Events

Workshops and Lectures Organized by GoviB

GoviB workshop on the subject "Governance and Royal Representation in Babylonia in the first Millennium BC", 28th - 29th April 2024, Münster.

"The workshop on ‘Governance and Royal Representation in Babylonia in the First Millennium BC – History and Historiography’ aims to facilitate an intensive exchange between researchers from the GoviB project at the University of Münster and leading international researchers in the field of the Ancient Near East in the first millennium BC.

The content focuses on the relationship between cities and their local institutions vis-à-vis imperial rulers, as well as the question of the literary or historiographical ‘afterlife’ of ruling personalities in the cultural memory of the Babylonians. The presentations at the workshop will cover all three empires (Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian and Persian) around the middle of the 1st millennium BC and, within them, the two important cities of Babylon and Uruk. The plan is to contrast the historical circumstances reflected in archaeological findings, royal propaganda and texts from everyday life with literary and historiographical reflections."

GoviB project meeting on the subject "Evaluation of the old excavations in al-Mina and Babylon", 29th June 2023, Münster.

Panel by Odette Boivin and Kristin Kleber on "New Research on the city of Babylon" at the 68th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale in Leiden (17 -20 July). The panel took place on Monday, 17th July, 14.30-18.00 and on Tuesday, 18th July from 9:30-11:00.

 

Hosted talk by A. Vacek "Der nordsyrische Hafen Al Mina und der Handel mit griechischer Keramik in der Levante ", 29th June 2023, 18:15, RS 52, Rosenstraße 9, 48143 Münster.

Hosted talk by G. v. Buylaere (Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg): "Crime and Punishment according to a Neo-Babylonian Document from Babylon", 23rd May 2023, 18:15, Hofgebäude RS 2, Rosenstr. 9, 48143 Münster.

Hosted talk by O. Pedersén (Prof. emer., University of Uppsala) "Babylon: Die deutschen und irakischen Ausgrabungsergebnisse in einem digitalen Modell und vor Ort untersucht und präsentiert" as part of the Ringvorlesung "Cultural Heritage: Herausforderungen globalen Kulturerhalts", 7th Novenber 2022, University of Münster.

 

Public Lectures by Members of GoviB

Talk by Alexander Johannes Edmonds: "The King is Dead! New, Rebellious Insights into the Rise of the Assyrian Empire" in the 8th SCORE Online Lecture Series, 9th December 2025, 16.00, zoom.

Talk by Alexander Johannes Edmonds: " The three deaths of Sardanapallos and the last kings of the Neo-Assyrian Empire", at the Conference Challenging Perspectives and Projections: Concepts of Ancient Near Eastern Kingship, between Oriental Despotism and the “Good Shepherd”, 14.00, 29th October 2025, Mainz, Germany.

Lecture by Odette Boivin, "News from Babylon: New Insights about mid-1st Millennium BCE Babylon Based on Materials from the Koldewey’s Expedition (1899-1917)", 3rd October 2025, Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, Canada.

Talk by Alexander Johannes Edmonds: "A Manichean afterlife for Gilgāmeš?", at the Conference New directions in the study of Silk Road culture, 11.00, 16th September 2025, Dunhuang, PRC.

Talk by Alexander Johannes Edmonds: "How empires make stories. Tracing Neo-Assyrian literary heritage in the Persian Empire and beyond" at the Entangled Worlds Conference, 9.00, 14th September 2025, Shanghai, PRC.

Talk by Alexander Johannes Edmonds: "From epic to romance. A new paradigm for literary transmission between East and West in the first millennium BC", at the XVIII Melammu Symposium. Knowledge Transfers between and across ancient Empires, 16.30, 5th September 2025, Changchun, PRC.

Talk by Odette Boivin: "The Babylonian perspective: A response to papers on sources and methods in the WORK-IT project on informal taxation in the Southern Levant during the Achaemenid period", at the IOSOT Session 31-112 Labor as an approach to the Persian Empire in the Southern Levant, 13th August 2025, Berlin, Germany.

Talk by Alexander Johannes Edmonds: "The last of Gilgāmeš. A Mesopotamian king in Theodore Bār Kōnay’s Kṯāḇā d-ˀeskōlyōn", at the Language, History and Collective Memory – Syriac Studies Conference, 15.00, 21st July 2025, Berlin, Germany.

Lecture by Kristin Kleber: Integration und Identität im 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr., Monday, 14th July 2025, 18.15 p.m. at the Studiobühne Münster.

Talk by Alexander Johannes Edmonds: "A rediscovered stele from the Assyrian ‘Dark age’", at the 70th RAI: Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, 11th July 2025, 12.00, Prague, Czechia.

Talk by Georg Neumann “Daily Life on the Excavations in Babylon (1899–1917)” at the 70th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Prague. Wednesday, 9th July 2025, 10.00-10.30.

Talk by Greta Van Buylaere: "Rediscovered in Babylon: A Letter from Bēl-Ibni to the Assyrian King", at the 70th RAI: Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, 7th July 2025, 15.30, Prague, Czechia. 

Talk by Alexander Johannes Edmonds: "A solid statement? Imitating Babylonian kudurru-stelae in 8th-century BC Assyria", at the 14th ICAANE International Conference on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, 6th June 2025, 14.30, Lyon, France.

Talk by Alexander Johannes Edmonds (presented together with Dr. Saki Kikuchi, Ludwig Maximillian University Munich):  "In a favourable month, on an auspicious day. Shifting Strategies of Divination within the Neo-Assyrian Royal Inscriptions", at the 25th Melammu Workshop: Divination Techniques in the Ancient Near East and the Mediterranean World, 29th May 2025, 11.35, Sofia, Bulgaria.

Talk by Alexander Johannes Edmonds: "The lost kings of Assyria" at the event Assyrian Renaissance Cultural Celebration 2025, 13.00, 29th March 2025, Chicago, IL.

Talk by Kristin Kleber, "Contextual Edition of the Neo-Babylonian Cuneiform Tablets from the Excavations of the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft" held on 12th February 2025 at the conference Babylon Reborn, University of Bagdad, Irak.

Talk by Alexander Johannes Edmonds: “Triumph and Betrayal. Assyria’s Path to Empire, 935–745 BC” in the Nabû lecture series “Rediscovering Assyria”, 18.00, 28th December 2024, zoom.

Keynote Lecture by Kristin Kleber “Identity Politics in the First Millennium BC” at the Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Helsinki. Monday, 8th July 2024, 12.15-13.00.

Talk by Odette Boivin: The Koldewey Excavations in Babylon: Challenges and the Potential of Data from the Early Days of Scientific Archaeology at the CAIC Conference „Cuneiform Artefacts from Archaeological Contexts: New Perspectives“ at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 4th-5th July 2024.

Talk by Kristin Kleber „Das Barbiersarchiv von Babylon. Einblicke in die Editionsarbeit des GoviB-Projektes“ as part of the Güterbock-Memorial Lecture of the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft, 18:00 Online, 17th June 2024.

Talk by Odette Boivin and Georg Neumann: Babylon unter drei Imperien – Einblicke in die Lebenswirklichkeit einer altorientalischen Metropole im 1. Jhd. v. Chr. at the 4th Forschungstag (Research Day) of the Faculty of Philology, Universität Münster, 6th June 2024.

Talk by Odette Boivin: „Sie hatte niemanden, der sich um sie kümmerte“: Ein babylonischer Erbstreit im Jahr 548 v.Chr. und die Fürsorge für eine verwitwete Mutter, as part of the lecture series „Im Reich des Schlangendrachen—Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft der neubabylonischen Zeit im Spiegel ihrer historischen Rechtsquellen“ at the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, 14th May 2024, 18:00.

Talk by Kristin Kleber „Das Ingallea-Archiv. Einblicke in die laufende Editionsarbeit des GoviB-Projektes“ at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, 24th April 2024.

Talk by Kristin Kleber "Königsbriefe aus und nach Babylonien aus der Mitte des 1. Jahrtausends v. Chr." on the occasion of the conference of the Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics": "Letter Writing and the Representation of Power in Antiquity", 14:15-14:45, Stadthotel Münster, Aegidiistraße 21, Münster, 6th July 2023

Talk with masterclass by Kristin Kleber "Landbesitz in Babylonien im 1. Jahrtausend" at the Department for Assyriology and Hittitology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich as part of the lecture series "Kolloqium zum Alten Orient" in the winter term 2022/23, 31st January 2023.

Talk by Martina Schmidl, "From the Neo-Assyrian to the Neo-Babylonian Empire - a Babylonian Perspective", ASOR's 2022 Annual Meeting, 16th-19th November 2022, Boston.

Talk by Martina Schmidl, "Negotiating Relationships: The Influence of Status and Personal Ties on Conventions and Language Variation in Late Babylonian Letters," Leiden University, 21st June 2022. Part of the lecture series "With Kind Regards: Convention, Standards and Breaking the Rules in Letter-Writing," organised by the ERC project "Embedding Conquest: Naturalising Muslim Rule in the Early Islamic Empire (600-1000)", PI: Prof. Dr. Petra Sijpesteijn.

Talk by Odette Boivin, "Doing Business in Partnership: Insights from the Itti-Šamaš-balāṭu Archive in Sixth Century Larsa", Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies. Online, March 2022.

Talk by Odette Boivin, "The Many Arts of Writing a Babylonian National History", Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai. Part of the seminar series Origins of Chinese and Mesopotamian History-Writing, Online, October 2021.

Talk by Kristin Kleber, "Landbesitz in Babylonien im 1. Jahrtausend" at the Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg as part of the lecture series "Neue Forschungen zu Westasien im Altertum", Friday, 19th January 2021, 18:15, Bibliothek der Altorientalistik, Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg.