SUMERO-AKKADIAN EPIGRAPHY

The course is part of the ancillary disciplines that make up the curriculum on Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean History of the BA Programme in History; it also offered for students of the BA in the Humanities and Cultural Heritage. It aims at providing students with an intermediate knowledge of the discipline and its methodology, of the writing system, epigraphy, language and grammar of Akkadian, reading from the original and understanding from an historical and linguistic point of view texts of intermediate difficulty, with a special focus on the materiality of writing and epgraphy. Depending on their personal engagement, students will acquire an intermediate knowledge of the phonology, morphology and sintax of the Akkadian language, and will be able to read and translate texts of a certain difficulty, directly from cuneiform. In addition they will have gained the ability to decode and contextualize the sources from an historical, ideological and literary perspective and will be able to use the main bibliographic (esp. digital) tools for the discipline.

At the end of the course students:
- will have gained an intermediate knowledge of the cuneiform writing system and its principles
- will have gained an intermediate knowledge of the grammar of the Akkadian language (phonology, morphology and syntax)
- will have basic knowledges of the methods and issues of sumero-akkadian epigraphy
- and will be able to apply such knowledge to the translation and analysis of different kind of texts in cuneiform on their own and in a group, using the right tools and resources as learnt and applied in class and preparing the texts for the class discussion, that are a necessary part of the final evaluation and of the discipline's knowledge building process.

Consider taking Assyriology beforehand.

1) Introduction to Sumero-Akkadian epigraphy
2) Writing medium and materials
3) The epigrapher at work
4) Tools and resources
5) 3D Manuscripts? Cuneiform and its writing media
6) Dealing with cuneiform texts: layout, rubrics, series and extracts.
7) Digital epigraphy: an introduction
9) Akkadian crestomacy: reading, analysis and commentary of selected texts (from the British Museum's photographs)

a) J.E. Reade, The manufacture, evaluation and conservation of clay tablets inscribed in cuneiform: traditional problems and solutions, in IRAQ (2017) 79 163–202 [DOI:10.1017/irq.2016.10]
b) C. Michel, What about 3D Manuscripts? The Case of the Cuneiform Clay Tablets, in J.B. Quenzen (ed.) Exploring Written Artefacts. Objects, Methods, and Concepts, vol. 1: 89-114 [https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110753301-006 ]
c) notes, additional bibliography and materials (selection of texts) from the classes
Additional readings will be suggested in class.

Working tools:
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

Dictionaries
-- A. George, J. Black, N. Postgate (eds.), A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden 2000
-- The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (on-line: https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/publications/assyrian-dictionary-oriental-institute-university-chicago-cad )

Sign lists
-- Fl.Malbran Labat, Manuel d'epigraphie akkadienne: signes, syllabaire, ideogrammes, 6 ed. o succ., Paris 1988 oppure:
-- R. Borger, Assyrisch-Babylonische Zeichenliste, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1978

Learning abilities will be assessed by means of:
- discussion of the contents of the course
- written essay (epigraphic card on a subject to be agreed with the teacher)
- a final exam that will consist of an oral test including:
a) questions on the assigned readings
b) reading, tranliteration, transcription, translation and commentary of the texts discussed in class.
Each section will be evaluated in thirties; students who fail to hand in their epigraphic card two weeks before the end of the course will not be admitted to the final exam.

Students will be required to do their homework on a regular basis. Activities will be corrected and discussed in class.

Italian

Students are invited to attend the classes and to take an active part in them.

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