In its latest “In the Spotlight” post, Mar Shiprim had a (virtual) chat with students and researchers from the Assyriology program at the Hebrew University: Uri Gabbay, Associate Professor; Beatrice Baragli, postdoctoral researcher; Julia Tulaikov, PhD student; Benny Asavan, MA student; and Miguel Correa, BA student. We are grateful to all of them, and look forward to knowing more about their research!
Can you give us some background about the Assyriology program at the Hebrew University?
Uri: The Assyriology program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was founded by the late Hayim Tadmor in 1958 with a strong philological-historical orientation on Akkadian texts. Later, the late Aaron Shaffer joined the department, and established Sumerian as part of the curriculum.
Today, the Assyriology program, together with Egyptology, form part of the Archaeology Department of the Hebrew University. It is housed in the Institute of Archaeology, one of the first two buildings of the university in Jerusalem’s Mt. Scopus.
The Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The program offers a full Assyriology curriculum both for BA and MA students. There are currently three professors in the program: Wayne Horowitz, Nathan Wasserman, and Uri Gabbay. In addition, although part of the Archaeology program rather than the Assyriology program, Tallay Ornan teaches courses on Mesopotamian art which are part of the Assyriology curriculum. Our students also attend courses in Egyptology, offered by Orly Goldwasser, Arlette David, and Racheli Shlomi-Hen.
In addition to the courses, our foremost resource is an excellent Assyriological library, consisting of about 7,000 titles. Another important resource is a collection of about 50 cuneiform tablets, cones and bricks which we occasionally use in class for students to practice reading and copying cuneiform.
Currently, the program has about 15 MA and PhD students, as well as two postdoctoral scholars (Beatrice Baragli and Peter Zilberg, both in the framework of the Faculty of Humanities postdoctoral Buber Society Fellows; other postdoctoral scholars are scheduled to join next year through other programs).
During the last year, and especially with the pandemic restrictions, we initiated a department seminar (organized by Beatrice Baragli and Peter Zilberg, currently through Zoom) that provides a place in which members of the Assyriology and Egyptology programs, at different levels and stages, can regularly meet to hear lectures by department members and guests.
Lastly, we maintain close ties with the other Assyriology programs in Israel, especially in Tel Aviv and Bar Ilan Universities. For instance, all Assyriology programs in Israel enable students to take courses offered by other universities, and this year a new initiative, in the form of an inter-university seminar known as the AssyrioLab, was organized by Yoram Cohen (Tel Aviv University) and Noga Ayali-Darshan (Bar Ilan University), with many participants.
What are the projects currently undertaken by the researchers and students in the program?
Reading cuneiform tablets at the collection room of the Institute of Archaeology (photograph: Nathan Wasserman)
Uri: The three professors are currently leading several projects, most of which are funded by research grants that enable scholarships for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers:
Wayne Horowitz is currently involved in two long term projects:
1) The production of a new online and hard-copy encyclopedia of Sumerian-Akkadian star-names (with G.E. Kurtik, Raul Schrott, Susanne Hoffman, Jeanette Fincke, and a team of Hebrew University graduate students);
2) The Cuneiform in Australia and New Zealand Project, which will publish all the cuneiform texts held in Australian and New Zealand collections (with Peter Zilberg at the Hebrew University, Luis Siddall, Larry Stillman, and Christopher Davey in Australia, and Emmanuelle Salgues in the United States).
Nathan Wasserman is working on three different projects:
1) Divine Love Lyrics (funded by the Israel Science Foundation, headed together with Rocío Da Riva of the University of Barcelona), focusing on a group of some 40 cuneiform texts stemming from the Neo-Assyrian and Late Babylonian periods, describing the amorous and copulative relationships of Marduk, his wife Ṣarpanitu, and Marduk’s lover, Ištar of Babylon;
2) Late Babylonian Priestly Literature (funded by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, headed together with Michael Jursa of the University of Vienna), defining and contextualizing a textual corpus including chronicles, historical-literary compositions, rituals texts and prophecies from the final centuries BCE, referring to events with a bearing on their priestly authors’ temples and deities.
3) Akkadian Magic Literature. Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian Incantations: Corpus – Context – Praxis (together with Elyze Zomer): The publication of all Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian Akkadian magical texts, in new editions, translation, commentary, and an extensive analytical overview (to be published in Leipziger Altorientalistische Studien 12).
Uri Gabbay is working on two projects:
1) Tradition and Innovation in Ancient Mesopotamian Liturgy: A Study of the 2000-Year-Long Transmission History of Sumerian Emesal Prayers (funded by the Israel Science Foundation), seeking the ways, both performative and textual, in which Emesal prayers (especially Balaĝ and Eršema prayers) were transmitted over time;.
2) Ancient Mesopotamian Priestly Scholasticism in the First Millennium BCE (funded by an ERC Consolidator Grant; scheduled to begin in October 2021): This project seeks to demonstrate how scholarly and cultic activities were interrelated and how they shaped the self-identity of the priestly-scholarly community that was in charge of both. The project aims to bridge the gap between the study of intellectual history and the study of priesthood in ancient Mesopotamia in the first millennium BCE. The project will be carried out by a team of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who will treat various textual corpora (e.g., liturgical and cultic texts, textual commentaries, cultic commentaries).
Reading cuneiform tablets at the collection room of the Institute of Archaeology (photograph: Nathan Wasserman)
Beatrice: My ongoing project, “Late Sumerian: Decay or Evolution?” focuses on the very last stage of Sumerian literature and aims to answer the question: why continue to use a language that has been dead for more than two millennia? An old question, which I will hopefully answer with the help of new digital tools, such as collecting linguistic data from well-established databases. Late Sumerian is still considered a form of “corruption” of the earlier language: I seek to reconsider this idea in favor of more suitable concepts that reflect the linguistic, grammatical, and cultural development of a language in each of its stages.
Julia: In my PhD dissertation (supervised by Uri Gabbay), I deal with Sumerian Emesal liturgy, more precisely, with its most widespread genre – Balaĝ prayers. My work is focused on three Balaĝs dedicated to the Sumerian god Enki. It includes their renewed edition and philological research. The main questions dealt with in this research are concerned with developing methodological approaches for the transmission history of the genre. The compositions are analyzed both from a diachronic perspective (comparing Old Babylonian with first millennium BCE materials) and with regard to intertextuality.
Benny: I am writing an MA thesis in Assyriology (supervised by Nathan Wasserman) focusing on digital tools, especially Machine Learning and Native Language Processing for predicting, suggesting and filling gaps and broken parts in texts. I hope my research will help to improve restoration suggestions, as well as correct some restorations in the current state of the research.
Tell us a bit about yourselves, why you chose to study Assyriology in the Hebrew University, and generally about your experience in the Hebrew University
Beatrice: My research is conducted within the framework of the Hebrew University’s Martin Buber Society of Fellows in the Humanities, which grants complete support and freedom to the fellows. This stimulating research environment among an eclectic and lively mix of colleagues from other disciplines, combined with the more philological and historical work conducted at the Assyriology program, covers the most important aspects of a researcher’s work. Together with living in Jerusalem, this represents a great place to be!
Miguel: I am originally from Peru. Currently, I am a BA student in Assyriology and in Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I have been passionate about Ancient Near Eastern history, literature, and languages from a young age. I decided to turn my passion into a realistic career by taking the opportunity to study Assyriology at the Hebrew University. The program comes with numerous opportunities for the expansion of one’s academic interest in different fields associated with Ancient Near Eastern studies. I would also like to emphasize the faculty’s part in making my experience so special. They are genuinely concerned with both the academic and personal growth of their students.
Benny: The way I found myself in Assyriology was almost a coincidence. My BA was in Archaeology and Bible. I tried to maximize my research options and did not decide on my research subject in the future, so I decided to learn Akkadian and Egyptian. After one year with Nathan Wasserman, who made me feel at home in Assyriology, I decided to take more courses in Assyriology. All the teachers in the program introduced me to a wealth of knowledge, and displayed their passion for the texts and subjects, as well as their joy of teaching. I could not resist being drawn into the field of Assyriology. The courses in the program require a lot of work, but they furthered my understanding of the ancient world and also made me rethink our own world and culture. By taking part and studying in the Assyriology program at the Hebrew University, I learned to respect and understand a culture that I could never know in any other way. Furthermore, I respect my classmates, my teachers, and every person in the department who taught me how to deal with ancient texts, and spent much time teaching me how to use research tools and methods critically.
Julia: My positive learning experience in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem cannot be overemphasized. The faculty and fellow students at the Assyriological program are fully supportive of me and my research. Over the course of several years, I attended extremely interesting courses that provided me with very deep knowledge and skills. The atmosphere both at the Institute of Archeology and in the campus in general is very friendly and inspiring.
The Assyriology team in front of the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University (photograph: Nathan Wasserman)