M Widell
Biographic Data
| ID | 141453 |
|---|---|
| NAME | M Widell |
| GIVEN NAMES | M |
| FAMILY NAME | Widell |
| SIGNATURE | WIDELL M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Liverpool |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2825-8252 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 41 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The Natural Environment of Southern Mesopotamia: Animals, Plants, and Landscape in Cuneiform Texts
The Identification of Wildlife and Animals in Sumerian: The Case of the European Turtle Dove (Streptopelia Turtur) and the Mysterious “Month of Flying” (iti dal)
Identifying specific animals in the Sumerian vocabulary often requires careful examination of textual contexts, alongside bioarchaeological data and representations in Sumerian art, as well as insights from linguistic, cross-cultural, ethnographic, and faunal studies. This article supports the notion that the Sumerian bird tu-gur4/8mušen referred to the European turtle dove. Artistic depictions and avifaunal remains confirm the presence of the tu…
Discussions in Assyriology
The Sumerian Expression a-ra2 X-kam and the Use of Installments in the Ur III Administration
This short communication investigates the Sumerian expression a-ra 2 X-kam, which was used to denote ordinal numbers in the Ur III period, typically to rank in a sequential order deliveries/receipts within the state administration. The literal and the cognitive meanings of a-ra 2 X-kam remain unchallenged, and the article will focus on the practical application of the expression within the Ur III state bureaucracy, and its significance for our ov…
Ilum-asu. A Scribe from Irisagrig
The aim of this article is to offer an overview of the administrative activities of the Ur III official Ilumasu and his family, who worked as scribes in the important administrative centre Irisagrig in southern Mesopotamia, during the final century of the third millennium BC. Ilumasu’s father Bibi provided foodstuff as rations to the female (sesame) oil pressers (mostly different types of birds and animals), and Ilumasu and his two brothers (Mašu…
Ur III Economy and Bureaucracy: The Neo-Sumerian Cuneiform Tablets in the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College (I)
This article examines 15 cuneiform tablets from the late 3rd millennium BC from southern Mesopotamia. As administrative tools of the Ur III state bureaucracy, the texts are primarily concerned with the administrative and economic affairs of the central authority, but they also offer important information on the individuals living in the Ur III state and their different roles within the state’s bureaucratic structures
Destined for Slaughter: Identifying Seasonal Breeding Patterns in Sheep and Goats in Early Babylonia
Who’s Who in “A balbale to Bau for Šu-Suen” (Šu-Suen A)
The Sumerian expression igi-kar 2 revisited
In 1968, the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary translated the Old Babylonian term aširtu , which in the OB period corresponded to the Sumerian expression igi-kar 2 , as “an offering of a pious gift to the gods”. In texts from the preceding Ur III period, however, the expression igi-kar 2 has usually been associated with the expression gurum 2 (written IGI.GAR) and translated “inspection”. In 1982, Piotr Steinkeller demonstrated, in a short article publ…
Historical Evidence for Climate Instability and Environmental Catastrophes in Northern Syria and the Jazira: The Chronicle of Michael the Syrian
Significant cataclysms occurred frequently throughout the history of northern Syria and the Jazira, and had severe short- and long-term implications on the region's economy and the social structure. This paper uses the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian, a Patriarch of Antioch in the late twelfth century a.d., as a representation of environmental and climatic catastrophes taking place in northern Syria and the Jazira in the third and early second Mi…
Urbanization within a Dynamic Environment: Modeling Bronze Age Communities in Upper Mesopotamia
Here agent-based models are employed to explore the behavior of small communities and their associated economic systems within an area of climatically marginal environment in northern Syria and Iraq. The examples, drawn from late prehistoric and Bronze Age societies that developed at the onset of urbanization, show how small communities might respond to various resource stresses and environmental fluctuations. The computer simulations demonstrate…
Some Reflections on Babylonian Exchange during the End of the Third Millennium BC
For some products in the Ur III period, a sufficient number of texts provide their silver equivalences, and the ancient value of the products can be estimated. This paper suggests that we should envision two exchange systems in the Ur III period, which operated within two separate and rather different economic spheres. Local exchange took place, at a stated time and place, for the purpose of individual exchange of goods and services. Through this…
Reflections on Some Households and their Receiving officials in the City of Ur in the Ur III Period
Neo-Sumerian Archival Texts in the Nies Babylonian Collection
Urbanization within a Dynamic Environment: Modeling Bronze Age Communities in Upper Mesopotamia
Here agent-based models are employed to explore the behavior of small communities and their associated economic systems within an area of climatically marginal environment in northern Syria and Iraq. The examples, drawn from late prehistoric and Bronze Age societies that developed at the onset of urbanization, show how small communities might respond to various resource stresses and environmental fluctuations. The computer simulations demonstrate…
Historical Evidence for Climate Instability and Environmental Catastrophes in Northern Syria and the Jazira: The Chronicle of Michael the Syrian
Significant cataclysms occurred frequently throughout the history of northern Syria and the Jazira, and had severe short- and long-term implications on the region's economy and the social structure. This paper uses the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian, a Patriarch of Antioch in the late twelfth century a.d., as a representation of environmental and climatic catastrophes taking place in northern Syria and the Jazira in the third and early second Mi…
Who’s Who in “A balbale to Bau for Šu-Suen” (Šu-Suen A)
Neo-Sumerian Archival Texts in the Nies Babylonian Collection
Reflections on Some Households and their Receiving officials in the City of Ur in the Ur III Period
Some Reflections on Babylonian Exchange during the End of the Third Millennium BC
For some products in the Ur III period, a sufficient number of texts provide their silver equivalences, and the ancient value of the products can be estimated. This paper suggests that we should envision two exchange systems in the Ur III period, which operated within two separate and rather different economic spheres. Local exchange took place, at a stated time and place, for the purpose of individual exchange of goods and services. Through this…
Historical Evidence for Climate Instability and Environmental Catastrophes in Northern Syria and the Jazira: The Chronicle of Michael the Syrian
Significant cataclysms occurred frequently throughout the history of northern Syria and the Jazira, and had severe short- and long-term implications on the region's economy and the social structure. This paper uses the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian, a Patriarch of Antioch in the late twelfth century a.d., as a representation of environmental and climatic catastrophes taking place in northern Syria and the Jazira in the third and early second Mi…
Urbanization within a Dynamic Environment: Modeling Bronze Age Communities in Upper Mesopotamia
Here agent-based models are employed to explore the behavior of small communities and their associated economic systems within an area of climatically marginal environment in northern Syria and Iraq. The examples, drawn from late prehistoric and Bronze Age societies that developed at the onset of urbanization, show how small communities might respond to various resource stresses and environmental fluctuations. The computer simulations demonstrate…
The Sumerian expression igi-kar 2 revisited
In 1968, the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary translated the Old Babylonian term aširtu , which in the OB period corresponded to the Sumerian expression igi-kar 2 , as “an offering of a pious gift to the gods”. In texts from the preceding Ur III period, however, the expression igi-kar 2 has usually been associated with the expression gurum 2 (written IGI.GAR) and translated “inspection”. In 1982, Piotr Steinkeller demonstrated, in a short article publ…
Who’s Who in “A balbale to Bau for Šu-Suen” (Šu-Suen A)
Ur III Economy and Bureaucracy: The Neo-Sumerian Cuneiform Tablets in the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College (I)
This article examines 15 cuneiform tablets from the late 3rd millennium BC from southern Mesopotamia. As administrative tools of the Ur III state bureaucracy, the texts are primarily concerned with the administrative and economic affairs of the central authority, but they also offer important information on the individuals living in the Ur III state and their different roles within the state’s bureaucratic structures
Destined for Slaughter: Identifying Seasonal Breeding Patterns in Sheep and Goats in Early Babylonia
Discussions in Assyriology
The Sumerian Expression a-ra2 X-kam and the Use of Installments in the Ur III Administration
This short communication investigates the Sumerian expression a-ra 2 X-kam, which was used to denote ordinal numbers in the Ur III period, typically to rank in a sequential order deliveries/receipts within the state administration. The literal and the cognitive meanings of a-ra 2 X-kam remain unchallenged, and the article will focus on the practical application of the expression within the Ur III state bureaucracy, and its significance for our ov…
Ilum-asu. A Scribe from Irisagrig
The aim of this article is to offer an overview of the administrative activities of the Ur III official Ilumasu and his family, who worked as scribes in the important administrative centre Irisagrig in southern Mesopotamia, during the final century of the third millennium BC. Ilumasu’s father Bibi provided foodstuff as rations to the female (sesame) oil pressers (mostly different types of birds and animals), and Ilumasu and his two brothers (Mašu…
The Identification of Wildlife and Animals in Sumerian: The Case of the European Turtle Dove (Streptopelia Turtur) and the Mysterious “Month of Flying” (iti dal)
Identifying specific animals in the Sumerian vocabulary often requires careful examination of textual contexts, alongside bioarchaeological data and representations in Sumerian art, as well as insights from linguistic, cross-cultural, ethnographic, and faunal studies. This article supports the notion that the Sumerian bird tu-gur4/8mušen referred to the European turtle dove. Artistic depictions and avifaunal remains confirm the presence of the tu…
The Natural Environment of Southern Mesopotamia: Animals, Plants, and Landscape in Cuneiform Texts
Ancient Near East History (12 works) · History (10 works) · Ancient history (7 works) · Eurasian Exchange Networks (7 works) · Linguistics and language evolution (7 works) · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology (5 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Economics (5 works) · Geography (5 works) · Political science (5 works)