ASYR1850
Syllabus ~ 1/28/16
Spring 2016
Collecting Knowledge in the Ancient World: Assurbanipal’s Library in Context
Instructor:
Prof. Matthew Rutz
Department of Egyptology and Assyriology
[email protected]
Tel. 401-863-6312
Office hours: Tu 2–3 p.m., Th 1–2 p.m. (or by appointment), Wilbour Hall room 204
Meeting Time and Place:
Monday 3–5:30 p.m., Wilbour Hall room 301
Course Description:
Nineveh (now in present-day Mosul, Iraq) was the Assyrian empire’s last capital and
home to one of the earliest large-scale collections of ancient literature: Assurbanipal’s
library. Remembered in Greek tradition as Sardanapalus, this 7th-century king is credited
with amassing thousands of clay tablets and wooden writing boards in a state-sponsored
institution that included myths, hymns, rituals, medical and divinatory lore, and ancient
dictionaries. This course will explore the contents and significance of Assurbanipal’s
library, looking in a comparative way at its antecedents and heirs across the ancient
world. Additional topics include: colophons; royal literacy; court scribes; libraries,
museums, and heritage. Enrollment limited to 10 students for Spring 2016.*
*NOTE: For Spring 2016 a reading knowledge of Akkadian cuneiform is a
prerequisite (minimum one year of study; students who have passed ASYR 1000
Introduction to Akkadian may take ASYR1850 and ASYR 1010 Intermediate Akkadian
concurrently); a reading of knowledge of German and/or French will be useful but is not
a prerequisite.
Course Aims:
The course has the following principal aims:
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To introduce students to the topic of ancient archives and libraries in general and
Assurbanipal’s library in particular.
To situate Assurbanipal’s library in its archaeological, historical, and cultural
contexts.
To introduce practical tools and resources for the study and reconstruction of
Assurbanipal’s library and its contents.
To engage students directly with current research using primary sources.
To explore and critique the project of state-sponsored programs to acquire and
store knowledge in the ancient world.
ASYR1850
Syllabus ~ 1/28/16
Spring 2016
Course Objectives:
By the end of the course students should have:
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Gained general knowledge of how ancient libraries were constructed and used.
Achieved an understanding of how Assurbanipal’s library fits into our picture of
libraries from the ancient world.
Learned how to read and translate colophons appended to Akkadian texts.
Used photos and drawings to analyze a tablet or small group of tablets from the
library.
Demonstrated the ability to identify an unfamiliar cuneiform tablet and discuss
the significance of its presence in the library.
Weekly Routine:
Class will typically consist of three components: (1) a seminar discussion of weekly
readings, supplemented with brief background or exposition from me, especially early
on; (2) short in-class presentations that complement, augment, and/or catalyze our
discussion; and (3) in-class reading and translation of prepared selections of cuneiform
text. Weekly reading assignments will consist of seminal books/book sections/journal
articles in English that contribute to a given week’s topic; depending on the composition
of the class, readings in German and/or French may be assigned to students able to read
those languages. Text preparation will require students to use drawings or photographs of
cuneiform inscriptions, which we then read, translate, analyze, and discuss as a group.
Assessment:
Assessment for this course will be based on weekly assignments, both oral and written,
and a final project. The breakdown of the final grade will be as follows:
Preparation / participation
Presentations
Assessment: text preparation
Proposal
Project
15%
15%
20%
10%
40%
Weekly
Weekly
Week 5 (submitted after class)
Week 6 (end of the week)
Reading Period
Adequate preparation of a given week’s texts and regular in-class participation in
discussion will be vital. Each week certain students will be assigned topics for short
presentations for the following meeting; the responsibility for these presentations will be
rotating, and in them students will be asked to summarize, critique, and stimulate
discussion of the assigned topic in question. In a short assessment I will check each
student’s written text preparation (checking transliteration, translation, notes on the text).
Students will want to meet with me early on the semester to discuss a possible project
topic, for which a proposal is required. The project will consist of a critical text edition
of either a specific tablet in Assurbanipal’s library or an edition of the colophons from a
group of tablets. The proposal should consist a description of the topic with essential
bibliography and an explanation of how the student will address the topic.
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ASYR1850
Syllabus ~ 1/28/16
Spring 2016
Written Work:
All written work must be: submitted electronically and in print; in a common format
(PDF preferred); in 11-12 pt. type, double spaced, with 1-1.25 in. margins; checked for
spelling, grammar, and sense; properly referenced (either footnote or author-date style)
with an indication in the first—and maybe only—footnote precisely which style you are
using (Chicago Manual of Style and Society for American Archaeology are good choices,
but there are others). Please see me about Unicode fonts suitable for rendering the
diacritics needed to properly edit cuneiform texts.
Readings:
Readings must be done before class the day they are assigned. There is no course
textbook. Instead, readings will be available on the Canvas course website
(http://canvas.brown.edu/courses/), on OCRA (https://library.brown.edu/reserves/; OCRA
password: gerginakku), and/or distributed in class.
Text preparation will require using the standard tools: R. Borger’s Mesopotamisches
Zeichenlexikon (MZL), R. Labat’s Manuel d’épigraphie akkadienne (Manuel; poor Labat
never got a respectable acronym for his sign list!), and the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary
(CAD), which is not to be confused with the useful but severely, debilitatingly limited
Concise Dictionary of Akkadian (CDA).
***NOTE*** that readings are subject to change, so please be sure to check the
announcements on the Canvas website regularly.
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Syllabus ~ 1/28/16
Spring 2016
WEEKLY SCHEDULE
Week 1
2/1
Introduction; overview of Neo-Assyrian history; a first text
Readings:
~ n/a
Reports:
~ What brings you to this class?
Text preparation:
~ None (guided reading of unprepared text in class)
Week 2
2/8
Nineveh and its remains
Readings:
~ Layard 1849–1853, 1853: 337–347; Reade and Parpola in Veenhof 1986
Reports:
~ Archaeology of Nineveh: Reade 2000; a short bio of Assurbanipal
Text preparation:
~ Library colophons: the basics (selected texts)
Week 3
2/15
Reconstructing Assurbanipal’s library:
Colophons, scripts, and attribution
Readings:
~ Leichty 1964; Hunger 1968 (selections)
Presentations:
~ Tools 1: print catalogues and bibliographies
Text preparation:
~ Library colophons
Week 4
2/22
NO CLASS (Long weekend)
Week 5
2/29
Reading in the library
Readings:
~ Fincke 2004; Frahm 2011 (selections)
Presentations:
~ Tools 2: digital resources
Text preparation:
~ Library colophons (cont.)
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ASYR1850
Week 6
Syllabus ~ 1/28/16
3/7
Whose library? Kings, scribes, and scholars
Readings:
~ Lieberman 1990; Livingstone 2007
Presentations:
~ Radner and Robson 2011 (selections); Talon 2003
Text preparation:
~ Royal inscriptions of Assurbanipal (L4) in Novotny 2014
~ Proposals due: 3/11 via e-mail
Week 7
3/14
Collecting for the library
Readings:
~ Frame and George 2005; Garrison 2012
Presentations:
~ Reade 2004; Goldstein 2010
Text preparation:
~ Parpola 1983; Frame and George 2005
Week 8
3/21 Cataloguing the library
Readings:
~ Krecher 1979
Presentations:
~ Geller 2000; Delnero 2010
Text preparation:
~ Literary catalogues from Nineveh (selections)
Spring Break 3/28
NO CLASS
Week 9
Babylonian tablets in the Assyrian library?
4/4
Readings:
~ Fincke 2003/2004; Fincke 2014a
Presentations:
~ Diagnostic features of Babylonian and Assyrian scripts
Text preparation:
~ Colophons in Babylonian script (selections)
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Spring 2016
ASYR1850
Week 10
Syllabus ~ 1/28/16
4/11
Spring 2016
Tablets from Kalḫu in Nineveh? Nabû-zuqup-kēnu & sons
Readings:
~ Frahm 2011 (selections)
Presentations:
~ Dossier of Nabû-zuqup-kēnu and his family
Text preparation:
~ Colophons of Nabû-zuqup-kēnu (selections)
Week 11
4/18
Assur and Nineveh: Two Assyrian cities and their libraries
Readings:
~ Assur catalogues and recensions (selections distributed before class)
Presentations:
~ Maul 2010
Text preparation:
~ Assur colophons (selections)
Week 12
4/25
Cuneiform libraries redux: Assurbanipal’s library in context
Readings:
~ Robson 2013; Beaulieu 2010
Presentations:
~ Pedersén 1998 (selections)
Text preparation:
~ Colophons from other cuneiform libraries (selections)
Reading/Exam Periods
*Project due
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Syllabus ~ 1/28/16
Spring 2016
Reference Works and Digital Tools
Catalogues
Bezold, Carl. 1889–1899. Catalogue of the Cuneiform Tablets in the Kouyunjik
Collection of the British Museum. London: The Trustees of the British Museum.
Volume 1 (1889)
Volume 2 (1891)
Volume 3 (1893)
Volume 4 (1896)
Volume 5 (1899)
King, L. W. 1914. Catalogue of the Cuneiform Tablets in the Kouyunjik Collection of the
British Museum, Supplement. London: The Trustees of the British Museum.
Lambert, W. G., and A. R. Millard. 1968. Catalogue of the Cuneiform Tablets in the
Kouyunjik Collection of the British Museum, Second Supplement. London: The
Trustees of the British Museum.
Lambert, W. G. 1992. Catalogue of the Cuneiform Tablets in the Kouyunjik Collection of
the British Museum, Third Supplement. London: The Trustees of the British
Museum.
Bibliographies and updates to the catalogue
Bateman, Cyril A., and John W. Parsely. 1960. A List of Fragments Rejoined in the
Kuyunjik Collection of the British Museum. Revised and enlarged edition.
London: The Trustees of the British Museum.
Leichty, Erle. 1964. A Bibliography of The Cuneiform Tablets of the Kuyunjik Collection
in the British Museum. London: The Trustees of the British Museum.
Borger, Rykle. 1967. Anhang: Nachträge zu Leichty Bibliography. Pp. 651–659 in vol. 1
of Handbuch der Keilschriftliteratur. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Borger, Rykle. 1975. Anhang: zur Kuyunjik-Sammlung. Pp. 331–395 in vol. 2 of
Handbuch der Keilschriftliteratur. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Borger, Rykle. 1974–1977. Zur Kuyunjik-Sammlung. Nachträge zu HKL II, S. 331–395.
Archiv für Orientforschung 25: 411–413.
Borger, Rykle. 1981–1982. Die Kuyunjik-Sammlung von Ende 1973 bis Anfang 1982:
Nachträge zu Leichty’s Bibliography und zu HKL II 331–395. Archiv für
Orientforschung 28: 365–394.
Borger, Rykle. 1984. Die Kuyunjik-Sammlung 1982–1983: Nachträge zu Leichty’s
Bibliography, HKL II 331–395 und AfO 28, 365–394. Archiv für Orientforschung
31: 331–336.
Taylor, Jonathan. 2015. Cataloguing the Library, Ashurbanipal Library Project, The
Ashurbanipal Library Project, Department of the Middle East, The British
Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG, 2015,
http://oracc.org/asbp/recordingthelibrary/cataloguingthelibrary/
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Spring 2016
Digital Tools
Ashurbanipal Library Project (ASBP)
http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/asbp/index.html
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/research_projects/all_current_projects/ashurbani
pal_library_phase_1.aspx
The British Museum
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx
Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI)
http://cdli.ucla.edu/collections/bm/bm.html
http://cdli.ucla.edu/search/
On searching BM/CDLI databases:
https://www.academia.edu/20041306/Search_photos_online__formats_for_British_Musem_and_CDLI_databases
Nineveh Tablet Collection
http://www.fincke-cuneiform.com/nineveh/
The Notebooks of F. W. Geers (1885–1955)
http://cdli.ucla.edu/?q=downloads
The Notebooks of W. G. Lambert (1926–2011)
http://oracc.org/contrib/lambert/
Oracc: The Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus
http://oracc.org/
State Archives of Assyria – 19 volumes printed to date, most texts available online at:
http://oracc.org/saao/
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Spring 2016
General Bibliography
Beaulieu, Paul-Alain. 2010. The Afterlife of Assyrian Scholarship in Hellenistic
Babylonia. Pp. 1–18 in Gazing on the Deep: Ancient Near Eastern and Other
Studies in Honor of Tzvi Abusch, ed. J. Stackert et al., Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press.
Black, Jeremy. A., and W. J. Tait. 1995. Archives and Libraries in the Ancient Near East.
In Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, edited by J. M. Sasson, 4, pp. 2197–
2209. 4 volumes. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Bretelle-Establet, Florence, editor. 2010. Looking at it from Asia: The Processes that
Shaped the Sources of History of Science. Dordrecht; New York: Springer.
Charpin, Dominique. 2010. Reading and Writing in Babylon. Trans. J. M. Todd.
Cambridge, Mass.
Clancier, Philippe. 2009. Les Bibliothèques en Babylonie dans la deuxième moitié du Ier
millénaire av. J.-C. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 363. Münster: UgaritVerlag.
Delnero, Paul. 2010. Sumerian Literary Catalogues and the Scribal Curriculum.
Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 100: 32–55.
Fales, Frederick Mario. 2000. The Use and Function of Aramaic Tablets. In Essays on
Syria in the Iron Age, edited by G. Bunnens, pp. 89–124. Leuven: Peeters.
—. 2007. Multilingualism on Multiple Media in the Neo-Assyrian Period: a Review of
the Evidence. State Archives of Assyria Bulletin 16: 95–122.
Fales, Frederick Mario, and Postgate, J. Nicholas. 1992. Imperial Administrative
Records, Part I: Palace and Temple Administration. State Archives of Assyria 7.
Helsinki: Helsinki University Press.
Fincke, Jeanette C. 2001. Der Assur-Katalog der Serie enūma anu enlil (EAE). Orientalia
70: 19–39.
—. 2003/2004. The Babylonian Texts of Nineveh. Archiv für Orientforschung 50: 111–
149.
—. 2004. The British Museum’s Ashurbanipal Library Project. Iraq 66: 55–60.
—. 2014a. Babylonische Gelehrte am neuassyrischen Hof: zwischen Anpassung und
Individualität. Pp. 269–292 in Krieg und Frieden im Alten Vorderasien. 52e
Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (Münster). Alter Orient und Altes
Testament 401. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.
—. 2014b. The Seventh Tablet of the rikis gerri Series of enūma anu enlil. Journal of
Cuneiform Studies 66: 129–148.
Frahm, Eckart M. 2011. Babylonian and Assyrian Text Commentaries: Origins of
Interpretation. Guides to the Mesopotamian Textual Record 5. Münster: UgaritVerlag.
Frame, Grant, and Andrew R. George. 2005. The Royal Libraries of Nineveh: New
Evidence for King Ashurbanipal’s Tablet Collecting. Iraq 67: 265–284.
Gabbay, Uri. 2014. Pacifying the Hearts of the Gods: Sumerian Emesal Prayers of the
First Millennium BC. Heidelberger Emesal-Studien 1. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz
Verlag.
Garrison, Mark B. 2012. Antiquarianism, Copying, Collecting. Pp. 27–47 in A
Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, edited by D. T. Potts.
London: Wiley-Blackwell.
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Spring 2016
Geller, Markham J. 2000. Incipits and Rubrics. Pp. 225–258 in Wisdom, Gods and
Literature: Studies in Assyriology in Honour of W. G. Lambert, edited by Irving
L. Finkel and Markham J. Geller. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns.
Goldstein, Ronnie. 2010. Late Babylonian Letters on Collecting Tablets and their
Hellenistic Background. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 69: 199–207.
van den Hout, Theo P. J. 2005. On the Nature of the Tablet Collections of Ḫattuša. Studi
miceni ed egeo-anatolici 47: 277–289.
Hunger, Herrmann. 1968. Assyrische und Babylonische Kolophone. Alter Orient und
Altes Testament 2. Kevelaer: Butzon & Bercker; Neukirchen-Vluyn:
Neukirchener Verlag.
Kertai, David. 2015. The Architecture of Late Assyrian Royal Palaces. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Krecher, Joachim. 1979. Kataloge, literarische. Reallexikon der Assyriologie 5: 478–485.
Lanfranchi, Giovanni. 1998. The Library at Nineveh. Pp. 147–156 in Capital Cities:
Urban Planning and Spiritual Dimensions, edited by Joan Goodnick Westenholz.
Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem Publications 2. Jerusalem: Bible Lands Museum.
Larsen, Mogens Trolle. 1996. The Conquest of Assyria: Excavations in an Antique Land,
1840–1860. New York: Routledge.
Layard, Austen Henry. 1849–1853. The Monuments of Nineveh, from Drawings Made on
the Spot. 2 vols. London: J. Murray.
Layard, Austin Henry. 1853. Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon. 2 vols.
London: Johan Murray, Albemarle Street.
Leichty, Erle. 1964. The Colophon. Pp. 147–154 in Studies Presented to A. Leo
Oppenheim, June 7, 1964, edited by Robert D. Biggs and John A. Brinkman.
Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
Lieberman, Stephen J. 1990. Canonical and Official Cuneiform Texts: Towards an
Understanding of Ashurbanipal’s Personal Tablet Collection. Pp. 305–336 in
Lingering Over Words: Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Literature in Honor of
William L. Moran, edited by ??. Atlanta: ??.
Livingstone, Alasdair. 2007. Ashurbanipal: Literate or not? Zeitschrift für Assyriologie
97: 98–118.
Lomas, Kathryn, Ruth Whitehouse, and John Wilkins, editors. 2007. Literacy and the
State in the Ancient Mediterranean. Accordia Specialist Studies on the
Mediterranean 7. London: Accordia Research Institute, University of London.
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/213297220
Maul, Stefan M. 1994. Zukunftsbewältigung: Eine Untersuchung altorientalischen
Denkens anhand der babylonisch-assyrischen Löserituale (Namburbi). Baghdader
Forschungen 18. Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
Maul, Stefan M. 2010. Die Tontafelbibliothek aus dem sogenannten “Haus des
Beschwörungspriesters”. Pp. 189–228 in Assur-Forschungen, edited by Stefan M.
Maul and Nils P. Heeßel. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
Michalowski, Piotr. 2003. The Libraries of Babel: Text, Authority, and Tradition in
Ancient Mesopotamia. Pp. 105–129 in Cultural Repertoires: Structure, Functions
and Dynamics, edited by G. J. Dorleijn and H. L. J. Vanstiphout. Groningen
Studies in Cultural Change Vol. 3. Leuven: Peeters.
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Novotny, Jamie. 2014. Selected Royal Inscriptions of Assurbanipal: L3, L4, Prism I,
Prism T, and Related Texts. State Archives of Assyria Cuneiform Texts 10.
Helsinki: The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project.
Parpola, Simo. 1983. Assyrian Library Records. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 42: 1–
29.
—. 1995. The Imperial Archives of Nineveh. Pp. 15–25 in Nineveh 612 BC: The Glory
and Gall of the Assyrian Empire, edited by R. Mattila. Helsinki.
Payton, R. 1991. The Ulu Burun Writing‐Board Set. Anatolian Studies 41: 99–106.
Pedersén, Olof. 1998. Archives and Libraries in the Ancient Near East, 1500–300 BCE.
Bethesda: CDL Press.
Pongratz-Leisten, Beate. 1999. Herrschaftswissen in Mesopotamien: Formen der
Kommunikation zwischen Gott und König in 2. und 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr. State
Archives of Assyria Studies 10. Helsinki: The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project.
—. 2015. Religion and Ideology in Assyria. Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records 6.
Berlin: De Gruyter.
Potts, D. T. 2004. Before Alexandria: Libraries in the Ancient Near East. Pp. 19–33 in
The Library of Alexandria: Centre of Learning in the Ancient World, edited by
Roy MacLeod. London: I. B. Tauris.
Radner, Karen. 2015. Ancient Assyria: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
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Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Reade, Julian E. 2000. Ninive (Nineveh). Reallexikon der Assyriologie 9: 388–433.
—. 2004. The Assyrians as Collectors: From Accumulation to Synthesis. Pp. 255–268 in
From the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea: Studies on the History of Assyria and
Babylonia in Honour of A. K. Grayson, edited by Grant Frame. PIHANS 101.
Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten.
Robson, Eleanor. 2013. Reading the Libraries of Assyria and Babylonia. Pp. 38–56 in
Ancient Libraries, edited by Jason König, Katerina Oikonomopoulos, and Greg
Woolf. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511998386.004
Russell, John Malcolm. 1999. The Writing on the Wall: Studies in the Architectural
Context of Late Assyrian Palace Inscriptions. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns.
Rutz, Matthew T. 2013. Bodies of Knowledge in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Diviners of
Late Bronze Age Emar and Their Tablet Collection. Ancient Magic and
Divination 9. Leiden: Brill.
Schousboe, Karen, and Mogens Trolle Larsen, editors. 1989. Literacy and Society.
Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag.
Talon, Philippe. 2003. The Use of Glosses in Neo-Assyrian Letters and Astrological
Reports. Pp. 648–665 in Semitic and Assyriological Studies presented to Pelio
Fronzaroli by Pupils and Colleagues, edited by P. Marrassini et al. Wiesbaden:
Harrassowitz.
Taylor, Jon, and Caroline Cartwright. 2011. The Making and Re-making of Clay Tablets.
Scienze dell’antichità 17: 297–324.
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Veenhof, Klaas R., editor. 1986. Cuneiform Archives and Libraries: Papers Read at the
30e Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale. Istanbul: Nederlands HistorischArchaeologisch Instituut and Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabje Oosten.
Veldhuis, Niek. 2014. History of the Cuneiform Lexical Tradition. Guides to the
Mesopotamian Textual Record 6. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.
Villard, P. 1997. L’éducation d’Assurbanipal. Ktema 22: 135–149.
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