Organized by AE Tbilisi Hub and Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, a public lecture was held on October 28 of this year by Professor Martin Worthington of Al Maktoum Centre for Middle Eastern Studies in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Trinity College, Dublin, entitled “Researching Ancient Mesopotamia: Approaches, Questions, and Methods.”
Professor Worthington’s primary research focus is Babylonian literature. Previously, he served as Senior Lecturer in Assyriology at the University of Cambridge and as a British Academy Research Fellow at SOAS, University of London, where his research addressed Babylonian literary texts of the first millennium BCE. From 2006 to 2010, he was a Junior Research Fellow in Assyriology at St John’s College, Cambridge. In 2011, he was awarded the Sir George Staunton Prize by the Royal Asiatic Society.
Notably, Professor Worthington contributed to the renewed recognition of the first Georgian translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh. In 2010, at an international conference dedicated to the Epic of Gilgamesh at St John’s College, Cambridge, he presented the translation by Mikheil Tsereteli, after which Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University republished the book. In his 2021 monograph Ea’s Duplicity in the Gilgamesh Flood Story, Professor Worthington cited Tsereteli’s interpretations of the Gilgamesh Epic (consultant: TSU Associate Professor Nino Samsonia).
His visit on this occasion was connected to the publication of Professor Thomas V. Gamkrelidze’s book The Epic of Gilgamesh – Transliteration.
During the event, Professor Martin Worthington was awarded the Gold Medal of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University by the Vice-Rector, Professor Erekle Astakhishvili, in recognition of his international support of the university’s scientific achievements.
During the lecture, Professor Worthington discussed the structure of the Epic of Gilgamesh, presented examples from the cuneiform text, their English translations, and several scholarly interpretations. He concluded by answering questions from students and faculty.