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 I hope to discuss the scientific approach of the authors of these documents and present some so far unpublished documents.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.