Prof. Pongratz-Leisten Awarded NEH Grant for Work on Akkadian Ritual Texts

Prof. Beate Pongratz Leisten (ISAW), Prof. Elizabeth Knott (College of the Holy Cross; ISAW Affiliated Researcher), and Kate Justement (PhD, ISAW) recently won a research grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for $199,878.

The Scholarly Editions and Translations grant will enable the team of researchers to prepare some sixty cuneiform ritual texts written in the Akkadian language for print and digital publication. These rituals date to ca. 2350–200 BCE and showcase an enormous range of activities that took place within and beyond temples and cities across the ancient world.

The editions will include transliterations and translations, as well as grammar notes. Additionally, each edition will include a critical apparatus in the form of historical introduction, discussion of material/archaeological evidence, and description of ritual performances—designed to appeal to a variety of researchers. Rituals are grouped together in thematic chapters; each thematic chapter will have an introduction, as will the overall volume. The volume will also contain several appendices—including concordances of ritual texts, a grammar of ritual texts, and a glossary of deities and ritual terms—along with an index and bibliography.

The project is led by Beate Pongratz-Leisten (PI) and Elizabeth Knott (co-PI)—serving as primary authors. Kate Justement provides copyediting and research assistant services; Yu Song (ISAW Student) serves as graduate student research assistant.

The team’s work began in October and will continue for 2+ years. For more information on this project, visit the project’s webpage HERE.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this web resource do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.