Caleb Howard

Biography

Caleb Howard studies the texts, history, and scholarship of ancient Mesopotamia and the Levant. While studying the Hebrew Bible and other texts in Northwest Semitic languages such as Hebrew, Aramaic, and Ugaritic, his interest was drawn to the texts of Mesopotamia written in the cuneiform script in the Akkadian and Sumerian languages. 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. Transcriptions and photographs of these inscriptions, with notes on the habits of the scribes and artisans who produced them, will be made available to scholars and the public via an online repository of cuneiform texts called Oracc (Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus). He is also studying personal names in cuneiform tablets from the second millennium B.C., especially those of the ancient cities of Alalaḫ and Ugarit. This work will also be documented in an online database, which will provide a means of studying the social history of the ancient Near East through personal names.

Qualifications

Ph.D., Near Eastern Studies (Assyriology, Hebrew Bible/Northwest Semitics), Johns Hopkins University

M.A., Near Eastern Studies (Assyriology, Hebrew Bible/Northwest Semitics), Johns Hopkins University

B.A., Bible/Biblical Languages, Moody Bible Institute