The Labors of Idrimi: Inscribing the Past, Shaping the Present at Late Bronze Age Alalah (Ancient Near East Monographs)

Since the 1949 publication of the Late Bronze inscriptions on the Statue of Idrimi, scholars have been intrigued by the carefully structured and vividly detailed cuneiform text that recounts the rise of King Idrimi of Alalah. Jacob Lauinger significantly advances prior scholarship through an in-depth historical analysis that combines textual and material perspectives on both the statue and the inscriptions. His study reveals how two distinct inscriptions were added to an originally anepigraphic statue to advance a claim about royal legitimacy long after Idrimi’s death during a time of political upheaval at Alalah. This richly illustrated volume includes a translation, more than ninety-five images, and sixteen composite plates that, for the first time, present each line of the inscriptions in its entirety to scholars and students. The appendix offers a detailed philological commentary treating numerous aspects of the inscriptions that have been the subject of multiple scholarly interpretations.

Jacob Lauinger is Associate Professor of Assyriology at Johns Hopkins University and a staff epigrapher of Mustafa Kemal University’s Alalah/Tell Atchana Excavations, the University of Toronto’s Tayinat Archaeological Project, and the Siwan Regional Project’s Khani Masi Excavations. He is the author of Following the Man of Yamhad: Settlement and Territory at Old Babylonian Alalah (2015).