PhD candidates in Assyriology
Faculty of Humanities, Leiden Institute for Area Studies is looking for a
PhD candidate in Assyriology (2 positions, 1.0 fte)
Vacancy number 17-269
Project description
The candidates will carry out research on the history of Babylonia under Persian (Achaemenid) rule. This is part of the ERC-funded project, “Persia and Babylonia: Creating a New Context for Understanding the Emergence of the First World Empire,” headed by prof. Caroline Waerzeggers. The project seeks to explain the relative success of Achaemenid Persia, which established the first super-size empire in history (c. 550–330 BCE). It will exploit the large corpus of cuneiform texts produced in Persia’s most important periphery, Babylonia, in order to contextualize the emergence of the Persian Empire. A key analytical device in our work will be to compare Persian responses to those of the Assyrians, who were unable to establish control of Babylonia a century earlier. As part of our activities, we will develop an online prosopography of Babylonia under imperial rule to facilitate future research.
The application dossier should include a proposal (max. 4,000 words) outlining the topic, sources, methodology, and expected outcomes of the PhD project as well as a time-plan. Applications are especially invited on the following topics:
- Writing and archival practice;
- Temple-city-state interactions;
- Elite culture and identity;
- Office-holding and self-governance;
- Social networks.
The research project should draw from primary text material and should make a contribution to the on-going publication of the Neo-Babylonian text corpus.
