Curriculum vitae of Barbara Cifola

ACADEMIC DEGREES:

M.A. (“Laurea”), at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, under the supervision of Mario Liverani, Professor of History of the Ancient Near East, and Sergio Donadoni, Professor of Egyptology (April 10, 1987).

The thesis, “Ramesse III e i Popoli del Mare” [Ramses III and the Sea Peoples], was a study of the textual and archaeological evidence of the presence of the Sea Peoples in the Levant at the end of the XIIth century B.C., aimed at a re-evaluation of the role they presumably played in the collapse of the Late Bronze civilization.

Ph.D. (“Dottorato di Ricerca”, with a three year scholarship) in Mesopotamian Studies, at the Oriental Institute of the University of Naples, under the direction of Prof. Mario Liverani (June 12, 1992).

The object of the dissertation, “Analisi variantistica della titolatura reale assira. Dalle origini a Tiglat-pileser III” [Analysis of Variants in the Assyrian Royal Titulary. From the Origins to Tiglath-pileser III], is a study of the variants in the Assyrian royal titulary as contained in the official inscriptions in order to investigate the reasons behind the adoption of titles and their changes according to historical and/or ideological circumstances.

ACADEMIC POSITIONS AND AWARDS:

1993/94-1994/95: Awarded a postdoctoral fellowship by the Oriental Institute of the University of Naples, to prepare the Ph.D. dissertation for publication.

1997-to date: Visiting Scholar at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLA, responsible for the electronic cataloguing of the Department’s Gelb Library.

Winter quarter 2001: Teaching assignment of an upper division survey course (40 hours) on Ancient Near Eastern History, University of Macerata, Italy.

CURRENT WORKS-IN-PROGRESS:

Analysis of the Assyrian royal titulary in the Sargonid period.

Preparation of the assigned issue 3.3 (Mitanni and the Middle-Assyrian Reign) of the series “Atlante Storico del Vicino Oriente Antico”, University of Rome “La Sapienza”.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPEDITIONS:

1982: Broglio di Trebisacce (Cosenza), directed by Prof. Renato Peroni, Professor of Euroepean protohistory at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”.

1983, 1985, 1989: Ashara/Terqa (Syria), directed by Prof. Giorgio Buccellati, Professor of Assyriology at UCLA, and Dr. Olivier Rouault, C.N.R.S.

1990: Mozan (Syria), directed by Prof. Giorgio Buccellati.

RESEARCH ABROAD:

February-June 1991: Visiting researcher at The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia Project, University of Toronto.

OTHER ACTIVITIES:

Member of the Editorial Staff of the journal Oriens Antiquus from 1989 to 1994.

Taught propaedeutic courses in History of the Ancient Near East to first year undergraduate students and Akkadian seminars on the textual material examined for the main history course at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” (years 1992/1993-1993/1994).

PUBLICATIONS:

1. “Ramses III and the Sea Peoples: A Structural Analysis of the Medinet Habu Inscriptions”, Orientalia 57 (1988) 275-306.

2. “A Kudurru Fragment from the Reign of Enlil-nadin-ahi”, Vicino Oriente 7 (1988) 249-252.

3. review of R. Dolce - C. Zaccagnini (Eds.), Il pane del re: Accumulo e distribuzione dei cereali nell’Oriente antico (Studi di Storia Antica 13) Bologna 1989, in: Orientalia 59 (1990) 555-556.

4. “The Kudurru Fragment VA 213”, Annual Review of the Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia 8 (1990) 1-2, Pl. XXXIII.

5. “The Terminology of Ramses III’s Historical Records. With a Formal Analysis of the War Scenes”, Orientalia 60 (1991) 9-57.

6. review of C.K. Maisels, The Emergence of Civilization. From Hunting and Gathering to Agriculture, Cities, and the State in the Near East, London/New York 1990, in: Orientalia 62 (1993) 441-442.

7. “The Role of the Sea Peoples at the End of the Late Bronze Age: A Reassessment of Textual and Archaeological Evidence”, Orientis Antiqui Miscellanea I (Roma 1994) 1-23.

8. review of J.-M. Durand (Ed.), La femme dans le Proche-Orient antique. Compte rendu de la XXXIIIe Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (Paris, 7-10 juillet 1986), Paris 1987, in: Orientis Antiqui Miscellanea I (Roma 1994) 119-121.

9. review of D. Schmandt-Besserat, Before Writing. Volume I: From Counting to Cuneiform, Austin 1992, in: Orientis Antiqui Miscellanea I (Roma 1994) 121-122.

10. review of M. Yon (Ed.), Arts et industries de la pierre (= Ras Shamra-Ougarit VI), Paris 1991, in: Orientis Antiqui Miscellanea I (Roma 1994) 122-123.

11. review of M. Casanova, La vaisselle d’albâtre de Mesopotamie, d’Iran et d’Asie centrale aux IIIe et IIe millénaires av. J.-C., Paris 1991, in: Orientis Antiqui Miscellanea I (Roma 1994) 123.

12. Analysis of Variants in the Assyrian Royal Titulary. From the Origins to Tiglath-pileser III, (Annali dell’Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli, Series Minor 47) Napoli 1995 (published with a contribution by the Italian National Research Council).

13. “Ashurnasirpal II’s 9th Campaign: Seizing the Grain Bowl of the Phoenician Cities”, Archiv für Orientforschung 44-45 (1997/98) 156-158.

14. “The Titles of Tukulti-Ninurta I after the Babylonian Campaign: A Re-evaluation”, in: From the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea: Studies on the History of Assyria and Babylonia in Honour of A. Kirk Grayson, Toronto (forthcoming).