Zozan Tarhan, PhD, is a promising young scholar from Bulgaria who works in the field of the history, languages, and art of the Ancient Near East in the 1st millennium BC.

She is an Assyriologist, archaeologist, and historian by education, who has won the price for “The best early career scholar” of the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” in 2023, an award of the Sofia Municipality for a young scientist or scholar with a doctoral degree with outstanding achievements. She has conducted a number of specialisations within the field of Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Turkey (2015–2016), Poland (2017–2018), and Germany (2019–2025), and participates annually in international Assyriological conferences. Since 2022, Tarhan has been an R2 researcher at the Faculty of History of the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, where she also holds courses as part of the master’s programme “Antiquity and the Middle Ages” in Bulgarianand Erasmus+ courses in English. Her main interests include working with cuneiform texts, Akkadian and Sumerian Studies, the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Assyrian royal ideology, scholarship, and religion in the Ancient Near East (ANE), the archaeology of the ANE, and the cultural contacts between the ANE, Hellas and Thrace.

Elina: Hello, Zozan! Tell me, when did your love for the cultures of the Ancient Near East begin? How did you decide to work professionally in this field?

Zozan: Thank you for this question! It is really important to me because my interest in Ancient Mesopotamia was sparked in my childhood, thanks to my father. One day, he picked me up from kindergarten and asked how my day had gone. I told him that it hadn’t been very good because I was a stranger to the children, more exotic than I should have been, and he told me that I didn’t know my roots. My father is of Kurdish origin, and the Kurds believe that they originate from the Iranian tribe of Medes. He told me about the collapse of the Assyrian Empire caused by the alliance between Babylonia and Media. At that time, I did not know that this scholarly field was called Assyriology. I continued to ask questions with interest, and I already knew that I will work in this field one day. In my school years, I continued to read on Mesopotamia. I wanted to develop my scholarly path in Bulgaria, and that was the reason I became a student here, believing that with specialisations and exchange of knowledge in countries with traditional schools in Assyriology, I can build on my knowledge and work in this field on an international level.

Elina: What aspect of the Ancient Near Eastern cultures impressed you the most as a child?

Zozan: As a child, I was impressed by the knowledge that the Ancient Near Eastern cultures had achieved and that this knowledge was not entirely forgotten. For a long time, cuneiform writing was forgotten, but after it was deciphered, we see that much of the knowledge discovered by other people during the Renaissance, and even later, was achieved as early as the 3rd, 2nd, or 1st millennium BC. That is impressive! It was precisely these things that my father drew my attention to. This further sparked my interest, and I wanted to learn more and more. I could even say that when we read texts in Akkadian or Sumerian, it is a kind of communication with these people. For this reason, I have this passion for the ancient studies, for Assyriology; for philologies, dealing with ancient languages, for ancient history, for archaeology. It is like an echo from the past – we receive knowledge and messages from deep antiquity to the present day!

Elina: Thank you for this answer! If you could go back in time to this period that excites you, what is the thing you would like to see?

Zozan: That is a complicated question. I have not seriously thought about what I would do if I could go back in time. I would certainly be curious if such a possibility existed, but I am unsure if it would be right to take advantage of it.

Elina: Describe to me how your working day goes, briefly.

Zozan: It depends on the projects or plans I have. But if I’m not in the archives, my day starts like this: after a normal breakfast, accompanied by coffee, I prepare my desk for work. I like to start work at 08:30 at the latest – I set myself strict working hours, but also breaks to refresh my mind. If I am working on something new, I start with analysing the primary sources, i.e. the texts that the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia have bequeathed to us. Only then I turn to what other scholars have written. Generally, I like to finish a topic or a small project at the end of the month and start a new one at the beginning of the following month.

Elina: Here is another question. Since we are talking about the ancient Near Eastern languages that impressed you from an early age, which of these languages do you work with nowadays?

Zozan: Thank you for this question. I was really quite impressed in my childhood that cuneiform writing was invented so early. First of all, I should perhaps say that this is a script that has gone through several stages of development, since the middle of the 4th millennium BC. It has developed from a pictographic script to a polyvalent system, in which a single sign has many different readings and functions, such as logograms, also called Sumerograms, syllables or determinatives. Indeed, it was very impressive to me that the ancients had the ability to write, to communicate with each other, to record and transmit their knowledge. At that time, I knew that these were the Sumerian and Akkadian languages, but I later realised that many other cultures in the Ancient Near East also adopted cuneiform writing and began to write their languages. Among these languages, I primarily work with Akkadian and also deal with Sumerian and, to some extent, Urartian.

Elina: Is it easy for someone who has never dealt with that to learn these languages? For example, a student.

Zozan: I was really eager to do it, and I was quite dedicated to learning Akkadian and Sumerian. Of course, this is not something that ends with a study programme. There is always something to learn. There are topics in which a person can specialise after a few years of work on the certain topic or genre would hardly surprise the specialist in question with something new on a purely linguistic level. Some specific areas and genres require additional specialisation, as nowadays, if a person is not a specialist in law, they can hardly interpret legal texts with great accuracy. Of course, I have had colleagues who have taken longer to specialise within a genre or to learn the basics of Akkadian grammar. However, some have managed to absorb a lot of its basics, even in intensive courses – whether organised by me or by other colleagues. Perhaps, rather, it is something that depends on the personal training, the desire, and the educational background that the person has, including whether they have a grasp of other languages and whether they can study and work with them.

Elina: Are you interested in the art of the Ancient Near Eastern cultures from the 1st millennium BC? And if so, can you describe it in three keywords?

Zozan: The art of the Ancient Near East definitely occupies an important part in my research. I even think that it is impossible, when one explores topics related to ancient cultures and civilisations, to separate the image from the word. I believe that we need to work with both the word and the image, so when I examine a topic, I discuss textual and visual narratives.

Elina: And what are the key words with which you would describe Near Eastern art in the 1st millennium BC – rich relief friezes related to the royal ideology and more?

Zozan: Speaking of art during this period, we see the so-called “visual narratives” – part of large stone slabs with relief scenes covering the walls of monumental palaces, but we also find similar visual narratives on small finds. For example, the Neo-Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II managed to set a trend in constructing a personal palace that has visual narratives represented on stone slabs with relief scenes in the palaces or on monumental monuments in or near the palace. In fact, we can define these scenes as a photo album for the reign of the king in question, as he sought to present different spheres of his power and the events of his rule. It is not just a matter of military-political events, battles, and the payment of tributes; the Assyrian king is also depicted in his role as a priest. All aspects of his rule are presented; quite informative, but also highly ideologised. The relationship between the king and the gods is not only attested in textual narratives, but also reproduced on the reliefs. They are influenced by the royal ideology and, to some extent, can complement the written sources. In the monograph on the topic of my dissertation, I have given various examples of this. I will give an example concerning Assyria and Carchemish during the reign of king Ashurnasirpal II. In the royal inscriptions, it is not clear under what circumstances Assyria imposed control over Carchemish. Therefore, in the scholarly literature, it is assumed that Carchemish surrendered simply because Ashurnasirpal II described that the city was conquered, but no battle was described. However, the visual narratives and short epigraphs that accompany them from the city of Imgur-Enlil present the battle scenes. In this regard, for example, visual narratives can complement textual ones. The short epigraph refers to Carchemish. This proves that Carchemish definitely did not surrender without a fight. Therefore, both written and iconographic sources need to be analysed.

Elina: As a conclusion to this question, we can assume that the rich decoration of the palaces in question is part of the propaganda policy of the Assyrian king, and the reliefs in question can be used as information about his rule.

Zozan: Absolutely, they are part of the propaganda of the Assyrian king. These scenes also depict actual events that occurred during the reign of the ruler in question, or they serve to convey a specific message of kingship and royal ideology. Namely, the scenes convey the motifs, ideas, and goals of Assyrian royal ideology. That is why the monumental reliefs from the palace of Ashurnasirpal II were also reproduced on small finds, mostly cylinder seals, stamp and mixed seals, so that these scenes could spread throughout the Empire. Otherwise, the only observers would be those who visited the palace.

Elina: Everything you told me reminds me of the Roman triumphal arches. They are decorated with similar propaganda images that reflect the emperor’s victories, building his image as a victor and a successful ruler within Roman society, etc. And the seals in question remind me of the Roman imperial coins and their reverses.

Zozan: I absolutely agree. Very good parallel! By the way, we have such monuments outside the Assyrian capital. These are stelae with inscriptions praising their deeds, accompanied by texts and images, sculptures or rock reliefs. This was done in newly conquered territory. Another way to mark a new conquest is through military rituals, namely, washing the weapons in the nearest body of water – a river, lake, or sea.

Elina: Thank you for this answer. Let’s talk briefly about “Thrace and the Ancient Near East”, which is also the topic of one of your courses. Do we have evidence on cultural contacts between these two areas, and can we say that the East left its mark on various types of monuments from Ancient Thrace?

Zozan: The contacts of Thrace with the Ancient Near East can definitely be seen from the earliest times. We have a variety of monuments that have the presence of eastern motifs. The Eastern influence spread not only in the Balkans, but also throughout the Mediterranean and there are echoes today – not only in the material, but also in the non-material culture. There are colleagues who have been dealing with these issues for a long time, but of course, there is still much to be contributed. If I could give an example that reveals both influence in the field of material and intangible culture, I would refer the amphora-rhyton from the Panagyurishte gold treasure. The question of the place of its production cannot finally be solved, but the thesis of Lampsacus as the place of production is so far the most convincing one in the scholarly literature. We can see that the divination motif on the amphora-rhyton has parallels with the Ancient Near East, I am referring to the image of the old man holding a liver and actually divining on it. We know that such divination is carried out not only in Mesopotamia, but also among other cuneiform cultures. It was also used in Greece and by the Etruscans. However, we must emphasise that in Greece, this form of divination was practised differently from the Ancient Near East. I have reflected these differences in a study on the topic. In short, on Greek vase paintings, the liver is represented by its diaphragmatic surface, on which divination was performed by asking questions requiring a “yes” or “no” answer. In Near Eastern cultures, the practice of answering “yes” or “no” was witnessed much earlier, but another tradition of divination on the liver is also known. This involved observing different signs to predict specific events, rather than just obtaining a “yes” or “no” answer. Therefore, the experts divined on the visceral surface of the liver. By the way, the elderly character on the amphora divines precisely on this surface of the liver, on which the observations in Ancient Mesopotamia and other cuneiform cultures have been made. This reveals the presence of borrowings not only from the tangible, but also from the intangible Near Eastern culture.

Elina: Really interesting! I cannot wait to read this study.

Elina: In May, you were the organiser of an international conference. Could you tell me more about this event?

Zozan: I am incredibly pleased that the conference Divination Techniques in the Ancient Near East and the Mediterranean World was organised within the Melammu Project – it was the 25th Melammu Workshop. This is the second Melammu conference in Bulgaria – the first was held in 2008 at the New Bulgarian University. This year it was held at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. I would say that this is a success for the University, but also for Bulgaria. More and more Assyriologists are beginning to turn their attention to our country because they see potential for the development of Assyriology here. In recent years, various events related to Assyriology took place, as well as research was conducted and published by Bulgarian scholars. I am delighted that many Assyriologists participated in this conference and shared and exchanged knowledge. Another important aspect of the Melammu Project’s primary mission is to spread the importance of Mesopotamia’s cultural heritage. We had participants who investigated the transmission of this knowledge to other cultures outside the Ancient Near East.

Elina: Congratulations on this success! How do you think Assyriology will develop in Bulgaria in the future?

Zozan: At the moment, to develop Assyriology in Bulgaria is my main task and mission on my professional path. Not only the regular courses I teach at Sofia University, but also the intensive courses and summer schools in recent years, are part of the implementation of this task for the development of Assyriology in Bulgaria. Whether it will be in the form of a centre, an institute, a department, or initially as a study programme or a module within another study programme – I do not know. Still, I hope that in the near future we will have Assyriology in Bulgaria. I am glad I met colleagues and associates with whom I can work to reach this goal.

Elina: On the way to realising this dream, you have taken another initiative. It is about organising a summer school of Ancient Near Eastern Studies. Could you tell me more about this? How long has it been running, what are its primary goals?

Zozan: I came up with the idea for this summer school a few years ago, afterwards in 2022 I was invited by the Regional History Museum Sofia to give a public lecture about scholarship in Ancient Mesopotamia. The topic aroused interest among the audience and colleagues, and even then, the question arose whether we could organise a larger format for the museum, in order to introduce the audience to Ancient Mesopotamia and the knowledge bequeathed by it. We thought it would be wonderful to conduct an intensive course in the Akkadian language to present the language itself, as well as various aspects of the life of the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia. In the following year, 2023, we had several participants who performed brilliantly, and they themselves shared that they wanted to improve their knowledge and learn more. Due to the positive results, the colleagues from the museum and I decided to continue and I suggested that we hold a summer school of Ancient Near Eastern Studies, another name of Assyriology. It offers basic knowledge of Akkadian and Sumerian, and an introduction to Ancient Near Eastern studies, religion, and archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Thus, the courses of the Summer School correspond to the main courses in the study programmes of Assyriology around the world. Last year, there was a great interest from Bulgaria, but due to the interest of people from other countries, the lectures were held in English and Bulgarian. In 2023, the Sumerian language course was conducted by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sebastian Fink from the University of Innsbruck, and the courses in Akkadian language and archaeology of the ANE were conducted by me. The courses for Introduction to Ancient Near Eastern Studies and Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia were hold by both of us. We had over 20 participants – students, doctoral students, and graduates from Sofia University, New Bulgarian University, University of Veliko Turnovo, University of Plovdiv, Oxford University, Free University of Berlin, Amsterdam University, Kiev University, who did brilliantly with Akkadian and Sumerian, as well as the other topics we discussed.

Elina: The Summer School was a great success in 2024. Tell me about this year’s edition (28.07 – 01.08.2025).

Zozan: Due to the interest of colleagues from abroad, we have decided to hold the Summer School again this year, but this time entirely in English. This year, the Summer School was hosted not only by the RHM Sofia, but also by Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” represented by the Department of Arabic and Semitic Studies. I am extremely grateful to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Veneta Handziyska (Director of RHM Sofia) and the Head of the Department of Arabic and Semitic Studies at the Faculty of Classical and Modern Philology at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski’ – Prof. Dr. Simeon Evstatiev, as well as to Prof. Dr. M. Bratoeva, Director of the Centre for Eastern Languages and Cultures and the Dean’s Office of the Faculty of Classical and Modern Philology at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”.

Elina: How many participants were there in this event?

Zozan: This year, we had about 15 highly motivated participants. These were students and doctoral students from Sofia University, University of Veliko Turnovo, University of Plovdiv, the University of Münster, the University of Milan, Università degli Studi di Perugia, and the University of Detroit Mercy. I think this is the formula – motivation, strong participation at in class and thorough individual preparation. Therefore, in the future, we will continue to hold these Summer Schools, not only in this format, but also for students and colleagues who already possess basic knowledge. This format will enable them to improve their knowledge, serving as a type of specialisation. I am glad that the news about this event was covered not only by the hosts from Bulgaria, but also by representatives of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, for which I am extremely grateful. The event was and will be covered by foreign media and organisations.

Elina: How many lecturers did you have this year, and what were the topics of the courses?

Zozan: This year, we had five lecturers who presented the following courses: Introduction to Sumerian (Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sebastian Fink, University of Innsbruck), Introduction to Akkadian (Dr. Zozan Tarkhan, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”), and Introduction to ANES was hold byAssoc. Prof. Dr. Sebastian Fink and me. The following courses were on the topic of Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia, in whichAssoc. Prof. Dr. Sebastian Fink and I presented the religion in Mesopotamia during the period from the 3rd to the 1st millennium BC, and Dr. Alexandra Kubiak-Schneider (University of Wrocław) discussed the topic of Mesopotamian Religion and Its Afterlife.The Archaeology of the Ancient Near East course was conducted by Dr. Bernhard Schneider (University of Wrocław) and me. He presented a more particular topic: Nippur: An Ancient Mesopotamian Sacred City through the Ages. The programme also included Dr. Strahil Panayotov (Institute of Historical Studies – BAS), who delivered a lecture on Introduction to Reading Cuneiform Medical Texts.

Elina: Do you plan to hold this forum in the future?

Zozan: Yes, we plan to hold it on a regular basis. 

Elina: I have one last question for you. Can we define the reading of ancient texts written in long-forgotten languages as an art?

Zozan: Yes, we definitely can!