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SISU holds lecture series to highlight ancient Near Eastern culture


24 April 2017 | By Xu Zhiya, Xu Wenjing, Wei Han, Ciren Yangzong and Zhou Jiawen | Copyedited by Gu Yiqing

  • Lecture Photos

    Dr. Liu explains various constellations representing gods

  • Lecture Photos

    Dr. Liu gave lectures to students.

  • CAAS

    CAAS

D

r. Liu Changyu from Zhejiang University gave two academic lectures, themed “Assyriology and Cuneiform Culture” and “Religion and Myth of Ancient Mesopotamia”, at Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) on April 11, 2017.

In the first lecture, Liu explained the reasons for holding such lectures. He pointed out that Assyriology was little known among Chinese researchers while it was so popular in developed countries that farmers living close to Heidelberg University even tried to learn about it. He then reviewed the history of Assyriology and Cuneiform’s culture by citing the Sumerian language and Akkadian language as two examples.

In his second lecture, Liu told the details about mud slab, cylinder sea and ziggurat, Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonians, and Assyrian God and pedigree respectively. H e also introduced the stars, flora and fauna which represent the symbol of the Gods. He also talked about fairy tales of the Mesopotamia and the impact of Bible’s story on that region.

Semitic Studies is a branch of philology, of which the other branches include India Egyptology, Sinology and German Studies. Semitic Studies combines linguistics, history, literature, religion, science with other subjects to research the Semitic language, its user and records. It originates from Europe but start to develop in China.

The lectures were organized by the Center for Semitic Studies of SISU’s School of Asian and African Studies.

To serve for China's diplomatic initiative of "One Belt, One Road", SISU’s School of Asian and African Studies is preparing courses of less commonly taught languages used in the countries along the silk road. The School has opened the course of Kiswahili language and area studies while starting to open courses of Pushtu and Kurdish language.

Recently, Consortium for Asian and African Studies (CAAS) sent its invitation and protocol to SISU. SISU then gained full membership in CAAS, and became the first university that qualified for the admission in China. Founded in March, 2007, Cosortium for Asian and African Studies (CAAS) is dedicated to strengthening international cooperation of Asian and African talent development and academic research, making use of discipline superiority and rich resources of league school to stimulating the research of Asia and Africa.

SISU will take it as an opportunity: intergrate the resources of Asian and African studies, formulate mid-long term development, and carry out research project to help SISU construct first-class subject.

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Press Contact

SISU News Center, Office of Communications and Public Affairs

Tel : +86 (21) 3537 2378

Email : news@shisu.edu.cn

Address :550 Dalian Road (W), Shanghai 200083, China

Further Reading