Saturday, April 5, 2025

Sumerian Cuneiform Texts in the Abbey of Montserrat

The Abbey of Montserrat, near Barcelona, holds the largest collection of cuneiform inscriptions in Spain. It consists of some 1150 tablets and other artefacts, like bricks and cones, most of which were purchased in Iraq by Father Bonaventura Ubach between 1922 and 1923. His purpose was to provide the Biblical Museum of the Abbey with illustrative material from the Middle East.

       The most important section of this collection is represented by 768 tablets and other small fragments, all with administrative contents, written in Sumerian and dated to the Third Dynasty of Ur (or Ur III, ca. 2110-2004 B.C.). About half of these documents (388) were copied and published by Nikolaus Schneider in 1932 (Die Drehem- und Djohatexte im Kloster Montserrat (Barcelona) in Autographie und mit systematischen Wörterverzeichnissen. Analecta Orientalia 7. Rome 1932), and then were collated by Luigi Cagni in 1983 (Oriens Antiquus 22 [1983] 73-118).

       With the scope of revising all this material and publishing the remaining texts, in 1991 Manuel Molina initiated a three-year project funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (PB90-0031-C02-02). The main results of this project appeared in two books:

  1. M. Molina, Tablillas Administrativas Neosumerias del Museo de Montserrat. Copias Cuneiformes. Materiali per il Vocabolario Neosumerico 18. Rome: Bonsignori Editore, 1993 (42 pp. + CCLXIV pl.). ISSN 0390-4253.

  2. M. Molina, Tablillas Administrativas Neosumerias del Museo de Montserrat. Transliteraciones e Índices. Aula Orientalis Supplementa 11. Barcelona: AUSA, 1996 (483 pp.) [with an Appendix by H. Waetzoldt, “Katalog der Siegelabrollungen auf den neusumerischen Texten aus Montserrat”]. ISBN 84-88810-31-8.

The cataloguing data, transliterations and handcopies of these 768 Ur III tablets in the Abbey of Montserrat can now also be accessed through BDTNS link.*

       Other publications by M. Molina devoted to cuneiform inscriptions in the Abbey of Montserrat are the following:

  1. M. Molina, “Una mina de Naram-Sîn”. Aula Orientalis 7 (1989) 125-127.

  2. M. Molina, “Un bol inscrito del Museo de Montserrat (Barcelona)”. Aula Orientalis 8 (1990) 115-117.

  3. M. Molina and I. Márquez Rowe (eds.), Tabulae Montserratinae. Estudios de catalogación del Museo de Montserrat (Barcelona) dedicados al P. Guiu Camps con ocasión de su 80 cumpleaños. Aula Orientalis 15. Barcelona: AUSA, 1997 (296 pp.) ISSN 0212-5730.

  4. M. Molina, “Inscripciones reales conmemorativas neosumerias”, in Estudios G. Camps. Aula Orientalis 15. Barcelona 1997, pp. 63-67.

  5. M. Molina and B. Böck, “Textos y fragmentos literarios sumerios”, in Estudios G. Camps. Aula Orientalis 15. Barcelona 1997, pp. 33-41.

  6. I. Márquez Rowe and M. Molina, “Catálogo de textos cuneiformes publicados conservados en el Museo de Montserrat”, in Estudios G. Camps. Aula Orientalis 15. Barcelona 1997, pp. 11-20.

  7. M. Molina, “Lexical and Other School Tablets in the Montserrat Museum”, in S. Graziani (ed.), Studi sul Vicino Oriente Antico dedicati alla memoria di Luigi Cagni. Istituto Orientali di Napoli DSA, Series Minor LXI. Naples 2000, vol. II, pp. 751-764.

  8. I. Márquez Rowe and M. Molina, “Cuneiform Forgeries in the Museu Bíblic of Montserrat (Barcelona)”, in G. del Olmo Lete, L. Feliu and A. Millet (eds.), Šapal tibnim mû illaku. Studies Presented to Joaquín Sanmartín on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday. Aula Orientalis Supplementa 22. Barcelona 2006, pp. 289-301.

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* Photos of the tablets, taken by the CDLI in 2013 with the cooperation of Ignacio Márquez Rowe and María Dolores Casero Chamorro (CSIC), have also been linked to BDTNS entries.

 

 

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Sargonic Cuneiform Tablets in the Real Academia de la Historia: The Carl L. Lippmann Collection

M. Molina

In 1999, the Real Academia de la Historia (Madrid) acquired, through the Carl L. Lippmann Legacy, a lot of 337 tablets mostly from ancient Adab (Tell Bismaya). With one exception, they are all dated to the Sargonic period (ca. 2324-2142 B.C.). The majority of the tablets have been identified as belonging to the archives of two governors of the city, Šarru-ali and Lugal-ajagu, who were under the rule of the powerful Sargonic king Naram-Suen (ca. 2261-2206 B.C.). They document the management of the personnel of the palace and the manufactured products that were delivered or expended from the storehouse for different purposes. Particularly interesting are the tablets concerning the journeys of diplomats, emissaries and merchants, and those documenting the activities of artisans such as weavers, fullers, smiths, carpenters, rope-makers, leather-workers and reed workers.

       The Real Academia de la Historia entrusted Manuel Molina with the study and edition of these texts, which he carried out in collaboration with Maria Elena Milone (Università degli Studi La Sapienza, Rome) and Ekaterina Markina (Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow). The results of this research were presented in a book co-published by the Real Academia de la Historia and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Iraq:

The cataloguing data and transliterations of these 337 tablets in the Real Academia de la Historia can now also be accessed through BDTNS link.

 

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Database of Neo-Sumerian Texts (BDTNS)

 [First posted in AWOL 19 January 2012, updated (new UELs), 4  April December 2025]

Database of Neo-Sumerian Texts (BDTNS) 

Last update April 2025

The Database of Neo-Sumerian Texts (or BDTNS, its acronym in Spanish) is a searchable electronic corpus of Neo-Sumerian administrative cuneiform tablets dated to the 21st century B.C. During this period, the kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur built an empire in Mesopotamia managed by a complex bureaucracy that produced an unprecedented volume of written documentation. It is estimated that museums and private collections all over the world hold at least 120,000 cuneiform tablets from this period, to which should be added an indeterminate number of documents kept in the Iraq Museum.

       Consequently, BDTNS was conceived by Manuel Molina (CSIC) in order to manage this enormous amount of documentation. The project initially rested on two fundamental pillars. First, the boost given by Marcel Sigrist, who in 1996 put at M. Molina’s disposal his Ur III catalogue of more than 30,000 texts. Second, the bulk of Ur III transliterations prepared in 1993 by Remco de Maaijer and Bram Jagersma (Rijksuniversiteit, Leiden), made freely available on their website; over the years this material grew considerably and was made accessible to M. Molina in 2001 via the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. All the transliterations in BDTNS based on that work are properly credited on their respective catalogue records.

       The work on BDTNS began, therefore, in 1996 at the Instituto de Filología (now Instituto de Lenguas y Culturas del Mediterráneo y Oriente Próximo) of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC). Six years later, in 2002, it appeared online. In the same year, it began to be officially supported, thanks to two three-year research projects funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (now Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades):

  • BFF2001-2319. “Digitization of the Neo-Sumerian corpus of administrative cuneiform tablets (c. 2100-2000 BC)”. PI: M. Molina. Host institution: CSIC. Funding: €84,909. Duration: From 2002/01/01 to 2004/12/31.

  • HUM2004-1516. “Digitization of the Neo-Sumerian corpus of administrative cuneiform tablets (c. 2100-2000 BC). Second part”. PI: M. Molina. Host institution: CSIC. Funding: €71,600. Duration: From 2005/01/01 to 2008/03/31.

Throughout these years, BDTNS has worked closely with the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI), founded and directed by Robert K. Englund (UCLA) and Peter Damerow (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science), and now led by Jacob L. Dahl (University of Oxford), Bertrand Lafont (CNRS), Émilie Pagé-Perron (University of Oxford) and Jürgen Renn (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science). BDTNS also collaborates with the Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary Project (ePSD), directed by Steve Tinney (Penn Museum), and with several other projects. BDTNS has also benefited from the material generously provided by several other scholars, particularly Marcel Sigrist (École Biblique et Archéologique Française, Jerusalem) and David I. Owen (Cornell University, Ithaca NY). Likewise, authors of new publications of Neo-Sumerian texts have regularly supplied digitized versions of their works that have greatly facilitated the update of BDTNS.

       Since February 2025, BDTNS is hosted on the servers of the Galicia Supercomputing Center (CESGA), a center for research and services to R+D+i groups, promoted by the Xunta de Galicia and the CSIC.


BDTNS in Figures

BDTNS currently provides searchable cataloguing data, transliterations, images, bibliography, collections, seal inscriptions and geotagged locations for 104,923 Neo-Sumerian administrative cuneiform documents. Part of this material remains unpublished, and access to it is strictly at its editor’s discretion.

       More specifically, the texts in BDTNS can be classified as follows (April, 2025):

Published in handcopy and/or transliteration 69,910
Published only in catalogue or in photographic form 31,258
Auctioned 997
Unpublished 2,758
Total of texts in BDTNS 104,923

Transliterations for most of the published texts, images, a catalogue of seal inscriptions, collections, a complete bibliography, and geotagged data about their provenience are also provided by BDTNS:

Texts in transliteration 69,910 (100% of published texts) + 5,060 (only in catalogue, auctioned and unpublished texts)
Lines in transliteration 1,336,458
Texts with handcopy 33,332 (58.5% via CDLI)
Texts with photograph 49,589 (58.2% by CDLI)
Seal inscriptions 27,485
Bibliographical references 140,542
Links to external resources 273,201
Bibliography 2,273 titles
Collections 874 collections in
46 different countries

Provenience of the texts
Umma / Umma Region 33,873 35.6%
Girsu 29,872 31.4%
Puzriš-Dagan 17,119 18.0%
Ur 4,518 4.7%
Nippur / Nippur Region 3,638 3.8%
Irisagrig 3,038 3.2%
GARšana 1,702 1.8%
Other 1,499
1.6%

Staff

Editor:
 Manuel Molina, CSIC

Collaborators:
 Palmiro Notizia, Madrid (2011-2015)
Jesús M. Arrojería, Zarautz

Programmers:
Alejandro Feijóo Fraga, CESGA (2024-2025)
Cristina Corral Sánchez, SIGyHD, CCHS-CSIC (2020)
Carlos Fernández Freire, SIGyHD, CCHS-CSIC (2020)
Ángel Díaz del Castillo, ILC-CSIC (2015/04)
Jonatan Ortiz Salas, ILC-CSIC (2010/30/09 to 2012/09/29)
Juan Carlos Martínez Torres, ILC-CSIC (2002/01/01 to 2008/03/31)


  • Home
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  • Bibliography & Abbreviations
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    Open Access Journal: Vox Patrum

    [First posted in AWOL 27 December 2021, updated 5 April 2025}
     
    ISSN: 0860-9411 (Print)
    ISSN: 2719-3586 (Online)
    VOX PATRUM is a patristic journal (quarterly), published since 1981, first by the Institute of Research on Christian Antiquity of the Catholic University of Lublin, then (since 1 October 2012) by the Institute of History of the Church and Patrology in John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. "Vox Patrum" is the only kind of so spacious journal in Poland, focused on early Christianity, well-known in all patristic centres all over the world. The journal is valued not only for the published scientific articles, but as well because of the published bibliographies, translations, reviews, and documentation of the patristic life in Poland and all around the world. Rev. Prof. Stanisław Longosz was its founder and the first editor-in-chief.

    Vol. 93 (2025):
    Full Issue
    Articles

    Cross or Labarum? Character and Meaning of the Sign in the Central Quarter of Early Christian Sarcophagus in Museo Pio Cristiano in Rome (Lat. 171)

    Dariusz Tabor
    7-32
    published: 2025-03-15
     

    Victor I: the First Pope and the Head of the Christian Ecclesiae

    Paweł Głowacki
    33-54
    published: 2025-03-15
     

    Journey from Exclusion to Inclusion: A Literary Analysis of "The Letter to Diognetus", Chapters 1‑10

    David E. Nyström
    55-84
    published: 2025-03-15
     

    An Image of a Christian Father in "Vita Constantini" by Eusebius of Caesarea

    Dariusz Piasecki
    85-98
    published: 2025-03-15
     

    Christological Themes Found in the "Letters" of Jerome – Part Two

    Michał Łukaszczyk
    99-110
    published: 2025-03-15
     

    Isidore of Seville on Languages and Nations who Speak Them (Etymologies 9, 1-2)

    Tatiana Krynicka
    111-134
    published: 2025-03-15
     

    Borrowings from "The Epitome" of the Work of Theodore Lector in "The Chronicle" of George the Monk for the Reign of Emperors Theodosius II and Marcian

    Rafał Kosiński
    135-164
    published: 2025-03-15
     
    Translations

    Clemens Alexandrinus, Eclogae propheticae (translation into Polish)

    Wojciech Pawłowski
    167-188
    published: 2025-03-15
     

    Arethas’ letter to the emir at Damascus (translation into Polish)

    Łukasz Karczewski
    189-216
    published: 2025-03-15
     

    Brunechildis reginae epistolae (translation into Polish)

    Małgorzata Chudzikowska-Wołoszyn
    217-238
    published: 2025-03-15
     
    Bibliographies

    Bibliography of the "Sheperd" of Hermas

    Andrzej Suski
    241-286
    published: 2025-03-15
     
    In memoriam

    After 30 years in the service of book... Dr Anna Zofia Zmorzanka RIP (24 VII 1955–5 XII 2024)

    Stanisław Longosz
    289-300
    published: 2025-03-15
     


     
     

    And See AWOL's full List of Open Access Journals in Ancient Studies

     

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    Friday, April 4, 2025

    Partially Open Access Journal: American Journal of Philology

    ISSN: 1086-3168
    Print ISSN: 0002-9475


    journal cover image
    Since 1880, American Journal of Philology (AJP) has helped to shape American classical scholarship. Today, the Journal has achieved worldwide recognition as a forum for international exchange among classicists and philologists by publishing original research in classical literature, philology, linguistics, history, society, religion, philosophy, reception, and cultural and material studies. Book review sections are featured in every issue. AJP is open to a wide variety of contemporary and interdisciplinary approaches, including literary interpretation and theory, historical investigation, and textual criticism.
    Open Access Issues:
    1. Volume 146, Number 1 (Whole Number 581), Spring 2025
    2. Volume 145, Number 4 (Whole Number 580), Winter 2024 Open Access
    3. Volume 144, Number 4 (Whole Number 576), Winter 2023 Free Access

    Back issues at JSTOR

     See AWOL's full List of Open Access Journals in Ancient Studies

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    Open Access Journal: New England Classical Journal

    [First posted in AWOL 7 September 2016, updated 4 April 2025]

    New England Classical Journal
    Online ISSN: 2692-5869
    Print ISSN: 2692-5850
    College of the Holy Cross
    A publication of the Classical Association of New England, New England Classical Journal is a biannual, peer-reviewed journal that offers scholarly articles, pedagogical essays, and book reviews, all of which explore a variety of topics throughout the field of Classics.
    See the Aims and Scope for a complete coverage of the journal.
     Assortment of past winners.

     

    Masthead

    PDF

    Masthead

    Table of Contents

    PDF

    Table of Contents

    Message from the President

    PDF

    A Letter from CANE President Thomas J. Howell

    Articles

    PDF

    The Life of Terence, Revisited
    Hannah Čulík-Baird

    PDF

    Out with the Old, In with the Young? Youth and Old Age in Vergil’s Eclogues and Georgics
    Charissa Skoutelas and Anthony Smith

    PDF

    An Aulete Takes Flight: The Iconography of Music and Myth in a Myrina-Type Terracotta in the Mead Art Museum
    Loren Isotalo

    PDF

    BASILISSA: Exploring Cleopatra Selene’s Complex Identity through her Coinage
    Btari Laksono

    CANE Student Writing Contest Winner

    PDF

    Echoes of Justice: Parallels Between “Conflict of the Orders” and Modern Labor Struggles
    Darren Lin

    Book Reviews

    PDF

    Review of Jared Hudson. 2021. The Rhetoric of Roman Transportation. Vehicles in Latin Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp xvi, 353. Paperback. (ISBN 978-1-108-72323-7) $46.59.
    Ray Laurence

    PDF

    Review of Julie Stone Peters. 2022. Law as Performance. Theatricality, Spectatorship, and the Making of Law in Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. xv, 350. Hardcover. (ISBN 9780192898494) $130.
    Donald Lateiner

    Full Issue

    PDF

    Full Issue (52.1, Spring 2025)



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    Open Access Journal: CLARA Classical Art and Archaeology

    [First posted in AWOL 30 March 2018, updated 4 April 2025]

    CLARA Classical Art and Archaeology
    ISSN: 2464-3726
    So-called muse, from the Ustinow Collection, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. Copyrighted material.
    CLARA is an open access journal hosted by the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo and administered by an international Editorial Board. The main objective is to annually publish papers of a high academic quality within the field of Classical Art and Archaeology and to make them accessible to a wide scholarly public.

    Review

     

    Catalogues of Musem Collections

    The volume documents the Arvid Andrén Collection of Antiquities, donated by the collector’s son, Per Axel Andrén, to the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo in 2001. The introduction provides background about Arvid Andrén (1902–1999), who was an eminent Swedish archaeologist whose interests focused mainly on Etruscan architecture. His groundbreaking study of architectural terracottas was published in his dissertation, which was completed at Lund University in 1940. Andrén was associated with the Swedish Institute of Classical Studies in Rome, first as a Fellow (1931, 1934–1935, 1939–1942), and later as Director (1948–1952, 1964–1966). For an account of his career and publications, see Clara 1:1–14.

    The second part of the volume documents and examines the 84 objects in his collection, some of which were purchased or donated by Roman antiquarians, including Michele Vita, Giorgio Fallani and Calvesi. The years of acquisition appear to be limited to 1931, 1934, 1949–1952, coinciding with Andrén’s initial arrival in Rome and the years of his first term as Director of the Swedish Institute. The only documented purchase made by A. Andrén outside Rome is the head of a Siceliote clay votive statuette bought in Palermo in 1931.

    CLARA: Classical Art and Archaeolog
    Vol. 11 (2023)

      CLARA Special issue no 2: The Classical in Contemporary Art and Visual Culture
      Vol. 8 (2021)

      This special issue of CLARA titled ‘The Classical in Contemporary Art and Visual Culture’ focuses on the impact of Greco-Roman antiquity on present day art and culture. Over the last few decades, antique statues have been revived again and again, turning up in new guises in contemporary art from all over the globe. In addition to new works based on specific ancient statues, some artists create art that references the past in a more general way. Other artists question the divide between past and present raising the possibility of ‘multi-temporality’, a phenomenon that will be explored in connection with recent exhibitions. Another aspect of the interaction of antiquity and the contemporary world is the association between luxury brands and antique monuments, fashion brands taking on the role of patrons, paying large sums for the restoration of Roman landmarks. By studying various types of exchanges between the classical and the contemporary, the papers aim to throw light on why artists and designers continue to draw inspiration from ancient art; in short, why antiquity continues to fascinate.

       















      • CLARA: Classical Art and Archaeology
        Vol. 7 (2021)

      • CLARA: Classical Art and Archaeology
        Vol. 6 (2020)

      • CLARA Special issue: Perceiving Matter. Visual, Material and Sensual Communication from Antiquity to the Middle Ages and Beyond
        Vol. 5 (2020)

        The twenty-first century has witnessed a growing interest in antique and medieval polychromy. By now it is generally acknowledged that colour is an integral part of their sculpture. In the present special issue of CLARA, scholars from various disciplines explore different aspects of sculptural polychromy in marble, glass, stucco, wood and terracotta – from Antiquity to the Renaissance: The multisensory perception of colour, the interplay of colour and texture, the treatment of sculpted surfaces, the importance of gilding and polishes, and the challenges when reconstructing lost polychromy. Combining empirical and theoretical data, the special issue includes hitherto unpublished colour reconstructions and scientific details.

        Photo: Female head. Parian marble. Found in Athens, in the Odeion of Herodes Atticus. It comes from an acrolithic statue of a goddess. The inlaid eyes were made of ivory, the irises were made of dark stone and the eyelashes of metal. The hair was painted in red colour. Copy of an original work of the 5th or 4th century BC. 2nd century AD. ​

        This collection of articles is the result of a seminar with the title Perceiving Matter: Visual, Material and Sensual Communication from Antiquity to the –Middle Ages and Beyond, held April 5th 2019 at the Museum of Cultural History (MCH), University of Oslo. The seminar was arranged by Marina Prusac-Lindhagen and Kaja Kollandsrud and established the research group ‘Polychrome Art History’ https://www.khm.uio.no/english/research/research-groups/polychrome-art-history/

      • Vol. 4 (2019)

      • Vol. 3 (2018)

      • Vol. 2 (2017)

      • Vol. 1 (2016)

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