Of God(s), Trees, Kings, and Scholars: Neo-Assyrian and Related Studies in Honour of Simo Parpola.

• Author: Beckman, Gary
• Position: Book review

Of God(s), Trees, Kings, and Scholars: Neo-Assyrian and Related Studies in Honour of Simo Parpola. Edited by MIKKO LUUKKO, SAANA SVARD, and RADA MATTILA. Studia Orientalia, vol. 106. Helsinki: Finnish Oriental Society, 2009. Pp. xxiv + 503, illus. [euro]35.

There is no question but that Simo Parpola has been the leading scholar of his generation in Neo-Assyrian studies, not only producing seminal works such as Letters from Assyrian Scholars to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal (1970-1971), but also establishing The State Archives of Assyria Project at the University of Helsinki. The team at the Project has compiled important reference works dealing with the Neo-Assyrian archives (Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Assyrian-English-Assyrian Dictionary) and published a journal (State Archives of Assyria Bulletin) and over twenty monographic studies. This work has instilled renewed life into investigation of the period of Mesopotamian history that gave Assyriology its name.

It is more than fitting, therefore, that Parpola be recognized with a Festschrift focused upon Assyria in the first millennium B.C.E. The thirty-six contributions here include text editions, mostly of previously unstudied material (by Veysel Donbaz, Eckart Frahm, Grant Frame, Mark Geller, Theodore Kwasman, and Wolfgang Rollig), analysis of particular archives (Karlheinz Kessler of those from Dur-Sarrukku, Olof Pedersen of Neo-Assyrian texts from the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar), and prosopographical studies (of the governor Msipa by Bradley Parker, of the Babylonian businessman Sumuukin by Muhammad Dandamayev, and of Assurbanipal's family by Jamie Novotny and Jennifer Singletary).

Others investigate aspects of Neo-Assyrian court life: Claus Ambos considers eunuchs, Karen Radner dream interpreters and augurs, Raija Mattila the rise of certain types of officials within the court hierarchy during the final decades of the state's existence...