Books by Peter Zilberg
The Southern Babylonian Countryside in the Late 5th Century BCE- A View from Šāṭir, 2024
Debating Khirbet Qeiyafa: A fortified City in Judah from the Time of King David, 2016
Garfinkel, Y., Kreimerman, I., and Zilberg, P. 2016: Debating Khirbet Qeiyafa: A fortified City i... more Garfinkel, Y., Kreimerman, I., and Zilberg, P. 2016: Debating Khirbet Qeiyafa: A fortified City in Judah from the Time of King David. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.
By the Rivers of Babylon. Cuneiform Documents from the Beginning of the Babylonian Diaspora. Wayne Horowitz, Yehoshua Greenberg, and Peter Zilberg with Laurie Pearce and Cornelia Wunsch (2015, in Hebrew)
A detailed summery of the Kirbet Qeiyafa excavation project, 2007-2013.
Articles by Peter Zilberg
Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages, 2025
This study explores various aspects of the socio-historical landscape of the Chaldean region of B... more This study explores various aspects of the socio-historical landscape of the Chaldean region of Bīt-Amukānu in 5th century BCE Southern Babylonia, through the lens of two previously unpublished texts from the town of Šāṭir. The study offers an editio princeps of these texts, with a detailed analysis that provides new insights into the town’s human landscape. Particular attention is given to the interactions between the Babylonian and West-Semitic inhabitants of Šāṭir, as well as their involvement with local institutions, especially the town’s local temple.
New studies in the archaeology of Jerusalem and its region , 2025
The recent discovery of a fragmentary cuneiform inscription in Jerusalem provides unprecedented i... more The recent discovery of a fragmentary cuneiform inscription in Jerusalem provides unprecedented insight into the relationship between the Neo-Assyrian Empire and the Kingdom of Judah during the late 8th to 7th centuries BCE. This Unique Iron Age cuneiform inscription is the first evidence for direct written communication between Assyria and Judah during the period. Based on its form and layout, we suggest identifying it as a fragment of an Assyrian inscribed sealing.
Zilberg, P. 2025, Intercultural Encounters in the Persian Achaemenid Empire— A Practical Approach, pp. 267-284, in: Zilberg, P. , Gabbay, U., Bloch, Y., Ayali-Darshan, N. (eds.), On Scribes and Scholars- Essays in Honor of Wayne Horowitz, Gorgias Press
Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 137, pp. 279 - 289, 2025
The debate surrounding the composition of the Book of Ezekiel has reached a stalemate, with the s... more The debate surrounding the composition of the Book of Ezekiel has reached a stalemate, with the scholarly discourse relying on the limited evidence provided by the biblical text. The present article introduces new insights from Persian-period Mesopotamian sources, which illuminate the historical and geographical context of several passages in the book. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of its literary formation.
Orientalia 92, 2023
This Article is a study of the fragmentary Sumerian tablet belonging to the National Museum of Co... more This Article is a study of the fragmentary Sumerian tablet belonging to the National Museum of Copenhagen NMC 10092. The mention of the sun god Utu and the Gate of Heroes suggest that the composition originated in Nippur
Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires, 2023
In the following note we would like to propose an identification for the main deity of the city o... more In the following note we would like to propose an identification for the main deity of the city of Shatir on the basis of a new understanding of the Nippur Compendium. We will argue that the main deity of Shatir also known as Lord-of-Shatir, is Erimabinutuku, a deified weapon of Ninurta.
Kaskal 19, 2022
The clay tablet published here for the first time records a bird-keeping agreement. It was signed... more The clay tablet published here for the first time records a bird-keeping agreement. It was signed in 454/444 BCE in Šāṭir, a small city in the rural periphery of southern Babylonian, located to the north of Uruk, in the region of Bīt-Amukānu. In this article we offer a full edition of the text, and an outline of the broader context against which to interpret this bird-keeping agreement. The lack of remuneration for the bird keeper, the question of the use of the birds, and possible institutional involvement in the transaction will take central stage in the discussion.
Individuals and Institutions in the Ancient Near East, 2021
This paper presents an edition of an administrative text mentioning an anonymous
‘Ionian’/‘Greek’... more This paper presents an edition of an administrative text mentioning an anonymous
‘Ionian’/‘Greek’ and is followed by a study of contacts between
‘Greeks’ and Babylonians in the Neo-Babylonian empire
Archiv für Orientforschung 54, 2021
The paper deals with the location of Āl-Yāḫūdu in southern Babylonia
Buried History 56, 2020
The paper presents an edition of a Babylonian astronomical diary dated to the reign of Seleucus I... more The paper presents an edition of a Babylonian astronomical diary dated to the reign of Seleucus IV. The diary is dated on historic and astronomic grounds to 175 BCE and serves, thus far, as the earliest mention for the reinstatement of a royal representative over the Esagil temple in Babylon during the late Seleucid period.
Biblische Notizen 187, 2020
The Akkadian names of both the town and canal of Ezekiel 1 “Tel-Aviv on the Chebar Canal” (Ezekie... more The Akkadian names of both the town and canal of Ezekiel 1 “Tel-Aviv on the Chebar Canal” (Ezekiel 1) have long been attested in cuneiform records: the Chebar Canal (íd.ka-ba-ra) in late-Babylonian administrative tablets, the town ālu ša-til-abūbe ‘The town of the ruin-mound of the flood,’ in a single late-Babylonian economic document. This article proposes that ālu ša til abūbe and ‘Tel-Aviv on the Chebar Canal’ of Ezekiel are one and the same place, and should be identified with the Ancient Sumerian city Šuruppak.
Revue d'assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale, 2019
The text is connected with the activities of
Zababa-šar-uṣur and mentions the Kabar-canal.
A Question of Identity- Social, Political, and Historical Aspects of Identity Dynamics in Jewish and other contexts, 2019
This article focuses on the
question of the integration of foreign people, in this case various S... more This article focuses on the
question of the integration of foreign people, in this case various Semitic groups, in the the administrative apparatus at the heart of the Achaemenid empire
Journal of Ancient Judaism, 2018
This paper presents the study of 265 names from the first generations of Judean exiles found in d... more This paper presents the study of 265 names from the first generations of Judean exiles found in documents from Babylonia dated from 572 to 477 B.C.E. Many of these exiles resided in Āl-Yāhūdu and its vicinity. The names were first analyzed based on their theophoric elements, most common roots of predicative elements, geography, and chronology. They were then compared with personal names in artifacts from archaeological excavations, from Israel and Judah, dating from the Iron Age II. The results revealed that the Iron Age II onomastic trends in Judah continue to prevail among the first generations of Judean exiles in Babylonia. These onomastic trends include a high percentage of theophoric names, mainly Yahwistic names; rare occurrences of divine names other than YHWH or El; and שלם as the most common root in names.
pp. 289-303 in: Garfinkel, Y. et al,. Khirbet Qeiyafa Vol. 4 Excavation Report 2007–2013: Art, Cult, and Epigraphy, Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 2018
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Books by Peter Zilberg
Articles by Peter Zilberg
‘Ionian’/‘Greek’ and is followed by a study of contacts between
‘Greeks’ and Babylonians in the Neo-Babylonian empire
question of the integration of foreign people, in this case various Semitic groups, in the the administrative apparatus at the heart of the Achaemenid empire