Matthew Saunders

Matthew Saunders is a PhD student in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He researches the languages and literatures of the ancient Near East, especially Aramaic Studies, Ugaritic Studies, and Comparative Semitics.

Rare Semitic Languages 2 min read

Rare Semitic Languages

Matthew Saunders April 27, 2024

In the future, I will feature information about the rarer (or lesser-known) Semitic languages, such as Neo-Aramaic, Mandaic, Modern South Arabian, and minor Ethiopian Semitic... Read More

Two More (Online) Publications 3 min read

Two More (Online) Publications

Matthew Saunders April 24, 2024

Introduction In a previous post, I drew your attention to Two New (Online) Publications which I wrote for the online Database of Religious History (DRH)... Read More

A Ugaritic Incantation against Snakebite (KTU 1.178 / RS 92.2014) 6 min read

A Ugaritic Incantation against Snakebite (KTU 1.178 / RS 92.2014)

Matthew Saunders April 18, 2024

Introduction Later today, in my Advanced Ugaritic seminar, I will present and lead a discussion on KTU 1.178 (= RS 92.2014), a Ugaritic incantation against... Read More

Semitic Consonant Correspondences 3 min read

Comparative Semitics

Semitic Consonant Correspondences

Matthew Saunders April 12, 2024

Introduction The impetus for this post is my regular need to pull up a chart of Semitic and/or Afro-Asiatic consonant correspondences, mostly for the languages... Read More

M. Richey: A (Brief) Literature Review 10 min read

M. Richey: A (Brief) Literature Review

Matthew Saunders April 10, 2024

Introduction Madadh Richey, Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible at Brandeis University, will be giving a department lecture at Johns Hopkins later today, April 10th, titled... Read More

Learn to Read Ancient Aramaic: E. Cook (2022), Chapter Two, “Orthography” 6 min read

Learn to Read Ancient Aramaic: E. Cook (2022), Chapter Two, “Orthography”

Matthew Saunders March 31, 2024

Introduction This is the second post in a series that provides a resource to learn or review Biblical Aramaic and its related (Middle) Aramaic dialects... Read More

Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania 3 min read

Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

Matthew Saunders March 19, 2024

Introduction For the past two months, I’ve been meaning to write a post about my recent trip to Tanzania in East Africa back in January... Read More

Two New (Online) Publications 2 min read

News and Events

Two New (Online) Publications

Matthew Saunders February 29, 2024

Introduction The purpose of this post is to draw your attention to two new publications of mine in the online Database of Religious History (DRH).... Read More