Michael Langlois

Samson, David, Daniel or Gilgamesh are some of the most famous heroes in biblical and mesopotamian literature. These characters are the object of a new book entitled “The Young Hero,” that I edited together with J.-M. Durand and Th. Römer.

To give you a taste, here is the table of contents: Read the rest of this entry »

The third part of the conference on “Law and Justice in the Ancient Near East” organized by the School of Ancient Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (ELCOA) takes place on May 30-31, 2011 at the Catholic Institute of Paris.

This year’s focus is on socio-historical, ideological and ethical questions, with a varied program:
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The official release of the 2009 Beaujolais Nouveau wines gives me an opportunity to mention the publication of Grégory Chambon’s latest book, The Wine Archives from Mari. I had the pleasure to give, as the author says, an “efficient and friendly help” (p. vi), and of course I wish him the best success!

Chambon, Grégory. Les archives du vin à Mari. Florilegium marianum XI ; Mémoires de N.A.B.U. 12. Paris, SEPOA, 2009, 221 p.

At the editor’s request, I wrote in Le Muséon a critical review of Jean-Claude Haelewyck’s Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages (Safran, 2006).

The unusual length of this recension (16 pages!) is due to the numerous problems encountered at the reading of this volume. J.-C. Haelewyck is aware of these problems and answered me with these nice words: “I wish all authors to receive such critique. You go into details while always remaining nice and constructive.”

Here is the article in PDF format:
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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.