The Assyrian Dictionary of the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures of the University of Chicago (CAD)

 [First posted on AWOL 19 September 2012, updated [new institutional name] 22 June 2023]

The Assyrian Dictionary of the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures of the University of Chicago (CAD)

 [Formerly: The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (CAD[)

The CAD project was initiated in the early 1920s, not long after James Henry Breasted founded the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures in 1919, and barely one hundred years after the decipherment of the cuneiform script. This initial decipherment, and the soon-to-follow achievements in understanding the languages in which the hundreds of thousands of clay tablets were inscribed, opened an unsuspected treasure-house for the study and appreciation of one of the world's oldest civilizations.

The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary was conceived to provide more than lexical information alone, more than a one-to-one equivalent between Akkadian and English words. By presenting each word in a meaningful context, usually with a full and idiomatic translation, it recreates the cultural milieu and thus in many ways assumes the function of an encyclopedia. Its source material ranges in time from the third millennium B.C. to the first century A.D., and in geographic area from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Zagros Mountains in the east.

Completed in 2010, the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary has become an invaluable source for the study of the civilizations of the ancient Near East, their political and cultural history, their achievements in the sciences of medicine, astronomy, mathematics, linguistics, and the timeless beauty of their poetry.

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Volume	Pagination	Date	ISBN	Price
Volume 1, A, part 1	xxxvi + 392	1964	978-0-91-898606-1	$60.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 1, A, part 2	xx + 531	1968	978-0-91-898607-8	$80.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 2, B	xviii + 366	1965	978-0-91-898608-5	$60.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 3, D	xiv + 203	1959	978-0-91-898609-2	$50.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 4, E	xiv + 435	1958	978-0-91-898610-8	$70.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 5, G	xii + 158	1956	978-0-91-898611-5	$45.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 6, H [Het]	xiii + 266	1956	978-0-91-898612-2	$50.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 7, I/J	xv + 331	1960	978-0-91-898613-9	$60.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 8, K	xix + 617	1971	978-0-91-898614-6	$80.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 9, L	xx + 259	1973	978-0-91-898615-3	$55.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 10, M, part 1	xxiv + 441	1977	978-0-91-898616-0	$130.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 10, M, part 2	xx + 324	1977	978-0-91-898616-0	†	Download Terms of Use
Volume 11, N, part 1	xxiii + 382	1980	978-0-91-898617-7	$130.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 11, N, part 2	xxi + 357	1980	978-0-91-898617-7	†	Download Terms of Use
Volume 12, P	xxx + 559	2005	978-1-88-592335-6	$130.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 13, Q	xxiv + 332	1982	978-0-91-898624-5	$70.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 14, R	xxx + 441	1999	978-1-88-592314-1	$95.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 15, S	xxiv + 428	1984	978-0-91-898632-0	$80.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 16, S [Tsade]	xv + 262	1962	978-0-91-898618-4	$65.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 17, S [Shin], part 1	xxviii + 492	1989	978-0-91-898655-9	$75.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 17, S [Shin], part 2	xxviii + 453	1992	978-0-91-898678-8	$70.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 17, S [Shin], part 3	xxxiv + 420	1992	978-0-91-898679-5	$95.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 18, T	xxx + 500	2006	978-1-88-592342-4	$145.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 19, T [Tet]	xxxii + 167	2006	978-1-88-592343-1	$105.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 20, U/W	xxxi + 411	2010	978-1-88-592378-3	$150.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use
Volume 21, Z	xv + 170	1961	978-0-91-898619-1	$45.00	Purchase Download Terms of Use

Supplement to the Akkadian Dictionaries (eSAD)

[First  posted in AWOL 16 April 2018, updated 14 May 2019]

Supplement to the Akkadian Dictionaries (eSAD)

Akkadian (Babylonian-Assyrian), a Semitic language written in the cuneiform script, was the native language of Babylonia and Assyria, the two main areas of Ancient Mesopotamia. It spread all over the Ancient Near East and was used, at least in written form and during certain periods, also from Elam in southwest Iran to Anatolia Syria, Palestine and even Egypt in the west. Written from ca. 2600 BC to the 1st century AD, Akkadian is one of the best attested languages of antiquity: the size of the Akkadian text corpus approximately corresponds to the size of the corpus of ancient Latin.

The Akkadian lexicon is actually accessible through two large dictionaries, W. von Sodens Akkadisches Handwörterbuch (1958–1981, 3 volumes) and The Assyrian Dictionary of the University of Chicago (1956–2010, 20 volumes). Both dictionaries present Akkadian words with their meaning in context and a large number of references. However, due to the many new texts published after the end of the Akkadisches Handwörterbuch and The Assyrian Dictionary of the University of Chicago, as well as new secondary literature and corrections, both dictionaries, especially in their earlier volumes, are outdated in part.

The Supplement to the Akkadian Dictionaries is meant to update both dictionaries. Since July 1st 2013, it is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft as a long-term project, in connection with the Etymological Dictionary of Akkadian conducted by Manfred Krebernik (Jena) and Leonid Kogan (Moscow). All results are published on this website, and in addition printed volumes will appear successively. 

The project leader is Michael P. Streck. Collaborators are:  Nadezda Rudik (2013-2017), Elyze Zomer (2017), Janine Wende (since 2017), N. J. C. Kouwenberg (2017).

First postes in AWOL 16 April 2018, updated How to use the Supplement to the Akkadian Dictionaries

Content released under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license, 2007-14.

Text Corpus
Current State of Work
Supplement to the Akkadian Dictionaries:
A    B    D    E    G    Ḫ    I    K     L    M    N    P    Q    R    S    Ṣ    Š    T    Ṭ    U    W    Y    Z
Printversion:
  
Supplement to the Akkadian Dictionaries, Volume B, P., Leipziger Altorientalistische Studien Band 7,1, Harrassowitz (Wiesbaden) 2018. Divergences or additions to the print version are marked yellow in the digital version (eSAD) .
Bibliography
Bibliographical Abbreviations
Other_Abbreviations

See also:

A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian: Addenda, corrigenda, and supporting bibliography

and

The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago

Partially Open Access Journal: Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies

Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies

For many years, a number of scholarly reviews have assiduously addressed the subject of Assyria and the Assyrians. Given this reality, what is the justification for JAAS - the Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies?

We offer a partial explanation. Academic publications focused on Assyria are invariably dedicated to fleshing out the saga of its antiquity. Virtually no attention is paid to the history of those who survived the fall. This absence of scholarly attention is explained in part by what Dr. Edward Y. Odisho describes as "the confusion between the annihilation of the Assyrian political system and the annihilation of the Assyrian people". 

This is not to say that the surviving Assyrians and their accomplishments to follow have been entirely ignored by scholars. Yet it is a fact that in all but exceptional circumstances, they are described as anything but Assyrians. Whatever may be the reasons for this obliviousness, it is well past the hour for reconsideration. The Journal’s raison d’être is to fuel serious research about the culture of the Assyrians, from and after the time it survived the demise of empire. The pursuit of such a chronicle entails a tortuous path and multiple strands. It is for scholarship to reclaim, for us and for those who follow, what it can of this history.

To date, the subject of post-empire Assyrians has not spawned a single academic program anywhere in the world. And not a single academic publication focused on the subject until Dr. Odisho and a small number of individuals came along to launch the present Journal in 1985. JAAS is a small first step towards this gaping need. It is certainly not the answer, but hopefully it is the beginning of one.

This Journal cannot affect the economic or career considerations which generally decide what is a viable field of study for established faculty or for doctoral candidates. Nothing can provide scholarly cachet to "post-antiquity Assyria" studies as the emergence of a class of scholars who claim it as their specialty. In light of this, it is difficult to explain why the contemporary Assyrian community, and particularly its leaders and intellectuals, has failed to devise means and incentives for developing the cadre it desperately needs. 

While the Journal lacks the means to finance budding scholars (Assyrian or non-Assyrian), it offers them an open door. The Journal has a simple philosophy. Any paper received on any Assyrian subject deserves our serious scrutiny, provided it is based on research. 

AAS Table of Contents(e-JAAS)

List of digital articles

See the full List of Open Access Journals in Ancient Studies