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(2008) a Bibliography of Neo-Assyrian Studies State Archives of Assyria Bulletin Volume XVII (2008) A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF NEO-ASSYRIAN STUDIES (1998–2006) Mikko Luukko – Salvatore Gaspa Introductory notes In a way, this bibliography is a continuation of the previous bibliographies compiled by Hämeen-Anttila 1 and Mattila – Radner. 2 The difference between Hämeen-Anttila’s bibliography and the present one, however, is that we have tried to provide both the pro- fessional Assyriologist and the student of Assyriology with a considerable selection of secondary literature too. Therefore, this bibliography does not only list Neo-Assyrian text editions or studies that almost exclusively deal with the various linguistic aspects of Neo-Assyrian. One of the main reasons for this decision is simply the fact that during the last ten-twenty years the Neo-Assyrian data have often been approached in an inter- disciplinary way. Hence, without listing titles belonging to relevant secondary literature, the viewpoint on Neo-Assyrian studies would remain unsatisfactory. Moreover, one could even maintain that during the last ten years, at the latest, the focus of Neo-Assyr- ian studies has somewhat shifted from its traditional philological roots to more interdis- ciplinary studies, at least quantitatively. Doubtless, this shift has affected the applied methods and methodologies in an unprecedented way. Nevertheless, many readers may still be puzzled when seeing titles listed here that refer to biblical, Aramaic, Greek, Median, Neo-Babylonian, Neo-Elamite, Phoenician and Urar\ian topics, but do not mention Neo-Assyrian at all. This results from an attempt to see Neo-Assyrian studies as part of a bigger picture. * We would like to thank G.B. Lanfranchi, S. Ponchia, S. Svärd and G. Van Buylaere for the valuable help they have given us during the preparation of this bibliography. 1. J. Hämeen-Anttila, “Bibliography of Neo-Assyrian (Post-War Period)”, SAAB 1/2 (1987 [app. 1988]), 73–92. The bibliography contained the years 1948–1987, and concentrated on Neo-Assyrian philology. 2. R. Mattila – K. Radner, “A Bibliography of Neo-Assyrian Studies (1988–1997)”, SAAB 11 (1997 [app. 1999]), 115–137. 190 MIKKO LUUKKO – SALVATORE GASPA Assyriology and Neo-Assyrian studies are not only interdisciplinary by nature but have also become more and more international. The deeds of the ancient Assyrians are now genuinely studied by a number of scholars — even if limited in number — from “the four quarters of the world”. Further, such events as the 150th birthday of the decipherment of cuneiform, cele- brated on May 29th, 2007, may have played, consciously or unconsciously, a significant role in intensifying our awareness of the historiographies of Ancient Near Eastern Stud- ies, Assyriology and Neo-Assyrian research. 3 The result of this, together with progress- ing specialization, and aforementioned interdisciplinary studies, is that nowadays the following fields or subgroups of Neo-Assyrian studies may be detected: 4 1. Archaeology (anthropology) 2. Architecture (incl. palaces and private houses) 3. Art history (esp. studies on Assyrian palace reliefs, seals, etc.) 4. Astrology/astronomy 5. Divination (i.e., “magic” and omens, naturally Mesopotamian astrology is also part of this category) 6. Economy (incl. crafts and trade; taxation, tribute, etc.) 7. Gender studies 8. General history 9. Geography (i.e., historical geography) 10. Historiography 11. Ideology (esp. royal ideology) 12. Linguistics (incl. grammatical studies and orthography) 13. Literature (studies on “literary” texts) 14. Medicine/medical studies 15. Neo-Assyrian law (or lack of it) and legal practice 16. Onomastics (e.g., The Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire) 17. Palaeography (= epigraphy) 18. Post-Assyrian times (if clearly linked to the Neo-Assyrian period) 3. “Historiography” was the theme of the 45th RAI held in Cambridge, MA in 1998 (see CRRAI 45/1 s.v. 2001, below). Note that the list does not include, for example, such popular but recommendable histo- riographical books as L. Adkins, Empires of the Plain: Henry Rawlinson and the Lost Languages of Babylon, London 2003. 4. Note also the bibliographies on specific NA issues on the Internet: “Bibliography to the prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian empire” (www.helsinki.fi/science/saa/biblio3.html), and L. Verderame, “Magic and divination in the Neo-Assyrian period: a selected bibliography” (www.orientalisti.net/na-magic.htm). A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF NEO-ASSYRIAN STUDIES (1998–2006) 191 19. Religion/theology (incl., e.g., prophesies, rituals, but cf. divination, above) 20. Studies on ancient Empires and their legacy in later times 21. Studies on Neo-Assyrian administration 22. Studies on Neo-Assyrian army and warfare 23. Studies on Neo-Assyrian letters (epistolary) In practice many of these 23 subcategories may be combined together or even split into further subcategories. Nevertheless, this long list of “subcategories” gives an idea of the diversity of the sources. On the applied methodology While preparing the bibliography, we considered organizing the entries into several dif- ferent subcategories. In fact, a more refined, thematic subdivision of Neo-Assyrian stud- ies may have been justified, and may have worked equally well or even better than the alphabetic, yearly organized list of authors that is used here. 5 In the end, however, we refrained from presenting the list thematically, for example, due to the overlapping of topics within a single item. The purpose of this bibliography is to present amply, but not exhaustively, what has been published by academics in Neo-Assyrian studies since 1998 till the end of 2006. The bibliography has inevitable limitations; our list does not include articles from ency- clopaedias, newspapers, preliminary excavation reports, biographies, memoirs or dic- tionaries of the Akkadian language. Surely, many titles could still be added to the list but these were not available to us. It should be noted, however, that the lemmata from Nab to Qattara have been published in the encyclopaedia of Reallexikon der Assyriolo- gie (RlA) during 1998–2006. In the meantime, also the significant volumes on P (2005), R (1999), T (2006) and | (2006) of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (CAD) have ap- peared. Moreover, J. Black, A. George and J.N. Postgate prepared an abridged English version of W. von Soden’s Akkadisches Handwörterbuch (AHw), further amplified and modified by using CAD, called A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian (CDA) in 1999. 6 In 5. Models of thematic subgroup(s) can be found, for instance, in K. Deller, “Bibliography of Neo-Assyr- ian – 1988 and Updates”, SAAB 2 (1988), 129–135, or e.g. a specific bibliography on prophecies: S. Parpola, Assyrian Prophecies (SAA 9), Helsinki 1997, pp. cix-cxii. Deller’s categories were: 1) Stud- ies on Neo-Assyrian texts; 2) Studies on Assyrian Royal Inscriptions, etc.; 3) Studies on the archae- ology of Assyria, etc.; 4) Assyrian history, culture, society; 5) Reviews; 6) Bibliographies. 6. For addenda, corrigenda, and supporting bibliography of CDA see www.trin.cam.ac.uk/cda_archive/. 192 MIKKO LUUKKO – SALVATORE GASPA this connection, it may be advertised that the first genuine dictionary of Assyrian has recently been published: S. Parpola – R.M. Whiting (eds.), Assyrian-English-Assyrian Dictionary (Helsinki 2007). Nowadays so many reviews appear that the ones listed here form only a representa- tive selection of all of those that could have been included. Emphasis is on the reviews that treat text editions. As a rule of thumb, the reviews in which Neo-Assyrian studies merely form part of a monograph, 7 or are clearly of secondary importance to the main topic, are excluded. We have chosen to use the shorter titles of reviewed books, follow- ed by the year of publication, or only the initials of the series with sequential numbers and the year of publication. 8 Some linguistic articles on Akkadian which may partly apply to Neo-Assyrian are not to be found in this bibliography. It should be emphasized that there has been no con- sistent attempt to track down the publication dates of journals. In general, the year given by the journals themselves is repeated here with some exceptions. We have not used any consistent methodology to determine in what degree literary texts and some other works from Assurbanipal’s library from Nineveh, as well as from other libraries (Calah [Nimrud], Assur, Sultantepe), represent Neo-Assyrian, or should they be labelled under Neo-Assyrian studies, and thus be included in this bibliography. The question is out of scope here, but one should be aware that this is a complicated issue, for example, because of the fact that many Babylonian tablets in Neo-Assyrian ar- chives and libraries were in use and were not lying on shelves merely as booty. Many relevant studies dealing with Neo-Assyrian issues are nowadays available on- line, and in some cases not elsewhere. Several informative and ambitious online projects have recently been launched, and good examples of such projects are, for example, Knowledge and Power in the Neo-Assyrian Empire by K. Radner and E. Robson, 9 The Nineveh Tablet Collection by J. Fincke, 10 The International Database of the Melammu Project, 11 The Ashurbanipal Library Project, 12 The Cuneiform Digital Palaeography Project of the University of Birmingham, 13 as well as The Geography of Knowledge in Assyria and Babylonia: A Diachronic Analysis of Four Scholarly Libraries. 14 7. As is often the case with Festschriften, interdisciplinary studies, etc. 8. The latter is, however, mainly used for SAA (State Archives of Assyria), its derivatives and some other text editions. 9. http://knp.prs.heacademy.ac.uk/. 10. http://fincke.uni-hd.de/nineveh/index.htm. 11. www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/index.html. 12. See http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/research/research_projects/ashurbanipal_library_phase_1.aspx. 13. http://www.cdp.bham.ac.uk. 14. http://cdl.museum.upenn.edu/gkab/. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF NEO-ASSYRIAN STUDIES (1998–2006) 193 Note that the list does not provide website addresses but simply states “online” if the listed item is or at least has been available for free on the Internet.
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