Dr Frances Reynolds
https://orinst.web.ox.ac.uk/people/frances-reynolds
https://www.queens.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-frances-reynolds/
My broader research area is the intellectual history, religion, and literature of ancient Mesopotamia. Most textual sources are written in Akkadian cuneiform on clay tablets from the first millennium BCE. I am particularly interested in cuneiform knowledge production, ritual, and astral mythology associated with the Esagil temple in Babylon. In my second monograph, I gave a critical edition and contextual analysis of an Akkadian calendar treatise composed in Babylon, probably in the Hellenistic period. My book explored the use and development of traditional material relating to political history, mythology, astrology, ritual, and hermeneutics in the context of cuneiform scholarship under imperial rule. I also work on Akkadian literature, including mythological poetry, and its changing cuneiform reception over time. My research seeks to understand texts and their impact in their ancient cultural settings. I am a consultant on Iraqi antiquities for UNESCO/INTERPOL and on Akkadian and Sumerian for the Oxford English Dictionary. As well as being an Enheduanna Society Patron, I am an advisory board member for Contextualising the Sacred and the Journal for Manuscript and Text Cultures.
Current Projects:
- Religion, literature, and scholarship in the Late Babylonian period: exegetic traditions
- Cuneiform reception of Enūma eliš, the Babylonian 'Epic of Creation'
- Babylonian and Assyrian astral mythology
Selected Publications:
- 2012. The Babylonian Correspondence of Esarhaddon and Letters to Assurbanipal and Sin-šarru-iškun from Northern and Central Babylonia. Revised Online Edition. State Archives of Assyria Online (SAAo), Vol. 18. [State Archives of Assyria, Vol. 18. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 2003].
- 2017. ‘Prayer and Praise in the City of Assur’. In Heffron, Y., Stone, A. B., and M. J. Worthington (eds), At the Dawn of History: Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honour of J. N. Postgate, 797-811. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns.
- 2019. A Babylon Calendar Treatise: Scholars and Invaders in the Late First Millennium BC: Edited with Introduction, Commentary, and Cuneiform Texts. Oxford: Oxford University Press: ISBN: 9780199539949 (2019 UK; 2020 USA).
- 2021. 'Politics, cult, and scholarship: Aspects of the transmission history of Marduk and Ti'amat's battle', in Kelly, A., and C. Metcalf (eds), Gods and Mortals in Early Greek and Near Eastern Mythology, 58-79. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: ISBN: 9781108480246.
- 2022. ‘Cuneiform myths and epics in the Ancient Near East’, in Dell, K. J. (ed.), The Biblical World, 255-78. 2nd revised ed. London and New York: Routledge: ISBN: 9781138932920.
- 2023. Πολιτική, λατρεία και λόγια παραγωγή: Πτυχές της ιστορίας της παράδοσης της μάχης του Μαρδούκ και της Τιαμάτ, in A. Kelly and C. Metcalf (eds), Θεοί και Θνητοί στη Μυθολογία της Πρώιμης Ελλάδας και της Εγγύς Ανατολής [Gods and Mortals in Early Greek and Near Eastern Mythology, trans. K. Dimopoulou]. Athens: Kardamitsa: ISBN: 9789603545606.
- 2024. 'The Cuneiform Reception of Enuma Elish', in Haubold, J., Helle, S., Jiménez, E., and S. Wisnom (eds), Library of Babylonian Literature 1. London: Bloomsbury (forthcoming).
Selected Media:
- 2016. BBC Radio 4 ‘In Our Time: The Epic of Gilgamesh’ with Melvin Bragg: Guest speaker with Andrew George and Martin Worthington. Episode voted into Listeners’ Top 10 to mark 750th edition. Live broadcast and podcast: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b080wbrq
- 2019. ‘Cuneiform Discoveries from Ancient Babylon’, The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH), University of Oxford: Humanities Light Night - Oxford Research Unwrapped! Talk and podcast: https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/people/frances-reynolds
- 2020. BBC World Service 'The Forum: Babylon, City of Wonders' with Bridget Kendall: Guest speaker with Grant Frame and Daniel Schwemer. Broadcast and podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3cszjvf
Teaching
I teach for the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and give language and text classes in Akkadian and lecture on ancient Middle Eastern religion and literature. As well as teaching small groups of undergraduates and Master’s students across the colleges, I also supervise Master’s and DPhil students.
Doctoral Students
- Gustavo Fernandes Pedroso, Divine Wrath, Abandonment, and Reconciliation in Mesopotamian Prayers and Righteous Sufferer Poetry [working title]. Principal Supervisor with Dr L. Quick. In progress, University of Oxford 2022– .
- Adam Howe, The Experience and Removal of Impurity in Ancient Mesopotamia. Supervisor. Awarded, University of Oxford 2021.
- Bernardo Ballesteros Petrella, Divine Assemblies in Ancient Near Eastern and Early Greek Narrative Poetry. Co-supervisor with Dr Adrian Kelly. Awarded, University of Oxford 2017.
- L. Selena Wisnom, Intertextuality in Babylonian Narrative Poetry: Anzû, Enūma Elish, and Erra and Ishum. Supervisor. Awarded, University of Oxford 2015.