Fellowship Report

Fellowship Report

I devoted my year as a MagEIA Fellow to preparing a new critical edition of the Mesopotamian ritual and incantation series Šurpu (“Burning”), as part of my broader research into Mesopotamian ritual practice and the textual transmission of Akkadian incantation literature. The fellowship enabled me to collate unpublished manuscripts, produce a translation and commentary, and reconstruct several damaged or fragmentary sections of the text with a level of care that would have been difficult to achieve without the outstanding resources available within MagEIA. My edition is now in its final stages, and I expect to have a complete manuscript ready by the end of the year, to be submitted to Harrassowitz as a volume in a new MagEIA-related series of editions of Mesopotamian magical texts.

The working environment within MagEIA, characterised by generous scholarly exchange and continuous opportunities for discussion, proved especially fruitful. A regular reading class among the Assyriologists in Würzburg immeasurably accelerated the progress of my edition, allowing detailed scrutiny of difficult passages and the testing of alternative readings in a collegial setting. The twice-weekly seminars on ancient magic across different fields were a particular highlight, opening up material and perspectives I had not previously considered and—most intriguingly—revealing points of comparison with the Mesopotamian corpus that are now informing my ongoing work. More broadly, frequent engagement with colleagues specialising in philology, religion, and magic provided a stimulating forum for exploring interpretative possibilities and refining my analysis. The MagEIA library further supported this work in exemplary fashion.

The year was also productive in terms of publications and presentations. Since my arrival, three articles have appeared in print, and two further articles have been accepted for publication in leading journals in the field. These publications represent major steps towards the complete critical edition of Šurpu, and several of the new readings developed during the fellowship year have clarified the internal structure of the series and shed new light on the ritual logic underlying its sequence of incantations and ceremonial actions. I also gave a small number of invited talks, including a contribution to a workshop on Mesopotamian magic and medicine at the University of Copenhagen, a presentation at the 1st MagEIA Symposium on the distribution of roles in Mesopotamian medico-magical ceremonies, and a revised version of this paper at a workshop during the Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale in Prague in June.

In addition to advancing my principal project, I have pursued several related studies, both individually and collaboratively, and have made significant progress on five further articles dealing with aspects of ancient magic and divination, which I expect to complete in the near future.

The year in Würzburg was not only academically rewarding but also personally enriching. I made good friends during my fellowship and intend to maintain these relationships, both professionally and socially. The strength of these connections was already evident in October 2025, when five former MagEIA Fellows, myself included, participated in a workshop at the International Conference of Ethiopian Studies in Addis Ababa—an indication of the lasting scholarly community fostered by the programme.

I am deeply grateful for the support, collegiality, and intellectual openness that characterised my time in Würzburg. The fellowship has substantially advanced my editorial work, provided space for new research initiatives, and fostered enduring scholarly relationships. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the PIs of MagEIA—Prof. Dr. Daniel Schwemer, Prof. Dr. Daniel Kölligan, and Prof. Dr. Martin Stadler—as well as to Anne Noster, whose invaluable guidance and support were central to the success of my fellowship. I look forward to maintaining these connections and continuing my engagement with the MagEIA community in future.

Publications

• “Šurpu – The Missing Tablet,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 83/2, 277–294.
• “Ronnie Barker of Babylonia,” Die Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 114, 323–349.
• “A Thorn by any other name: ašāgu ‘Yanqout’,” Journal des Médecines Cunéiformes 42, 36–48.

Forthcoming

• “Šurpu Tablet I Restored,” Orientalia (38 pages).
• “The Ritual Tablet of Šurpu,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies (27 pages).