Dr Andrew Pottorf Recognised by the International Association for Assyriology for Outstanding Early-Career Research
Best Article of an Early-Career Scholar Runner-Up
Dr Andrew Pottorf's article "UN-il2 (‘Menials’) as a Serflike Social Stratum during the Ur III Period" has earned him the honour of Runner-Up for Best Article by the International Association for Assyriology.
"The article began as a presentation for Vitali Bartash’s workshop titled “Beyond Slavery and Freedom in the Ancient Near East” during the 68th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, hosted by Leiden University."
"It focuses on UN-il2 as a distinct social status or order in comparison to citizens and enslaved people While UN-il2 were legally free like citizens and could maintain families similar in composition to citizens, their employment was fully controlled and often poorly compensated by various administrative households, which restricted their livelihoods in comparable ways to enslaved people."
The International Association for Assyriology (IAA) was founded in July 2003 in order to promote the fields of Cuneiform Studies as well as ancient Near Eastern History and Archaeology on an international basis and to act as a representative body for these fields in relationship to national, international, and private institutions, as well as the general public.
"I am honored to receive this prize, and I would like to thank my former advisor, Piotr Steinkeller, and Vitali Bartash, among others who helped me in this work. I also hope that UN-il2 and the socioeconomic history of the Ur III period overall can be enlightening for understanding ancient societies more broadly."
Dr Andrew Pottorf is a Teaching Associate for the Department of Archaeology and a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Trinity Hall. He specialises in Akkadian, Sumerian and Mesopotamian Culture.
Published 23 October 2025
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