Ludovica Bertolini graduated in “Archaeology” at Sapienza University of Rome (2015), where she also received her Ph.D. in “History, Anthropology and Religions” (2019). Her research is primarily concerned with Sumerian literature from the Old-Babylonian period, and Mesopotamian religious tradition, with a particular focus on compositions regarding the gods Dumuzi and Inanna.
During her studies she has been a member of archaeological excavations in Italy and in Iraq. She is currently a post-doctoral research fellow at Charles University in Prague within the KREAS project, with a focus on the spread of Sumerian literature regarding divine entities during the Late Bronze Age.
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Focus
– Sumerian
– Ancient Near Eastern religious traditions
– Sumerian literature
– Akkadian
– Akkadian literature
– Ancient Near East
Basic Data
2015-2019 PhD in History, Anthropology, and Religions, “Sapienza” University of Rome. Dissertation: “Inanna e Dumuzi al di là del tempo e dello spazio: tradizioni cultuali e letterarie” (Inanna and Dumuzi beyond time and space: cultic and literary traditions)
2018 Course in Akkadian Language at the Pontifical Biblical Institute (Rome). Omens from the Old Babylonian Period.
2017 Course in Akkadian Language at the Pontifical Biblical Institute (Rome). Subject: Atra-hasis.
2014-2015: MA degree in “Archeologia” (Archaeology), “Sapienza” University of Rome.
2009-2013: BA degree in “Archeologia e Culture dell’Oriente e dell’Occidente” (Archaeology and Cultures of East and West), “Sapienza” University of Rome.
2020-2022: Post-doctoral research fellow at Charles University in Prague within the project KREAS of the Operational Program Research, Development and Education (OP RDE).
2022 to present: Assistant professor in Sumerology at Charles University in Prague.
Bibliography
Articles
Ludovica Bertolini (2020), “‘Lasciate che essi erigano il mio letto fiorito! Che lo cospargano con erbe come di lapislazzuli traslucidi!’ Elementi vegetali nella letteratura sumerica paleo-babilonese”, Ocula n. 21, pp. 37-61.
Ludovica Bertolini (2021), “Quando Dumuzi è al servizio del re”, in C. Ambos – G. Zisa (eds.), Miti, culti, saperi: per un’antropologia religiosa della Mesopotamia antica (Nanaya: studi e materiali di antropologia e storia delle religioni, 1). Edizioni Museo Pasqualino, Palermo, pp. 23-38.
Ludovica Bertolini (under review), “Some Considerations on the Reception of the Sumerian Literary Themes in Ugarit”
Ludovica Bertolini (in preparation), “ Crossing life stages: dressing, undressing, and changing clothes as navigating through life”.
Monographs
Ludovica Bertolini (in preparation), Inanna e Dumuzi: tradizioni letterarie e cultuali a confronto (Le religioni e la storia). Edizioni Quasar, Roma.
Reviews
Ludovica Bertolini (2019), review of Uri Gabbay, Pacifying the Hearts of the Gods: Sumerian Emesal Prayers of the First Millenium BC (Heidelberger Emesal-Studien 1, Harrassowitz Verlag, 2014), in Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni, 85, n.2 (2019). Morcelliana, Roma, pp. 968-972
Teaching
Elements of Mesopotamian Culture.
Introduction to the Akkadian language.
Sumerian.
Near Eastern art and society.
Akkadian reading.
Akkadian language.
Mesopotamian religious traditions.
Introduction to Ancient Near Eastern urbanisation, material culture, art and technology.
Conferences
September 19th – 22nd 2022: Crossing life stages: dressing, undressing, and changing clothes as navigating through life, in Crossroads IV. Charles University. Prague – Czech Republic.
July 25th – 29th 2022: Influence, similarities, or negotiation? Some reflections on the presence of Sumerian literary texts in Ugaritic archives, in the 66th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (RAI). Goethe Universität and Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz. Mainz and Frankfurt – Germany.
May 24th 2022: A preliminary reflection on the use of Sumerian literature in scribal education at Ugarit, in the Research Seminar on ‘Textual Cultures in Contact’, organised by the Early Text Cultures research group (ETC). University of Oxford. Oxford – United Kingdom.
April 13th-14th 2018: “I am the canopy of Sumer, a pleasant shade” – The Construction of a Royal Ideology, in the 7th Oxford Postgraduate Conference in Assyriology (OPCA). Wolfson College. Oxford – United Kingdom.
October 20th 2017: Acqua e Sessualità nella Letteratura Sumerica e Accadica, in AQVA, Incontri inter-dottorali (Seminar organized in the frame of the Ph.D course of the “Philology and History of the Ancient World” and “History, Anthropology, Religions”). “Sapienza” University of Rome. Rome – Italy.
April 21st-22nd 2017: Dumuzi and Inanna, Considering and Re-considering some Literary Parallels. A Case Study, in occasion of the 6th Oxford Postgraduate Conference in Assyriology (OPCA). Wolfson College. Oxford – United Kingdom.
April 7th-9th 2017: The Value of the Vegetal and Animal Lexikon in the Mesopotamian Love Lyrics, in the 8th European Association of Biblical Studies (EABS). Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich. Munich – Germany
Contact: ludovica.bertolini@ff.cuni.cz
Academia: Ludovica Bertolini | Charles University, Prague – Academia.edu