Assyriology Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Jusqu’à peu, on ne savait pas grand-chose de ce royaume. On connaissait à travers quelques documents (Listes royales) l’existence d’une succession de souverains – une dizaine – qui avait régné sur cette principauté maritime de la Basse... more

Jusqu’à peu, on ne savait pas grand-chose de ce royaume. On connaissait à travers quelques documents (Listes royales) l’existence d’une succession de souverains – une dizaine – qui avait régné sur cette principauté maritime de la Basse Mésopotamie, ce qui était bien mince pour couvrir deux siècles d’histoire, de 1720 à 1500 av. J.-C. !

The nature of the relationship between the Assyrian state and the Syro-Hittite states is often represented in the writings of archaeologists and ancient historians under the rubric of imperialism, Assyrian sovereignty, and the... more

The nature of the relationship between the Assyrian state and the Syro-Hittite states is often represented in the writings of archaeologists and ancient historians under the rubric of imperialism, Assyrian sovereignty, and the Syro-Hittite resistance, an unchanging formula largely based on center-periphery models. This structuralist model of fixed relationships is thus characterized as a firmly-set trajectory of power relations and a teleological narrative of conquest, ending without exception with the eventual and complete submission and subjugation of Syro-Hittite states to Assyrian military power. While Syro-Hittite states are represented as vulnerable and politically weak entities, the Assyrian state is referred as an “expansionistic imperial power” or “superior invading force”. Had they escaped direct Assyrian sovereignty, these peripheral communities were at least deemed “Assyrianizing” in their material culture. This a priori qualification of Syro-Hittite-Assyrian relationships as an imbalanced power distribution is an outcome of the preponderance of studies of Assyrian sovereignty with an obsession with the (cosmic) image of the sovereign in his visual and verbal manifestations. Secondly it is often assumed that the study of Assyrian imperialism has always operated through coercion and military violence. Alternative forms of engagement between the Neo-Assyrian state and the Syro-Hittite kingdoms such as diplomacy, political negotiation, trade, exchange of ideas, politics of settlement, land management, taxation or traveling craftsmen and circulation of technology and knowledge are much more rarely discussed. In this paper, I suggest that historical perspectives on the unchallenged Assyrian imperialism are often driven by the alluring, yet biased perspectives offered by the sumptuous, if not excessive corpus of Assyrian annalistic accounts, state sponsored texts, and imperial monuments. Therefore such perspectives prioritize short-term political histories of conquest and domination over other longer term and more horizontally distributed aspects of the past such as cultural practices, ecological histories, political landscapes, socialization, or material worlds. The historicist accounts of the Near Eastern past can be challenged and perhaps balanced by evidence offered by archaeological, material, and environmental research, which present alternative and often contrasting perspectives on these particular histories. Prioritizing textual evidence often leaves out the material flows, delicate negotiations of power, dynamics of trade and exchange and the politics of resource extraction. Attending to other forms of evidence allows us to reflect on the complexity of the relationships between Assyria and the Syro-Hittite states. In this article, I pay particular attention to such interactions and encounters that are other than military in nature, and give priority to material evidence that challenge standard imperialist narratives of Assyrian textual accounts.

Thoroughly rewritten 7th edition of a textbook for freshmen students of history, classics, archaeology, ancient studies and a general readership interested in the history of ancient Near East and the Graeco-Roman world. The new edition... more

Thoroughly rewritten 7th edition of a textbook for freshmen students of history, classics, archaeology, ancient studies and a general readership interested in the history of ancient Near East and the Graeco-Roman world. The new edition contains chronological tables and 'boxes' on special topics, such as the Ancient Near Eastern economy, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman gods, forms of dependent and independent labour. Kristin Kleber, Ben Haring, Jan Paul Crielaard and Jaap Jan Flinterman read parts of the book and provided various new paragraphs. The authors profited also from advice of a number of users of the book. Both authors bear the sole responsibility for the final result. Training tools are available on the website of the publisher. An English and a German edition of this book are in press at Routledge and Steiner. More information and parts of the book to be inspected here: https://uitgeverij-coutinho.cld.bz/9789046905876-2017-SPEC

Temples were nearly ubiquitous across the ancient Near East. Rather than serving as a gathering place for a worshipping congregation, a temple served as a terrestrial divine abode. In it, the god(s) lived amid society, yet carefully... more

Temples were nearly ubiquitous across the ancient Near East. Rather than serving as a gathering place for a worshipping congregation, a temple served as a terrestrial divine abode. In it, the god(s) lived amid society, yet carefully sequestered from it behind walls and doors. While primarily a residence, the temple also granted people limited access, usually for the purpose of divine service. The people believed that gods dwelt outside of the realm of human experience. Temples bridged the gap between human and divine, allowing regulated access to the deity, usually present in the form of a cult statue, and giving people the opportunity to influence the gods. Through this mutually beneficial interchange, the gods received the service they desired, while the people hoped their service would elicit divine protection and blessing. Protection and blessing, though, were conditional. The gods would remain and stay favorably disposed only if they were satisfied with their accommodation and service. Temples then, at least in theory, were lavishly and fastidiously constructed and maintained in order to keep the gods happy. This article focuses on the major temples, especially those from 1500–500 BCE, in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Hittite Anatolia, and Syria-Palestine. The article also focuses on the structure and ideology of the temples, not the rituals performed within them. For the most part, biblical and Israelite references will be kept to a minimum, as they are numerous enough to warrant their own article. Too numerous to include, archaeological reports generally have been excluded, yet they are referenced in the works cited and may be found with a Google web search.

An introductory overview of the compositional history and themes of the various versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh and the elements of tension and correspondence among them.

In this study, I argue that the literary depictions and iconographic images of wings on various hybrid creatures are a means of depicting that creature’s association with wind and the cardinal directions, and that recognizing this... more

In this study, I argue that the literary depictions and iconographic images of wings on various hybrid creatures are a means of depicting that creature’s association with wind and the cardinal directions, and that recognizing this correlation offers greater insight into the function and meaning of these creatures in the written and iconographic records generally. As such, I intend to add to our increasing awareness of the close relationship between textual and iconographic motifs in the ancient Near East. Furthermore, I contend that attention to the number of wings a creature possesses informs our understanding of the entity’s perceived cosmological abilities.

During the third millennium BC, the huge geographical area stretching between the Mediterranean in the west and the Indus Valley in the east witnessed the rise of a commercial network of unmatched proportions and intensity, within which... more

During the third millennium BC, the huge geographical area stretching between the Mediterranean in the west and the Indus Valley in the east witnessed the rise of a commercial network of unmatched proportions and intensity, within which the Persian Gulf for long periods functioned as a central node. In this book, Laursen and Steinkeller examine the nature of cultural and commercial contacts between Babylonia, the Gulf region, and Indus Civilization. Focusing on the third and early second millennia BC, and using both archaeological data and the evidence of ancient written sources, their study offers an up-to-date synthetic picture of the history of interactions across this vast region. In addition to giving detailed characterizations and evaluations of contacts in various periods, the book also treats a number of important related issues, such as the presence of Amorites in the Gulf (in particular, their role in the rise of the Tilmun center on Bahrain Island); the alleged existence of Meluhhan commercial outposts in Babylonia; and the role that the seaport of Gu’abba played in Babylonia’s interactions with the Gulf region and southeastern Iran.

Les textes de Mari révèlent un monde diplomatique hautement civilisé 1 . Les rois s'y côtoyaient, connaissaient et acceptaient un code de conduite pour la guerre comme pour la paix: il y avait des choses qui ne se faisaient pas.

Comments (1) Although squeezed and slightly damaged, the numeral is likely 10. (2) For qīptum written logographically šu-la₂ see the remarks in Stol 1998: 884. (11) The only significant variant between both manuscripts is in the last... more

Comments (1) Although squeezed and slightly damaged, the numeral is likely 10. (2) For qīptum written logographically šu-la₂ see the remarks in Stol 1998: 884. (11) The only significant variant between both manuscripts is in the last lines. The new text omits the oath formula (line 12). More noteworthy is the variant in line 11. Instead of the expression še u₃ maš₂-bi i₃-⸢aĝ₂⸣-e, "he will measure the barley and its interest," the new text has še maš₂ ĝa₂-⸢ĝa₂⸣-de₃, "the barley (and its) interest are to be paid." For this expression see also the collection of model contracts on a four-sided prism in the Michael C.

The Neo-Sumerian (Ur III) period is known for having produced tens of thousands of tablets though, paradoxically, much of the history and culture of this period remains in the dark. One of these areas is the history and organization of... more

The Neo-Sumerian (Ur III) period is known for having produced tens of
thousands of tablets though, paradoxically, much of the history and culture of this period remains in the dark. One of these areas is the history and organization of the Ur III military. This dissertation is an investigation of selected issues and the terminology related to the military history of this period. It attempts to rectify the absence of monographic studies on this topic and to clarify problematic issues that recur in the secondary literature. Chapter one introduces the historical background of the Ur III period, focusing on the available sources and their associated biases. Chapter two establishes the framework for a military history of this period by utilizing year-names and textual references to plunder, and teases out some of the problems involved in using this data. This chapter utilizes the vast administrative corpus to build portraits of the enemy toponyms mentioned in year-names and attempts to determine their organizational structure and political relationship to the kingdom of Ur. Chapter three discusses the primary terms for soldiers (eren2, aga3-us2, gar3-du) and the garrison system that was established in the periphery. It demonstrated that the taxes on garrison settlements (gun2 ma-da) exhibited an array of formats and utilized a multiplicity of terms; this aids our understanding of the political statuses of a number of foreign toponyms. Chapter four investigates the context of the messenger text genre and some of the military terminology found within. This resulted in the discovery that different provinces and their messenger text corpora dealt with different regions of the periphery. Additionally, it was discovered that foreign groups from the periphery traveled in greater numbers and with greater frequency than previously assumed. Lastly, selected military terms were investigated and some previous assumptions regarding their meaning were challenged. This dissertation increases and redefines our knowledge of the military and political contexts of the Third Dynasty of Ur and provides a beginning point for further research into this area.

Eski Mezopotamya'daki inanışa göre tanrılar insanlar hakkındaki düşüncelerini çeşitli yollardan mesajlar göndererek bildiriyorlardı. Gök olayları tanrı mesajlarını okumak için birer işaret olarak görülerek incelenip yorumlanmış ve... more

Eski Mezopotamya'daki inanışa göre tanrılar insanlar hakkındaki düşüncelerini çeşitli
yollardan mesajlar göndererek bildiriyorlardı. Gök olayları tanrı mesajlarını
okumak için birer işaret olarak görülerek incelenip yorumlanmış ve geleceğe dair
astrolojik kehanetlerde bulunulmuştur. Kehanetlere göre, eğer gökyüzünde olumlu
bir işaret görülmüş ise, yeryüzünde de olumlu bir gelişme meydana gelecektir. Tam
tersine gökyüzünde görülen olumsuz bir işaret de yeryüzünde meydana gelecek
olumsuz olayların bir habercisidir. Kehanetlerden anlaşıldığına göre gök cisimlerinin
her birisinin yeryüzüne etkileri farklıdır. Bununla birlikte mana bakımından
olumlu veya olumsuz göksel fenomenlerin birbirleri ile kombinasyonları belirli bir
mantık çerçevesinde yorumlanmıştır. Gökte meydana gelen değişken durumlar kehanetlere
konu olmuştur. Bu değişkenlerden bazıları: Gök cisimlerinin parlak veya
sönük olmaları, renkleri, birbirlerine yaklaşıp uzaklaşmaları, Ay ve güneş tutulmaları
ile fırtına gibi meteorolojik olaylardır. M.Ö. I. Binyıl ortalarına kadar astrolojik
kehanetler krallar ve ülke için iken, bu devirden sonra sıradan kişiler için de astrolojik
kehanetlerde bulunulmuştur. Astrologlar saraya bağlı olarak görev yapmışlar,
saray tarafından maddi olarak desteklenip saygı görmüşlerdir.
Anahtar kelimeler: Astroloji, Enuma Anu Enlil,, Yıldız falı.

In diesem Buch finden sich die Tagungsberichte des jahrlichen Kongresses fur Altorientalistik. In dieser Folge, mit dem Thema »Text und Bild«, fallt die ungewohnlich hohe Anzahl von Farbbildern ins Auge. Ausnahmsweise wurde die Rencontre... more

In diesem Buch finden sich die Tagungsberichte des jahrlichen Kongresses fur Altorientalistik. In dieser Folge, mit dem Thema »Text und Bild«, fallt die ungewohnlich hohe Anzahl von Farbbildern ins Auge. Ausnahmsweise wurde die Rencontre von zwei Universitaten organisiert: Bern und Geneva.

The recorded family division agreement in a deceased estate encompasses a variety of components, mechanisms and details ranging from elementary to lengthy and complex ones. Moreover, the agreement is drafted in accordance with the... more

The recorded family division agreement in a deceased estate encompasses a variety of
components, mechanisms and details ranging from elementary to lengthy and complex
ones. Moreover, the agreement is drafted in accordance with the contractual parties’
particular oral agreement and the scribe’s idiosyncratic inclusion of some of the detail
of the oral agreement. A specific methodology is devised in order to analyse the content
of the family deceased division agreements.Thus the aim and purpose of this content
analysis methodology is to simplify the analysis of old Babylonian division agreements.
In this article, special attention is accorded to the creation of a methodology, termed the
analysis model, for the analysis and study of the content of family deceased division
agreements. Within this framework, firstly the obligatory essential elements of a family
deceased division agreement are identified and then other aspects and elements of the
agreement are identified and studied in different groups, named the natural and incidental
elements, to reflect new perspectives on the division agreement’s meaning, purpose and
spirit in ancient Babylonian urban life.

Feminist scholarship launched a search for women in human history. As soon as one starts looking for women, they are inevitably found. Neither women nor gender were invisible in the past. In terms of the Neo-Assyrian period, the rich... more

Feminist scholarship launched a search for women in human history. As soon as one starts looking for women, they are inevitably found. Neither women nor gender were invisible in the past. In terms of the Neo-Assyrian period, the rich textual material collected by Saana Svärd exemplifies how numerous our written sources are on the Neo-Assyrian women. 1 Nonetheless, with the further development of gender studies the following questions arise. 2 What methods should we apply to our sources? What aspects of gender were chosen for representation? Which were consciously suppressed and why? Svärd examines the rich evidence she has assembled from the important aspect of its relation to power, and there is no doubt that research should be continued in this direction. The interdisciplinary comparative investigation into the diachronic changes in the status of women over the entire course of Mesopotamian history is definitely a promising direction of investigation. The correct evaluation of sources concerning women is an essential methodological concern, and here comparison is useful not only when applied interdisciplinary. Tallay Ornan writes: "Assuming that visibility. .. serves as one parameter for the political, social, or cultural status of the depicted figure, one may conclude that royal women in first-millennium Assyria were devoid of official political, social or religious power." 3 This statement is based on Ornan's assumption that "the few 1. Svärd 2015. Svärd has collected, arranged in easily accessible form, and thoroughly analyzed all the Neo-Assyrian sources related to royal women. Svärd's Women and Power in Neo-Assyrian Palaces naturally encompasses only high-ranking women. Numerous sources on women of lower status still await research. There are only two other monographs regarding Neo-Assyrian women (Melville 1999 and Macgregor 2012). However, they do not embrace the entire range of existing sources on Neo-Assyrian royal women, because that was not the focus of their investigation. Valuable information on Neo-Assyrian women can be also found in the monograph by W. Meinhold dedicated to Ištar of Assur (Meinhold 2009). A discussion of Neo-Assyrian women is found also in Melville 2004. 2. See Bahrani 2001: 1-39 for an overview of the role of feminist scholarship, postmodernism, and poststructuralism in gender studies. 3. Ornan 2002: 464. 35. RIMA 3 A.0.104.3, from Pazarğik. 36. RINAP 3/2 40 44″b-46″. 37. RINAP 4 2002 (Ass. 1). This inscription preserves a fragment of the epitaph of this queen. 38. RINAP 4 2010 with related description and references. 39. These are the "eye-stone" of Sammu-rāmat (Seymour 2008: 104), the inscriptions of Naqīʾa-Zaqūtu-all for the life and well-being of Esarhaddon (RINAP 4 2005-8), and a votive text of the queen of Assurbanipal, probably Libbāli-šarrat, dedicating a golden object for the life and security of reign of Assurbanipal and her own life (Deller 1983: 22-24; this is a non-monumental inscription on a clay tablet). The queen also asked the goddess to make the king attentive to her words. Moreover, a stone jar was dedicated by Inūrta-abūni, sister of Assurnaṣirpal II (ASV 615). Remarkably, all of these objects were dedicated to female deities. 40. These are the steles of Nergal-āpil-kūmū'a (no. 50, 673 b.c.e.), Issār-emūqāia (no. 99, 867 b.c.e.),

A dolgozat fő kérdése, hogy milyen volt a mezopotámiai vallási felfogás, mennyire volt kizárólagos ez a világkép? Voltak-e olyan konfliktusok a környező népekkel, melyek vallási alapúnak tekinthetőek, azaz két eltérő vallási rendszer... more

A dolgozat fő kérdése, hogy milyen volt a mezopotámiai vallási felfogás, mennyire volt kizárólagos ez a világkép? Voltak-e olyan konfliktusok a környező népekkel, melyek vallási alapúnak tekinthetőek, azaz két eltérő vallási rendszer ütközéséből adódtak volna. Még egyszerűbben: megpróbálták-e a különböző mezopotámiai birodalmak ráerőltetni szomszédjaikra saját isteneiket és kultuszaikat, a politikai bekebelezést követte-e vallási elnyomás? A kérdést lezárhatnánk egy egyszerű nemmel, hiszen a gondolat is idegen volt a mezopotámiai kultúrától, nem azért, mert különlegesen toleráns lett volna, hanem egyszerűen az adott kulturális keretek között nem lett volna értelme egy másik népre vallási szokásokat vagy isteneket erőltetni, hiszen ők éppen a saját hatalmat erősítették. 1 Ugyanakkor az utóbbi idők szakmai vitái világossá tették, hogy a mezopotámiai vallásosság lényegét érintő kérdésről van szó. A vallási türelem vagy türelmetlenség kérdése egy olyan végletesen politeista pantheon esetében, mint a mezopotámiai, egyszerűen nem releváns. A Folyóköz istenvilága egy többnyelvű, etnikailag összetett kulturális térben alakult ki, és változott folyamatosan -a kisugárzás és a befogadás egyaránt jellemezte. Ha részletesebben szeretnénk körüljárni a kérdést, és meg szeretnénk érteni a nemleges válasz hátterét, akkor mezopotámiai vallás alapvető jellegzetességei mellett azt is látnunk kell, hogy milyen módon reagált más kultúrákra és vallási szokásokra.

Akkadian is a fairly well resourced extinct language that does not yet have a comprehensive morphological analyzer available. In this paper we describe a general finite-state based morphological model for Babylonian, a southern dialect of... more

Akkadian is a fairly well resourced extinct language that does not yet have a comprehensive morphological analyzer available. In this paper we describe a general finite-state based morphological model for Babylonian, a southern dialect of the Akkadian language, that can achieve a coverage up to 97.3% and recall up to 93.7% on lemmatization and POS-tagging task on token level from a transcribed input. Since Akkadian word forms exhibit a high degree of morphological ambiguity, in that only 20.1% of running word tokens receive a single unambiguous analysis, we attempt a first pass at weighting our finite-state transducer, using existing extensive Akkadian corpora which have been partially validated for their lemmas and parts-of-speech but not the entire morphological analyses. The resultant weighted finite-state transducer yields a moderate improvement so that for 57.4% of the word tokens the highest ranked analysis is the correct one. We conclude with a short discussion on how morphol...

The chief aim of this essay is to posit a well-known Mesopotamian royal and divine epithet, ušumgallu "great dragon," as the source behind Ezekiel's enigmatic description of Pharaoh in 29.3, hattannīn haggādôl, "the great dragon." This... more

The chief aim of this essay is to posit a well-known Mesopotamian royal and divine epithet, ušumgallu "great dragon," as the source behind Ezekiel's enigmatic description of Pharaoh in 29.3, hattannīn haggādôl, "the great dragon." This relationship sheds new light and meaning on an old problem: why does Ezekiel refer to Pharaoh as a dragon? Rather than viewing this prophetic expression as a pejorative, the cognate evidence argues for the converse by rooting it in an enduring tradition of regal titles. Replicating Akkadian ušumgallu (Sumerian UŠUM.GAL) as efficiently as possible and drawing upon Israelite cosmological history (viz. Gen 1.21a), Ezekiel feigned including Pharaoh within a venerable, long line of Mesopotamian kings and deities to receive this title. Instead, and as is characteristic of Ezekiel's rhetoric, he upended the putative associations of the "great dragon," thereby exposing its true subordinate position under the hegemony of YHWH

Undersøgelser af babylonske kvinder, deres status og handlemuligheder i oldtidens mesopotamiske samfund, er få. 2 Antallet af undersøgelser forekommer naermest omvendt proportionalt med den orientalistiske interesse for Babylons kvinder i... more

Undersøgelser af babylonske kvinder, deres status og handlemuligheder i oldtidens mesopotamiske samfund, er få. 2 Antallet af undersøgelser forekommer naermest omvendt proportionalt med den orientalistiske interesse for Babylons kvinder i den europaeiske forestillingsverden som seksuelt villige og som underlagt maskulin dominans. I denne artikel vil jeg diskutere, hvordan menneskelige og guddommelige aktører repraesenteres som hhv. "kvinder" og "maend" i den babylonske kulturs bedst kendte tekst, Gilgamesh-eposet, og jeg vil diskutere hvilke symbolske betydninger og hvilken kulturel status, disse kategorier tillaegges. Denne diskussion af kulturelt autoritative fremstillinger af køn i oldtidens Mesopotamien skal ses som et bidrag til den bredere historiske interesse for, hvordan køn konstrueres i forskellige epoker, og dermed for kvinders rettigheder og muligheder, som er denne bogs emne. I den mesopotamiske litteraere og religiøse tradition fra det 3. til det 1. årtusind f.v.t. finder vi ingen kanonisk samling af hellige skrifter, men der er blandt de utallige kendte kileskriftskilder visse vaerker, som må anses for kulturelt autoritative, som en slags klassikere. 3 Blandt disse finder vi Gilgamesh-eposetdet laengste babylonske litteraturvaerk overhovedetpå den mest fremtraedende plads. Gilgamesh-eposet er saerligt interessant for en diskussion af kønsrepraesentation, både fordi Gilgamesh-eposet var en af oldtidens Mesopotamiens mest udbredte og kulturelt kanoniske tekster, men også pga. Gilgamesh-eposets bredere kulturhistoriske betydning. 4 En undersøgelse af, hvordan køn repraesenteres i Gilgamesh-eposet kan rimeligvis antages at have en vis repraesentativ vaerdi for forståelsen af kønskonfigurationer i det mesopotamiske samfund, saerligt i de toneangivende elitemiljøer, som stod for tradering af litteratur.

Establishing the correct reading of a hitherto misunderstood inscription, (re-)published in A. George, Mesopotamian Incantations and Related Texts in the Schøyen Collection (CUSAS 32; Bethesda 2016). The carnelian gemstone bearing the... more

Establishing the correct reading of a hitherto misunderstood inscription, (re-)published in A. George, Mesopotamian Incantations and Related Texts in the Schøyen Collection (CUSAS 32; Bethesda 2016). The carnelian gemstone bearing the text turns out to have functioned as an amulet to prevent a curse from materializing.