2019-2020

We will read a choice of legal and administrative texts from the Kassite period (1400-1150 BC), including contracts, tables, receipts and letters. You will get an introduction to the Middle Babylonian dialect of Akkadian and learn how to approach those genres. We will also read unpublished material from photos, casts, and original tablets.

In this class, we will read texts from the ancient Syrian site of Ebla, where thousands of texts dating to about the 24th century BCE were found. We will focus on those texts that were written in the local Semitic language, Eblaite, and discuss the grammar and orthography of these texts, especially in the light of how this language/dialect relates to Akkadian and other Semitic languages.

We will read highlights of the Standard Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic including the creation and taming of Enkidu, the fight in the Cedar Forest, Gilgamesh and Ishtar, as well as the flood story. You will learn how to use advanced dictionaries and sign lists and to write score and composite editions of Mesopotamian literature.

Selected readings of Akkadian texts in the Standard Babylonian dialect of the 1st millennium BC

This course is the second quarter of the annual introductory sequence to the Babylonian language and the Cuneiform script. Students will further explore the grammar of Babylonian in its Old Babylonian dialect (19th-16th c. BCE) and read ancient inscriptions (especially the Laws of Hammu-rabi) in the Old Babylonian monumental script. They will also be introduced to the Old Babylonian cursive used in letters and the documents of everyday life.

Introduction to the grammar of Akkadian, specifically to the Old Babylonian dialect. The class covers the first half of the Old Babylonian grammar, an introduction to the cuneiform script, and easy translation exercises.

This course offers an overview of the art/visual culture from the period of the Hittite Kingdom (1650-1200 BC). We will explore all materials (stone, metal, ceramics, etc.), problems of dating, iconography and its possible developments, questions of audience.

This course explores the ways linguistic theory can be used in the study of extinct languages. We will investigate how to use typological data and the predictive force of modern theories to critically assess claims regarding grammatical issues in extinct languages. We will also start developing a method for fact-finding in extinct languages. The course will focus on topics that are relevant for several extinct languages of the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern area, covering many extinct languages, such as the (near)-isolates Sumerian, Elamite, or Hurrian, the Semitic languages (e.g., Akkadian, Phoenician, Ugaritic), the Indo-European languages (e.g., Latin, Greek, Hittite), and ancient Egyptian. Examples of such topics are (split)-ergativity, Topic and Focus (information structure), and lexical and grammatical aspect.

This course introduces the student to the grammar and hieroglyphic writing system of the Luwian language of Anatolia of the first millennium BC (1000 to 700). After a brief introduction of the grammar, we will start reading short hieroglyphic texts, increasing knowledge of both script and grammar until we are ready for the famous Karatepe text from Cilicia, the Phoenician-Luwian bilingual that was instrumental for the decipherment of both script and language.

This is the first in a three-quarter sequence that covers the basic grammar and cuneiform writing system of the Hittite language. It also familiarizes the student with the field’s tools (i.e., dictionaries, lexica, sign list). Readings come from all periods of Hittite history (1650 to 1180 B.C.).