Olof Pedersén
Professor in Assyriology at Institutionen för lingvistik och filologi
- Telephone:
- +46 18 471 19 69
- E-mail:
- olof.pedersen@lingfil.uu.se
- Visiting address:
- Engelska parken
Thunbergsvägen 3H - Postal address:
- Box 635
751 26 UPPSALA
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Short presentation
Professor emeritus in Assyriology is studying the different languages and cultures in the Ancient Near East which used Cuneiform writing. His research combines historical and archaeological material with Sumerian and Akkadian (Assyrian and Babylonian) texts in order to get new insights in the worlds oldest history. Research projects concerning the city Babylon.
Biography
I am interested in several central aspects of the written and material historical evidence in Ancient Near East and the relation between them.
Present research projects deal with Babylon seen in a broad historical, geographical, environmental, and cultural context. The archaeological and inscriptional evidence from the German and Iraqi excavations are used in order to create a new holistic interpretation of the city. A digital reconstruction of the city for all attested periods is in progress involving archaeological, textual, geographical, and hydrological data using architectural and GIS programs combined with inspections on the spot.
The archives and libraries with cuneiform texts excavated in Babylon have been surveyed. An ongoing detailed study deals with the large palace archive from Nebuchadnezzar II. I have supplied the basic digitized inventory for all types of objects for the Babylon-project in Berlin. A catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern sites with their placements on Google Earth has been developed and is being updated as the internationally most used tool for ANE geography.
Earlier research has focused on the oldest Assyrian capital Assur as well as treated general questions about ancient archives and libraries from the Ancient Near East.
Research
Digital Model and Topographical Study of Babylon see www.lingfil.uu.se/research/assyriology/babylon/
Ancient Near East on Google Earth see www.lingfil.uu.se/research/assyriology/earth/
The Artefacts from the German Excavations in Babylon see www.lingfil.uu.se/research/assyriology/current-projects
Reconstruction and Publication of the Archive in Nebuchadnezzar's South Palace in Babylon see www.lingfil.uu.se/research/assyriology/current-projects
For completed research projects see www.lingfil.uu.se/research/assyriology/completed-projects
Publications
Selection of publications
- The Tower of Babylon stele found in Babylon (2023)
- Babylon (2021)
- The Glazed Bricks that Ornamented Babylon (2020)
- The Ishtar Gate Area in Babylon (2018)
- Waters at Babylon (2014)
- Work on a Digital Model of Babylon using Archaeological and Textual Evidence (2011)
- Cities and Urban Landscapes in the Ancient Near East and Egypt with Special Focus on the City of Babylon (2010)
- Archive und Bibliotheken in Babylon (2005)
- Foreign Professionals in Babylon (2005)
Recent publications
- A brick in Sargon’s wall in Babylon (2023)
- The Tower of Babylon stele found in Babylon (2023)
- زينة الآجر المزجج في مدينة بابل (2022)
- Rekonstruktioner och modeller av Babylon (2022)
- Babylon (2021)
All publications
Articles
- A brick in Sargon’s wall in Babylon (2023)
- The Tower of Babylon stele found in Babylon (2023)
- زينة الآجر المزجج في مدينة بابل (2022)
- Rekonstruktioner och modeller av Babylon (2022)
- Babylon (2021)
- The Ishtar Gate Area in Babylon (2018)
- Thinking big. Research in monumental constructions in antiquity (2016)
- Das Ischtar-Tor - digital gesehen (2012)
- Review of: H. D. Baker, The Archive of the Nappāḫu Family (=Archiv für Orientforschung, Beiheft 30), Wien 2004 (2012)
- Work on a Digital Model of Babylon using Archaeological and Textual Evidence (2011)
- Tiglath-Pileser I and the city of Pakute (2011)
- Archives and Libraries (2009)
- Reuther, Oscar (2007)
- Review of: Marc J. H. Linssen, The Cults of Uruk and Babylon: The Temple Ritual Texts as Evidence for Hellenistic Cult Practice (= Cuneiform Monographs 25), Leiden & Boston 2004 (2007)
- Babylon (2006)
- De äldsta biblioteken (2005)
- Review of: V. Donbaz & S. Parpola, Neo-Assyrian Legal Texts in Istanbul, Studien zu den Assurtexten 2, Saarbrücken 2001 (2003)
- Review of E. Cancik-Kirschbaum, Die mittelassyrischen Briefe aus tall Seh Hamad (=Berichte der Ausgrabung Tall Seh Hamad / Dur-katlimmu, Band 4) (2002)
- Cuneiform Texts from Neo-Babylonian Sippar in the Gothenburg City Museum (2001)
- The Cuneiform Tablet in Carolina Rediviva (2000)
- Zu den altbabylonischen Archiven aus Babylon (Studies of the Old Babylonian archives in Babylon) (1998)
- Eine mittelassyrische Tontafel aus Assur im British Museum (A Middle Assyrian clay tablet from Assur now in the British Museum) (1997)
- Sumer (1995)
- Review of: Silvin Kosak, Konkordanz der Keilschrifttafeln I, Die Texte der Grabung 1931, Mit einer Einleitung von Heinrich Otten =Studien zu den Bogazköy-Texten, Heft 34 (Wiesbaden 1992) (1995)
- Review of Jesper Eidem, The Shemshara Archives 2 (1994)
- Review of A. Kirk Grayson, Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium BC (1114-859 BC) (=The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Assyrian Periods 2), Toronto 1991 (1994)
- Ancient Near Eastern Objects with Cuneiform Inscriptions (1994)
- Egyptians in Nineveh (1993)
- Review of: J. N. Postgate (1991)
- The structure of VS 19, 47 (1991)
- Ancient Near Eastern Objects with Cuneiform Inscriptions (1991)
- Review of: A. Kirk Grayson, Assyrian Rulers of the Third and Second Millennia BC (to 1115 BC) (=The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Assyrian Periods 1) (1990)
- Written and Oral Tradition (1990)
- Review of: S. Dalley & J. N. Postgate, The Tablets from Fort Shalmaneser (=Cuneiform Texts from Nimrud III), Oxford 1984 (1990)
- Babylonien (1990)
- Assyrien (1990)
- Review of: A. Westenholz, Old Sumerian and Old Akkadian Texts in Philadelphia, Part Two: The ‘Akkadian’ Texts, the Enlilemaba Texts, and the Onion Archive (=CNI Publications 3) (1990)
- Remains of a Possible Old Assyrian Archive (‘O 2’) in the “Schotterhofbau (1989)
- Die Assur-Texte in ihren archäologischen Zusammenhängen (1989)
- One more Text from Nanunu’s archive (ALA II, N 22) (1989)
- Review of: V. Donbaz & A. K. Grayson, Royal Inscriptions on Clay Cones from Ashur now in Istanbul (=The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Supplements 1) (1988)
- Private Archives in Assur compared with some other Sites (1987)
- The Reading of the Neo-Assyrian Logogram U.U (1986)
- زينة الآجر المزجج في مدينة بابل
Books
- Babylon (2021)
- 古代メソポタミアにおける図書館と文書館の歴史 (2013)
- Archive und Bibliotheken in Babylon (2005)
- Archives and Libraries in the Ancient Near East, 1500-300 B.C. (1998)
- Katalog der beschrifteten Objekte aus Assur: die Schriftträger mit Ausnahme der Tontafeln und ähnlicher Archivtexte (Catalogue of the Inscribed Objects from Assur: all inscribed artefacts with the exception of the clay tablets and similar archival texts) (1997)
- Archives and libraries in the city of Assur (1986)
- Archives and libraries in the city of Assur (1985)
Chapters
- The Glazed Bricks that Ornamented Babylon (2020)
- Cut it down and build it up again (2018)
- Waters at Babylon (2014)
- Ancient Near East on Google Earth (2012)
- Excavated and Unexcavated Libraries in Babylon (2011)
- On the Early Modern History of the Clay Tablets Now in the Babylon Collection of the Archaeological Museums in Istanbul (2010)
- Cities and Urban Landscapes in the Ancient Near East and Egypt with Special Focus on the City of Babylon (2010)
- Neo-Assyrian Texts from Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon (2009)
- Archives et bibliothèques à l‘époque paléo et médio-babylonienne (2008)
- Die Wiedergewinnung der zeitgenössischen schriftlichen Quellen (2008)
- Archives et bibliothèques à l‘époque néo-babylonienne (2008)
- Foreign Professionals in Babylon (2005)
- Skrift / Writing (2005)
- A Fish on a Tablet from Babylon (2004)
- Appendix, Kilskrift (1999)
- Skriftens uppkomst och tidiga utveckling (1999)
- Archive und Bibliotheken in Babylon (Archives and libraries in Babylon) (1999)
- A Problematic King in the Assyrian King List (1999)
- Myhrman, David Wilhelm (1997)
- The Use of Writing among the Assyrians (1997)
- De hängande trädgårdarna i Babylon (1993)
- Gräber und Archive in mesopotamischen Wohnhäusern - besonders Gruft 45 in Assur und das Archiv des Babu-aha-iddina (1992)
- Some Morphological Aspects of Sumerian and Akkadian Linguistic Areas (1989)
- The Libraries in the City of Assur (1986)