The 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 Charvat, Parsa Daneshmand, Eva von Dassow, Hakan Erol, Sebastian Fink, Jakob Flygare, Pietro Giammellaro, Carlos Goncalves, Katrien de Graef, Steven W. Holloway, Ahmed Fatima Kzzo, Changyu Liu, Patrick Maxime Michel, Emanuel Pfoh, Jitka Sykorova, Ludek Vacin, and Jordi Vidal.
Agnes Garcia-Ventura is Ramon y Cajal Fellow at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. She is the coeditor of Studying Gender in the Ancient Near East, also published by Eisenbrauns. Lorenzo Verderame is Associate Professor of Assyriology at Sapienza University of Rome. He is the author and coeditor of several books, including Receptions of the Ancient Near East in Popular Culture and Beyond.
Introduction: Perspectives on the History of Ancient Near Eastern Studies: An Introduction Lorenzo VERDERAME / Agnes 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 Gueterbock'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 unberuecksichtigt bleiben duerfte...": On the (Non-)Existence of Assyriology at the German University in Prague (1908-1945) Ludik VACIN / Jitka SYKOROVA Part II. Intellectual History and Ancient Near Eastern Studies: some Case Studies 7. Notes on the History of the Historiography of Cuneiform Mathematics Carlos GONCALVES 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 CHARVAT 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
