Plants in the ancient Near Eastern texts. A transdisciplinary analysis of the human-plant relations in Mesopotamia during the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods

PlANET project aims to reconsider the role of ten plant species in Mesopotamia during the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods (10th–6th cent. BCE) in religious, ideological, scholarly, gender, and economic spheres.

It aims also to prove cases of human overexploitation of plant resources causing ecological traps, whose long-term effects are still experienced today.

The project is the first full-scale study permitting us to dramatically increase our knowledge of Mesopotamian human-plant relations, by producing an innovative transdisciplinary non-anthropocentric paradigm, involving the methods of historical-philological and anthropological research, the archaeobotanical literature and the tools of Digital Humanities.

It will set up an open-access database offering a systematic integration of textual data and archaeobotanical information to establish links between plant emic names, identifications, and activities described in textual sources. Such data variety will be analyzed in the light of Ecological Anthropology and Environmental Humanities.

This holistic approach will make the outcomes relevant to a broad academic community since the addressed questions and methodologies can be used in other research fields, regions, and periods. The Dep.

SARAS (Sapienza) and NELC (Penn) are the perfect places to acquire new multidisciplinary skills (study of cuneiform economic texts, Digital Humanities, and archaeobotany) and to open significant future academic career paths.

SARAS has an anthropological section, while NELC collaborates with the Penn Museum, crucial to the successful implementation of the project.

The results will be disseminated and communicated through various channels and audiences (online database, scientific works, statement for Iraqi Ministry of Environment, conference, popular science articles, social media, exhibition, and children’s book). The communication strategy contributes to a greater awareness of the important role of plants in human life.