Nicole Brisch is an assyriologist and sumerologist. She holds a three-year Lectureship in Assyriology in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge from October 2009. Her current research involves a comprehensive new study of the deification of kings in early Mesopotamia. This project will aim at studying the phenomenon of kings as gods within their historical, socio-economic, and religious settings to further elucidate the factors that contributed to this relatively short-lived phenomenon. It involves publishing cuneiform tablets from the Old Babylonian period (c. 2000-1595 BCE), which provide lists of sacrifices at the religious and cultural centre of early Mesopotamia, the city of Nippur. These texts will be a key for studying the ancient Mesopotamian notion of sacrifice, in particular sacrifices to royal and divine statues, and will thus also offer a possibility at re-studying the nature of Mesopotamian statues from a philological rather than an art historical point of view. Her research interests include Mesopotamian literature and genre, the socio-economic history of the Ur III period (2100-2000 BCE), and Mesopotamian religion.