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Department of Archaeology

 

Dr Andrew Pottorf

Biography

My interest in Assyriology began with passions for the languages and writing systems of the ancient Near East, which I developed during my prior degrees in Biblical Studies. I completed my PhD in Assyriology at Harvard University with a dissertation supervised by Piotr Steinkeller on the social stratification of the Ur III period. My ongoing research is focused on the socioeconomic history of the Ur III period and its broader historical context. Prior to my work at the University of Cambridge, I taught biblical Hebrew at Boston College and Sumerian at Harvard University. Here, I am a Teaching Associate in the Department of Archaeology and a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Trinity Hall.

Research

I work mainly on the socioeconomic history of the Ur III period, especially its social stratification. My work relies heavily on prosopography, so I have tabulated over 23,000 attestations of over 17,500 disambiguated individuals in Ur III administrative and legal texts. While I present various individuals as case studies, I generally focus on large datasets relating to the employment arrangements and incomes of much of the population of key locations. In order to contextualize my analysis of these socioeconomic data, I also address the history of scholarship on Ur III social stratification, especially Soviet scholarship, which I often critique. In addition to socioeconomic history, I am interested in epigraphy as well as political ideology, particularly in literary works.

Key Publications

Key publications

Published (* peer reviewed)

Bartash, Vitali, and Andrew Pottorf, eds. 2025. Beyond Slavery and Freedom in Ancient Mesopotamia. JANEH 12.1.

* Bartash, Vitali, and Andrew Pottorf. 2025. “Beyond Slavery and Freedom in Ancient Mesopotamia.” Pages 1–17 in Beyond Slavery and Freedom in Ancient Mesopotamia. Edited by Vitali Bartash and Andrew Pottorf. JANEH 12.1.

* Bartash, Vitali, and Andrew Pottorf. 2025. “Muškēnum in Third-Millennium BC Mesopotamia.” Pages 19–48 in Beyond Slavery and Freedom in Ancient Mesopotamia. Edited by Vitali Bartash and Andrew Pottorf. JANEH 12.1.

* Pottorf, Andrew. 2025. “UN-il2 (‘Menials’) as a Serflike Social Stratum during the Ur III Period.” Pages 83–113 in Beyond Slavery and Freedom in Ancient Mesopotamia. Edited by Vitali Bartash and Andrew Pottorf. JANEH 12.1. (Awarded Runner-Up for Best Article of an Early-Career Scholar by the International Association for Assyriology.)

* Pottorf, Andrew, and Andrew A. N. Deloucas. 2024. “The Groton School Cuneiform-Text Collection.” CDLB 2024.2. https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/articles/cdlb/2024-2.

* Pottorf, Andrew R. 2017. “A Regional Analysis of Epigraphic Data from Philistine Sites during the Eighth and Seventh Centuries BCE.” Pages 173–204 in Proceedings of the Twelfth Mainz International Colloquium on Ancient Hebrew (MICAH) and Cognate Languages, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, 2015. Edited by Reinhard G. Lehmann, Kwang Cheol Park, and Anna Elise Zernecke. KUSATU 22. Kamen: Spenner.

Forthcoming

Pottorf, Andrew. “Caring for the Elderly in Third-Millennium Mesopotamia: Temporary Conscription Exemption during the Ur III Period.” In Aging, Old Age, and Constructions of Old Age in the Ancient Near East. Edited by Alison Acker Gruseke and Carol Meyers. Kasion. Münster: Zaphon.

Pottorf, Andrew. “From the Ground Up: The Foundational Role of the Land-Tenure System for Social Stratification in Southern Mesopotamia during the Ur III Period.” In Concepts of Governance and the Study of Ancient Near Eastern Societies. Edited by Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum, Jörg Klinger, and Aron Dornauer. Melammu Symposia 16. Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften.

Teaching and Supervisions

Teaching

I teach and provide supervisions for Akkadian Language (M1/G30 and M5/G34) and Sumerian Language (M6/G35) as well as Mesopotamian Culture I: Literature, Religion, and Scholarship (M2/G31) and II: Society, Economy, and Politics (M3/G32).

Other Professional Activities

Recent Presentations (* invited)

2025

“Temporary Exemption from Conscription for Elder Care during the Ur III Period.” American Society of Overseas Research Annual Meeting 2025 (Boston).

“‘Wealth is Far Away, Poverty is Near’ (SP 1.15): Portraying Ur III Poverty and Abundance in Terms of Purchasing Power.” 70th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (Charles University). (with Felix Rauchhaus)

* “Land and Liberty in Southern Babylonia during the Third Millennium BCE.” Assyriological Seminar (Yale University).

2024

* “Land and Liberty in Southern Babylonia during the Third Millennium BCE.” Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies: Joseph C. Miller Memorial Lectures Series (Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn).

“Differentiating Subsistence and Tenant Lands in Ur III Umma: BM 105330 as a Case Study.” ASOR Annual Meeting 2024 (Boston).

* “The Social Stratification of Ur III Umma.” Topics in Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies (University of Oxford).

“The Social Stratification of Ur III Umma.” Ancient Near Eastern Seminar Series (University of Cambridge).

“Subsistence and Tenant Lands in Ur III Umma.” 69th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (University of Helsinki).

* “Bridging the Gap: Teaching Akkadian and Sumerian at Cambridge.” Institute of Classical Studies Workshop on Teaching Less-Commonly Taught Ancient Languages (University of London).

2023

“Feeding the Multitude: The Distribution of Barley through Allotments and Wages as well as through Subsistence and Tenant Lands during the Ur III Period.” ASOR Annual Meeting 2023 (Chicago).

“Adding It All Up: A Synthesis of Accounting Data from Ur III Umma.” 68th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (Leiden University).

“The Lives and Work of the Serflike UN-il2 in the Ur III Period.” 68th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (Leiden University).

“From the Ground Up: The Foundational Role of the Land-Tenure System for Social Stratification in Southern Mesopotamia during the Ur III Period.” 16th Melammu Symposium (Free University of Berlin).

Job Titles

Teaching Associate in Assyriology
Dr Andrew Pottorf

General Info

Not available for consultancy
Research Expertise / Fields of study
Socio-Politics of the Past
Assyriology and Mesopotamian Languages
Epigraphy & Paleography

Affiliations

Subjects
Assyriology and Mesopotamian Archaeology
Geographical areas
Mesopotamia and the Near East
Periods of interest
Copper/Bronze Age
Iron Age

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Postal Address:
Department of Archaeology
Downing Street
CB2 3DZ Cambridge

 

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