ASSYRIOLOGY (ADVANCED)

The course is part of the ancillary activities of the curriculum in Archaeology and Philology, Literatures and History of the MA in Ancient Civilisations: Literature, History and Archaeology; its goal is to help students developing their abilities, knowledge and methodology of the philology and literatures of the Ancient Near eastern world.
It aims at helping students to further develop their knowledge and mastery of the cuneiform sources written in Akkadian (reading, translation and contestualisation), and of the appropriate tools and methods necessary to produce a sample of an autonomous piece of research.

At the end of the course the student will have an in-depht knowledge of the tools and methods for the philological, grammatical, and historical analyis of the cuneiform text and will be able to apply it to the production of an original piece of research.

Elementary Akkadian is preferred but not compulsory.
Students with no previous knowledge of Akkadian are more than welcome to the course and will be able to take advantage of it anyway, with an ad hoc programme.

Within the cluster of courses COMPARING CULTURES: THE MEDITERRANEAN AND THE EAST IN DIALOGUE, the course topic is:
"Persia and Babylonia: ideology and propaganda in Babylonian sources dating to the Achaemenid period".

Babylonian sources dating to the Achaemenid period will be analysed in order to highlight their characteristics, problems and ideologica and propagandistic value.
Reading the main Babylonian inscriptions for the Achamenid period (eg. The Cyrus cylinder, the Babylonian version of the Behistun rock inscription) and comaring them with the information from the everyday documents from Babylonia, the following topics will be addressed:
- chronological problems and the legitimization of the Achaemenid kings;
- the lexikon and ideology of the Achaemenid kingship in Babylonian sources;
- the structure, nature and epigraphy of Achaemenid royal inscriptions;
- the problem of the circulation and reception of monumental inscriptions;
- the problem of the 'end of the archives'.
- philogogical and grammatical problems of the cuneiform text;

Students are required to prepare the cuneiform text at home on a regular basis; they will also produce an original piece of research on a course-related topic that will be presented publicly on the ocassion of a one-day workshop co-organised with students and teachers from the courses that go under the umbrella of COMPARING CULTURES: THE MEDITERRANEAN AND THE EAST IN DIALOGUE.

H. SCHAUDIG, Die Inschriften Nabonids von Babylon und Kyros’ des Großen, Münster, 2001 (la sezione relativa al Cilindro di Ciro)
M. BROSIUS, The Persian Empire from Cyrus II to Artaxerxes I, Cambridge, 2000
W. EILERS, «Der Keilschrifttext des Kyros-Zylinders», in Festgabe deutscher Iranisten zur 2500 Jahrfeier Irans, Stuttgart, 1971, 156-168.
A. KUHRT, The Persian Empire. A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period, London-New York 2007, n. 3.21, pp. 70-74.

Tools and grammars
W. Von Soden, Grundriss der Akkadischen Grammatik, Roma 1995 (terza edizione)
J. Huehnergard, A Grammar of Akkadian, Winona Lake 2011 (terza edizione)
Fl. Malbran Labat, Manuel de langue akkadienne, Louvain-La Neuve 2001
The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary

Suggested reading:
M. LIVERANI, Antico Oriente. Storia società economia (nuova edizione aggiornata). Roma-Bari, 2011, pp. 780-803
L. MILANO (a cura di), Il Vicino Oriente antico dalle origini ad Alessandro Magno. Milano, 2012, pp. 357-343
F. JOANNÉS, La Mésopotamie au Ier millénaire avant J.-C., Paris 2000, ch. 8 (= The Age of Empires, Edinburgh 2004)

Students who are not willing to attend classes please contact teacher in due time before the exam.

The evaluation process will take into account:
- students' proficiency in doing their homework and class participation
- the results obtained in producing a sample of autonomous research and presentino it to the public
- f2f exam on the main course topics.

classes will consist in seminars where the main topics and texts of the course will discussed jointly by teacher and students.
Active participation is required at all times. Students will prepare and present a sample of their own research, on a topic to be agreed upon with the teacher.

Italian

The course topic is coordinated with those of History of the Ancient Near East; Greek Historiography; Greek History; Egypt in the Hellenistic and Roman period; Numismatics.

oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "International cooperation" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development