In the research colloquium, (international) guests and colleagues from JGU present the latest results of their research.
Dates for the Summer Semester 2026 (all sessions at 6:15 PM; Hegelstraße 59, Room 00-309)
Wed., May 13: Dr. Mari Yamasaki (Mainz): Underwater spaces between experience and imagination. Some case studies from the Bronze and Iron Age Aegean
Wed., May 20: Prof. Dr. Stefano de Martino (Turin): Ḫatti and Aḫḫiyawa: Conflicts and Diplomacy Between the Two Shores of the Aegean
Wed., May 27: Dr. Emilio Rodríguez-Álvarez (Salamanca): The Ocean Below. Understanding Freediving in the Archaeological Record
Thu., June 25: Dr. des. Sophia Marxer (Bern): Keramik als Spiegel kultureller Austauschprozesse in Kilikien in hellenistischer Zeit am Beispiel Sirkeli Höyük
In the summer semester of 2026, the new project “LEARN-AB – Learning Environment for Ancient Egyptian and Babylonian” (SoSe 2026)—funded by the Gutenberg Teaching Council—will launch. Under the direction of Dr. Monika Zöller-Engelhardt (Egyptology) and Prof. Dr. Doris Prechel (Ancient Near Eastern Studies), a joint digital teaching and learning environment for Ancient Egyptian and Babylonian is being created for the very first time.
The aim of the project is to provide sustainable support for the instruction of hieroglyphs and Middle Egyptian, as well as cuneiform and Babylonian, through an interdisciplinary, research- and project-oriented learning environment hosted on the Moodle LMS. In cooperation with the Ancient Sciences Innovation Lab (ASIL), innovative digital modules are being developed to complement in-person and hybrid instruction and to foster self-directed learning.
The development process involves advanced students: in keeping with the concept of “by students, for students,” they actively participate in designing the modules, acquire digital and academic competencies, and contribute to the creation of an adaptable and sustainable infrastructure for the ancient sciences.
For further information, or to register for the seminar and practical course “Innovatively Teaching Ancient Languages and Scripts,” please feel free to contact the project directors at: zoellem@uni-mainz.de or prechel@uni-mainz.de.
Ancient Near Eastern Studies (also known as Ancient Near Eastern Philology) is the academic discipline dedicated to the languages, texts, and cultures of the ancient Near East. This cultural sphere primarily encompasses the regions corresponding to the modern-day states of Iraq, Syria, Türkiye, and Iran—regions frequently grouped together under the designation Mesopotamia (“the Land Between the Rivers”).
Between the 4th and 1st millennia BCE, thousands of texts written in cuneiform script emerged in these regions. While predominantly inscribed on clay tablets, these texts have also been preserved on other materials, such as stone or metal. These texts constitute the most vital source for our understanding of ancient Near Eastern societies.
A significant portion of the surviving texts is composed in Sumerian, Akkadian (comprising Babylonian and Assyrian), and Hittite. Additionally, numerous other languages are attested—such as Elamite and Hurrian. The decipherment, editing, translation, and interpretation of these texts rank among the core tasks of Ancient Near Eastern Studies.
The cuneiform textual tradition offers diverse insights into the lived reality of the ancient Near East. It documents—among other things—political structures, economic organisation, religious beliefs, legal norms, scholarly practices, and literary traditions. In doing so, Ancient Near Eastern Studies contributes significantly to our understanding of early cultures and their long-term cultural trajectories.
A particular focus of Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Mainz lies in the research of Hittite and in Elamite studies. Projects such as the “Thesaurus Linguarum Hethaeorum digitalis” and the “Digital Edition of Cuneiform Texts from Haft Tappeh” exemplify the integration of fundamental philological scholarship with digital methodologies. The analysis and digital processing of cuneiform texts constitute a central component of current research in the field. Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Mainz collaborates closely with the discipline of Near Eastern Archaeology. Furthermore, collaborations exist with other disciplines—including Old Testament Studies, Computer Science, and Nuclear Physics—as well as with the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. This interdisciplinary networking makes it possible to explore the cultures of the Ancient Near East from diverse perspectives and to develop new methodological approaches.
At Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Ancient Near Eastern Studies is pursued within the framework of the Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programme “Archaeologies and Philologies in Ancient Studies (ALPHA).”
ALPHA is an interdisciplinary degree programme that combines various fields of ancient studies, including Egyptology, Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Near Eastern Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, and Philology. Its objective is to jointly explore the cultures of antiquity from diverse perspectives and to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries.
Within this degree programme, you select Ancient Near Eastern Philology as your specialisation. In doing so, you acquire a solid foundation of knowledge regarding the languages, texts, and cultures of the Ancient Near East and are gradually introduced to independent work with cuneiform sources.
A central component of the program is the acquisition of Akkadian, specifically the Old Babylonian linguistic stage. As your studies progress, you expand your competencies by learning additional cuneiform languages, such as Sumerian or Hittite. In reading courses, you work with original texts and learn to analyse them philologically and contextualise them historically.
The curriculum integrates linguistic, historical, and cultural studies content. Topics covered include, among others, politics and administration, economics, religion and mythology, law, and literature, as well as aspects of daily life in the Ancient Near East.
A distinctive feature of ALPHA is the close integration of philology and archaeology. You attend courses across various disciplines, thereby gaining a broad understanding of ancient cultures. This interdisciplinary orientation enables the examination of texts, material culture, and historical contexts in conjunction with one another.
Practice-oriented elements play a significant role in the programme. These include, among other activities, exercises involving 3D prints of cuneiform tablets, as well as excursions to museums and collections. Furthermore, practical assignments and field trips are firmly integrated into the curriculum throughout the course of study. Following the Bachelor’s program, your studies may be continued in the ALPHA Master’s programme. The Master’s programme deepens your specialised knowledge and places a stronger focus on independent research. You will expand your linguistic skills, work intensively with primary sources, and develop your own research questions within an interdisciplinary context.
Graduates specializing in Ancient Near Eastern Philology possess well-founded linguistic, analytical, and cultural-studies competencies. They are capable of deciphering complex texts, interpreting them critically, and situating them within broader historical and cultural contexts.
Thanks to the interdisciplinary orientation of the ALPHA degree program, they also acquire the ability to integrate diverse methodological approaches and to analyse both text-based and material sources in conjunction with one another.
Career opportunities arise particularly in the following sectors:
- Universities and research institutions
- Museums, collections, and exhibition management
- Libraries and archives
- Publishing and academic communication
- etc.
Even during their studies, students gain insights into potential career fields. The regularly held “Career Profiles Colloquium” introduces various professional spheres and offers the opportunity to engage in dialogue with practitioners from the field.
Furthermore, the degree programme qualifies graduates for positions requiring analytical thinking, structured information processing, and linguistic precision.
The Bachelor’s degree in the ALPHA programme simultaneously serves as a solid foundation for advanced Master’s programmes in fields such as Classical Studies, Archaeology, Philology, History, or Cultural Studies.
A subsequent Master’s degree opens the path—in particular—to an academic career in research and teaching.
Bastici, Dr. Fabio
Groom, Sven
Huber, Dr. Eva-Maria
Klöker, Jonas Joseph Johann, M.A.
Lepši, Maria, M.A.
Lorenz-Link, Ulrike, M.A.
Stivala, Dr. Gabriella
Zubieta Lupo, Valeria, M.A.
In the summer semester of 2026 the new project “LEARN-AB – Learning Environment for Ancient Egyptian and Babylonian” (SoSe 2026), funded by the Gutenberg Teaching Council, was launched.
Under the direction of Dr. Monika Zöller-Engelhardt (Egyptology) and Prof. Dr. Doris Prechel (Ancient Near Eastern Studies), a joint digital teaching and learning environment for Ancient Egyptian and Babylonian is being created for the very first time.
The aim of the project is to provide sustainable support for the instruction of hieroglyphs and Middle Egyptian, as well as cuneiform and Babylonian, through an interdisciplinary, research- and project-oriented learning environment hosted on the Moodle LMS. In cooperation with the Ancient Sciences Innovation Lab (ASIL), innovative digital modules are being developed to complement in-person and hybrid instruction and to foster self-directed learning.
The development process involves advanced students: in keeping with the concept of “by students, for students,” they actively participate in designing the modules, acquire digital and academic competencies, and contribute to the creation of an adaptable and sustainable infrastructure for the ancient sciences.
A new project has been based in Ancient Near Eastern Philology since October 2022: Akkadian and Hittite Emotional Terms in Context (subtitle: Towards a Lexicon of Emotions in Cuneiform Texts from Ancient Mesopotamia and Asia Minor). The project is a cooperation with the university in Tel Aviv, Israel – the Mainz team, headed by Prof. Dr. Doris Prechel and Dr. Ulrike Steinert, is working on Akkadian, the Israeli team under Prof. Dr. Amir Gilan on Hittite.
The research project prosecutes a comprehensive study of the semantic domain of emotions in both Akkadian and Hittite. The aim is to systematically investigate how emotions have been linguistically and contextually differentiated and delimited in the two spokespersons; the investigations will include the semantic properties, similarities and relationships between different concepts of emotion, their use and developments in different text genres, periods and contexts. With its thematic focus and its comparative, corpus-linguistic approach, the proposed project will open up new possibilities for collaboration with other philological and historical disciplines, broaden the scope of Ancient Near Eastern Studies and emphasize its relevance by making an important contribution to a recent and extremely lively field of research.
Head: Prof. Dr. Doris Prechel, Dr. habil. Ulrike Steinert
Graduate assistants: Jonas Klöker B.A. (2022-2023), Letizia Savino M.A. (since 2023)
Funded by the DFG (since 2022)
The city of Haft Tappeh (Kabnak) is located about 15 km southeast of the important city of Susa, in the present-day Iranian province of Khuzestan. Due to its geographical location on the edge of the Mesopotamian plain and at the foothills of the Zagros Mountains, the region represents an important contact zone between Mesopotamia in the West and the Iranian highlands in the East.
Ezatollah Negabhan’s excavations, which were carried out between 1965 and 1978, unearthed monumental building structures as well as numerous clay tablets, most of which shed light on administrative processes and thus indicate the importance of the city at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age.
The archaeological investigations in Haft Tappeh were continued by Behzad Mofidi-Nasrabadi from 2001 onwards. During the excavation campaigns of 2005 and 2007, a building complex was uncovered in which a further 634 clay tablets and tablet fragments were found. The texts are also of an administrative nature and written in Akkadian. They thus represent the last diplomas of Akkadian-language administration in the region before Elamite prevailed as the language of administration.
This important text find is being processed for the first time as part of the DFG-funded project “Digital Edition of the Cuneiform Texts from Haft Tappeh (Iran)”. Based on 3D images, the editio princeps will be carried out completely digitally in an innovative approach. As part of this project, the Ancient Near Eastern Philology working group is cooperating with the Mainz / Mainzed higher education institution.
Management: Doris Prechel, Kai Christian Bruhn
Coordination: Tim Brandes
Academic staff members: Tim Brandes, Timo Homburg (9/2019-2/2022)
Graduate assistants: Ali Zalaghi, Lukas Ahlborn
Funded by the DFG (2019-2023)
The more than 30.000 clay tablets and clay tablet fragments in cuneiform script from the archives of the Hittite capital Ḫattuša (Central Anatolia) as well as from other Hittite sites include texts in Hittite, the oldest documented Indo-European language, as well as in other Anatolian and non-Anatolian languages (Luwian, Palaic, Hattic, Hurrian, Akkadian, Sumerian) and represent one of the richest and most important textual traditions of the ancient Near East. The transliterations of the various texts and fragments are currently mainly available in the Hittitological specialist literature, and only to a lesser extent in the form of digital editions. However, the challenges of modern research require a comprehensive digital collection that functions as a searchable database of texts in transliteration.
This desideratum of Hittitology will be fulfilled by the DFG-funded project Thesaurus Linguarum Hethaeorum digitalis (TLHdig), in which the universities of Mainz, Würzburg, Marburg and the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz are involved. The aim of the project is to create a digital, open-access and annotated repository of transliterations of all accessible cuneiform texts from the Hittite archives, which will be integrated into the digital infrastructure “Hittitologie-Portal Mainz” (HPM) and enable complex search functions. An online creator interface will allow the thesaurus to be regularly updated by the Hittitological community beyond the planned duration of the project. TLHdig will thus open up new access to the Hittite primary sources in transliteration and offer sophisticated research opportunities.
Head: Gerfrid G. W. Müller (ADW), Doris Prechel (JGU), Elisabeth Rieken (UMR), Daniel Schwemer (JMU)
Academic staff members: Fabio Bastici (JGU), Birgit Christiansen (UMR), Björn Eyselein (JMU)
Graduate assistants: Paul Herdt (UMR), Gudrun Samberger (JMU), Letizia Savino (JGU)
Funded by the DFG (2020-2023)
Contacts: Letizia Savino, M.A. / Lena Wittmers
The library is located at Hegelstr. 59, 1st Floor (right).
Opening Hours: Mon – Fri, 10:00 – 17:00
As of November 1, 2025, the administration of the Near Eastern Studies Branch Library has been transferred to the Central Library. The collection can be searched via the online catalogue of the Mainz University Library. This is a reference library; books must be used on-site. Facilities for digital research, scanning, and photocopying are available on the premises.
Collection:
The collection covers the philology, archaeology, and history of the Ancient Near East.
Separata
The list of separata held by the Near Eastern Studies Library—along with their digitised versions—is currently being compiled and will be available here in late 2026 or early 2027.
Unicode Fonts & Keyboards
The Mainz Academy of Sciences and Literature has developed keyboards and fonts that facilitate the transcription of cuneiform languages. Here is a link to their website, where you can download and install the resources.
Unicode Cuneiform
The Mainz Academy of Sciences and Literature has developed a Unicode standard for the digital representation of cuneiform characters. Here is a link to their website, where you can download and install the resources.
Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (Chicago)
On this page, you can download all volumes of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary as PDFs.
Supplements to the Akkadian Dictionaries (Leipzig)
On this page, you can download PDFs of the supplements to the Akkadian dictionaries produced by the University of Leipzig.
Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie (RlA, Bavarian Academy of Sciences)
On this page, you will find information regarding the Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie (RlA).
Archibab Texts
Bibliography of Mesopotamian Astral Science
The Chicago Hittite Dictionary Project
Cuneiform Commentaries Project
Cuneiform Digital Library (CDLI)
Digital Near and Middle Eastern Studies (DNMS)
Edition of literary cuneiform texts from Assur (Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities)
eBL
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL)
Electronic Tools and Ancient Near Eastern Archives (ETANA)
Hittitology Portal Mainz
Cuneiform Bibliography online
Leipzig-Munich Sumerian card index (as of 09.2006)
Propylaeum – The virtual library for ancient studies
Prosobab
Publications of the Oriental Institute of The University of Chicago
Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (RAI)
Real Lexicon of Assyriology (RlA)
Société pour l’étude du Proche-Orient ancien (SEPOA)
Sources of Early Akkadian Literature (SEAL)
The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, Helsinki
The Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus (ORACC)
The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary (ePSD)
Topoi (Excellence Cluster Frei Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität Berlin)
Yale University – Babylonian Collection
Freie Universität Berlin
Uni Frankfurt
Uni Freiburg i.B.
Uni Göttingen
Uni Hamburg
Uni Heidelberg
Uni Jena
Uni Leipzig
Uni Marburg
Uni München
Uni Münster
Uni Tübingen
Uni Würzburg
Uni Bern
Uni Innsbruck
Uni Wien
American Oriental Society
Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft
International Association for Assyriology
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
University of Chicago: Oriental Institute
University of Oxford: Faculty of Oriental Studies
The fields of Egyptology, Ancient Near Eastern Philology, and Near Eastern Archaeology at JGU offer students, doctoral candidates, and interested members of the public the opportunity to subscribe to our mailing lists. To ensure that we provide highly relevant information, our primary mailing list is open exclusively to enrolled students and doctoral candidates in Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies; subscribers to this list enjoy the following benefits:
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You can subscribe to the mailing lists via the following links (please check your email inbox for the confirmation link):
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Postal address
Institute for Ancient Studies (IAW)
Department of Ancient Near Eastern Studies
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
D – 55099 Mainz
Visitor address
Institute for Ancient Studies (IAW)
Department of Ancient Near Eastern Studies
Hegelstr. 59
D – 55122 Mainz
Study Counselling
