Michael Langlois

Jean-Marie Durand, Professor at the College of France (Assyriology chair), has just published a volume on clothes and textiles in the akkadian texts of Mari. This work is part of the Paris Babylonian Dictionary Project (Volume 1), and I was pleased to help with technical and IT matters (see p. 8).

Durand, Jean-Marie. La nomenclature des habits et des textiles dans les textes de Mari. Archives Royales de Mari XXX. Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2009, 604 p.

A month from today will begin the 55th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (RAI), which will take place at the Collège de France on July 6-9, 2009 with the following theme: “Family in the Ancient Near East: Realities, Symbolisms, and Images.”

On this occasion, we have put online a website that I set up at the following address: rai.digitorient.com. There you will find useful information and be able to register online for the Rencontre. See you soon in Paris!

The Young Hero. Research on the formation and diffusion of a literary theme in the Ancient Near East.

April 6–7, 2009

This interdisciplinary conference, organized by the Chairs of Assyriology and Biblical Milieux at the College of France, explores heroic and initiatic journeys related to royalty, exile, failure, and success. It will also look at the ambivalent status of the hero, who navigates between the world of gods and the world of men. The conference will establish a dialog between themes and figures of Mesopotamia, Syria (Mari, Ugarit), the biblical world, and Greece.

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Here is version 1.2 (Mac) of my “CuneiType Unicode” converter. This program automatically converts text written with the CuneiType1, CuneiTrueType, Mari, and Babel legacy fonts (notably used by assyriologists for transcription of cuneiform texts).

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I will attend the first session of the conference on the redactions of the Hebrew Bible Prophetic Books, which will take place at the University of Lausanne on October 17-18, 2008.

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