Professor
BA, BTh, MA, DLitt (Semitic Languages), Stellenbosch
Lic Theology, Stellenbosch
Office: Arts 336
Email: sakkie@sun.ac.za
Curriculum Vitae
Areas of Specialisation
Ancient North African and Southwest Asian culture, religion, imagery, and everyday life
Connections between the Hebrew Bible and the ancient world
Courses in 2022
Ancient Cultures 114: Introduction to the Ancient World I: North Africa and Southwest Asia
Ancient Cultures 211/311: "Kush and Meroe": an African Culture of the Sudan
Ancient Cultures 241/341: In bed with ancient societies: Sex in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome
Honours Ancient Cultures: A Bestiary of ancient Kemet and Western Asia
Current Research Projects
Catalogue of Ancient Egyptian and Western Asian artefacts in South African collections
South African Mummy Project (with Ruhan Slabbert, Department of Ancient Studies, Stellenbosch University, Salima Ikram, American University in Cairo/Stellenbosch University and Liani Swanepoel, Department of Ancient Studies, Stellenbosch University)
The material imagery of Sam’al and Guzana (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation) and Karkamiš
The art of the southern Levant in the pre-Hellenistic period
Selected Publications - Books
L. Jonker, A. Berlejung & I. Cornelius (eds.)
Multilingualism in Ancient Contexts:
Perspectives from Ancient Near Eastern and Early Christian Contexts
2021
Stellenbosch: SUN Press
C. Frevel, K. Pyschny & I. Cornelius (eds.)
A "Religious Revolution" in Yehûd?
The Material Culture of the Persian Period as a Test Case
Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 267.
2014
Fribourg: Academic Press
Göttingen: Vandehoeck & Ruprecht
I. Cornelius & H. Niehr
Götter und Kulte in Ugarit. Kultur und Religion einer nordsyrischen Königsstadt der Spätbronzezeit
Zaberns Bildbände zur Archäologie.
2004
Mainz: Von Zabern
I. Cornelius
The Many Faces of the Goddess:
The Iconography of the Syro-Palestinian Goddesses Anat, Asherah, Astarte and Qedeshet c. 1500-1000 BCE
Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 204. Second Enlarged Edition
2008
Fribourg: Academic Press
Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Selected Publications - Articles and Essays
- Visible Multilingualism in Anatolia and the Levant (1st millennium BCE), in: L. Jonker, A. Berlejung & I. Cornelius (eds.), Multilingualism in Ancient Contexts. Perspectives from Ancient Near Eastern and Early Christian Contexts. 2021. Stellenbosch: SUN Press, 56-74.
- (with C. van der Merwe) A Profile of yád in the Book of Jeremiah: A Perspective from Lexical Typology and Material Imagery. In: A. Michel & N.C. Rüttgers (eds.), Jeremia, Deuteronomismus und Priesterschrift. Beiträge zur Literatur- und Theologiegeschichte des Alten Testaments. Festschrift für Hermann-Josef Stipp zum 65. Geburtstag. 2019. Sankt Ottilien: Eos, 279-304.
- The Material Imagery of the Sam'al (Zincirli) Monuments and "Aramaean Identity". Welt des Orients 49/2 (2019), 183-205.
- Communicating Divine Order and Authority: The Stela of Hammurapi of Babylon, in: Oshima, T. (ed.), Teaching Morality in Antiquity: Wisdom Texts, Oral Traditions, and Images/Morallehren in der Antike: Weisheitstexte, mündliche Traditionen, und Bilder (Orientalische Religionen der Antike). 2018. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 219-232.
- An Introduction to Ancient Near Eastern Iconography, in: J. Greer et al. (eds.) Behind the Scenes of the Old Testament: Cultural, Social and Historical contexts of Ancient Israel. 2018. Baker Academic, 151-158.
- The “Face of Death" and the “Face of Baal"? Masks from the Stone Age and Bronze Age, in: Berlejung, A. & Filitz, J. (eds.), The Physicality of the Other: Masks as a Means of Encounter/Die Leibhaftigkeit des Anderen: Masken als Medium der Begegnung. 2018. Mohr-Siebeck: Tübingen, 115-133.
- “The Eyes Have It and the Benign Smile:" The Iconography of Emotions in the Ancient Gestures to Facial Expressions? In: Kipfer, S. (ed.), Visualizing Emotions in the Ancient Near East. 2017. Fribourg: University Press, 123-148.
- (with Salima Ikram, Ruhan Slabbert, Liani C. Swanepoel, Frank Teichert and Tiffany van Zyl). Animal Mummies in South African Collections, in: Rosati, G. & Guidotti, M.C. (eds.) Proceedings of the XI International Congress of Egyptologists: Florence Egyptian Museum, Florence, 23-30 August 2015 (Archaeopress Egyptology 19). 2017. Oxford: Archaeopress, 131-136.
- (with S. Ikram, R. Slabbert, A. du Plessis, L.C. Swanepoel and H. Weber). Fatal force-feeding or Gluttonous Gagging? The death of Kestrel SACHM 2575. Journal of Archaeological Science 63 (2015), 72-77.
- From Bes to Baal: Religious Interconnections between Egypt and the East, in: Creasman, P.P. & Wilkinson, R.H. (eds.), Pharaoh's Land and Beyond: Ancient Egypt and its Neighbours. 2017. Oxford: University Press, 209-217.
Awards
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowship (since 1996: Heidelberg, Tübingen, Leipzig)
Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) (2013: Tübingen)
Research Fellowship, Käte Hamburger Collegium for Research in the Humanities "Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe" (Ruhr-Universität Bochum) (2009-2010)
Service/Committees
Editor, Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages