Monday, December 16, 2019

SEAL: Sources of Early Akkadian Literature

[First posted in AWOL 20 July 2009 updated 18 December 2019]

SEAL: Sources of Early Akkadian Literature
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Sources of Early Akkadian Literature (SEAL) is a joint project headed by Michael P. Streck of the Altorientalisches Institut of the University of Leipzig and Nathan Wasserman of the Institute of Archaeology of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Project Description

Akkadian, i.e. Babylonian and Assyrian, literature, documented on cuneiform tablets from Ancient Mesopotamia, forms (together with Sumerian and Egyptian literature) the oldest written literary corpus of mankind.
In the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE (c. 2400–1100), Akkadian literature encompassed many different literary genres: hymns, lamentations, prayers to various gods, incantations against different diseases, demons and other sources of evil, love-lyrics, wisdom literature (proverbs, fables, riddles), as well as epics and myths - roughly 900 different compositions (Summer 2019). Many of these compositions are not yet published in satisfactory modern editions or are scattered throughout a large number of publications.
SEAL is an ongoing project which started in 2007. It aims to compile an exhaustive catalogue of Akkadian literary texts from the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE, to present this corpus in such a way as to enable the efficient study of the entire early Akkadian corpus in all its philological, literary, and historical dimensions. Many of the editions in SEAL rely on new collations and photographs.
Users should be aware that online SEAL is a work-in-process. Streck and Wasserman, and their respective Leipzig and Jerusalem teams, regularly add to the catalogue and improve the texts.  
In parallel to the online site, SEAL publishes sections of the corpus in printed monograph form as part of the series Leipziger Altorientalistische Studien (LAOS):
  • N. Wasserman, Akkadian Love Literature of the 3rd and 2nd Millennium BCE (Leipziger Altorientalistische Studien 4): Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 2016.
  • E. Zomer, Corpus of Middle Babylonian and Middle Assyrian Incantations (Leipziger Altorientalistische Studien 9): Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 2018.
  • N. Wasserman and Elyze Zomer: Akkadian Incantations of the Early 2nd Millennium BCE.
  • A. Pohl: Old Babylonian Hymns.

Text hierarchy

All texts [887]
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