Edward Coidan
Languages
- Modern: English (native), German (proficient), French (advanced)
- Ancient (with ‘publishable’, professional capacity): Sumerian, Akkadian, Latin, Ancient Greek, Classical Sanskrit; advanced Biblical Hebrew; intermediate Aramaic, Old Persian and Pāli.
Research Interests
- Royal ideology
- Royal inscriptions & epigraphy
- Ethics of Ancient Warfare
- Sumerian & Akkadian Philology
- Sacred kingship
- Cognitive historiography
- Divine warfare
- Royal deification
- Cross-cultural Transmission in Afro-Eurasia
Education
- 2025-Present: PhD studies in Ancient Near Eastern Studies, University of Innsbruck
- 2024: MA Master’s of Arts, University of Oxford
- 2017-2022: BA (Hons) 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
Awards
- 2026: Funded Research Stay to the University of Tartu, Doctoral College of ‘Entangled Antiquities’, University of Innsbruck
- 2019: Krasis Scholarship, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
- 2019: Holbrook and Bickley Rogers Fund Travel Grant, Wadham College, University of Oxford
- 2017: Most Original Scholar, York College
- 2015: Runner-up in St. John's Ancient History Essay competition, University of Oxford
Publications
- ‘The Warfare Grammar Internalised: Uru-ka-gina's Reform Texts and the Lagaš Legal-Restorative Binary’. [In preparation]
- ‘Montafoner Gipfeltreffen: Berge und Infrastruktur’ (Conference Report). H-Soz-Kult, February 2026
- ‘Imperial Dynamics, Borderlands and Resistance: Entangled Worlds of Afro-Eurasia’ (Conference Report). H-Soz-Kult, February 2026 [co-authored]
Presentations
- ‘The Sumerian Word That Could Start a War: ég.ki.sur.ra and the Language of Boundary Transgression in Pre-Sargonic Lagaš’ – Institute of Cultural Research, University of Tartu – Tartu – 14 May 2026 [Invited].
- ‘The Ethics of Empire: Violence and Virtue in Ancient Royal Texts’ – University of Innsbruck – Innsbruck – 21 January 2026.
- ‘Crossing the Line: Ethics of Warfare and Borderlands in Pre-Sargonic Royal Inscriptions’ – SE Imperial Borderlands: New Research Trends in the Imperial Turn – Vienna – 8 January 2026.
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.