Caleb Howard studies the texts, history, and scholarship of ancient Mesopotamia and the Levant. His current book project investigates the mechanics of scribal production of Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions. The basis of this project is first-hand collation and photography of royal inscriptions of the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 B.C.) in various museum collections. He is also preparing an updated edition of this king’s royal inscriptions, in cooperation with Jamie Novotny and A. Kirk Grayson. Transcriptions and translations of these inscriptions will be made available to scholars and the public via an online repository of cuneiform texts called Oracc (Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus). His other major project is the documentation and analysis of personal names in cuneiform tablets from the second millennium B.C., especially those of the ancient city of Alalaḫ. This work will be documented in an online database, which will provide a means of studying the social history of the ancient Near East through personal names. An analysis of the names in the texts from Alalaḫ will be presented in a forthcoming monograph.
Current Research
Research Fellow in Old Testament and Ancient Near East, Tyndale House, Cambridge
Editor, Tyndale Bulletin (https://tyndalebulletin.org)
Research Associate, St Edmund’s College, Cambridge
Publications
Academic Publications
“Cuneiform Tablets in Collections at the University of Kansas,” Cuneiform Digital Library Bulletin 2020:2. (https://cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdlb/2020/cdlb2020_002.html)
“On Mass Producing the Standard Inscription of Ashurnasirpal II,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 79 (2020): 65-82. (https://doi.org/10.1086/707617)
“Punishment for Patricide,” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie 111 (2021): 157-173. (https://doi.org/10.1515/za-2021-0002)
“Three Obscure Assyrian Reliefs and Their Inscription,” Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie orientale 115 (2021): 89-123. (https://doi.org/10.3917/assy.115.0089)
Co-Editor with James K. Hoffmeier, Richard E. Averbeck, and Wolfgang Zwickel, “Now These Records Are Ancient: Studies in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical History, Language and Culture in Honor of K. Lawson Younger, Jr. Ägypten und Altes Testament 114. Münster: Zaphon, 2022.
“Some of What’s New in the Study of Amorite,” pp. 213-242 in “Now These Records Are Ancient: Studies in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical History, Language and Culture in Honor of K. Lawson Younger, Jr., ed. James K. Hoffmeier, Richard E. Averbeck, J. Caleb Howard, and Wolfgang Zwickel. Ägypten und Altes Testament 114. Münster: Zaphon, 2022.
“Amorite Names through Time and Space,” Journal of Semitic Studies 68 (2023): 19-67.
Editor, Architecture, Iconography, and Text: New Studies on the Northwest Palace Reliefs of Ashurnasirpal II. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 301. Leuven: Peeters, 2023.
“How to Do Things with Texts: On the Management of Space Constraints on the Orthostats in the Northwest Palace by the Transmitters of the Standard Inscription,” pp. 15-49 in Architecture, Iconography, and Text: New Studies on the Northwest Palace Reliefs of Ashurnasirpal II, ed. J. Caleb Howard. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 301. Leuven: Peeters, 2023.
“Assyria,” under review for the new digital Oxford Classical Dictionary (4th edition), ed. Tim Whitmarsh (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
“The Mesopotamian Law Collections and the Covenant Code,” under review for publication in a volume in the series Bulletin for Biblical Research Supplement (Eisenbrauns)
Co-Author with Irene Madreiter and Jamie Novotny, “A Fragment of an Ashurnasirpal II Inscription Now in Innsbruck,” in preparation for State Archives of Assyria Bulletin.
Online Output
>
“Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online,” contributor (along with Jamie Novotny, Nathan Morello, and Karen Radner) to text-editions (Ashurnasirpal II) and historical articles (Ashurnasirpal II, Shalmaneser III, Šamšī-Adad V, Adad-nārārī III, Shalmaneser IV, Aššur-dān III, and Aššur-nārārī V) (http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/riao/)
Popular Communications
“Artefact in Focus: The Black Obelisk,” Ink Magazine, Issue 7 (1 December 2020) (https://tyndalehouse.com/ink-magazine/ink-issue-7-winter-2020/)
“Who were the Assyrians?” Ink Magazine, Issue 8 (12 April 2021) (https://tyndalehouse.com/ink-magazine/ink-issue-8-spring-2021/)
“Who were the Amorites?” THInk Magazine (December 2022) (https://tyndalehouse.com/explore/articles/who-were-the-amorites/)
“Artefact in Focus: The Code of Hammurabi,” THInk Magazine (December 2023) (https://tyndalehouse.com/explore/articles/hammurabi/)