Dr Jacob L. Dahl
Position:
University Lecturer in Assyriology; Fellow of Wolfson
Faculty / College Address:
Oriental Institute / Wolfson College
Email:
Research interests:
I am a specialist in Sumerian, pre-Classical socio-economic history, and early Near Eastern writing systems. My recent book, entitled The Ruling Family of Ur III Umma, is a prosopographical analysis of an elite family in a provincial center in Southern Iraq during the Third Dynasty of Ur, ca. 4000 years ago. It bridges the apparent gap between the seemingly incompatible systems of patrilineal succession, widely held to have been the prevailing system, and fratrilineal succession evident in the textual record, by offering a new theory of succession during the Neo-Sumerian period.
Since 2001, I have led research on the corpus of proto-Elamite tablets (ca. 3100 - 2900 BC), in collaboration with leading scholars of early writing. Proto-Elamite is the last undeciphered writing system from the ancient Near East with a substantial number of sources. Initially inspired and influenced by archaic cuneiform from Mesopotamia, proto-Elamite was a very short-lived writing system. More than 1,500 tablets were found during the French excavations of Susa in the beginning of the 20th century, and although only a handful of texts were found during later excavations across Iran the wide application of this writing system has long been acknowledged. Recent excavations have unearthed significant numbers of texts at sites in northern Iran.
Current Projects:
- late 3rd millennium BC administrative history, publication of 350 texts in Oslo
- joint publication (on-line) of ca. 300 Ur III texts in Aleppo National Museum, Syria, with Dr Bertrand Lafont (CNRS, Paris)
- joint publication (on-line) of ca. 90 Ur III texts in the Institut Chatolique de Paris, with Dr Bertrand Lafont
- publication of ca. 150 proto-Elamite texts and fragments in the Louvre
- re-edition of ca. 1000 proto-Elamite texts and fragments in the Louvre
- proto-Elamite sign-list
- edition of new proto-Elamite texts from Iran with colleagues from Teheran University
Courses Taught:
- History and Civilizations of the Ancient Near East
- Akkadian and Sumerian texts, all levels
Boards and committees:
- Member of the Steering Board of the British Association for the Ancient Near East (BANEA)
- Editor of CDLJ (http://cdli.ucla.edu/pub.html)
Recent publications:
Monographs:
- Dahl, Jacob L., The Ruling Family of Ur III Umma: A Prosopographical Analysis of a Provincial Elite Family in Southern Iraq ca. 2100-2000 BC (= PIHANS 108, Leiden 2007).
Articles:
- Dahl, Jacob L., “Land Allotments During The Third Dynasty of Ur: Some Observations,” AoF 29/2 (2002) 330-338.
- Dahl, Jacob L., “The Quest for Eternity. Studies in Neo-Sumerian Systems of Succession,” 117-136, in: J.-G. Dercksen, ed., Assyrian and Beyond, Studies Presented to Mogens Trolle Larsen (Leiden, 2004).
- Dahl, Jacob L., “Complex Graphemes in Proto-Elamite,” Cuneiform Digital Library Journal (CDLJ) 2005:003 Cuneiform Digital Library Journal 2005:3.
- Dahl, Jacob L., “Animal Husbandry in Susa During the Proto-Elamite Period,” SMEA 47 (2005) 81-134.
- Dahl, Jacob L., “Early Swine Herding,” 31-38 in: B. Lion et C. Michel, eds., De la domestication au tabou : Le cas des suidés dans le Proche-Orient ancien, Travaux de la Maison René-Ginouvès 1 ( Paris, 2006).
- Dahl, Jacob L., & Hebenstreit, Laurent F., “19 Ur III texts in a Private Collection”, Revue d’Assyriologie, volume CI (2007), 35-49 9 (in print).
- Dahl, Jacob L., “ A Babylonian Gang of Potters,” manuscript submitted to publisher.
- Dahl, Jacob L., “ Early Writing in Iran, a Reappraisal,” manuscript submitted to publisher.
Notes and reviews:
- Dahl, Jacob L., “Proto-Elamite Sign Frequencies,” CDLB 2002:001 (2002) Cuneiform Digital Library Bulletin 2002:1.
- Dahl, Jacob L., “A Note on Ur III Text Duplicates,” CDLB 2003:005 (2003) Cuneiform Digital Library Bulletin 2003:5.
- Dahl, Jacob L., Review of Dominique Charpin, Dietz Otto Edzard , Marten Stol, Mesopotamien: Die altbabylonische Zeit, Review of Biblical Literature 02/2005.
- Dahl, Jacob L., “bala Revisited,” review article (Tonia Sharlach: Provincial Taxation and the Ur III State), JAOS 126.1 (2007?), 77 - 88.
