December 20, 2012

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

December 17, 2012

Oriental Institute Job Posting: IT Specialist

The Oriental Institute is a research organization and museum devoted to the study of the ancient Near East. Founded in 1919 by James Henry Breasted, the Institute, a part of the University of Chicago, is an internationally recognized pioneer in the archaeology, philology, and history of early Near Eastern civilizations.

The University of Chicago, Oriental Institute is seeking an IT specialist to oversee day to day operations of all IT support services at the Institute. With support from central ITS Services, the IT specialist will manage the Institute’s PC, MAC, Server, Printing, Audio Visual and Mobile support for both hardware and software systems.

This position also offers a wide range of opportunities related to the Institute’s involvement in social media, data management, and web based applications.

To apply for this position, please apply online at the University of Chicago’s job posting website at jobs.uchicago.edu.

Requisition # 091544

The University of Chicago is an Affirmative Action / Equal Opportunity Employer.

December 13, 2012

New Research Archives Acquisitions List for October & November 2012 is now available.

December 13, 2012

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

December 6, 2012

A new article by Prof. Norman Golb, "Les Juifs de Rouen au Moyen Âge d’après les sources médiévales," is now available for download in the Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format.

Les historiens et paléographes français savent depuis longtemps que l’ancien toponyme ROTOMAGUS, qui désignait l’actuelle Rouen au début de l’ère gallo-romaine, avait connu une évolution phonétique jusqu’à devenir vers le VIIIè siècle ap. J. C. Rotom, Rodom, et d’autres abréviations similaires.

December 6, 2012

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

November 30, 2012

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

November 26, 2012

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

November 21, 2012

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

November 9, 2012

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

October 26, 2012

Changes to the Oriental Institute's Annual Post-Doctoral Conference Program

The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago is pleased to announce the following changes to its Annual Post-Doctoral Scholar's Conference program, effective immediately. The term of the appointment has been extended from one year to two years. Further, the Oriental Institute will continue to advertise the position and make one new appointment on a yearly basis, the aim being to have two Post-Doctoral Scholars in residence simultaneously: one in his/her first year, and one in his/her second year. Further details may be found in this year's call for applications following this announcement.

On behalf of the Oriental Institute's Annual Post-Doctoral Conference committee,
Christopher Woods


Oriental Institute Job Posting: Post-Doctoral Scholar

The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago invites applications for the Oriental Institute's Annual Post-Doctoral Scholar Conference program for the 2013–2015 academic years. This is a twenty-four-month, non-renewable appointment. During the first year of the appointment, the Post-Doctoral Scholar will organize and conduct a two-day conference at the Oriental Institute on key comparatively oriented theoretical or methodological issues in the field of ancient studies (archaeological, text-based, and/or art historical avenues of research). We encourage cross-disciplinary proposals that deal with the ancient Near East (including Egypt) or that compare the Near East with other cultural areas. Applicants should take into consideration the research interests represented at the Oriental Institute. The conference will take place in early to mid March 2014. Following the conference, the Post-Doctoral Scholar will work with publication staff to assemble and edit the proceedings for publication in the “Oriental Institute Seminars” series. During the second year of the appointment, the Post-Doctoral Scholar will assist in organizing a series of faculty seminars at the Oriental Institute. The incumbent is also encouraged to pursue his or her own research while in residence and to interact with the Oriental Institute community.

Information on past Oriental Institute Annual symposia can be viewed at: http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/symposia/

Qualifications: Ph.D. in a discipline relating to ancient studies must be complete at the time of appointment. Applicants should send:

  1. 5-page proposal outlining the nature and structure of the conference (including the names and paper topics of six to eight key participants who have agreed to make presentations, should the conference be funded; for budgetary reasons, international participants should constitute no more than half of the list of six to eight invited speakers)
  2. curriculum vitae
  3. 3 letters of reference (these may be sent under separate cover)

Electronic submissions are welcome. Deadline for completed applications is Friday, January 25th, 2013. Start date is September 1st, 2013. Please send applications to:

Post-Doctoral Scholar Program
attn. Mariana Perlinac, Oriental Institute
University of Chicago
1155 East 58th St.
Chicago, IL 60637

Or via e-mail to: oi-administration@uchicago.edu

The University of Chicago is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer.

October 10, 2012

The Oriental Institute Publications Office announces a new print publication:

As part of its Electronic Publications Online, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

Issued in conjunction with an exhibit at the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago, this is the first comprehensive study of birds in ancient Egyptian society, economy, art, and religion. Essays address the role of birds in the religious landscape, their use in hieroglyphic and Coptic scripts, birds as protective symbols, as decorative motifs, and as food. A group of essays on "Egyptian Birds and Modern Science" presents the newest forensic research on bird mummies. Other articles address bird behavior as shown in Egyptian art and the present state of avifauna in the Nile Valley. The catalog describes forty artifacts, many of which are previously unpublished. An index of bird species makes this volume useful for naturalists as well as for Egyptologists and art historians.

October 10, 2012

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) release of its July 2012 Chicago House Bulletin publication.

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) release of its Fall 2012 News & Notes publication.

October 4, 2012

The Oriental Institute Publications Office announces a new print publication:

As part of its Electronic Publications Online, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

This book includes thirty contributions — twenty-nine papers and one artistic contribution — by John's colleagues, former students, and friends, on a variety of topics that represent John's versatility and many interests, including philology, history, natural history, and art.

October 1, 2012

Read about the plans for the upcoming 2012-2013 season of the Epigraphic Survey, their 89th archaeological field season and work at Medinet Habu, Luxor Temple, Khonsu Temple, and the tomb of Nefersekheru TT 107 from October 15th until April 15th.

September 20, 2012

The Oriental Institute announces the OCHRE Data Service, which facilitates the use of the Online Cultural and Historical Research Environment (OCHRE) worldwide to record, integrate, analyze, publish, and preserve cultural and historical information in all of its digital forms.

The OCHRE Data Service consists of a team of advanced research scholars, experienced technology professionals, and students trained in data entry, editing, and specialized photography who provide services and features that satisfy the full cycle of data management—from recording, to integration, analysis, publication, and, ultimately, to data preservation.

September 17, 2012

The Mission Statement of the Oriental Institute Museum and the Department of Public Education and Outreach is now available on our website.

September 17, 2012

The Foy Scalf 2008 article, Statements of Identity and the m of Predication, originally published in Lingua Aegyptia 16, pp. 135-151, is now available for downloading in the Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format.

September 17, 2012

The Oriental Institute Museum announces its current show, Danh Vo's "We the People," which is on display from September 11, 2012 – December 13, 2012. "We the People" at the Oriental Institute juxtaposes ancient and contemporary art. Vo's fragments of a full-scale replica of the Statue of Liberty are dispersed throughout the world with a section of the face and the gown on view at the Oriental Institute. The fragments exhibited at the Oriental Institute evoke its archaeological work because its excavations often recover fragments of statues, some of which are ultimately dispersed in different museums.

September 11, 2012

The Oriental Institute Museum announces the re-publication of two short articles from this summer's News & Notes quarterly publication, both pertaining to the Museum's new Special Exhibit, "Between Heaven & Earth: Birds In Ancient Egypt," which opens from October 16, 2012 – July 28, 2013. These two articles highlight the various stages of learning and work involved in preparing several of the artifacts for exhibition in the show.

September 11, 2012

"The Statue of Liberty and its Ties to Egypt," a short article composed for the installation of Danh Vo's “We the People" replica fragment at the Oriental Institute Museum, September - December 2012, is now available for download in the Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf).

September 11, 2012

The Oriental Institute Museum announces its new Special Exhibit, "Between Heaven & Earth: Birds In Ancient Egypt," which opens from October 16, 2012 – July 28, 2013. Visitors to the Oriental Institute Museum will be able to step back in time to discover the world of birds in ancient Egypt as they stroll through an exhibit that recreates the feel of a marsh from the Nile, and see videos of birds flying overhead while the sounds of birds calling to each other resonate in the gallery.

September 11, 2012

The Oriental Institute Museum announces the re-publication of two short articles from this summer's News & Notes quarterly publication, both pertaining to the Museum's new Special Exhibit, "Between Heaven & Earth: Birds In Ancient Egypt," which opens from October 16, 2012 – July 28, 2013. These two articles highlight the various stages of learning and work involved in preparing several of the artifacts for exhibition in the show.

August 3, 2012

The Oriental Institute Annual Reports section in Publications is being revised to use Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf) files instead of marked up html files. To date, we have converted from the current 2010-2011 publication backwards through the 1988-1989 report. The work will continue throughout this summer until all OI Annual Reports are available for download in the pdf format.

July 16, 2012

The Oriental Institute Publications Office announces a new print publication:

As part of its Electronic Publications Online, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

An expedition from the University of Chicago excavated the site of Bismaya (ancient Adab) from December 24, 1903, until late June 1905. The excavations were directed first by Edgar J. Banks and then, briefly, by Victor S. Persons. Over 1,000 artifacts, many of them early cuneiform documents, were sent to Chicago, where they are now housed in the Oriental Institute Museum.

July 16, 2012

As part of its ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS ON-LINE, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces an additional letter, T, for the Chicago Demotic Dictionary, edited by Janet H. Johnson. This document is available in the Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) file.

June 18, 2012

The Oriental Institute is delighted to announce that Gil Stein, a leading scholar of ancient Mesopotamia, has been reappointed for a third five-year term as Director of the Oriental Institute, a position he has held since joining the University in 2002.

June 13, 2012

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) release of its Summer 2012 News & Notes publication.

May 10, 2012

New Research Archives Acquisitions Lists for March through April 2012 are now available.

May 8, 2012

New Research Archives Acquisitions Lists for November 2011 through February 2012 are now available.

April 12, 2012

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

April 4, 2012

Oriental Institute Job Posting: Head of Public Education & Outreach

The University of Chicago's Oriental Institute is a research organization and museum devoted to the study of the ancient Middle East. Founded in 1919 by James Henry Breasted, the Institute is an internationally recognized pioneer in the archaeology, philology, and history of early Near Eastern civilizations.

The Oriental Institute seeks a dynamic and forward thinking Head of Public Education & Outreach who will provide long and short range planning for all exhibition and museum related educational programs including those for students, educators, families, scholars and the general public. We seek a creative thinker who can foster new ways of thinking about museum education with responsibility for implementing adult education and online educational programming, supervising program staff, developing and managing program budgets, engaging in fundraising efforts and writing grant proposals. A proven track record of successful development of educational programs is required and a degree in art history, near eastern studies or related field is strongly desired.

To apply for this position, please apply online at the University of Chicago's job posting website at http://jobs.uchicago.edu
Requisition #: 089490

Review of applications will begin on April 30th, 2012.

The University of Chicago is an Affirmative Action / Equal Opportunity Employer.

April 2, 2012

We have received an early spring report from the Chicago House crew in Luxor, Egypt, describing how the current season's field work is progressing.

March 28, 2012

Seventh Demotic Summer School
Monday – Tuesday, August 27 – 28, 2012
at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago

The Demotic Summer School will provide an opportunity to informally discuss work in progress on Demotic texts prior to publication. Each participant will have up to an hour to present texts or portions thereof, proposed readings, and problems arising therefrom; and to receive constructive commentary on the readings and problems from other participants. Read more »

Roundtable ‘Digital Demotic'
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
at the Franke Institute of the University of Chicago

The organizers of the Seventh Demotic Summer School heartily encourage the participants in the Summer School to join the editors of the Chicago Demotic Dictionary at a roundtable on ‘Digital Demotic', to assess in consultation with the dictionary's users and potential users what can and should be done with the CDD in its next phase. The next iteration of the CDD should allow its users to access, manipulate and analyze its data in new ways, which could include interaction with the text and image corpus upon which the CDD is based, interaction with other Demotic online projects, including but not limited to links, and interaction with online projects involving other scripts and languages with which Demotic was in contact. Read more »

March 21, 2012

The Oriental Institute Publications Office announces a new print publication:

As part of its Electronic Publications Online, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

Contained herein are 25 articles (20 in English, 5 in Hebrew) that, like the academic oeuvre of volume's honoree, span a broad array of topics within the fields of Hebraica, Judaica, Islamica, and Biblica.

  1. Portrait of the Scholar. Joel L. Kraemer
  2. A Jewish Wool Merchant in Tenth-Century Mosul Defends Resorting to “the Sages of the Nations”: An Early Encounter between Jewish Bible Exegesis and Graeco-Arab Philosophy. Haggai Ben-Shammai
  3. On Some Semantic Shifts in Medieval Judaeo-Arabic. Joshua Blau
  4. Kippurim, Expiation, Purity, and Impurity: The Well of the Past and the Abyss of Oblivion. Rachel Elior
  5. An Epistle on Esoteric Matters by David II Maimonides from the Geniza. Paul B. Fenton
  6. Sending Funds to Judah ha-Levi. Mordechai A. Friedman
  7. The Emergence and Development of Scholarship on Medieval Judaeo-Arabic in Spain. Maria Angeles Gallego
  8. Food Commerce in Egypt as Portrayed in Eleventh-Century Geniza Letters. Moshe Gil
  9. Gershom b. Judah and the Italian Roots of Early Ashkenazic Jewry. Joshua Holo
  10. Carl Hermann Kraeling: A Reminiscence. Walter E. Kaegi
  11. When Did the Palestinian Yeshiva Leave Tiberias? Benjamin Z. Kedar
  12. “Many Days without the God of Truth”: Loss and Recovery of Religious Knowledge in Early Karaite Thought. Eve Krakowski
  13. Adam and Eve or Adam and Noah? Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew Versions of the Same Books. Daniel J. Lasker
  14. Historicizing Prophetic Literature: Yefet ben ‘Eli's Commentary on Hosea and Its Relationship to al-Qumisi's Pitron. Meira Polliack
  15. Jewish Liturgical Divisions of the Torah and the English Chapter Division of the Vulgate Attributed to Stephen Langton. Paul Saenger
  16. Biblical Hermeneutics in Abraham Bar Hayya's Hiyya's) “Book of Intercalation”: Reading Science and Philosophy into the Bible. Israel M. Sandman
  17. Corporal Modesty in Judaism and Islam. Norman A. Stillman
  18. An Aramaic Apocalypse (4Q246) and the Perils of Premature Consensus. Anthony J. Tomasino
  19. Ten Newly Identified Fragments of Saadia's Commentary on Esther: Introduction and Translation. Michael G. Wechsler
  20. Murabba'at and the First Jewish Revolt. Michael O. Wise
    Indexes
    Hebrew Section
  21. ‘Aluqa as “Nothing” and Its Use in Polemics with the Karaites: A Study of Saadia's Commentary on Proverbs 30:10–17. Nahem Ilan
  22. Hebrew Names for Settlements, Countries, and Ethnic Groups in the Middle Ages. Elinoar Bareket
  23. Ten Newly Identified Fragments of Saadia's Commentary on Esther: The Judaeo-Arabic Text (with an Appendix Containing a Fragment of Judah ibn Bal'am's Commentary on Esther). Michael G. Wechsler
  24. The View of Abraham ibn Ezra on the Durative Nature of Universal Creation. Abraham Lipshitz
  25. History and History?Writing in Chronicles in the Light of Biblical, Ancient Near Eastern, and Graeco?Roman Cultures. Isaac Kalimi

Contained herein are 25 articles (20 in English, 5 in Hebrew) that, like the academic oeuvre of volume's honoree, span a broad array of topics within the fields of Hebraica, Judaica, Islamica, and Biblica.

March 15, 2012

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) release of its Spring 2012 News & Notes publication.

March 12, 2012

New Research Archives Acquisitions List for October 2011 is now available.

March 2, 2012

We have received a late-winter report from the Chicago House crew in Luxor, Egypt, describing how the current season's field work is progressing

February 20, 2012

The program for the upcoming Public Symposium: Picturing The Past, March 10, 2012, is now available for download in the Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf)

February 10, 2012

Travel dates and itinerary for the Institute's upcoming "Persian Splendor: Journey to Ancient Iran" travel program to Iran in September 2012 are now available.

January 31, 2012

The Oriental Institute Publications Office announces a new print publication:

As part of its Electronic Publications Online, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

This fully illustrated catalog of essays, descriptions, and commentary accompanies the Oriental Institute special exhibit Picturing the Past: Imaging and Imagining the Ancient Middle East (on exhibit February 7 through September 2, 2012). Picturing the Past presents paintings, architectural reconstructions, facsimiles, models, photographs, and computer-aided reconstructions that show how the architecture, sites, and artifacts of the ancient Middle East have been documented. It also examines how the publication of those images have shaped our perception of the ancient world, and how some of the more "imaginary" reconstructions have obscured our real understanding of the past. The exhibit and catalog also show how features of the ancient Middle East have been presented in different ways for different audiences, in some cases transforming a highly academic image into a widely recognized icon of the past.

  1. Introduction. Jack Green
  2. The Oriental Institute and Early Documentation in the Nile Valley. Emily Teeter
  3. The Epigraphic Survey and the “Chicago Method.” W. Raymond Johnson
  4. The Sakkarah Expedition. Ann Macy Roth
  5. Photography and Documentation of the Middle East. Emily Teeter
  6. The Oriental Institute Photographic Archives. John A. Larson
  7. Aerial Photographs and Satellite Images. Scott Branting, Elise MacArthur, and Susan Penacho
  8. Facsimiles of Ancient Egyptian Paintings: The Work of Nina de Garis Davies, Amice Calverley, and Myrtle Broome. Nigel Strudwick
  9. Preserving the Past in Plaster. William H. Peck
  10. Drawing Reconstruction Images of Ancient Sites. Jean-Claude Golvin
  11. The Persepolis Paintings of Joseph Lindon Smith. Dennis O'Connor
  12. Three-Dimensional Digital Forensic Facial Reconstruction: The Case of Mummy Meresamun. Joshua Harker
  13. A Brief History of Virtual Heritage. Donald H. Sanders

January 30, 2012

The program for the 8th Annual Oriental Institute Seminar, Heaven on Earth: Temples, Ritual, & Cosmic Symbolism in the Ancient World, March 2-3, 2012, is now available for download in the Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf).

January 24, 2012

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

Internet publication of this volume was made possible through the cooperation of the Oriental Institute and the AMAR project: http://libmedia.cc.stonybrook.edu/amar/

January 3, 2012

New Research Archives Acquisitions List for September 2011 is now available.

January 3, 2012

We have received Holiday greetings from the Chicago House crew in Luxor, Egypt, along with an update on how the current season's field work is progressing.

December 21, 2011

A new article by Prof. Norman Golb, "The Caliph's Favorite - New Light from Manuscript Sources on Hasdai ibn Shaprut of Cordova," is now available for download in the Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format.

The mid_10th Century was a remarkable time in the history of Europe - not least because of the burgeoning presence in Spain of a Muslim power whose military forces had pushed out from North Africa more than two centuries earlier and gradually transformed almost four-fifths of the country into the Arabic-speaking Caliphate of Andalus (=Andalusia). Roughly speaking, the first two centuries of the Arab conquest were given over to military victories and the consolidation of power, but by the time Abd-al-Rahman the Third had ascended the throne of the Caliphate in the year 929, he was able to devote at least a small part of his time to more mundane and sometimes even peaceful affairs of state.

By approximately 930, the Jewish family of Hasdai son of Joseph ibn Shaprut had moved from their hometown of Jaen to the Muslim capital of Cordova, and before many years had passed the relatively young Hasdai began attracting the attention of the courtiers in the royal palace for his unusual intellectual and sentient qualities. By approximately 935 he was himself serving as a royal courtier, and Abd-al-Rahman himself soon began to recognize Hasdai's highly unusual gifts; he eventually appointed him major-domo over virtually all affairs of state.

December 20, 2011

The Oriental Institute Publications Office announces a new print and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

The manuscript consists of seven papers presented at the Theban Workshop, 2006. Within the temporal and spatial boundaries indicated by the title, the subjects of the papers are extremely diverse, ranging from models of culture-history (Manning and Moyer), to studies of specific administrative offices (Arlt), a single statue type (Albersmeier), inscriptions in a single temple (DiCerbo/Jasnow, and McClain), and inscriptions of a single king (Ritner). Nonetheless, all the papers are significant contributions to scholarship, presenting new interpretations and conclusions. Two papers (DiCerbo/Jasnow and McClain) are useful preliminary reports on long-term projects. The cross-references in Arlt and Albersmeier's and in Manning's and Moyer's papers attest to value added by presentation at the workshop.

Table of Contents

  • The Capture of the Thebaid. Joseph G. Manning
  • Scribal Offices and Scribal Families in Ptolemaic Thebes. Carolin Arlt
  • Recent Documentation of Medinet Habu Graffiti by the Epigraphic Survey. Christina Di Cerbo and Richard Jasnow
  • Ptolemaic Statues of Priestesses from Thebes. Sabine Albersmeier
  • Ptolemaic Cosmogonical Inscriptions and the Cultic Evolution of the Temple of Djeser-set. J. Brett McClain
  • Ptolemy IX (Soter II) at Thebes. Robert K. Ritner
  • Finding a Middle Ground: Culture and Politics in the Ptolemaic Thebaid. Ian Moyer

December 20, 2011

The Oriental Institute Publications Office announces a new print and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

Volume 64 of the Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization (SAOC) series contains twenty-eight studies of various aspects of the case systems of Sumerian, Hurrian, Elamite, Eblaite, Ugaritic, Old Aramaic, Biblical Hebrew, Indo-European, the languages of the Bisitun inscription, Hittite, Armenian, Sabellic, Gothic, Latin, Icelandic, Slavic, Russian, Ouralien, Tokharian, and Etruscan. The volume concludes with a paper on future directions.

Table of Contents

  • Cas et analyse en morphèmes? Christian Touratier
  • The Conjugation Prefixes, the Dative Case, and the Empathy Hierarchy in Sumerian. Christopher Woods
  • Agent, Subject, Patient, and Beneficiary: Grammatical Roles in Hurrian. Dennis R. M. Campbell
  • Des cas en élamite? Florence Malbran-Labat
  • Évolution des cas dans le sémitique archaïque: la contribution de l'éblaïte. Pelio Fronzaroli
  • Some Case Problems in Ugaritic. Robert Hawley
  • Early Canaanite and Old Aramaic Case in the Light of Language Typology. Rebecca Hasselbach
  • Vestiges du système casuel entre le nom et le pronom suffixe en hébreu biblique. Dennis Pardee
  • Genèse et évolution du système casuel indo-européen: questions et hypothèses. Jean Haudry
  • Allative in Indo-European. Folke Josephson
  • Anomalies grammaticales à Bisotun. É. Pirart
  • The Problem of the Ergative Case in Hittite. Craig Melchert
  • A propos de l'opposition entre le statique et le dynamique en hittite. Michel Mazoyer
  • Sur l'évolution du locatif en arménien. Matthias Fritz
  • Énigmes autour du datif et de l'instrumental. Françoise Bader
  • Les marques casuelles dans les documents paléo?sabelliques et la morphologie du génitif pluriel sud-picénien. Vincent Martzloff
  • Formation et variations dans les systèmes flexionnels des langues sabelliques: entre synchronie et diachronie. Paolo Poccetti
  • Cas et évolution linguistique en latin. Michèle Fruyt
  • La casualité latine en variation diastratique: du parler populaire à la diction poétique. Carole Fry
  • Le flottement entre les cas en latin tardif. Gerd V. M. Haverling
  • Case Marking of Core Arguments and Alignment in Late Latin. Michela Cennamo
  • Cas grammaticaux et cas locaux en gotique: les modèles casuels en gotique. André Rousseau
  • Remarques sur le datif en islandais moderne. Patrick Guelpa
  • Mécanismes de réaffectation désinentielle et hiérarchie des oppositions casuelles en slave. Claire Le Feuvre
  • Pourquoi deux génitifs et deux locatifs en russe pour certains substantifs? Etat actuel des paradigmes et aspects diachroniques. Sergueï Sakhno
  • Regards sur les cas dans les langues ouraliennes. Jean Perrot†
  • Sur l'histoire des cas en tokharien. Georges-Jean Pinault
  • Accord sur le désaccord: quelques réflexions sur les rapports entre morphèmes casuels et adpositions en étrusque. G. van Heems
  • Synthèse: The Dynamics of Case — Recapitulation and Future Directions. Gene Gragg

December 20, 2011

The 2010-2011 Oriental Institute Annual Report is now available in the Acrobat Portable Document Format (pdf) . Links to its respective entries have been added to the homepages for numerous Institute archaeological and philological projects and departments.

December 12, 2011

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) release of its Winter 2012 News & Notes publication.

December 7, 2011

A new article by Prof. Norman Golb, "Recent Scroll Exhibits And The Decline Of Qumranology," is now available for download in the Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format.

While significant advances have been made in Dead Sea Scrolls research over the past decade, defenders of the traditional “Qumran-sectarian” theory continue to use various publicity tools to push their agenda. These tools include, for example, the recent media campaign surrounding the claim that textiles found in the caves near Qumran “may” demonstrate that the site was inhabited by Essenes — a sensationalist argument that misleads the public with a mix of speculation and presuppositions. The tools have also included museum exhibits where efforts, either overt or subtle, are made to convince the public that the traditional theory is still viable. If we focus merely on the museums, we find that a noteworthy aspect of the exhibits involves the dissemination of certain erroneous and misleading facts concerning Jewish history and Christian origins. I here discuss some of the more obvious distortions, quoting from various exhibits of the past two decades.

December 2, 2011

All Chicago House Bulletins, going back to 1989, are now available for download in the Adobe Portable Document (pdf) format. In the future, they will appear online, in this format, as they are published.

December 1, 2011

Learn about Cleopatra, the Last Queen of Egypt, on a trip to the Milwaukee Public Museum, led by Dr. Robert K. Ritner, on Saturday, January 21, 2012.

November 28, 2011

The Christmas Holiday sale at the oriental Institute Suq Store runs from November 29th thru December 11th. Everthing's on sale! Members 20% off, non-Members 15% off.

November 28, 2011

New Research Archives Acquisitions List for August 2011 is now available.

November 22, 2011

Oriental Institute Job Posting: Two-year Post-Doctoral Fellowship

The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago invite applications for a two-year post-doctoral fellowship associated with the launch of the Writing in Early Mesopotamia Project. The Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the rank of Instructor will be appointed in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations in affiliation with the Oriental Institute. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the fellowship will extend from the Fall of 2012 through the Spring of 2014. In addition to conducting research in connection with the project and pursuing independent research goals, the Mellon Fellow/Instructor is expected to teach two courses per year: a specialized graduate seminar, which would preferably be text oriented and centered upon Sumerian and/or Akkadian sources; and a broader, survey course concerned with writing and writing systems, appropriate for undergraduates and non-specialists.

The Writing in Early Mesopotamia Project represents a new initiative of the Assyriological faculty. The project endeavors to provide a comprehensive and detailed description of cuneiform writing from the first appearance of texts in the second half of the fourth millennium BC through the Old Babylonian period (c. 1600 BC). The project will investigate early cuneiform writing from the perspective of both language — how sound and meaning are systematically organized and represented in time — and semiotics — the origin, shape, and history of the symbols that comprise the system. Specific issues to be addressed include: assessing orthographic depth and the extent of logography as a function of time, register, and genre; the origins and propagation of phonograms; the extent to which phonological and morphophonemic structure can be extracted from writing; the adaptation of the Sumerian script to express Semitic languages; the typology of cuneiform graphs; graphic strategies for distinguishing semantic fields and the motivations governing complex graphs (e.g., diri compounds); and problems of modern transliteration. As the project will also consider early Mesopotamian writing within its broader social and cultural context, it will explore the interaction between writing and scribal training and transmission, as well as issues of literacy and Sumero-Akkadian bilingualism. Taking a typological and interdisciplinary approach, the project will consider these problems within the context of the taxonomy of writing systems more generally and of the other early "pristine" writing systems (i.e., the Egyptian, Chinese, and Mesoamerican systems) in particular, and will draw upon psycho- and computational linguistics, as well as cognitive science, semiotics, and information theory. The Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow will participate in collecting, organizing, and analyzing data, as well as publishing the project's results. As the project is still in its initial phases, the Fellow will be actively involved in the design of the project and drafting grant proposals. Future collaboration with the project following the two-year tenure of the fellowship is a desideratum.

Applicants must hold a Ph.D. in cuneiform studies and have a demonstrated competence in Sumerian and Akkadian writing and grammar. As per the requirements of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ph.D. must have been received within five academic years previous to the year of the award, hence no earlier than 2007. Because the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship is a residential program, recipients must commit to relocating to the Chicago area for the two-year duration of the award. Persons holding tenure-track appointments are ineligible to apply.

Complete application materials include a cover letter detailing research interests and qualifications, a CV, and three (3) letters of recommendation. The cover letter and CV must be uploaded to the Academic Career Opportunities Website (https://academiccareers.uchicago.edu, posting 01082, or http://tinyurl.com/7ee8m2t). Referees must submit their letters of recommendation through the Academic Careers website per above (strongly preferred), or by mail to: Adrianne Renberg, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1155 E. 58th St., Chicago IL 60637.

No application materials including letters of recommendation will be accepted after February 1st, 2012.

Questions may be sent through the Academic Careers website (http://tinyurl.com/7ee8m2t) (preferred) or to ne-lc@uchicago.edu with the subject heading "Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship."

Position contingent upon final budgetary approval.

The University of Chicago is an Affirmative Action / Equal Opportunity Employer

November 18, 2011

Six articles on ancient Near Eastern history published by Seth Richardson between 1999 and 2011 are now available for download in the Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf).

November 16, 2011

Oriental Institute Job Posting: Assistant Professor in Ancient Near Eastern History and Aramaic Studies

The Oriental Institute and the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations of the University of Chicago invite applications for a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor in Ancient Near Eastern History and Aramaic Studies with a starting date in Fall 2012.

Applicants must have the Ph.D. in hand before the appointment begins. The candidate should be a scholar of the first-millennium BC Near East who has synthetic research interests that address problems in ancient history and who has demonstrated expertise in Aramaic language and texts. Applicants must upload a CV and cover letter and select three (3) referees to provide letters of recommendation to the University of Chicago Academic Career Opportunities Website at http://tinyurl.com/7un8y8j - Job posting number 01078.

Review of applications will begin after December 31, 2011.
Inquiries can be directed to oi-administration@uchicago.edu with the subject heading "Ancient History/Aramaic Search".

The University of Chicago is an Affirmative Action / Equal Opportunity Employer

November 4, 2011

The Oriental Institute Publications Office announces a new print publication:

As part of its Electronic Publications Online, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

On January 29, 2005, the Oriental Institute celebrated the official public opening of the Haas and Schwartz Megiddo Gallery. This occasion marked the return of some of the most extraordinary artifacts ever excavated in the southern Levant to permanent public display. The Oriental Institute's prolific history of exploration in the region is testament to a long-standing scholarly passion for discovery and the pursuit of knowledge. This volume draws from the momentum generated by the opening of the Megiddo Gallery and presents a selection of highlights from the Institute's greater Syro-Palestine collection.

  • Foreword
  • Acknowledgments
  • Stratigraphy of Megiddo
  • The Southern Levant Collection of the Oriental Institute
  • Megiddo: Cultural Crossroads of the Ancient Near East
  • The Early Bronze Age (ca. 3500-2000 BC)
  • The Middle Bronze Age (ca. 2000-1550 BC)
  • The Late Bronze Age (ca. 1550-1200 BC)
  • The Megiddo Ivories
  • The Iron I Period (ca. 1200-975 BC)
  • Where Did the Israelites Come From?
  • The Iron II Period (ca. 975-586 BC)
  • Who Built Royal Megiddo?
  • The Southern Levant from the Fall of Jerusalem to the
  • Roman Era (ca. 586 BC-AD 324)
  • The Southern Levant in the Byzantine Period (ca. AD 324-638)
  • Bibliography of Works Consulted
  • Appendices
  • Indices

October 24, 2011

Information detailing the Oriental Institute's 2012 Symposium, Heaven on Earth: Temples, Ritual, & Cosmic Symbolism in the Ancient World, to be held March 2-3, 2012, in the Institute's Breasted Hall, is now available.

October 18, 2011

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) release of the Fall 2011 News & Notes publication.

October 18, 2011

The Foy Scalf article, Is That a Rhetorical Question? Shipwrecked Sailor (pHermitage 1115), 150 Reconsidered, from ZÄS 136 (2009), pp. 155-159, is now available for downloading in the Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format.

The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor is perhaps best known as a standard reading exercise for beginning students in Middle Egyptian, often seen for the first time in the hand copies of either De Buck or Blackman. However, this role should not lessen its importance in any way as a finely crafted literary piece whose complexities and idiosyncrasies continue to captivate the attention of succeeding generations of Egyptologists. In this article, I will focus on a single line only, in the ho pe that offering an alternative interpretation and new grammatical analysis may help lend some clarity to an otherwise unclear passage.

October 17, 2011

Oriental Institute Job Posting: Visitor Services and Security Manager

The Oriental Institute is a research organization and museum devoted to the study of the ancient Near East. Founded in 1919 by James Henry Breasted, the Institute, a part of the University of Chicago, is an internationally recognized pioneer in the archaeology, philology, and history of early Near Eastern civilizations. A primary unit within the Institute is the Visitor Services and Security department, which is responsible for providing excellent customer service to Oriental Institute visitors, faculty, staff, and students, and ensuring the safety of Oriental Institute facilities, holdings, and people. We seek applicants for the position of Visitor Services and Security Manager, who reports to the Executive Director of the Oriental Institute and is responsible for the successful management of all visitor services and security operations. The ideal candidate combines extensive customer service experience with supervisory and security knowledge.

The Visitor Services and Security Manager will recruit, hire, train, and direct a staff of 30 student and temporary employees who greet visitors, answer visitor inquiries, and protect the Oriental Institute museum and its collection. The manager will act as primary contact for museum visitors during business hours and will develop and train staff in customer service methods to ensure that the visitor museum experience is of highest quality. She or he will also respond to building emergencies as needed and oversee the museum's security systems, including oversight of keys, electronic keypad access and video security monitoring and will act as primary liaison with University and department staff on issues related to building access, use of facility space and emergency management to ensure the efficient operation of Oriental Institute activities.

Bachelor's degree or at least two years of relevant work experience required.

Customer service and/or security systems experience preferred.

To apply for this position, please go to http://jobs.uchicago.edu, create a profile and apply for requisition # 088374. Review of applications will begin on October 24, 2011.

The University of Chicago is an Affirmative Action / Equal Opportunity Employer.

October 10, 2011

Learn more about our upcoming Special Exhibition at the Oriental Institute Museum, Picturing the Past: Imaging and Imagining the Ancient Middle East, running from February 6 to September 2, 2012.

Picturing the Past presents paintings, architectural reconstructions, facsimiles, casts, models, photographs, and computer-aided reconstructions that show how the architecture, sites, and artifacts of the ancient Middle East have been documented. The show also examines how the publication of those images have shaped our perception of the ancient world, and how some of the more "imaginary" reconstructions have obscured our real understanding of the past. The exhibit also shows how features of the ancient Middle East have been presented in different ways for different audiences, in some cases transforming a highly academic image into a widely recognized icon of the past.

October 7, 2011

New Research Archives Acquisitions List for July 2011 is now available.

October 7, 2011

Download information on applying for the 2012-2013 Post-Doctoral Fellow position at the Oriental Institute. The poster is in Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf).

October 3, 2011

Two previously published articles by Foy Scalf are now available for downloading in the Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format. They include:

September 28, 2011

The Introduction chapter to Culture, Chronology and the Chalcolithic, by Yorke Rowan and Jaimie L. Lovell is now available for downloading in the Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format.

The Near East constitutes a core region for understanding fundamental changes in human existence such as the domestication of plants and animals, the formation of hierarchical social organization and the rise of urbanism and city states. The long history of archaeological research in the region has been both enriched and coloured by these research interests. Those working in later prehistoric periods, which appear to bridge deep prehistory and 'history', often fi nd themselves operating with perspectives vastly different from one another. Scholars of all periods will recognize parallel issues in their own fi elds of research. This volume challenges entrenched models and hopes to highlight new directions for research.

September 20, 2011

An older lecture by Prof. Norman Golb is now available for download in the Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format: Jewish Proselytism - A Phenomenon In The Religious History Of Early Medieval Europe. A paper presented at the Tenth Annual Rabbi Louis Feinberg Memorial Lecture, March 3, 1987, at the University of Cincinnati.

Thanks to the contributions of several writers but particularly to the seminal work of the late Marcel Simon, Verus Israel, the world of learning has become quite well acquainted with the phenomenon of conversion to Judaism in late antiquity. Not only did that period witness the rise of a new Judaizing monotheism whose adherents were known as phoboumenoi ton theon, theosebeis or sebomenoi ("God-fearers") and not only did pagan conversions to normative Judaism take place then with considerable frequency, but there were Christians too who were attracted to the older faith - a fact that can be traced to at least as late as the 5th Century C.E. Simon, followed by others, attributed the apparent abatement of this interest to the growing presence of Christian imperial authority and to the development of Christian religious doctrines that, in his view, were better adapted to the Graeco-Roman mentality than were those of Judaism.

My purpose in the present study is to show that through the investigation of old Hebrew manuscripts, it becomes evident that this same attraction continued into the early Middle Ages. Writers concerned with Jewish proselytism in antiquity have apparently not been well acquainted with these manuscripts, which come mainly from the Cairo Genizah; had they known of them, had they in particular considered with care the historical evidence for the conversion of the Khazars to Judaism, their conclusions would have been rather different than they were. As it happens, most of the manuscripts discussed below have not yet been dealt with in any general or popular treatment of the history of the Jews or of medieval civilization; even scholarly writings about them are far from abundant. (There is still, for example, no complete published translation into English, or any other language, of the autograph memoirs of Obidiah the Proselyte.) Although meritorious work has already been done on medieval Jewish proselytism in general, it remains a relatively fresh subject of investigation whose pursuit reflects the fluctuating state of knowledge of the jewish past and the dynamic quality inherent in its investigation.

September 14, 2011

Five previously published articles or book chapters by Yorke Rowan are now available for downloading in the Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format. They include:

August 16, 2011

A summary of the most recent Epigraphic Survey field season's work, from October 2010 - April 2011, is now available on the project's homepage.

August 15, 2011

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) release of our Summer 2011 issue of our News & Notes publications.

August 10, 2011

New Research Archives Acquisitions Lists for May & June 2011 are now available.

August 9, 2011

The Oriental Institute announces a new archaeological project: the Jericho Mafjar Project (JMP), the first joint Palestinian-American archaeological excavation, making it a unique milestone for scholarship.

Khirbet al-Mafjar is located north of Jericho in the Palestinian territories. Famed as one of the most important of the "desert castles" of the early Islamic period, the site was excavated by Dimitri Baramki from 1934 to 1948. These excavations revealed a palace and great bath, both of which were intensively decorated with fine mosaics and elaborate stucco figures, as well as stone sculpture and frescoes, placing Mafjar as one of the most important monuments in the history of Islamic Archaeology.

The Oriental Institute was involved in support of the original publication by R. W. Hamilton in 1959. This monograph, and Creswell's repetition of its information, remain the scholarly basis for the fame of these monuments. This was assumed to have been the product of a short period of building and occupation in the early 8th century; in the absence of any final report on the site, the archaeology of Khirbet al-Mafjar stands in serious need of revision and presentation.

July 29, 2011

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of the seven titles below. These books were digitized as part of Stony Brook University's AMAR project by the Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image at the University of Pennsylvania:

July 27, 2011

Commerce and Coins in the Ancient Near East, a mini-exhibit at the Oriental Institute Museum, looks at commerce and trade from 3000 BC to the 4th century BC. The exhibit is presented in conjunction with the American Numismatic Association's World's Fair of Money being held in Chicago August 16 - 20th, 2011. The exhibit will be on view from August 11 to August 28.

July 13, 2011

The Oriental Institute Publications Office announces a new print publication:

OIC 30. Bir Umm Fawakhir, Volume 2: Report on the 1996-1997 Survey Seasons. Carol Meyer, with contributions by Lisa Heidorn, Alexandra A. O'Brien, and Clemens Reichel. 2011.

As part of its Electronic Publications Online, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

"OIC 30. Bir Umm Fawakhir, Volume 2: Report on the 1996-1997 Survey Seasons. Carol Meyer, with contributions by Lisa Heidorn, Alexandra A. O'Brien, and Clemens Reichel. 2011.

Bir Umm Fawakhir is a fifth-sixth century A.D. Coptic/Byzantine gold-mining town located in the central Eastern Desert of Egypt. The Bir Umm Fawakhir Project of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago carried out four seasons of archaeological survey at the site, in 1992, 1993, 1996, and 1997; one season of excavation in 1999; and one study season in 2001. This volume is the final report on the 1996 and 1997 seasons.

The goals of the 1996 and 1997 field seasons were to complete the detailed map of the main settlement, to continue the investigation of the outlying clusters of ruins or "Outliers," and to address some specific questions such as the ancient gold-extraction process. The completion of these goals makes the main settlement at Bir Umm Fawakhir one of the only completely mapped towns of the period in Egypt. Not only is the main settlement plotted room for room and door for door, but also features such as guardposts, cemeteries, paths, roads, wells, outlying clusters of ruins, and mines are known, and some of these are features not always readily detectable archaeologically.

This volume presents the pre-Coptic material; a detailed discussion of the remains in the main settlement, outliers, and cemeteries; the Coptic/Byzantine pottery, small finds, and dipinti; as well as a study of ancient mining techniques.

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