Ancient Near Eastern Studies

Since 2009-10, undergraduate/ and graduate courses in the languages, history and archaeology of the Ancient Near East (Egypt and Mesopotamia) have been transfered to the Department of Archaeology in the Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology.

It is possible for DMES (Department of Middle Eastern Studies) undergraduates to combine a Middle Eastern Language (Arabic or Hebrew) with Akkadian (Assyrian and Babylonian). Please see the Undergraduate Handbook for further details.

Research Projects
Civilizations in Contact

Civilizations in Contact is an interdisciplinary Research Project within the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, funded by the Golden Web Foundation, involving history, archaeology, geography, economics, language and literature. It is devoted to researching and mapping trade and wider cultural exchanges across political and cultural boundaries during the pre-modern era (primarily before 1800 CE). Among its research topics is:

Recent PhD Students

This page lists recent Ph.D. students in Ancient Near Eastern subjects at the Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies. If you wish to be removed, please contact the Computer Officer.

Addresses on this list must not be used to send bulk email.

Jenna Spellane (Trinity)
Egyptology
The 'Life-Like' Coffins and Coffin-Boards of the New Kingdom.
Part II: Catalogue of 'Life-Like' and YI-b Coffins and Coffin-Boards
Supervisor: Dr Kate Spence

Sian Thomas (Christ's)
Egyptology
Ptolemaic Gebelein: An Exploration of Legal, Social, and Topographical Themes Based on Unpublished Documents for Money and Cessions in the British Museum
Supervisor: Prof. John Ray

Angela Morecroft (Lucy Cavendish)
Egyptology
Vitaliano Donati and the Search for his Collection at the Museo Egizio Di Torino
Supervisor: Dr Sally-Ann Ashton (Department of Antiquities, Fitzwilliam Museum)

Marco Iamoni (Wolfson College)
Assyriology
Transition or Shift? The LBA in Central Syria and its Possible Genesis in the MBA from the Perspective of Qatna?
Supervisor: Dr Augusta McMahon

Xianhua Wang (Sidney Sussex College)
Assyriology
The Metamorphosis of Enlil in Early Mesopotamia
Supervisor: Prof. Nicholas Postgate

T. Emre Serifoglu (Magdalene College)
Assyriology
From Units to Regions: A Study of the Second and Early First Millennia BC Cultural Divisions and Settlement Systems of the Goksu River Vally, Carchemish-Harran and Malatya-Elazig Areas
Supervisor: Prof. Nicholas Postgate

Alice Stevenson (Gonville and Caius College)
Egyptology
The Predynastic site of el-Gerzeh. Implications for our understanding of social development and the so-called spread of the 'Nagada culture'
Supervisor: Prof. Barry Kemp

Research interests:

  • Predynastic Egyptian Archaeology
  • Predynastic/Early Dynastic palettes
  • Egyptian state formation
  • archaeological theory
  • material symbolism/agency
  • museums and collections management

Always happy to help with Early Egyptian studies and general archaeological interpretation

Member of the Current Research in Egyptology Standing Committee (2004 - 2005)

Christina Tsouparopoulou (Newnham College)
Assyriology
The Banality of Bureaucracy: Working for the Ur III State at Drehem
Supervisor: Dr Augusta McMahon

Martin Worthington (St John's College)
Assyriology
Language of the Neo-Assyrian Royal Inscriptions
Supervisors: Prof. Nicholas Postgate and Dr Eleanor Robson

Publications:

articles + review essays:

  • "Einiges über die Paläographie des Papyrus Rollin", Göttinger Miszellen 183 (2001), 93-98.

  • "A discussion of aspects of the UGU series", Journal des Médecines Cunéiformes 2 (2003), 2-13.

  • "Aspects of Mesopotamian Witchcraft: remarks on a Book by Tzvi Abusch", Bibliotheca Orientalis 61/3-4 (2004), cols. 259-77.

  • "Planets, Livers and Omens in Mesopotamia" [review essay of David Brown, "Mesopotamian Planetary Astronomy-Astrology", and of Abusch and van der Toorn, eds., "Mesopotamian Magic: Textual, Historical, and Interpretative Perspectives"], Early Science and Medicine 9/2 (2004), 136-43.

  • "Question and Answer in Middle Kingdom Dialogues", Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 90 (2004) , 113-21.

  • "The Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh: A Review Essay", Ancient Near Eastern Studies 41 (2004), 223-39.

  • "Edition of UGU 1 (=BAM 480 etc.)", Journal des Médecines Cunéiformes 5 (2005), 6-43.

  • "Edition of BAM 3", Journal des Médecines Cunéiformes 7 (2006), 18-48.

  • "Dialect Admixture of Babylonian and Assyrian in SAA VIII, X, XII, XVII, XVIII" , Iraq 68 (2006), 59-84.

  • "Clause Grouping in Neo-Assyrian on the Evidence of the Direct Speech marker mā", Orientalia 75/4 (2006), 334-358.

translations:

  • (from German:) Ludwig Morenz, "Literature as a Construction of the Past in the Middle Kingdom", in J. Tait (ed.), 'Never had the Like Occurred': Egypt's view of its past, UCL Press, 2003, 101-117.

conference papers, guest lectures, etc.:

  • "Hattusili and Tudhaliya's relations with Ahhiyawa", paper read on the 15.xii.2001 at the British Association of Near Eastern Archaeology Conference, 13-15.xii.2001, London, British Museum.

  • "Pazzi e sollazzi: aspetti della psichiatria in Mesopotamia da Hammurabi ad Assurbanipal", guest lecture given in Modena, Italy, on the 6.iv.2005 as part of the Dottorato di Ricerca in Psicobiologia dell'Uomo, Scuola di Specializzazione di Psichiatria, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia.

  • "Phänomenologie des Schreibfehlers in Keilschrifttexten", paper read at the Altorientalisches Institut, Leipzig University, Germany, on the 18.v.2006, as part of the series Altorientalisches Kolloquium.

  • "Literatures in Dialogue: on direct speech in Egyptian and Akkadian Literature", invited contribution to the conference "Ancient Egyptian Literature: Theory and Practice" held in All Souls College, Oxford, 2-3.ix.2006.

book reviews:

  • J. N. Adams, "Bilingualism and the Latin Language", Applied Linguistics 25/4 (2004), 543-5.

  • Edgar Bierende, "Lucas Cranach d. ä. und der deutsche Humanismus. Tafelmalerei im Kontext von Rhetorik, Chroniken und Fürstenspiegeln", The Sixteenth Century Journal 35/4 (2004), 1158-1160.

  • Jeremy Black, Graham Cunningham, Eleanor Robson and Gabor Zolyomi, "The Literature of Ancient Sumer", Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2006.01.27 (2006) (http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2006/2006-01-27.html).

  • Leda Ciraolo and Jonathan Seidel, eds., "Magic and Divination in the Ancient World" (=AMD 2), Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 28/5, 176.

  • Robert Drews, ed., "Greater Anatolia and the Indo-Hittite Language Family: Papers presented at a colloquium hosted by the University of Richmond, March 18?19, 2000" (=Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph Series 38), Diachronica 21/1 (2004), 240.

  • D.O. Edzard, "Sumerian Grammar" (=HdO 71), Australian Journal of Linguistics 25/1 (2005), 174-76.

  • Jeannette Fincke, "Augenleiden nach keilschriftlichen Quellen" (=Würzburger medizinhistorische Forschungen 70), Medical History 49/1 (2005), 130-1.

  • Erica Fudge, ed., "Renaissance Beasts: Of Humans, Animals, and Other Wonderful Creatures", Sixteenth Century Journal 36/4 (2005), 1224-1226.

  • Markham J. Geller, "Renal and Rectal Disease Texts" (=BAM 7), Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 61/4 (2006), 541-543.

  • Markham J. Geller et al., "Ur III Incantations from the Frau Professor Hilprecht-Collection, Jena", Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 5 (2004/5)
    (http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/JHS/reviews/review156.htm).

  • Volkert Haas (with the assistance of Daliah Bawanypeck), "Materia Magica et Medica Hethitica", Journal des Médecines Cunéiformes 5 (2005), 47-48.

  • Nils P. Heeßel, "Babylonisch-assyrische Diagnostik", and JoAnn Scurlock and Burton R. Andersen, "Diagnoses in Assyrian and Babylonian Medicine", Medical History 51/2 (2007), 269-271.

  • Hornblower and Spawforth, eds., "The Oxford Classical Dictionary 3rd rev. ed.", Journal of Ecclesiastical History 55/3 (2004) 552-4.

  • Dina Katz, "The Image of the Netherworld in the Sumerian Sources", History of Religions 44/1 (2004) 80-83.

  • Mikko Luukko, "Grammatical Variation in Neo-Assyrian" (=SAAS XVI), Journal of Semitic Studies 52/2, 369-73.

  • Richard Parkinson, "Poetry and Culture in Middle Kingdom Egypt: A Dark Side to Perfection", Edebiyât 14/1-2 (2003), 178-80.

  • Francesca Rochberg, "The Heavenly Writing: Divination, Horoscopy and Astronomy in Mesopotamian Culture", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 69/3 (2006), 459-460.

  • Wolfgang Schramm, "Bann! Bann! Eine sumerisch-akkadische Beschwörungsserie" (=GAAL 2), Aula Orientalis 21/2 (2003) [2004], 282-7.

  • Marten Stol, "Birth in Babylonia and the Bible: Its Mediterranean Setting", Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 59/3 (2004), 475-7.

  • Manuela Tecusan, "The Fragments of the Methodists. Volume One: Methodism Outside Soranus", Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 60/3 (2005), 362-63.

Inclusion on this list is on an entirely voluntary basis. This is not, therefore, a complete listing of students. Information included above was supplied by the students themselves. Please report errors or problems to the webmaster.