Ricerc@Sapienza

The research project investigates the role and perception of insects, arachnids, and other arthropods in ancient Mesopotamia through a detailed analysis of cuneiform texts and archaeological evidence. It examines a wide range of sources, including administrative records, letters, literary compositions, divinatory and medical texts, proverbs, and popular sayings, in conjunction with data from the excavation of Abu Tbeirah, a third-millennium BCE site near Nasiriyah, southern Iraq.

L'obiettivo principale del progetto di ricerca consiste nell'edizione scientifica e nell'analisi di un corpus di contratti di prestito (oltre 500), noti in letteratura come "temple loan contracts", che provengono da numerose città dell'antica Mesopotamia e che si datano al periodo paleo-babilonese (2002-1595 a.C.). La straordinaria peculiarità di questi contratti di prestito sta nella loro formulazione: è infatti il dio stesso, senza intermediari umani, a concedere prestiti di orzo o argento a uno o più debitori.

Something new can be told about human history through animals (Sterckx, Siebert, Schafer, 2019).  The history of animals in Asian societies holds profound significance, as it has played a pivotal role in shaping cultural practices, religious beliefs, and economic systems. (Sterckx, Siebert, Schafer, 2019).  This research project aims to delve into the multifaceted relationships between humans and animals, with a special focus on birds, within the context of Asian history, adopting an interdisciplinary approach.

L'obiettivo della ricerca proposta è catalogare una porzione del lessico tecnico e scientifico del cinese contenuto all'interno della produzione lessicografica bilingue stilata da missionari e studiosi occidentali tra il 1815 e il 1911, concentrandosi su una di tali opere, particolarmente significativa per il ruolo da essa svolta.

The focus of the project CHIN-DICTIONARY is the Dictionarium sinico-latinum (Chinese-Latin dictionary) by the Franciscan missionary Basilio Brollo (1648–1704); for a long time, only manuscript copies circulated, which were highly praised as an essential instrument for the study of Chinese. The role of the dictionary was deemed so important that projects to publish it were conceived but, after these plans failed, it was plagiarised in a revised form.

SLOW SUMER is aimed at analysing repair, reuse and recycling in Sumerian society between 2500-2000 BC, opening in this way a new trend of studies on these practices, substantially narrowing the current void in archaeological and philological research

SLOW SUMER project is going to test the following key questions: