The volume collects twenty-three essays in English, Italian, French, and German offered to the Assyriologist Francesco Pomponio (University of Messina) from pupils, friends, and colleagues on the occasion of his 70th birthday. In accordance with his scholarly interests, the contributions in the present volume cover a wide range of topics in the field of Ancient Near Eastern studies and present the edition of new textual sources from third to first millennium BC Mesopotamia.

Premessa          

Publications of Francesco Pomponio     

Pierluigi Ciocca: Omaggio a Francesco Pomponio

Sergio Alivernini: A New Text Belonging to the Collections of the British Museum

Maria Giulia Amadasi Guzzo: Le dieu de Phrangissa (Chypre)

Maria Giovanna Biga: Francesco Pomponio and His Place in the History of Eblaite Studies

Noemi Borrelli: Symbolic and Economic Institutions in 3rd Millennium Southern Mesopotamia: The Household of the ereš-diĝir of Bau

Odoardo Bulgarelli: La Mesopotamia: commercio, strumenti economico-finanziari e mezzi di pagamento (fine IV – inizi II millennio a.C.)              

Franco D’Agostino: Stealing Barley in Ur III: a Detective Story?  

Benjamin R. Foster: When the Phoenicians Came to Cornwall    

Angela Greco: Neglected Source of Prosperity: Marsh Resources and the Role of the enku in Third Millennium BC Southern Mesopotamia

Massimo Maiocchi: Current Approaches towards Ancient Near Eastern Textual Sources: Some Remarks on Contemporary Methodologies for Philological Research

Pietro Mander: Die Bedeutung des fließenden Wassers in der sumerischen Kosmologie

Gianni Marchesi: A New Manuscript of Ana ittišu II from Nimrud             

Manuel Molina: Court Cases on Burglaries, Fugitives, Debts and Other Matters in Ur III Times   

Salvatore F. Monaco: Meannedu, Ruler of Umma           

Palmiro Notizia: Money-Lenders and Merchants from Central Babylonia: Unpublished Ur III Documents in the Yale Babylonian Collection   

David I. Owen: New Sources from the Garšana and Iri-Saĝrig Archives   

Sergio Ribichini: Euripide et le sacrifice humain à Carthage : notes de lecture     

Annunziata Rositani: War Prisoners as Gifts of the King Rīm-Anum for Goddesses and Gods: Two New Texts      

Cristina Simonetti: The River Ordeal in the Third Millennium BC

Gabriella Spada: “I Want to Break Free”: Model Contracts Recording Slave Self-Emancipation   

Marten Stol: Esip tabal in Agriculture    

Marcos Such-Gutiérrez: Die Berufsbezeichnung lú-igi    

Lorenzo Verderame: Fashioning of Statues in Three Neo-Sumerian Unpublished Texts from Ur 

Paolo Xella: Nergal in Phoenician Context