Prof. Dr. Kristin Kleber

Principal investigator

kkleber@ uni-muenster.de

Kristin Kleber is the principal investigator of GoviB. She is professor of Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Münster. She specializes in the social, legal and economic history of Babylonia in the first millennium BC.

Selected publications

“Taxation and Fiscal Administration in Babylonia,” in: K. Kleber (ed.), 2021, Taxation in the Achaemenid Empire. Classica et Orientalia 26, Wiesbaden, 13-152.

“The Religious Policy of the Teispid and Achaemenid Kings in Babylonia,” in: R. Achenbach (ed.), 2019, Persische Reichspolitik und lokale Heiligümer. Beiträge einer Tagung des Exzellenzclusters "Religion und Politik in Vormoderne und Moderne" vom 24.-26. Februar 2016 in Münster. Wiesbaden, 99-120.

“Achaemenid Administration in Babylonia,” in: B. Jacobs, W.F.M. Henkelman, M.W. Stolper (eds), 2017, The Administration of the Achaemenid Empire – Tracing the Imperial Signature. Wiesbaden, 699-714.

Tempel und Palast. Die Beziehungen zwischen dem König und dem Eanna-Tempel im spätbabylonischen Uruk. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 358. Münster, 2008.

Links

Institut für Altorientalistik und Vorderasiatische Archäologie
academia.edu
ORCID

Apl. Prof. Dr. Hanspeter Schaudig

Postdoctoral Researcher (Philology) since July 2024

hanspeter.schaudig@ uni-muenster.de

Hanspeter Schaudig is an Assyriologist at the Universities of Heidelberg and Münster (Germany). He studied Ancient Near Eastern languages and archaeology at the universities of Freiburg and Münster (Germany). He completed his PhD on the inscriptions of Nabonidus and Cyrus the Great (AOAT 256, 2001). His habilitation thesis (University of Heidelberg: Explaining Disaster, 2019) deals with the Babylonian concept of disaster by divine decree, from the fall of Ur in the 3rd mill. to the destructions of Babylon in the 2nd and 1st mill. BCE. Schaudig’s studies focus on the interconnection of history and literature in Babylonia and Assyria.

Selected Publications

Staatsrituale, Festbeschreibungen und weitere Texte zum assyrischen Kult. Keilschrifttexte aus Assur literarischen Inhalts 12. Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 158. Wiesbaden 2020.

M. C. A. Macdonald, with contributions by A. Hausleiter, F. Imbert, H. Schaudig, P. Stein, F. Tourtet, and M. Trognitz, Taymāʾ II. Catalogue of the Inscriptions Discovered in the Saudi-German Excavations at Taymāʾ. Oxford 2020.

Explaining Disaster: Tradition and Transformation of the “Catastrophe of Ibbi-Sîn” in Babylonian Literature. dubsar 13. Münster 2019.

Die Inschriften Nabonids von Babylon und Kyros’ des Grossen samt den in ihrem Umfeld entstan­denen Tendenzschriften. Textausgabe und Grammatik. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 256. Münster 2001.

Links

Institut für Altorientalistik und Vorderasiatische Archäologie
academia.edu

Dr. Georg Neumann, M.A.

Postdoctoral researcher (Archaeology) since September 2021

georg.neumann@ uni-muenster.de

Georg Neumann is an Ancient Near Eastern Archaeologist specializing in the Bronze and Iron Ages in Mesopotamia and Western Iran, as well as Digital Humanities. He obtained his PhD in Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology in 2020 at the Universität Tübingen with a thesis on the Cultural Contacts and Developments in Lorestan (West-Iran) in the 3rd millennium BCE. He did archaeological fieldwork in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran and Syria, and was part of Digital Humanities projects, such as the Online Bibliography “KeiBi online – Cuneiform e-Bibliography”.

He also edits the guest book kept at the German excavation in Babylon in the beginning of the 20th century.

Selected publications

(mit Ch. Kainert) Babylon in the 1st Millennium BCE. The Archaeological Context of the Neo-Babylonian (non-palatial) Archives (ADOG 31 / Babil 1. Wiesbaden 2025).

Kulturentwicklungen und Kulturkontakte in Lorestān (West-Iran) im 3. Jahrtausend v. Chr. Münster 2024 (marru 18. Münster 2025).

“Die Mitternacht zog näher schon. Man trinkt noch Hofbräu in Babylon...und später wird man in selbiger Nacht von seinem Knecht ins Bett gebracht!” – Some Insights to the Guest Book of the German Excavations in Babylon: in: K. Droß-Krüpe – A. Garcia-Ventura – K. Ruffing – L. Verderame (Hg.), Orientalist Gazes. Reception and Construction of Images of the Ancient Near East since the 17th Century (wEdge 3. Münster 2023) 87-114.

(mit H. Neumann) Wer setzte den Göttern die Hörner(krone) auf? Einige weitere Überlegungen zur Genese der Hörnerkrone in Mesopotamien, in: J. Baldwin and J. Matuszak (eds.), mu-zu an-za₃-še₃ kur-ur₂-še₃ ḫe₂-g̃al₂. Altorientalistische Studien zu Ehren von Konrad Volk (dubsar 17. Münster 2020) 265-281.

Altorientalische Siegel und Keilschriftdokumente im Archäologischen Museum der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster (Veröffentlichungen des Archäologischen Museums der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Band 6. Altertumskunde des Vorderen Orients 20. Münster 2016).

Links

Institut für Altorientalistik und Vorderasiatische Archäologie
academia.edu 

Dr. Alexander Johannes Edmonds

Postdoctoral Researcher (Philology) since November 2024

edmonds@ uni-muenster.de

Alexander Johannes Edmonds is an Assyriologist specialising in the history and literature of the first millennium BC. Following degrees at Cambridge and Heidelberg, he wrote his doctorate reassessing the rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire at the University of Tübingen, for which he was awarded the Travel Stipend of the German Archaeological Institute. Prior to joining the GoviB team, he was guest professor at the Northeast Normal University, Changchun, and visiting fellow at the Excellence Cluster for Religion and Politics at the University of Münster.

Selected Publications

2025 – Triumph and Betrayal. Assyria’s Path to Empire, 935–745 BC, Untersuchungen zur Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archäologie 17. Berlin. De Gruyter.

2024 – ‘New Light on the Land of Sūḫu. A Review Article and new political History’ Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie 114/1, pp. 58-83

2023 – ‘A new Reconstruction of the Reigns of Adad-nārārī II and Tukultī-Ninurta II in light of five unattributed royal Inscriptions’, Journal for Ancient Near Eastern History 10/2, pp. 239-292.

Links

Institut für Altorientalistik und Vorderasiatische Archäologie
Academia.edu

Dr. Greta Van Buylaere

Postdoctoral Researcher (Philology) October 2023 - March 2025

greta.van.buylaere@ uni-muenster.de

Greta Van Buylaere is a postdoctoral researcher on the GoviB project. She specialises in Assyrian and Babylonian literacy, and their political and intellectual history, in particular in relation to the textual record of the first millennium BCE.

Selected Publications

The Cuneiform Tablets from the First Millennium BCE in the Babylon Collection of the Istanbul Archaeological Museums. Forthcoming.

Crime and Punishment according to a Neo-Babylonian Document from Babylon. Zeitschrift für Altorientalische und Biblische Rechtsgeschichte 29 (2023), 19-40.

Grain Deliveries to the Royal Palace in Babylon during the Reign of Nebuchadnezzar II. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 74 (2022), 139–184.

Von Babylon nach Istanbul. Einblicke in die Babylon Sammlung des Istanbuler Archäologischen Museums. Alter Orient aktuell 19 (2022), 10–18. With A. Schachner and N. P. Heeßel.

Links

Institut für Altorientalistik und Vorderasiatische Archäologie
academia.edu

Dr. Odette Boivin, M.A.

Postdoctoral Researcher (Philology) September 2021 - June 2025

Odette Boivin obtained her PhD in Assyriology at the University of Toronto, where she also worked as a postdoctoral fellow after obtaining her degree. Before coming to Münster to work within the framework of GoviB, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. She specialises in the political and socio-economic history of Babylonia in the 2nd and 1st millennium BCE, with a special focus on the First Sealand Dynasty as well as on Historiography and Memory Studies.

Selected Publications

“Chapter 18: The Kingdom of Babylon and the Kingdom of the Sealand,” in: K. Radner, N. Moeller, and D.T. Potts (eds), 2022, The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East. Vol.2: From the End of the third millennium BC to the Fall of Babylon. Oxford/New York, 566–655.

“The ilku and related fiscal obligations in sixth century Larsa,” in: K. Kleber (ed.), 2021, Taxation in the Achaemenid Empire. Amsterdamer Kolloquium. Classica et Orientalia 26. Wiesbaden, 153–175.

The First Dynasty of the Sealand in Mesopotamia. Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records 20. Berlin/Boston, 2018 [& paperback 2019].

Links

Institut für Altorientalistik und Vorderasiatische Archäologie
academia.edu

MMag. Dr. Martina Schmidl

Postdoctoral Researcher (Philology) September 2021 - February 2023

Martina Schmidl studied Ancient Near Eastern Studies and Religious Studies at the University of Vienna, and obtained her PhD there in 2020 on administrative epistolography in the late sixth and early fifth centuries BCE.

Her research interests include epistolography and historical sociolinguistics, especially the usage of literary and everyday language to express identities, ideas, emotions and world views.

Selected publications

“Mirror, Mirror. Some Remarks on Structuring Devices in the Advice to a Prince”, Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 112 (2022).

“Ad Astra: Graphic Signalling in the Acrostic Hymn of Nebuchadnezzar II (BM 55469),” Altorientalische Forschungen 48/2 (2021), 318-326.

“Some Remarks on Language Usage in Late Babylonian Letters”, in Ch. Barbati und Ch. Gastgeber (eds), 2017, Open Linguistics. Topical Issue on Historical Sociolinguistic Philology. De Gruyter Open, 375-394.

With J. Hackl and M. Jursa, with contributions by K. Wagensonner, 2014, Spätbabylonische Privatbriefe. Spätbabylonische Briefe 1. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 414/1. Münster.

Links

Institut für Altorientalistik und Vorderasiatische Archäologie
academia.edu
ORCID

Dr. des. Christine Kainert, M.A.

Postdoctoral researcher (Archaeology) December 2021 - September 2023

Christine Kainert studied Near Easten Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology and Assyriology at the Free University Berlin, where she also obtained her PhD in 2021. In 2018/19, she worked as a curatorial assistant at the Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin. This was followed by positions at the German Archaeological Institute and at the Museum für Islamische Kunst Berlin.

Her research interests include the archaeology of the Arabian Peninsula, and the analysis of pottery and small finds as a tool to answer questions about manufacturing technologies, settlement dynamics, trade and interregional interaction.

Selected Publications

with N. Cholidis, Y. El Khoury, J. Eule, H. Gries, B. Helwing and L. Martin, “Der Babel-Bibel-Streit: Politik, Theologie und Wissenschaft um 1900, Eine Sonderausstellung des Vorderasiatischen Museums im Pergamonmuseum,” in: E. Cancik-Kirschbaum and T. L. Gertzen (eds), 2021, Der Babel-Bibel-Streit und die Wissenschaft des Judentums, Beiträge einer internationalen Konferenz vom 4.-6.11.2019 in Berlin. Investigatio Orientis 6, Münster, 249–284.

“The Pottery,” in: P. Drechsler (ed.), 2018, Dosariyah - Reinvestigating a Neolithic Coastal Community in Eastern Arabia. BFSA Monographs No. 19, Oxford, 183–198.

Links

academia.edu

Nina Gavrilyuk, B.A.

Student Assistant July 2021 - June 2022

Peter Scheurer, B.A.

Student Assistant March - December 2022