Abstract
Although interest in the study of emotions in Assyriology is recent, the subject is attracting more and more Assyriologists. Anthropology, sociology, linguistic studies and studies of other historical periods have shown that the expression of emotions is primarily cultural. Every culture expresses emotions in a different way. The aim of emotion studies in history is therefore to shed light on how people understood their world and reacted to different situations that might arouse emotions, as well as to identify which emotions could be expressed in specific situations.
One of the most studied emotions is fear. Fear is expressed in Akkadian essentially from the following verbs (and their substantive forms) : adārum, ašāšum, hattum, galātum, nakādum, palāhum, parādum, šahātum and tarākum. Studies such as that conducted by S. Svärd et al. (2020) have located in Neo-Assyrian documentation, using the Oracc online database, verbs that are more widely used than others and verbs linked to specific contexts. The results enabled them to sketch out a conceptual map of fear. In addition, a recent study carried out by ourselves, P. Bou Pérez (2023), aimed at making a first approach between emotions and war in the Paleo-Babylonian period, also suggests a link between the use of certain verbs and the military context.
The aim of this paper is to present a first approach to the expression of fear in the Paleo-Babylonian period. To this end, and for this presentation, we will use the Archibab online database. To search for texts and letters, we'll use its word search engine. The words selected are, principally, those Akkadian words linked to fear, already mentioned above, and their translation : " peur ", " effrayé ", " afraid ", " scared ", " Furcht " and " Angst " (other words linked to " peur" may be added between now and the day of the presentation). Based on the results obtained from Archibab, we will analyze which verbs are present in the texts, their frequency, and the contexts in which they are associated. Finally, we would like to stress the importance of conducting research on emotions not only in Assyriology in general, but also in the field of Paleo-Babylonian studies, in an attempt to better understand how Syro-Mesopotamian societies interacted with the world.
