Edition of the Middle Assyrian Texts from the Governor's Residence of Bassetki/Mardama (Rooms I and AN)

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Betina Faist
• Subject Area: Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 511672249

The subject of this project are the texts from the Middle Assyrian period (c. 1500 to 1000 BC) recently discovered at Bassetki. In this period, the trading city of Ashur develops into the capital of an expanding territorial state. While textual finds from the Western provinces and, to a lesser extent, from the East and Southeast of the empire provide an insight into Middle Assyrian administrative and governmental practices, the Northern provinces have been virtually unknown until now. This has changed fundamentally with the tablets found at Bassetki. The mound of Bassetki is located in the province of Duhok in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, a landscape that was archaeologically completely unexplored until a few years ago. Between 2016 and 2021, two rooms (I and AN) were uncovered in the Eastern part of the mound (Area C) and a total of 466 Middle Assyrian clay tablets was discovered there. The texts (especially debt-notes, memoranda, lists, and letters) belong to the archive of Ashur-nasir, son of Iddin-Marduk and governor of Mardama, a hitherto unknown governor of an equally unknown province. Mardama also designated the provincial capital, which was located in the upper city of Bassetki. The existing dates concentrate on the reigns of Shalmaneser I (1263-1234) and Tukulti-Ninurta I (1233-1197). Mardama is the third site that has yielded more Middle Assyrian texts, after the capital Ashur and the provincial capital Dur-Katlimmu in the west of the empire. Moreover, it is a province close to the Assyrian heartland, only 70 km north of Nineveh. New insights can be expected in relation to internal administrative structures, to the tasks of a provincial administration, to historical geography, to the forms of territorial rule, to the order of the eponyms, among others. The main goal of the project is the edition according to modern standards of the 466 clay tablets from rooms I and AN of the governor's residence. In the first years, the 246 tablets from Room I will be edited, and in the subsequent phase, the 220 tablets from Room AN will be prepared for publication. A quick edition of the texts not only meets the needs of the scientific community, but also those of the local partners in Iraq. The results will be published in book form, both in print and electronically in open access. All research data will be stored in the excavation database. In order to ensure the use of the material by other scientists, the data will be additionally added to existing online projects.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Peter Pfälzner