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BABYLONIAN INSCRIPTIONS IN THE COLLECTION OF JAMES B. NIES VOLUME III BABYLONIAN INSCRIPTIONS IN THE COLLECTION OF JAMES B. NIES, YALE UNIVERSITY . VOL. III N EO-SUMERIAN ACCOUNT TEXTS FROM DREHEM BY CLARENCE ELWOOD KEISER, PH.D. INTRODUCTION AND INDICES BY SHIN THEKE KANG NEW HAVEN AND LONDON: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1971 CONTENTS FOREWORD vii INTRODUCTION 1 INDICES Personal Names 12 Names of Deities 29 Toponyms and Temple Names 33 Geographical Names 34 CATALOGUE Register and Description of the Texts 37 Concordance of Accession Numbers 74 ENGLISH-SUMERIAN GLOSSARY 78 Published with assistance from the SUMERIAN-ENGLISH GLOSSARY 80 James B. Nies Endowment Fund. AUTOGRAPHED TEXTS Copyright © 1971. by Yale University. 91 All rights reserved. This book may not be COLLATIONS AND EMENDATIONS PIate 90 reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (except by reviewers for the pub\ic press), without written permission from the publishers. Library of Congress catalog card number: 76-115373. International standard book number: 0-300-01296-9. Set in Scotch Roman No. 1 type. Printed in the United States of America by Murray Printing Co., Forge Village, Mass. Distributed in Great Britain, Europe, and Africa by Yale University Press Ltd., London; in Canada by McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal; in Mexico by Centro Interamericano de Libros Académicos, Mexico City; in Central and South America by Kaiman & Polon, Inc., New York City; in Australasia by Australia and New Zea\and Book Co., Pty., Ltd., Artarmon, New South Wales; in India by UBS Publishers' Distributors Pvt., Ltd., Delhi; in Japan by John Weatherhill, Inc., Tokyo. FOREWORD Babylonian Inscriptions in the Collection of James B. Nies at Yale University resumes publication, after a dozen years' intervaI, with this posthumous volume of copies prepared by the Iate Reverend CIarence Elwood Keiser. Keiser was born October 12, 1884, in Lyons, PennsyIvania. He was a graduate of MuhIenberg College (B.A., 1905), the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (1908), University of Pennsylvania (M.A., 1910), and Yale University (Ph.D., 1912), and attended the University of Leipzig in the summer of 1911. He served as assistant curator of the Yale Babylonian CoIlection from 1913 to 1916, and as lecturer in Assyri- oIogy at Yale from 1919 to 1920. His later years were largeIy devoted to the ministry near his native Lyons, where he died on July 21, 1958. In the short span of six years, Keiser published as many separate monographs, beginning with his doctoral dissertation which, after a preliminary notice in The Museum Journal for 1912, appeared in print in 1914 as the third volume of Babylonian Records in the Library of J. Pierpont Morgan (BRAT). He edited the first two volumes in the present series (BIN): vol. 1 in 1917 (1918) and voI' 2 in 1920 (with J. B. Nies). In between (1919) he published three volumes in the Yale Oriental Series (YOS): Babylonian Texts, voI. 4; Researches, vol. 4/2; and the Appendix (all that ever appeared) to Researches, vol. 9. The last-named item, A System of Accentuation for Sumero-Akkadian Signs, was super- seded by the subsequent systems of Thureau-Dangin and others, but the baIance of his published work has retained all its originaI usefulness. When Keiser left Yale in 1920, he had already prepared the first forty plates of the present volume. Together with the appropriate indices, these were submitted in 1934, when it was decided to expand the voIume to include, as nearly as possible, all the Dre- hem texts then remaining unpublished in the Nies Babylonian Collection, From 1936 to 1940, Keiser prepared copies of these texts as they were sent to him for this purpose' For a number of years thereafter, he worked on the introductory matter in consultation with Ferris J. Stephens. After Keiser's death, his entire manuscript was turned over to the Babylonian Collec- tion by his son William. His copies proved to be accurate in almost every detail, but his descriptions of the texts had necessarily to be rewritten in the light of the continuing progress of neo-Sumerian studies. This work, entrusted to Shin Theke Kang, was com- pleted in 1968-69 under a postdoctoral fellowship provided jointIy by the Alexander Kohut Research FeIlowship at Yale and the National Endowment for the Humanities. WILLIAM W. HALLO New Haven, Connecticut September 1970 INTRODUCTION The present volume contains six hundred and twenty-seven economic texts from the Drehem archive dating to the time of the Third Dynasty of Ur'' All these texts are a part of the James B. Nies Babylonian Collection at Yale University. Although many economic texts from Drehem have been published, they are still a small part of what exists in the various collections, and there remain many difficulties and unsolved prob- lems inherent in them. Now this publication presents many additional materials for the study of the chron- ology, onomasticon, geography, religion, culture, and economic and social structure of the Ur III period, particuIarly with regard to the organization of the Drehem livestock complex. Used in conjunction with other published texts, this volume affords deeper insight into the economic organization of Drehem so necessary for a better understanding of the Ur III documents. As already known, the Drehe m compIex was a large government-operated livestock complex established by Sulgi. The government collected livestock from the peopIe in the form of taxes to the government, gifts to the kings, offerings to the temples and booty from captured inhabitants. Therefore the government set up a central administrative livestock complex in Drehem for the maintenance and disposaI of this livestock. For this purpose, men were appointed to collect the livestock from various regions and to care for them' Because of distance the government had to set up branches at various locations, but all records were kept at the central administration in Drehem. 2 For exampIe, text 365 states that a gazelle was entrusted to Ašani'u, a government official, stationed at Tummal, who was responsible for the government property in his custody. In text 5, Ašani'u reports the death of this (?) gazelle to the Drehem authorities. Such meticulous record-keeping, including the names of pertinent officials and exact dates, enables us to view the activities of various officials in the economic life of Ur III period by gathering all relevant texts relating to these individuals. Only a few examples can be given here. Abbreviations are those of CAD, supplemented by for the government properties had to report every G. Buccellati, The Amorites of the Ur III Period event, e.g. when they lost animals through escape (Naples, 1966). in the street (sila-a è -ne 491:80); when they found 1. Some of these texts were previously discussed: animals in the street (sila-a pà-da 275:2); when no. i73 by W. W. Hallo (HUCA 29:78, n. 15); nos. they lost animals through natural death (ba-4 5:4 219 and 241 by W. W. Hallo (JCS 14:100); no. 355 et passim); when they increased through new birth by A. Goetze (JCS 17:34). (ù-tu-da 35:4; 46:5; et passim). 2. It appears that the officials who were responsible 2 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION 3 THE ROLE OF WOMEN AT DREHEM wives Arbitum, wife of Hun-habur, 48:9 First, let us select those texts which deal with women and examine their roles in the Geme-šaga, wife of Ur-mes, 129:4 economic and reIigious life of the Ur III period. There are queens (nin), princesses Lugal-annabtum, wife of Sarrum-ili, 7:2; 11.5; 29:2 wife of Bani-ilum, 409:4 (dumu-mi lugal), kings' priestly wives (lukur lugal), 3 priestesses (en, nin-dingir), daughters-in-law (?) (é-gi 4 -a), midwives (šà-zu), and daughters (dumu-mi) and wives Women seem to have played very active and important economic roles in the Ur III (dam) of the officials. period. In many cases, the transactions were between two women excIusiveIy. They brought and received animals, especially animals for temple offerings. For example, Watartum, Ur-Nammu's wife, 4 491:45 queens Sulgi-simti, one of the most important women in the Ur III empire, was greatly invoIved Abi-simti/tum, 5 Sulgi's wife (?), 81:13; et passim (see below) in religious-economic affairs. As a lukur of Sulgi she gathered and delivered all the princesses Simat-Ešdar, 6 Sulgi's daughter, 358:7 sacrificial animals under her authority (mu-trim d Sulgi - simti) Sat-Sin,' Sulgi's daughter, 418:8 for the tempIe. Simat- Ištaran, 8 Amar-Sin's daughter, 81:14; 201:4 Number of animals brought Acting Unnamed daughter of Kubatum, 571:54 Reign Yr. Mo. Day for ulgi-simti by PN officials Texts kings' priestly wives Sulgi-simtiatum,9 Sutgi's priestly wife, passim S 32 1 goat by wife of Bala'a TJ-da-ad-se-na-ad, Amar-Sin's priestly wife, 134:2 BINV11 Kubatum, 10 Su-Sin's priestly wife, 220:4; 571:54 5 small cattle by Ur-nigingar, Ti'amat-basti," Su-Sin's priestly wife, 382:9; 558:22 prince en priestess En-xiam-šitaX dSul-gi-ra-ke4-ba-gub, 505:5 3 small cattle by Allamu 33 5 nin- dingir priestess unnamed nin-dingir (of Nin-Sun) of Ki. KAL. Kr, 26:21 11 livestock by Huba'a, Beli-tab Fish Cat. 42 šaginax daughter-in-law(?) unnamed daughter-in-law of Ur-Iskur, governor of Hamase 382:5 gaginax midwife Kini'a, 360:4. 1 goat by wife of Alla 1 goat by wife of daughters daughter of Aba-Enlilgim, 347:2 daughter of Kini'a, 360:4 • nigingarngar S 34 5 daughter of Kubatum, 571:54 11 livestock by Tilla AnOr 7 147 11 livestock byUr- 3.
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  • Interpretation of Inanna's Descent Myth “From the Great Above Inanna

    Interpretation of Inanna's Descent Myth “From the Great Above Inanna

    Interpretation of Inanna’s Descent Myth “From the Great Above Inanna opened her ear to the Great Below.” In Sumerian, the word for ear and wisdom are the same. For example, Enki, the God of Wisdom, is said to have his ear “wide open” -- an unfiltered receptivity! This implies that Inanna's primary reason for “going to hell” was to seek wisdom and understanding. But in order to make such a spiritual journey, she first had to give up her earthly powers and possessions. They don’t allow a lot of luggage on the road to hell. Preparing for the Descent into the Underworld In the myth, she abandoned heaven and earth to descend to the underworld, her office of holy priestess, her temples in the seven principal cities where she was worshipped. She gave up her earthly powers and possessions -- an essential willingness required of any soul undertaking such a journey, of any soul following such a path of initiation. Inanna also recognized the need to protect herself. She gathered together seven of The Me, attributes of civilization which she transformed into such feminine allure as crown, jewelry, and a royal robe. These were intended serve as her protections. They included her crown, earrings of small lapis beads, a double strand of beads about her neck, her breastplate called “Come, man, come”, her golden hip girdle, the lapis measuring rod and line, and her royal breechcloth. Each of these adornments were worn at the level of each Kundalini chakra! Finally, she instructed her faithful servant, Ninshubur, what to do in case she did not return -- to lament her loss, beat the drum for her, and go to the cities -- to the temples where Enlil (her father’s father), Nanna (her father) and Enki (her mother’s father) were, and ask for their help.