Letter of Introduction (Simonetta Ponchia)

The Melammu Project

May 2020 No. 8

NThe Heritagee ofwsl Mesopotamia eand thet Ancientte Nearr East Contents

• Letter of Introduction (Simonetta Ponchia)...... 1 • Reports on Recent Melammu Events...... 2 • Workshop 10: Trier...... 2 • Workshop 11: Barcelona...... 2 • Melammu 14: Los Angeles...... 3 • Upcoming Melammu Events ...... 4 • Impressum ...... 6

Letter of Introduction

Dear colleagues and friends,

in this unexpected and strange situation In the following you can find brief reports – that has projected us in a somehow of the last Melammu meetings: the timeless, suspended dimension and workshops held in Trier and Barcelona induced a feeling of closeness with those and the annual Symposium, the 14th, who experienced similar circumstances held in Los Angeles, also with links to in the past – we consider it important additional information and videos. to maintain our relationships and Unfortunately, some changes in the contacts and support the continuation programme of some Melammu events of our projects. We are confident that planned for the next future have been we will soon resume our usual ways and, probably, will be necessary. and channels of interrelation and The workshop planned in Jerusalem cooperation, and in the meanwhile in June is postponed till next year, are invited to profit from all means the schedule of other events is still of communication to keep alive our undecided and updates will be provided dialogue and prepare the new beginning as soon as possible. enhancing the character of our project as A positive note is the addition of two a research network. Symposia in our schedule: in Changchun If you have news, proposals, reflections, in 2024 and in Irvine in 2025. but also materials or requests you want to share with or submit to the attention I wish you all to stay healthy and to of the Melammu group, please write enjoy the opportunity of being (though and we will take care of circulating your forcefully) less distracted from your messages. favorite studies!

Yours, Simonetta Ponchia 1 (Chair of the Melammu Project) Melammu Newsletter 8/2020 Reports on Recent Melammu Events Melammu Workshop 10 in Trier, December 11-13: “Domestic Trade and Maritime Trade in the Eastern Mediterranaen and the Ancient Near East” (Christoph Schäfer & Patrick Reinard) NOW AVAILABLE The workshop approached the topic Altogether the three days offered of seafaring and trade from a wide and different perspectives of a topic which still multidisciplinary perspective, which holds many questions that can only be included the consideration of far east answered by interdisciplinary approaches. routes, of the relationships of commercial The different topics and ways of accession and culural contacts, the analysis of presented during the conference shed written and archaeological sources, some light on maritime trade in antiquity comparative methods and experimental as well as on its manifold international archaeology. It was the occasion for networks. The presented results illustrating the results of the TRANSMARE- simultaneously attested the subject as Institut projects based in Trier. The one of the important and still promising conference encompassed the following fields in research. panels: A more detailed report has been Melammu Workshops and Monographs 1 Panel 1: Indienhandel im Altertum published by: Representing the Wise. A Gendered Panel 2: Häfen und Handel im J. Lehn, Tagungsbericht: Domestic Approach Mittelmeerraum Trade and Maritime Trade in the Proceedings of the 1st Melammu Workshop. Lille, 4-5 Panel 3: Das Trierer TRANSMARE-Institut Eastern Mediterranean and Ancient April 2016 und seine Projekte I Near East, 11.12.2019 – 13.12.2019 Edited by Stéphanie Anthonioz and Sebastian Fink Panel 4: Das Trierer TRANSMARE-Institut Trier, in: H-Soz-Kult, 02.03.2020, . Mittelmeerraum und im Orient

Melammu Workshop 11 in Barcelona, January 29-31: “Ceremonies, feasts and festivities in Ancient Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean World: Performance and Participation” (Rocío Da Riva)

The 11th Melammu Workshop was and the Mediterranean, Assyria and convened by Rocío Da Riva of the Babylonia, and Anatolia. “Ceremonies, Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and feasts and festivities...” was a survey of Melammu Workshops and Monographs 2 financed by her ICREA Academia Research religious and religio-political rituals from a Literary Change in Mesopotamia and Award and the Ajuts de la Comissió de social perspective, stressing their political Beyond and Routes and Travellers Recerca of Facultat de Geografia i Història and public function. The purposes of between East and West of the UB. The workshop was made the workshop were: to demonstrate the Proceedings of the 2nd and 3rd Melammu possible thanks to the kindness of the socio-cultural purpose of public festivities Workshops Dean of the Faculty and the Vice-dean of and their function in constructing Edited by Rocío Da Riva, Martin Lang and Sebastian Research Dr. Jaume Buxeda, and of all the identities and imagined communities; Fink colleagues from the Faculty who helped to analyse the role played by performers 2019 / ISBN 978–3–96327–066–6 / 292 pp. 79,00 € at the various stages of the organization, and participants in the ceremonies; to especially Dr. Lluís Lloveras. elucidate the political function of public https://www.zaphon.de/Melammu- The workshop took place in the Raval ceremonies; to study cultic topography Workshops-and-Monographs Campus of the Facultat de Geografia i and the arrangement of sacred space on Història from January 29-31, 2020, and the basis of religious rituals; and to gather 2 was organized in three sessions: Egypt data on deities and their relative position in the religious panthea. Melammu Newsletter 8/2020

Participants in alphabetical order and Tawny Holm (Pennsylvania State Negotiating Imperial Politics in the titles of the papers: University) Sacrifice and Feasting in Seleucid Near East Papyrus Amherst 63 Gonzalo Rubio (Pennsylvania State Ana Arroyo (Universidad Autónoma de Raquel Jiménez Pasalodos (Universidad University) Sacred Marriage: Ritualization Madrid) Hittite open-air cult places and de Valladolid – Universitat de Barcelona) and Textualization of Ideological Devices their relation to the community Music, Ritual and Women in the Western in Ancient Mesopotamia Mary R. Bachvarova (Willamette Mediterranean: Perspectives from Music Ian Rutherford (University of Reading) University) Festivals in Coastal Western Archaeology and Ethnomusicology Religious Travel and Pilgrimage in Anatolia: The Transition from the Bronze Mait Kõiv (University of Tartu) Hera at Mesopotamia and Anatolia: Problems of Age to the Iron Age Argos: sanctuaries, festivals, myths and Evidence and Typology Céline Debourse (Universität Wien) stately power Walther Sallaberger (Ludwig- Rethinking the Babylonian new year Jaume Llop (Universidad Complutense Maximilians-Universität Munich) festival: history, ritual, text de Madrid) Gods and Temples in the Washing Hands Stefania Ermidoro (Newcastle University) Middle Assyrian Archival Texts Kostas Vlasopoulos (University of Crete) The Rhythm of Rites: Consequences of Rafael Micó (Universitat Autònoma de Slaves in Greek and Roman rituals intercalation on Mesopotamian religious Barcelona) The representation of political Nathan Wasserman (Hebrew University ceremonies relations in the grave goods of El Argar Jerusalem) Magic Procedures in Early Sebastian Fink (University of Helsinki) Alice Mouton (UMR 8167 CNRS Akkadian Incantations: A Global View Neo Assyrian victory celebrations: a Paris) Weapons and Divine Symbols: Mark Weeden (School of Oriental and spectacle for the people Expressing the King’s Legitimacy during African Studies, London) Festivals at the Uri Gabbay (Hebrew University the Hittite Cultic Festivals site of Büklükale. Jerusalem) Ritual and Empathy in Simonetta Ponchia (Università di Verona) Ancient Mesopotamia: The Cultic Texts and places of Nergal’s cult in Neo- Rocío Da Riva, Ana Arroyo and Céline Performance of Sumerian Emesal Prayers Assyrian times Debourse are currently working on the and the Acknowledgement of Divine Lauren Ristvet (University of publication of the proceedings, which Emotions Pennsylvania) Rituals of Nostalgia: will appear in 2021/22 in Zaphon Verlag.

Melammu Symposium 14 in Los Angeles, February 18-20: “Contextualizing Iranian Religions in the Ancient World” (Rahim Shayegan)

The 14th Melammu Symposium was VI. The Religious Landscape of the trade, income, and wealth prevalent convened at the University of California, Sasanian World. within the empire. Professor Daryaee Los Angeles on February 18–20, 2020. The first day of the conference began delivered, “The Limits of Tolerance: Hosted by the Pourdavoud Center for with opening remarks by David Jews, Christians, Buddhists, and Others the Study of the Iranian World, this Schaberg, Dean of the Humanities in the Sasanian Empire.” His lecture symposium was comprised of six panels Division at UCLA, Simonetta Ponchia, discussed the relation between the state and two keynote lectures. The panels, Melammu Board Chair and Associate and religious minorities in late antique chaired by esteemed colleagues from Professor of Assyriology at the University Iran, suggesting that the Sasanian UCLA and the J. Paul Getty Museum, of Verona, and M. Rahim Shayegan, empire practiced a “rough tolerance,” in explored Iranian religions in light of Director of the Pourdavoud Center and order to control the multicultural and ancient Near Eastern traditions and Professor of Iranian and the Ancient Near multireligious Sasanian world. precedents. They featured scholars East at UCLA. These keynote lectures, as well as whose work pertain to the interchange On days two and three of the all presentations delivered at the of ideas and practices between the symposium, the keynote lectures symposium, were filmed and included ancient Near East, Egypt, the Classical were delivered by Robert Rollinger in the Pourdavoud Center’s video and Hellenistic worlds, and ancient (University of Innsbruck) and Touraj archive, an online repository of Iran. The overarching themes of the Daryaee (University of California, academic lectures available globally symposium encompassed: Irvine), respectively. Professor without restriction. These videos, as I. Elam, the Ancient Near East, and Persia; Rollinger presented, “Entangled well as additional lectures from other II. Ancient Egypt and Persia; Worlds: Afro-Eurasian Networks in Pourdavoud Center events, may be III. The Divine in Achaemenid Material Achaemenid Times,” which collected and found at https://pourdavoud.ucla.edu/ Culture; reinterpreted sources relevant to the videos/. IV. (Post-)Achaemenid Religious Practices transregional networks in Achaemenid in Literary Traditions; times, and demonstrated that the Great The proceedings will be published with V. Religions and Religious Policy in the King and his elites were well aware of Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie Hellenistic and Arsacid Worlds; and the (supra-)regional dimensions of der Wissenschaften. 3 Melammu Newsletter 8/2020 Upcoming Melammu Events 2020 and beyond Melammu Workshop in Krakow, Melammu Workshop Melammu Symposium 17 September 22-24, 2020 2021 in Venice on Bridges 2023 in Turin on Autocratic Rule in Antiquity (Paola Corò) (Stefano de Martino) (Edward Dabrowa & Jakub Kuciak) Date and details still need to be fixed. Date and details still need to be fixed. Details still need to be fixed.

Melammu Workshop Melammu Symposium 18 Melammu Workshop in Helsinki 2021 in Changchun 2024 in Changchun December 1-3, 2020 on Knowledge-transfer and empires (Sven Günther) on Living under Empires (Sven Günther) (Caroline Wallis, Marta Lorenzon & Date and details still need to be fixed. Sebastian Fink) Date and details still need to be fixed.

Details still need to be fixed. Melammu Symposium 19 The call for papers is available here: Melammu Symposium 15 2025 in Irvine http://melammu-project.eu/ 2021 in Berlin (Touraj Daryaee) workshops/mw12prog.html (Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum) Date and details still need to be fixed. Date and details still need to be fixed. Melammu Workshop in Jerusalem, June 2021 on the Motif of the Good Shepherd Melammu Symposium 16 (Stéphanie Anthonioz, Claudia Horst & 2022 in Graz Philippe Abrahami) (Wolfgang Spickermann)

Details still need to be fixed. Date and details still need to be fixed.