Edward Coidan
Forschungsinteressen
- Ethics of Ancient Warfare
- Royal Ideology
- Comparative Kingship
- Ancient Political Theology
- Cross-Cultural Transmission
Ausbildung
- 2017-2022: Classics with Oriental Studies (Sanskrit), University of Oxford; focus on Ancient Greek History (Archaic, Alexander, Hellenistic); the Achaemenid Empire; Sanskrit literature and Indian History and Cultures in Antiquity
- 2024: MA Master’s of Arts, University of Oxford
- 2025-Present: PhD in Ancient Near Eastern Studies, University of Innsbruck
Preise
- 2015: Runner-up in St. John's Ancient History Essay competition, University of Oxford
- 2017: Most Original Scholar, York College
- 2019: Holbrook and Bickley Rogers Fund Travel Grant, Wadham College, University of Oxford
- 2019: Krasis Scholarship, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Publikationen
- Conference Report: Montafoner Gipfeltrecen "Berge und Infrastruktur", 13.- 18.10.2025 in Schruns (October 2025, forthcoming)
- “Wisdom Across Worlds: A Comparative Pareimological Study of Mesopotamia, Greece, and India” (Forthcoming – January 2025)
Dissertation
Titled: “Ethical Worlds in Stone: Warfare, Justice, and Royal Rhetoric Across Ancient Afro-Eurasia”
My dissertation investigates how ancient Afro-Eurasian societies expressed ethical ideas about warfare, justice, and political authority through their royal inscriptions. Using a corpus that spans early Mesopotamian and Elamite foundation texts, Hurrian treaty-oath traditions, Neo-Assyrian and Urartian military inscriptions, Achaemenid imperial proclamations, and the edicts of Aśoka, the project examines how rulers justified conflict, framed the restoration of order, and articulated the moral principles that grounded their authority. The study combines close philological analysis with digital semantic methods, allowing both detailed reading of individual inscriptions and broader comparative mapping of ethical language across cultures.
The core geographical focus lies on Mesopotamia, East Anatolia, Iran, and South Asia, with additional evidence from Levantine, Elamite, and Hellenistic contexts incorporated where they clarify shared idioms, recurring formulas, or signs of intercultural transmission. By analysing themes such as divine mandate, legal-restorative rhetoric, punitive warfare, and moralised kingship, the dissertation explores how different traditions over time understood political responsibility and the ethical limits of violence.
Through the integration of philology and historical analysis, the project develops a new comparative model for understanding how ancient states conceptualised justice, authority, and the moral boundaries of warfare across linguistic and imperial landscapes.