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Oriental Institute - University of Chicago

Oriental Institute - University of Chicago A leading research center for the ancient Middle East that houses a world-renowned museum with artifa

The Oriental Institute Museum is a world-renowned showcase for the history, art, and archaeology of the ancient Near East. The museum displays objects recovered by Oriental Institute 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.

Operating as usual

It’s ! In addition to archaeological projects in West Asia, the OI has also been active in linguistic projects, notably ...
03/21/2023

It’s ! In addition to archaeological projects in West Asia, the OI has also been active in linguistic projects, notably the Chicago Hittite Dictionary (CHD). Hittite is the oldest known Indo-European language and written in cuneiform in the later part of second millennium BCE (ca. 1650-1180 BCE). Despite the fact that Hittite was first deciphered at the beginning of the 20th century, there is still no complete dictionary of Hittite. In 1975, Harry Hoffner and Hans Güterbock started the Chicago Hittite Dictionary with the goal of at least producing such a dictionary. It is not just a list of words and their meanings, but rather a lexicon of Hittite society that reflects its ideas and material world in all its aspects. The project is currently overseen by OI interim director professor Theo van den Hout and associate professor Petra Goedegebuure. You can access the published volumes here: https://bit.ly/OIHittite and the CHD website here: https://bit.ly/OIChicagoHittiteDictionary
A6005, baked clay, Turkey, Late Bronze Age IIA (1400 BCE)

This week we’re looking at OI projects in West Asia! The OI has worked in a variety of different countries in the region...
03/20/2023

This week we’re looking at OI projects in West Asia! The OI has worked in a variety of different countries in the region, including Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Armenia, Israel, Jordan, and Yemen. Today, we’re highlighting the work that OI professor Gil Stein has undertaken at the site of Surezha in Iraqi Kurdistan since 2012. The site is located in the Erbil Plain and was occupied from the 6th-4th millennium BCE and dates to the Chalcolithic period.
The project investigates the prehistoric roots of urbanism in northern Mesopotamia. Thanks to the fact that there is little later occupation on the high mound, excavations have been able to concentrate on this period. The excavations have revealed interesting and surprising insights into life in northern Iraq in the Chalcolithic period such as the local production of ceramics typical of Western Iran, which led to the question of how and why these Iranian-style ceramics were manufactured at the site in the early fifth millennium BCE.

Starting in 1960, the OI became involved in helping to excavate monuments threatened by the construction of the Aswan Hi...
03/17/2023

Starting in 1960, the OI became involved in helping to excavate monuments threatened by the construction of the Aswan High Dam in Nubia. Until 1968, the OI excavated at a variety of sites included Semna South, Dorginarti, Ballana, and Qustul. In 2006-2008, the OI returned to excavating in Nubia, this time further south in the Fourth Cataract region, once again because of the construction of a dam in the area. Sites investigated in the Fourth Cataract region included the gold-processing center of Hosh el-Geruf which was occupied in the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods (8th-4th millennium BCE), Kerma (2500-1500 BCE), and Napatan (750-600 BCE) periods.
E35586, baked clay, Bab Kalabsha area, Nubia, Post-Meroitic period (4th-6th centuries CE)

 to Chicago House! The Epigraphic Survey is based at Chicago House in Luxor. But from 1924-1931, the Epigraphic Survey w...
03/16/2023

to Chicago House! The Epigraphic Survey is based at Chicago House in Luxor. But from 1924-1931, the Epigraphic Survey was housed in a different building on the west side of the Nile River, close of the Colossi of Memnon. The top left photo shows the old building during the inundation. It soon became clear that this building was not sufficient to meet the needs of the research team. Therefore, they drew up plans to build a new Chicago House as one can see in the drawing on the top right, and in 1930 started to construct the residence, offices, library (as seen in the bottom left), art studios, photography studios, and garage. This was completed in 1931 as one can see in the bottom right and the staff moved into the new facility in 1932.

Even before the founding the OI, James Henry Breasted was concerned with documenting monuments in Egypt and the Sudan. T...
03/15/2023

Even before the founding the OI, James Henry Breasted was concerned with documenting monuments in Egypt and the Sudan. This formed the basis of his work in Nubia at the beginning of the 20th century and after the founding of the OI in 1919, the Epigraphic Survey of Chicago House began its operations in 1924 to document major temples and tombs in Luxor. In addition, the Epigraphic Survey also does conservation and conservation training. The project is a collaborative effort between epigraphers, artists, photographers, stonemasons, librarians, conservators, and others. The Epigraphic Survey is overseen by the Field Director and we are pleased to announce that J. Brett McClain has now been appointed as the Field Director of Epigraphic Survey/Chicago House!
Photograph shows local conservators directed by supervisor Mohamed Abu el-Mokarem treating each brick by consolidating crumbling pieces and strengthening the stone.

In North Africa, the OI has worked primarily in Egypt and has also done work in the Sudan, but has been active in other ...
03/14/2023

In North Africa, the OI has worked primarily in Egypt and has also done work in the Sudan, but has been active in other countries as well. As the photograph here shows, this includes the archaeological excavations including Larry Stager’s excavations at Carthage in Tunisia in 1975-1980 where they uncovered worked on excavating several sites, including the port and a tophet. Other work in North Africa has included Carl Kraeling’s excavations in Libya at the site of Ptolemais in 1956-1958. In addition to archaeological excavations, one can also include a linguistic project: the Afroasiatic Morphological Archive which recorded major morphological paradigms of around forty Cush*tic (spoken in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia) and Omotic (spoken in southwestern Ethiopia) languages. See https://bit.ly/OIAAMA.

It’s ! Today in honor of  we are highlighting an early Sumerian mathematical tablet which is a table of areas of squares...
03/14/2023

It’s ! Today in honor of we are highlighting an early Sumerian mathematical tablet which is a table of areas of squares that comes from Adab (modern Bismaya). The odd lines of the text that gives measurements in lengths of 1-12 cubits (0.5-6 meters) and the even lines then provide the areas of the squares that are calculated as a result of squaring the lengths. For more on the text see here: https://bit.ly/OISquares
A681, baked clay, Iraq, Early Dynastic period IIIb (ca 2500-2340 BCE)

This week we’re looking at OI projects concerning North Africa! The OI has been active in projects documenting the ancie...
03/13/2023

This week we’re looking at OI projects concerning North Africa! The OI has been active in projects documenting the ancient Egyptian language starting with the Egyptian Coffin Texts project under James Henry Breasted and Alan Gardiner already in 1922. The Chicago Demotic Dictionary project started in 1975 and continues until today. The purpose of the project is to document a late stage of the ancient Egyptian language which was used in the 1st millennium BCE and first part of the 1st millennium CE. The text is very cursive and as a result, the dictionary includes not only the meanings of words, but also replicates the different ways that words can be written. See https://bit.ly/OIDemotic

E19422, papyrus and ink, Egypt, Achaemenid period (June 25, 502 BCE-July 24 502 BCE)

Larger than life.    In this stela, you can see an inscription and a painted image. A woman is depicted on the left with...
03/10/2023

Larger than life.

In this stela, you can see an inscription and a painted image. A woman is depicted on the left with a man on the right, but in this stela the woman is far taller than the man. When women are included, they are sometimes smaller than the man—a good example of this is Nefertari compared to Ramesses II at Abu Simbel. There are examples of women being the same size as men, like in our Wednesday post. However, this stela is different! Why? The reason is that the woman is the subject of the stela and therefore she is larger than the man, who is making offerings to the deceased woman including the foreleg of an ox that he is holding, to her. It is likely that he is her son, but there is no inscription identifying him.

E16959, limestone and paint, Egypt, First Intermediate period (ca. 2219-1995 BCE)

 to the OI excavations at the site of Persepolis. This Elamite administrative tablet lists 109 individuals working at th...
03/09/2023

to the OI excavations at the site of Persepolis. This Elamite administrative tablet lists 109 individuals working at the Treasury in the 19th year of Xerxes (446 BCE), namely 78 women, 13 men, and 11 boys who are paid in silver. Although one man is paid 8 shekels, the rest of the men are paid 3 ¾ shekels. In contrast, 3 women are paid 6 ¼ shekels, but 48 are paid 5 shekels, and the rest paid less than that. The seal has the name of King Xerxes on it. You can read the entire text here: https://bit.ly/OITreasuryTablet (text No. 40).
A23293, baked clay, Iran, Achaemenid period (January 8-March 7, 466 BCE)

Happy ! It runs in the family. Carved here are six women, all from the same family. They are temple musicians, which was...
03/08/2023

Happy !

It runs in the family.

Carved here are six women, all from the same family. They are temple musicians, which was a common occupation for elite women to hold in ancient Egypt. Similar to the way they are portrayed here, Egyptologists know that, at times, multiple generations of women from one family could hold the position of temple musician. In this artifact, the women are carved to be the same size as the men, occupying space as important members of society rather than being marginalized by being smaller and off to one side.

Look at some of our other posts—how often are women depicted in such a way? Let us know in the comments!

E10589, basalt, Egypt, Macedonian period (323-317 BCE)

It’s ! The tablet here, which comes from the site of Girsu (modern Telloh), which was a major administrative center in t...
03/07/2023

It’s ! The tablet here, which comes from the site of Girsu (modern Telloh), which was a major administrative center in the Ur III period. This Sumerian tablet, which dates to that period, records a group of 160 female workers. These female workers are either full time or half time workers, but their professions are unclear except for one woman who is a weaver. The women are assigned in groups to different supervisors, one of whom is supposed to be in charge of milling, which could suggest that some women were busy with that occupation. Women are well attested in Ur III working as weavers and millers as well as oil pressers and were active in other professions that are often associated with men, such as fullers, doorkeepers, cooks, temple sweepers, scribes, and physicians. See the transliteration and drawing of this text here: https://bit.ly/OIUrIII
A 31752, baked clay, Iraq, Ur III period (ca. 2112-2004 BCE)

This week we celebrate  by looking women in ancient and medieval North Africa and West Asia. We have inscriptions throug...
03/06/2023

This week we celebrate by looking women in ancient and medieval North Africa and West Asia. We have inscriptions throughout the region that attest to the important roles that women played in daily life. Here, we see a gravestone of a woman named Maria, which was found by Petrie and Quibell as part of their excavations at the Ramesseum. Written in Coptic, the inscription tells us that Maria was a mother superior or an abbess at a convent (her title is hegumene), but the location of that convent is unknown. It is possible that the convent was located inside the Ramesseum and that the temple was re-used In part for this purpose, but this is unclear. Maria lived in the 9th century, the inscription is dated to 891 or 892, during the Early Islamic period. At this time, women appear in different Coptic language documents that illustrate different important phases of their lives, including not only death, but also marriage, divorce, and inheritance. In addition, there is evidence for female money-lenders in this period. This document is also interesting because it contains not only the traditional Diocletian year that we would expect, but also more unusually the Islamic Hijra year.
E1569, limestone and paint, Egypt, Tulunid period (July 23, 891 or 892)

Age is but a number! It may be surprising, but archaeologists don’t always care about dates! There are a lot of importan...
03/03/2023

Age is but a number!
It may be surprising, but archaeologists don’t always care about dates! There are a lot of important factors to consider when studying an artifact like material or location. For example, this cute little figurine is around 8500 years old. It is also made of clay and from Western Iran. Archaeologists could focus on the date, or they could analyze the material. For example, clay has water in it, and water sources have isotopes specific to a general geographic region, almost like a fingerprint. Archaeologists can test for that fingerprint, and it could tell us if this figurine was found in the same area it was made, or if it was made far away—these details can tell us about ancient trade, movement, and many other things!
A66135, clay, Iran, Neolithic period (ca. 6500 BCE)

 to the Neolithic in Europe and Ruth Tringham’s OI Members’ Lecture! While this week we’ve mostly been focusing on small...
03/02/2023

to the Neolithic in Europe and Ruth Tringham’s OI Members’ Lecture! While this week we’ve mostly been focusing on small objects found in excavations, this lecture takes a broader approach and focuses on a part of the world often not investigated by the OI: Europe. Watch it here: https://bit.ly/OIBurntHouse or link in bio

Although this figure looks like a snail, it has been suggested that it is actually an abstract human form inspired by th...
03/01/2023

Although this figure looks like a snail, it has been suggested that it is actually an abstract human form inspired by the fact that land snails were frequently eaten as food. The figurine is highly decorated with lines that it has been argued are supposed to represent clothing. It is of course difficult to tell in figurines as abstract as this what is actually being represented, but it is an important reminder that the shape was doubtless meaningful for the culture in which it was created. Don’t forget to attend the lecture “Skulls and Animate Houses” tonight at 7pm Central time: bit.ly/OIYouTubeBaird
A66225, clay, Iran, Neolithic period (ca. 6000 BCE)

Join us this evening at 7 p.m. (C) for a lecture that explores Neolithic households and identity in Central Anatolia. Th...
03/01/2023

Join us this evening at 7 p.m. (C) for a lecture that explores Neolithic households and identity in Central Anatolia. The OI welcomes Douglas Baird, University of Liverpool for "Skulls and Animate Houses." To attend in person, register at bit.ly/registerBaird or log on to bit.ly/OIYouTubeBaird for the live stream.

It’s ! While we don’t have any tablets dating from the Neolithic period, later Mesopotamians wrote about implements that...
02/28/2023

It’s ! While we don’t have any tablets dating from the Neolithic period, later Mesopotamians wrote about implements that were used in the Neolithic period, namely tools such as a hoe that was found in the Warka Survey. In this Sumerian literary text excavated at Nippur, The debate between the Hoe and the Plough, the hoe, despite its simple appearance reveals itself to be a clever and crafty debater, in the end winning the argument that it is a more useful tool than the plough. The text was also extremely popular in antiquity and many copies of it exist. You can read the text here: https://bit.ly/HoeVsPlough
A30295, baked clay, Iraq, Old Babylonian period (ca. 1894-1595 BCE); A30295, flint, Iraq, Ubaid 1 period (5300-3700 BCE)

This week, in honor of the Braidwood Visiting Scholar lecture on Neolithic Turkey on Wednesday, we’re focusing on the Ne...
02/27/2023

This week, in honor of the Braidwood Visiting Scholar lecture on Neolithic Turkey on Wednesday, we’re focusing on the Neolithic period! The Neolithic constitutes an important period of history because it is a time when people begin to domesticate plants and animals. The importance of animals is reflected in the production of animal figurines, such as this example here, from Braidwood’s excavations at the site of Tepe Sarab in Iran. This is a horned animal, probably a sheep or goat. The Neolithic artist also attempted to portray the coat of the animal in a geometric pattern.
A66114, clay, Iran, Neolithic period (ca. 6000 BCE)

n 1879, Martin Delany (1812-1885), published one of his last major publications, Principia of Ethnology: The Origins of ...
02/24/2023

n 1879, Martin Delany (1812-1885), published one of his last major publications, Principia of Ethnology: The Origins of Races and Color, with an Archaeological Compendium of Ethiopian and Egyptian Civilization from Years of Careful Examination and Enquiry. In the book, he transcribed and translated Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions as part of his study on “Builders of the Pyramids” (Chapter 10). On the basis of his translations, he also offered new interpretations on the dating of these inscriptions. In addition to his interest in ancient history and languages, Martin Delany worked in many professions during his life, including as a doctor, politician, army officer, and explorer.

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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.


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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.
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