Cuneiform Culture
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OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, 08/01/2011, SPi 00001253263.INDD001253263.INDD i 88/1/2011/1/2011 55:27:32:27:32 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, 08/01/2011, SPi F. A fi sh-cloaked apkallu-sage, the embodiment of cuneiform scholarship, created by artist Tessa Rickards based on original monuments from ancient Kalhu and Til-Barsip. 00001253263.INDD001253263.INDD iiii 88/1/2011/1/2011 55:27:32:27:32 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, 08/01/2011, SPi CUNEIFORM CULTURE Edited by KAREN RADNER and ELEANOR ROBSON 1 00001253263.INDD001253263.INDD iiiiii 88/1/2011/1/2011 55:27:33:27:33 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, 08/01/2011, SPi 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. 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Literacy and Gender B L PART II. INDIVIDUALS AND COMMUNITIES . 1 e Person in Mesopotamian 1 ought B R. F . 1 e Scribe of the Flood Story and his Circle F K . Feasts for the Living, the Dead, and the Gods H B . Cuneiform Writing in Neo-Babylonian Temple Communities M J 00001253263.INDD001253263.INDD v 88/1/2011/1/2011 55:27:33:27:33 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, 08/01/2011, SPi vi . Freedom in Ancient Near Eastern Societies E V D PART III. EXPERTS AND NOVICES . Teacher–student Relationships: Two Case Studies Y C S K . Patron and Client: Zimri-Lim and Asqudum the Diviner D C . Learned, Rich, Famous, and Unhappy: Ur-Utu of Sippar M T . Music, the Work of Professionals N Z . 1 e Education of Neo-Assyrian Princes S Z PART IV. DECISIONS . Judicial Decision-making: Judges and Arbitrators S D-L . Royal Decision-making: Kings, Magnates, and Scholars K R . Assyria at War: Strategy and Conduct A F . Manipulating the Gods: Lamenting in Context A L . Magic Rituals: Conceptualization and Performance D S PART V. INTERPR ETATIONS . Sheep and Sky: Systems of Divinatory Interpretation U S K 00001253263.INDD001253263.INDD vvii 88/1/2011/1/2011 55:27:33:27:33 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, 08/01/2011, SPi vii . Making Sense of Time: Observational and 1 eoretical Calendars J M. S . Letters as Correspondence, Letters as Literature F H V . Keeping Company with Men of Learning: the King as Scholar E F . From Street Altar to Palace: Reading the Built Environment of Urban Babylonia H D. B PART VI. MAKING KNOWLEDGE . 1 e Production and Dissemination of Scholarly Knowledge E R . Tablets of Schools and Scholars: a Portrait of the Old Babylonian Corpus S T . Adapting to New Contexts: Cuneiform in Anatolia M W . Observing and Describing the World through Divination and Astronomy F R . Berossos between Tradition and Innovation G D B PART VII. SHAPING TR ADITION . Agriculture as Civilization: Sages, Farmers, and Barbarians F. A. M. W . Sourcing, Organizing, and Administering Medicinal Ingredients B B . Changing Images of Kingship in Sumerian Literature N B 00001253263.INDD001253263.INDD vviiii 88/1/2011/1/2011 55:27:33:27:33 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, 08/01/2011, SPi viii . 1 e Pious King: Royal Patronage of Temples C W . Cuneiform Culture’s Last Guardians: the Old Urban Notability of Hellenistic Uruk P C Index 00001253263.INDD001253263.INDD vviiiiii 88/1/2011/1/2011 55:27:33:27:33 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, 08/01/2011, SPi F . Map of the ancient Near East, showing the major places mentioned in this book xxiv . Map of ancient Mesopotamia, showing the major places mentioned in this book xxvi . Clay tablets containing diff erent inclusions . A sample of the variety of shapes and sizes of clay documents – . 1 e folds in a tablet, showing the method of manufacture . Rulings made on clay tablets by a stylus and by string . Nail and hem impressions on clay tablets . ‘Firing holes’ in a Neo-Assyrian scholarly tablet . Fragment of a clay envelope and a tablet inside its envelope . Two Neo-Assyrian scribes (detail of a stone relief from Tiglath-pileser III’s palace at Kalhu, modern Nimrud, Iraq) . Fragment of a Neo-Assyrian prism, showing the layers of its construction . Overview of the chronology and historical developments of the earliest literate periods in Babylonia . Denise Schmandt-Besserat’s schema of the history of writing . Formats of the proto-cuneiform texts . Proto-cuneiform numerical sign systems – . 1 e administrative exercise tablet MSVO : and the calculations implicit in the text . 1 e account MSVO : from Jemdet Nasr . Equivalencies in grain accounts . Accounts of domestic ‘herds’ of slaves . Numerical qualifi cation of young animals and humans . Two Neo-Assyrian offi cials weigh what may be round metal bars on a balance scale (detail from the Rassam Obelisk) . Metrological table written by the scribe Warad-Sin . 1 e evolution of the discrete counting system 00001253263.INDD001253263.INDD iixx 88/1/2011/1/2011 55:27:33:27:33 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, 08/01/2011, SPi x . 1 e number , in the discrete counting system . Inscribed jar excavated by André Parrot at Mari . Fragments of an Old Babylonian copy of the archaic list of professions Lu A . Neo-Assyrian list of archaic sign forms, accompanied by contemporary signs . Old Babylonian school text: list of animals . Calcite vessel from Ur, c . , with an inscription of Šuqurtum, one of king Šulgi of Ur’s lukur -women . Nail with an inscription relating the construction work undertaken by the en -priestess Enanedu at Ur in the early second millennium . Writing exercise, now known as Syllable Alphabet A, written by a girl, probably at Sippar, c . . Cylinder seal (and its modern impression) of Pu-abi, queen of Ur, c . . House rental contract: the only text written by Ipiq-Aya as a contract scribe . Ipiq-Aya’s family tree . 1 e seals of Ipiq-Aya, his sons, and father . Lapis lazuli cylinder seal with a banqueting scene (from the so-called Queen’s Grave of the Early Dynastic Royal Cemetery of Ur) . 1 e top scene from the ‘Peace panel’ of the so-called ‘Standard of Ur’, showing a banquet with seated men drinking to the accompaniment of a musician playing a lyre . Administrative tablet from ancient Garšana, recording the delivery of beer, bread, meat, and various soup ingredients for fi ve banquets in honour of fi ve diff erent deities . Fragment of a drinking straw made out of a bent bronze sheet ( c . mm thick) (from a cremation burial excavated at Dur-Katlimmu, modern Tell Sheikh Hamad, Syria) . E-hursag-tilla, the temple of Ninurta at Babylon, aW er excavation and minor restoration . Commemorative stela set up in honour of a priest by his son . Student’s copy of a legal document, referring to a temple offi ce . 1 e reception suite (‘salle du trône’) of the ‘Small Eastern Palace’ at Mari, where Asqudum had his living quarters . Clay liver models from Mari . 1 e cylinder seal of Kabi-Addu, son of Asqudum 00001253263.INDD001253263.INDD x 88/1/2011/1/2011 55:27:33:27:33 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, 08/01/2011, SPi xi . When Ur-Utu’s house was on fi re, the way out . 1 e tablets from the special box in Ur-Utu’s house . Silver lyre from the Early Dynastic Royal Cemetery of Ur, third millennium . Statue of the ‘august musician’ Ur-Nanše, c . th century , excavated at Mari . Old Babylonian clay plaque, probably from Ešnunna, showing a pair of acrobatic dancers (huppûm ) . Modern impression of an Old Babylonian cylinder seal, showing a dance performance reminiscent of the wild dance (gu štum ), which was performed annually in the streets of the city of Larsa .