The project proposal is written from the perspective of the principal investigator (PI) as an Assyriologist specializing in Neo-Babylonian temple cult and its rich archival documentation. The PI’s monograph The Ezida temple of Borsippa shows that the parallels between Babylonian and Second Temple forms of cultic and social organization were substantially more far-reaching than presently recognised in Biblical scholarship. For instance, the Babylonian priesthood was highly specialized and integrated into a rigid hierarchy, similar to the post-exilic priesthood of Jerusalem. Rank was expressed in terms of purity and access to cultic space, reflecting an underlying concept of graded ‘holiness’ parallel to Ezekiel’s temple vision. 

A complex system of symbols displayed status in the form of dress, remuneration, rotation, communal labour, land ownership and storeroom space. Proven descent from an accepted patrilineage was required to enter the priesthood and ideological writings are known that contain origin myths of such lineages comparable to certain priestly writings in the Hebrew Bible. The changing fortune of individual priestly families is amply documented in Babylonia, providing useful comparative material to offset the various disputations between priestly clans that erupted in the restoration period in Jerusalem. The post-exilic ‘house of the fathers’ is exactly paralleled in contemporary Babylonian society where it enjoyed the same rights and imposed the same principles of solidarity on its members, with this difference that the Babylonian model can be studied in more detail and on the basis of less biased textual sources.

Although more examples can be quoted, the aim of this overview is purely to highlight the rich potential of the cuneiform sources to shed light on certain processes observed in Second Temple Judaism. Of course, this is certainly not the first study to adopt this perspective, but given the extraordinary advances at both sides of the academic divide in recent years, it is useful to create an extra platform to engage in a structural, interdisciplinary dialogue. The project will also organize a workshop and a conference to invite critical assessment and wider scholarly participation.

The project’s aim is to engage in a comparative study between the Second Temple of Jerusalem and the Babylonian temple cult as evidenced by the recently disclosed cuneiform records. The project is comparative in nature, though in its final stage we will also address the question of possible, direct or indirect, influence of Babylonian models on Judean practices, e.g. by Persian implementation.

Structure

The project consists of three sub-projects and a final sythesis to be written in the final year of the project (2013-14). The preliminary titles of the sub-projects are: P1 “A social history of the Babylonian priesthood”, P2 “The temple community of post-exilic Jerusalem”, P3 “Archives of Babylonian priests”, P4 “A comparative study of the Second Temple of Jerusalem and the Babylonian temple cult”. There are plans to expand the project with a further, fifth sub-project that will take a social networks approach to life in exile (P5).

Caroline Waerzeggers

Caroline is the principal investigator of project BABYLON. For the project, she is working on a Social History of the Babylonian Priesthood, 750-100 BC. This study focuses on key moments in the development of the Babylonian priesthood during a period of profound political change, when Babylonia first gained, then lost its independence to become a Persian satrapy and a Hellenistic kingdom. With Jonathan Stökl and Jason Silverman, she is working on an open-access handbook of the Babylonian exile.

Jonathan Stökl

Jonathan is a researcher within the ERC project BABYLON. His research focuses on the Israelite and Judean priesthood, and particularly on the establishment of the temple community and priesthood in the early Persian period. The aim of the study is to delineate the various priestly groups who are attempting to gain religious, social and political influence in the Persian sub-province. This study will improve our understanding of the environment in which the Torah became accepted as normative among the majority of Judaism, as well as aim to understand the interplay of attraction and sharp distinction between Judaism and Babylonian concepts of thinking. Moreover, with Caroline Waerzeggers and Jason Silverman, he is working on an open-access handbook of the Babylonian exile.

Bastian Still

My thesis presents an investigation into Babylonian society, focusing on the priests of the city of Borsippa during Neo-Babylonian and early Persian rule (c. 620-484 BCE). The political changes affecting Babylonia during that time provide the backdrop for my analysis.

Jason Silverman

The BABYLON project explores the parallels between the post-exilic Judaean priesthood and the Neo-Babylonian priesthood. The rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple, however, occurred under the Achaemenid kings, and my research attempts to explore how the new Persian context informs and contextualizes the Mesopotamian-Judaean interactions. This perspective is intended to control the dangers inherent in comparative work, i.e., the tendency to find parallels everywhere just because one is looking for them. Questions which I am considering include such issues as what changed when the empire changed? Would the Persians have encouraged or discouraged the adoption of Babylonian priestly models? Did the Persians relate the same way to minor cults as to major ones? How can one separate Iranian and Mesopotamian influences on priesthood and temple cult?

Tero Alstola

In my PhD thesis, written in the framework of ERC “By the Rivers of Babylon” project, I study foreign minorities in mid-first millennium Babylonia. My research aims at investigating their identities, socioeconomic status, and integration into an ancient multicultural society.

Rieneke Sonnevelt

My research focuses on the spread and use of the Aramaic language in Babylonian society during the first millennium BC. For this purpose, I conduct a linguistic and socio-historical analysis of the Aramaic inscriptions contained on cuneiform clay tablets from the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid periods. This research is carried out in the framework of ERC project "By the Rivers of Babylon".

Anne-Mareike Wetter

Anne-Mareike Wetter joined the BABYLON-project in 2014. Her research focuses on construals of holiness and masculinity in post-exilic biblical literature on priesthood, employing postcolonial theories on compromised masculinity. 
She also contributes to the open-access handbook of the Babylonian exile that will be published as part of the BABYLON project. 

• Caroline Waerzeggers
• Jonathan Stökl
• Jason Silverman
• Anne-Mareike Wetter
• Bastian Still
• Rieneke Sonnevelt
• Tero Alstola

Caroline Waerzeggers

Publications

- C. Waerzeggers, “Adoption and the Babylonian Priesthood”, accepted for publication in the proceedings of the workshop Adoption in the Ancient Near East, held in Ghent in April 2010

- C. Waerzeggers, “KU 14: a Neo-Babylonian tablet about Susa in Amsterdam,” Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 2010/45.

- C. Waerzeggers, The Ezida temple of Borsippa: priesthood, cult, archives. Achaemenid History vol. 15. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 2010 (803 pp. with CD-Rom).

- C. Waerzeggers (in collaboration with R. Pirngruber), “Prebend prices in first millennium BC Babylonia”, Journal of Cuneiform Studies 63 (2011): 111-144.

- C. Waerzeggers (in collaboration with G. Frame), “The prebend of temple scribe”, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie 101 (2011): 127-51.

- C. Waerzeggers, “The Babylonian Priesthood in the Long Sixth Century,” Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 54/2 (2011): 59-70.

- C. Waerzeggers, “The Pious King: Royal Patronage of Temples in the Neo-Babylonian Period” in Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Cultures (eds. E. Robson & K. Radner), Oxford 2011: 725-51.

- C. Waerzeggers, “Classification of the Babylonian Chronicles: Provenance”, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 71 (2012), 285-298.

- C. Waerzeggers, “Happy Days: The Babylonian Almanac in Daily Life,” in The Ancient Near East, A Life! Festschrift Karel Van Lerberghe, Tom Boiy, Joachim Bretschneider, Anne Goddeeris, Hendrik Hameeuw, Greta Jans and Jan Tavernier, eds., Leuven 2012 p. 653-663

- C. Waerzeggers, "Very Cordially Hated in Babylonia? Zēria and Rēmūt in the Verse Account," Altorientalische Forschungen 39/2 (2012), 316-320.

- C. Waerzeggers, review of R. Zadok, Catalogue of Documents from Borsippa or Related to Borsippa in the British Museum I, Messina 2009 (accepted in Archiv für Orientforschung53; submitted 2011)

- “In de voetsporen van Marduk-remanni. Een Babylonisch-Perzische microgeschiedenis,” Phoenix 59/1 (2013), 3-19.

- “The Prayer of Nabonidus in the light of Hellenistic Babylonian Literature,” forthcoming in M. Popovic (ed.), Jewish Cultural Encounters in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern World. Proceedings of the Third Qumran Institute Symposium held at Groningen, December 2013.

- C. Waerzeggers, “A Statue of Darius in the Ebabbar temple of Sippar”, in Extraction and Control: Studies in Honor of Matthew W. Stolper, ed. Michael Kozuh et al. (SAOB 68; Chicago: Oriental Institute Publications, 2014), 323-329.

- C. Waerzeggers, “Social Network Analysis of Cuneiform Archives: A New Approach,” in Documentary Sources in Ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman Economic History: Methodology and Practice, ed. Heather D. Baker and Michael Jursa (Oxford: Oxbow, 2014), 207-233.

- C. Waerzeggers, “Locating Contact in the Babylonian Exile: Some Reflections on Tracing Judean-Babylonian Encounters,” in Encounters by the Rivers of Babylon: Scholarly Conversations between Jews, Iranians and Babylonians in Antiquity, eds. Uri Gabbay and Shai Secunda (Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, in press).

- C. Waerzeggers, Marduk-remanni: Local Networks and Imperial Politics in Achaemenid Babylonia (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 233; Leuven: Peeters, 2014).

- C. Waerzeggers, "Babylonia in the Persian Empire,” in G. Rubio (ed.), Handbook of Ancient Mesopotamia (Berlin: De Gruyter), forthcoming.

- C. Waerzeggers, “Entrepreneurs in the Achaemenid Empire,” in B. Jacobs and R. Rollinger (eds.), A Companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell), forthcoming.

- J.P. Nielsen and C. Waerzeggers, “In search of the origins of the hanshû land schemes in the early Neo-Babylonian period: interactions between temple, palace, and local elites,” submitted (March 2014) for publication (expected 2015) in the proceedings of the ESF Exploratory Workshop: Dynamics of Production and Economic Interaction in the Near East in the First Half of the First Millennium BCE, Villeneuve d’Ascq (France), 28-30 June 2011, convened by Juan Carlos Garcia Moreno.

- J. Stökl and C. Waerzeggers (eds.), Exile and Return: The Babylonian Context. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 478. Berlin: De Gruyter, to appear in 2015. 

- J. M. Silverman and C. Waerzeggers (eds.), Political Memory in and after the Persian Empire (proceedings of the workshop held at Leiden University in June 2014) SBL Ancient Near East Monographs, to appear in 2015. 

- “The Neo-Babylonian chronicle about Sabium and Apil-Sîn: a copy of the text (BM 29440),” NABU 2015/54. 

- “Assessing Persian Kingship in the Near East: An Introduction” (with J. M. Silverman), forthcoming in J. M. Silverman and C. Waerzeggers, Political Memory in and after the Persian Empire (SBL Ancient Near East Monographs; Atlanta). 

- “Facts, Propaganda, or History? Shaping Political Memory in the Nabonidus Chronicle,” frothcoming in J. M. Silverman and C. Waerzeggers, Political Memory in and after the Persian Empire (SBL Ancient Near East Monographs; Atlanta). 

- “Introduction” (with J. Stökl), in J. Stökl and C. Waerzeggers (eds), Exile and Return: The Babylonian Context. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 478. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015 (pp. 1–6). 

- “Babylonian Kingship in the Persian Period: Performance and Reception,” in J. Stökl and C. Waerzeggers (ed.), Exile and Return: The Babylonian Context. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 478. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015 (pp. 181–222).

- “The silver has gone: Temple theft and a divided community in Achaemenid Babylonia,” in K. Kleber and R. Pirngruber (eds), Festschrift R. J. van der Spek, Leiden: NINO, in press

- “Shangu Priest,” forthcoming in The Routledge Dictionary of Ancient Mediterranean Religions (edited by Eric Orlin) 

- “Shatammu Priest,” forthcoming in The Routledge Dictionary of Ancient Mediterranean Religions (edited by Eric Orlin)

Papers presented

- “The prebend of temple scribe in first millennium BC Babylonia,“ joint paper presented by G. Frame at the 220th Meeting of the American Oriental Society, 12-15 March 2010 in St. Louis.

- “Social Network Analysis of Cuneiform Data,” workshop of the Berkeley Prosopographic Services project, 24-28 March 2010.

- “Adoption of Babylonian priests,” workshop on Adoption in Mesopotamia, Ghent (Belgium), 01-02 April 2010.

- “The Babylonian Chronicles Revisited,” at the 56^th RAI. Barcelona, 28^th of July 2010.

- “How to Become a Babylonian Priest: Straight and Crooked paths to the Priesthood”, London Centre of the Ancient Near East, 28 February 2011

- “A Day of Worship in a Babylonian Temple”, Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society, British Museum, 11 April 2011

- “Social Network Analysis of Cuneiform Sources: An Exploration of Possibilities and Limitations”, Computer-Aided Research of Historical Archives in the Humanities Workshop, Sourasky Central Library, Tel Aviv University, 22 May 2011

- “The end of native kingship in Mesopotamia,” Expressions of local and minority identities in an imperial context, Concluding Conference of The Jewish Culture in the Ancient World research group May 22, 2011; Tel Aviv University, Faculty of Humanities.

- “The Babylonian Priesthood and Second Temple Judaism”, Encounters by the Rivers of Babylon: Scholarly Conversations between Jews, Iranians and Babylonians in Antiquity; Monday, May 23 to Wednesday, May 25, 2011, Rabin Building, Room 3001, Mt. Scopus (Organizers: Uri Gabbay and Shai Secunda; Scholion, Hebrew University).

- “The hanshû land schemes in the early Neo-Babylonian period: interactions between local elites, king and temples” ESF Exploratory Workshop: Dynamics of Production and Economic Interaction in the Near East in the First Half of the First Millennium BCE, Villeneuve d’Ascq (France), 28 -30 June 2011 [convenor: Juan Carlos Garcia Moreno], Wednesday 29 June 2011.

- “The Hierarchy of the Babylonian Priesthood”, Society of Biblical Literature meeting, King’s College London, Monday 4 July 2011.

- “The loss of native kingship in Mesopotamia,” RAI 57 (Tradition and Innovation in the Ancient Near East), Rome, Friday 8 July 2011.

- “Contact in Exile: Judeans in their Babylonian context” workshop Exile and Return: The Babylonian Context , UCL 10 November 2011, organized by the Babylon project.

- “New Kings – Same Old Story? The Persians in Babylonia”, lunch-time lecture in the Middle East Department of the British Museum, 8 December 2011

- "Networks in Babylonia: social complexity and cuneiform data", Southampton, The Connected Past, 24 March 2012.

- "The Network of Resistance", Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Leiden, 17 July 2012.

- "The Babylonian Temple Enterer", Society of Biblical Literature International Meeting, Amsterdam, 24 July 2012.

- “In de voetsporen van Marduk-remanni: een Perzisch-Babylonische microgeschiedenis,” Pleyte lezing, Leiden University, 25 September 2012

- “The social location of Judean exiles: the case of the chronicles”, Invited lecture at a symposium in honour of Prof. Dr. Wilfred van Soldt, Leiden University, 26 October 2012

- “Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon: an enchanting city,” Embassy of Iraq in The Hague, 30 November 2012

- “The Persian Empire in Babylonia: Integration and Control of Office-holding Elites,” conference Land and Power in the Antique and post-Antique World, Vienna, 20-22 February 2013

- J. Stökl and C. Waerzeggers, “The Babylonian temple enterer and the Judean kohen - a comparative study”, paper at the World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, 28 July - 1 Aug 2013

- “Het antieke Babylon”, Studievereniging GLTC, Leiden University, 25 August 2013

- "Bringing home the Empire: The Caro-memphite community of Borsippa in context," International workshop: Egyptians in Mesopotamia, Castelen bei Basel (Convened by M. Wasmuth), 31 October - 3 November 2013

- “The Nabonidus Debate in Babylonia, c. 200 BC,” Third Qumran Institute Symposium Jewish Cultural Encounters in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern World(Organized by M. Popović), Groningen University, 8-11 December 2013

- “The plot thickens...On archival patterns and political factions in Babylonia in 484 BC”, International workshop Xerxes and Babylonia: the Cuneiform Evidence (Organized by C. Waerzeggers), Leiden University, 15-17 Januray 2014.

- “De vier helden van de ontcijfering van het spijkerschrift”, invited lecture at the Dutch Institute of the Near East (NINO), National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden, 20 February 2014

- “Nabonidus in Qumran,” Pleyte lezing, Leiden University, 30 April 2014

- “The Persian Kings in Hellenistic Babylonian Historiography”, International Conference Political Memory during and after the Persian Empire, Leiden University 18-20 June 2014

- "De ontcijfering van het spijkerschrift, een verborgen geschiedenis," openingscollege SMES, Leiden University, 4 September 2014.

- "Imperial Rule and Local Monarchy: the Persians as Kings of Babylon", paper at the conference on Autocracy in the Ancient World, NYU Abu Dhabi, 2-3 November 2014. 

- “Envisioning the Royal Past in Hellenistic Babylonian Literature,” guest lecture at Ca’Foscari Venice, 17 December 2014

- “The Babylonian Chronicles: Authorship, Readership,” Conceptualizing Past, Present and Future (Ninth Melammu Conference), Helsinki, 20 May 2015 (convened by Robert Rollinger and Sebastian Finck; panel invitation by Rocío Da Riva).

- “Dating Cuneiform Literary Texts (Persian and Post-Persian Periods),” EABS Cordoba, 15 July 2015

Jonathan Stökl

Publications

- J. Stökl, Prophecy in the Ancient Near East, 2012 ( Leiden: Brill Publishers).

- J. Stökl, “Gender Ambiguity in Ancient Near Eastern Prophecy? A Re-Assessment of the Data Behind a Popular Theory,” in Corrine L. Carvalho and Jonathan Stökl (eds.), Prophets Male and Female: Gender and Prophecy in the Hebrew Bible, the Eastern Mediterranean and the ancient Near East (Ancient Israel and its Literature 15; Atlanta: Society for Biblical Literature, 2013), 27-58.

- J. Stökl, “Nebuchadnezzar: History, Memory and Myth-Making in the Persian Period,” in Ehud ben Zvi and Diana Edelman (eds.), Bringing the Past to the Present: Images of Central Figures in the Late Persian and Early Hellenistic Period (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 257-269.

- J. Stökl, ‘“I Have Rained Stones and Fiery Glow on Their Heads!” Celestial and Meteorological Prophecy in the Neo-Assyrian Empire’, in: R. P. Gordon and H. M. Barstad (eds.), ‘Thus Speaks Ishtar of Arbela’: Prophecy in Israel, Assyria and Egypt in the Neo-Assyrian Period (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2013), 239-251.

- J. Stökl, 'The Mtnb'wt of Ezekiel 13 Reconsidered', Journal of Biblical Literature 132 (2013), 61-76.

- J. Stökl, “(Intuitive) Divination, (Ethical) Demands and Diplomacy in the Ancient Near East,” in C.L. Crouch, Jonathan Stökl and Anna Louise Zernecke (eds.), Mediating Between Heaven and Earth: Communication with the Divine in the Ancient Near East (Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 566; London: T & T Clark; 2012), 82-92.

- J. Stökl, 'Ancient Near Eastern Prophecy' in J. G. McConville and M. J. Boda (eds.), Dictionary of the Old Testament: Prophets (Downer Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 16-24. 

- J. Stökl, 'How Unique was Israelite Prophecy?', in A. T. Levenson (ed.), The Wiley-Blackwell History of Jews and Judaism ( Oxford: Wiley-Blackwel, 2012l), 53-69. 

- J. Stökl, Mediating Between Heaven and Earth: Communication with the Divine in the Ancient Near East (Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 566; London: T & T Clark). Edited together with C.L. Crouch and Anna Louise Zernecke, 2012

- J. Stökl, entries ‘רֹאֶה’; ‘נָבִיא/נְבִיאָה’; ‘חֹזֶה’ in the Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database Project (SAHD), Oxford Group under the editorship of Hugh Williamson, 2012  www2.div.ed.ac.uk/research/sahd/lexeme_index.html

Papers presented

- “Restrictions on the Priesthood in Persian Yehud and the Neo-Babylonian Empire”, at the International Meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature in London, July 2011

- “Skin Diseases, Purity and P”, at the Annual meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature November 2011 in San Francisco.

- “New Perspectives on the Hebrew bet avot and the Babylonian bit abi’’, at the conference Exile and Return: The Babylonian Context November 10-12 2011 at University College London.

- 'To Shave or not to Shave: How (not) to become a Priest in the Persian Period', Cambridge Old Testament Seminar, 16 May 2012 

- Ezekiel’s Priestly Boundaries, Society of Biblical Literature International Meeting (Amsterdam, 24 July 2012).

- ‘Texts and Temples: Israelite and Judean Temples in the late Eighth to Fifth Century BCE’, Palestine Exploration Fund lecture at the British Museum, November 8, 2012.

- 'Schoolboy Ezekiel', at a joint session of the Theological Interpretation of the Book of Ezekiel and the Prophetic Texts and Ancient Contexts groups at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Chicago, 19 November 2012

- 'Schoolboy Ezekiel: On the Social Location of the Author(s) of the Book of Ezekiel', at the Biblical Studies Seminar, King's College London, 23 January 2013

- "Since when do scribes Prophesy?”, a response to Martti Nissinen’s lecture “Since when to Prophets Write?”, Leiden University, 11 april 2013

- 'Schoolboy Ezekiel: On the Social Location of the Author(s) of the Book of Ezekiel', Old Testament Seminar, University of Oxford, 29 April 2013

- J. Stökl and C. Waerzeggers, “The Babylonian temple enterer and the Judean kohen - a comparative study”, paper at the World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, 28 July - 1 Aug 2013

- “Priestly Access Rights in Babylonia and in Ezekiel’s Utopian Temple Vision,” paper at the World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, 28 July - 1 Aug 2013

Jason Silverman

Publications

- J. Silverman, ‘Was There an Achaemenid “Theology” of Kingship?’ In Religion in the Persian Period: Emerging Trends Judaisms and Other Trends. Orientalische Religionen in der Antike. Edited by Diana Edelman, Anne Fitzpatrick-McKinley, and Philippe Guillaume. Tübingen, Mohr Siebek, in press.

- Review of Tanak: A Theological and Critical Introduction to the Jewish Bible by Marvin A. Sweeney. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2012. Review of Biblical Literature,http://www.bookreviews.org/BookDetail.asp?TitleId=8427

- J.M. Silverman, ed. Opening Heaven’s Floodgates: The Genesis Flood Narrative, Its Contexts and Reception. Biblical intersections 12. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2013.

- J.M. Silverman, ‘Noah’s Flood as Myth and Reception: An Introduction.’ Pages 1–29 in Opening Heaven’s Floodgates: The Genesis Flood Narrative, Its Contexts and Reception.Jason M. Silverman, ed. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2013.

- J.M. Silverman, "It's a Craft! It's a Cavern! It's a Castle! Yima's Vara, Iranian Floods and Jewish Apocalyptic Traditions", Pages 191–230 in Opening Heaven’s Floodgates The Genesis Flood Narrative, Its Contexts and Reception.  Jason M. Silverman, ed. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2013.

- J.M. Silverman, Review of Israel in the Persian Period: The Fifth and Fourth Centuries B.C.E. by Erhard S. Gerstenberger. Trans. By Siegfried S. Schatzmann, Biblical Encyclopedia 8, Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2011. Review of Biblical Literature, http://www.bookreviews.org/pdf/8378_9168.pdf

- J.M. Silverman, Review of From Judah to Judaea: Socio-Economic Structures and Processes in the Persian Period edited by Johannes Unsok Ro. HBM 4, Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2013. Review of Biblical Literature,http://www.bookreviews.org/pdf/9071_10002.pdf

- J.M. Silverman, Review of Tempel im Alten Orient, edited by Kai Kaniuth et al. CDOG 7, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2013. Review of Biblical Literature, http://www.bookreviews.org/pdf/9296_10261.pdf

- J.M. Silverman, Review of Purity and the Forming of Religious Traditions in the Ancient Mediterranean World and Ancient Judaism, edited by Christian Frevel and Christophe Nihan. Leiden: Brill, 2013. Review of Biblical Literature, http://www.bookreviews.org/pdf/9170_10108.pdf

- J.M. Silverman, ‘Vetting the Priest in Zech 3: The Satan between Divine and Achaemenid Administrations.’ Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 14/6 (2014).

- J.M. Silverman, ‘Yes We Can (Hyperbolize)! Ideals, Rhetoric, and Tradition Transmission.’ Journal of the Bible and Its Reception Volume 1, Issue 2, 2014, Pages 263–284.

Papers presented

- “The Satan in Zechariah and the King’s Eye: On Royal and Divine Administrations.” Conference paper, European Association of Biblical Studies, Leipzig, July 2013.

- “Yes We Can (Hyperbolize)! Ideals, Rhetoric, and Tradition Transmission” Conference paper, European Association of Biblical Studies, Leipzig, July 2013.

- “Persian Fire (v. 3.0)? Nehemiah and Persian Connections with the Restored Jerusalem Cult.” Conference paper, Association for the Study of Persianate Societies, Sarajevo, Sept. 2013.

- “‘We May be Through with the Past…’ Magnolia, the Plague Narrative, and Tradition History.” Conference paper, Society of Biblical Literature, Baltimore, Nov. 2013.

- “The Satan in Zechariah and the King’s Eye (v. 2.0): On Royal and Divine Administrations.” Conference paper, Society of Biblical Literature, Baltimore, Nov. 2013.

- “Vetting the Priest in Zechariah 3: The Satan between Royal and Divine Administrations.” Invited Lecture, Dutch Symposium of the Ancient Near East VIII, Leiden University, 28 February 2014.

- “Impact of Persian Kingship on Judaean Kingship.” Invited Lecture, Pleyte Lecture Series, Leiden University, May 2014.

- “Persian Forced Migration and Labor Policy and the Jerusalem Temple.” Conference paper, Money and Cult Symposium, Hekhal, Dublin, May 2014.

- “From Remembering to Expecting the ‘Messiah’: Achaemenid Kingship as (Re)formulating Apocalyptic Expectations of David.” Conference paper, Political Memory in and after the Persian Empire symposium, Leiden, June 2014.

- “Aronofsky’s Enochic Vision in Noah.” The Bible and the Moving Image Panel on Aronofsky’s Noah, International SBL, Vienna, July 2014.

Anne-Mareike Wetter

Publications

• Wetter,  A. (2015). The Prophet and the King - Is There Such a Thing as Free Prophetic Speech? In B. Becking & H. Barstad (eds.), Prophets in Stories. Leiden: Brill.
• Wetter,  A. (2014). ‘Ruth – A Born-Again Israelite? One Woman’s Journey Through Space and Time.’ In D. Edelman & E. Ben Zvi (eds.), Imagining the Other and Constructing Israelite Identity in the Early Second Temple Period. London: T&T Clark.
• Wetter,  A. (in press). ‘Bodies, Boundaries, and Belonging.’ In D. Nolan Fewell (ed.), Oxford Handbook on Biblical Narrative. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
• Wetter,  A. (forthcoming in 2015). ‘Sacrificing Judith’. In A.J.A.C.M. Korte, M. Poorthuis & J. Duyndam (eds.), The New Fascination of Sacrifice. Leiden: Brill.
• Wetter,  A. (forthcoming). Judith Maccabee? On Leadership, Resistance, and the Great Deeds of Little People. In E. Ben Zvi & D. Edelman (eds.), Monarchy, Oligarchy and ‘Democracy’ in Yehudite Discourse: Political Thought, Social Memory and Imagination.
• Wetter, Anne-Mareike. On Her Account: Reconfiguring Israel in Ruth, Esther, and Judith. LHBOTS 623. London: T&T Clark, forthcoming in 2015.

Book reviews

• David M. Carr, Holy Resilience: The Bible’s Traumatic Origins. In: Nederlands theologisch tijdschrift, forthcoming.
• Aaron Koller, Esther in Ancient Jewish Thought. In: Nederlands theologisch tijdschrift  69(1), 70-71 (2015).
• Gérard Leroy, Des Matriarches et de quelque prophètes de l’Ancien Testament. Avec la participation de M. Brémond. In: Tijdschrift voor Theologie 54(4), 416 (2014).

Papers presented

• “I’m a Bitch, I’m a Lover… I’m a Sinner, I’m a Saint: Reconfiguring Traditional Identities in Ruth, Esther, and Judith”  EABS Annual Conference, (Cordoba, July 12-15, 2015)
• “Holy Men? Negotiations Between Priesthood and Compromised Masculinity,”  EABS Annual Conference (Cordoba, July 12-15, 2015)

Bastian Still

Manuscripts

- B. Still, The Social World of Babylonian Priests. PhD Leiden University, Manuscript submitted October 2014.  

Papers presented

- “Marriage and Hierarchy in Borsippa” presented at, ‘The Oxford Post-Graduate Conference in Assyriology,’ Wolfson College (03/03/2012), Oxford.

- "Wife-Givers and Wife-Takers: A Network Approach to Marriage and Hierarchy among Babylonian Priests Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Leiden, 18 July 2012.

- ""Please give me your daughter, let her be my wife": Priestly Marriage in Babylonia: a rather complex affair", 19 Dec 2012, Departmental lecture, Leiden University.

- "Social Implications of Marriage in Babylonia: hierarchies, temple service and property transactions", DUSANE, 13 April 2013, Leiden University.

- "The Social World of Babylonian Priests: Marriage, Property and Moneylending in Borsippa", Current approaches in Neo-Babylonian studies, 29-30 May 2013, Vienna.

- “Deep South”, Instructional presentation about social network analysis (SNA) for ancient historians, workshop organized by project Babylon at Leiden University, June 17-21, 2013

- “Babylonian Marriage Networks”, Instructional presentation about social network analysis (SNA) for ancient historians, workshop organized by project Babylon at Leiden University, June 17-21, 2013

Research visits

- B. Still, Research stay at the British Museum, London, 4-24 July 2013

Rieneke Sonnevelt

Manuscripts

- "Aramaic and Babylonian in the First Millennium BC", a think piece written in the context of the LeidenGlobal seminar on Area Studies and the Disciplines, December 2013.

Papers presented

- “Aramaic Inscriptions on Cuneiform Clay Tablets from First Millennium BC Babylonia”, paper at the international postgraduate workshop Current Approaches in Neo-Babylonian Studies, University of Vienna, 29–30 May 2013.

- “Contexts of Aramaic Epigraphs Contained on Sippar Tablets from the First Millennium BC”, a paper at the international postgraduate workshop Neo-Babylonian Network (NBN) Conference. Sorbonne University – Paris, 1-2 June 2015.

- "Aramaic Inscriptions on Cuneiform Clay Tablets from First Millennium BC Babylonia”, a methodology oriented paper at the international workshop East and West: Comparing Methodological Approaches. University Ca’ Foscari Venezia, University of Padova, University of Verona – Padova/Verona, 16-17 March 2015. 

Research visits

10 June - 5 July 2013: Research visit to the British Museum

27 January - 26 February 2014: Research visit to the Babylonian section of the Penn Museum, Philadelphia.

Tero Alstola

Publications

- Alstola T.E. (2014), Samalin tekstit (in English: Texts from Sam'al). In: Pakkala J. (Ed.) Tekstejä rautakauden Levantista Publications of the Finnish Exegetical Society no. 107. Helsinki: Finnish Exegetical Society. 189-191.

- Alstola T.E. (2014), Tell Fekheriyen piirtokirjoitus (in English: The Tell Fekheriye Inscription). In: Pakkala J. (Ed.) Tekstejä rautakauden Levantista Publications of the Finnish Exegetical Society no. 107. Helsinki: Finnish Exegetical Society. 153-157.

- Nissinen M. & Alstola T.E. (2014), Panamuwa II. In: Pakkala J. (Ed.) Tekstejä rautakauden Levantista Publications of the Finnish Exegetical Society no. 107. Helsinki: Finnish Exegetical Society. 205–208.

- Nissinen M. & Alstola T.E. (2014), Panamuwa I. In: Pakkala J. (Ed.) Tekstejä rautakauden Levantista Publications of the Finnish Exegetical Society no. 107. Helsinki: Finnish Exegetical Society. 196–200.

- Alstola T.E. (2014), Bileamin kirja Deir Allasta (in English: The Book of Bileam from Deir Alla). In: Pakkala J. (Ed.) Tekstejä rautakauden Levantista Publications of the Finnish Exegetical Society no. 107. Helsinki: Finnish Exegetical Society. 138-143.

- Alstola T.E. (2014), Mesad-Hasavjahun vetoomuskirjelmä (in English: A Letter of Petition from Mesad-Hasavjahu). In: Pakkala J. (Ed.) Tekstejä rautakauden Levantista Publications of the Finnish Exegetical Society no. 107. Helsinki: Finnish Exegetical Society. 75-78.

- Alstola T.E. (2014), Bar-Rakibin rakennuspiirtokirjoitus (in English: The Building Inscription of Bar-Rakib). In: Pakkala J. (Ed.) Tekstejä rautakauden Levantista Publications of the Finnish Exegetical Society no. 107. Helsinki: Finnish Exegetical Society. 209-211.

Papers presented

- 1-2 June 2015: “Ethnicity and Diversity in Babylonian Society”, The Neo-Babylonian Network Conference, Paris

- 21 April 2015: “How to Study Foreign Minorities in Mid-First Millennium Babylonia?”, workshop “What Is ‘Ethnicity’ and Who Belongs to a ‘Minority’ in the Fertile Crescent?”, Helsinki

- 22-25 November 2014: "On the Road: Judean Royal Merchants in Babylonia", the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, San Diego

- 3-5 October 2014: "Restoring the Sacred Order: Returning Exiled Gods and People in the Ancient Near East", the Annual Meeting of the Centre of Excellence in Sacred Texts and Traditions, Tallinn

- 12-15 September 2014: "Going Back Home: Judeans, Neirabians, and Other Returnees from Babylonia", Old Testament Studies: Epistemologies and Methods Conference, Hamburg 

- 20 May 2014: “Yahwistic Names and the Divine Determinative in Babylonian Sources”, workshop “Inside and outside in Mesopotamia: the concept of foreignness and its expression in cuneiform texts”, Leiden

- 28 February 2014: "Judean Merchants in Babylonia in the Sixth Century BCE", Dutch Symposium of the Ancient Near East, Leiden

- 13-16 September 2013: "Urban Judeans in Mid-First Millennium Babylonia", Old Testament Studies Epistemologies and Methods Conference, Tartu

- 4-9 August 2013: “Weeping under the Willows? Judeans in Babylonia in the 7th-5th Centuries BCE”, Congress of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament, Munich

- 29-30 May 2013: “Some Reflections on Judeans and Other Foreign Minorities in Babylonia”, workshop “Current approaches in Neo-Babylonian studies”, Vienna

Research visits

- 1 March - 30 April 2015: Research stay at the University of Helsinki 

- 1-4 July 2014: Research visit to the British Museum, London.

2015

- 15 July 2015: “Dating Cuneiform Literary Texts (Persian and Post-Persian Periods)” EABS Cordoba (CW)

- 13 and 15 July 2015: Judeans in the Persian Empire; panel organised by Jason M. Silverman, Caroline Waerzeggers and Anne-Mareike Wetter (EABS Cordoba)

- Cordoba (July 12-15th): “Holy Men? Negotiations Between Priesthood and Compromised Masculinity.” (AMW)

- 1-2 June 2015: “Ethnicity and Diversity in Babylonian Society”, The Neo-Babylonian Network Conference, Paris (TA)

- “Contexts of Aramaic Epigraphs Contained on Sippar Tablets from the First Millennium BC”, a paper at the international postgraduate workshop Neo-Babylonian Network (NBN) Conference. Sorbonne University – Paris, 1-2 June 2015 (RS).

- 20 May 2015: “The Babylonian Chronicles: Authorship, Readership,” Conceptualizing Past, Present and Future (Ninth Melammu Conference), Helsinki (CW)

- 21 April 2015: “How to Study Foreign Minorities in Mid-First Millennium Babylonia?”, workshop “What Is ‘Ethnicity’ and Who Belongs to a ‘Minority’ in the Fertile Crescent?”, Helsinki (TA).

- 16-17 March 2015: "Aramaic Inscriptions on Cuneiform Clay Tablets from First Millennium BC Babylonia”, a methodology oriented paper at the international workshop East and West: Comparing Methodological Approaches. University Ca’ Foscari Venezia, University of Padova, University of Verona – Padova/Verona (RS). 

- 1 March - 30 April 2015: Research stay at the University of Helsinki (TA).

- 13 February 2015: Circumcision in Post-Exilic Yehud - Uncontested Marker, Unrelated to Masculinity? Utrecht, International Conference: Religion, Gender, and Body Politics. Postcolonial, Post-Secular, and Queer Perspectives (AMW).

2014

- 17 December 2014:  “Envisioning the Royal Past in Hellenistic Babylonian Literature,” guest lecture at Ca’Foscari, Venice (CW)

- 22-25 November 2014: "On the Road: Judean Royal Merchants in Babylonia", the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, San Diego (TA)

- 2 November 2014: “Imperial Rule and Local Monarchy: The Persians as Kings of Babylon,” workshop Legitimation of Autocracy in the Ancient World (convened by Andrew Monson and Phillip Metsis), NYU Abu Dhabi (CW)

- 3-5 October 2014: "Restoring the Sacred Order: Returning Exiled Gods and People in the Ancient Near East", the Annual Meeting of the Centre of Excellence in Sacred Texts and Traditions, Tallinn (TA) 

- 12-15 September 2014: "Going Back Home: Judeans, Neirabians, and Other Returnees from Babylonia", Old Testament Studies: Epistemologies and Methods Conference, Hamburg (TA)

- 4 September 2014: “De ontcijfering van het spijkerschrift: een verborgen geschiedenis,” Openingscollege academisch jaar, opleiding SMES, Universiteit Leiden (CW) 

- July 2014, Jason Silverman: ‘Aronofsky’s Enochic Vision in Noah.’ International SBL, Vienna

- 1-4 July 2014: Research visit to the British Museum, London (TA) 

- 20 June 2014, Jason Silverman:  ‘From Remembering to Expecting the “Messiah”: Achaemenid Kingship as (Re)formulating Apocalyptic Expectations of David.’ Political Memory in and after the Persian Empire symposium, Leiden

- 18-20 June 2014: "Political Memory in and after the Persian Empire" (International conference organized by ERC project Babylon; organizers: Jason M Silverman and Caroline Waerzeggers) 
Speakers: Damien Agut-Labordere, Kiumars Alizadeh, Björn Anderson, Seth Bledsoe, Geert de Breucker, Henry Colburn, Benedikt Eckhardt, Kiyan Foroutan, Lisbeth Fried, Oleg Gabelko, Mohammad T. Imanpour, Albert de Jong, Olaf Kaper, Hamed Kazemzadeh, Aleksandr Makhlaiuk, Christine Mitchell, Matthew Neujahr, Madhavi Nevader, John Nielsen, Felipe Rojas, Eduard Rung, Anahita Sahrokhi, Valeria Sergueenkova, Jason Silverman, Kveta Smolarikova, Ali Tarafdari, Caroline Waerzeggers, Ian Wilson. 

- 18 June 2014, Caroline Waerzeggers: 'The Persian Kings in Hellenistic Babylonian Literature', Political Memory in and after the Persian Empire symposium, Leiden 

- 10 June 2014: The Neo-Babylonian Network – Graduate Conference  ( Leiden University) 
This was the second meeting of the Neo-Babylonian Network, an initiative of the universities of Leiden, Paris and Vienna that aims to bring together young scholars who work on first millennium BCE Babylonia. 
Speakers:  Benjamin Dromard (Paris), Bruno Gombert (Paris), Shai Gordin (Leuven), Melanie Groß (Vienna), Julia Krul (Leiden), Yuval Levavi (Vienna), Louise Quillien (Paris), Martina Schmidl (Vienna). 
Respondents: Kathleen Abraham (Leuven), Paola Coro (Venice), Francis Joannès (Paris), Michael Jursa (Vienna), Kristin Kleber (Amsterdam), Caroline Waerzeggers (Leiden) 

- May 2014, Jason Silverman: ‘Persian Forced Migration and Labor Policy and the Jerusalem Temple.’ Money and Cult Symposium, Hekhal, Dublin 

- May 2014, Jason Silverman: ‘Impact of Persian Kingship on Judaean Kingship’. Invited Lecture, Pleyte Lecture Series (Leiden University) 

- Tuesday 20 May: Workshop - Inside and outside in Mesopotamia: the concept of foreignness and its expression in cuneiform texts  [organized by Caroline Waerzeggers (Leiden University) and Melanie Wasmuth (Basel University); participants: J.G. Dercksen, R. de Boer, T. Alstola, C. Waerzeggers, M. Wasmuth]  

- 30 April 2014, Caroline Waerzeggers:  “Nabonidus in Qumran,” Pleyte lezing, Leiden 

- 15 April 2014: "The Flood from Sumer to Aronofsky" Poster 

- 28 February 2014, Jason Silverman: ‘Vetting the Priest in Zechariah 3: The Satan between Royal and Divine Administrations.’ Invited Lecture, Dutch Symposium of the Ancient near East (Leiden University) 

- 28 February 2014, Tero Alstola: "Judean Merchants in Babylonia in the Sixth Century BCE", Dutch Symposium of the Ancient Near East, Leiden 

- 20 February 2014, Caroline Waerzeggers: “De vier helden van de ontcijfering van het spijkerschrift”, NINO lezing, Leiden

- 16-17 January 2014: Workshop “Xerxes and Babylon: The Cuneiform Evidence”, international workshop organised by the ERC project BABYLON (Caroline Waerzeggers). 

- 16 January 2014: “The plot thickens...On archival patterns and political factions in Babylonia in 484 BC”, International workshop Xerxes and Babylonia: the Cuneiform Evidence, Leiden University (CW)

2013

- 9 December 2013: “The Nabonidus Debate in Babylonia, c. 200 BC,” Third Qumran Institute Symposium Jewish Cultural Encounters in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern World (Organized by M. Popović), Groningen University (CW)

- 23-26 November 2013: Dreaming and Dream Divination in Daniel, annual conference of the Society of Biblical Literature, Baltimore. (JSt)

- 23-26 November 2013: "'We May Be Through With the Past...' Magnolia, the Plague Narrative, and Tradition History", Society of Biblical Literature, Baltimore (JSi)

- 31 October-3 November 2013 "Bringing home the Empire: The Caro-memphite community of Borsippa in context,” paper submitted to the international workshop Egyptians in Mesopotamia (Convened by M. Wasmuth), Castelen bei Basel (CW)

- 16 September 2013: Attendance of the annual meeting of the Young Academy of Europe, Wroclaw, Poland (CW)

- 13-16 September 2013: "Urban Judeans in Mid-First Millennium Babylonia", Old Testament Studies Epistemologies and Methods Conference, Tartu, Estonia (TA)

- August 2013: Priestly Access Rights in Babylonia and in Ezekiel’s Utopian Temple Vision, World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem. (JSt)

- 26 August 2013: "Babylon: de eeuwige stad", Berlijn en de Klassieken, Leiden (CW)

- 4-9 August 2013: “Weeping under the Willows? Judeans in Babylonia in the 7th-5th Centuries BCE”, Congress of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament, Munich (TA)

- 30 July - 2 August 2013: "The Satan in Zechariah and the King's Eye: On Royal and Divine Administrations." European Association for Biblical Studies, Leipzig (JSi)

- 30 July - 2 August 2013: "Yes We Can (Hyperbolize)! Ideals, Rhetoric, and Transition Transmission" European Association for Biblical Studies, Leipzig (JSi)

- 28 July - 1 Aug 2013: “The Babylonian temple enterer and the Judean kohen - a comparative study”, with J. Stökl, Jerusalem International Conference of Jewish Studies (CW)

- 4-24 July 2013, Reschearch stay at the British Museum, London, (BS)

- 10 June - 5 July 2013, Research visit to the British Museum, London (RS)

- 29-30 May 2013: “Aramaic Inscriptions on Cuneiform Clay Tablets from First Millennium BC Babylonia”, Current approaches in Neo-Babylonian studies, Vienna (RS)

- 29-30 May 2013: “Some Reflections on Judeans and Other Foreign Minorities in Babylonia”, Current approaches in Neo-Babylonian studies, Vienna (TA)

- 29-30 May 2013: “The Social World of Babylonian Priests: Marriage, Property and Moneylending in Babylonia”, Current approaches in Neo-Babylonian studies, Vienna (BS)

- 8 may 2013: "A Day of Worship in a Babylonian Temple", Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan (CW)

- 29 april 2013: 'Schoolboy Ezekiel: On the Social Location of the Author(s) of the Book of Ezekiel', Old Testament Seminar, University of Oxford (JSt)

- 13 april 2013: "Social Implications of Marriage in Babylonia: hierarchies, temple service and property transactions", DUSANE, Leiden (BS) www.dusane.nl

- 11 april 2013: "Since when do prophets write? by Martti Nissinen, Vergaderzaal UB, Universiteit Leiden(JSt)

- 20-22 February 2013: “The Persian Empire in Babylonia: Integration and Control of Office-holding Elites,” conference Land and Power in the Antique and post-Antique World, Vienna (CW)

- 23 January 2013: 'Schoolboy Ezekiel: On the Social Location of the Author(s) of the Book of Ezekiel', at the Biblical Studies Seminar, King's College London (JSt)

2012

- 19 December 2012: "Please give me your daughter, let her be my wife"-Priestly Marriage in Babylonia: a rather complex affair, Departmental lecture Leiden (BS)

- 30 November 2012: “Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon: An Enchanting City”, Embassy of Iraq at The Hague (CW)

- 19 November 2012: 'Schoolboy Ezekiel', at a joint session of the Theological Interpretation of the Book of Ezekiel and the Prophetic Texts and Ancient Contexts groups at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Chicago (JSt)

- 26 October 2012: “The social location of Judean exiles: the case of the chronicles”, Leiden Symposium in Honor of Wilfred van Soldt (CW)

- 25 September 2012: “In de voetsporen van Marduk-remanni: een Perzisch-Babylonische micro-geschiedenis”, Pleyte lezing, Leiden (CW)

- 24 July 2012: "The Babylonian Temple Enterer", Society of Biblical Literature International Meeting, Amsterdam (CW)

- 24 July 2012: "Ezekiel’s Priestly Boundaries", Society of Biblical Literature International Meeting, Amsterdam (JSt)

- 18 July 2012: Wife-Givers and Wife-Takers: A Network Approach to Marriage and Hierarchy among Babylonian Priests, RAI 58, Leiden (BS)

- 18 July 2012: “The Network of Resistance”, RAI 58, Leiden (CW)

- 17 July 2012: "The Network of Resistance", RAI 58, Leiden

- 16 May 2012: 'To Shave or not to Shave: How (not) to become a Priest in the Persian Period', Cambridge Old Testament Seminar (JSt)

- 24-25 March 2012: 'Babylonian Marriage Networks - Wife-givers & Wife-takers' poster presented at "The Connected Past: people, networks and complexity in archaeology and history." A two-day collaborative, multi-disciplinary symposium, University of Southampton (BS)

- 24 March 2012: "Networks in Babylonia: social complexity and cuneiform data", Southampton, The Connected Past (CW)

- 21 March 2012: The Cyrus Cylinder, UCL Open Day. (CW)

- 3 March 2012: “Marriage and Hierarchy in Borsippa” presented at, ‘The Oxford Post-Graduate Conference in Assyriology,’ Wolfson College, Oxford. (BS)

- 14 February 2012: “The Babylonians versus Xerxes: A Recent Debate in the History of the Achaemenid Empire,” MacDonald Institute Seminar, Cambridge. (CW)

- January 2012: ‘Female Prophets in the ANE and the Hebrew Bible’ for the Institute of Jewish Studies. (JSt)

2011

- 8 December 2011: “New Kings – Some Old Story? The Persians in Babylonia,” Lunch-time lecture in the Middle East Department of the British Museum. (CW)

- 22 November 2011: “Persian rule in Babylonia: expectations and realities,” Oriental Institute Seminar Oxford. (CW)

- 10-12 November 2011: “New Perspectives on the Hebrew bet avot and the Babylonian bit abi’’, at the conference Exile and Return: The Babylonian Context, UCL (JSt)

- 10 November 2011: “Contact in Exile: Judeans in their Babylonian context” workshop Exile and Return: The Babylonian Context , UCL (CW)

- November 2011: “Skin Diseases, Purity and P”, at the Annual meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature, San Fransisco (JSt)

- 8 July 2011: “The loss of native kingship in Mesopotamia,” RAI 57 (Tradition and Innovation in the Ancient Near East), Rome (CW)

- 4 July 2011: “The Hierarchy of the Babylonian Priesthood”, Society of Biblical Literature meeting, King’s College London (CW)

- July 2011: “Restrictions on the Priesthood in Persian Yehud and the Neo-Babylonian Empire”, at the International Meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature in London (JSt)

- 15 November 2011: “The Social World of Babylonian Priests,” Upgrade presentation, UCL. (BS)

- 29 June 2011: “The hanshû land schemes in the early Neo-Babylonian period: interactions between local elites, king and temples” ESF Exploratory Workshop: Dynamics of Production and Economic Interaction in the Near East in the First Half of the First Millennium BCE, Villeneuve d’Ascq (France) (CW)

- 23-25 May 2011: “The Babylonian Priesthood and Second Temple Judaism”, Encounters by the Rivers of Babylon: Scholarly Conversations between Jews, Iranians and Babylonians in Antiquity, Mt. Scopus (CW)

- 22 May 2011: “Social Network Analysis of Cuneiform Sources: An Exploration of Possibilities and Limitations”, Computer-Aided Research of Historical Archives in the Humanities Workshop Sunday, Sourasky Central Library Tel Aviv University. (CW)

- 11 April 2011: “A Day of Worship in a Babylonian Temple,” Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society, British Museum. (CW)

- 28 February 2011: “How to Become a Babylonian Priest: Straight and Crooked paths to the Priesthood,” London Centre of the Ancient Near East. (CW)

2010

- 28 July 2010: “The Babylonian Chronicles Revisited,” at the RAI 56, Barcelona

- 30 June 2010: “The end of native kingship in Babylonia,” (in Dutch), public lecture at VU University Amsterdam. (CW)

- 1-2 April 2010: “Adoption of Babylonian priests,” workshop on Adoption in Mesopotamia, Ghent (Belgium) (CW)

- 24-28 March 2010: “Social Network Analysis of Cuneiform Data,” workshop of the Berkeley Prosopographic Services project (CW)

- 12-15 March 2010: “The prebend of temple scribe in first millennium BC Babylonia,“ joint paper presented by G. Frame at the 220th Meeting of the American Oriental Society, St. Louis (CW)

- 25 February 2010: “New Light on the Babylonian New Year Festival,” Ancient History Society, London. (CW)

- 18 February 2010: “The Babylonian Priesthood,” (in Dutch), Ex Oriente Lux, Groningen, The Netherlands. (CW)

- 17 March 2010: “Nabû and the Babylonian New Year Festival,” (in Dutch), Ex Oriente Lux, Leuven, Belgium. (CW)

2009

- 27 November 2009: “An Ancient Festival under Scrutiny: the Babylonian New Year Festival,” (in Dutch), Ex Oriente Lux, Dordrecht, The Netherlands. (CW)