Jessie DeGrado and Matt Richey - “The Ashmolean Museum Inscribed Pazuzu Statuette”

In 1892, G. J. Chester presented the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford) with a statuette allegedly from San el-Hagar, Egypt. The statuette was first published seventy years later by P. R. S. Moorey (1965 [Iraq 27]), who identified the figure as the infamous Mesopotamian demon Pazuzu. In addition to his striking iconographic attributes, the winged demon bears on his legs a four-line Phoenician or Aramaic inscription from Iron I or IIA. Since the original and only prior publication of this inscription (G. R. Driver 1965 [Iraq 27]) was acknowledged by its author to be very preliminary -- owing mainly to corrosion on the statue's surface. At this meeting of the Hebrew Bible Workshop, Divinity students Jessie DeGrado and Matt Richey will present preliminary results from their new study based on personal inspection of the statue and new imaging techniques, and offer some general comments on what this statue and its inscription reveal about the penetration of Mesopotamian demonology into the West. Light refreshments will follow. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to email the workshop’s co-coordinators: Sun Bok Bae (sunbok@uchicago.edu) or Marshall Cunningham (MCunningham1@uchicago.edu).