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Dr. Martin Worthington

Al Maktoum Associate Professor (Near & Middle Eastern Studies)

 worthinm@tcd.ie

 


Biography

Born in York and raised in Italy, Martin studied Ancient History and Egyptology at UCL. In the course of this degree he became intrigued by Ancient Mesopotamia, and a 1-year scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service enabled him to spend a year at Leipzig University, to start studying Babylonian, Assyrian and Sumerian under Annette Zgoll and Claus Wilcke. These languages stayed with him ever since. He went on to do an MPhil and PhD in Assyriology at Cambridge, supervised by Nicholas Postgate. Most of Martin's research is on Mesopotamian philology, literature, or the relation between the two. His first book, Principles of Akkadian Textual Criticism (De Gruyter, 2012) was the first extended exploration for Babylonian and Assyrian of a crucial question: how far can we trust our manuscripts? And what if they contain mistakes? His more recent book Ea's Duplicity and the Gilgamesh Flood Story (Routledge, 2019) is an extended argument about nine remarkable lines of Babylonian poetry: he argued that these lines, uttered by the god Ea, are so worded as to be understandable in different ways -- a feature which Ea used to trick humans into building the Ark. This argument about Ea's duplicitous utterance, whose nature and implications extend in many directions, was widely reported in international media as a discovery of the earliest example of 'fake news'. International media interest was also piqued by his 2024 paper "Solving the Starry Symbols of Sargon II". Martin has also published on topics including Babylonian/Assyrian magic and medicine, Mesopotamian social history, Sumerian lexicography, and narrative strategies in Middle Egyptian literature. Always happy to be invited to talk in schools, Martin is a great believer in public outreach. In this vein he directed the world's first Babylonian-language film, The Poor Man of Nippur (freely available on Youtube), and authored Teach Yourself Complete Babylonian (2nd ed. 2018). Before joining Trinity in August 2020, Martin was a junior research fellow at St John's College, Cambridge, then a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at SOAS, University of London, then Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, where he was also a Fellow of St John's College. At Trinity, Martin contributes to various parts of teaching on the Ancient Near East, in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Studies. He is open to taking on doctoral students, who are encouraged to contact him directly in advance of submitting a formal application. His current main lines of research include 'Mesopotamian Orality', 'The structure of the Akkadian poetic line', an explanatory list of how cuneiform signs acquired their readings, and 'Sargon's Riddle'. You can read several of his publications here: https://tcd.academia.edu/MartinWorthington/Papers

Representations

Details Date
'Babylonian and Sumerian Consultant' for Marvel film Eternals (i.e. I translated the relevant parts of the script into Babylonian, and sent written text and audio recordings for the actors to practice with the dialect coach) 2021
External assessor for MRes dissertation in Ancient History at Macquarie University December 2020
Editorial Board Member of the academic book series "Mythological Studies" (De Gruyter) 2019-
'Babylonian Consultant' for the Warner Bros film "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" (i.e. I translated part of the sound-track into Babylonian, set to music by Bear McCreary) 2019
External Examiner for three MRes dissertations, University of Birmingham March 2017
External assessor for PhD "Confirmation of status" (2nd year report), The Oriental Institute, Oxford University May 2013
External assessor for PhD "Confirmation of status" (2nd year report), The Oriental Institute, Oxford University November 2013
referee for Harvard Theological Review (Cambridge, MA) 2021-
referee for the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (Oxford) 2019-
referee for Aula Orientalis (Barcelona) 2019-
referee for Studia Orientalia (Helsinki) 2018-
referee for Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (London) 2018-
editorial board member for the Bryn Mawr Classical Review (Bryn Mawr) 2014-
referee for the Journal of Near Eastern Studies (Chicago) 2013
referee for the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (London) 2011-
editorial board member of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (London) 2011-2016
co-editor (secrétaire de rédaction) of Le Journal des Médecines Cunéiformes (Paris) 2006-
referee for Routledge on a 3-chapter book proposal on ANE literature 2020
referee for De Gruyter for volume 2 in the series Mythological Studies 2019
referee for Brill Academic Publishers for a book manuscript on Intertextuality 2018
referee for Cambridge University Press for a book manuscript entitled Written Languages 2018
referee for Brill Academic Publishers for N. J. C. Kouwenberg's Grammar of Old Assyrian 2016
volume editor for Tzvi Abusch's volume on Maqlû for the book series Writings from the Ancient World (Society of Biblical Literature) 2014
referee for the Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, philosophisch-historische Klasse (Vienna), for a book on Babylonian astrological medicine 2013
succeeded W. G. Lambert as referee for the series Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period (RINAP). So far have done volumes 2, 3/2 and 3/3 2012-

Memberships

Membership of Professional Institutions, Associations, Societies

Details Date From Date To
The Philological Society 2007
The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2003
Akkadian in, editor(s)Tim Whitmarsh , Oxford Classical Dictionary, New York, Oxford University Press, 2024, pp(unknown) , [Martin Worthington], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  DOI
Gilgamesh in, Oxford Bibliographies, 10.1093/OBO/9780195393361-0325, Oxford University Press, 2024, [Martin Worthington], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  URL
Martin Worthington, Solving the Starry Symbols of Sargon II, Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research, 2024, p(unknown) , Journal Article, IN_PRESS  TARA - Full Text
Theatre and Migration in Gilgamesh in, editor(s)Yana Meerzon, Stephen Elliot Wilmer , Palgrave Handbook on Theatre and Migration, Palgrave, 2023, pp171-181 , [Martin Worthington], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text
Martin Worthington, Lilith Unsexed, Le Journal des Médecines Cunéiformes, 40, 2023, p54-64 , Notes: [The journal volume is that for 2022, but it appeared in 2023.], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text
Martin Worthington, The Great Green Dragon and Neo-Assyrian Modifier Sequences, State Archives of Assyria Bulletin, 2022, p159-171 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Martin Worthington, Orthographic Abbreviation in Babylonian and Assyrian of the Second and First Millennia BC, Henoch, 43, 2021, p7 - 41, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Martin Worthington, Ea's Duplicity in the Gilgamesh Flood Story, 1st, Abingdon and New York, Routledge, 2019, i-xxxii + 1-489pp, Notes: [Not sure what to put for 'Senior Author' or 'Author of Introduction' below. I am the sole author of the whole book, including the Introduction. Not sure what 'Affiliated to TCD' means. Reviews: Gadotti, JNES 80/2 (2021) 421-424 https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/715889 Pryke, Review of Biblical Literature 2020 Huskey, CJ-online, https://cj.camws.org/sites/default/files/reviews/2021.05.08%20Huskey%20on%20Worthington.pdf Seri, BMCR 2020, https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2020/2020.08.22/ Millard, Strata 38 (2020) http://aias.org.uk/strata/strata-current-issue/], Book, PUBLISHED  DOI  URL
Spellings and linguistic awareness in the Middle Assyrian Laws in, editor(s)Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum J. Cale Johnson , Encoding metalinguistic awareness: Ancient Mesopotamia and beyond, Gladbeck, Germany, PeWe Verlag, 2019, pp137 - 160, [Martin Worthington], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Martin Worthington, Of Sumerian Songs and Spells: the meanings and uses of ser3-ku3, Altorientalische Forschungen, 62, (2), 2019, p270 - 300, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI  URL
  

Page 1 of 3
Martin Worthington, The wobbly wedge, or: Variants and Corruptions in the world of Cuneiform, academic workshop 'Criticism of the Variant', Akademie der Wissenschaften, Hamburg, 8.xii.2022, 2022, Akademie der Wissenschaften, Hamburg, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Worthington, Martin, Medicine, Comedy, Power and their Interconnections in Babylonia and Assyria, Le Journal des Médécines Cunéiformes, (15), 2010, p25--39 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Martin Worthington, Medicine Outside the Medical Corpora in Mesopotamia, Drugs, Bugs and Health in the Ancient Near East, The Medical School, Birmingham, 1st-2nd April 2007, 2007, , Conference Paper, PRESENTED
Worthington, M, Addenda and Corrigenda to "Edition of UGU 1 (= BAM 480 etc.)" and "Edition of BAM 3", Le Journal des Médecines Cunéiformes, 5, 2007, p43--46 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Worthington, Martin, Edition of UGU 1 (= BAM 480 etc.), Le Journal des Médecines Cunéiformes, 5, 2005, p6--43 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Worthington, Martin, A Discussion of Aspects of the UGU Series, Le Journal des Médecines Cunéiformes, 2, 2003, p2--11 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED

  

Awards and Honours

Award Date
"Teaching Hero" Award (The Irish National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in collaboration with the Union of Students in Ireland) 2021
Sir George Staunton Prize (awarded jointly; Royal Asiatic Society) 2011
Ambizione Scholarship (Swiss National Science Foundation; deferred until 2012-2015, then declined, to take up the lectureship) 2010-2013
Jonas C. Greenfield Prize for Younger Semitists (American Oriental Society) 2009
British Academy Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship (four years, but interrupted in 2012, to take up the Cambridge lectureship). 2010-2012
Fellow of the 'Advanced Seminar in the Humanities: Literature and Culture in the Ancient Mediterranean: Greece, Rome and the Near East' (Venice International University). November 2008, September 2009
German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) re-invitation scholarship March-May 2006
Benefactor's Scholarship for the PhD (St John's College, Cambridge) 2003-2005
AHRB Scholarship (deferred from 2000) for the MPhil 2001-2002
German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) one-year scholarship (Jahresstipendium) 2000-2001