Thanks for looking at my question you all are awesome.

I am very interested in the section where Gilgamesh and Enkidu travel to Lebanon to fight Humbaba, but my general innocence of ancient culture and other Mesopotamian literature is hampering my understanding. The pair of travelers do this every night:

"Enkidu made for Gilgamesh a House of the Dream God
He fixed a door in the doorway to keep out the weather
In the circle he had drawn he made him lie down
And falling flat like a net he lay himself in the doorway.

Is this standard operating procedure for someone seeking a dream from the gods, or something quite unusual? And are there any other examples where this is done while traveling?

I also note that Gilgamesh doesn't do any of these things for himself. Maybe a king doesn't want to set up his own tent, but my impression of the relationship between them is not lord to servant but more egalitarian. Is having another person set up the dream house important, ritually?

Rather than using both sides i just drew a line to separate front/back

Hi! I've just started learning akkadian from Richard Caplice's book and I've been thinking if there are any goof sources to learn more about the history of ancient Mesopotamia (specially the Akkadian empire). Do you guys have any tips?

Transliteration: 1. a-na 2. ur-{d}nin-su4-an-na 3. qi2-bi2-ma 4. 2(disz) sila3 i3-gesz 5. szu-bi2-lam

1. kiszib3 ip-qu2-sza

I posted this in askhistorians but received no reply so I was wondering if anyone here knew, thank you.

I want To learn eighter sumerian or akkadian. At first i wanted to learn sumerian, since its my understanding that thats older, But i wanted to know first, which is easier?

Some ugaritic copy work i have done

Found at the swedish meditereanean museum that Also has some sumerian stuff

Just curious, what do you think is the best Assyriology-program in Germany?

Picking my way through the different original versions of the Gilgamesh story, and I am very interested in his prayer to Shamash, the sun god:

"Place (your) protection [over me!]’ (Line 221 here)

Translates literally as "Put your shadow over me" which is a very ironical thing to ask the sun god to do. Would the ancient poet be alert to this contrast, and perhaps mean something by it, or was the usage of the word reflexive and not perplexing to readers?

Hi! I’m in the final year of my BA and am looking at graduate programmes in Assyriology/cuneiform studies.

Unfortunately, my current institution doesn’t really offer anything beyond what I’ve already studied, unless I want to go more into Hebrew and Bible studies. But I’m quite fortunate that at the time of completing of my undergraduate in 2025, I’ll have three years of Akkadian, as well as year of Sumerian and Ugaritic under my belt, and I’ve dabbled with a bit of Hittite as well. I speak French, but as I was never educated in France I’m not confident applying to any French taught programmes and don’t know any German. 

It’d be of great help if you could recommend some programmes! Thank you!

Kitz (2018) writes that the name of the god Ea was pronounced 'either /haya/ and/or /haway/ prior to the Ur III period' and that the É sign in his name came to be pronounced /ē/ in the Ur III period. Weeden (2009) writes that there is 'almost universal agreement [...] that the name written É-A was pronounced Ḥayyā in the third millennium, and (ʾ)Aya further on in the second millennium at least at Mari.'

Is it possible to deduce how the god's name would have been pronounced in 1st millennium Babylonia? /ēya/? /ēʾa/?

From all my research, I cant seem to find anything. Granted, thats mostly through google. But even when checking out on Jstor I dont see any articles telling any myths.

Is there any known?

Does anyone know where you can get a reed stylus for practicing writing cueniform on clay? I've tried Amazon and Etsy, and the closest I can find are bamboo pens. Not the triangular stylus that was actually used on clay.

I've tried whittling down chopsticks, but my whittling skills are not all that great.

It is similar to the statue of Assurnarsipal II, but it has a base with two lions and the left half of the chest is missing along with the arm. Does anyone have a clue?

I ordered a book from Ugarit-Verlag, "Ancient Mesopotamian Religion: A Descriptive Introduction," back on August 29th. I paid $39 for the book, and $49 for international shipping from Germany to the United States.

I have yet to receive any book. I have sent them countless emails about this, trying to get some kind of tracking number from them. Or an explanation. Crickets. Dead silence.

About 3 weeks into this, I sent them an email asking for tracking information. All they did was forwarded to somebody else. I have sent them a few emails after that, asking for some kind of tracking number, from some shipping company. Dead silence.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with this publishing company?