Assyriology

Leiden University is a pre-eminent location to study the ancient Middle Eastern cultures that used the cuneiform script—invented pre-3000 BC—as a writing system. Leiden’s Mesopotamian and Anatolian studies programmes have gained international recognition, through such projects as the Altbabylonische Briefe in Umschrift und Übersetzung series, which consist of a corpus of epistolary texts from the Old Babylonian period.
As well as having access to renowned scholars and research projects, you will also have the opportunity to follow research programmes at various top-flight universities outside the Netherlands—including Leuven, Cambridge, Münster, and Heidelberg—with which regular exchanges take place.