Yuval Levavi

YUVAL LEVAVI
Yuval
Levavi
Postdoctoral researcher
yuval.levavi@univie.ac.at

Yuval Levavi studies socio-economic aspects, material culture, and political history of the Ancient Near East, with a special interest in first millennium  Babylonia. In addition to archival studies, Yuval’s work also deals with first millennium Babylonian erudite literature (e.g., the Babylonian chronicles and literary letters) and the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

 

 

 

 

 

Publications

a.Books:

  1. Administrative Epistolography in the Formative Phase of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (dubsar 3, Spätbabylonische Briefe 2), Münster, 2018.
  2. Neo Babylonian and Achaemenid Administrative and Legal Texts Concerning Craftsmen from the Eanna Temple Archive (Yale Oriental Series, Babylonian Texts 24), co-authored with Elisabeth Payne, accepted (scheduled to be published in early 2023).

 

b.Papers in refereed publications

  1. On the Use of Personal Names in Neo-Babylonian Epistolography, Israel Oriental Series 22, in press (2022).
  2. Tallying in the Eanna: A Unique Temple Notation Practice, IRAQ 84, in press (2022).
  3. Basic Prestige: The mušaḫḫinu in Private Babylonian Households, in: L. Cousin, L. Quillien and M. Ramez (eds.), Material Culture of Babylonia and Beyond: Craft, Religion and Daily Life, Leuven: Peeters, in press.
  4. Minor Archives from First-Millennium BCE Babylonia: The Rēˀi-Sisê Archive from Sippar (the Archive of Šamaš-Iddin, son of Niqūdu, descendant of Rēˀi-Sisê), Journal of Cuneiform Studies 74 (2022): 185–204.
  5. Diplomatics of Neo-Babylonian and Early Achaemenid Letters (with Martina Schmidl), Archiv für Orientforschung 54 (2021): 72–87.

 

  1. For a Fistful of Barley: More on the Remuneration of Scribes and State Taxation in the Neo-Babylonian Eanna Temple (with Michael Jursa), Revue d'assyriologie 115 (2021): 135–142.
  2. The Sound of Silence: The Destruction of Babylon by Sennacherib and the Babylonian Chronicles, in: K. Streit and M. Grohmann (eds.), Culture of Defeat: Submission in Written Sources and the Archaeological Record, Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2021: 165–188.
  3. The Neo-Babylonian Empire: The Imperial Periphery as Seen from the Centre, Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History 7.1 (2020): 59–84.
  4. The Sacred Bureaucracy of Neo-Babylonian Temples, Contextualizing Jewish Temples, in: S. Holtz and T. Ganzel (eds.), Brill’s Reference Library of Judaism, Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2020: 6–22.
  5. A New Legal Compendium from the Eanna Temple Archive (with Peter Zilberg), Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 109.1 (2019): 75–89.

 

  1. Four Middle Babylonian Legal Documents Concerning Prison, Revue d'assyriologie 111 (2017): 87–108.

 

  1. Quantitative Social Network Analysis (SNA) and the Study of Cuneiform Archives: a Test-Case Based on the Murašû archive, (with A. Wagner, S. Kedar, K. Abraham, Y. Cohen and R. Zadok), Akkadica 134 (2014): 117–134. * The two main contributors to this paper were me and A. Wagner.
  1. Papers in advanced state of preparation for refereed venues:
  1. Ghost Archival Patterns and Yahwistic Names

              This paper suggests a solution for an abnormal naming pattern found in the onomasticon of Judean exiles in Babylonia. Specifically, it focuses on the distribution names with of Yahweh as the theophoric element during the first centuries of the Judean exilic community.

  1. Beds in First Millennium Babylonian Private Households

              This paper examines different aspects relating to beds in everyday life in first millennium Babylonia. Apart from physical aspects (size, materials, accessories), the status of different beds is discussed as well as idea of beds and bedrooms as personal safe havens.  

d.Papers in Edited Volumes

  1. The Interaction between Eanna and the Sealand in the Neo-Babylonian period, in: A. Maeir, A. Berlejung, E. Eshel and T. Oshima T (eds.), New Perspectives on Aramaic Epigraphy in Mesopotamia, Qumran, Egypt and Idumea, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2021: 17–33.

 

  1. A Peculiar Taxation Practice of Judean Exiles in Rural Babylonia and its Possible Connection to Building Activity in Late Sixth Century Judah, in: (A. Berlejung and A. Maeir (eds.), Proceedings of the 2016 Minerva Conference in Leipzig, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019: 395–407.
  2. Betting on the Right Horse – loyalty in the early years of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, in: M. Sandowicz and O. Drewnowska (eds.), Fortune and Misfortune in the Ancient Near East , Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2017: 177–190.
  3. Neo-Babylonian Temples and Royal (Building) Projects – An Epistolographic Point of View, Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of the Research Network Imperium & Officium: Landscapes of Empire: Public Building and Labour Organization in Ancient States, in press.

e.Notes

  1. Corrigenda to Middle Babylonian texts concerning prison (with E. Devecchi), Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 2020/4, 133.
  2. Further collations to CUSAS 28 (with K. Abraham and M. Jursa), Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 2018/2, 53.
  3. ginnu-silver from the time of Nebuchadnezzar (and Nabû-aḫḫē-iddin’s term as temple administrator), Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 2014/4, 102.
  4. ḫallimu “raft” and not paḫallu B, Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 2013/53.

 

f.Book Reviews

  1. The Sacrificial Economy Assessors, Contractors and Thieves in the Management of Sacrificial Sheep at the Eanna Temple of Uruk (ca. 625-520 B.C.), Kozuh, M. G., 2014, Archiv für Orientforschung 54 (2021): 495–500.

 

  1. Under the Fig along the Canal: review of The Good Figs: The Jehoyachin Exile and Its Heritage by Yair Hoffman [in Hebrew], 2018, Tel Aviv: The Haim Rubin Tel Aviv University Press, 2018 pp. 617, Shnaton: An Annual for Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies 26 (2021): 401–418.
  2. The Arrows of the Sun: Armed Forces in Sippar in the First Millennium BC, by John MacGinnis, Journal of the American Oriental Society 137.1 (2017): 190–192.

g.Encyclopaedia Entries

  1. Boundary stones (I Samuel 7:12), The Koren Tanakh of the Land of Israel – I Samuel, Jerusalem: Koren, 2021.

 

  1. Granting a fiefdom (I Samuel 27:5), The Koren Tanakh of the Land of Israel – I Samuel, Jerusalem: Koren, 2021.
  2. Monarchy versus priesthood (I Samuel 8:11), The Koren Tanakh of the Land of Israel – I Samuel, Jerusalem: Koren, 2021.

 

  1. Prophets as royal advisers (I Samuel 22:5), The Koren Tanakh of the Land of Israel – I Samuel, Jerusalem: Koren, 2021. 
  1. Popular Science
  1. Los exiliados judíos en Babilonia, Desperta Ferro-Arqueología e Historia 10, 2016: 12–16.

 

 

 

Team Members