Knowledge and Power in the Neo-Assyrian Empire

In the seventh century BC the Assyrian monarch was the most powerful human being in the whole Middle East. Hundreds of letters, queries and reports show scholars advising the Assyrian royal family on matters ominous, astrological and medical, often with direct impact on political affairs. Along with court poetry and royal prophecies, they give an extraordinary vivid insight into the actual practice of scholarship in the context of the first well-documented courtly patronage of scientific activity in world history.

These Assyrian scholarly writings - letters, poetry, queries and reports - were published in eight edited volumes which are now out of print or difficult to get hold of.

With the kind permission of the authors and the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, this project brings together translations and transliterations of all 2100 of these texts. We have also added a wealth of material from our undergraduate lectures and seminars to support our own teaching and to provide resources for colleagues in history of science and religion who do not have access to specialist libraries.