Dr Mariana Giovino

Dr Mariana Giovino is a Sessional Lecturer and Study Day Organiser in Ancient Near Eastern and Aegean Studies at Birkbeck. She is also an Honorary Research Fellow in the History Department, University College London. She completed her PhD in the History of Art Department at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA; and previously completed an M.A. in History of Art and one in Assyriology at the same institution. She completed her university degree at Brown University in Rhode Island, USA, in the languages, art and archaeology of the ancient Near East and Egypt.

Her main interest is the culture of ancient Mesopotamia (approximately corresponding to modern Iraq), and in particular how art and the written word functioned together and separately during the Middle Assyrian and Neo-Assyrian periods. She is also interested in the history of ancient Near Eastern archaeology, cuneiform decipherment, and art historical interpretations of numerous Mesopotamian symbols. A related interest is the culture of ancient Iran during the Neo-Elamite and Achaemenid periods.

Her book The Assyrian Sacred Tree: A History of Interpretations was published in 2007 by the Academic Press Fribourg (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis vol. 230), and she has also published articles on Assyrian, Achaemenid Persian and Egyptian art and symbols. She is a co-opted member of British School of Archaeology in Iraq Development Committee; and she is also involved as a trustee and lecturer with the Enheduanna Society, and with ZIPANG storytellers who re-tell Mesopotamian stories written in cuneiform on clay tablets; and it is through this kind of work that she hopes to connect with a wide range of people who share an interest in ancient Iraq.