Yael Leokumovich is a PhD candidate in Assyriology and an Azrieli fellow.

Her research explores a uniquely significant Mesopotamian landscape: the wetlands. Through her study, she investigates how the marshlands were perceived and conceptualized in Mesopotamian cuneiform culture. What kinds of scenes and stories are associated with the marshes? What metaphors, motifs, and emotions do they carry? What roles did they play in rituals and how were their material aspects transformed into literary imagery, shaping a mental and emotional landscape?

The project examines a wide range of texts originating from urban centers and created by the priestly community and other Mesopotamian institutions. It delves into the human-environment relationships of one of the earliest urban societies known to us.

By tracing depictions of marshlands across diverse textual genres, the study also addresses broader questions about meaning-making and the transmission of texts in cultic, literary, and scholastic contexts.

Yael Leokumovich received her MA (Assyriology, with honors) and BA (Linguistics and Assyriology, with honors) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.