Cover
Title Page
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Aims and Scope of this Book
2. Assyrian Civilization and its Study: Some Fundamentals
3. Trends in Research on Ancient Assyria and their Ideological Background
4. The Assyrian Cultural Heritage Crisis
5. References
PART I: Geography and History
1. CHAPTER 1: Physical and Cultural Landscapes of Assyria
  1. Introduction
  2. Physical Environment of Assyria
  3. Cultural Landscapes: Past Research and Methods
  4. Emergent Landscapes of the Early Bronze Age
  5. Imperial Landscapes of the Neo‐Assyrian Period
  6. Conclusions and Future Prospects
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. References
  9. Further Reading
2. CHAPTER 2: “Assyria” in the Third Millennium BCE
  1. Introduction
  2. Regionalization (3200–2700 BCE)
  3. The Second Urban Revolution (2700–2400 BCE)
  4. The Ebla World‐System (2400–2300 BCE)
  5. Merchants and Empires (2300–2000 BCE)
  6. Conclusion
  7. References
  8. Further Reading
3. CHAPTER 3: The Old Assyrian Period (20th–18th Century BCE)
  1. Sources, Rulers, and Chronology
  2. Old Assyrian History
  3. The Political Institutions of Ashur
  4. The End of the Old Assyrian Period
  5. Abbreviations
  6. References
  7. Further Reading
4. CHAPTER 4: Economy, Society, and Daily Life in the Old Assyrian Period
  1. Introduction
  2. Ashur and Kaniš
  3. Slaves
  4. The Assyrian Family
  5. Economy and Daily Life
  6. References
  7. Further Reading
5. CHAPTER 5: The Transition Period (17th to 15th Century BCE)
  1. Two King Lists and the Period after Šamši‐Adad I
  2. Signs of Prosperity
  3. Mittanian Dominion
  4. References
  5. Further Reading
6. CHAPTER 6: The Middle Assyrian Period (14th to 11th Century BCE)
  1. Assyria Joins the Scene
  2. The First Half of the 13th Century BCE
  3. Territorial Expansion and Consolidation: A First Attempt
  4. The Decline of Power in the Period after Tukulti‐Ninurta I
  5. Territorial Expansion and Consolidation: A Second Attempt
  6. Concluding Remarks
  7. Abbreviations
  8. References
  9. Further Reading
7. CHAPTER 7: Economy, Society, and Daily Life in the Middle Assyrian Period
  1. The Middle Assyrian State
  2. The King
  3. The Royal Palace
  4. The Administrative Structure of the Middle Assyrian Kingdom
  5. The Military
  6. Recruitment and Labor Administration
  7. Taxation
  8. Middle Assyrian Society: Social Strata
  9. The Middle Assyrian Family
  10. Ethnic Groups
  11. Abbreviations
  12. References
  13. Further Reading
8. CHAPTER 8: The Neo‐Assyrian Period (ca. 1000–609 BCE)
  1. Introduction
  2. Chronology and Sources
  3. The Crisis Years (ca. 1050–935)
  4. The Reconquista Period (934–824)
  5. Internal Conflicts and Fragmentation of Power: The Age of the “Magnates” (823–745)
  6. Genesis of an Empire: Assyria from Tiglath‐pileser III to Sargon II (744–705)
  7. Imperial Heydays: From Sennacherib to Assurbanipal (704–631)
  8. Assyria’s Downfall (631–609)
  9. The “Afterlife” and Legacy of the Assyrian Empire
  10. Abbreviation
  11. References
  12. Further Reading
9. CHAPTER 9: Economy, Society, and Daily Life in the Neo‐Assyrian Period
  1. The Crucible of Mass Deportation
  2. The Heartland of Assyria
  3. The Provinces
  4. The Nineveh Region
  5. Farmers and Pastoralists
  6. Four Vignettes of Neo‐Assyrian Life
  7. Abbreviations
  8. References
  9. Further Reading
10. CHAPTER 10: Post‐Imperial Assyria
  1. Introduction
  2. The Early Post‐imperial Period
  3. Restructuring and Revitalization: The Seleucid and Arsacid Periods
  4. References
  5. Further Reading
PART II: The Fringes of Empire
1. CHAPTER 11: Assyria and the North
  1. The Eastern Taurus Mountains
  2. Eastern Anatolia and Urartu
  3. The Western Taurus and Central Anatolia
  4. References
  5. Further Reading
2. CHAPTER 12: Assyria and the East
  1. The Assyrian Expansion in the East
  2. Western Iran beyond Assyria’s Provinces
  3. Elam and Anšan
  4. References
  5. Further Reading
3. CHAPTER 13: Assyria and the West
  1. Introduction
  2. The Levant until the Time of Tiglath‐pileser III: Exploration and Exploitation
  3. The Levant at the Time of Tiglath‐pileser III: The Great Annexation
  4. The Levant after Tiglath‐pileser III: The Taming of the Insurgents
  5. References
  6. Further Reading
4. CHAPTER 14: Assyria and the Far West
  1. Abbreviations
  2. References
  3. Further Reading
5. CHAPTER 15: Assyria and the South
  1. Introduction
  2. The Third and Second Millennium BCE
  3. The First Millennium BCE
  4. Abbreviations
  5. References
  6. Further Reading
6. CHAPTER 16: Assyria and the Far South
  1. Introduction
  2. From the Beginnings to the Reign of Tiglath‐pileser III
  3. Sargon II and Sennacherib
  4. From Esarhaddon to the Downfall of the Assyrian Empire
  5. Conclusion
  6. Abbreviations
  7. References
  8. Further Reading
PART III: Elements of Assyrian Civilization
1. CHAPTER 17: Languages and Writing Systems in Assyria
  1. Languages
  2. Writing Systems
  3. Main Features of Assyrian Grammar
  4. Abbreviations
  5. References
  6. Further Reading
2. CHAPTER 18: Assyrian Religion
  1. The City of Ashur and its Temples in the Third Millennium BCE
  2. The God Assur
  3. The Theology of Assur and His Elevation to Universal Dominion
  4. Assur, His Earthly Representative, and the Community of Gods
  5. Politics as Religion and Religion as Politics
  6. Swan Song
  7. References
  8. Further Reading
3. CHAPTER 19: Assyrian Literature
  1. Old Assyrian Period
  2. Middle Assyrian Period
  3. Neo‐Assyrian Period
  4. References
  5. Further Reading
4. CHAPTER 20: Assyrian Scholarship and Scribal Culture in Ashur
  1. Assyrian Interest in Babylonian Scholarship
  2. Middle Assyrian Scholarship
  3. The Alleged Royal Library of Tiglath‐pileser I
  4. Middle Assyrian Scholarly Families
  5. The Scholars of Ashur between the Ninth and the Seventh Century bce
  6. References
  7. Further Reading
5. CHAPTER 21: Assyrian Scholarship and Scribal Culture in Kalu and Nineveh
  1. Introduction
  2. Libraries of Neo‐Assyrian Scholars and Temples
  3. The Growing Role of Divination and Scholarship for the Neo‐Assyrian Kings
  4. How the Neo‐Assyrian Kings Obtained Access to Babylonian Scholarship
  5. Assembling Tablets for Assurbanipal’s Library in Nineveh
  6. The Archaeology of the Royal Library in Nineveh
  7. The Tablets of the Library Collection in Nineveh Written by Babylonian Scholars
  8. The Tablets of the Library Collection in Nineveh Written by Assyrian Scholars
  9. Abbreviations
  10. References
  11. Further Reading
6. CHAPTER 22: Assyrian Legal Traditions
  1. The Many Strands of Assyrian Legal Traditions
  2. Old Assyrian Legal Practices
  3. Middle Assyrian Legal Practices
  4. Neo‐Assyrian Legal Practices
  5. References
  6. Further Reading
7. CHAPTER 23: Assyrian Cities and Architecture
  1. Introduction
  2. Ashur in the Third Millennium BCE
  3. The Old‐Assyrian Period
  4. The Transition Period (17th to 15th centuries BCE)
  5. The Middle Assyrian Period
  6. The Neo‐Assyrian Period
  7. References
  8. Further Reading
8. CHAPTER 24: Assyrian Art
  1. Introduction
  2. Ashur in the Third Millennium BCE
  3. The Old Assyrian Period
  4. The Middle Assyrian Period
  5. The Neo‐Assyrian Period: Sculpture and Painting
  6. The Neo‐Assyrian Period: Portable Arts
  7. References
  8. Further Reading
9. CHAPTER 25: Assyrian Technology
  1. Introduction
  2. City Planning and Monumental Buildings
  3. Hydraulic Engineering
  4. Bridges
  5. Transportation of Materials and Heavy Loads
  6. Abbreviations
  7. References
  8. Further Reading
10. CHAPTER 26: Assyrian Warfare
  1. References
  2. Further Reading
11. CHAPTER 27: Thoughts on the Assyrian Empire and Assyrian Kingship
  1. Translatio imperii
  2. World Empires: Size vs. “Mission”
  3. Enlarging Assyria
  4. Prerequisites of the Imperial Project
  5. Imperial Practice and Theory
  6. Destruction and Reconstruction
  7. The Advantages of Direct Rule
  8. References
  9. Further Reading
PART IV: The Afterlife and Rediscovery of Assyria
1. CHAPTER 28: Assyria in Late Babylonian Sources
  1. Assyria in the Royal Inscriptions of the Babylonian Empire
  2. Assyria in Everyday Documents
  3. Assyria in the View of the Persians
  4. Hellenistic Babylonia Remembers Assyria
  5. References
  6. Further Reading
2. CHAPTER 29: Assyria in the Hebrew Bible
  1. Introduction
  2. Terminology
  3. History
  4. Stories
  5. Political Ideology and Law
  6. More Immediate Assyrian Influences on Religion and Culture in Israel and Judah?
  7. Conclusions
  8. Abbreviations
  9. References
  10. Further Reading
3. CHAPTER 30: Assyria in Classical Sources
  1. Assyria’s Changing Image in Greek and Roman Texts
  2. Assyrian Rulers in Classical Sources
  3. References
  4. Further Reading
4. CHAPTER 31: The Archaeological Exploration of Assyria^{Botta, Layard, and the Rediscovery of Assyria in the Nineteenth Century
  Twentieth Century Excavations of Assyrian Sites
  References
  Further Reading}
5. CHAPTER 32: Assyrian Christians
  1. Introduction
  2. Assyria and Assyrian in Pre‐Modern Syriac Sources
  3. Assyrian Christians in Nineteenth‐Century Literature from the West
  4. Assyrian Identity and the Church of the East
  5. Assyrian Identity and the Greater Syriac Heritage
  6. Conclusion
  7. Appendix: The Churches of the Syriac Heritage
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. Abbreviation
  10. References
  11. Further Reading
List of Assyrian Kings
Index
End User License Agreement

List of Tables

Chapter 03
1. Table 3.1 The Old Assyrian part of the Assyrian King List
Chapter 05
1. Table 5.1 Names of rulers in AKL, KAV 14, and the Puzur‐Sîn inscription
Chapter 17
1. Table 17.1 Independent personal pronouns
2. Table 17.2 Independent possessive pronouns
3. Table 17.3 Pronominal suffixes
4. Table 17.4 Noun declension
5. Table 17.5 Adjectival declension
6. Table 17.6 Verbal prefixes and suffixes (long final vowels are used in OA/MA; in NA, however, these are shortened)
7. Table 17.7 Verbal classes
8. Table 17.8 Finite forms in the basic or G‐stem
9. Table 17.9 Commands and requests
10. Table 17.10 Stative
Chapter 21
1. Table 21.1 Text genres found in the Neo‐Assyrian Libraries in Kalu, uzirina, and Nineveh (here only the ones written in Babylonian ductus)
2. Table 21.2 Divinatory texts from Nineveh written in Babylonian ductus
3. Table 21.3 Religious texts from Nineveh written in Babylonian ductus

List of Illustrations

Chapter 01
1. Figure 1.1 Topography, hydrology, and major sites of Assyria (northern Iraq, northeastern Syria, and southeastern Turkey).
2. Figure 1.2 EBA sites and linear trackways in the region of Tell Brak and Tell Beydar (based on Ur 2010b Map 3).
3. Figure 1.3 The evolution from nucleated to dispersed settlement in the Hamoukar and North Jazira Project areas (based on data from Wilkinson and Tucker 1995, Ur 2010b). A. Urban settlement and trackways in the later EBA, ca. 2600–2000 BCE; B. Rural settlement in the Iron Age (early 1st millennium BCE).
4. Figure 1.4 Sites, canals, and other features in the Assyrian imperial core.
5. Figure 1.5 Austen Henry Layard exploring Sennacherib’s monumental relief at Khinis, as depicted by Frederick Cooper.
Chapter 02
1. Figure 2.1 Map of Northern Mesopotamia, 3000–2000 BCE, with archaeological sites mentioned in the text.
2. Figure 2.2 Leilan Lower Town South, 1989, Worker’s Neighborhood (ca. 2300–2200 BCE).
Chapter 03
1. Figure 3.1 Schematic illustration of the movement of goods in the Old Assyrian overland trade
2. Figure 3.2 Assur and the political world of Northern Mesopotamia during the Šamši‐Adad period
3. Figure 3.3a Seal of Sargon, son of Ikunum, ensí of Assur. Photo of Kt c/k 1389 (T. Özgüç 2003: 19 no. 5). Photo kindly supplied by the excavator, T. Özgüç.
4. Figure 3.3b Seal of Assur, of the nisḫatu‐tax, of the City Hall
Chapter 04
1. Figure 4.1 Anatolia during the Old Assyrian period.
2. Figure 4.2 The Old Assyrian letter Kt 88/k 625. Ankara, Anadolu Medeniyetleri Müzesi.
3. Figure 4.3 An Old Assyrian letter comprising a main tablet and a small second one preserved together in their sealed envelope. Kt 93/k 211, Ankara, Anadolu Medeniyetleri Müzesi.
4. Figure 4.4 Private houses in the lower town level II, reconstruction.
Chapter 06
1. Figure 6.1 The political landscape of the Middle Assyrian period.
Chapter 07
1. Figure 7.1 Conscription and labor organization in Middle Assyrian times.
Chapter 08
1. Figure 8.1 Metal brazier with turrets and wheels. The king, while keeping warm, would gaze at what looked like a conquered city on fire. Kalḫu, Fort Shalmaneser, Neo‐Assyrian period.
2. Figure 8.2 Map illustrating the various stages of the expansion of the Neo‐Assyrian state.
3. Figure 8.3 Letter to the Assyrian king Esarhaddon reporting a conspiracy in the city of Ashur (YBC 11382).
Chapter 09
1. Figure 9.1 A family of deportees leaving a captured Babylonian city on an ox‐cart: a man (boy?) and two women, one carrying a bag with her possessions. Detail from the wall decoration of Tiglath‐pileser III’s Central Palace in Kalḫu, later reused in Esarhaddon's Southwest Palace. British Museum, ANE 118882.
2. Figure 9.2 The Neo‐Assyrian provinces, with the position of Ashur, Nineveh, Arba’il, Kalḫu, and Dur‐Šarrukin marked by asterisks. The dashed lines indicate the provincial boundaries, but note that these are often hypothetical. For details see Radner 2006.
Chapter 10
1. Figure 10.1 Sites of the Late Assyrian to Arsacid periods mentioned in the text. Map by S. R. Hauser based on a topographical map by M. Grosch, SFB 586.
2. Figure 10.2 The sacred precincts of Ashur and Hatra in the first centuries AD.
Chapter 17
1. Figure 17.1 Three Assyrian letters (obverse). Left: The Old Assyrian letter BM 115199; Middle: Cast of the Middle Assyrian letter TCH 92.G.152; Right: The Neo‐Assyrian letter ND 2703;
2. Figure 17.2 Assyrian and Aramaic scribes as depicted on a Neo‐Assyrian relief.
3. Figure 17.3 Assyrian‐Aramaic triangular corn‐loan docket (after Fales 1986, fig. 3).
Chapter 18
1. Figure 18.1 View from the roof of the temple of Assur westwards towards the ziggurat and the northern part of the city of Ashur; reconstruction.
2. Figure 18.2 King Sennacherib, depicted twice, worshipping the god Assur and his wife Mullissu. Assur is standing on a mušuššu‐dragon, a feature adopted from the cult of Marduk of Babylon. Khinnis, “Großes Relief.”
Chapter 21
1. Figure 21.1 A colophon with the name of Assurbanipal added in ink on a cuneiform tablet from Nineveh. K. 11055 + D.T. 273.
2. Figure 21.2 Libraries and archives located on Kuyunjik (drawn by J.C. Fincke, after Reade 2000: 407–18, 421–7, and Smith 1875: 94–102, 138–43).
Chapter 23
1. Figure 23.1 Ashur, city plan; adapted by the author from Andrae 1938: Beilage.
2. Figure 23.2 Nineveh, plan of the mound of Kuyunjik.
3. Figure 23.3 Kalḫu (modern Nimrud), plan of the citadel.
4. Figure 23.4 Dur‐Šarrukin (modern Khorsabad), city plan; adapted by the author from Loud 1938: pl. 69.
5. Figure 23.5 Dur‐Šarrukin (modern Khorsabad), plan of the palace of Sargon II.
6. Figure 23.6 Dur‐Šarrukin (modern Khorsabad), plan of the citadel.
7. Figure 23.7 Nineveh, city plan, time of Sennacherib.
Chapter 24
1. Figure 24.1 Ashur, statue of a ruler, digital reconstruction, probably Akkadian Period, diorite, total H. ca. 1.70 m; body in Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum, VA Ass 2147, head in Baghdad, Iraq Museum, copyright Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Vorderasiatisches Museum; Foto: Fotoarchiv; Bildmontage: Olaf M. Teßmer.
2. Figure 24.2 Ashur, cylinder seal and modern impression showing a presentation scene and male worshipper facing a bull altar, from Grave 20, Old Assyrian Period, lapis lazuli, H: 2.1 cm; Berlin, VA 5364.
3. Figure 24.3 Ashur, cylinder seal and modern impression showing a nursing ewe facing a tree, from Tomb 45, Middle Assyrian Period, lapis lazuli, H: 2.1 cm; Berlin, VA Ass 1129.
4. Figure 24.4 Ashur, cult pedestal from the Ištar Temple, inscribed by Tukulti‐Ninurta I, alabaster, H: 57.7 cm, Berlin, VA 8146.
5. Figure 24.5 Nineveh, White Obelisk, probably of Aššurnaṣirpal I or II, limestone, H: 285 cm, London, British Museum 118807.
6. Figure 24.6 Kalḫu (modern Nimrud), wall reliefs showing apotropaic deities and palm trees, Northwest Palace of Aššurnaṣirpal II, Room S, Slabs 20–22, calcareous gypsum, W: 646 cm.
7. Figure 24.7 Kalḫu (modern Nimrud), Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, black limestone, H: 198 cm, London, British Museum 118885.
8. Figure 24.8 Kalḫu (modern Nimrud), stele of Šamši‐Adad V, limestone, H: 195 cm, London, British Museum 118892.
9. Figure 24.9 Nineveh, wall relief showing the king and queen banqueting in a garden, North Palace of Assurbanipal, found fallen into Room S from an upper story, calcareous gypsum, W: 140 cm, London, British Museum 124920.
10. Figure 24.10 Kalḫu (modern Nimrud), Northwest Palace, Tomb II, view of entrance in 1989.
Chapter 25
1. Figure 25.1 City wall, probably Nineveh’s southwestern corner. Nineveh, Southwest Palace, Room XXII, Plate 8.
2. Figure 25.2 Irrigated park with aqueduct. Nineveh, North Palace, Room H (BM 124939).
3. Figure 25.3 Transport of bull‐colossus. Nineveh, Southwest Palace, Court VI, Plates 63–4 (BM 124820).
Chapter 26
1. Figure 26.1 Panel of bas‐relief sculpture from the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh showing the Assyrian camp at the siege of Lachish, with two priests making offerings to two military standards.
2. Figure 26.2 Panel of bas‐relief sculpture from the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib showing the siege of Lachish and deportees leaving.
3. Figure 26.3 Panel of bas‐relief sculpture from the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib showing Sennacherib on his throne at the siege of Lachish, Nubian soldiers submitting, and war‐chariot with eight‐spoked wheel.
Chapter 31
1. Figure 31.1 Transportation of a monumental bull colossus from the ruins of Kalḫu (in the background) to the bank of the Tigris during the excavations undertaken by Layard.
2. Figure 31.2 Arrival of an Assyrian bull colossus at the British Museum in London. Illustration in Illustrated London News 28 February 1852: 184.
Chapter 32
1. Figure 32.1 Bronze statue of the Assyrian king Assurbanipal, designed by Fred Parhad, an artist of Assyrian descent born in Iraq. The statue, dedicated “by the Assyrian people” to the city of San Francisco, stands near the city’s “Main Library.”

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Notes on Contributors

Ariel M. Bagg is private lecturer at the Assyriological Institute of the Ruprecht‐Karls‐Universität Heidelberg (Germany) and member of the Centre François Viète d’épistémologie et d’histoire des sciences et des techniques (Brest/Nantes, France). He is an Assyriologist and Civil Engineer specializing in ancient Near Eastern history of technology and historical geography of the first millennium. His publications include Assyrische Wasserbauten (2000), Die Orts‐ und Gewässernamen der neuassyrischen Zeit. Teil 1: Die Levante (2007), and Die Assyrer und das Westland (2011).

Paul‐Alain Beaulieu received his PhD in Assyriology from Yale University in 1985 and held various research and teaching positions at Yale, Harvard, and the University of Notre Dame before joining the faculty of the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations in the University of Toronto in 2006. He has published extensively on the history and culture of Mesopotamia in the first millennium BCE, notably The Reign of Nabonidus, King of Babylon (556–539 BC) (1989) and The Pantheon of Uruk During the Neo‐Babylonian Period (2003).

Aaron Michael Butts (PhD University of Chicago) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures at the Catholic University of America. His research focuses on the history, languages, and literature of Christianity in the Near East, including Arabic, Ethiopic, and especially Syriac Christianity. He is author of Language Change in the Wake of Empire: Syriac in its Greco‐Roman Context (2016) and a co‐editor of the Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage (2011).

Greta Van Buylaere (PhD Udine 2009) studied Assyriology in Leuven, Heidelberg, Helsinki, and Udine. At present, she is a researcher in the project “Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti‐Witchcraft Rituals” directed by Daniel Schwemer at the University of Würzburg. She is interested in Assyrian and Babylonian literacy, and the political and intellectual history of first millennium BCE Mesopotamia in general.

Stephanie Dalley is an Assyriologist who taught Akkadian for thirty years at Oxford University, and has published Assyrian cuneiform tablets from Nimrud, Nineveh, Tell al‐Rimah, Til Barsip, as well as Babylonian texts from Sippar and of the First Sealand Dynasty; also translations of the main myths and epics, Myths from Mesopotamia (1989), an analysis of the Assyrian background to the Hebrew Book of Esther, Esther’s Revenge at Susa (2007), and The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon: An Elusive World Wonder Traced (2013).

Frederick Mario Fales, born in Baltimore in 1946, has been Full Professor of ancient Near Eastern History at the University of Udine (Italy) since 1994. His main scholarly interests concern Mesopotamia in the Neo‐Assyrian period (10th–7th centuries BCE) and range from historical studies to editions of Assyrian and Aramaic texts. He has undertaken, and sometimes directed, archaeological activities in Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iraqi Kurdistan. He founded an international journal on Neo‐Assyrian studies, the State Archives of Assyria Bulletin, and the monographic series History of the Ancient Near East (SARGON: Padua). His publications include twelve monographs, seven edited volumes, and some 170 articles. For bibliography up to 2011 see https://uniud.academia.edu/MarioFales.

Jeanette C. Fincke (PhD Würzburg: 1999; habilitation Heidelberg: 2006) has been conducting research on the British Museum’s collection of Nineveh texts for its Ashurbanipal Library Project in the past years, concentrating on divinatory texts and tablets written in the Babylonian ductus. Her work resulted in producing new databases (see www.fincke‐cuneiform.com/nineveh/index.htm) and several articles. Currently, she is chercheur for the ERC project Floriental at the Centre nationale de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in Paris, where she focuses on the pharmaceutical series URU.AN.NA from the first millennium BCE.

Eckart Frahm (PhD Göttingen 1996, habilitation Heidelberg 2007) is Professor of Assyriology at Yale University. His main research interests are Assyrian and Babylonian history and Mesopotamian scholarly texts of the first millennium BCE. Frahm is the author of numerous articles and five books: Einleitung in die Sanherib‐Inschriften (1997), Keilschrifttexte aus Assur literarischen Inhalts, vol. 3 (2009), Neo‐Babylonian Letters and Contracts from the Eanna Archive (2011, co‐authored with Michael Jursa), Babylonian and Assyrian Text Commentaries: Origins of Interpretation (2011), and Geschichte des alten Mesopotamien (2013). In addition, he serves as director of the Cuneiform Commentaries Project (http://ccp.yale.edu).

Andreas Fuchs is Professor of Assyriology at the University of Tübingen and a specialist in Neo‐Assyrian history. He is the author of Die Inschriften Sargons II. aus Khorsabad (1993), Die Annalen des Jahres 711 v. Chr. nach Prismenfragmenten aus Ninive und Assur (1998), and, together with Simo Parpola, The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part III (2001).

Stefan R. Hauser is Professor for “Archaeology of ancient Mediterranean cultures and their relations to the ancient Near East and Egypt” at the University of Konstanz (Germany). He is editor of Die Sichtbarkeit von Nomaden und saisonaler Besiedlung in der Archäologie (2006) and Ernst Herzfeld and the Development of Near Eastern Studies, 1900–1950 (2005; with A.C. Gunter), and author of Status, Tod und Ritual. Stadt‐ und Sozialstruktur Assurs in neuassyrischer Zeit (2012). He currently directs projects on burial practices and the art of the portrait in Palmyra and on religion and identity in Hellenistic Mesopotamia. A Handbook of the Arsacid Empire is in preparation.

Nils P. Heeßel is Professor of Assyriology at the Julius‐Maximilians University Würzburg. He is a specialist for the Akkadian scholarly tradition, in particular for scientific and divinatory texts. His publications include Babylonisch‐assyrische Diagnostik (2000), Pazuzu (2002), and Divinatorische Texte I and II (2007, 2012).

Stefan Jakob studied Assyriology, Near Eastern Archaeology, and Musicology at the University of Saarbrücken and received his PhD degree in 2000 for research on Middle Assyrian administration and social structure. Between 1992 and 2003 he served as a staff member of several excavation projects (Tell Chuera and Tell Shekh Hassan in Syria and Qantir/Pi‐Ramesse in Egypt). Since 2004 he has been a research assistant in Assyriology at the Institute for Cultures and Languages of the Middle East, University of Heidelberg. His main interests are Middle Assyrian history and chronology. In recent years he also worked on Assyrian prayers and ritual texts.

Mogens Trolle Larsen, Emeritus Professor of Assyriology at the University of Copenhagen, is a specialist in the history and culture of the Old Assyrian period. His most recent book is Ancient Kanesh: A Merchant Colony in Bronze Age Anatolia (2015).

Mario Liverani is Emeritus Professor of History of the Ancient Near East at the University of Rome “La Sapienza.” He is former director of the Institute of Near Eastern Studies, of the Department of Sciences of Antiquity, and of the Inter‐University Center on the Ancient Sahara, in the same “Sapienza” University. He has received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Copenhagen and Madrid, is a honorary member of the American Oriental Society, and member of the Lincei National Academy (Rome), of the Academy of Sciences (Turin), and of the European Academy. He was a member of archaeological missions in Syria (Ebla, Terqa, Mozan), Turkey (Kurban, Arslantepe), Yemen (Baraqish), and Libya (Akakus). He is author of nineteen monographs and ca. 260 articles, and the editor of eight books.

Alasdair Livingstone is Reader in Assyriology at the University of Birmingham and a specialist in cuneiform scholarly and literary texts, especially from Assyria. His publications include Mystical and Mythological Explanatory Works of Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars (1986) and Hemerologies of Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars (2013).

Mikko Luukko studied Assyriology, Semitics, and Linguistics at the University of Helsinki and the Freie Universität Berlin. In 2004, he gained his PhD from Helsinki, with a study of “Grammatical Variation in Neo‐Assyrian.” Luukko is currently working on a research project entitled “Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti‐witchcraft Rituals,” directed by Daniel Schwemer at the University of Würzburg. He has published monographs and articles on Neo‐Assyrian letters and Assyrian grammar, including The Correspondence of Tiglath‐pileser III (2013).

Stefan M. Maul is Professor of Assyriology at the University of Heidelberg. His research focuses on Assyrian and Babylonian religion and intellectual life; over the past years, his main project has been the edition of the literary and scholarly texts from Ashur. Maul’s books include “Herzberuhigungsklagen”: Die sumerisch‐akkadischen Eršaḫunga‐Gebete (1988), Zukunftsbewältigung: Eine Untersuchung altorientalischen Denkens anhand der babylonisch‐assyrischen Löserituale (Namburbi) (1994), Die Wahrsagekunst im Alten Orient (2013), and Das Gilgamesch‐Epos neu übersetzt und kommentiert von Stefan M. Maul (2014, 6th edn.). In 1997, Maul received the prestigious Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize for his research.

Cécile Michel is a historian and Assyriologist, Director of Research at the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) in the laboratory Archéologies et Sciences de l’Antiquité at Nanterre (France). She is currently heading the International Association for Assyriology (2014–18). Working on the decipherment and study of cuneiform texts from the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE (private archives of merchants, state administrative archives), she has published books and articles on Mesopotamian trade, Upper Mesopotamian and Anatolian societies, gender studies, daily life and material culture (fauna, food, metals, minerals, and textiles), calendars and chronology, history of science, education, writing, and computing.

Karen Radner is Alexander von Humboldt Professor of Ancient History of the Near and Middle East at LMU Munich and Honorary Professor of Ancient Near Eastern History at University College London. She has published extensively on the Assyrian Empire’s political, administrative, social, legal, and cultural history. Her books include editions of cuneiform archives from Assur (Iraq), Dur‐Katlimmu (Syria), and Dunnu‐ša‐Uzibi (Turkey), an analysis of Mesopotamian inscriptions as “written names” (Die Macht des Namens: altorientalische Strategien zur Selbsterhaltung, 2005), and Ancient Assyria: A Very Short Introduction (2015), as well as several edited volumes. She currently directs the Peshdar Plain Project in the Kurdish Autonomous Region of Iraq and, together with Jamie Novotny, the Munich Open‐access Cuneiform Corpus Initiative.

Lauren Ristvet is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests include Near Eastern archaeology, the political transformations of complex societies, and ritual and performance theory. She recently published Ritual, Performance and Politics in the Ancient Near East (2014).

Robert Rollinger is Professor of Ancient History and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the Leopold‐Franzens University at Innsbruck. His main research areas are the history of the ancient Near East and the Achaemenid Empire, contacts between the Aegean World and the ancient Near East, and ancient historiography. Recent publications include: Imperien in der Weltgeschichte. Epochenübergreifende und globalhistorische Vergleiche (co‐edited; 2014), Mesopotamia in the Ancient World. Impact, Continuities, Parallels (co‐edited; 2015), Alexander und die großen Ströme. Die Flussüberquerungen im Lichte altorientalischer Pioniertechniken (2013).

John M. Russell is Professor of the History of Art at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. He specializes in the art and architecture of the ancient Near East, in particular the Neo‐Assyrian period. His books include Sennacherib's “Palace without Rival” at Nineveh (1991), From Nineveh to New York (1997), The Final Sack of Nineveh (1998), and The Writing On the Wall (1999).

Jason Ur is Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University, and director of its Center for Geographic Analysis. He specializes in early urbanism, landscape archaeology, and remote sensing, particularly the use of declassified US intelligence imagery. He has directed field surveys in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and Iran. He is the author of Urbanism and Cultural Landscapes in Northeastern Syria: The Tell Hamoukar Survey, 1999–2001 (2010). Since 2012, he has directed the Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey, an archaeological survey in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq. He is also preparing a history of Mesopotamian cities.

Klaas R. Veenhof is Emeritus Professor of Assyriology at Leiden University and a specialist in the history and culture of Mesopotamia during the first half of the second millennium BCE, the so‐called Old Assyrian and Old Babylonian periods. His publications include the books Aspects of Old Assyrian Trade and its Terminology (1972), Altassyrische Texte und Tontafeln aus Kültepe (1992), Letters in the Louvre: Altbabylonische Briefe 14 (2005), and part I of Mesopotamia: The Old Assyrian Period (Annäherungen 5, 2008). At the invitation of the director of the Turkish excavations at Kültepe (ancient Kaniš, in Central Anatolia) he has been working on the edition of some of the Old Assyrian archives found there, publishing, inter alia, The Archive of Kuliya, son of Ali‐Abum (Kültepe Tabletleri V, 2010) and The Old Assyrian List of Year Eponyms from Karum Kanish and its Chronological Implications (2012).

Shigeo Yamada is Professor of History at the University of Tsukuba, where he teaches history and languages of the ancient Near East. He is the author of The Construction of the Assyrian Empire: A Historical Study of the Inscriptions of Shalmaneser III (859–824 BC) relating to His Campaign to the West (2000), and the co‐author (with Hayim Tadmor) of The Royal Inscriptions of Tiglath‐pileser III and Shalmaneser V, Kings of Assyria (744–722 BC) (2012). He is currently working on the texts unearthed by the Japanese excavations at Tell Taban, Syria.