Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures

Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures A leading research center for the cultures of ancient West Asia and North Africa
(396)

The Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures is a world-renowned showcase for the history, art, and archaeology of the cultures of ancient West Asia and North Africa. The museum displays objects recovered by ISAC excavations in permanent galleries devoted to ancient Egypt, Nubia, Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Anatolia, and the ancient site of Megiddo, as well as rotating special exhibits.

The site of Medinet Habu was excavated from 1926-1933, under Uvo Hölscher (1878-1963. This included the excavation of se...
10/31/2023

The site of Medinet Habu was excavated from 1926-1933, under Uvo Hölscher (1878-1963. This included the excavation of several levels dating to the Third Intermediate Period, including examining the chapels of the God’s Wives of Amun and the discovery of burials there. This included the burial of Ankhshepenwepet, which had been discovered in the course of examining the mortuary chapel of the God’s wife of Amun, Shepenwepet I, the Dynasty 23 God’s wife of Amun, daughter of Osorkon III.

Ankhshepenwepet was a singer of the temple of Amun and since she was buried in the vicinity of the Shepenwepet I’s chapel, it was assumed that she was an attendant of Shepenwepet I. The burial of Ankhshepenwepet took place early on in the next dynasty, Kush*te Dynasty 25. Although her tomb had been robbed, the excavations found four alabaster canopic jars, faience shabtis, and two scarabs, including one of lapis, which would have been very expensive as well as one that evidently was stone covered with gold leaf.

E14678A and B, E14927, alabaster, stone, gold leaf, and lapis, Dynasty 25 (ca. 760 BCE)

“…Dumuzi was dead, the sheepfold was haunted.”With these ominous words, the shepherd Dumuzi finishes recounting his drea...
10/31/2023

“…Dumuzi was dead, the sheepfold was haunted.”

With these ominous words, the shepherd Dumuzi finishes recounting his dream to his sister, who immediately tells him “My brother, your dream is not favorable—do not tell me any more of it!”

Featuring a portentous dream spelling a terrible fate, a loyal sister, a treacherous friend, and a whole host of big, small, wise, and lively demons, the Sumerian story Dumuzi’s Dream seems like a horror film in the making.

Over the course of the tale, Dumuzi tries everything from hiding to subterfuge to divine-assisted transformation to evade and escape his demonic foes, with some of these misadventures being chronicled in this tablet containing an extract from the story that a student made in scribal school.

No spoilers from us on how the story ends, and whether all that eerie foreshadowing turns out to be correct—just Happy Halloween, and don’t let the galla-demons catch you!

Object info: ISACM A30267. Old Babylonian Period (from House F in Nippur)

This week we’re focusing on posts looking at objects from archaeological excavations in Egypt present in the ISAC Museum...
10/31/2023

This week we’re focusing on posts looking at objects from archaeological excavations in Egypt present in the ISAC Museum collection! Today we start with an excavation that was not an ISAC excavation at all, but rather took place before the founding of the institute. In 1899-1900, John Garstang excavated for the Egyptian Research Account, at the Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate period Cemetery E in North Abydos. As part of the division of the finds, Chicago received this stela. The stela was found in grave 312; the cemetery itself was made up of a series of shaft graves and pit graves.

The stela shows Senbu, Controller of the Watch (the person who controls the staff on a monthly basis), who is seated on the left before a table filled with offerings with his wife Set-Sebek, on the right, below them are other family members including two women identified “his sisters of his mother.” Below them are various other individuals who are part of the larger family household including a baker and his wife.

E6739, stone, Egypt, Dynasty 13 (1783-1640 BCE)

“You have handed over figurines of me to a dead person, you have performed sorcery against me, you have had sorcery perf...
10/30/2023

“You have handed over figurines of me to a dead person, you have performed sorcery against me, you have had sorcery performed against me….You have laid figurines of me in the lap of a dead person, you have buried figurines of me in a dead person’s grave….You have given me all kinds of bewitched foot to eat…You have given me all kinds of bewitched water to drink, milk, beer or wine….

Are you ready for Halloween? Get prepared for the holiday with this tablet! This is a fragment of the maqlu text, which is an incantation text written in Akkadian against witchcraft. The idea behind this text is to protect someone against witchcraft such as what is being described here, in addition to punishing those responsible by destroying the body and ghost of the witch.

A7876, baked clay, Iraq, Neo-Assyrian period (8th-7th century BCE)

Over the past few decades, researchers have studied the hundreds of tablets from scribal schools like House F in Nippur ...
10/28/2023

Over the past few decades, researchers have studied the hundreds of tablets from scribal schools like House F in Nippur to reconstruct what students learned on their way to becoming scribes. But what do we know about how they learned to write the texts they did, from the simplest syllables to literary texts that are hundreds of lines long, like the one pictured here?

Want to find out more about how scholars use tablets to reconstruct not only what ancient Babylonian students learned, but how they learned it? Join us this upcoming Wednesday, November 1st at 7pm, in-person in Breasted Hall or watch the recording on ISAC’s YouTube channel, for the next talk in our monthly lecture series. Professor Paul Delnero of Johns Hopkins University will speak on “What Did You Learn in School Today? A Day in the Life of a Mesopotamian Student.”

And if you’re attending in person, stop by the ISAC Museum at 6pm that day for a guided tour of the Back to School in Babylonia special exhibition.

Object info: ISACM A30271+. Old Babylonian Period (from House F in Nippur).

How do you start learning to write a language? You start with the smallest building blocks of your script, whether the l...
10/28/2023

How do you start learning to write a language? You start with the smallest building blocks of your script, whether the letters of our alphabet, or, for ancient Babylonian scribal students, the syllables of the cuneiform writing system. In the city of Nippur, all the students learnt their syllables in one specific order, writing out a text modern researchers call by the unexciting name “Syllable Alphabet B.”

One student created this small prism to do this—writing out their set list of syllables,
A A
A A A
A KU
A KU KU…

…etc. across the prism’s four sides. They got a bit turned around at one point though, and began writing upside-down on the prism’s third side—as someone who once got kept in from recess in Kindergarten because she kept writing her e’s backwards, I can relate!

Object info: ISACM A30286. Old Babylonian Period (from House F in Nippur).

"Marduk, great lord, on the servant who reverences you show mercy." The inscription is on a seal which depicts a bird-de...
10/27/2023

"Marduk, great lord, on the servant who reverences you show mercy."
The inscription is on a seal which depicts a bird-demon, who is a demon with a human head, bird wings, and bird feet. The bird demon holds two horned creatures, possibly ibexes, by their hind legs. Demons frequently have bird characteristics, particularly the wings and talons.

A29439, jasper, Iraq, Kassite period (1595-1155 BCE)

“The most frequent word for “exorcising” a spirit or demon is sḫr, literally “to cause to fall” (like the English “to la...
10/26/2023

“The most frequent word for “exorcising” a spirit or demon is sḫr, literally “to cause to fall” (like the English “to lay” a ghost), which is not restricted to vocal magic, but applied equally to physical acts of magic. An example of its strictly oral use is found in the second Setna story, in which the hero reads aloud from a “book of exorcising spirits” (mḏy n sḫr ı͗ḫy) after a visit to the underworld.”

to Robert Ritner’s The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice! The book was first published in 1993 but went through multiple printings, with this excerpt being from the 4th printing which appeared in 2008. The book represented a major step forward in the modern understanding of ancient Egyptian magic and remains fundamental to our understanding of these magical practices. You can read the book for yourself here: https://bit.ly/ISACMagic

The Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures and the Department of Art History at the University of Chicago invite ap...
10/26/2023

The Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures and the Department of Art History at the University of Chicago invite applications for a Professorship in Ancient Near Eastern Art, with appointment beginning July 1, 2024, or July 1, 2025. For information, and to apply, visit: https://apply.interfolio.com/135096
EOE/VET/Disability.

“Roared in the Heavens, Smote(?) the…in the Underworld; Bound the gods of Heaven in Heaven…Because he bound Nanna in the...
10/25/2023

“Roared in the Heavens, Smote(?) the…in the Underworld; Bound the gods of Heaven in Heaven…Because he bound Nanna in the red (evening) sky?, Because he found the ox in the stall, the sheep in the fold, May Samana like a river burst his banks(?)! Like a ditch let it him be washed away (?)! Like a fire in a banebrake let it die down of its own accord. Like a sliced-off plant may it not put down roots again! [Tu] en enuru.”

Today we look at a tablet that contains an incantation against the demon Samana, a disease-causing demon. Samana is known to cause diseases in not only people, but also animals, plants, rivers, and even deities. The name “comes from the Akkadian word for red, and the disease caused by the demon is a skin disease.

A7885, baked clay, Iraq, Ur III period (ca. 2112-ca. 2004 BCE)

“If “hand” of ghost turns into seizure, that person is sick with “hand” of his city god; in order to save him from “hand...
10/24/2023

“If “hand” of ghost turns into seizure, that person is sick with “hand” of his city god; in order to save him from “hand” of his city god, you sew up the flesh of wild animals, the “little finger of a corpse,” old rancid oil and copper in virgin she-goat skin with dormouse tendon. If you put it on his neck, he should recover.”

It’s ! In this excerpt, from the diagnostic text known as the SA.GIG, the tablet describes symptoms which appear to be neurological in nature such as strokes and seizures. The cause of sickness here is attributed to a ghost and the treatment presumably will counteract that malevolent spirit. Prior to the understanding of how diseases were caused, people in the ancient world had different ideas about what the causes might have been. In the case of this tablet, the diseases were thought to be caused by deities, ghosts, or demons. The treatments prescribed were thought to make placate these spirits or protect the individual against these forces.

A3441, baked clay, Iraq, Neo-Babylonian period (ca. 750-500 BCE)

“Bound and sealed and doubly-sealed is the house of YY’ son of Mahduk with the great seal of…Sargon enchanted with encha...
10/23/2023

“Bound and sealed and doubly-sealed is the house of YY’ son of Mahduk with the great seal of…Sargon enchanted with enchantments and bound with bonds, with the seal of the head of the kingdom of fire, who has a countenance of bright fire: in order that demons and plagues and damagers and liliths may not approach the threshold of YY’ son of Mahduk and his livestock. In the name of the God of Israel, amen, amen, selah.”

This week in the lead-up to Halloween we’re looking at non-corporeal beings such as demons, ghosts, and other creatures! People in the ancient world looked to these beings both as bringers of disease and ill-fortune, but also as protectors. In this case, the Late Antique incantation bowl written in Aramaic is concerned with protecting someone named YY’, whose mother is Mahduk, which is an Iranian name, as well as his home and his livestock from various demons. The next line is difficult ot read but appears to use the name Sargon in a magical sense, apparently evoking the Neo-Assyrian king Sargon II as well as angels. The Hebrew words “amen, amen, selah” also appear on Syriac and Mandaic-language incantation bowls.

After it was inscribed, most bowls would be buried upside down and trap the demons in it. That seems not to have been the case in this instance. The holes in the bottom of the bowl give us a further indication of the way that it would deposited in the ground. A group of incantation bowls have been found with holes and traces of bitumen that were buried together rim to rim to form a hollow space in between the bowls where something could be trapped inside. The holes (which were often located near the rim rather than at the bottom of the bowl, as we see here) allow it to be bound to another bowl with cords and bitumen, if present, would have allowed the bowls to have been sealed together. Inside the bowls have been found eggshells inscribed in Aramaic as well as human bones, with reports of inscribed skulls being attested found in bowls. Inscribed skulls written in Aramaic that have been found (including those not found in bowls) are not very legible, but the surviving information argues for the presence of spells similar to those on the bowls themselves and one has been found that has a drawing of a demon similar to the drawings in the incantation bowls.

Most of these bowls would be placed in houses (specifically in courtyards or doorways) to act as protective devices or buried in cemeteries. The bowl here is one of several from the site of Khafajeh in southern Iraq, which does not apparently have any Late Antique settlement. The exact find-spot of the bowl is not clear, but it suggests that the bowl was not coming from a house and therefore might have come from a graveyard. Most bowls, when they have a provenance, come from the site of Nippur and were made by members of the Jewish, Christian, and Mandaean community.

A17877, baked clay and ink, Iraq, Sasanian-Early Islamic period (6th-8th centuries CE)

Maybe fight fear with fear? How do these pendants make you feel? More or less afraid? Or maybe just a different kind of...
10/22/2023

Maybe fight fear with fear?

How do these pendants make you feel? More or less afraid? Or maybe just a different kind of fear than the ? These demon-head pendants are around 5000 years old, and they were found in Iraq. We are officially less than a week away from our annual Haunted Halloween celebration, let the countdown begin! We thought this would be the best way to kick off the festivities.

A12385, A17015, A11536, Gypsum/calcite, Iraq, Early Dynastic period (2600-2300 BCE)
A7202, Stone, Iraq, Early Dynastic period (2600-2300 BCE)

The Memphis Kom el-Fakhry Archaeological project (.memphis on Instagram) just wrapped up week 3 of excavations! This wee...
10/22/2023

The Memphis Kom el-Fakhry Archaeological project (.memphis on Instagram) just wrapped up week 3 of excavations! This week they continued going down in the excavation units and started to focus more intensely on processing artifacts and ceramics coming out of the trenches. There were some really exciting finds this week!

If you want to learn more of Egyptian archaeology, the leader of the excavations, UChicago NELC PhD Candidate Raghda (Didi) El-Behaedi, will be teaching a four-week class "Archaeology of Pharaonic Egypt: Old Kingdom to New Kingdom" starting in November! For more information and registration go to https://bit.ly/ISACEgyptArch

Human Rights and the Future of Afghanistan. Join ISAC's Gil Stein for a conversation with Nader Nadery, former Human Rig...
10/21/2023

Human Rights and the Future of Afghanistan. Join ISAC's Gil Stein for a conversation with Nader Nadery, former Human Rights Commissioner. Tuesday, October 24 at 5:30, International House, University of Chicago. To register for this free event, visit: https://bit.ly/IHouseRights

We conclude women in Ur III week with a balanced account of 160 female workers who were assigned to teams led by differe...
10/20/2023

We conclude women in Ur III week with a balanced account of 160 female workers who were assigned to teams led by different male supervisors. It is not clear what tasks these women would perform but one of the supervisors title is concerning grinding grain, suggesting that some women at least were millers, while others may have done agricultural labor, weaving, or other tasks that we have seen this week.
The women worked either full time or half time and would have had days off. Full time workers were given 5 or 6 days off in a 30-day month, while half-time workers worked 18 days a month. Many part-time workers were citizens who owed a certain amount of labor per year to the Ur III state and if they were not working for the state, they could hire themselves out. The advantage of doing this was that the rations they received working as private individuals were considerably higher than what the state gave them. When the subtotals are added up in this document, 110 ½ workers were assigned, leaving 49.5 workers still available. Again, this points to the level of documentation that was needed to administer the various workers in this period.
A31752, baked clay, Iraq, Ur III period (ca. 2112-ca. 2004 BCE)

to the ISAC excavations at the site of Tell Asmar! In the course of the excavations, excavators found the remains of a...
10/19/2023

to the ISAC excavations at the site of Tell Asmar! In the course of the excavations, excavators found the remains of an Ur III temple dedicated to the deified ruler Shu-Sin of the Ur III period, next to a palace. One can see the reconstruction here. The palace would have served as the administrative center of the city, being the focus of production and distribution.
Although the tablet here is from Telloh (ancient Girsu), rather than Tell Asmar, it gives us an idea about the scale of the work that would have been organized out of Ur III palaces in various cities. The tablet records groups of female and male workers who were employed together, although the female workers (who are probably weavers) greatly outnumbered the male workers, who are identified as being fullers or washermen. These individuals are travelling around various cities in the Lagash province. In one group there are 39 women and 3 fullers; in another 140 women and 4 fullers; 196 women and 7 fullers; 62 women and 3 fullers; 25 women and 1 fuller. After they reached a particular town (which could take several days), they would then be there and work there for a while. It may be that they were being transferred between different establishments throughout the province as needed. It is clear that this was a large operation and points to the extensive bureaucracy that would have been needed to run the economic administration of different parts the Ur III state.
A32043, baked clay, Iraq, Ur III period (ca. 2112-ca. 2004 BCE)

ISAC is looking forward to our shared event with the Renaissance Society, a contemporary art space on UChicago's campus/...
10/19/2023

ISAC is looking forward to our shared event with the Renaissance Society, a contemporary art space on UChicago's campus/at the University of Chicago, looking at their current exhibition by Dala Nasser, which focuses on the myth around the Adonis River (Nahr Ibrahim) in Lebanon, and putting it in conversation with the ISAC’s ancient Mesopotamian collections. This in-person event will happen next Wednesday, October 25th and is open exclusively to ISAC Members. Not yet a Member? Join today and enjoy this and other special Members’ only events! For more information go to bit.ly/ISACMember

Photo credit:
Dala Nasser, Adonis River, installation view at the Renaissance Society, 2023. © Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago. Photo by Bob.

While the two tablets over the last two days appeared quite similar to one another, this is a different looking tablet w...
10/18/2023

While the two tablets over the last two days appeared quite similar to one another, this is a different looking tablet which is a fragment of large tablet. The tablet is a list of women, sometimes listed with their children, who are receiving a certain amount of wool to which she was entitled on a yearly basis. The women probably belonged to a temple household, mill, or weaving establishment where they would have worked. Women worked in large workhouses or factories, particularly producing textiles, flour, and oil for state institutions. Apparently, the working conditions in these factories were not particular ideal and people would flee from the work and their relatives were expected to carry on in their place. To give an idea of the scale this work, texts preserved concerning the region of Lagash indicate that more than 10,000 people, 2/3 of which were women, worked in the weaving mills.
A1146, baked clay, Iraq, Ur III period (ca. 2112-ca. 2004 BCE)

It’s ! Although we are dedicating an entire week to tablets, today we are looking at women in Ur III who worked outside...
10/17/2023

It’s ! Although we are dedicating an entire week to tablets, today we are looking at women in Ur III who worked outside. These women worked in a variety of different jobs that happened outdoors, including agriculture, brick-making, and construction work including building houses. Here, we have women involved in agricultural work. In this instance, 1131 women are stacking hay (zar3 tab-ba) and leveling of the ground (šu ur3-ra) in different fields.
A2675, baked clay, Iraq, Ur III period (ca. 2112-ca. 2004 BCE)

Join us this Friday at 7 pm for a double screening of Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life, dir. Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B...
10/17/2023

Join us this Friday at 7 pm for a double screening of Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life, dir. Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1925 and Gabbeh, Dir. Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 1996. This is the first in our monthly Iranian film series Movement and Landscape in Iranian Cinema, which will run through June 2024. ISAC Research Associate Professor Abbas Alizadeh will introduce each screening.

In the Ur III period, women are attested working outside the home in positions (sometimes alongside men), owning propert...
10/16/2023

In the Ur III period, women are attested working outside the home in positions (sometimes alongside men), owning property, acting as supervisors and administrators, and living on their own as an independent person. Indeed, in some private households, the number of working women outnumber the working men. Women were busy in a variety of different jobs outside the home which included everything from weaving to construction work to sweeping the temples. This week we will look at different examples of women and their roles in Ur III society.

In the case of the text here, the women in question, working at the site of Telloh in year 48 of Shulgi were sent for “porridge (duty)” (ar-za-na-še3). The four women were apparently sent for one day to prepare porridge.

A3360, baked clay, Iraq, Ur III period (ca. 2112-ca. 2004 BCE)

Dovie’andi se tovya sagain -- It’s time to toss the dice Did you know that dice have been around for around 5000 years? ...
10/15/2023

Dovie’andi se tovya sagain -- It’s time to toss the dice

Did you know that dice have been around for around 5000 years? They are one of the oldest game pieces, and they have been found all around the world—not just in Western Asia! Playing a fun game may be one of the best ways to get rid of Sunday scaries. Find some friends or download an app, and enjoy one of the oldest human pastimes.

Try out some ancient games during our Haunted Halloween celebration! This free and family friendly event will have scavenger hunts, gallery puzzles, and some ancient board games spread around. We’d love to see you there!

E8493-97, bone or ivory/bitumen, Egypt, Roman period (30 BCE-337 CE)

An update from Memphis Kom el-Fakhry Archaeological project (.memphis on Instagram)! This week two more excavation units...
10/15/2023

An update from Memphis Kom el-Fakhry Archaeological project (.memphis on Instagram)! This week two more excavation units were opened and lots and lots of pottery was processed. Site survey and archaeological illustration of the site continued. More photos and updates to come!

“When school was out, I went home.I came home; there my dad was sitting.I read aloud my round tablet to my father,I reci...
10/14/2023

“When school was out, I went home.
I came home; there my dad was sitting.
I read aloud my round tablet to my father,
I recited my tablet to him, my dad was pleased with me.”

In this “school story” from a Babylonian school in Nippur nearly 3, 800 years ago, the schoolchild protagonist describes a surprisingly familiar sequence of events: a student goes home and shares what happened in school that day.

It’s Family Weekend here at UChicago, so you can see a similar scene, but with the location reversed, playing out again and again across the quad, as students in the College show their visiting families around and tell them all about the past few weeks at school.

To find out what happened next to our protagonist, and to discover life at school for ancient Babylonian students, stop by the special exhibit at the ISAC Museum, Back to School in Babylonia.

Object info: ISACM A30217. Old Babylonian period, from House F in Nippur.

It is perhaps not surprising given the amount of repetition involved in making clay plaques that we can find possible in...
10/13/2023

It is perhaps not surprising given the amount of repetition involved in making clay plaques that we can find possible instances of the same mold being used for different plaques. Here we have a clay plaque showing to bison-men holding a pole with the sun disk from the site of Ishchali (A9337), which may be from the same mold as another smaller fragment of the same plaque, also from the site of Ishchali (A16997).
A9337 and A16997, baked clay, Iraq, Isin-Larsa-Old Babylonian period (2004-1595 BCE)

Friends of ASOR present the next webinar in the 2023-2024 season on October 19 2023, at 6:00 pm EDT, by Yorke Rowan. The...
10/13/2023

Friends of ASOR present the next webinar in the 2023-2024 season on October 19 2023, at 6:00 pm EDT, by Yorke Rowan. The deserts and steppes beyond the Fertile Crescent were considered underpopulated and of little significance to the larger neolithization process. New data indicates this region was much more hospitable than at present. Join Yorke Rowan as he presents the latest discoveries from the Black Desert of eastern Jordan. The webinar will conclude with a live Q&A session.Learn more and register: https://www.asor.org/news/2023/10/webinar-rowan-neolithic-renaissance

to the ISAC excavations at the site of Ishchali, which took place under Thorkild Jacobsen and Henry Hill for two seaso...
10/12/2023

to the ISAC excavations at the site of Ishchali, which took place under Thorkild Jacobsen and Henry Hill for two season between 1934 and 1936. Not surprisingly, the expedition found clay plaques and they also found clay molds for those plaques, such as we can see in the historic photo here (A17002). A similar head (A21203) made from such a mold can also be seen in another historic photo of objects from Ishchali.
A17002 and A21203, baked clay, Iraq, Isin-Larsa-Old Babylonian period (2004-1595 BCE)

Join us tonight 7 (C) at ISAC, or on our YouTube channel livestream for a conversation with Afghan artist and architect ...
10/12/2023

Join us tonight 7 (C) at ISAC, or on our YouTube channel livestream for a conversation with Afghan artist and architect Feda Wardak about his work in Jeghatu, Afghanistan, the damage to local crafts in conflict regions, and the impact that violence has on environments and bodies.
In person admission is free. To access the livestream visit:
https://bit.ly/ISACWardak

While many Mesopotamian plaques in collections are made from inexpensive materials, others are far more elaborate and ex...
10/11/2023

While many Mesopotamian plaques in collections are made from inexpensive materials, others are far more elaborate and expensive. This plaque was made from limestone with shell inlay that frames the scenes of a male and female figure facing each other, who are possibly deities although this is not clear. The shell has been affixed to the limestone with bitumen. In contrast to the clay plaques, which were for private use, plaques such as these, which are common in the Early Dynastic period, would have probably been dedicated in temples. A clay or wooden peg would have meant that they would stay in place on the mudbrick wall of the temple.
A11410, limestone, shell, and bitumen, Iraq, Early Dynastic III period (2600-2350 BCE)

Not in Chicago, but interested in a deeper look into our exhibition project “Back to School in Babylonia”? Join us onlin...
10/11/2023

Not in Chicago, but interested in a deeper look into our exhibition project “Back to School in Babylonia”? Join us online for a five week course "Discover the Babylonian Curriculum from Lexical Lists to Literature" starting tomorrow, October 12 at 5pm Chicago time! In this class we will go back to 1740 BCE in the Babylonian city of Nippur, where young pupils learned to read and write the complex cuneiform script, while more advanced students studied topics like mathematics, religion, and law. The goal of their education was to gain the knowledge, skills, and character traits necessary to become successful scribes. The class will explore the aims of the scribal education, lexical lists, literature, mathematics, and the archaeological context of the texts. Register here: https://bit.ly/ISACCurriculum

If you haven’t decided on a Halloween costume yet, you could do worse than taking inspiration from this Babylonian terra...
10/10/2023

If you haven’t decided on a Halloween costume yet, you could do worse than taking inspiration from this Babylonian terracotta plaque. Found during the Joint Expedition to Nippur in the 1950s in a house in Nippur’s Scribal Quarter that dates to the Old Babylonian period, the plaque features an image of a mythological creature called a kusarikku, who combines features of a bull with those of a male human being. The medium of the plaque allowed the artist who designed it to really play with texture when it came to representing this fantastical creature—note the twists to indicate the end of the tail, the squiggles that make up his beard and the definition in his muscly arms!
These liminal beings, neither quite one animal nor another, were often associated with liminal spaces as well, guarding and protecting doorways, so it’s possible the people who lived in the house where it was found placed it in or near a transitional space in their home. And though he’s usually on display in our Mesopotamian gallery, right now you can spot him guarding the entrance to our special exhibit, Back to School in Babylonia. As part of the research for the exhibit, we dug through the ISAC Museum Archive’s record of the excavations—here’s the page of the field entry catalog where this individual (here listed as 3N-280) is recorded, just below an entry with a drawing of a similar-looking fellow, found in another house nearby.

Images:
ISACM A29440, baked clay, Old Babylonian Period
Records of the Nippur Excavation, Season 3, 1951–52

It’s ! Excavated at Nippur, this is a list of vessels from Uruk and Nippur that are primarily for brewing, although som...
10/10/2023

It’s ! Excavated at Nippur, this is a list of vessels from Uruk and Nippur that are primarily for brewing, although some of them are for oil. While presumably sculptors made the molds which were used to to make the plaques in Mesopotamia, it would have been the potters who would have used them to make the molds which were then fired. Clay was common in Mesopotamia and used to make all sorts of items from vessels to tablets to clay plaques.

A32325, clay, Iraq, Ur III period (ca. 2112-ca 2004 BCE)

Plaques are a common form of art in ancient West Asia and North Africa. Flat objects which could be attached to a wall o...
10/09/2023

Plaques are a common form of art in ancient West Asia and North Africa. Flat objects which could be attached to a wall or other surface, they are made from a wide variety of materials. Clay plaques in Mesopotamia were made in molds and produced in large numbers, meaning that an image could be replicated a countless number of times. Hand-size clay plaques were very common in the Isin-Larsa and Old Babylonian periods. The plaque here represents a female goddess with an elaborate crown that probably functioned as an apotropaic device for the house on whose wall it was fixed and people who lived within it. The goddess’ identity is unclear, and she is likely to be a minor goddess who is represented with birds. A goddess with birds is found on other media, but the way she is depicted on the plaques is unique. The plaque here is from the ISAC excavations at Tell Asmar, where many plaques have been excavated.
A17884, baked clay, Iraq, Isin-Larsa-Old Babylonian period (2004-1595 BCE)

The Cultural Heritage Experiment (CHE) has loaned archival objects to undergraduates since 2018. Your object will allow...
10/09/2023

The Cultural Heritage Experiment (CHE) has loaned archival objects to undergraduates since 2018. Your object will allow you to engage with the archive, interact with the past, and imagine new contexts. Join us! In 2023 the CHE will be lending out physical objects to students for FALL QUARTER. The categories of objects available for loan include: photographs, plans, posters, drawings, maps, silk screens, folios, casts, replicas, and prints. UChicago Undergraduates will have the opportunity to take part in a tour of the ISAC Museum Archives and take part in a weekly scavenger hunt for ISAC prizes. Return Day for objects will take place in December.

Lending Day is Wednesday, October 11, 11am-2pm in Breasted Hall

Address

1155 E 58th Street
Chicago, IL
60637

Opening Hours

Tuesday 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 10am - 4pm
Thursday 10am - 4pm
Friday 10am - 8pm
Saturday 10am - 4pm
Sunday 10am - 4pm

Telephone

(773) 702-9514

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Museum

Send a message to Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures:

Videos

Ever wonder how cuneiform tablets were formed from clay? Produced in the field at one of ISAC’s current excavations in Málaga, Spain, PhD candidate Marta Díaz Herrera shows how an ancient Babylonian student would have formed a lenticular clay tablet, inscribed it with a reed stylus, then crushed and discarded or recycled it. Lenticular tablets were especially common writing media for students and many are featured in the new exhibit, “Back to School in Babylonia.” Join us on September 21st for the official opening of #BackToSchool at ISAC!

It’s #BacktoSchool Saturday, meaning it’s time for another behind-the-scenes glimpse at what our researchers and curators at the ISAC are doing in preparation for our upcoming exhibition, “Back to School in Babylonia!” Last week, we showed you how we photograph the exhibition’s objects so that we can include them in our catalog, but how do we decide which objects are included in the exhibition in the first place? To find out more, we talked to Prof. Susanne Paulus, the Tablet Collection Curator, about her process for selecting one tablet, in particular. As Prof. Paulus explains, this tablet is part of a teacher-student exercise, wherein the student would have copied the teacher’s text onto the (now missing) right side of the tablet. The text itself is a model contract, which a student would have copied in order to practice for a potential future career in legal and administrative matters. Want to see this tablet, and many more, on display? Come to our Back to School in Babylonia exhibition, launching September 21st! A30173, baked clay, Iraq, Old Babylonian period (ca. 1894-ca. 1595 BCE)

Thank you for your overwhelming support during the last two days! Over 125 people helped us to raise $156,284 (and counting!) to ensure the future of our efforts in archaeological site preservation, promotion of sustainable tourism, collections conservation, and community engagement projects. Speaking of the latter, the OI has two ongoing projects created for UChicago students. Through the OI’s Cultural Heritage Experiment, University of Chicago students engage with the past by borrowing objects from the OI Museum Archives and caring for them over the academic year, exploring philosophical and practical issues of cultural heritage. Our newest endeavor is an exciting collaboration with @westongamelab on an opportunity for students to reconstruct our Mummy Simulation video game, a favorite among educators!

Preventive conservation is the best-case scenario. In 2018, the OI initiated the Cultural Training Partnership for Artifact Conservation in five Central Asian republics. The program has been instrumental in training museum conservators from the region on internationally recognized standards and practices. Earlier this year, staff of the OI and the Getty Villa met with participants at the National Museum of Uzbekistan to run courses and assist local professionals in the preservation of cultural heritage sites. Support this and all of the OI projects with a gift of any size this Giving Day. bit.ly/Support-OI

Today, we at the OI, and the entire University of Chicago, are celebrating #UChiGivingDay, a special fundraising appeal that brings together our global community of alumni, students, and friends to support our research and educational endeavors. During the next 24 hours, we will be seeking 100 contributors to help us fulfill our ambitious plans for growth as we enter our second century of research, discovery, and preservation work. We hope you will consider supporting us by spreading the word to your family and friends about our work and mission, or by making a gift of any amount to the OI Cultural Heritage Initiative. Thank you!To give, visit: bit.ly/Support-OI

The OI's Center for Ancient Middle Eastern Landscapes (CAMEL) studies the landscapes of the Middle East to understand its people, their societies, and how our world continues to develop. The analysis of satellite imagery is an important way to continue archaeological research and monitor cultural heritage preservation and looting of archaeological sites in conflict zones across the Middle East and Central Asia. One of the first projects that CAMEL has undertaken is the mapping of previously unknown archaeological heritage sites, analyzing looting patterns, developing a plan for future heritage protection, and training a cohort of Afghan information technology specialists and heritage professionals in the use of GIS technology for cultural heritage management. Last year, CAMEL undertook a new extensive project to build an online atlas of Anatolian archaeological sites that can serve as a useful research tool as well as an avenue for displaying new research. You can support CAMEL and the OI’s Cultural Heritage Initiative during #UChiGivingDay on April 6–7!

The OI works to reveal, illuminate, and protect history and cultures across the Middle East. From our participation in the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, a UNESCO-sponsored initiative in the areas threatened by the construction of the High Dam at Aswan in Egypt, to the documentation of artifacts looted in 2003 from the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, the OI has long been committed to cultural heritage in peril. Today, almost every OI project has a cultural heritage component, whether we monitor the looting of archaeological sites across the Middle East or collaborate with our colleagues in Afghanistan to develop the first national-scale educational outreach program to raise awareness of that country’s National Museum. Save the Date to support the OI on Giving Day, April 6–7, and help to ensure the future of one of our core values—to understand, reveal, and protect the earliest human civilizations. #UChiGivingDay

On April 6–7 the OI and the entire University of Chicago will celebrate Giving Day, a special 24-hour campus-wide fundraising appeal that brings together our global community of alumni, students, and friends to support our research and help us build a better tomorrow. Last year, 145 donors came together to support the OI’s Community Outreach Programs and raised over $80,000 in just 24 hours. Let’s go even bigger in 2022! Save the Date to support the OI Cultural Heritage Initiative that aims to record, document, and preserve imperiled cultural heritage. #UChiGivingDay

While final results are still being calculated, we are excited to report that during this Giving Tuesday the OI raised $32,796! This fundraising outcome will provide new funding for our extensive and interactive learning activities being offered to expanding audiences around the world and support a number of research projects. Your continuing support inspires us and makes our work possible! Whether you made a gift, participated in the special virtual gallery talk, or spread the word about our research and education programs on social media, you play an important role in furthering the OI's mission to understand, reveal, and protect the earliest civilizations. THANK YOU!

The OI is thriving from the support from our community of lifelong learners! Your curiosity inspires us to develop new educational programs—whether it’s a lecture, special exhibition, gallery talk, or adult education class. This #GivingTuesday, we will be raising funds to keep our outreach program vibrant, diverse, and accessible to all and we hope you will consider supporting us on November 30th.

Spooky OI
Spooky OI

Maybe our building really is haunted 👻

Bring the daily life of the distant past closer at the Oriental Institute: UChicago Giving Day 2021
Bring the daily life of the distant past closer at the Oriental Institute: UChicago Giving Day 2021

#UChiGivingDay has been extended by 2 hours! Take a tour of the OI with Chief Curator and Deputy Director Jean M. Evans on our 6th annual Giving Day to see why the OI is one of the world’s leading centers for the study of ancient Middle Eastern civilizations! To support OI’s extensive and interactive online learning activities for curious learners around the world, make your gift to the OI Community Fund today: bit.ly/oigivingdaysocial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mnse3LBT6c

Giving Day, Theo van den Hout
Giving Day, Theo van den Hout

It’s Giving Day! Today the OI and the entire University are celebrating Giving Day, a special 24-hour campus-wide fundraising appeal that brings together our global community of alumni, students, and friends to support our research and education programs and help us build a better tomorrow. Click here to learn more and support the OI Community Fund bit.ly/oigivingdaysocial! Theo van den Hout is the interim director of the OI and the executive editor of the Chicago Hittite Dictionary Project (CHD). The CHD began in 1975 and is a comprehensive, bilingual Hittite-English dictionary. Published letter by letter, the CHD is a long-term project and the result of a painstaking process of cultural, historical, and lexical investigation for all those interested in Hittite culture and history. The CHD is the only such project in the English-speaking world.

OI Museum Virtual Filed Trip Programs
OI Museum Virtual Filed Trip Programs

OI Lunchtime Live Talk: "Do not look down on me:" Mudbrick and its Significance in Ancient Egypt
OI Lunchtime Live Talk: "Do not look down on me:" Mudbrick and its Significance in Ancient Egypt

Lunchtime Live Chat: An Introduction to Hittite with Emily Smith
Lunchtime Live Chat: An Introduction to Hittite with Emily Smith

Lunchtime Chat, Live!
Lunchtime Chat, Live!

The Round Table Perspective: James Osborne, OI
The Round Table Perspective: James Osborne, OI

Drone Footage
Drone Footage

Giving Tuesday at the OI
Giving Tuesday at the OI

OI Programs and Giving Tuesday
OI Programs and Giving Tuesday

100 Years of Research and Discovery
100 Years of Research and Discovery

An OI excavation
An OI excavation

A mold being made of a cuneiform tablet
A mold being made of a cuneiform tablet

The Oriental Institute featured on 190 North
The Oriental Institute featured on 190 North

4,000-pound Ancient Persian artifact "Persepolis" returns to the Oriental Institute at UChicago
4,000-pound Ancient Persian artifact "Persepolis" returns to the Oriental Institute at UChicago

The Oriental Institute at 100: #oi100
The Oriental Institute at 100: #oi100

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Our Story

The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago is a leading research center for the ancient Middle East. The museum houses some 350,000 artifacts—around 5,000 of which are on display—excavated mainly by OI archaeologists. Founded in 1919, at a time when the Middle East was called the Orient, the OI has pioneered innovative excavations and comprehensive dictionary projects that chronicle ancient civilizations. The Oriental Institute Museum aims to understand, reveal, and protect ancient Middle Eastern civilizations.

Nearby museums

Other Museums in Chicago

Show All

Comments

It's ! Today we’re looking at how lexical lists were used in scribal learning. Lexical lists can be divided into two types: sign lists which were meant to teach people signs and how to use them correctly, and word lists which were meant to teach people different types of thematic vocabulary. Many lexical texts are scribal exercises, meaning that they had an important didactic purpose, which given their contents, is not surprising. The text here is typical of Late Babylonian school texts for students learning Sumerian. Found at Nippur, this represents the types of texts students would be read there. The tablet, although broken, contains Syllabary Sb and a god list.

A33605, baked clay, Iraq, Neo-Babylonian period (626-539 BC)
This week we’re looking at lexical lists! Lexical lists helped people in ancient Mesopotamia better understand the world around them through word lists. Once Sumerian was no longer a spoken language, people needed to have Akkadian translations in order to understand the language. This was done through lexical lists. In the case of the so-called “Chicago syllabary” which has two halves the text divided into four columns. The first column provides the pronunciation of a particular sign, followed by the corresponding graph in the second column, the third column that gives the name of the sign, and the fourth gives its Akkadian pronunciation. The ancient Mesopotamians were trying to figure out what the word was in Sumerian and Akkadian, with the phonetic sounds and the name of that particular word.

A2480, baked clay, Iraq, first millennium BC
The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago seeks a Field Director for the Epigraphic Survey, the Institute’s permanent epigraphic expedition based at Chicago House in Luxor, Egypt. Reporting to the Director of the Oriental Institute, the Field Director leads an international team of professional photographers, artists, Egyptologists, conservators, archivists, and support staff dedicated to the Survey’s core mission of preserving Egypt’s monumental heritage through high-quality documentation, scholarly publication, conservation, and restoration.

For more information, and to apply, visit: https://uchicago.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job/Chicago-IL/Field-Director-of-the-Epigraphic-Survey_JR20024

EOE/VET/Disability
Wait… is that backwards?

This is one of the more common questions we get about cylinder seals at the museum! Yes, the design is backwards compared to the impression it leaves. Seal artisans would have to draw out the image they wanted to carve, then draw it in the reverse, and then they would carve it into the stone. Though this seal is small, there is still a huge amount of information for archaeologists to study!

What do you see? Does it tell you anything about the people or culture of this time period? Let us know in the comments!

A3616, limestone, Iraq, Late Uruk period (3350-3100 BC)
to the OI excavations at the site of Khafajeh (ancient Tutub) in Iraq! The historic photo of this Early Dynastic II (2800-260 BC) stone seal shows the geometric design engraved on it. While many of the seals have figural designs, there are also those with geometric ones. Today we might view this design as being simplistic, but it is likely that it had a complex meaning that has since been lost to us, as studies of geometric rock art demonstrates.
Some stamp seals, such as this one, also contain inscriptions but this one does not tell us anything about the seal’s owner. Instead, the seal inscription written in Anatolian hieroglyphs records the name of the Syrian goddess Kubaba in Luwian. The goddess Kubaba was particularly popular in the city of Carchemish. It is possible that she is connected to the Phyrgian mother goddess Cybele, but not all scholars are convinced about this idea.
A6812, chalcedony, Turkey or Syria, Neo-Hittite period (1000-700 BC)
In the Achaemenid period, a motif on stamp seals was that of a human flanked by two-winged human-headed bull creatures. It also appeared on cylinder seals, which despite the growing popularity of stamp seals, continued to be used in this period. One of the cylinder seals with this design was owned by Irtashduna, wife of Darius I and used fifty times on eleven tablets, meaning it was applied multiple times to a single document. She used it on letters and also on texts concerning rations. The fact that chalcedony, which was an expensive stone, was used for this particular seal along with the design of the seal itself suggests that this was a prestige item that was probably used by an elite individual.
A25490, chalcedony, Iran, Achaemenid period (550-330 BC)
This week we’re looking at stamp seals! Stamp seals are usually made of stone with designs carved into the seal so that they make an impression when pressed into clay. Stamp seals were used prior to cylinder seals which appear around 3500 BC and remain popular until around 500 BC when stamp seals start becoming popular again. The stamp seal here is decorated with a very busy design. Since all the figures are drawn to look very similar to one another, it is at first difficult to tell what is actually appearing on this seal. If one looks at the photograph closely, you can see in the upper left-hand corner of the seal (the upper right-hand corner of the impression), that there is an anthropomorphic figure. There are also five horned animals: four which appear to be ibexes and one which has shorter horns. In addition, there are two fish which help fill up the space.

If you and your family want to learn more about seals, there is an in-person program on Saturday, January 21st at the OI from 1-3 pm. You can register for “Mesopotamian Stamps, Saals, and Cylinders | Ages 8+ at https://bit.ly/OIseals

A12466, marble, Iraq, Late Northern Ubaid period (4300-4000 BC)
“Beginning of the spells of going forth by day and of extolling the akh-spirits in the god’s domain.” This piece of cloth may have originally been several meters long, but this fragment is considerably smaller. It was ripped at some point, but archaeologists do not know by who. It could have been done in antiquity by a tomb robbers, or it could have been done more recently by antiquity dealers. Even though this textile is fragmented, it can still be helpful to scholars today!

E19442, linen and ink, Egypt, Late Period-Ptolemaic Period (ca. 400-200 BC)
to the OI excavations at the site of Persepolis in Iran! The charred wool textile found at the site was found in a courtyard of the Treasury and made from very fine wool. It was suggested that it was goat, but this is unclear.
The belt here is from the site of Ballana and dates to the Meroitic period. Most of the Meroitic period textiles found at the OI excavations at the sites of Ballana and Qustul were cotton. This should not be considered surprising given that cotton textiles are found in large amounts in this period. This was a belt that was found in a grave of a man and was decorated in two different green and blue patterns on a light brown background. Recent work has shown that cotton was native to Nubia and was cultivated locally by at least the 1st century AD.
E22769, cotton, Nubia, Meroitic period (2nd-3rd century AD)
In addition to actual fabrics, it was important to keep track of the delivery of the raw materials that would then be woven into actual textiles. Here, this interesting barrel-shaped tablet written in Akkadian from the site of Adab (modern Bismaya) records the delivery of wool by two shepherds.
A780, baked clay, Iraq, Isin-Larsa – Old Babylonian period (ca. 2004 - ca.1595 BC)
This week we’re looking at cloth in the ancient world! Clothing in the ancient world was made from natural fibers, including linen, cotton, silk, and wool. The production of fabric could be quite intensive and expensive meaning that in addition to being worn or used as soft furnishing in the house, cloth could also be used as money. The example here is a linen cloth that may have been used in the burial of the deceased individual. The linen cloth here might have been wrapped around the deceased person or it might have been used as a garment that was wrapped around the wearer and could have been worn in multiple ways.
E16889, linen, Egypt, New Kingdom? (16th-11th centuries BC)
Last season, Chicago House master mason Frank Hemholz and Mahomoud Abdel Harris, foreman for the stone team, removed the first stone of the Taharka Gate to address climate caused structural issues. The team is now about to start rebuilding the monumental gate at Medinet Habu in Luxor, Egypt.
Happy Friday! How did you get to work today?

Some of you drove, others walked or took public transit, but we’re guessing no one rode a horse this morning to the office. Horses revolutionized transportation in the ancient world—they allowed people to move much faster than they could before. To ride a horse, there are some pieces of equipment we still use today from antiquity, and one of those is a bit, which you can see a 2000-year-old example of above. Bits go inside a horse’s mouth and are connected to the reins, helping the rider control speed and direction.

Do you think we still use any other ancient pieces of horse-riding equipment? Let us know in the comments!

A22945, bronze horse bit, Iran, Achaemenid period (550-330 BC)
to the OI excavations at the site of Khorsabad, ancient Neo-Assyrian capital of Dur-Sharrukin! Here we see some of the reliefs from the palace in situ, before they were removed from the excavations. The placement of the horses in the corner of the courtyard with the niche was supposed to create an optical illusion of an infinite line of horses.
#}