The rank debate poems, written in Sumerian, are the oldest examples of a form of literature that enjoyed great popularity well into the Middle Ages. They were written in cuneiform on clay tablets in ancient Mesopotamia around 4,000 years ago and once conveyed the basics of rhetoric in the context of scribal training by using an art form of rhetorical dialogue. At least eight works belong to the group of rank debate poems. In each of them, two opposing, personified values of daily life (objects, plants, animals, or people) carry out a verbal contest, the purpose of which is to identify the higher ranking of the two.

The objective of the project is a rhetorical analysis of Sumerian rank dispute poems. As these have only been partially studied so far, the first step will be to process the textual material, with particular attention paid to the unpublished text Summer and Winter. Then the poems will be studied for their rhetorical content. It can be assumed that all rank debate poems are based on a specific objective, to which they are not only geared in terms of content, but also structurally and stylistically. How this objective was pursued and for whom the effect was intended will be, among other things, the subject of the investigation.

• Mušen ku₆: Viel Vogel und wenig Fisch in MS 2110/1, Altorientalische Forschungen 41/2 (2014) 201-222.
• Der Wettstreit zwischen Dumuzi und Enkimdu, in: L. Kogan et alii (Hg.), Festschrift Joachim Krecher: Studien zur sumerischen Sprache und Literatur, Babel und Bibel 8 (Winona Lake 2014) 383-397.
• „Was sprach der eine zum anderen?" Argumentationsformen in den sumerischen Rangstreitgesprächen (UAVA 15). Berlin - Boston 2019.