Literary History of Achaemenid Babylonia
Abstract
Apart from some iconic works, such as the Cyrus Cylinder, the so-called “Verse Account of Nabonidus,” and the Bisitun inscription, there are very few Babylonian literary texts that can be dated to the Persian period with some degree of certainty. Why is the Persian period so difficult to grasp in the literary history of Babylonia? In this paper, I will reflect on two factors that obscure our view of Persian-period literary production in Babylonia: processes of archivalization and practices of infrastructural inscription. From there, I will try to establish a core catalogue of works that can be attributed to the Persian period with reasonable certainty despite these challenges. This catalogue will serve as a basis to reflect on the distinctive features of Babylonian literature produced under Persian-Achaemenid rule.
Citation
Waerzeggers, Caroline. "Literary History of Achaemenid Babylonia," Achaemenid Workshop 3 (February 21, 2025).
About the Speaker
Caroline Waerzeggers
Leiden University
Caroline Waerzeggers is Professor of Assyriology at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies. She is an Assyriologist who focuses on the history of Mesopotamia in the first millennium BC. This was the time of Sargon, Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, and Alexander the Great - a time of great political transformations that affected an immense area from the Mediterranean to the Indus. She is particularly interested in the establishment of the Persian Empire in Babylonia and the reactions that this process triggered among different social groups. Her ERC Starting Grant project evaluated the Babylonian context of the Judean deportees who returned home after the fall of Babylon to build the Second Temple of Jerusalem. Currently, she is leading an ERC Consolidator Grant project on the Persian Empire. In 2018 and 2019, she served as Director of the Netherlands Institute of the Near East.