Languages and Cultures of Mesopotamia and Anatolia

Degree: Master of Arts in Languages and Cultures of Mesopotamia and Anatolia
Mode of Study: Full-time
Duration: 1 year
Start date: September, February
Language of instruction: English
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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.

The information about this programme is available in the following languages:

Staff

Prof. van Soldt

“Mesopotamia can rightly call itself the birthplace of our civilisation.”

“Being able to read cuneiform script gives me access to a number of ancient languages of Mesopotamia, such as Akkadian and Sumerian. The language gives me access to the culture of the time; I experience how people lived then, how they thought, worked and practised science. Personally,

I am very interested in Babylonian astronomy. Anyone cycling towards the Sterrenwacht, the Leiden observatory, in order to look at the heavens using an atlas of the stars, should realise that Mesopotamia gave us the wheel, writing and astronomy and can rightly call itself the birthplace of our civilisation. Without knowing about this past, we can hardly expect to explain the present day.

Our programme is located in the Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO) where there is a unique collection of cuneiform tablets.

Leiden is specialised in six cuneiform languages. In addition, the expertise in Leiden is focused on the second and third millennium before Christ, in particular on Early Sumerian, Old Assyrian, Old and Middle Babylonian periods and Akkadian from peripheral areas.

The MA in Languages and Cultures of Mesopotamia and Anatolia is unique in the Netherlands. We work closely with the Universities of Ghent, Leuven, Heidelberg, Münster and Cambridge; students from the research master’s programme spend at least one semester studying at one of these partner universities. Because each department has its own specialisation, we are able to offer complementarity.

We have seen enormous growth in the interest in this special field in recent years, probably because of events in Iraq.”