Description
Book SynopsisThe present volume collects eighteen essays exploring the history of ancient Near Eastern studies. Combining diverse approaches—synthetic and analytic, diachronic and transnational—this collection offers critical reflections on the who, why, and how of this cluster of fields. How have political contexts determined the conduct of research? How do academic agendas reflect larger social, economic, and cultural interests? How have schools of thought and intellectual traditions configured, and sometimes predetermined, the study of the ancient Near East? Contributions treating research during the Nazi and fascist periods examine the interpenetration of academic work with politics, while contributions dealing with specific national contexts disclose fresh perspectives on individual scholars as well as the conditions and institutions in which they worked. Particular attention is given to scholarship in countries such as Turkey, Portugal, Iran, China, and Spain, which have hitherto been marginal to historiographic accounts of ancient Near Eastern studies.
In addition to the editors, the contributors are Selim Ferru Adali, Silvia Alaura, Isabel Almeida, Petr Charvát, Parsa Daneshmand, Eva von Dassow, Hakan Erol, Sebastian Fink, Jakob Flygare, Pietro Giammellaro, Carlos Gonçalves, Katrien de Graef, Steven W. Holloway, Ahmed Fatima Kzzo, Changyu Liu, Patrick Maxime Michel, Emanuel Pfoh, Jitka Sýkorová, Luděk Vacín, and Jordi Vidal.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Perspectives on the History of Ancient Near Eastern Studies: An Introduction
Lorenzo VERDERAME / Agnès GARCIA-VENTURA
Part I. The Edge of the Abyss: the Study of Antiquity under the Totalitarism Threat
1. Hittite Studies at the Crossroads: Albrecht Goetze’s and Hans Gustav Güterbock’s Flight from Nazi Germany
Silvia ALAURA
2. Language and Race in Assyriology: from Benno Landsberger to Wolfram von Soden
Sebastian FINK
3. Assyriology in Nazi Germany: the Case of Wolfram von Soden
Jakob FLYGARE
4. Carthage the Deceitful and Perfidius Albion: the Phoenicians and the British in Fascist Italy
Pietro GIAMMELLARO
5. The sharing out of Antiquities in Syria during the Interwar Period: Sir Leonard Woolley’s Excavation at Tell Sheikh Yusuf (Al Mina).
Patrick Maxime MICHEL
6. “Die Assyriologie nicht weiter unberücksichtigt bleiben dürfte…”: On the (Non-)Existence of Assyriology at the German University in Prague (1908–1945)
Ludìk VACÍN / Jitka SÝKOROVÁ
Part II. Intellectual History and Ancient Near Eastern Studies: some Case Studies
7. Notes on the History of the Historiography of Cuneiform Mathematics
Carlos GONÇALVES
8. Feudalism and Vassalage in Twentieth-Century Assyriology
Emanuel PFOH
9. Nation-building in the Plain of Antioch, from Hatti to Hatay
Eva VON DASSOW
Part III. From our Stories to the History of Ancient Near Eastern Studies
10. The Historiography of Assyriology in Turkey: A Short Survey
Selim Ferruh ADALI / Hakan EROL
11. Ancient Near Eastern Studies and Portuguese Academia: a Love-affair under Construction
Isabel ALMEIDA
12. Near Eastern Archaeology and the Czech-speaking Lands
Petr CHARVÁT
13. Tintin in Mesopotamia. The Story of Belgian Assyriology (1890-2017)
Katrien DE GRAEF
14. Assyriology in Iran?
Parsa DANESHMAND
15. Assyriology in China
Changyu LIU
16. Looking for a Tell. The Beginnings of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Barcelona
Jordi VIDAL
Part IV. Current Prospectives, Future Perspectives
17. Big Data, Big Deal: Use of Google Books Ngram Viewer and JSTOR Data for Research for Charting the Rise of Assyriology
Steven W. HOLLOWAY
18. The Future of the Past. How the Past Contributes to the Construction of Syrian National Identity
Ahmed Fatima KZZO
Notes on Contributors
Index of Authors
