Convened by Dr Yağmur Heffron (UCL), with the assistance of Abaan Zaidi, İrem Nogay, Wenqi Fang.

Location varies, please check under each lecture. Online participation should be possible. Please sign up to receive a link via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lcane-seminar-series-new-research-tickets-1980393071989?aff=oddtdtcreator

19th January, 6.15pm. Dr Nancy Highcock (Oxford) New Horizons in Ancient Lycaonia: a late Hellenistic-period household at Türkmen-Karahöyük 

Rm 309 UCL Roberts Building.

Although the Hellenistic period (c. 323- 30 BC) in Anatolia is well understood through the stone-built cities of the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, a much patchier picture emerges further inland. In 2024, the Türkmen Karahöyük Archaeological Project (TKAP) was launched at the site of Türkmen-Karahöyük, Konya as an international research effort to better understand the long historical trajectory of a prominent settlement in this region, including its culminating phase in the 1st c. BCE-1 st c. CE. Indeed, it is during the Hellenistic period, when the rider region was known as Lycaonia, that the site was at its maximum extent. Excavation of two 10 x 10 m squares of a large Late Hellenistic domestic mud-brick building (1st c. BCE) in 2024 revealed a destruction level that has left building’s architecture and contents in an incredible state of preservation, including a wealth of reconstructable in situ materials. This presentation will situate these initial results in the wider study of Late Hellenistic Anatolia. In addition, the excavation of the Late Hellenistic settlement at Türkmen-Karahöyük presents a ripe opportunity for an integrated collaboration between Classical and pre-Classical archaeologists that will shed light on the complex constructions of identity in a relatively region that experienced transformative societal changes at the end of the 1st millennium BCE.

Nancy Highcock is the Jaleh Hearn Curator for Ancient Middle East (Assistant Keeper) in the Department of Antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum.  She is also an Associate Faculty Member of the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies.

Prior to her appointment at the Ashmolean in 2024, she was the interim Curator for Ancient Middle East at the British Museum and was a post-doctoral lecturer and teaching associate in Mesopotamian archaeology at the University of Cambridge.

Nancy is a Field Supervisor at the Türkmen-Karahöyük Archaeological Project, Konya, Türkiye. She has also worked at the sites of Niğde-Kınık Höyük and Tell Atchana in Türkiye.

Her research interests centre on the material culture and social histories of ancient West Asia, with a particular focus on ancient Mesopotamia and Anatolia and the relationships between the two regions in the Bronze and Iron ages. She also works on the entanglements of material culture with collective identities and action, gender and social status.

9th February 6.15pm LECTURE CANCELLED Dr Joshua Britton (London) Measure for Measure: Weights and weighing in the Lower Town of Kültepe-Kaneš CANCELLED

Monday 2nd March Dr Glynnis Maynard (Cambridge)

Location: Archaeology G6 LT, Gordon Square (31-34) & (14) Taviton St

Monday 16th March Dr Ben Dewar, Scribes of Xul: History, Horror, and the Occult in Death Metal Receptions of Ancient Mesopotamia, Archaeology G6 LT, Gordon Square (31-34) & (14) Taviton St 

This talk analyses aspects of the reception of ancient Mesopotamia in extreme metal music, with a particular focus on the 1977 hoax grimoire, the Simon Necronomicon, as a source for these receptions. This topic has been highlighted in previous literature but has been received little in-depth analysis. The use of elements from this book (which combines early Assyriological scholarship, pulp fiction, and modern occultism) in the lyrics of early extreme metal innovators Celtic Frost and some of death metal’s most popular bands, such as Morbid Angel, Deicide, and Behemoth, has resulted in much of its terminology entering the general vocabulary of extreme metal, often divorced from its original context. As a result, explicit representations of the distant Mesopotamian past in death metal are caught between competing forms of authenticity: a historical authenticity grounded in academic scholarship, and a genre authenticity that prizes a knowledge of the tropes and vocabulary of extreme metal, horror, and the occult. How do bands negotiate the tension between historicity and genre authenticity in their representations of Mesopotamian antiquity? I approach this topic through case studies of three death metal bands that have frequently written material on the Mesopotamian past, Morbid Angel, Nile, and Devangelic. Using a theoretical framework of “reconstructionist” and “eclectic” reception that I adapt from studies on neopagan religions, I explore how these bands recontextualise and present their sources (both academic and esoteric) to construct authenticity for their death metal receptions of the Mesopotamian past.

Monday 23rd March Dr Frank Simons (Dublin) Burn your way to health and happiness – the ritual and incantation series Šurpu

Location: Archaeology G6 LT, Gordon Square (31-34) & (14) Taviton St

Abstract: The ritual and incantation series Šurpu ‘Burning’ is one of the most important sources for understanding religious and magical practice in the ancient Near East. The purpose of the ritual was to rid a sufferer of a divine curse inflicted due to personal misconduct. The text of the series is composed chiefly of the incantations recited during the ceremony. These are supplemented by brief ritual instructions as well as a ritual tablet which details the ceremony in full. The paper will present a comprehensive and radical reconstruction of the entire text, including the reintroduction of an entire Tablet, the absence of which was previously unsuspected, as well as restoring the missing beginning of the ritual.

Plants, people and environment at Kültepe/Kanesh from 3800-1700 BC

Andrew Fairbairn, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia (a.fairbairn@uq.edu.au)

January 13th, 2026, 6.15pm, G6 UCL Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square. Online participation should be possible. Check here for an Eventbrite link nearer the time.

Kültepe (Kayseri, Türkiye) is the site of ancient Kanesh, a Middle Bronze Age city state and home to a community of Assyrian traders from c. 1900-1830 BC whose tablet archives are one of the world’s great records of historical trade. Archaeobotanical research provides evidence for plant use during that period, and before, including seed and wood charcoal analysis of food and fuel supplies as well as seed stable isotopes tracking the growth conditions of crops. Evidence for early plant trade, agricultural change and differences in local plant economies will be discussed and the future of research in this remarkable site and how a combination of archaeological science and analysis of text is combining to improve our understanding of plant histories there.

UNFORTUNATELY THIS LECTURE HAS BEEN CANCELLED. HOPEFULLY WE WILL BE ABLE TO REVISIT THE TOPIC IN THE FUTURE. 

Autumn Lecture Series 2025:

Digital Humanities and the Ancient Middle East and Asia

Convened by Dr Katie Shields (KCL). Mondays 6.15pm, location varies. For online participation please sign up via the eventbrite links for each event.

6 October – Seraina Nett (Copenhagen), ‘Feeding the Gods: Digital Approaches to the Administration of Regular Offerings in the Ur III Period’ LOCATION: LG 11, UCL Bentham House

For online participation register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lcane-autumn-2025-seraina-nett-tickets-1708408398509?aff=oddtdtcreator

The thousands of administrative records from the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2112–2004 BCE) give us a remarkably detailed view of how temples, officials, and institutions worked together to keep the state running. Among them, the documents that record regular offerings to the gods (sa₂-du₁₁, “delivery”) are especially interesting: they show how food, animals, and goods moved through a vast redistributive system, linking local temples to central agencies such as the livestock redistribution centre at Puzriš-Dagan.

In this talk, I explore what we can learn from this material by combining large text corpora with digital tools, especially Social Network Analysis. This approach makes it possible to trace the connections between individuals and institutions involved in the offerings, shedding light on both the practical logistics of feeding the gods and the social ties that underpinned the system.

By looking at these networks, we can begin to see not only how the Ur III administration organized religious life but also how people themselves—officials, families, and communities—were embedded in the structures that sustained the state and its deities.

20 October – Hana Navratilova, ‘Scribes in Cyberspace’ LOCATION: G6 LT in UCL Institute of Archaeology Gordon Square (31-34) & (14) Taviton St

For online participation register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lcane-autumn-2025-hana-navratilova-tickets-1711962890089?aff=oddtdtcreator

Building on a rich legacy of the study and reception of Egyptian written culture, modern Egyptology has reached out to digital humanities that have emerged as a transformative tool in the study of ancient civilizations, very visibly in the documentation, analysis, and dissemination of ancient sources. Reaching well beyond popular representations in gaming, digital tools now enable scholars to engage deeply with Egypt’s rich textual heritage, encompassing hieroglyphic and hieratic scripts, an expansive lexicon, and they also support access to diverse textual genres—from intellectual treatises to formal inscriptions to administrative records.

One of the most significant advancements is the digitisation of philological resources, exemplified by the Berlin Dictionary of Ancient Egyptian. This project has evolved into a dynamic, annotated corpus of texts, offering universal access to a growing archive of ancient writings. Such digital platforms enhance scholarly collaboration, facilitate comparative research, and democratise access to materials that were once confined to specialist archives. Digital tools also support the visual and palaeographic study of Egyptian scripts. The digitisation of the hieratic script, for instance, allows researchers to trace the hands of ancient scribes with significant precision. Techniques like colour enhancement further aid in recovering faded inscriptions, making previously inaccessible data visible and analyzable.

Despite these advances, challenges remain. Chief among them is the long-term sustainability of digital projects. Ensuring continued access, maintenance, and relevance of digital archives requires stable funding, institutional support, and adaptive technological frameworks. Without these, the risk of digital decay threatens the very accessibility digital humanities aim to promote.

In sum, digital humanities not only enrich our understanding of ancient Egypt but also redefine how research is conducted and shared. As tools and platforms evolve, so too must our strategies for preserving and sustaining these digital legacies. In this talk, we will accompany Egyptian scribes in cyberspace, to explore both opportunities and challenges.

24 November – Vaneshree Vidyarthi, ‘Mapping the Indian Palaeolithic’

Sign up for online participation here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lcane-autumn-2025-vaneshree-vidyarthi-tickets-1857561770259?aff=oddtdtcreator

8 December – Gina Criscenzo-Laycock, ‘Connecting Distributed Collections in the Digital Era: Preliminary Work with the John Garstang Archaeological Collection’

Sign up for online participation here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lcane-autumn-2025-gina-criscenzo-laycock-tickets-1972776378253?aff=oddtdtcreator

Distributed archaeological collections have the potential to provide a wealth of information, not only of their culture of origin but also of the colonial-era practices of patronage and acquisition that result in their widespread dispersal to museums and collections around the world. Yet their research potential is hindered by their distributed nature, with many researchers unaware of the existence of the larger collection and the additional context they may bring to understanding the past, both in terms of archaeological sites and the practices that help excavate them.

The Reconstructing the Ancient Past project is a collaboration between the University of Liverpool’s Garstang Museum of Archaeology and National Museums Liverpool and is part of the first tranche of Research Infrastructure for Conservation and Heritage Science (RICHeS) projects. Our goal is to make visible and digitally reunited and accessible the distributed archaeological collection of John Garstang, whose early 20^th century excavations along the Egyptian and Sudanese Nile have resulted in the distribution of artefacts across over one hundred museums worldwide. This will involve cross-institutional collaboration and knowledge sharing, collection and standardisation of collections data, and the development of a digital portal to enable anyone to engage with the distributed collection for the first time in one place.

15 December – Émilie Pagé-Perron, ‘Linked Open Data in Cuneiform studies: present and future’

Sign up for online participation here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lcane-autumn-2025-emilie-page-perron-tickets-1972772852708?aff=oddtdtcreator

The 2025 AGM of the London Centre for the Ancient Near East will be held on April 28th at 6pm in Lecture Theatre G6, UCL Institute of Archaeology. It will be followed by a lecture at 6.15pm:

ANDREW GEORGE

Maiden, nymph, crone: The mythology of the goddess Inanna

All welcome. This event will be in-person only.

The LCANE spring lecture series will be on the theme of the Hittites, and is dedicated to the memory of David Hawkins. In-person lectures will take place in the UCL Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, Lecture Theatre G6.  Online participation is possible for all talks EXCEPT 03 Feb, Michele Cammarosano. To register for Online Participation please use Eventbrite.

Schedule:

Jan 20                    Christoph Bachhuber (Oxford) “A Prehistory of Hittite”

Feb 3                      Michele Cammarosano (Napoli) “From Boğazköy to London: Hittite and Roman writing practices in dialogue” IN-PERSON ONLY

Hittites and Romans: what did two cultures so distant in time and space have in common? Well, for example, both loved designing complex hydraulic works, spoke an Indo-European language, and, apparently, had quite a fondness for cheese… But above all, they shared a sophisticated writing technology: the use of linear writing on wax tablets. While the existence of this medium in both cultures is indisputable, fundamental aspects—whether of its role within their respective graphic cultures or of how the writing process actually took place—remain hotly debated. The talk argues that a close, comparative examination of the available sources can shed light on both areas, especially the crucial role of wax tablets in managing the economy of the Hittite state and, many centuries later, the writing technique on wax among the ancient Romans. Our journey will take us from the Hittite capital of Boğazköy to London, where David Hawkins did much of his outstanding scholarly work and where, just a few years ago, the sensational discovery of the so-called Bloomberg Tablets opened new questions about ancient Roman manuscript culture, and will finally end with a pizza in Pompeii.

Feb 24                   Katie Shields (KCL) ““Quotation” in Hittite Texts”

Mar 10                   Yağmur Heffron (UCL) “When Kanešean History Failed to Turn: Socio-political change and the end of  Bronze Age occupation at Kültepe”

Drawing on ongoing collaborative research into the ‘slow’ turn of the 17th century BCE, this lecture will (re-)evaluate the occupational history of Kültepe-Kaneš, which comes to a surprise (?) end just on the cusp of the transformation from the end of the kārum period to the emergence of the Hittite state. Focusing on the archaeological correlates of social change in a city destroyed twice by an extensive conflagration, reoccupied twice by an evidently resilient community, and eventually abandoned during the Middle-to-Late Bronze Age transition, the lecture will conclude with a willful undoing some of its own work, namely, by warning against the hypervisibility of individual celebrity sites such as Kültepe.

Mar 24                   Mark Weeden (UCL) “The Limits of Hittite Statehood: Beyond the Royal Family.”

The focus of historical research on the Hittite State and its organisation has  been largely dictated by cuneiform textual finds from a number of royal residences: Hattuša-Boğazköy, Šapinuwa-Ortaköy, Šamuha-Kayalıpınar. The cuneiform record that emerges from these sites is (with some variants) on the whole strikingly uniform, from the very style of the cuneiform used through to the officials attested on hieroglyphic sealings. The picture of the Hittite state and its organisation won from these sources is thus largely homogeneous, representing as they do the material interests of the extended ruling family. However, Japanese excavations at the sites of Kaman-Kalehöyük and Büklükale are beginning to indicate that there were local traditions of writing and social organisation that may have existed outside and beyond the narrow confines of the Hittite state and the family it was built to serve.

LCANE Autumn 2024 seminar series, Mondays at 6.15pm, convened by Margaret Serpico, UCL Institute of Archaeology. Room: UCL Roberts Building, G8, Sir David Davies Lecture Theatre. 

To participate online please sign up via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/unusual-aspects-of-animals-lecture-series-tickets-1032864093307?aff=oddtdtcreator

Oct. 7^th. In person – Dr Marie Vandenbeusch, Curator, Funerary Culture of the Nile Valley, British Museum

The donkey in ancient Egyptian religion: a badass perspective.

In ancient Egypt, donkeys were essential in both trade and agriculture, but their value was greatly nuanced by their perception in religion. The ambivalent nature of the animal is often reflected in funerary, magical or ritual sources, while its well-known association to the evil god Seth is constantly reminded in the modern literature. Either benevolent or evil, donkeys are often seen as ambiguous entities that can be recognised as dreadful beings possessing powers praised for their protective efficiency. Although they can be associated to Seth, they also followed their own path. In magical texts, the animal was feared and revered at the same time, becoming a powerful entity holding spears and evoked as a protector, while in Graeco-Roman temples it will be annihilated as the archetype of evil. In this presentation we will attempt to follow these donkeys – the good and the bad – by exploring iconographical, textual and archaeological sources spanning from Predynastic to Roman times.

Oct 21^st. Zoom only – Dr Angela McDonald, Senior Lecturer, Egyptology, Classics, School of Humanities/Sgoil nan Daonnachdan, University of Glasgow

Now you see me?… Coaxing molluscs from their shell in the script and beyond

Animals lurked at the ends of ancient Egyptian words, silently imparting meaning. They were visible only to a select few who could read texts; the vast majority of people who listened to texts being read aloud might have been unaware of the role they played. But even the literate did not encounter all animals equally in the script. On the spectrum of popular use, the crocodile sat at the busy end, appearing in a variety of words connected with violence, greed and insidiousness. Other aquatic creatures, however, had a much more restricted role, particularly the humble mollusc. Despite the fact that shells appear in the material record throughout dynastic Egypt, the creatures that lived inside them remain elusive. How can we coax these creatures out of their shells and into the light so that we can consider their meaning?

Oct 28^th. In person – Dr Shyama Vermeersch, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford

The Relationship between Animals and Plants in the Ancient Near East – effects on farming, inequality, and empire

Animals and plants are interlinked components in farming, and form two sides of the same coin despite being arbitrarily separated in research. Crops can be grown to feed animals, whereas animals can be used to plough and manure the fields. Typically, in more egalitarian societies a focus on manuring fields is seen (intensive farming) which develops to a system where ploughing and working larger tracts of land becomes the focus (extensive farming), which leads to greater inequality. This Is the case, for example, in northern Mesopotamia.

In the Ancient Near East, the Bronze and Iron Ages are characterised by the rise of complex urban-based societies and dominion of empires. But what about a region such as the southern Levant? The farming and urbanisation processes of empires —and their relationship to inequality—have been assumed to apply to the southern Levant, but this is untested. The region’s heterarchically organised settlements, lack of overarching social identity, and absence of centralised administrative institutions stand in contrast to its neighbouring empires. The impact of taxation and the collapse of empires on local farming, and its effects on inequality, are unknown. Using stable isotope analysis, economics, and (bio)archaeology, I investigate the extent of past empires’ influence and impact on southern Levantine farming, inequality, and urbanisation.

Nov 11^th. Zoom Only – Dr Elizabeth Bettles, Visiting Research Fellow, NINO, Leiden University

The giraffe and the hare: hieroglyphs in Deir el-Medina tombs as indicators of a painter’s handwriting

Hieroglyphic signs of the giraffe (Gardiner E27) and the hare (Gardiner E34) within texts painted in Ramesside tombs in Deir el-Medina are among signs which help identify the distinctive handwriting style of individual painters who lived in the workmen’s village at this time.  As a result, they offer information about the different funerary contexts where a painter could work and the nature of his involvement in the thriving funerary commerce. Furthermore, they indicate the extent to which the components of painted signs can vary from the images published in Egyptologically-accepted sign-lists

Nov 18^th. In person only – Prof. Paul Nicholson and Dr Henry Bishop-Wright, Department of Archaeology and Conservation, School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University

Dating the dead: chronology and context at Saqqara’s sacred animal necropolis

The presence of votive sacred animals at Saqqara has been known for many centuries and were a source of fascination to early travellers.  However, it was not until the 1960s that Professor W.B. Emery identified what has come to be known as the ‘Sacred Animal Necropolis’ at North Saqqara (SAN).  His work has thrown a great deal of light on the scale of the animal cults at Saqqara but has also raised many questions about their operation and their development at the site.  This talk looks at new project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, which is attempting to draw together the dating evidence not only for Emery’s SAN but for the burials of sacred animals across the north Saqqara necropolis.  Some of this evidence comes from publications while other aspects are drawn from statistical analyses of the pottery and from radiocarbon dating of museum specimens.

The 2024 AGM of the London Centre for the Ancient Near East will be held at 6pm on April 22nd in UCL North West Wing, G22, and will be followed by a lecture in memory of David Hawkins.

Online attendance should be possible: register via the following link at Eventbrite, and you should be sent a Zoom link on registration.

New Discoveries in the Lower Land:

Hittite Imperial Sites and Inscriptions of the 2^nd Millennium BC

in Southern Central Türkiye

Assoc. Prof. Çiğdem Maner

Koç University, Department of Archaeology and History of Art

Between 2013-2021 I had the unique opportunity to conduct a survey project in Southern Central Türkiye, which led to the discovery of a Luwian Hieroglyphic inscription dating to the time period of King Tuthalija IV. The KEYAR survey Project had the aim to survey the southeastern provinces of the Konya plain (Ereğli, Halkapınar, Karapınar and Emirgazi) and is the first comprehensive and systematic survey conducted in this region. The intentions of this survey are to understand the settlement pattern, road networks, passages over the Taurus Mountains; raw material sources and supply chains and their impact on socio-economic dynamics and formation of elites during the Bronze and Iron Ages (ca. 3000-500 BC). The surveyed region is located to the North of the Taurus Mountains, South of Konya, and between Karaman and Niğde. Known to the Hittites as the Lower Land, this region was also a frontier between Hatti and Tarhuntassa. This presentation will discuss the results of the survey and new equations of Hittite landmarks and place-names in the Southern Konya region.

Photo: J. David Hawkins by the Hieroglyphic Luwian Rock Inscription, Burunkaya. GNT.07.01.sld.17. Hatice Gonnet-Bağana Hitit Koleksiyonu, Koç Üniversitesi Özel Koleksiyonlar ve Arşivler

London Centre for the Ancient Near East

Seminar Series Spring 2024

New Research on the Ancient Near East

Convened by Diana Stein

Mondays, 6.15pm in Lecture Theatre G6, UCL Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY, UK (EXCEPT CHRISTIE CARR ON MAR. 11th)

Register for online attendance here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lcane-spring-lecture-series-new-research-steve-renette-online-attendance-tickets-794063654767?aff=oddtdtcreator

Mon. Jan. 15^th   Steve Renette (Cambridge)

“From Lullubum to Adiabene: Archaeological investigations in the borderlands between Mesopotamia and the Zagros Mountains”

The Bazyan Valley in present-day Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan forms an imposing corridor between the plains east of the Tigris River and the Zagros Mountains. This geographic reality, imposed by the Qara Dagh mountain range, created a cultural and political border zone in this region. Since 2013, the Kani Shaie Archaeological Project, centered on the site of Kani Shaie, has been investigating the long history of human occupation in this narrow valley. The project particularly focuses on the period from 4000 to 2000 BCE when local communities came increasingly into contact with the burgeoning Mesopotamian states. This interaction culminated in a major military conflict with the Akkadian Empire, commemorated on the Victory Stele of Naram-Sin where the inhabitants of this region are identified as the Lullubi people. The following millennia, this land and its people continuously balanced economic dependence on external states with a desire for political autonomy. This talk will present recent results from archaeological fieldwork at Kani Shaie in the Bazyan Valley with a focus on two historical periods: the era of the Lullubi during the Early Bronze Age of the third millennium BCE and the integration of the region into the kingdom of Adiabene under Seleucid and Arsacid (Parthian) hegemony during the final centuries BCE.

Mon. Jan. 29^th CHANGE OF PROGAMME: Diana Stein (Birkbeck, University of London)

“In Decent Exposure: Female Nudes in Near Eastern Glyptic”

The ancient Near Eastern motif of the nude female continues to captivate and confound us. Recent research has convincingly debunked theories based on 19th century concepts of female sexuality, fertility cults and prostitution, presenting us with a number of viable alternatives. While most studies focus on southern Mesopotamia in the early second millennium BCE, this one foregrounds Syro-Mesopotamia and adopts a diachronic approach to an examination of four nude female types encountered on seals from the second millennium BCE: the nude female with profile head, the “Mistress of Animals”, the nude female raising her robe, and the semi-nude female with open or cut-away coat. Only one has a southern equivalent. The remaining three are derived from Syro-Mesopotamian prototypes, and the ethnographic comparisons they evoke shed new light on the background of the great Near Eastern goddesses – who they were and why their powers, personalities, and appurtenances are so alike. We also gain a deeper appreciation of the value of integrity/purity and the role of sensory experience in ritual settings, as well as a glimpse into the uneven integration of pre- and post-urban worldviews.

We hope to be able to put on the lecture by Dr Christina Tsouparopoulou (Durham) which was originally scheduled for Jan 29th at a later date. 

Mon. Feb. 5^th John MacGinnis (Cambridge)

“Excavations at Qalatga Darband in Iraqi Kurdistan”

This lecture will present the results of the six seasons of fieldwork undertaken on behalf of the British Museum in the Darband-i Rania pass, located at the northeast corner of Lake Dokan in Iraqi Kurdistan at a point where, though now subsumed into the lake, the Lower Zab flows from the Peshdar into the Rania Plain. Chief attention will be given to the work at Qalatga Darband, a large fortified site dating to the Parthian period. Of particular interest is a massive stone building located in the southern part of the site, interpreted as a fortified manor. Both this and other remains at Qalatga Darband exhibit striking Hellenistic influences. While the results throw up as many questions as they answer, the discoveries at Qalatga are beginning to provide new evidence on the Parthian presence in a corner of Iraq until recently very little explored.

CHANGE: Mar. 11^th   Christie Carr (Oxford, Wolfson College) ROOM: B06, Drayton House, 30 Gordon Street, WC1H 0AX

“Constructions of desire in Sumerian erotic poetry”

How was desire conceptualised at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC in ancient Mesopotamia? The focus of my doctoral research and this paper centres upon the metaphorical language of the Old Babylonian Sumerian “Love Songs”, a group of erotic literary texts. My method of analysis borrows from cognitive linguistics- conceptual metaphor theory- that suggests our conceptual systems function like the metaphorical process: abstract concepts (target domains) are constructed by mappings from more embodied, concrete experiences (source domains). The extensive metaphor in the Sumerian “Love Songs” give one of the fullest and extended representations of sexual domains of experience from the ancient Mesopotamian world. This paper explores how the metaphorical language of the Sumerian “Love Songs” might be used to begin to answer how complex concepts such as desire were conceptualised at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC.

Christie Carr’s talk has been moved from Feb 26th and the in-person delivery will depend on our finding a room for it (UCL room-bookings are currently down). You can still sign up for it online above, but watch this space for the in-person event. 

Mon. Mar. 18^th   Bebe Richards (UCL)

“Can Westminster laws deter Middle East looting? Evaluating market-focused approaches to the illicit antiquities trade”

Devastating growth in archaeological looting has inspired calls for policies aimed at reducing demand for illicit antiquities in market nations. Two main approaches have emerged: One focuses on increasing legal penalties for buying and selling looted property; the other urges non-legislative solutions, such as encouraging the antiquities trade to adopt tougher anti-trafficking protocols or culture change campaigns aimed at making private ownership of antiquities unfashionable. This presentation will outline approaches to determining the efficacy of existing legal penalties in the UK and US and also explore the potential for non-legislative regulations adapted from other industries to reduce illicit demand in market nations.

www.lcane.org.uk, https://www.facebook.com/groups/LCANE/, @londoncentrene

London Centre for the Ancient Near East

Seminar Series Autumn 2023

ACHAEMENIDS AND SELEUCIDS

In honour of the work of Amélie Kuhrt

Convened by Lindsay Allen and Mark Weeden. Mostly Mondays, 6.15pm in Lecture Theatre G6, UCL Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY, UK, except the last lecture in the series (Henkelman), see below.

There is no need to register to attend in-person, but if you want to attend online, please register with Eventbrite here

Mon Oct. 16th Kathryn Stevens (Oxford): Hellenism revisited: the case of Babylonia

Kathryn Stevens’ handout will be available from this dropbox link at the latest by 5pm on October 16th.

Mon Oct. 30th Mateen Arghandehpour (UCL): Persian religion in the Greco-Persian Wars: the case of Athens

Online attendance at Mateen Arghandehpour’s lecture via Eventbrite here

Mon. Nov. 20th Josef Wiesehöfer (Kiel): Cyrus, Mirrors of Princes, and Christoph Martin Wieland

Online Attendance at Josef Wiesehöfer’s lecture via Eventbrite here

POSTPONED: Mon. Dec. 4th Eleanor Robson and Parsa Daneshmand (UCL): Debts, dates and donkeys: exploring the archives of Achaemenid Kish – This event has had to be postponed. Watch this space for details of a date in the spring. 

Thurs. Dec. 14th Wouter Henkelman (Paris): Achaemenid Babylonia and the building of Persepolis LOCATION: Senate House, G 22/26 – in collaboration with the Ancient History Seminar, Institute for Classical Studies.

Online Attendance at Wouter Henkelman’s lecture via Eventbrite here

www.lcane.org.uk, https://www.facebook.com/groups/LCANE/, @londoncentrene

Sponsored by an anonymous donation as well as a grant from the Institute for Advanced Study (UCL), the London Centre for the Ancient Near East is able to host a conference on cuneiform literature that will be held in-person and online. It follows on from another conference that was held online in June 2021. The conference is loosely built around the theme of Babylonian approaches to cuneiform literature and arises largely out of consideration for some of the work that was done at SOAS over years before cuneiform programmes were brutally cut there 2 years ago. Attendance numbers are limited, but to see the programme and attend either in-person or online as long as space remains, please sign up to Eventbrite

The AGM of the London Centre for the Ancient Near East will be held on April 24th at 6pm and will be followed by a lecture by Professor Bert van der Spek. Title: New Evidence from Babylonian chronicles and diaries from the Hellenistic period. With an appreciation of the work of Amélie Kuhrt (1944-2023). Location: G6, UCL Institute of Archaeology, Gordon Square, 31-34 Gordon Square, London.

Abstract: Amélie Kuhrt, professor of Ancient Near Eastern History at University College and co-founder of the London Centre for the Ancient Near East in 1995, brought about a paradigm shift in the study of Ancient History. She made a bridge between the disciplines of Assyriology and Ancient History, the latter normally focussed on the study of Greek and Latin written sources.  She specialised in Achaemenid and Hellenistic history and endeavoured to study the sources of the Near East on their own merits. She did so for Persian history in collaboration with Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg by organising the Achaemenid History workshops in Groningen and elsewhere and by editing the long series Achaemenid History Vol. I – XVI, 1987 – 2020). She had the same approach as regards  Hellenistic History, which had been so frequently the subject of “looking for something Greek in the Near East”.  She encouraged me to work on the Babylonian documents for the Hellenistic period. I learned a lot from participating in a seminar which led to the volume, edited by her and Susan Sherwin-White, Hellenism in the East (1987). This lecture in her honour presents some results of a major project of editing and publishing all chronographic texts from Hellenistic Babylon from c. 480 to 22 BC. I hope to discuss the scientific approach of the authors of these documents and present some so far unpublished documents.

In-person attendance will be on a first come first served basis. For online participation please sign up via Eventbrite here and a link for the Zoom meeting should be sent to you on registration. The AGM will start at 6pm, the lecture is likely to start around 6.15pm.

Photo: Amélie Kuhrt speaking at Bert van der Spek’s Defence of his Doctoral Dissertation, Amsterdam 7.11.1986.

March 23rd 2023 6.15pm Glenn Schwartz (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore) Era of the Living Dead: Memory, Human Sacrifice, and the “Royal” Tombs at Umm el-Marra, Syria Location: UCL, Garwood Lecture Theatre in UCL South Wing. For the South Wing turn right after you go through the main UCL entrance on Gower St. For online participation sign up via Eventbrite and a link should be sent in the reply.

The London Centre for the Ancient Near East extends its condolences to everyone affected by the earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, which include many of our own members, friends, colleagues, and hosts. We are heartbroken to see so many of the people and the places we care about being thrown into such devastation.Wishing everyone the patience and resilience they need at this time.

London Centre for the Ancient Near East, Türkiye ve Suriye’deki depremlerden etkilenen ve aralarında birçok üyemiz, dostlarımız, iş arkadaşlarımız ve bize evsahipliği yapan sayısız ahbabımızın da olduğu herkese başlağlığı diler. Sevdiğimiz bu kadar çok yakınımızın ve bizim için değerli olan güzel şehirlerin içinde bulunduğu acı durum karşısında derin üzütü içindeyiz.Herkese sabır ve direnç dileklerimizle.

تتقدم جمعية لندن لآثار الشرق الأوسط عن تعاطفها وقلقها مع شعب تركيا وسوريا في هذا الوقت المأساوي ، بما في ذلك

نتمنى الشفاء العاجل للمصابين

Arcaheological Initiatives we know about that are collecting money to help people who have been affected:

Zincirli: gofund.me/491e1f14

https://gofundme.com/f/fgqmu9-tayinat-community-disaster-relief-fund…

Atchana: https://gofund.me/471ec8ef

Karahüyük: https://gofund.me/0248f128

Arslantepe: https://instagram.com/p/CofKVU4KqfS/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=…

Syria: https://givebutter.com/SjwOde

Organised by Lucinda Menaul, Bozhou Mu and Mark Weeden. All lectures start at 6.15pm, Location: UCL Roberts Building G8, David Davies Lecture Theatre, Torrington Place London WC1E 7JE.

Online participation: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/london-centre-for-the-ancient-near-east-spring-seminar-series-2023-tickets-507452653547

16 January: Tanja Pommerening (Marburg) Ancient Egyptian Medicine: Perceptions from Different Points of View

In the past, ancient Egyptian medicine has been the focus of research by scientists from a variety of disciplines, especially Egyptologists, historians of science, physicians, biologists, and pharmacists. The first part of the lecture will indicate reasons for insufficiencies in research by looking at the history of science. The second part will provide a methodological discussion and basic insights which have enabled the speaker to broaden our knowledge of ancient Egyptian medicine and beyond.

Tanja Pommerening is professor of the History of Pharmacy and Medicine at university of Marburg and former professor of Egyptology at university of Mainz.

Drugs in the pharmacy of Harraz in Cairo; © Tanja Pommerening

30 January: Eleanor Dobson (Birmingham) “Jolly Good Trick[s]”: Magic and Ancient Egypt in Victorian Culture

This talk explores ancient Egyptian imagery in Victorian performance magic, and ancient Egyptian magic in nineteenth-century literature, to unearth a culture that saw cutting-edge imaging techniques repeatedly aligned with antiquity. It also charts ancient Egyptian presences in magic lantern slides, photographs, and early moving pictures – and in occult contexts, including the media of the Spiritualist movement – illuminating a particular visual strand in a longstanding cultural tradition in which ancient Egypt is read as byword for magic.

20 February: Ben Dewar (UCL) Curses and Intergenerational Justice in the Northwest Palace at Nimrud.

13 March: Georgia Andreou (UCL) The anatomy of the first cities in Cyprus. Recent excavations at the Late Bronze Age Maroni Complex.

20 March: Geoffrey Khan (Cambridge) The language and culture of the Modern Assyrians

London Centre for the Ancient Near East

Autumn seminar series 2022

Medicine in ancient Iraq

Monday 24^th October

Troels Pank Arbøll: “When gods strike, slay, and devour: conceptualising epidemics in ancient Mesopotamia”

Monday 14^th November

Strahil Panayotov: “On the origins and creation of the Nineveh Medical Encyclopaedia”

Monday 28^th November

Krisztián Simkó: “Administering medicine in Mesopotamia: a survey based on the Nineveh Medical Encyclopaedia”

Monday 12^th December

Annie Attia: “Cuneiform medicine: a pitfall for physicians?”

All lectures start at 6.15pm

Institute of Archaeology, Lecture Theatre G6, 31-34 Gordon Square, Accessible entrance 14 Taviton St, London.

https://lcane.org.uk/events/

If you want to attend online, then please register for each lecture separately on Eventbrite and a link will be e-mailed shortly before each lecture: For Oct. 24th Troels Pank Arbøll: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/troels-pank-arbll-conceptualising-epidemics-in-ancient-mesopotamia-tickets-441550628817

Monday 14th November: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/strahil-panayotov-the-nineveh-medical-encyclopaedia-tickets-441580247407

Monday 28th November: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/x/krisztian-simko-administering-medicine-in-mesopotamia-tickets-441648371167

Monday 12th December: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/annie-attia-cuneiform-medicine-a-pitfall-for-physicians-tickets-441655813427

The 2022 AGM of the London Centre for the Ancient Near East is to be held on April 25th at 6pm and will be followed by a lecture by Professor Karen Radner (Munich) entitled

Safeguarding the Assyrian Empire, News from the Magnates Provinces

In-person location: UCL Institute of Archaeology, Lecture theatre G6, 31-34 Gordon Square, London.

Online participation should be possible:

Topic: LCANE AGM 25.04.22
Time: Apr 25, 2022 06:00 PM London

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Museums and Ancient western Asia: Perspectives from the Middle East

Organised jointly by

Vorderasiatisches Museum SMB PK & London Centre for the Ancient Near East (LCANE)

Current scholarship on curating “Ancient Near Eastern” archaeological collections has highlighted the viewpoints and practices of institutions and museums in Europe and North America. Museum professionals from the Middle East and/or those working in the Middle East, however, have been mostly absent from these discussions. As a result, the perspectives of museum professionals whose practices can often be configured differently within the confines of national borders and politics, or even disrupted due to political instability, war and conflict, and displacement, are obscured. Perhaps colleagues from/working in the Middle East “may not be empowered by their education, training, or position to write analytically about their own institutions” (Emberling and Pettit 2019: 10) in the same way as fits the European/North American canon, but this does not condone their exclusion from ongoing discourse. If anything, museum professionals in Europe and North America, who are able to exercise greater academic agency and who do have the benefit of resources and opportunities,  are in a unique position of responsibility to work towards new, practicable, and meaningful ways of including and engaging with colleagues in/from the Middle East. This is not, however, simply a matter of using one’s relative privilege to benefit others but should be viewed as a two-way flow of experience and skills. There is a great deal that professionals in Europe and North America can learn from their colleagues who have had to innovate solutions, build resilience and communities, and adapt their professional practices under challenging conditions. Museums in countries of the Middle East have their own histories and practices, which can make an equally significant contribution to the discipline with new questions, solutions, and directions. Setting the Middle East aside because things (are perceived to) work differently results in treating it simply as a geographic source for collections and not a legitimate space for the production and exchange of knowledge. 

 This seminar series aims to create a platform for discussions on curating ancient western Asian collections from the perspective of museum professionals from/working in the Middle East. Mindful of the idiosyncrasies of museum practices and political circumstances of countries in the Middle East, and in a conscious effort towards a new paradigm of discussion, we do not set or dictate questions and specific themes. What a “curator” does for example, can vary greatly across contexts, and we wish to provide greater visibility to this variability. Therefore, we invite museum professionals, archaeologists, cultural heritage professionals, and others who work with archaeological museum collections to present their work on ancient western Asian collections to speak about their professional practices around museum work which can include but is not limited to curation, interpretation, conservation, research, outreach, and education. 

All lectures start at 18.15 UK-time.

Monday, 17th January Dr Pınar Durgun (Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin), Dr Filiz Tütüncü Çağlar (Forum Transregionale Studien / Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin), Salma Jreige (Multaka), and Sarah Fortmann-Hijazi (Multaka): “Multilingual Engagement: Views from the Berlin State Museums.”

Monday, 31st January Wassim Alrez (DAI, Berlin): “Protecting (through Digitizing) Cultural Heritage from Abroad”

Monday, 7th February Dr. Rozhen Kamal Mohammed-Amin, Digital Cultural Heritage Research Center (DCH) & Sulaimani Polytechnic University (SPU) “Moving Beyond a Storehouse of Artifacts: Curation in Slemani Museum (Iraq’s 2nd Largest Archeology Museum).”

Monday, February 21st Anahita Poodat (Persian Gulf Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology of Bandar Abbas) “Museum and Society: Mutual rights, mutual rolls-Some experiences in directing museums with people from Persian Gulf Museum of Bandar Abbas, Iran”

Monday, February 28th Dr Nadine Panayot (American Univesity of Beirut Archaeological Museum) “The AUB Archaeological Museum, a Survival story”

Monday, March 7th Dr Hiba Qassar (International Institute for Mesopotamian Area Studies) “Whose heritage is this? A reflection on the social role of the archaeological patrimony in Syria”

Monday, 14th March Dr Gül Pulhan (The British Institute at Ankara) “Collection and Display: Some Aspects of Contemporary Museological Practice in Turkey”

https://ucl.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcrceigqzstHdNrZb60aRcpJ06gGy4MRRiP

London Centre for the Ancient Near East seminar series, Autumn 2021: Ancient Agriculture. Convened by Mark Weeden.

Mondays 18.15, from Oct. 11th

Nov. 22 Amaia Arranz Otaegui (Madrid, via Zoom only): Discovering the plant-based meals of the last hunter-gatherers and first farmers in South-Western Asia.

Nov. 29 Jaafar Jotheri (Al-Qadisiyah, via Zoom only): Primary types of farms in southern Mesopotamia.

Dec. 6 Rients de Boer (Leiden, via Zoom only): Land for service in the Old Babylonian period, a fresh look at the ilkum-institution

Dec. 13 Charlotte Diffey (Oxford): ‘Feeding the City’: Urban agriculture in the Bronze Age of Western Asia

The lectures will be either Zoom only OR both on Zoom (we hope) and in person (in Institute of Archaeology G6, 21-24 Gordon Sq, OR 14 Taviton St for disabled access) at the same time. However, the in-person attendance will be limited to 35 people.  Please wear a mask when attending the lecture.

For those who prefer to watch the lecture via Zoom, or for the lectures that are Zoom only, the link for the whole lecture series is found below. The same link will be used for the Thin End of the Wedge Lectures (Zoom only) as well:

 Zoom details for the lectures:  

https://ucl.zoom.us/j/95305360604?pwd=Q3d3TWJMWjVmNXVYdnVkZXhDaVVmUT09

Meeting ID: 953 0536 0604
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The London Centre for the Ancient Near East would like to invite
colleagues to a special lecture in collaboration with the podcast,
Thin End of the Wedge.

Monday 18th October 6:15pm UK time:
Amir al-Zubaidi. Nasiriyah Museum, and engaging Nasiriyans with
cultural heritage.

Amir al-Zubaidi is Director of Nasiriyah Museum, and now Director of
Archaeology for Dhi Qar province. He introduces us to Nasiriyah
Museum, and discusses both his achievements so far and his dreams for
the future. What interests the people of Nasiriyah, and what role does
heritage play in civic life there? We also get to learn a little about
Amir himself.

This is the first in an experimental mini-series where we hear the
thoughts of colleagues who are doing important work in Iraq. Yet while
their work may be well known in Iraq itself, few in the UK or the
wider western world know anything about it. This may be partly because
of the nature of the specialist’s position, or the low level of Arabic
language skills in the west.

With the help of interpreter Zainab Mizyidawi, Amir was interviewed in
Arabic and the results have been translated into English. The event
will start with an introduction. Then the interview (in English) will
be played, accompanied by a slideshow. At the end, Amir will take part
in a live Q&A session. Zainab will provide English-Arabic translation.

These events will run under the usual Zoom link for our LCANE lecture series.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://ucl.zoom.us/j/95305360604?pwd=Q3d3TWJMWjVmNXVYdnVkZXhDaVVmUT09

Meeting ID: 953 0536 0604
Passcode: 639505

The format will be a short introduction followed by a pre-recorded segment with opportunity for viewers to post questions in the chat. Afterwards there will be a chance for a live translated Question and Answer session with the guest of the evening.

Oct. 18th 6.15pm: Amir Al-Zubaidi, Director of Nasiriyah Museum. Amir discusses his successful work engaging Iraqi audiences with their ancient heritage. Recorded interview, with live Q&A.

Nov. 15th TBC.

Cuneiform moves in London

In 2020 it was announced that SOAS, University of London would be stopping its provision of teaching in the languages of the cuneiform world, which it has taught for 72 years. The current undergraduate and graduate students would be taught to the end of their degrees, but after that there would be no more. SOAS had traditionally provided the main language teaching in London for students wishing to learn Akkadian, Sumerian and Hittite, whereas UCL had tended to provide teaching in History and Archaeology. Besides stopping the teaching of cuneiform and its related languages, SOAS also brought about a reduction in staff capacity by encouraging the early retirement and non-replacement of Andrew George.

The withdrawal of these subjects by SOAS caused a gaping hole in London’s provision of ancient history of the cuneiform world. This situation needed remedy, especially in view of the large cuneiform collections currently housed in the British Museum, as well as plans for the long-term future of the Nahrein Network and closer collaborations with Iraqi and Turkish colleagues.

As a result of a generous anonymous donation secured due to the efforts of Eleanor Robson, Mark Weeden will take up the post of Associate Professor of Ancient Middle Eastern Languages at UCL in September 2021. Mark will be a member of UCL’s Department of Greek and Latin, where he will teach Hittite and collaborate in the provision of Akkadian, Sumerian and Ancient Middle Eastern History teaching throughout the university.

The administration of degrees taught across the various former colleges of the University of London has been more and more difficult since the decomposition of the university into its component parts during the 1990s. Beyond filling the gap left by the cessation of teaching at SOAS, it is hoped that the move of cuneiform studies to UCL will enable closer and better collaboration between colleagues in London, deliver a better student experience and an even more closely knit research culture. The London Centre for the Ancient Near East, which has been located at SOAS for many years, will also move to UCL.

25 Jan Jaafar Jotheri (Al-Qadisiyah University, Iraq): The Sumerian Irrigation System: New Fieldwork results from Eridu region

The study is part of an ongoing project funded by The British Institute for the Study of Iraq awarded to an Iraqi – British team consisting of Louise Rayne (University of Newcastle, Michelle de Gruchy (Durham University), Jaafar Jotheri (University of Al-Qadisiyah, Raheem Abdan (University of Thi-Qar). The study area hosts some of the earliest cities (e.g. Eridu and Ubaid) and ancient irrigation networks. We have carried out new fieldwork to investigate these water systems and mapped them in detail. Moreover, we dug trenches across these irrigation canals and collected organic materials for 14C radiocarbon dating to reconstruct changes in the landscape of the Eridu region. The irrigation systems in this region had a herringbone layout, which developed as a result of the elaboration of crevasse splays along raised levees. Crevasse splays are fan-shaped features formed when the channel levee has been breached during stages of flooding and floodwaters have overflowed through swales or breaches. We concluded that  these geomorphological features represent the  ancient farms of the Eridu region and that these were hydraulic landscapes which functioned as sustainable systems within environmental niches modified by humans.

8 Feb Çiğdem Maner (Koç University, Istanbul): Shared Landscapes on Karacadağ (Konya) from the Late Bronze Age until Today

The Karacadağ in Konya is an ideal landscape to study the development, the community relations of pastoral societies and the shared landscape. The pastures of the mountain have been used as meadows at least from the Hittite periods onwards until today. Karacadağ is probably Mount Arlanta, which is mentioned on the Bronze Tablet from Boğazköy – Hattusa (13th century BC), and describes among others the frontiers of Hatti and Tarhuntassa. In this talk I will discuss how ethnographical studies have helped to understand and reconstruct frontiers and the importance of the landscape nowadays, which in turn could help us to understand the frontier descriptions on the Bronze Tablet.

22 Feb Jacob Jawdat (SBAH, Baghdad): Looking for the End: Another Perspective on the Late Eshnunna Dynasty

The Diyala region is a major path between the north and south of Mesopotamia and an important meeting point for different civilizations, as well as a principal strategic center between Mesopotamia and ancient Persia, it is worthy of a great importance. This region had remained as a political conflict zone at the first half of second millennium, this reason making it a different nature, at least politically, thus leading to many political conflicts between the kings of the first dynasty of  Babylon, specifically Hammurapi and Samsu-iluna with the kings and princes in this region. they tried always to gain independence from the power of Babylon, and build alliances, including enabling them to repel threats that coming from Babylon. Because of  new epigraphic material available in the Iraq Museum, I found some very useful information that led me to choose this subject to make research on the reign of the king Iluni. We didn’t know a lot of historical information about the end of the Eshnunna dynasty, only small snippets being available that rely on references mentioned in the other texts. We try to make a comprehensive evaluation then re-extrapolation of this information according to the new texts including rearrangement of information referred to previously by other scholars.

 Fig. Old Babylonian Sites in the Hamrin Basin.

8 Mar Hasan Peker (Istanbul University): New Epigraphic Discoveries of the Turco-Italian Expedition at Karkemish

22 Mar Saber Parian (Karaj, Iran): New research on the Elamite version of the Behistun inscription

The Behistun inscription is famous for its important role in decipherment of other cuneiform texts. The inscription is situated high up on a precipice and has been almost inaccessible to people. This has largely prevented it from human damages, while has made it difficult for scholars to reach and close study its cuneiform texts. Over the centuries, some important portions of its texts have been severely eroded from elements and became illegible. Meanwhile, assyriologists have closely studied its cuneiform texts in a few occasions and they mostly provided its copies using methods that are today dated with less accuracy in representing original engravings in detail. Since 2013, I have conducted research aimed at providing a new edition of the Elamite version of the Behistun inscription based on accurate copies I have produced directly therefrom. In order to secure such copies, I have taken many photographs and then measured the dimensions of the inscription. The photographs were analyzed and scaled using Adobe Photoshop. This method led me to the preparation of the hand copies of the entire Elamite version. Moreover, using PS’s layer tools, I have restored damaged signs directly in photographs. This method yielded hybrid images depicting the current state of the inscription as well as matching restorations. These materials have been the basis for preparing a new edition of the Elamite version.

Link to Google Form to register for Zoom meetings.

LCANE – Text and Performance

Convened by Jana Matuszak and Sam Mirelman.

Lectures will be on Zoom. To register, use this google form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdaZM6d_2FZgT-yagrsHwaF5Y0XCSquIlIQbBwEZvKFcLRakg/viewform?usp=pp_url

 12 Oct Giulia Torri (Florence)

“Oh Sun-god, you are looking constantly into man’s heart!” On Prayers in Hittite Magical Rituals

There are several short prayers inserted in the Hittite magical rituals (for. ex. CTH 458.2, CTH 395, CTH 716). According to the ritual descriptions they were pronounced aloud by the performer or the patient. In my lecture I am going to analyze some of these prayers and compare them with the Hittite canonical prayers recited by the king, which are considered an independent literary genre (CTH 371-389). In general, it is assumed that these prayers developed from the shorter invocations to the gods inserted in the rituals. My aim is to discuss the possible stylistic mutuality between these two sets of texts in order to show that prayers and rituals have much in common, not simply because they are the product of the same religion, but especially because they were composed within the framework of the same scribal tradition.

19 Oct Martin Worthington (Dublin)

Interruption in Babylonian narrative

Do characters in Babylonian narratives always deliver complete, well-crafted speeches?  Or do they get interrupted before they had reached the end of what they wanted to say?  My talk will explore these questions, asking how we might recognise interruptions as such, and what the implications are – not least for performance.

26 Oct Catherine Mittermayer (Geneva)

For the pleasure of the king? The performance of Sumerian precedence debates

Most of the Sumerian precedence debates that have come down to us mention either a religious ceremony or a royal festival as the background for the disputation. Furthermore, they show linguistic features pointing to a possible performance of the text. The lecture will discuss the various settings described in the precedence debates as well as possible forms of staging.

2 Nov Richard Parkinson (Oxford)

Embodying Ancient Egyptian Poetry: Performances and Experimental Philology

The lecture will discuss the role of the performer’s voice in Middle Kingdom poetry, firstly from a historian’s perspective, and then from that of modern experimental performances. These can offer different insights from traditional philological approaches, in terms of textual history, interpretation, and aesthetic, emotional impact. The lecture will illustrate a series of performances of The Tale of Sinuhe, and an ongoing project to record this and two other 12^th Dynasty poems with actress and author Barbara Ewing, to consider how performers can offer a model for translators and Egyptologists.

16 Nov Frances Reynolds (Oxford)

Warring Gods and Esagil Rites

It has long been known that Marduk and Ti’amat’s battle, most famously recounted in the epic Enūma eliš, was associated with the Esagil temple in Babylon. However, questions remain about the nature of this association over time, including the ritual realization of this battle in the akītu-festival as part of the New Year celebrations in Nisannu. This talk explores aspects of the relationship between this battle myth and temple cult, including a complex relationship developed in the Late Babylonian period.

23 Nov Uri Gabbay (Jerusalem)

Laments in the Liturgy of Ancient Mesopotamia

Laments over the destruction of cities and temples were a main part of the liturgy of ancient Mesopotamian temples in Babylonia and Assyria. These laments, written and sung in a special dialect of the Sumerian language, are known to us today from over 1500 cuneiform clay tablets dating from about 2000 BCE until the first century BCE. These liturgical laments emphasize the divine rage that caused destruction but also the divine and human sorrow over this destruction. Thus, one of the main concerns of these laments are emotions. The laments deal with divine emotions, but in their performance also reflect human emotions. The lecture will discuss these laments both as literary texts and as performed texts, and will examine the relationship between these two aspects of the laments.

30 Nov Dahlia Shehata (Würzburg)

Narrated time and space in Mesopotamian Combat Myths

Combat myths of Mesopotamia belong to the genre of “heroic poetry” in a broader sense of the word. Whether in Enuma elish, the Babylonian creation story, or in the Anzu Epic, common to all these myths is a heroic male god who sets out to conquer an overpowering monster that threatens the world and the divine order. The conquered monster represents the overcoming of chaos, which is why these texts are also referred to in German as “Chaoskampfmythen.” In the course of his mission, the heroic god wanders through different spaces of the real and mythical world, at the same time overcoming various dangers leading to his final victory. Dahlia Shehata will present a sample of these literary texts focusing on how time and space are narrated for purposes of highlighting and emphasizing special events. Particular attention will be paid to each single text’s literary as well as performative contexts.

7 Dec Paul Delnero (Baltimore)

Performing Literature: Mesopotamian Cultic and Mythological Texts in Performance 

Mesopotamian mythological and cultic texts, because they are known only from written sources and are composed in an elevated, poetic style, are frequently read as if they were like modern works of literature, known to only a small group of literate elites. In this paper, this assumption will be challenged with examples of how different types of Mesopotamian texts that have been labelled as “literary” would have been known primarily through oral transmission and of how the written sources for these compositions were used less to record the content of the texts in writing than to facilitate their delivery during performance.

14 Dec Ian Rutherford (Reading)

Religious Travel and Pilgrimage in Mesopotamia and Anatolia: Problems of Evidence and Typology

In all ancient societies people sometimes visited places deemed religiously significant for religious reasons, a practice which to some extent maps onto the modern concept of “pilgrimage”.  This must have been true of Mesopotamia also (pace McCorriston 2011) and Hittite Anatolia, although the evidence is often poor.  This paper aims to examine evidence for such religious travel in these areas. I aim to identify a number of (potentially overlapping) types, including:  1. journeys of kings, 2. cultic journeys; 3. participation in regional common sanctuaries; 4. amphictionies; 5. healing pilgrimage; 6. the sending of tribute. On this basis, it is hoped it might be possible to begin to understand the development of religious travel in these regions.

Click the link below for the advert for the eLecture series on Ancient Near Eastern Languages in Contact, convened by Alinda Damsma, Lily Kahn and Jonathan Stökl. Wednesdays 16.00-17.00 via MS Teams, contact a.damsma@ucl.ac.uk to register. Topics include Hittite and Sumerian, Hebrew and Ancient Egyptian, Aramaic and Hebrew, Hebrew and the Septuagint, Aramaic and Arabic, and Eblaite.

advert ANELC

Dr Abather Saadoon, Head of Archaeology at Al-Muthanna University in Iraq, will talk via Zoom about New Sumerian texts from Umma. The lecture will include:

Dr Dominique Collon is a world-renowned figure in the field of seals and seal-impressions and their iconography in the Ancient Near East. She was also a long-term committee member of the London Centre for the Ancient Near East and an amazing colleague to many of us.

Sadly she is no longer able to use her library and her son Gerard Collon has set up a webpage from which people can buy her books in order to raise funds to help with her care. Click on this link or paste the URL into your browser and follow instructions for access to an excel sheet.

https://collon-books.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-library-of-near-eastern-art-and.html

Please direct all inquiries to the linked webpage.

29 April 2019

Gareth Brereton, curator of the recent Ashurbanipal exhibition at the BM, addresses the AGM of the London Centre for the Ancient Near East:

“I am Ashurbanipal” Reflections on the British Museum Exhibition. 

April 29th, 6.15pm, SOAS Russell Square WC1H 0XG. Alumni Lecture Theatre (Room 110), Senate House North Block, Torrington Square. London Centre for the Ancient Near East AGM and Public Lecture. All welcome.

Tickets are now on Sale for Selena Wisnom’s play Ashurbanipal: Last Great King of Assyria, which coincides with the end of the British Museum’s Ashurbanipal exhibition.

https://www.catharsistheatre.com/ashurbanipal

09 Feb 2019  British Museum

Go Go Go

Symposium of Perceptions of Assyria

SOAS University of London, Russell Square, London WC1

Senate House North Block, Room 110 Alumni Lecture Theatre

Mondays at 6.15 pm

GODS OF OLD

the mythology of ancient iraq

 14 January Andrew George (SOAS): Introducing the Gods of Old: The mythology of ancient Iraq

21 January: Kamran Zand (Heidelberg): The Mythology of Sumer: the Oldest Known Stories

4 February Jens Braarvig (Oslo): The Mythologies of Mesopotamia and India: Are They Connected?

18 February: Gösta Gabriel (Göttingen): Ashurbanipal’s Library and the Babylonian Creation Epic

4 March: Manuel Ceccarelli (Geneva): Myth and Magic: Creating Human Beings in Ancient Mesopotamia

18 March Annette Zgoll (Göttingen): What is Mesopotamian Mythology? And How to Understand it

Convened by Andrew George, Dept of History, Religions and Philosophies

The London Centre for the Ancient Near East http://banealcane.org/lcane/

Supported by the Thriplow Charitable Trust

To accompany the exhibition at SOAS on the Çatalhöyük excavations, LCANE has invited Shahina Farid, long-term field director at the site, to give us a lecture, on 15 October at SOAS. room B202 at 6.15pm, Brunei Building.

Neolithic Çatalhöyük updated : a review of half a century of different methods and approaches in archaeological practice.

To view or download the abstract: Abstract

And here also some photos of the site and finds:

27-29 March 2018: BANEA 2018, Durham

Annual General Meeting of the London Centre for the Ancient Near East. The Annual General Meeting will take place at 6pm and then at 6.15pm Dr John Curtis, formerly of the British Museum, will give a lecture entitled:

Austen Henry Layard  and his artists

All welcome. There will be refreshments after the talk.

April 30th, 6pm,  SOAS, Brunei Building, B104.

Martin Worthington of the University of Cambridge (currently on Research Leave in New York) will give a lecture entitled

Sargon’s name and the circumference of Khorsabad: a suggested solution

Mon 8 May 18:00 Peter Miglus, Rock sculptures in the Zagros foothills: yesterday, today (and tomorrow?)

SOAS, Thornhaugh St WC1, Senate House North Block, first floor, Wolfson Lecture Theatre. London Centre for the Ancient Near East AGM and public lecture. All welcome.