Babylonian Boundary-Stones and Memorial-Tablets in the British Museum
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® BABYLONIAN BOUNDAEY-STONES AND MEMORIAL-TABLETS IN THE BRITISH museum:. EDITED BY y...^ LfW^^'KING, M.A., ASSISTANT IX THE DEPARTMENT OF EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES. WITH AN ATLAS OF PLATES. PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES. SOLD AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM; AND AT LONGMANS & Co., 39, PATERNOSTER ROW; BERNARD QUARITCH, 11, GRAFTON STREET, NEW BOND STREET, W. ; ASHER & Co., 14, BEDFORD STREET, COVENT GARDEN; AND HENRY FROWDE, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, AMEN CORNER, LONDON. I912. \AZL RIGHTS RESERVEd:\ PREFACE. The present work contains thirty-seven texts from Babylonian Boundary-stones {kiidtirrHi) and Memorial-tablets (iiarc), with translations, notes, and introduction ; of these, twenty-five are published for the first time. They include the two earliest examples of this class of text now known, and four of the latest. The period covered by these texts extends from b.c. 1450 to B.C. 550, i.e., the whole period of Babylonian history during which Boundary-stones were employed for the protection of private property. In the series of texts here given, the following are of special interest, as they illustrate periods of history of which hitherto no contemporary records are known : 1. Text of the time of Kurigalzu, cut upon an ancient Boundary-stone, from which the original text had been erased ; about B.C. 1400. 2. Text of the reign of Marduk-shapik-zer-m^ti, of the Fourth Dynasty of Babylon, about B.C. 1090. 3. Two texts drawn up in the reign of the usurper Adad-aplu-iddina, about B.C. 1080. 4. Text dated in the reign of Simmash-Shipak, about B.C. 1050, being the first known document of the Fifth Dynasty of Babylon. 5. Text of Itti-Marduk-balatu, a king hitherto unknown ; his place will probably fall early in the Eighth Dynasty of Babylon, about B.C. 950. Other texts supply new and valuable records of the reigns of Enlil-nadin-aplu, about B.C. 1 100, and Nabu-aplu-iddina, about B.C. 860. A very important difficulty in connection with early Kassite chronology is cleared up by another text, which proves that the Kassite monarch Kadashman- Kharbe, the father of Kurigalzu I, is not to be identified with Kadashman-Enlil, the correspondent of Amenoph is III, as has been generally supposed. We now know that Kadashman-Kharbe and Kadashman-Enlil were two different kings, though both belonged to the Third Dynasty of Babylon. Yet another text, here published for the first time, settles definitively the values of the signs expressing the unit and its fractions and multiples in the Old Babylonian system of land-measurement. Finally, this series of texts throws a very considerable amount of light upon the Babylonian laws and customs which regulated land tenure and agricultural life. Of equal interest are the numerous symbols of the gods, which were engraved upon the Boundary-stones to protect them, as they are among the oldest examples of astral iconography we possess, and they have a very important bearing upon the age of Babylonian astronomy and the origin of the Zodiac. a 2 IV Wherever possible a complete photographic reproduction of each monument has been given. The texts on the stones which are broken or are almost erased have been copied by hand, and reproduced by lithography. The translations, introduction, and autograph copies, are the work of Mr. L. W. King, M.A., F.S.A., Assistant in the Department. E. A. WALLIS BUDGE. Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum. January $/A, 19 12. 1 CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction vii List of Registration Numbers xvii Transliterations and Translations ... I I. Dated Kudurrus or Boundary-stones 3 II. Undated Kudurru or Boundary-stone 76 III. Fragments of Dated Kudurrus or Boundary-stones 80 IV. Fragments of Undated Kudurrus or Boundary-stones .. 83 V. Stone Tablets bearing Dated Kudurru-inscriptions 96 VI. Stone Tablets Inscribed with Deeds of Uncertain Date 1 1 VII. Miscellaneous Texts 115 Index 131 INTRODUCTION. The texts which are here published and translated form a well-defined group of Babylonian legal inscriptions, and belong to a class in which a considerable amount of interest has been taken during recent years, both in their legal and their religious aspects.^ The more important section of the texts consists of " kudurru-inscriptions," a phrase which may be rendered accurately enough as " boundary-stones." These are invariably engraved upon conical blocks or boulders of stone, and there is little doubt that in many cases they were set up on landed estates, whose limits and ownership they were intended to define and commemorate. Although the stones themselves were not employed to mark out the boundary, the formula, with which a text regularly begins, sets out the limits and orientation of the estate to which it refers; in this sense the phrase "boundary-stone" may be regarded as an accurate rendering of the word kudurrit. The remaining texts are akin to the kudurru- inscriptions, in so far as they contain legal records concerning the possession of landed property, or commemorate a grant of privileges in connection with it. But they are engraved upon stone tablets, not upon blocks of stone, and were intended to be preserved as records, not exposed in prominent places. Of the twenty-three kudurrus and portions of kudurrus preserved in the British Museum, fifteen are here published for the first time,^ while the symbols upon four of the others have not previously been published.^ Of the ten stone tablets engraved with legal inscriptions of a similar character, seven are here published for the first time.* Three out of the four miscellaneous texts from stelae and stone tablets, which are also included, have not been previously published.^ The importance of these records is considerable, not only in their legal and religious aspects, but also from a historical point of view. For, quite apart from the references to Babylonian kings and to historical events which they contain, they form in many cases the only documents of their period which have come down to us. They serve to bridge the gap in our knowledge of Euphratean civilization between ^ For an account of the earlier literature of the subject, down to the year 1894, see Belser in the Beitriige zur Assyriologie, II, pp. 112 fif. ; for the later literature, see De Morgan, Delegation en Perse, Mimoires, I (1900), pp. 165 fif., VII (1905), pp. 137 ff., Ungnad, Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmdler der konigl. Mus. zu Berlin, I, pp. VII ff., Edouard Cuq, Nouvelle Revue hist07-ique de Droit frati^ais et etranger, 1907, pp. 701 ff., 1908, pp. 462 ff., Hincke, A New Boundary-stone of Nebuchadnezzar I, in Bab. Exped. of the Univ. of Pennsyl., Series D, Vol. IV (1907), pp. XIV ff., and Selected Bab. Kudurru-inscriptions in the Semitic Study Series, No. XIV (191 1), pp. VII ff. Hincke's publication of the Nippur kudurru is the best introduction to the study of the kudurru-texts, as it deals with general problems and contains useful lists of the proper names, symbols, etc., from the kudurrus published up to that time. Prof. Cuq's articles in the Nouvelle Rez'ue form the best and fullest discussion of the legal problems connected with their study. 2 Seven of these bear symbols in addition to the text (Nos. II, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV and XX) ; six have text only (Nos. I, XVIII, XIX, XXI, XXII and XXIII) ; while on two, symbols only are preserved (Nos. XVI and XVII). A portion of the text of No. I has been previously published ; see p. 3, n. i. 3 Nos. III-X have been previously published, of which the symbols upon Nos. Ill, IV, IX and X are here published for the first time. References to previous publications are given in the notes to the translations; for the texts of Nos. V, VII and VIII, references may now also be added to Hincke, Semitic Study Series, XIV (191 1), pp. 24, 37 and 42. * Nos. XXVI, XXVII, XXIX, XXX, XXXI, XXXII and XXXIII, on one of which (No. XXXII) the inscription has been rubbed down. Nos. XXIV, XXV and XXVIII are here republished. 5 Nos. XXXIV, XXXV and XXXVII ; of No. XXXIV a portion of the text has been previously translated. via kings and, while they illustrate the Kassite period and that of the later Babylonian ; custom, they prove the development which gradually took place in Babylonian law and the continuity of culture during times of great political change. Viewed from a legal standpoint they form our principal source of information concernmg the Babylonian system of land tenure, and incidentally supply information upon legal procedure in the case of disputes with regard to the private possession of landed estate. But it is upon their religious side that interest has chiefly centred during recent years. It is now wenerally assumed that the sculptured emblems, with which portions of the stones are covered, are of an astral character, and represent symbolically, under the forms of animals, weapons, and other objects, the principal stars and constellations known to the case of of them there is no doubt that this was so, the Babylonians ; and in many at any rate in the later periods. The emblems upon the boundary-stones form, in fact, the earliest application of the principle of astral symbolism, which, applied to the oreat ecliptic constellations, eventually resulted in the Zodiac. The symbols thus have an important bearing upon the vexed problem of the age of Babylonian astronomy, and upon the assumptions lying at the base of the astral theory of religion, which has recently been put forward to prove a wide extension of Babylonian influence, of a dominantly astrological character, throughout the ancient East.