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| The Ešnunna Project |
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The Eshnunna Project is named after an ancient city, modern Tell Asmar, on the river Diyala, an affluent of the Tigris, in central Iraq. Eshnunna was already a royal capital in the III millennium BC, but achieved its maximum importance during the first quarter of the II millennium BC, before being absorbed into the kingdom of Hammurabi of Babylon.
The Eshnunna kingdom comprised numerous cities in the fertile Diyala region, intermittently united under the capital city. Thousands of texts written on clay tablets, unique works of art and ruins of impressive buildings have been excavated in some of these cities. Among the most famous of the rich finds made in the Eshnunna region we may mention mathematical texts using theorems close to those of Pythagoras and Euclid, an original version of the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the most ancient law codes, beautiful statues of worshippers, the complex of the Ishtar-Kititum temple at Ishchali, the temple of Shu-Sin at Tell Asmar, and the Temple Oval at Khafaje.
The purpose of the project is the systematic study of the written sources, potentially integrated with the archaeological data and with the geo-archaeological and topographical surveys.
The main subjects for the Eshnunna Project, which has already resulted in dozens of publications and theses are the following:
a) History-philology
- Cataloguing of texts
- Date formulae
- Epigraphy
- Onomastics
- Special studies on history, administration, society, law, religion, economy
b) Archaeology
- Architecture
- Sculpture
- Ceramics
- Seals
c) Topography
- Surveys
- Location of ancient sites (in preparation)
- Mapping of archaeological areas (in preparation)
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