Caroline Waerzeggers
Professor
- Name
- Prof. dr. C. Waerzeggers
- Telephone
- 0622052915
- c.waerzeggers@hum.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0003-4186-6540
Caroline Waerzeggers is Professor of Assyriology at Leiden University. She specializes in the history of Mesopotamia in the first millennium BC, with a focus on imperial transformation under Neo-Babylonian, Persian and Seleucid rule. She is particularly interested in studying local responses to empire. Her research combines philological analysis of cuneiform texts with approaches from social, economic, literary and archival history.
More information about Caroline Waerzeggers
News
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Podcast: Ancient cuneiform tablets reveal their secrets -
Inaugural LJSA conference 'Jews at Home: From Creation to Corona' -
Cuneiform reveals shared birthplace -
‘The study of cuneiform texts is still an open field’ -
Caroline Waerzeggers appointed professor of Assyriology -
ERC Grants for five Leiden researchers
PhD candidates
Curriculum Vitae
Caroline Waerzeggers studied Assyriology and Biblical Hebrew at the University of Ghent (Belgium), where she obtained her BA (1995), MA (1997), and PhD (2001). Following her doctoral studies, she held post-doctoral positions in Belgium and Austria, where she carried out research on the economic history of Babylonia in Michael Jursa’s START project (2003–2004) and on temple prebends in Borsippa in an FWF-project (2004–2005). She then held an assistant professorship in Assyriology at VU University Amsterdam (2006–2010) and a lectureship in Ancient Near Eastern History at University College London (2010–2012) before joining Leiden University as University Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Assyriology (2012). She was promoted to Senior University Lecturer (Associate Professor) in 2014 and appointed full Professor of Assyriology in 2016. From 2018 to 2019, she served as Director of the Netherlands Institute of the Near East (NINO).
Research
Caroline Waerzeggers’ research focuses on the history of Mesopotamia in the first millennium BC, with particular attention to local responses to imperialism and subordination, including the social history of resistance, the impact of imperial rule on literacy and archival practice, the lived experience of displaced communities as well as of elite groups, and literary reimaginations of the past. In 2009, she was awarded an ERC Starting Grant for the research project By the Rivers of Babylon: New Perspectives on Second Temple Judaism from Cuneiform Texts (2009–2015), in which she and her team reconstructed the Babylonian environment of Judean deportees and illuminated the communities that returned to rebuild the Second Temple in Jerusalem. In 2016, she received an ERC Consolidator Grant for the project Persia and Babylonia: Creating a New Context for Understanding the Emergence of the First World Empire (2016–2021), which examined how the Persian Empire, the first world empire, maintained cohesion across an unprecedented territorial sweep from India to Libya, combining archival, social, and political analyses to situate Babylonia within imperial structures.
Among her publications feature two monographs: a study of the priesthood and cult in the temple of Babylonia’s ‘second city’ Borsippa (NINO, 2010) and a microhistorical study tracing the life of a provincial Babylonian man who, through his personal, economic, and political connections, experienced the dramatic changes brought by Persian imperial rule, revealing how global empire reshaped local society (Marduk-rēmanni: Local Networks and Imperial Politics in Achaemenid Babylonia Peeters, 2014). In 2024, together with Melanie Gross, Caroline Waerzeggers published the co-edited volume Personal Names in Cuneiform Texts from Babylonia (c. 750–100 BCE) (Cambridge University Press, 2024), which explored the multilingual and multi-ethnic character of Babylonian society, offering tools and frameworks for accessing the social history encoded in personal names in the ancient Near East. Also with Melanie Gross, she leads the digital prosopography of Babylonia project (prosobab). Her current book projects are about the role of archives and archival practices in Babylonian society (750-350 BC) and about chronography in late-period Babylonia.
She currently coordinates the Erasmus+ ICM grant project Old Languages and Writings of the Middle East, fostering staff and student exchanges with Sulaimani University in Iraqi Kurdistan to study ancient Near Eastern languages and writing systems.
Teaching
Caroline Waerzeggers teaches the following courses at the BA, MA, and Research MA levels:
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Enslaved in Babylonia: Silences, Voices
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Introduction to Akkadian and Cuneiform Writing
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Priests and Temples: Babylonian Religion in Practice
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Historians of Babylon
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Archives and Libraries in Achaemenid Babylonia
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De eerste wereldrijken: Egypte en het Nabije Oosten (1e millennium v.Chr tot 7e eeuw na Chr.)
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Inleiding Akkadisch en spijkerschrift
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Themacollege Oude Nabije Oosten-studies
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Werkcollege Akkadisch: Het Epos van Gilgamesh
She also supervises BA, MA, and Research MA theses as well as PhD dissertations on a wide range of topics encompassing social, political, legal, linguistic, literary, and environmental aspects of Mesopotamian and Near Eastern history, covering both the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods as well as earlier eras.
Grants and awards
2024–2027 | Erasmus+ ICM International Mobility Grant: International mobility grant for students and staff of Leiden University and Sulaimani University in the fields of Assyriology and West Asian Archaeology
2021 | Research Traineeship Grant (with L.E. Tacoma): From Wonderland to Site of Contestation: Ancient Archives in the Archival Turn (Afspraken Kwaliteitszorgen, Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University)
2021–2020 | Lorentz Workshop Subsidy (with Dominique Ngan-Tillard, Dirk Roorda, Hubert Mara, and Rients de Boer): Securing Data in Mesopotamia: New Technologies for Secured Cuneiform Texts
2019 | Research Traineeship Grant: Confusion of Tongues (Afspraken Kwaliteitszorgen, Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University)
2019 | Shaoul Fellowship: Institute for Advanced Studies, Tel Aviv University
2018 | ICT Innovation Grant: Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University
2017 | Open Access Publishing Grant: Monograph resulting from the ERC Starting Grant project (awarded by OpenAIRE)
2016 | KNAW Congress Subsidy: Conference on Middle-Babylonian society and administration (10 March 2017)
2016 | LUF Conference Subsidy: Conference on Middle-Babylonian society and administration (10 March 2017)
2016–2021 | ERC Consolidator Grant: Persia and Babylonia: Creating a New Context for Understanding the Emergence of the First World Empire
2014 | LGI Seed Funding (co-applicant): Investigating Early Complexity in Iraqi Kurdistan: Theory and Challenges (main applicant: Dr O. Nieuwenhuyse)
2009–2015 | ERC Starting Grant: By the Rivers of Babylon: New Perspectives on Second Temple Judaism from Cuneiform Texts
Professor
- Faculty of Humanities
- Leiden Institute for Area Studies
- Waerzeggers C. & Gross M.M. (Eds.) (2024), Personal names in cuneiform texts from Babylonia (c. 750–100 BCE): an introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Waerzeggers C. (2024), Introduction. In: Waerzeggers C. & Gross M.M. (Eds.), Personal names in cuneiform texts from babylonia (c. 750–100 BCE): an introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1-16.
- Dijkstra E.C.A., Kraaijeveld N.J.C., Tacoma L.E. & Waerzeggers C. (2024), Venster op het verleden?: Romeinse archieven in de archival turn, Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 137(3): 283-298.
- Waerzeggers C. (2024), NINO’s Böhl collection of cuneiform tablets. In: Vrolijk A., van Ommen K., Scheper K. & Baarda T. (Eds.), Prophets, poets and scholars: the collections of the Middle Eastern library of Leiden University. Leiden: Leiden University Press.
- Waerzeggers C. (2023), Cuneiform writing and power at Yahudu and its environs. In: Justel Vicente D. (Ed.), Judíos en Babilonia: Estudios históricos, teológicos, exegéticos y artísticos no. 2. Madrid: Universidad San Dámaso. 33-57.
- Waerzeggers C. & Gross M.M. (2022), Prosobab (data file). [dataset].
- Waerzeggers C. & Gross M.M. (2022), Prosobab: prosopography of Babylonia (c. 620-330 BCE): an online database: ERC project Persia and Babylonia (Leiden University). [database].
- Waerzeggers C. (2021), Writing history under empire: the Babylonian chronicle reconsidered, Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History 8(1-2): 279-317.
- Waerzeggers C. (2021), Digital prosopography of Babylonia: new horizons. In: Hess C.W. & Manuelli F. (Eds.) Bridging the gap: disciplines, times, and spaces in dialogue - Volume 1: sessions 1, 2, and 5 from the conference Broadening Horizons 6 held at the Freie Universität Berlin, 24-28 June 2019. Oxford: Archaeopress. 81-96.
- Waerzeggers C. (2021), The day before Cyrus entered Babylon. In: Gabbay U. & Gordin S. (Eds.), Individuals and institutions in the ancient Near East: a tribute to Ran Zadok. Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records no. 27. Berlin: De Gruyter. 79-88.
- Waerzeggers C. (2021), An unfinished duplicate of a marriage contract from the reign of Darius I, Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 2021(4): 280-281 (119).
- Waerzeggers C. (2021), Babylonian entrepreneurs. In: Jacobs B. & Rollinger R. (Eds.) A companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. 993-1004.
- Waerzeggers C. (2020), Changing Marriage Practices in Babylonia from the Late Assyrian to the Persian Period, Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History 7(2): 101-131.
- Waerzeggers C. (2020), Priestly courses and the administration of time in Neo-Babylonian temples. In: Ganzel T. & Holtz S.E. (Eds.), Contextualizing Jewish Temples. The Brill Reference Library of Judaism no. 64. Leiden/Boston: Brill. 23-48.
- Waerzeggers C. (2019), Een wandeling door 100 jaar assyriologie in Leiden, Phoenix: bulletin uitgegeven door het Vooraziatisch-Egyptisch Genootschap Ex Oriente Lux 65(3): 6-31.
- Waerzeggers C. & Seire M. (Eds.) (2018), Xerxes and Babylonia: The Cuneiform Evidence. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta no. 277. Leuven, Paris and Bristol: Peeters Publishers.
- Waerzeggers C. (2018), Licht op de Babylonische Ballingschap, Met Andere Woorden 37(1): 46-55.
- Waerzeggers C. (2018), Manuscript and archive: who wrote and read Babylonian chronicles?. In: Finck S. & Rollinger R. (Eds.), Conceptualizing past, present and future: Proceedings of the Ninth Symposium of the Melammu Project. Held in Helsinki / Tartu May 18-24, 2015. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag. 335–346.
- Waerzeggers C. (2018), Introduction: Debating Xerxes’ Rule in Babylonia. In: Waerzeggers C. & Seire M. (Eds.), Xerxes and Babylonia: The Cuneiform Evidence. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta no. 277. Leuven: Peeters. 1-18.
- Waerzeggers C. (2018), The network of resistance: archives and political action in Babylonia before 484 BCE. In: Waerzeggers C. & Seire M. (Eds.), Xerxes and Babylonia: The Cuneiform Evidence. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta no. 277. Leuven: Peeters. 89-133.
- Gross M.M., Seire M. & Waerzeggers C. (2018), Prosobab – Prosopography of Babylonia (c. 620–330) – an online database. 64th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale “The Intellectual Heritage of the Ancient Near East”, Innsbruck. 16 July 2018 - 20 July 2018. [conference poster].
- Waerzeggers C. (2017), The Prayer of Nabonidus in the Light of Hellenistic Babylonian Literature. In: Popović M., Schoonover M. & Vandenberghe M. (Eds.), Jewish Cultural Encounters in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern World. Leiden: Brill. 64-75.
- Waerzeggers C. (2017), Herodotus, Xerxes en de Babylonische opstanden van 484 v. Chr, Phoenix: Tijdschrift voor de archeologie en geschiedenis van het Nabije Oosten 63(2): 48–61.
- Waerzeggers C. (2017), Collations of CUSAS 28, Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 2017(3): 154-158.
- Waerzeggers C. (2017), Cuneiform Literacy and Control in the First Persian Empire [EABS-SBL meeting Berlin, 8 August 2017]. .
- Waerzeggers C. (2017), A Window on the Exile: Colony, State, and Writing at Yahudu [17th World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, 6 August 2017]. .
- Waerzeggers C. (Ed.) (2017), Series Editor, Assyriological section. Handbuch der Orientalistik.
- Waerzeggers C. (2016), The silver has gone: temple theft and a divided community in Achaemenid Babylonia. In: Kleber K. & Pirngruber R. (Eds.), Silver, Money, and Credit. A Tribute to Robartus J. van der Spek on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday on 18th September 2014 no. 128. Leiden: NINO. 73-85.
- Nielsen J.P. & Waerzeggers C. (2016), Interactions between temple, king and local elites: the hanšû land schemes in Babylonia (8th-6th centuries BC). In: Moreno Garcia J.C. (Ed.), Dynamics of Production in the Ancient Near East, 1300-500 BC.. Oxford and Philadelphia: Oxbow Books. 331-344.
- Waerzeggers C. (2016), Cuneiform writing and control in the community of Al-Yahudu [SBL meeting 2016, San Antonio, 21 November 2016]. .
- Waerzeggers C. (Ed.) (2016), Series Editor, Assyriological section. Handbuch der Orientalistik.
- Waerzeggers C. (Ed.) (2016), Series Editor, Assyriological section. Handbuch der Orientalistik.
- Silverman J.M. & Waerzeggers C. (Eds.) (2015), Political Memory in and after the Persian Empire no. 13. Atlanta: SBL.
- Stökl T.J. & Waerzeggers C. (Eds.) (2015), Exile and Return: The Babylonian Context. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft no. 478. Berlin: De Gruyter.
- Stökl T.J. & Waerzeggers C. (2015), Introduction. In: Stökl T.J. & Waerzeggers C. (Eds.), Exile and Return: The Babylonian Context no. 478. Berlin: De Gruyter. 1-6.
- Waerzeggers C. (2015), Babylonian Kingship in the Persian Period: Performance and Reception. In: Stökl J. & Waerzeggers C. (Eds.), Exile and Return: The Babylonian Context no. 478. Berlin: De Gruyter. 181-222.
- Silverman J.M. & Waerzeggers C. (2015), Assessing Persian Kingship in the Near East: An Introduction. In: Silverman J.M. & Waerzeggers C. (Eds.), Political Memory in and after the Persian Empire no. 13. Atlanta: SBL. 1-6.
- Waerzeggers C. (2015), Shangu. In: Orlin E. (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions. New York: Routledge. 868.
- Waerzeggers C. (2015), Shatammu. In: Orlin E. (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions. New York: Routledge. 689.
- Waerzeggers C. (2015), The Neo-Babylonian chronicle about Sabium and Apil-Sîn: a copy of the text (BM 29440), Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 2015(2): 85.
- Waerzeggers C. (2015), Facts, Propaganda, or History? Shaping Political Memory in the Nabonidus Chronicle. In: Silverman J.M. & Waerzeggers C. (Eds.), Political Memory in and after the Persian Empire no. 13. Atlanta: SBL. 95-124.
- Waerzeggers C. (2015), Review article of Laurie E. Pearce and C. Wunsch, Documents of Judean exiles and West Semites in Babylonia in the collection of David Sofer, Strata: Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society 33: 179-194.
- Waerzeggers C. (2015), Dating Cuneiform Literary Texts (Persian and Post-Persian Periods) [European Association of Biblical Studies annual conference, Cordoba, 15 July 2015]. .
- Waerzeggers C. (Ed.) (2015), Series Editor, Assyriological section. Handbuch der Orientalistik.
- Waerzeggers C. (2014), “A Statue of Darius in the Ebabbar temple of Sippar”. In: Kozuh M., Henkelman W.F.M., Jones C.E. & Woods C. (Eds.), Extraction and Control: Studies in Honor of Matthew W. Stolper. Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization no. 68. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. 323–329.
- Waerzeggers C. (2014), Locating contact in the Babylonian exile: some reflections on tracing Judean- Babylonian encounters in cuneiform texts. In: Gabbay U. & Secunda S. (Eds.), Encounters by the Rivers of Babylon: Scholarly Conversations between Jews, Iranians and Babylonians in Antiquity 131-146.
- Waerzeggers C. (2014), Marduk-remanni. Local Networks and Imperial Politics in Achaemenid Babylonia. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta no. 233. Leuven: Peeters.
- Waerzeggers C. (2014), Social Network Analysis of Cuneiform Archives: A New Approach. In: Baker H.D. & Jursa M. (Eds.), “Social Network Analysis of Cuneiform Archives: A NeDocumentary Sources in Ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman Economic History: Methodology and Practice. Oxford: Oxbow. 207-233.
- Waerzeggers C. (2014), The Persian Kings in Hellenistic Babylonian Historiography [International Conference Political Memory during and after the Persian Empire, Leiden University, 18-20 June 2014]. .
- Waerzeggers C. (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, 15-17 Januray 2014]. .
- Waerzeggers C. (Ed.) (2014), Series Editor, Assyriological section. Handbuch der Orientalistik.
- Waerzeggers C. (2013), In de voetsporen van Marduk-rēmanni: Een Perzisch-Babylonische microgeschiedenis, Phoenix: bulletin uitgegeven door het Vooraziatisch-Egyptisch Genootschap Ex Oriente Lux 59(1): 3-19.
- Waerzeggers C. & Stökl J. (2013), The Babylonian temple enterer and the Judean kohen - a comparative study [Jerusalem International Conference of Jewish Studies, 28 July - 1 Aug 2013]. .
- Waerzeggers C. (2012), Happy Days: The Babylonian Almanac in Daily Life. In: Boiy T., Bretschneider J., Goddeeris A., Hameeuw H., Jans G. & Tavernier J. (Eds.), The Ancient Near East, A Life! Festschrift Karel Van Lerberghe. Leuven: Peeters. 653-664.
- Waerzeggers C. (2012), Very Cordially Hated in Babylonia? Zēria and Rēmūt in the Verse Account, Altorientalische Forschungen 39(2): 316-320.
- Waerzeggers C. (2012), The Babylonian Chronicles: Classification and Provenance, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 71(2): 285-298.
- Waerzeggers C. (2012), The Babylonian Temple Enterer [Society of Biblical Literature Meeting, Amsterdam, 24 July 2012]. .
- Waerzeggers C. (2012), The Network of Resistance [Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale 58 (Private and State in the Ancient Near East), Leiden, 18 July 2012]. .
- Pirngruber R. & Waerzeggers C. (2011), Prebend prices in first millennium BC Babylonia, Journal of Cuneiform Studies 63: 111-144.
- Waerzeggers C. (2011), The Babylonian Priesthood in the Long Sixth Century, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 54(2): 59-70.
- Waerzeggers C. (2011), The Pious King: Royal Patronage of Temples. In: Radner K. & Robson E. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 725-751.
- Frame G. & Waerzeggers C. (2011), The prebend of temple scribe, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie 101: 127-151.
- Waerzeggers C. (2010), The Ezida temple of Borsippa: priesthood, cult, archives. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten.
- Jursa M., Hackl J., Jankovic B., Kleber K., Payne E.E., Waerzeggers C. & Weszeli M. (2010), Aspects of the Economic History of Babylonia in the First Millennium BC. Economic Geography, Economic Mentalities, Agriculture, the Use of Money and the Problem of Economic Growth. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.
- Waerzeggers C. (2010), Babylonians in Susa. The travels of Babylonian businessmen to Susa reconsidered. In: Jacobs B. & Rollinger R. (Eds.), Der Achämenidenhof / The Achaemenid Court. Akten des 2. Internationalen Colloquiums zum Thema “Vorderasian im Spannungsfeld klassischer und altorientalischer Überlieferungen”, Landgut Castelen bei Basel, 23.-25. May 2007. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. 777-813.
- Waerzeggers C. (2010), KU 14: a Neo-Babylonian tablet about Susa in Amsterdam, Notes Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 2010/45: 52-53.
- Jursa M. & Waerzeggers C. (2009), On Aspects of Taxation in Achaemenid Babylonia: New Evidence from Borsippa. In: Briant P. & Chauveau M. (Eds.), Organisation des pouvoirs et contacts culturels dans les pays de l’empire achéménide. Paris: Éditions de Boccard. 237-269.
- Waerzeggers C. (2008), On the Initiation of Babylonian Priests, Zeitschrift für Altorientalische und Biblische Rechtsgeschichte 14: 1-23.
- Waerzeggers C. & Siebes R. (2007), An Alternative Interpretation of the Seven-Pointed Star on CBS 1766, Notes Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 2007/40: 43-45.
- Waerzeggers C. (2006), Neo-Babylonian Laundry, Revue d'Assyriologie et d'Archéologie Orientale 100: 83-96.
- Waerzeggers C. (2006), The Carians of Borsippa, Iraq 68: 1-22.
- Waerzeggers C. (2005), The dispersal history of the Borsippa archives. In: Baker H.D. & Jursa M. (Eds.), Approaching the Babylonian Economy: Proceedings of the START Project Symposium held in Vienna, 1-3 July 2004. Münster: Ugarit Verlag. 343-363.
- Waerzeggers C. (2005), Neo-Babylonian Tablets in the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels, Akkadica 126: 133-158.
- Waerzeggers C. (2004), A misidentified daughter of Nabonidus, Notes Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 2004/103: 104-104.
- Waerzeggers C. (2004), The Babylonian Revolts Against Xerxes and the ‘End of Archives’, Archiv für Orientforschung 50: 150-173.
- Jursa M., Paszkowiak J. & Waerzeggers C. (2004), Three Court Records, Archiv für Orientforschung 50: 255-268.
- Waerzeggers C. (2002), Endogamy in Mesopotamia in the Neo-Babylonian Period. In: Wunsch C. (Ed.), Mining the Archives. Festschrift for Christopher Walker on the Occasion of his 60th Birthday. Dresden: ISLET Verlag. 319-342.
- Waerzeggers C. (2000), The Records of Inşabtu of the Naggāru Family, Archiv für Orientforschung 46/47: 183-200.
- Waerzeggers C. (1998), A new šangû at Neo-Babylonian Sippar, Notes Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 1998/122: 114-115.
- Waerzeggers C. (1997), Le précatif: forme de politesse en néo-babylonien, Akkadica 101: 30-35.
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