The Old Babylonian Diyala: Research since the 1930s and Prospects

Conference organized by Carlos Gonçalves (2016-2017 Paris IAS fellow / Universidade de São Paulo), Cécile Michel (ArScAn ((CNRS/Univ. Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne/Univ. Paris Nanterre/MC)) and Cheikhmous Ali (2016-2017 Paris IAS fellow / Université de Strasbourg / fellow at The Gerda Henkel Foundation)

Presentation

The region around the river Diyala, which runs approximately 500 km, from the mountains between Iraq and Iran, down to the south of Baghdad where it joins the Tigris, was the home of dozens of cities, villages and communities during the long history of ancient Mesopotamia. In the first centuries of the second millennium BCE, the strategic position of the region turned it into a point of articulation, dispute and mediation of the Babylonian area in the south and the Assyrian area in the north. Added to the growing power of the city of Eshnunna, this led the region to play a significant role in the international politics of those times.
The lack of syntheses dealing with the valley of the Diyala and the kingdom of Eshnunna is astonishing when compared with the rich legacy of in-depth and comprehensive scholarly works on the history of Larsa, Mari, Babylon and Assyria during the first centuries of the second millennium.
The main goal of the conference is to produce an updated view of the history and archaeology of the region, specifically dealing with the following issues:
• buildings, cities, landscapes and their relation with politics;
• cultural and economic exchanges with other regions;
• administration of the institutions: temple, palace and domestic units;
• history of the research itself and issues concerning the preservation of the
material heritage of the ancient Diyala.
In relation to the chronological range, the colloquium will privilege the first centuries of the second millennium, but contributions dealing with all periods of the Diyala will be welcome.

Program

Monday 25 June

9:00 - 9:15   Opening session
- Gretty Mirdal, for the Paris IEA
- Ghislaine Glasson-Deschaumes, LabEx Pasts in the Present
- Carlos Gonçalves, for the organising committee

9:15 - 10:15   Opening talk: Ešnunna: An historiographical case
Dominique Charpin, Collège de France, Paris

10:15-10:30   Break

10:30 - 11:15   Diyala at the Louvre
Ariane Thomas, Musée du Louvre, Paris

11:15 - 12:00   Ešnunna under The Influence of Elam
Basima J. Abed, College of Arts, Baghdad

12:00 - 13:30   Lunch Break

13:30-14:15   Reconstructing the Oval Temple of Khafajeh: Insight into the Emergence of Multi-Stepped Terraces
Philippe Quenet, Université de Strasbourg

14:15 - 15:00   From Things to Practice. Reconstructing Spheres of Action from the Archaeological Inventories of the Old Babylonian Temples in Ishchali
Elisa Rossberger, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

15:00 - 15:30   Break

15:30 - 16:15   A New Text from Tell Sulayma - Diyala Region
Ahmed Kh. Mohammed, Former Director of the National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad

16:15 - 17:00   The Diyala Valley in the Early Old Babylonian Period: New Evidence from Tell Muqdadiya
Hervé Reculeau, University of Chicago

Tuesday 26 June

9:30 - 10:15   The Texts from Šaduppûm “Tall Ḥarmal”
Laith Hussein, University of Baghdad, College of Arts

10:15 - 10h30   Break

10:30 - 11:15   Between past and future: The “Onomastica della Diyala” Project
Francesca Nebiolo, Proche-Orient Caucase, EPHE, UMR 7192

11:15 - 12:00   Homonyms, Aliases and Measurements in an Old Babylonian Community – the Archive of Nūr-Šamaš
Carlos Gonçalves, Universidade de São Paulo, IEA de Paris 2016-2017

12:00 - 13:30   Lunch Break

13:30 - 14:15   La glyptique de la Diyala au IIIe millénaire av. n. ère : état de question
Cheikhmous Ali, Université de Strasbourg, IEA de Paris 2016-2017, fellow at the The Gerda Henkel Foundation

14:15 - 15:00   From Diyala to Ur, Passing by Mari, Kish and the Jezireh: Interregional connections in the first historical kingdoms
Sophie Cluzan, Musée du Louvre, Paris

15:00 - 15:30   Break

15:30 - 16:15   The Diyala Region as a Linchpin in Old Babylonian Trade Networks
Rients De Boer, Universiteit van Amsterdam

16:15 - 17:00   Conclusion et discussion générale
Cécile Michel, ArScAn, CNRS UMR 7041, Nanterre & Universität Hamburg