Akkadian Historical Texts

Course Objective

After having taken this course, students:

• will have a thorough overview of the political history of Assyria and Babylonia in the first millennium BCE and will have read key primary texts (in Akkadian and in translation) that illustrates this history
• will have thorough knowledge of the research tools in Assyriology necessary to conduct philological studies
• will be able to read and translate cuneiform texts from the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods independently
• will be able to critically assess these sources and will be able to use that evidence to formulate arguments

Course Content

Ruthless wars, ambitions of empire and sumptuous palaces neo-assythat awed all those who came upon them... This course is designed to familiarize students with the diverse textual sources from the Neo-Assyrian (912-612 BCE) and Neo-Babylonian (627/612–539 BCE) periods and to explicate how scholars use them to reconstruct history. In the first part of the seminar, students will deepen their knowledge about the imperial phase of Assyria's history by reading selections from letters, annals and commemorative inscriptions in the original cuneiform. The second part of the course deals with two key Neo-Babylonian kings (Nebuchadnezzar II and Nabonidus) and the shift from the Neo-Babylonian to the Achaemenid (or First Persian) Empire in 539 BCE, with special attention paid to Cyrus II ("Cyrus the Great”) and his conquest of Babylon. Themes to be explored during discussions include the political and administrative mechanics of imperial expansion, religious policies, the relationship between Babylonia and Assyria, strategies of diplomacy and the question of cultural clashes and cultural exchange. This course is designed to lay the basis for independent work, such as a BA thesis.