The study of Assyriology at Brown University was situated for nearly sixty years in the Department of History of Mathematics at Wilbour Hall. The department, unique but recently closed, was the academic home of Otto Neugebauer, Abe Sachs and David Pingree, and the alma mater of Asger Aaboe. All are great names in the history of ancient mathematics and astronomy, and their specialism in the exact sciences gave Assyriology at Brown a particular flavour. The nineteen essays collected in this volume are dedicated to Alice Slotsky, who taught Akkadian in the department during its last decade, and it is fitting that many of them are concerned with ancient astronomy, mathematics and related topics, not just in Mesopotamia but also in places such as Egypt and India. Indeed, the volume is more than a celebration of an individual; it is a tribute to the research interests of the faculty members of the Department of History of Mathematics over the six decades of its existence.
The essays are arranged alphabetically by contributor. This notice will place them in a topical order, beginning with the exact sciences and moving on to less exact branches of knowledge. The history of mathematics is represented by three essays: E. Robson treats the history of a Babylonian geometrical figure in the light of a newly discovered Neo-Babylonian tablet (211–26, “The long career of a favorite figure: The apsamikku in Neo-Babylonian mathematics”); J. Høyrup adds nuance to our understanding of the legacy of Babylonian mathematics in Iron Age Greece, asking the question, “Les lais: or, What ever became of Mesopotamian mathematics?” (99–119); K. Plofker describes how Indian scholars came to terms, very slowly, with the Babylonian sexagesimal notation via the mediation of Hellenistic Greek (193–205, “Mesopotamian sexagesimal numbers in Indian arithmetic”).
Two articles on the history of astronomy study aspects of the Babylonian computation of data known as the Lunar Six, which describe lunar visibility at the time of the new and full moons (1–6, L. Brack-Bernsen, H. Hunger and C. Walker: “KUR – When the old moon can be seen a day later”; 7–33, J. P. Britton: “Remarks on Strassmaier Cambyses 400”); a third historical-astronomical essay adds to present knowledge of the scholia attached to Babylonian lunar tables (257–66, J. M. Steele and L. Brack-Bernsen: “A commentary text to Enūma Anu Enlil 14”).
Ancient cosmology is represented by a study of the “supracelestial waters” (227–44, F. Rochberg: “A short history of the waters of the firmament”). The history of astrology is the field of two essays, one on the legacy of Babylonian astrological lore to Hellenistic scholars (295–314, C. Williams: “Some details on the transmission of astral omens in Antiquity”), the other on a technical term shared by Babylonian and Demotic Egyptian horoscopes (245–55, M. Ross: “All's DUR that ends twr”). Comparison of divinatory literature of a different kind is the topic of T. L. Knudsen's essay on “House omens in Mesopotamia and India” (121–33), which does not find the case for cross-cultural transmission proved but calls for more study, especially of the great quantity of unpublished sources.
Historians will find in this volume a rich and varied treasure. L. Depuydt offers a critical exposition of the scheme of ancient Near Eastern chronology created by modern historians, which he characterizes as a Model based on a fixed point or Alpha (35–50, “Ancient chronology's Alpha and Egyptian chronology's debt to Babylon”). R. Wallenfels adds to the extant primary sources a monumental inscription of one of the most famous kings of Babylon that is a near duplicate of the British Museum's East India House (EIH) inscription (267–94 + 315–18, “A new stone inscription of Nebuchadnezzar II”); the syllabic spelling iš-di in ii 60 of the new text shows that the difficult logogram at the start of EIH ii 50, which its most recent editor read unu = šubat “Innengemach” (S. Langdon, Die neubabylonischen Königsinschriften [Leipzig, 1912] 124) is instead to be read suḫuš = išdī “foundation”. Military historians are catered to by an article comparing siege techniques as practised in the Near East and its western neighbour (145–67, S. C. and D. J. Melville: “Observations on the diffusion of military technology: Siege warfare in the Near East and Greece”); it concludes with an appendix that discusses an Old Babylonian mathematical problem about a siege ramp. Historians of religion and bureaucracy will find exercise in E. E. Payne's edition of a document that tabulates the contributions of two weavers to the cult-garments of goddesses of sixth-century Uruk (181–92, “The ‘rough draft’ of a Neo-Babylonian accounting document”).
Historians of art are enjoined to think again about three objects from Egypt: the bust of Nefertiti from Amarna, specifically the rendering of her eyes (83–97, K. Polinger Foster: “The eyes of Nefertiti”), and two pieces of carved hippopotamus ivory depicting animals (169–79, M. Passanante: “Two ivory carvings from Hierakonpolis”). Egypt provides the context of one of three essays on literary topics, a study of the role of the goddess Anat in a historiola about her and Seth preserved on Papyrus Chester Beatty VII (135–43, J. Lévai: “Anat for Nephthys: A possible substitution in the documents of the Ramesside period”). The late E. Reiner brings an important insight to a curious Neo-Babylonian fragment of scribal lore (207–10, “In praise of the just”). B. R. Foster writes entertainingly on “Assyriological echoes in English literature”, of which there are many more than one might have suspected, but not always complimentary (51–82, “Assyriology and English literature”).
The volume was conceived as an opportunity for contributors to write about the influence of the culture of Akkadian speakers on surrounding lands. In this aim it has succeeded very well and, in doing so, provided a rewarding excursion into some of the less frequented corners of the modern academy.
