Odette Boivin

Assistant Professor (CLTA)
Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, 4 Bancroft Avenue, Room 411, Toronto, ON, M5S 1C1
odette.boivin@utoronto.ca

Campus

  • Downtown Toronto (St. George)

Fields of Study

  • Ancient Near East
  • Assyriology

Areas of Interest

  • Babylonia in the second and first millennia BCE
  • Babylonian social and economic history
  • Mesopotamian historiography and Memory Studies
  • First Sealand Dynasty

Biography

After a number of years working as a engineer and project manager, I changed careers and obtained my M.A. (2011) and Ph.D. (2016) from the University of Toronto in Assyriology. I have since held research and teaching appointments at the University of Toronto, New York University, and the University of Münster, before coming back to the University of Toronto in 2025. My main geographical focus is on Babylonia—the southern part of Mesopotamia. I work mainly with archival (everyday, administrative, legal, epistolary documents) and historiographic sources. My research encompasses second millennium Babylonian history, in particular the First Sealand Dynasty, and first millennium history (until the Persian Empire). My main areas of interest are social and economic history, the writing of history—in particular the dynamic and creative use of the past in doing so, and the integration of textual and archaeological evidence. I teach courses on the Akkadian language (introductory and more advanced seminars) and on Mesopotamian history and society.

Publications

  • The Sons of Lâbâši: Entrepreneurship in Sixth Century BCE Larsa. Archive für Orientforschung Beiheft 35. Vienna: Selbstverlag des Instituts für Orientalistik der Universität Wien. 2024.
  • Taking care of a widowed mother: legal and social aspects based on a court case in sixth century Babylon. Zeitschrift für altorientalische und biblische Rechtsgeschichte 30, 47–75. 2024.
  • A Middle Babylonian record of expenditures from Babylon. Notes Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires no.14. 2024.
  • The many arts of writing a Babylonian national history. Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History 10(1), 107–138. 2023.
  • Chapter 18: The Kingdom of Babylon and the Kingdom of the Sealand. In K. Radner, N. Moeller, and D.T. Potts (eds.) The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East. Vol.2: From the End of the third millennium BC to the Fall of Babylon. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 566–655. 2022.
  • The ilku and related fiscal obligations in sixth century Larsa. In K. Kleber (ed.) Taxation in the Achaemenid Empire. Amsterdamer Kolloquium. Classica et Orientalia 26. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 153–175. 2021,
  • Taxpayers and the Palace at the Time of the First Dynasty of the Sealand: Social Aspects, Officials, and Keeping Track of the Barley. In J. Mynářová and S. Alivernini (eds.) Economic Complexity in the Ancient Near East. Management of Resources and Taxation (3rd – 2nd millennium BC). Prague: Charles University, 279–297. 2020.
  • La 1re dynastie du pays de la mer. In M. Sauvage (ed.) Atlas historique du Proche-Orient ancien. Paris: Les Belles Lettres et Beyrouth: L’Institut français du Proche-Orient, 90. 2020.
  • The Palace as Economic Unit in the Kingdom of the First Dynasty of the Sealand. In S. Paulus and T. Clayden (eds.) Babylonia under the Sealand and Kassite Dynasties. Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records 24. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, 190–204. 2020.
  • Tallying Expected and Actual Deliveries at the Sealand I Palace – Some Remarks. Notes Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires no.99. 2019.
  • The First Dynasty of the Sealand in Mesopotamia. Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records 20. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter. 2018 [& paperback 2019].
  • A Hymn of Ayadaragalama, King of the First Sealand Dynasty, to the Gods of Nippur: The Fate of Nippur and Its Cult during the First Sealand Dynasty. Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie 108(1): 22–42 [joint article with Dr. Uri Gabbay, Hebrew University of Jerusalem]. 2018.
  • La capitale du Pays de la mer Urukug pendant la période néo-babylonienne. Notes Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires no.85. 2018.
  • Accounting for Livestock: Principles of Palatial Administration in Sealand I Babylonia. Iraq 78: 3–23. 2016.
  • Agricultural Economy and Taxation in the Sealand I Kingdom. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 68: 45–65. 2016.
  • On the origin of the goddess Ištar-of-the-Sealand, Ayabbītu. Notes Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires no.15. 2016.
  • Kār-Šamaš as a south-western palace town of the Sealand I kingdom. Notes Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires no.97. 2015.

Education

PhD, University of Toronto