Dr. Jacob Lauinger

Jacob Lauinger is an Assyriologist who focuses on Akkadian cuneiform texts of the first and second millennium B.C. with an interest in peripheral (i.e., extra-Mesopotamian) dialects of Akkadian. He received his B.A. in classical art and archaeology from Princeton University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Assyriology from the University of Chicago. His research focuses on the social, legal, and economic history of the ancient Near East and, in particular, on approaching cuneiform tablets from both philological and archaeological perspectives in order to better define the social contexts in which they were written, used, and stored. In this regard, he is fortunate to serve as the epigrapher for three archeological excavations, Koç University’s Tell Atchana (Alalah) Excavations, the University of Toronto’s Tayinat Archaeological Project, and the Sirwan Regional Project’s Khani Masi Excavations.

Currently, Jacob is working to make linguistically tagged editions and glossaries of the Amarna Letters freely available via the Oracc workspace. He is also writing a book on the Statue of Idrimi, an inscribed statue from Late Bronze Age Alalah. His annotated edition of the Idrimi inscriptions is already available via Oracc.

Before coming to Johns Hopkins, Jacob was the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Research Fellow at Corpus Christi, University of Cambridge (2009-2010) and an Assistant Professor in the History Department at Roanoke College (2007-2009).