The Attribution of the Anonymous Classical Sargonic Year Dates by Means of Prosopographic Analysis

This project explores anonymous year names or year dates (also called date formulas) that are found in the documents of the Classic Sargonic period (2250-2200 BCE). This period covers the second half of the reign of Naram-Suen and the reign of his successor Sharkalisharri. The main objective of the study is to connect the date formulas of uncertain chronological attribution to the reign of a particular Sargonic king, in my case Naram-Suen or Sharkalisharri. This may be achievable by means of prosopographic analysis, i.e. the study of personal names in a dated document followed by filing a separate dossier for each person mentioned in the document, and then putting these individuals in the archival context (or, outside the given archive) that will hopefully provide necessary chronological clues. The survey contributes to Mesopotamian chronology in general, and the inner chronology of reigns of Sargonic kings in particular.