IInstitute for the Study of the Ancient World
15 E 84th St.
(between 5th & Madison)
New York, NY 10028
phone: 212-992-7800
fax: 212-992-7809

Ancient and Modern Perspectives on Historiography in Mesopotamia
12 April 2013, 09:30 AM
Organized by Prof. Beate Pongratz-Leisten

The workshop is intended to broaden and deepen the scope of this
year’s seminar dedicated to the topic The History of Assyria in
Ancient and Modern Historiography. We will expand the scope in time
and space and further explore text categories other than narrative,
such as lists and omen compendia, by also including Sumerian and
Babylonian texts. The goal is to acquire a correct understanding of
the ancients’ intentionality in referencing mythical, legendary, and
historical figures and events, which are included in these text
categories as well as genres such as chronicles. The notion of the
past as either paradigmatic model or reconstructed event history will
be at the center of our discussion, as will be the setting and
function of the texts. We will further scrutinize the applicability of
modern taxonomies such as chronicles, annals, etc. to ancient textual
production and continue to investigate how ancient historiographic
writing interfaces with what modern scholarship tends to subsume under
fiction and literature.

Seating is limited, registration required to isaw@nyu.edu.

Program
9:30am - Beate Pongratz-Leisten (ISAW)
Between Genre and Meaning: Reading Assyrian Royal Inscriptions

10:30am - Coffee

11:00am - Piotr Michaolowski (University of Michigan)
The Mesopotamian King Lists: History in the Making

12:00pm - Lunch

1:00pm - Nele Ziegler (EPHE, Paris)
Shamshi-Adad I: An Emblematic Figure of Assyrian History

2:00pm - Coffee

2:30pm - Peter Machinist (Harvard)
The Epic of Tukulti-Ninurta I and Assyrian Views of the Past

3:30pm - Jean-Jacques Glassner (CNRS, Paris)
The Diviner as Historian

4:30pm - Final Discussion