The Melammu Project

The Intellectual Heritage of Assyria and Babylonia in East and West

General description:

The Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectual Heritage Project (Melammu) investigates the continuity, transformation and diffusion of Mesopotamian culture throughout the ancient world from the second millennium BC until Islamic times. A central objective of the project is to create an electronic database collecting the relevant textual, art-historical, archaeological, ethnographic and linguistic evidence and making it easily accessible on the Internet. In addition, the project organizes annual symposia focusing on different aspects of cultural continuity and evolution in the ancient world.

Each symposium of the Melammu Project has a central theme, selected by the members of the Project at the previous symposium. The purpose of the Melammu Symposia is to promote interdisciplinary research and cross-cultural studies by providing a forum in which cultural continuity, diffusion and transformation in the ancient world can be assessed systematically on a long-term basis. The emphasis is on continued interchange of ideas between specialists in different disciplines, with the goal of gradually but steadily increasing the number of participants and thus breaking down the walls separating the individual disciplines. Although each symposium focuses on a different theme, since the primary purpose of the symposia is to encourage interdisciplinary cooperation per se, papers not necessarily related to a specific theme but contributing to the overall scope of the project are welcome at every meeting.

Board:

NB: Prof. Tzvi Abusch is stepping down as Chair of the Melammu Project, and proposes Prof. Robert Rollinger as his successor. Read his letter here.

(Chair) Prof. Tzvi Abusch, Brandeis University
Prof. Walter Burkert, University of Zurich
Prof. Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila, University of Helsinki (Arabic and Islamic sources)
Prof. Antonio Panaino, University of Bologna (Iranian sources)
Prof. Simo Parpola, University of Helsinki (Assyrian sources)
Prof. Robert Rollinger, University of Innsbruck (Greek, Mesopotamian and Iranian history)

Steering Committee:

Prof. Manfried Dietrich, Univeristy of Münster (Ugaritic sources)
Prof. Ithamar Gruenwald, Tel Aviv University (Jewish Aramaic sources)
Prof. G. B. Lanfranchi, University of Padua (Ancient Near Eastern history)
Dr. Martti Nissinen, University of Helsinki (Ancient Near Eastern prophecy, Old Testament)
Prof, Shalom Paul, Hebrew University (Akkadian and Hebrew sources)
Prof. Kurt A. Raaflaub, Brown University
Prof. Abdul Massih Saadi, Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago (Syriac sources)
Prof. Philippe Talon, Université Libre de Bruxelles (Assyriology, ancient philosophy)
Prof. Martin L. West, Oxford University
Prof. Irene Winter, Harvard University (Ancient Near Eastern and Indian art)

Consultants:

See address list.