Professor of Assyriology at the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations. 

Research Interests

Akkadian literature, mainly from the Old Babylonian period (c. 1900–1500 BCE). Special attention is given to incantations, wisdom literature, and love lyrics.

Teaching

Akkadian literature and Mesopotamian history.

Ongoing Projects

• Creation and Annihilation: The Myth of Atra-hasīs. A New Edition with Translation, Commentary, and Literary Analysis (ISF grant No. 257/22).
• Divine Love Lyrics: New Edition, New Perspective (ISF grant No. 464/19; with Rocío Da Riva, Barcelona)
• Sources of Early Akkadian Literature (SEAL): A hierarchical catalogue of all Akkadian literary texts of the 3rd–2nd millennium by genres and period. SEAL contains many new editions, commentaries and glossaries. Together with Prof. Michael P. Streck of the Altorientalisches Institut, Universität Leipzig.

Selected Publications

Books

• Akkadian Love Literature of the 3rd and 2nd Millennium BCE, Leipziger Altorientalistische Studien 4: Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 2016.
• "Whisper to the Passing Wind, Magic Texts from Ancient Mesopotamia", Carmel Publishing, 2022.
•  The Amorites: A Political History of Mesopotamia in the Early Second Millennium BCE: Carmel Publishing House (in collaboration with Dr. Yigal Bloch. Hebrew), 2019.
• The Flood: The Akkadian Sources. A New Edition, Commentary, and a Literary Discussion (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, 290), Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2020.
• Akkadian Magic Literature: Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian Incantations: Corpus – Context – Praxis, Leipziger Altorientalistische Studien 12, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2022 (with E. Zomer)

Articles

• The Man is Like a Woman, the Maiden is a Young Man. A new edition of Ištar-Louvre, Orientalia 87 (2018), 1–38 (Tab. I–II) (with M. P. Streck).
• Labor Pains, Difficult Birth, Sick Child: Three Old Babylonian Incantations from a Private Collection, Bibliotheca Orientalis 75 (2018), 14–25.
• The Susa Funerary Texts: A New Edition and Re-Evaluation and the Question of Psychostasia in Ancient Mesopotamia, Journal of the American Oriental Society 139 (2019), 859–891.
• I was not warm in the cold." Another Old Babylonian Proverbial Collection, Iraq 81 (2019) 241–245 (with M. P. Streck).
• An Elamite Magical Text Against Scorpion Bite with an Akkadian Procedure, Elamica 10 (2020), 47– 68 (with M. Krebernik).
• Forgotten Dais, Scattered Temple: Old Babylonian Akkadian Lament to Mamma and its Historical Context, Archiv für Orientforschung 54 (2021), 267-282 (with T. Oshima).

Graduate Students

• Mason Nelson
• Nimrod Madrer
• Benny Saret