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The Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften: Events
Thursday, 10 November 2022, 11:00Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften, Am Wingertsberg 4, 61348 Bad Homburg
Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften of Goethe University
Fellow colloquium
Cornelia Wunsch (Assyriologist and publisher, Dresden)
»Bad image and good policy: Nebuchadnezzar, the Bible and new information in tablets from Babylonian Iahud«
Abstract
The image and valuation of an important person in posterity depends on many factors but in general, conquerers, destroyers and land grabbers are hailed while rulers who sponsored development in times of peace are seen as »pale figures.« Other names are eternally saturated with evil, having absorbed the bad deeds and image of their predecessor and successors too.
This presentation looks at extra-biblical sources from the mid-first millennium (mostly sixth century BC), namely clay tablets inscribed in cuneiform that are about to be published for the first time. They cast light on the lives of ordinary people living in the countryside in what is now Iraq who are recognisable as descendants of deported Judaeans by their names containing the name of their god. The information from these tablets is augmented by research results on the Neo-Babylonian and early Persian empires that have made a quantum leap during the last thirty years. In this context it is worth looking at Nebuchadnezzar again.
The speaker
An expert on cuneiform writing and the New Babylonian Society, Cornelia Wunsch has been conducting research at the British Museum for many years. She has taught at the Universitat de Barcelona, University of Western Australia, School of Oriental and African Studies, London University and Göttingen University. In April 2022 she handed in her Habilitation thesis at Leipzig University with the paper Judeans by the Waters of Babylon.
In November 2022 she is, on the invitation of Guido Pfeifer, Professor of Ancient Legal History at Goethe University and Goethe Fellow at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften, a fellow at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften.
Participation and registration
For participation on site, please register in advance (contact: Beate Sutterlüty; email: b.sutterluety@forschungskolleg-humanwissenschaften.de).
