi dell’antichità, forse il più antico poema epico di tutti i tempi: l’epopea di Gilgamesh. Dalla storia mitica del re di Uruk, antica città dei Sumeri e successivamente dei Babilonesi, scaturisce una scrittura (anzi, più riscritture) di un poema in cui, si concentrano le grandi tematiche dell’affacciarsi della stirpe umana sulla terra: chi è l’uomo? in che cosa si differenzia dalle bestie? quale funzione ha il rapporto tra maschile e femminile? e che cosa differenzia la creatura umana dagli dèi? L’occasione ci è data dalla riscrittura in forma teatrale dell’epopea di Gilgamesh da parte di un uomo di spettacolo, Americo Sbardella, in studio con noi assieme al biblista Jean-Louis Ska e all’assiriologo Lorenzo Verderame.

Their Divinity is Different, their Nature is Distinct! Origin and Features of Demons in Mesopotamian Cultures

The aim of this paper is to analyze the main features shared by the class of extra-‐human beings... more The aim of this paper is to analyze the main features shared by the class of extra-‐human beings called “demons”. Through the interpretation of their connotative/fundamental characteristics, I will propose a hypothesis on their origin and development in the Mesopotamian religious system.

The Substitute King Ritual

The “substitute king” ritual (šar puhi) is a well known ritual, attested to in the Assyrian sourc... more The “substitute king” ritual (šar puhi) is a well known ritual, attested to in the Assyrian sources of the First Millennium B.C. According to these sources, a specific kind of lunar eclipse was thought to portend the death of the king. The initial reaction was to tentatively neutralize the prophecy using hermeneutic methods and rituals intended to protect the
individual from bad omens. The šar puhi ritual took place in the ultima ratio. A substitute was enthroned as king for a period of one hundred days. At the end of this period, the substitute king was killed, thereby fulfilling the prophecy. The "real" king was then reinstated into his official role. This ritual impressed contemporary cultures so much so
that echoes of it can even be found in indirect references, particularly in the Greek sources. Modern scholars have been impressed by the ritual as well, however, they devote more attention to the formal aspects of the ritual killing rather than to the mechanisms of the ritual itself.

Storia "dell'assedio di Babilonia"

Il presente contributo trae spunto da una riflessione sul rapporto tra tradurre e tradire e sul p... more Il presente contributo trae spunto da una riflessione sul rapporto tra tradurre e tradire e sul potere di “influenzare” il testo da parte di chi vi interviene (traduttore, interprete, copista, etc.): la trasmissione (scritta o, anche, orale) comporta un condizionamento (dall’errore al plagio, dall’interpretazione all’adattamento), volontario o involontario. Gli esempi per ogni singolo caso sono numerosi, nell’antichità come nell’attualità.
La nostra attenzione si è concentrata sull’intervento volontario o “manipolazione” del testo, sul contesto storico e sociale, in cui avviene e, soprattutto, sulle motivazioni dell’autore. Per questo ci siamo lasciati ispirare dalla letteratura: il protagonista de Il consiglio d’Egitto di L. Sciascia (Giuseppe Vella) e della Storia dell’assedio di Lisbona (Raimundo Silva) di J. Saramago, si trovano, in veste di traduttori o interpreti, ad avere la possibilità e la consapevolezza di influenzare la “storia” e la società contemporanea mediante la loro opera. Le loro vicende e quelle dei loro reali e moderni epigoni, limitatamente all’ambito dei nostri studi vicinorientali, sottolineano il rischio e il fascino, sempre attuali, di tali manipolazioni.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the relation between traduction and betrayal (“tradurre/tradire”) or the traduction as a betrayal. Any intervention on the text, which foresee a transmission (written or oral), involves a conditioning/interference (from the error to plagiarism, from interpretation to adaptation) voluntary or non voluntary.
We focused on the voluntary manipulation of the text, analyzing the historical and social context in which it is produced and the reasons of the authors. Literature inspired us: the protagonists of L. Sciascia’s The Council of Egypt (Giuseppe Vella) and J. Saramago’s History of the siege of Lisbon (Raimundo Silva) have the occasion and consciousness of influencing “history” and contemporary society with the manipulation of the text. Their stories and those of their modern and real “colleagues” (limited to the ancient near-eastern studies) underline the risk and fascination of these actions, which is something that still prevails.

The course provides an updated and critical knowledge of the history of Ebla on the archaeologica... more The course provides an updated and critical knowledge of the history of Ebla on the archaeological, philological and historical level through a multidisciplinary methodology for the cross study of the sources. At the same time, the course addresses the issue of the enhancement and recovery of the site following the damage suffered during the Syrian political crisis.

Introduzione alle culture mesopotamiche

Introduzione alla lingua accadica

La terza dinastia di Ur: storia, cultura, religione tra epigrafia e archeologia

Laboratorio: lettura di testi letterari e mitologici mesopotamici

Water History

References to the sea in Sumerian literature and documentary sources from third millennium BCE Me... more References to the sea in Sumerian literature and documentary sources from third millennium BCE Mesopotamia are scarce. The marginality of the sea in Mesopotamian cultures is corroborated by the absence of a god(dess) of the sea in the pantheon. In this article, I discuss the references to the sea in Sumerian literature. In the first part, I present an overview of the literary references from which two main aspects emerge: the sea as a metaphor and simile for vastness and awesomeness, and also as a political, ideological, and mythological border. Other features include the female engendering of the sea and its relationship with death. In the second part, I analyse those gods to whom control over the sea is left; these are the god of sweet waters (Enki) and the goddess of the marsh (Nanše). In the third part, I review the references to the sea in royal inscriptions and administrative texts. In the conclusion, I relate the marginal role of the sea in Sumerian literature and religion to the crisis of the coastal region of southern Mesopotamia and the fading of relationship with the Persian Gulf along the third millennium BCE.

Volume pubblicato dal Dipartimento di Storia, Culture, Religioni e con il contributo della Sapien... more Volume pubblicato dal Dipartimento di Storia, Culture, Religioni e con il contributo della Sapienza-Università di Roma I saggi contenuti nel volume sono stati sottoposti a procedura di peer review. www.morcelliana.com I diritti di traduzione, di memorizzazione elettronica, di riproduzione e di adattamento totale o parziale, con qualsiasi mezzo (compresi i microfilm), sono riservati per tutti i Paesi. Le fotocopie per uso personale del lettore possono essere effettuate nei limiti del 15% di ciascun volume/fascicolo di periodico dietro pagamento alla SIAE del compenso previsto dall'art. 68, commi 4 e 5, della legge 22 aprile 1941, n. 633. Le fotocopie effettuate per finalità di carattere professionale, economico o commerciale o comunque per uso diverso da quello personale possono essere effettuate a seguito di specifica autorizzazione rilasciata da CLEARedi, Centro Licenze e Autorizzazioni per le Riproduzioni Editoriali, Corso di Porta Romana n. 108, 20122 Milano, e-mail autorizzazioni@clearedi.org e sito web www.clearedi.org.

Contents of my PhD Dissertation on the Neo-Assyrian ummânus L. (Il ruolo degli esperti (ummânu) n... more Contents of my PhD Dissertation on the Neo-Assyrian ummânus L. (Il ruolo degli esperti (ummânu) nel periodo neo-assiro, 2004).

Webpage with the bibliography of my PhD dissertation "Gli esperti (ummânu) nel periodo neo-assiro... more Webpage with the bibliography of my PhD dissertation "Gli esperti (ummânu) nel periodo neo-assiro" (Roma, 2004)

Edited by Agnès Garcia-Ventura, Claudia Tavolieri and Lorenzo Verderame. Cambridge Scholars Publishing: Newcastle upon Tyne. ISBN: 978-1-5275-0658-9., 2018

Conference on the reception of the Ancient Near Eastern societies in the Western cultures (21-22/... more Conference on the reception of the Ancient Near Eastern societies in the Western cultures (21-22/01/2016; "Sapienza", Roma).

International workshop The Study of Musical Performance in Antiquity: Archaeology and Written S... more International workshop

The Study of Musical Performance in Antiquity: Archaeology and Written Sources

6 November 2015

Aula Olimpia (Facoltà di Lettere - "Sapienza)

9.30-10.00: Welcome (Lorenzo Verderame, “Sapienza”) / Introduction (Agnès Garcia-Ventura, “Sapienza”)

10.00-11.00: Panel 1

10.00-10.30: Eleonora Rocconi (Università degli Studi di Pavia): “Music Archeology and the Study of Greek and Roman World: an Overview”

10.30-11.00: Daniele F. Maras (Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia): “Music Performances with Mythological Subjects: From Greece to Etruria”

11.00-11.30: Coffee break

11.30-13.00: Panel 2

11.30-12.00: Raquel Jiménez Pasalodos (Universidad de Valladolid): “The Music of the Other: Classical Sources on Iberian Indigenous Music from the Perspective of Archaeological Evidences"

12.00-12.30: Kamila Wyslucha (University of Wroclaw, Poland): “Tibia multifora, multiforabilis, multiforatilis... an Interpretation of Depiction of the “Many-holed” tibia in Written Sources”

12.30-13.00: discussion

13.00-15.00: Lunch break 15.00-16.00: Panel 3

15.00-15.30: Claudia Tavolieri (Università degli Studi Roma Tre): “Body and Soul: the Danger of Music and Song in the Context of Syriac Christianity”

15.30-16.00: Dahlia Shehata (Universität Würzburg): “Vocal Music Performance in Mesopotamia”

16.00-16.30: Coffee break 16.30-18.00: Panel 4

16.30-17.00: Regine Pruzsinszky (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg): “«The Poor Musician» in Ancient Near Eastern Texts and Images”

17.00-17.30: Mirco Mungari (EMAP, European Music Archaeology Project): “Pompeii and Herculaneum: Looking at Roman Music through a Frosted Glass”

17.30-18.00: discussion

Organizers (in alphabetical order): Agnès Garcia-Ventura (“Sapienza”), Claudia Tavolieri (Università degli Studi Roma Tre), Lorenzo Verderame (“Sapienza”)

Contacts:

Lorenzo Verderame (lorenzo.verderame@uniroma1.it), Agnes García Ventura (agnes.ventura@gmail.com)

Istituto Italiano di Studi Orientali - "Sapienza" Università di Roma

Claudia Tavolieri (claudia.tavolieri@tiscali.it )

Università di Roma Tre

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Seminar S. Monaco: PROTOCUNEIFORME E DOCUMENTI URUK IV-III (FEB 2015)

All’interno delle attività dell’insegnamento di assiriologia e del dottorato di “Filologia e Stor... more All’interno delle attività dell’insegnamento di assiriologia e del dottorato di “Filologia e Storia del Mondo Antico”, nella settimana tra il 26 e il 30 gennaio 2015 si terrà presso la facoltà di Lettere della Sapienza un seminario intensivo sulle scritture protocuneiformi e sui documenti di Uruk (IV-III) tenuto dal dott. S. Monaco. Il seminario, aperto a tutti. Non è necessaria una conoscenza previa della tradizione cuneiforme o di lingua sumerica, ma data la progressione degli argomenti trattati in ogni lezione si suggerisce la frequenza dell’intero seminario.

Il seminario , che prevede anche delle esercitazioni, si articolerà su tre incontri:

26 gen (lun), ore 10-13, auletta di archeologia
29 gen (giov), ore 10-13, studio 108
30 gen (ven), ore 10-13, studio 108

Informazioni e contatti: Lorenzo Verderame (lorenzo.verderame@uniroma1.it)

F. Pomponio, Lo stato della III dinastia di Ur, Studi Semitici NS 25, Roma, 2023, 2023

The volume collects paper on the history, economy, history of studies, literature, archaeology, m... more The volume collects paper on the history, economy, history of studies, literature, archaeology, metrology, and other topics related to the Third Dynasty of Ur (XXI cent. BCE). This is the largest and most recent overview on this dynasty and the related period (Neo-Sumerian) of Mesopotamian history.

Lunedì 22 ottobre 10.00 Tavola rotonda aperta al pubblico su Archeologia ed astronomia: collabor... more Lunedì 22 ottobre

10.00 Tavola rotonda aperta al pubblico su Archeologia ed astronomia: collaborazione scientifica e didattica universitaria. Sono previsti gli interventi di: Fabrizio Benente, Nicola Cucuzza, Giulio Magli (in videoconf.), Giovanni Mennella, Giulio Montinari, Fabio Negrino, Elisabetta Starnini, Vincenzo Tiné, Alberto Ventura.
Al termine della tavola rotonda ci sarà la presentazione della mostra Chiavari in 3D allestita al Museo Archeologico di Chiavari (P. Chella, M. Codebò, H. De Santis).

12.50 pausa pranzo

Nomi e leggende degli astri nelle culture antiche

14.30 Saluti istituzionali
14.40 A. Panaino – Il ciclo mitologico iranico della stella Sirio nell’Iran preislamico
15.40 M. De Martino – Il setaccio in cielo. I nomi delle Pleiadi nella mitologia indiana e il loro retaggio indoeuropeo
16.10 L. Verderame – Le costellazioni dell’antica Mesopotamia. Forme, personaggi e mitologia astrale
16.40 pausa caffè

17.00 E. Ciampini – Astri e modelli ciclici nell’Egitto faraonico. Alcuni casi-studio
17.30 A. Rizza – Sole, Luna e Pleiadi nella cultura ittita
18.00 L. DeRose – Nomi e leggende delle Stelle e dei Pianeti nel mondo Greco e Romano
18.30 – fine giornata

Martedì 23 ottobre

9.30 R. Ronzitti, S. Turco – “Un infinito riscintillamento”: il contributo della letteratura all’archeoastronomia. Presentazione del numero monografico della rivista Lumina 2018
10.00 A. Santoni – Contributo alla storia della mitologia classica del cielo: la riscoperta degli “Aratea” in età carolingia e il “De astronomia more christiano”
10.30 G. Mayerà – Aspetti simbolici ed esoterici della scienza islamica degli astri
11.00 pausa caffè

Archeoastronomia e astronomia culturale

11.20 M. Codebò, H. De Santis – Sulla Coppa Foroughi e sui sette pianeti nel mondo antico
11.40 N. Lanciano, R. Montinaro – I nomi della Via Lattea
12.00 P. Colona – The astronomical content of the myth of Phaethon
12.20 L. Marcato, A. Dallaporta – La leggenda del re Trishanku che volle ascendere al cielo divenendo la Croce del Sud
12.40 pausa pranzo

14.20 A. Polcaro – Dolmen d’Oriente e dolmen d’Occidente: relazione tra l’architettura funeraria megalitica, il cielo ed il territorio nel bacino del Mediterraneo durante il IV millennio a.C.
14.40 A. Scuderi, F. Maurici – Civiltà del Sole in Sicilia. Indicatori solstiziali preistorici nell’isola
15.00 S. Castia, M. Forteleoni – Un osservatorio lunare nel Neolitico? Nuove letture degli allineamenti a Pranu Muttedu – Goni
15.20 A. Cora, G. Cossard, M. Bosticco – Rappresentazione delle Pleiadi con catini litici
15.40 A. Dallaporta, L. Marcato – Possibili rapporti tra la Luna e i dolmen di Hire Benekal (Karnataka, India)
16.00 A. Santinelli – Una nuova lettura del frammento di presunto cratere nautico di Ischia

Il secondo appuntamento di epigrafia, tra epigrafia e fonetica. Epigrafia cuneiforme, Micenea, Gr... more Il secondo appuntamento di epigrafia, tra epigrafia e fonetica.
Epigrafia cuneiforme, Micenea, Greca, Italica, Arabica e linguistica

Water is a central topic in the ancient Near Eastern studies: more than 60 years have passed and ... more Water is a central topic in the ancient Near Eastern studies: more than 60 years have passed and much has been done since the 1957 “hydraulic society” model, presented by Karl Wittfogel in his “Oriental Despotism”, but still in 2012, the late Tony Wilkinson, wrote that “Too often the archaeology of water is studied as a footnote to other areas of the ancient cultural record, or, simply presented as an interesting diversion from the ‘real’ archaeology of buildings, burials or artefacts.” (Water History 4: 155-176). Pointing to the importance of field research especially dedicated to the topic of water, he continued by underlying the need to generate an overall conceptual framework for dealing with ancient water systems and, to shift the focus away from the “water and power” perspective, towards a more nuanced understanding of water management, which would re-consider the effective role of the local management of water resources.
The workshop aims at presenting and discussing the recent perspectives on water studies in the ancient Near East in an interdisciplinary perspective, which should contribute to the development of new interpretative models, able to enrich the long debate on where, how and when technologies related to water management in dry areas took place and which may be their role in the modern world, where water is considered as the key to a sustainable future. In particular, the presence and even the absence of water is a cultural and social cause that deeply influenced and affected the birth and development of settlements and urban centres: different waters co-existed and worked in the change of the environmental conditions of villages and cities, creating aquatic wet areas characterized by peculiar flora and fauna that are reflected in the economical, social and religious aspects of material culture.

Edited by Agnès Garcia-Ventura and Lorenzo Verderame. Eisenbrauns / The Penn State University Press, University Park, Pennsylvania. ISBN: 978-1-57506-836-7., 2020

This volume collects eighteen essays exploring the history of ancient Near Eastern studies. Combi... more This volume collects eighteen essays exploring the history of ancient
Near Eastern studies. Combining diverse approaches—synthetic and
analytic, diachronic and transnational—this collection offers critical reflections on the who, why, and how of this cluster of fields. How have political contexts determined the conduct of research? How do academic agendas reflect larger social, economic, and cultural interests? How have schools of thought and intellectual traditions configured, and sometimes predetermined, the study of the ancient Near East? Contributions treating research during the Nazi and fascist periods examine the interpenetration of academic work with politics, while contributions dealing with specific national contexts disclose fresh perspectives on individual scholars as well as the conditions and institutions in which they worked. Particular attention is given to scholarship in countries such as Turkey, Portugal, Iran, China, and Spain, which have hitherto been marginal to historiographic accounts of ancient Near Eastern studies.

Edited by Agnès Garcia-Ventura and Lorenzo Verderame. Lockwood Press, Atlanta. ISBN: 978-1-948488-24-2. , 2020

This book is an enthusiastic celebration of the ways in which popular culture has consumed aspect... more This book is an enthusiastic celebration of the ways in which popular culture has consumed aspects of the ancient Near East to construct new realities. The editors have brought together an impressive line-up of scholars-archaeologists, philologists, historians, and art historians-to reflect on how objects, ideas, and interpretations of the ancient Near East have been remembered, constructed, reimagined, mythologized, or indeed forgotten within our shared cultural memories. The exploration of cultural memories has revealed how they inform the values, structures, and daily life of societies over time. This is therefore not a collection of essays about the deep past but rather about the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.