June Acquisitions for Ancient Near East

Go to the Library's  "New and Notable" acquisitions blog to see titles received in June for the Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica section

The link is http://blogs.soas.ac.uk/libraryacquisitions/category/ancient-near-east-semitics-and-judaica/ 

Nippur excavations online

The Oriental Institute (University of Chicago) has made available the Annual Reports from the excavations at Nippur (in modern Iraq) from 1991/1992 to 2010/2011 and a small selection of articles, including a couple on the worship of the deities Enil and Gula in the city

CLICK HERE TO LINK TO THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE WEBSITE

Open-access textbooks & language primers

The AWOL (Ancient World Online) blog has brought together a selection of open-access text-books and primers of languages of the Ancient World, including a number relevant to the Near East  (Biblical Hebrew, Hittite, Manichaean Sogdian, Sumerian etc.)

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE AWOL LIST 

 ** For Akkadian, note Alan Lenzi's direction to his Reading Akkadian Hymns and Prayers: An Introduction, 

http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/9781589835962.pdf


"It doesn't teach Akkadian, but it does help with rapid reading of 29 selected prayers and hymns".

A lost language rediscovered?

This report from the Independent newspaper examines recent discoveries at a dig at the Assyrian imperial governor's palace at Tushan (south-east Turkey) which seem to be evidence of a previously unknown language, probably spoken by a people from the Zagros Mountains of Iran

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE NEWSPAPER ARTICLE


A detailed analysis of the discovery has been published in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies Vol.71 (1) 2012 ("Evidence for a peripheral language in a neo-Assyrian tablet from the governor's palace in Tushan" John MacGinnis)
This is available from JSTOR Current collections. Click here to access the journal article 

The Melammu Project : new online resource

This is an Assyrian and Babylonian heritage project "investigating the continuity, transformation and diffusion of Mesopotamian culture throughout the ancient world from the 2nd millennium BC until Islamic times". The project website hosts a digital library of open-access works (mainly articles and chapters) from major academic publishers, plus online dictionaries, a bibliography and a key-word searchable database drawing attention to parallel texts. It also links out to other text collections. Use the side bar to navigate between collections.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE MELAMMU PROJECT'S DIGITAL LIBRARY

Melammu will shortly be accessible through the Library's online subject guide to the Ancient Near East

Emar Studies: new online resource

Materials for Emar Studies is a joint project from the Universität Heidelberg, the Maison René-Ginouvès (Nanterre), the Universität Tübingen and CSIC (Madrid)
It is an active online resource, gathering material on the archaeology, history and culture of ancient Emar (in modern-day Syria). The resource contains an author / subject bibliography, a glossary and online articles and texts in a variety of European languages.
Scholars are invited to contribute their own work


CLICK HERE TO ACCESS MATERIALS FOR EMAR STUDIES

Book review: The Ituraeans and the Roman Near East: reassessing the sources

The Ituraeans inhabited areas of present-day Syria / Palestine in the late 1st century BCE. Elaine Myer's book challenges the view of the Ituraeans as tribes of bandits and reinterprets the archaeological evidence to give a more balanced view.

Mark Chaney of the Southern Methodist University (Dallas, Texas) reviews the book in Review of Biblical Literature. 
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REVIEW

SOAS Library has The Ituraeans and the Roman Near East at
QH939.43 / 734843


CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE LIBRARY CATALOGUE TO CHECK AVAILABILITY 

New book in the SOAS ANE collection

Most probably: epistemic modality in Old Babylonian by Nathan Wasserman has recently been received by SOAS Library.

Classmark: L.QEG415 / 735626


CLICK HERE TO CHECK AVAILABILITY ON THE LIBRARY CATALOGUE

Series in AMAR

Charles Jones of the Oriental Institute (University of Chicago) has started a project to pull together the excavation reports listed in AMAR into series / subject categories.

His index is posted on the AWOL blog (Ancient World OnLine) and currently has content from the Archaeologische Berichte aus dem Yemen to Ugaritica, including Bogazkoy and the Mission archeologique de Mari

Archive of Mesopotamian Archaeological site Reports (AMAR)

The AMAR project is almost complete. Directed by Dr Elizabeth Stone of Stony Brook University (New York), the archive currently contains over 550 digitized archaeological site reports of excavations in Iraq and surrounding countries such as Turkey, Syria, Iran and the Gulf States. The reports date from the 19th century and include in-copyright and in-print material as well as out-of-copyright documents.

*Individuals, libraries and institutions may download a single copy of any item, free of charge, for personal use*

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE AMAR WEBSITE. 

New books in the SOAS ANE collection

The following books have recently been received by SOAS Library

• A common cultural heritage: studies on Mesopotamia and the Biblical world in honor of Barry I. Eichler  / edited by Grant Frame [et al] at QI221 / 735525

CLICK HERE TO GO TO LIBRARY CATALOGUE ENTRY  

• Mittelassyrische Rechtsurkunden und Verwaltungstexte : nos. 9 & 10 at L.QEH340 / 701595

CLICK HERE TO GO TO LIBRARY CATALOGUE ENTRY FOR NO.9 AND HERE FOR NO.10

New book in the SOAS ANE collection

Marten Stol's recently published Vrouwen van Babylon : prinsessen, priesteressen, prostituees in de bakermat van de cultuur has just arrived in SOAS Library

Our copy is shelved at QD305.4 / 978848.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE LIBRARY CATALOGUE

Sumerian beer?

The Sumerians had a liking for a fermented cereal drink made from barley and wheat - but was it beer!
This article from Physorg.com looks at the latest archaeological and scientific evidence regarding the popular drink 

And while on the theme of beer, here is an article from LiveScience website, "Sex, beer and politics: riddles reveal life of ancient Mesopotamians" for a look at some cuneiform texts recording exchanges that might have taken place during a rowdy night out in ancient Babylon!

New book in the SOAS ANE collection

Listening to the artifacts : music culture in ancient Palestine by Theodore Burgh

Shelved at QO781.7 / 740318 [Level B, StackS 22-24]

This book examines the use of music and musical instruments in ancient Israel and Palestine, offering reconstructions of the instruments played and the social context of musical performance

CONNECT TO THE LIBRARY CATALOGUE

Reading Akkadian prayers and hymns: open access e-book

SOAS Library has a copy of Reading Akkadian prayers and hymns : an introduction (edited by Alan Lenzi) on order, but the Society of Biblical Literature has made this publication freely available as an open-access PDF text.
Click HERE to go to the Library catalogue where a link to the e-book has been added to the record

"Slaves" in Babylonian society

Linda Glaser's article from www.physorg.com looks at the role of servile labourers in Babylonian society as discussed in Jonathan Tenney's new book "Life at the bottom of Babylonian society: servile labourers at Nippur in the 14th and 13th centuries BC"

Find the book in SOAS Library at QE935 / 751918.
Click HERE to link to the Library catalogue