Publications

The publications are listed in the format as suggested from the Research Council of Finland, and only include those which have been published. They are numbered, and my name is highlighted in bold. I also include a short overview of the publication, as well as my role in the project.

Peer-reviewed scientific articles

  1. Wasmuth, M., Alstola, T., Avneri Meir, R., Bennett, E., Bonnie, R., Debourse, C., Lorezon, M., Malekzadeh, Y., Nitschke, J., Ramsey Neugebauer, G., Sipilä, J., Svärd, S., Töyräänvuori, J., Wallis, C., and Silverman, J. (2025) ‘Kingship and Queenship in the Ancient Near Eastern Empires of the First Millennium BCE: Presentation to the Public as Builder’, Studia Orientalia Electronica, 13(1), pp. 71–106. Available at: https://doi.org/10.23993/store.157310. Was part of a large team led by Melanie Wasmuth to compare kingship and queenship across ancient Near Eastern empires. Drafted the section on Neo-Assyrian queenship.
  2. Wasmuth, M., Alstola, T., Bennett, E., Gansell, A.R., Malekzadeh, Y., Nitschke, J., Ramsey Neugebauer, G., Silverman, J., Sipilä, J., Töyräänvuori, J., and Wallis, C. (2025) ‘Kingship and Queenship in the Ancient Near Eastern Empires of the 1st Millennium BCE: The Economic Basis’, Enki & Ptah : Journal of Technology and Trade in Ancient Egypt and Western Asia, 1, pp. 11–84. Available at: https://doi.org/10.54103/eap/23131. Was part of a large team led by Melanie Wasmuth to compare kingship and queenship across ancient Near Eastern empires. Drafted the section on Neo-Assyrian queenship.
  3. Svärd, S., Liimata, A., Lahnakoski, J., Bennett, E., Jauhiainen, H., Nummenmaa, L., Steinert, U., and Sams, M. (2025) ‘Tunteiden kehollisuus uusassyrialaisessa imperiumissa: digitaaliset ihmistieteet muinaisen Lähi-idän tutkimuksen apuna’, in M. Pulkkinen (ed.) Tunteet Raamatun maailmassa. Suomi: Suomen eksegeettinen seura (Suomen Eksegeettisen Seuran julkaisuja, 126), pp. 168–197. The team from Embodied Emotions: Ancient Mesopotamia and Today presented our results from Lahnakoski & Bennett et al. 2024 to biblical scholars. In addition to this, we presented some select case studies for Assyriological analysis. I presented one of the case studies in this chapter.
  4. Lahnakoski, J. M., Bennett, E., Nummenmaa, L., Steinert, U., Sams, M. & Svärd, S. 2024. ‘Embodied emotions in ancient Neo-Assyrian texts revealed by bodily mapping of emotional semantics’, iScience, 27/12, 111365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.111365  An interdisciplinary publication between Assyriologists and neuroscientists publishing the method of how we generated ‘heat maps’ of the body where Akkadian emotion words from a Neo-Assyrian (c. 934-612 BCE) textual corpus were most associated. I was joint first author as I processed the data and generated word embedding scores.
  5. Bennett, E. 2024. ‘Arabian ‘queens’ or ‘woman kings’? Defining šarratu during the Neo-Assyrian period’, In: P. Kim & A. Tchaplyghine (eds.) Queens in Antiquity and the Present: Speculative Visions and Critical Histories 23-36. New York, NY: Bloomsbury. I critically assessed the translation of the Akakdian word ‘šarratu’. My findings, based on close readings of the Neo-Assyrian texts, challenged the traditional reading of the word as ‘queen’. I suggest it is better translated as ‘female king’.
  6. Bennett, E., Tambs, L., & Lindén, K. 2024. ’Letters have weight: weighted k-shells in a Neo-Assyrian co-attestation network’, Journal of Historical Network Research, 10/1. 150-197. https://doi.org/10.25517/jhnr.v10i1.95 A methodological exploration of using a weighted form of k-core (a network analysis measurement) on a network of name co-attestations. I led the project, and provided the Assyriological expertise to analyse the results. 
  7. Lindén, K., Svärd, S., Alstola, T., Jauhiainen, H., Hardwick, S., Sahala, A., Debourse, C., Bennett, E., Tambs, L., Wasmuth, M., Holmqvist, E., Bonnie, R., & Lorenzon, M. 2024. ‘Social group identities and semantic domains in the ancient Near East’, Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, 39/3. 917–935. https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqae041 Article synthesising the methodological advances from Team 1 in the Centre of Excellence in Ancient Near Eastern Empires (ANEE). I contributed a case study critically assessing the benefits and limitations of the methods described.
  8. Bennett, E. 2023. ‘Age and Masculinities during the Neo-Assyrian Period’, Journal for Cuneiform Studies, 75. 123-154 https://doi.org/10.1086/725222  The article used word co-ocurrences to interrogate the intersection of age and masculinities in a Neo-Assyrian corpus. It demonstrated how young and old men were conceptually distinct, yet both upheld ideals of hegemonic masculinities during this period. 
  9. Bennett, E. & Sahala, A. 2023. ‘Using Word Embeddings for Identifying Emotions Relating to the Body in a Neo-Assyrian Corpus’, Proceedings of the Ancient Language Processing Workshop associated with The 14th International Conference on Recent Advances in Natural Language Processing RANLP 2023. https://www.ancientnlp.com/alp2023/accepted_papers/proceedings.pdf  I used Sahala’s method of generating word embeddings from an Akkadian linguistic corpus to investigate whether any words used to describe the body in a Neo-Assyrian corpus shared a semantic field of emotions. My role was to generate the word embeddings using the script Sahala developed, and analyse the results from an Assyriological perspective. 
  10. Bennett, E. 2022. ‘The Masculinities of the Neo-Assyrian “Queens of the Arabs”’, Hebrew Studies 63: 79-98. I explored the non-feminine genders of the “Queens of the Arabs”, and demonstrated that they acted in a manner seen by the Assyrians as foreign masculine rulers. 
  11. Bennett, E. 2022. ‘Beards as a marker of status during the Neo-Assyrian period.’, In: J. Bach & S. Fink (eds.) The King as a Nodal Point of Identity. Kasion 8. Münster: Zaphon. 81-105. https://www.zaphon.de/king/en Using both textual sources and Assyrian palace reliefs, I demonstrated that the manipulation of beards was a public performance where the subject underwent a change of status. 
  12. Bennett, E. 2019. ‘“I am a Man”: Masculinities in the Titulary of the Neo-Assyrian Kings in the Royal Inscriptions’, KASKAL 16, 373-392. I explored the different aspects of Neo-Assyrian hegemonic masculinities as expressed through the titles used by Neo-Assyrian kings.

B. Non-refereed scientific articles

  1. Bennett, E. 2026. “Review: Authority and Ideology in the Early Neo-Assyrian Empire (934–745 b.c.) by Z. Tarhan.” Bulletin of the American Society of Overseas Research 395 (May 2026): 243–45. https://doi.org/10.1086/740593.
  2. Bennett, E. 2017. “Review: Kämmerer, T.R. & Rogge, S. (Eds.) 2013. Patterns of Urban Societies. AOAT Bnd 390/2. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.” Rosetta 20 (2017): 64–67.
  3. Bennett, E. 2018. “Review: Zsolnay, I. (Ed.) 2017. Being a Man: Negotiating Ancient Constructs of Masculinity. Routledge: London and New York.” Rosetta 22 (2018): 112–16.

C. Scientific books (monographs)

  1. Bennett, E., Cifarelli, M., N’Shea, O., Thomason, A. (eds.) In Press. Exploring Gender Dynamics across the Ancient Near East. Collected Essays of Gender and Methodology in the Ancient Near East (GeMANE) 4 and 5. wEdge 7. Münster: Zaphon.I am one of three editors for the peer-reviewed conference proceedings of the Gender and Methodology in the Ancient Near East (GeMANE) workshops number 4 (2022) and 5 (2024). All editors were equally responsible for: soliciting contributions; reviewing scientific quality; soliciting peer reviews; and managing contributors’ edits.
  2. Bennett, E. 2024 The ‘Queens of the Arabs’ During the Neo-Assyrian Period. State Archives of Assyria Series (SAAS) 33. Philadelphia, PN: Eisenbrauns. https://www.eisenbrauns.org/books/titles/978-951-51-8582-2.html Monograph based on PhD thesis of the same topic. Radically re-structured to focus on the evidence relevant to each queen, with a technical focus on the textual and iconographic sources with a theoretically-driven discussion. Draws on gender theory, postcolonialism, Assyriology, and Arabian archaeology.

D. Publications intended for professional communities

  1. Bennett, E., Bonnie, R., & Töyräänvuori, J. 2024. White Paper on Collaboration and Cowriting in Ancient Near Eastern Studies. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11446331 White paper outlining the lessons learned from the ANEE community about writing with several co-authors. Aimed at Assyriologists, biblical scholars, archaeologists, and ancient historians. All authors contributed equally.

E. Publications intended for the general public, linked to the applicant’s research

  1. Nov. 2024: ‘Samsi, “Queen of the Arabs”, and Her Fight Against Assyria’. Guest blog post on The Ancient Near East Today. https://anetoday.org/samsi-queen-arabs/ Blog post where I introduced one of my favourite ‘Queens of the Arabs’ from my monograph
  2. 2021: ‘The ‘Queens of the Arabs’ during the Neo-Assyrian Period: An interview with Ellie Bennett’, podcast ‘Nomads, Past and Present’. https://newbooksnetwork.com/8-the-queens-of-the-arabs-during-the-neo-assyrian-period Podcast where I was interviewed about my PhD thesis which I had just defended.

G. Theses

  1. Bennett, E., 2021. “Queens of the Arabs” During the Neo-Assyrian Period. PhD Thesis, University of Helsinki. http://hdl.handle.net/10138/328402 I investigated the ‘Queens of the Arabs’ as mentioned in Neo-Assyrian texts (c. 934-612 BCE). I used Michael Mann’s ‘IEMP’ model of power as a tool to dissect these women’s roles in Arabian society.  
  2. Bennett, E., 2015. Trade or Gender – Which Was More Influential in Relations between the Royalty of the Neo-Assyrians and the “Queens of the Arabs”?. MRes Thesis, University of Birmingham.  https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/6038/1/Bennett15MRes.pdf I asked whether trade or gender had a greater impact in relations between Assyria and the Queens of the Arabs. Pilot study for later PhD thesis.
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