Discipline: Ancient Near Eastern Philology and Near Eastern Archaeology
Department of Near Eastern Studies
Discipline: Ancient Near Eastern Philology and Near Eastern Archaeology
Research interests
Ancient Near Eastern studies, in particular Babylonian social and economic history and the history of mentalities
Curriculum vitae
Oct 1990–May 1991 Research Assistant (half-time) at the Institut für Orientalistik, Vienna University.
Jun 1991–Jul 1991 University Assistant (half-time) at the Institute.
Aug 1991–Sep 2000 University Assistant (full time) at the Institute.
1 Oct 2000 Associate Professor.
Oct 2002–Sep 2008 On leave to conduct research for the START Project.
Oct 2008- Full professor of Assyriology at the University of Vienna.
Qualifications
Venia docendi Ancient Near Eastern and Semitic studies
Award Date: 14 Mar 2000
Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Dr. phil., University of Vienna
Award Date: 12 Oct 1994
Ancient Near Eastern Studies, MA, University of Vienna
Award Date: 1 Apr 1991
Awards
May 2017 Fellow (“Wirkliches Mitglied”) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
11/2015 Rudolf-Meimberg Prize 2015 (Akademie der Wissenschaften und Literatur, Mainz)
May 2013 Corresponding Fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
1/2012 Visiting Professor at the Collège de France, Paris
14 Dec 2007 Fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences’ “Junge Kurie”
2002 Awarded a START Prize by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) for a project on “The Economic History of Babylonia in the First Millennium BC”.(1.2 mio EUR)
2002 APART grant (Austrian Academy of Sciences; not accepted as not compatible with START Prize).
2002 Henry Frankfort Fellowship awarded by the Warburg Institute, London (not accepted as not compatible with START Prize).
2001 Grant from the Hochschuljubiläumsstiftung der Stadt Wien
1991 Würdigungspreis des Bundesministers für Wissenschaft und Forschung.
Administrative duties
2011/3-2016/9 Director, Department of Near Eastern Studies
2016/10- Vice-Director, Department of Near Eastern Studies
2016/10-2020/9 Vice-Dean, Faculty of Philology and Cultural Studies
Raccontare il passato o inventarlo: letteratura sacerdotale nella Babilonia ellenistica
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Precious Metal in Babylona in the Middle Bronze Age and in the Iron Age
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Precious Metals in Private Households in Babylonia in the Middle Bronze Age and in the Iron Age: a Comparative Approach, SHAMO seminar.
Michael Jursa (Speaker) & Rosaura Cauchi (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Sacred/Sacrificial/Temple Economy: some observations from an Assyriologist’s perspective
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Court Officials in Babylonia (in the Neo-Babylonian Empire)
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Assur, Babylon und die Entstehung der Thora
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Public
Spätbabylonische Priesterschriften
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Identity Construction in Hellenistic Babylonia: Late Babylonian Priestly Literature
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
A family of exorcists from sixth century Uruk and their soap
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
‘Us and them, and their stuff’: access to resources, real and imagined, as ordering principle in the Ancient Near Eastern worldview
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
A Babylonian ‘Sacrificial Economy’? A case study from the sixth century BCE
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Household wealth in Babylonia and Prosperity: A Comparative Approach
Yuval Levavi (Speaker) & Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Late Babylonian Priestly Literature
Céline Debourse (Speaker) & Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Von der Leberschau zur rechnenden Astronomie: Babylonische Priester und ihr Weltbild
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Westsemitic Names in the Yahudu Archives: Orthographic Variation and its Implications
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
The Levant as Seen from Babylonia in the Sixth Century BCE - Session in Honour of Nadav Na'aman
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Formen abhängiger Arbeit im Alten Orient in der Eisenzeit”,
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
In lieu of a conclusion: some observations and questions
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
The Urukean Priesthood between City and State
Michael Jursa (Speaker) & Shai Gordin (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Suitable and Unsuitable Matches: Marriage, Social Mobility and Female Inclusion in Ancient Mesopotamia
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Constructing the Tower of Babel: labour recruitment and the financing of public building in Iron Age Mesopotamia
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
La casa, il casato e lo stato: prosperità economica e prestigio sociale in Babilonia nel sesto secolo a.C.
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Economic Growth, Prosperity and Inequality in Ancient Mesopotamia
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
The Tobiads between Mesopotamia and Yehud: the Al-Yahudu and Murashu Archives and the Bible
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
The Closed World of the Babylonian Priest and its Collapse
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Imperial State Building beyond the Augustan Threshold in the Reign of Nebuchadnezzar
Michael Jursa (Speaker) & Shai Gordin (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
The Sense of Smell in the Cult in Mesopotamia
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Purity, segregation and a literature to match: Babylonian priests from 600 to 0 BCE
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Economic growth and growing inequality in times of empire: the Babylonian economy in the sixth century BCE
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Purity, segregation and a literature to match: Babylonian priests from 600 to 0 BCE
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Diplomatics in Administrative Archives: the test case of the (early) Ebabbar archive
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Death and Taxes? Economy, Society and the Imperial State in Babylonia in the Sixth Century BCE
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Dead Dogs and the Lord of the Universe: Babylonians write to the Assyrian King
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Debt, Money and Society in Babylonia: the Middle Bronze Age and the Iron Age
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
West Semitic Names in the Yahudu Archive: orthographic variation and its implications
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Silber, Einkommensverteilung und Ungleichheit in Babylonischen Städten von der Mittelbronzezeit zur Eisenzeit
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Economic growth and growing economic inequality? The case of Babylonia
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
The Al-Yahudu material in its wider context: a ‘Babylonian perspective’
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Silver Use in Babylonian Cities in the Iron Age and in the Middle Bronze Age
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Epistolography in the Context of Hierarchical Systems
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Cani morti e il re dell’universo: Babilonesi scrivono al re assiro
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Diplomatics and palaeography of Neo- and Late Babylonian archival documents
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
‘Dein Name soll groß sein wie der des Königs‘: Priester und Gesellschaft in Babylonian im 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr.
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Xerxes: the case of Sippar and the Ebabbar temple
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
The Reach of the State: Iron-Age Mesopotamia and the Roman Empire in Comparison
Michael Jursa (Speaker) & Bernhard Palme (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Tote Hunde und der Herr der Weltordnung: Babylonier schreiben an den assyrischen König
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
In Lieu of an Introduction: Neo-Babylonian Labour Regimes
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Zur Materialität spätbabylonischer Texte: Diplomatik und Epigraphik
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Neo-Bablyonian studies, why and how
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
„All prebendary income of the Borsippeans has been withheld” – or: how to contextualize a Neo-Babylonian letter
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
‚Ja, dürfen’s denn des?‘ Zur Bewertung der Rebellionen gegen Xerxes 484 v.Chr.
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
L’economia della Babilonia dell’età di ferro: continuità e cambiamenti strutturali
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Private & State: the Neo-Babylonian Period
Michael Jursa (Keynote speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Achaemenid Babylonia
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Law and Legal Matters in Late Babylonian Epistolography
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Families, Officialdom and Families of Officials in Chaldean and Achaemenid Babylonia
Michael Jursa (Contributor)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Money, Monetization and the Transformation of the Agrarian Economy in Babylonia in the Sixth and Fifth Century BC
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Market Efficiency and Market Integration in Babylonia in the ‘Long Sixth Century”
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Babylonian evidence for the movement of people and the transport of goods in the Achaemenid Empire
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
The lost state correspondence of the Babylonian Empire as reflected in contemporary administrative letters (6th century BC)
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Argumentation, Causation, Persuasion and Rhetorics in Late Babylonian Epistolography: The Contrast Between Official Correspondence and Private Letters
Michael Jursa (Contributor)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Argumentation, Causation, Persuasion and Rhetorics in Late Babylonian Epistolography: The Contrast Between Official Correspondence and Private Letters
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Persuasion and Rhetorics in Late Babylonian Epistolography
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
The Babylonian Version of the Bisitun Inscription
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
The Neo-Babylonian Palatial Economy
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
The Ancient Near East: fiscal regimes, political structures
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
The Neo-Babylonian empire
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
The Language of Power I: Official Epistolography in Babylonia in the First Millennium BC
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Die babylonische Priesterschaft im ersten Jahrtausend v. Chr
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Prices and Wages in Babylonia in the Sixth Century BC: the Impact of Monetization and Structural Change in Agriculture on a Complex Agrarian Economy
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Taxation and Service Obligations in Babylonia from the Nebuchadnezzar to Darius and the Evidence for Darius' Tax Reform
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Money and prices in Babylonia in the sixth century BC
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Public administration and taxation in Achaemenid Babylonia
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Legal innovation and economic change in Babylonia in the first millennium BC
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
The Economic History of Babylonia in the First Millennium: Some Results of an Ongoing Project
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Am Hof Nebukadnezars
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Tempelämter, Tempelpfründen und soziale Identität: Fallstudien aus dem Babylonien des ersten Jahrtausends v. Chr.
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Gewalt und ihre Bewältigung in neubabylonischen Texten
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
The Remuneration of Institutional Labourers in an Urban Context in Babylonia in the First Millennium BC
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Von Bier, Mützen und Geld: Zum ökonomischen und sozialen 'Sitz im Leben' neubabylonischer Geschäftsgesellschaften
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Von Bier, Mützen und Geld: Zum ökonomischen und sozialen 'Sitz im Leben' neubabylonischer Geschäftsgesellschaften
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Theft, Embezzlements and Contract Killings: the life and times of Gimillu, temple slave of Ishtar
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
And the gods gathered like flies around the offerings: on the use of Aromatics in Mesopotamia
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Business Companies in first Millennium B.C. Babylonia: Accounting Techniques, Economic Strategies, Social Setting
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
On hired labour in first Millennium BC Babylonia
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Business Companies in first Millennium B.C. Babylonia: Accounting Techniques, Economic Strategies, Social Setting
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
And the gods gathered like flies around the offerings: on the use of Aromatics in Mesopotamia
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Agricultural Management, Tax Farming and Banking: Aspects of Entrepreneurial Activity in Babylonia in the Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Periods
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
The Transition of Babylonia from the Neo-Babylonian Empire to Achaemenid Rule
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Institutional Households and Money
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Economic specialisation of institutional households in first millennium BC Babylonia and the issue of the importance of economic exchange
Michael Jursa (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Theft, Embezzlements and Contract Killings: the life and times of Gimillu, temple slave of Ishtar
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Theft, Embezzlements and Contract Killings: the life and times of Gimillu, temple slave of Ishtar
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
Theft, Embezzlements and Contract Killings: the life and times of Gimillu, temple slave of Ishtar
Michael Jursa (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other
DigEanna: a Digital Reconstruction of the Eanna Archive
Jursa, M., Sandowicz, M., Hackl, J., Lassen, A., Waerzeggers, C., Agut, D., Mühl, S., Lämmerhirt, K., Jiménez, E. & Helwing, B.
1/10/24 → 30/09/27
Project: Research funding
MCB: The Material Culture of Babylonia in the First Millennium BC
1/03/19 → 28/02/22
Project: Research funding
RoyalCities: The King’s City: A Comparative Study of Royal Patronage in Assur, Nineveh, and Babylon in the First Millennium BCE
Jursa, M. & Zaia, S.
1/09/18 → 31/08/20
Project: Research funding
Department of Near Eastern Studies
Spitalgasse 2, Hof 4 (Campus)
1090 Wien
Room: 1F-O1-24
T: +43-1-4277-43413