2006, 2013

New blog on the history and culture of Iraq

By Mary Fisk|June 20, 2013|Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica, Art and Archaeology, History, Middle East, Central Asia & Islamica|0 comments

Boat on the Euphrates By Christiaan Briggs (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TAARI) has just launched a blog aimed at “institutions, scholars and other individuals” interested in the history and culture of Iraq from ancient times until the present. The blog includes a thread where current TAARI research fellows share reports from the field and

3005, 2013

Open-access book on the Eblaite language

By Mary Fisk|May 30, 2013|Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica, Linguistics|0 comments

SOAS Library has just ordered Maria Tonietti’s new monograph Aspetti del sistema preposizionale dell’eblaita (which looks at prepositions in the Eblaite language through the medium of the Chancery and Ritual Texts from the Ebla Archives) However, the publishers have also made the book available on open-access .Click on the following link to view or download the text: http://edizionicf.unive.it/index.php/Ant/article/view/477/243 Clay tablet from the Ebla Archives Image from: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ebla_clay_tablet.jpg

2205, 2013

Archaeology after the Arab Spring

By David Pearson|May 22, 2013|Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica, Art and Archaeology, Middle East, Central Asia & Islamica|0 comments

Read this interesting article which examines the impacts the Arab Spring has had on archaeology in the countries effected by this recent political upheaval. [From The American Schools of Oriental Research Blog (ASOR) (Boston University), written by Jesse Casana, Professor of the archaeology (specializing in the Middle East) at the University of Arkansas. Found via the very useful British Association of Near Eastern Archaeology (BANEA) facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/BAneareastarch

1104, 2013

Open-access books from the British Institute for the Study of Iraq

By Mary Fisk|April 11, 2013|Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica, Art and Archaeology|0 comments

Apkallu, a winged genius with the head of a bird, from the palace of Ashurnasirpal II, Nimrud. Image from Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apkallu_Nimrud.JPG As a precursor to making all of its new publications available for free download, the British Institute for the Study of Iraq (BISI) has released a selected of volumes from its back catalogue on open-access (PDF download) These currently are: Series: Cuneiform Texts from Nimrud (click here to access the

2502, 2013

Mesopotamian deities: new web resource

By Mary Fisk|February 25, 2013|Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica, Religions|0 comments

All you need to know about fifty ancient Mesopotamian deities, from Anu to Zababa, is brought together on Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses (AMGG), a new resource from ORACC (Open Richly Annoated Cuneiform Corpus). Enlil and Ninlil – from a mural decoration at Susa (image Paul Bedson http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EnlilandNinlil.jpg) The site is aimed at undergraduate students and provides concise information on the deities, with links to images, further readings and online projects. Click

1902, 2013

Open-access texts from the Institut français du Proche-Orient

By Mary Fisk|February 19, 2013|Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica, Art and Archaeology, History, Middle East, Central Asia & Islamica, Religions|0 comments

The prestigious Institut français du Proche-Orient, with offices in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, aims to bring together study and research on all aspects of the ancient and modern civilizations of the Near East (including Libya, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Iraq) A large number of IFPO publications are now available on open-access from http://ifpo.revues.org/ The content is fully searchable and includes books, archaeological reports and the research reports, Les

3001, 2013

Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit online

By Mary Fisk|January 30, 2013|Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica, Art and Archaeology, History, Religions|0 comments

This is a digital index to Die Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit (PbmZ) currently being complied by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy with the aim of documenting the lives of individuals active in the Byzantine World. Part 1 (641-867 AD) is now completely indexed and searchable (some 11,500 articles) Although copyright restrictions mean the full-text cannot be viewed, you can see an opening extract and obtain the page references for the print volume. Part 2

2401, 2013

Vicino Oriente is back!

By Mary Fisk|January 24, 2013|Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica, Art and Archaeology, History|0 comments

(By Dbachmann at en.wikipedia [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons : http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ancient_Orient.png) The journal Vicino Oriente (published by the Oriental Studies Section of Rome “La Sapienza” University”) is back on open access – although you will have to download a whole issue rather than browse and view individual articles on screen. The open-access content is currently from Vol.8 (1989) to Vol.15 (2011). Vicino Oriente covers Near Eastern archaeology, history and epigraphy and also takes

2201, 2013

Newly online from the Oriental Institute (University of Chicago)

By Mary Fisk|January 22, 2013|Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica, Art and Archaeology|0 comments

(1) The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago has recently announced further releases of its back-listed publications online. These can be freely viewed as PDFs Click here to see titles released on 14th January 2013. (2) The bulk of the Oriental Institute’s Research Archives are also available. Click here to access via the AWOL blog (3) The latest Oriental Institute Seminar paper – Iconoclasm and text destruction in the Ancient Near East and

1501, 2013

The World Digital Library

By Dominique Akhoun-Schwarb|January 15, 2013|Africa, Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica, Art and Archaeology, China and Inner Asia, Films and Sound Recordings, History, Literature, Middle East, Central Asia & Islamica, South Asia, South East Asia|0 comments

The World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world. There are, as of today, 6600+ items spanning from 8000BE to present, in a variety of formats (photographs, books, manuscripts, newspapers, maps, sound recordings, etc.) and languages, and covering a wide-range of subjects. Items on the WDL may easily be browsed by place,