Beatrice Baragli
Late Sumerian
Bilingual Literature
History of Religion
Digital Humanities.
Current Projects
Sumerian is the first documented language of humankind. It is attested in Mesopotamia for three millennia (ca. 3500 BCE – 0). However, Sumerian was still used as a “dead” language for roughly two millennia (ca. 2000 – 0). Why? My project will try to answer this question from a linguistic, literary and historical perspective.
Curriculum Vitae
Fellowships and Grants
2019 Post-Doc fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. Project title: “The Development of the First Millennium Sumerian”.
2015 - 2019 Doctoral fellowship in Assyriology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Graduate School Distant Worlds. Ph.D. Title: “Sonnengrüßen: die sumerischen Kiutu-Gebetsbeschwörungen”.
2014 - 2015 Predoctoral fellowship in Assyriology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Graduate School Distant Worlds.
prizes
2019 Bursary for participation in the Oxford Postgraduate Conference in Assyriology at Wolfson College.
2018 Bursary for participation in the “Advanced Seminar in the Humanities on Literature and Culture in the Ancient Mediterranean: Greece, Rome, and the Near East 2018-2019” at Venice International University.
2017 Bursary for participation in the “Master Class: Cuneiform Epigraphy” at Heidelberg University.
Education
2011 - 2013 M.A. in Languages and Civilizations of Ancient and Modern East at Florence University
2008 - 2011 B.A. in Ancient Literature - Oriental Curriculum at Florence University.
Publications
Books
Under review Sonnengrüße. Die sumerischen Kiutu-Gebetsbeschwörungen, Ancient Magic and Divination (Leiden: Brill).
Edited books
2021 Beatrice Baragli, Albert Dietz, Zsombor J. Földi, Patrizia Heindl, Polly Lohmann und Sarah P. Schlüter (eds.): Distant Worlds and Beyond: Special Issue Dedicated to the Graduate School Distant Worlds (2012‒2021), Heidelberg: Propylaeum, 2021 (Distant Worlds Journal Special Issues, Band 3). https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.886
Chapters in books
Forthcoming Rerepresenting Time in the Kiutu Incantation-prayers, in S. Helle, G. Konstantopoulos (eds.), The Shape of Stories: Narrative Structures in Cuneiform Literature, Cuneiform Monographs (Leiden: Brill).
2021 What Can Eliade Still Say to Assyriology?: The Reception of a Historian of Religions in Ancient Near Eastern Studies, in: B. Baragli, A. Dietz, Zs. J. Földi, P. Heindl, P. Lohmann and S. P. Schlüter (eds.), Distant Worlds and Beyond. Special Issue Dedicated to the Graduate School Distant Worlds (2012‒2021), Distant Worlds Journal Special Issue 3, Heidelberg, Propylaeum 2021, 15–23. DOI: https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.886.c11945
Articles
Under review The Bilingual Chiasmus: A Unique Rhetorical Device for “Knotting” Words in Sumerian-Akkadian Literature, Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Studies
In preparation Hannelore Agnethler, Beatrice Baragli, dumu diĝir-ra-na: The God’s Filiation in Mesopotamian Incantation Literature
2019 Abracadabra incantations: Non-sense or healing therapies?, KASKAL: Rivista di storia, ambienti e culture del Vicino Oriente Antico.
Presentations
10.2019 “The Kiutu incantation-prayers. Or a literary genre inspired by a single composition”, Yale University (invited lecture).
04.2019 “Once Upon a Time, There Was an Exorcist: Narrative Structures in Kiutu Incantation Prayers”, Oxford Postgraduate Conference in Assyriology, Wolfson College, Oxford University.
06.2017 “The Sumerian of the first millennium BC: Kiutu prayers as a case study”, UC Berkeley-LMU Munich workshop “Cuneiform Languages and Texts in the Age of Digitisation: the Challenge of Late Sumerian”, LMU Munich.
11.2016 “Sumerische Gebete an den Sonnengott: Zu Aufbau und Entwicklung der Kiutu-Gebetsbeschwörungen”, Kolloquium zum Alten Orient, LMU Munich (invited lecture).
05.2014 “Modern Scholars and the Ancient Insane: Towards a Research History of Psychiatric Interpretation of Mesopotamian Sources”, Building History - Forschungsgeschichte on the Ancient Near East, University of Verona.