Andreas Johandi was awarded the Humboldt Research Fellowship for postdoctoral research

Andreas Johandi, Research Fellow in Near Eastern Religions at the School of Theology and Religious Studies, was awarded the Humboldt Research Fellowship to focus on researching the Pantheon of the ancient city-state of Umma at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Panthea of several Third Millennium BCE Mesopotamian sites have been studied in detail. A study devoted to the Pantheon of Umma, an important Mesopotamian city-state in the third millennium, is lacking. "Therefore, the main aims of the study are to offer a new perspective on the study of the local panthea of the Early Bronze Age and to fill a gap in the religious landscape of ancient Mesopotamia by a thorough study of the Umma pantheon" said Johandi.

According to Johandi, tens of thousands of texts about Umma have survived on clay tablets. They are now broadly accessible in databases on the Internet. Still, as the number of scholars dealing with Assyriology is restricted, this mass of texts has been little interpreted.

Andreas Johandi's research supervisor will be Dr. Walther Sallaberger, the Professor of Assyriology at LMU Munich and a leading expert on the history and religion of Third Millennium BCE Mesopotamia.

"Of course, I am delighted. This was my fourth attempt to get into a post-doctorate program," Johandi rejoiced. Based on the research carried out within the Humbolt scholarship, Johandi will publish a monograph.

The Humboldt Research Fellowship is one of Europe's most prestigious research scholarships. It supports outstanding scientists worldwide and allows them to live and work in Germany for up to two years.