December 2024 - Nippur Tablets: 800 Photographs Uploaded to eBL
After several years of hard effort, the first 800 photographs resulting from the collaboration between the University of Munich/Bavarian Academy of Sciences (Munich, Germany) and the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (Baghdad, Iraq) have been uploaded to the eBL platform. This photography project is conducted with the kind permission of the Iraq Museum and the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, West Asia & North Africa (Chicago).
The photographs correspond to tablets excavated during the three first post-war Nippur campaigns (1N to 3N; 1948–1952). The 800 photos represent more than half of the tablets excavated during these campaigns now housed in the Iraq Museum. It is expected that photography of the Nippur collection in the Iraq Museum will be completed by 2025. The photographs, taken by Ass.-Prof. Dr. Anmar A. Fadhil (University of Baghdad) and Nawfal Jabbar (The Iraq Museum), form part of the second phase of the collaboration between the eBL platform and the SBAH (2024–2029).
In addition, the excavation records from the three first post-war Nippur campaigns have been digitized and unified. A new findspot visualization tool will be developed in the next phase of the Cuneiform Artefacts of Iraq in Context (CAIC) project.
An example of an edition can be viewed here.
July 2024 – Conference “Cuneiform Artefacts from Archaeological Contexts: Chances and Challenges”
On the 4th and 5th of July 2024, the CAIC project organized a conference titled “Cuneiform Artefacts from Archaeological Contexts: Chances and Challenges”. During the meeting, international specialists in the field discussed, among others, new excavations in Iraq, as well as projects concerning research on excavated archives.
It is planned to publish the contributions as a volume.
August 2023 – CAIC is Project of the Month
CAIC has been appointed as the project of the month for August 2023 by the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities.
Article on the website of the Academy Union
Article on the website of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research
March 2023 – Visit of the Iraqi Minister of Culture
On the occasion of the project launch on March 3, 2023, the BAdW hosted a visit from H. E. Dr. Ahmed Fakak, Minister of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities of the Republic of Iraq, and Professor Dr. Laith Hussein, Director of the State Council for Antiquities and Heritage of Iraq in the Munich Residence’s rooms. During the conference attended by professors from various German universities, Prof. Walther Sallaberger (speaker), Prof. Enrique Jiménez, and Prof. Karen Radner presented the newly launched project. After the brief presentation, a Memorandum of Agreement was signed to establish a new funding line for young Iraqi scientists at the BAdW.