IAA Prize for the Best Article of an Early Career Scholar

The IAA awards a prize for the best article in Assyriology and Mesopotamian Archaeology

 

Rules and Regulations

Eligibility Requirements

  1. The article must be written in one of the official RAI languages: French, German, or English.
  2. The article must have been published or accepted in its final form for publication within the last two years.
  3. Applicants must be members of the IAA.
  4. Applicants must be within three years of receiving their PhD; PhD students are also eligible to apply.
  5. The prize recipient will receive €1,000, and a runner-up, if selected, will receive €250.

Selection Committee

  1. The committee will consist of four members: one from the IAA Board and three additional members of the IAA.
  2. Committee members will serve a term of three years, after which a new committee will be appointed.

Submission Timeline

  1. Articles must be submitted as a PDF file with embedded fonts to the designated email (below) by March 31.
  2. Committee members will evaluate submissions and conduct a preliminary ranking.
  3. The committee will submit a selection report to the IAA Board by June 1.
  4. The Board will review the committee’s recommendations at the next Rencontre.
  5. The prize(s) will be awarded during the General Meeting.

Please submit your article to iaaprize@iaassyriology.com.

Be sure to include the full publication details of your article. If the article has been accepted but not yet published, please provide written confirmation from the editor of its acceptance. If you have received your PhD, please include the date of degree completion.

 

See below for a list of past winners.

Past winners

2024

Laureate: Christopher W. Jones. 2023. Failed Coup: The Assassination of Sennacherib and Esarhaddon’s Struggle for the Throne, 681–680 B.C. Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History 10: 293-369.

Runner-up: Alessia Pilloni. 2024. The Astrological Schemes Behind bīt niṣirtu and KI in the Babylonian Horoscopes. Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History 11.

Available online, ahead of print: https://doi.org/10.1515/janeh-2023-0014

 

2023

Laureate: George Heath-Whyte. 2022. Patterns of Life in the Babylonian Long Sixth Century BC: A Study of Dated Legal Tablets from Private Archives. Archiv für Orient Forschungen 55: 51–75. 

 

2021

Laureate: Irene Deubelbeiss. 2020. New Light on the Sumerian Literary Letter Abaindasa to Sulge. Altorientalische Forschungen 47(2): 143–185.

 

2020

Laureate: Poppy Tushingham. 2019. Uniformity versus regional variation in the legal and scribal practices of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Zeitschrift für altorientalische und biblische Rechtsgeschichte 25: 29–53.

 

2019

Laureate: Julia Krul. 2018. Prayers For Him Who Is Unable to Make Offerings’: The Cult of Bēlet-ṣēri at Late Babylonian Uruk. Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions 18(1): 48–85.

Runner-up: Babtiste Fiette. 2018. Le Domaine Royal de Hammurabi de Babylone. Apports de la documentation cunéiforme á l’histoire agraire. Histoire et Sociétés Rurales 49: 9–53.

 

2018

Laureate: Alvise Matessi. 2016. The making of Hittite imperial landscapes: territoriality and balance of power in south-central Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age. Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History 3: 117-162.

Runner-up: Johannes Bach. 2018. LKA 64: A possible royal song (zamar šarri) celebrating the Trans-Euphratian victories of Aššurnaṣirpal II’s 9th campaign. Ugarit-Forschungen 49: 1–28.

 

2017

Laureate: Johannes Hackl. 2018. Zur Sprachsituation im Babylonien des ersten Jahrtausends v. Chr. Ein Beitrag zur Sprachgeschichte des jüngeren Akkadischen. In S. Finck, M. Lang and M. Schretter (eds), Sprachsituation und Sprachpolitik in Mesopotamien. Dubsar 2, Münster: Zaphon..

Runner-up: Elena Soriga. 2017. Mari(ne) purple: western textile technology in Middle Bronze Age Syria. In H. Enegren & F. Meo (eds), Treasures from the Sea: Sea Silk and Shellfish Purple Dye in Antiquity. Ancient Textiles Series 30, Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp. 79-95.

 

2016

Laureate: Giacomo Benati. 2015. Re-modeling Political Economy in Early 3rd Millennium BC Mesopotamia: Patterns of Socio-Economic Organization in Archaic Ur (Tell al-Muqayyar, Iraq). CDLI Journal 2015/2, published online on 1 October 2015.

Runner-up: Andrew Knapp. 2016. The Sitz im Leben of Esarhaddon’s Apology. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 68: 181–195.

 

2015

Laureate: Enrique Jiménez. 2014. New Fragments of Gilgamesh and other Literary Texts from Kuyunjik. Iraq 76: 99–121.

Runner-up: Michele Cammarosano. 2014.The Cuneiform Stylus. Mesopotamia 49: 1–38.

 

2014
Laureate: Kathryn Stevens. 2013. Secrets in the Library: Protected Knowledge and Professional Identity in Late Babylonian. Iraq 75: 211–253.

Runner-up: Y. Samuel Chen. 2012. The Flood Motif as a Stylistic and Temporal Device in Sumerian Literary Traditions. JANER 12: 158–189.

 

2013

Laureate: Gabriella Spada. 2011. A Handbook from the Eduba’a: An Old Babylonian Collection of Model Contracts. ZA 101: 204–245.

Runner-up: Erik van Dongen. 2012. The Hittite Song of Going Forth (CTH 344): A Reconsideration of the Narrative. WdO 42: 23–84.