Ancient Animal Vocabulary

Veldhuis

Mesopotamian lexical lists consist of lists of words and lists of signs. Lists of words are often thematically organized, such as a list of birds, or a list of professions. Lists of signs provide each cuneiform sign with pronunciation glosses. Word lists and sign lists belonged to the staple of scribal education. Large numbers of school texts with extracts from lexical lists have been found at almost all sites where cuneiform texts have been unearthed.

The Ziqpu-stars and Cuneiform Knowledge: Meaning, Applications, Contexts

In November 2019, I conducted research at the British Museum with the support of the Stahl Endowment of the Archaeological Research Facility. As part of my dissertation work, I examined, copied, photographed, and deciphered cuneiform tablets from the first millennium BCE Mesopotamia. My dissertation focuses on Babylonian astronomy and practices of telling time by the stars on one hand and producing astronomical knowledge on the other hand.