UR DYNASTY TABLETS TEXTS CHIEFLY FROM TELLO AND DREHEM WRITTEN DURING THE REIGNS OF DUNGI, BUR-SIN, GIMIL-SIN, AND IBI-SIN INTRODUCTION, CATALOGUE, TRANSLATIONS, LISTS, ARITHMETICAL INDEX, INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES, INDEXED SIGN-LIST OF THE UR DYNASTY BY JAMES B. NIES, Ph. D. 64 PLATES AND 27 SEALS WITH AN APPENDIX BY PROF. D. Dr. FRITZ HOMMEL LEIPZIG J. C. HINRICHS'SCHE BUCHHANDLUNG 1920 Assyriologische Bibliothek herausgegeben von Friedrich Delitzsch und Paul Haupt Band XXV Alle Rechte vorbehalten Druck von C. Schulze & Co., G. m. b. H., Grafenhainichen. This book is dedicated to my dear wife without whose constant encouragement it would never have appeared Preface. The manuscript of this volume has been for the most part in the hands of the publisher since the Summer of 1913. The unavoidable delays, due to the interchange of proofs, and the European war, have belated its appearance. Meanwhile, new Sumerian material, such as Pere Scheil's, Les Plus Anciennes Dynasties Connues de Sumer-Accad; Clay's list of the Kings of Isin in the Yale Babylonian Collection; Poebel's Historical and Grammatical Texts from Nippur in the University of Pennsylvania, and works of the highest importance, such as Delitzsch's Sumerian Grammar and Glossary, Barton's Babylonian Writing, Legrain's Le Temps des Rois D'Ur, Hroznys Getreide im Alten *Babylonien, have appeared. It was inevitable that these should, in some degree, modify and, in a few in- stances, change the views of the author while the various sections of this work were going through the press, and this will account for any inconsistencies that may exist between the translations and the lists and indices, as an interval of more than a year elapsed between the time when the former and the latter were through the press. An important modification must here be made. It seems clear from Poebel's Historical Texts that there were several dynasties of Ur, and it is evident that the one to which our texts belong was the last. It was still possible, when this became clear, to designate which dynasty is referred to but, as the original title, Ur Dynasty Tablets, occured in some parts of the book already through the press, it was deemed best not to do so. However, Ur Dynasty Tablets is broad enough to cover the whole field. An effort has been made in this book to set forth and arrange the letter press so as to be helpful for beginners and those who are self-taught. For this reason special attention has been paid to the numerical system by adding an Arithmetical Index and an Index of Values for the sign list, wiile the Index of Words and Phrases, originally of very modest size, has been enlarged so as to cover the whole material of the texts, in the hope that this will add to the interest and usefulness of the work. As for the system of transliteration, it has not been deemed advisable to take account of the so called amissible and inamissible consonants. To his fellow workers in the field of Sumerian research, the author would say that he owes each and every one of them a debt of gratitude for help given by their published works, the names of which will be found in the list of abbreviations. No one can be more alive to the shortcomings of this publication than the author himself, and criticism that will shed further light on the language and trans- actions of the last dynasty of Ur, will be welcomed. Hotel St. George, Brooklyn, Newyork, U. S. A. James B. Nies Contents. Page Preface . , . , . V Abbreviations .... ...... VII I. Introduction ...... · ~..................· ,~~ I3 II. Catalogue........ .,··i·r ... 9 ... III. Translations and Summaries ............... .. .. .L· .. ... ....... ........ .. 37 IV. Lists. i. Names .. .... .. .... I80 2. Deities 97 3. Temples and Buildings 1I00 4. Granaries. 5. Places. 6. Rivers and Canals . ·. .· . ... 103 7. Months ..... .I04 1.. 8. Years. , -,oI05 V. Arithmetical Index .. 07 VI. Index of Words and Phrases ...... ........... ... .... ..... xi51 15 VII. Sign List ........ 173 Unusual Forms of Signs i8i ·· · · · · · · · · · · 0 · Index to the Sign List . I83 Improvements and Corrections I87 ,,Zusatzbemerkungen" by Prof. D. Dr. Fritz Hommel . ... .1o6 Plates 1-64 Abbreviations. AD Stephen Langdon. Tablets from the Archives of Drehem. Paris 1911. AAS Hilprecht. Anniversary Volume. Leipzig I909. ACI A. H. Sayce. Archaeology of the Cuneiform Inscriptions. London 1907. AG A. Jeremias. Handbuch der altorientalischen Geisteskultur. Leipzig 1913. BE Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania. Br. R. E. Briinnow. A Classified List of Cuneiform Idiograms. Leyden I889. BW Geo Barton. Origin and Developement of Babylonian Writing. (Beitrage zur Assyriologie usw. hrsg. vou Fr. Delitzsch und P. Haupt, IX. Band, Heft I.) Leipzig 1913. CT Cuneiform Texts in the British Museum. DSG1. Friedrich Delitzsch. Sumerisches Glossar. Leipzig 1914. DSGr. Friedrich Delitzsch. Sumerische Grammatik. Leipzig I914. EBH Hugo Radau. Early Babylonian History. New York 1900. EBL H. V. Hilprecbt. Explorations in Bible Lands. Philadelphia I903. EG R. A. S. MacAlister. The Excavation of Gezer. London 1912. GAB F. Hrozny. Das Getreide im alten Babylonien. Vienna I914. GT Arno Poebel. Grammatical Texts BE, VI. I. Philadelphia 19I4. HG Fritz Hommel. GrundriB der Geographie und Geschichte des Alten Orients. Miinchen 1904. HLC Geo. Barton. Haverford Library Collection. Philadelphia 19go8/o9. HSL Fritz Hommel. Sumerische Lesestiicke. Miinchen 1894. HWB Friedr. Delitzsch. Assyrisches Handworterbuch, Leipzig 1896. JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society. KG F. H. WeiBbach. Zur keilinschriftlichen Gewichtkunde. Leipzig 1912. KSA L. W. King. History of Sumer and Akkad. Leg. L. Legrain. Le Temps des Rois D'Ur. Paris 1912. LSG Stephen Langdon. Sumerian Grammar. Paris I91I. MI A. T. Clay. Miscellaneous Inscriptions. Yale Oriental Series. Vol. I. MLC III C. E Keiser. Cuneiform Bullae. Vol. I[I. Babylonian Records in the Library of J. P. Morgan. New York I914. MSL J. Dynely Prince. Materials for a Sumerian Lexicon. Leipzig 1908. OBTR Robert J. Lau. Old Babylonian Temple Records. New York 1906. OLZ Orientalistische Literaturzeitung Leipzig. PA T. G. Pinches. The Amherst Tablets. London 1908. PKUN Engelbert Huber. Personennamen aus der Zeit der K6nige von Ur und Nisin. Leipzig 1907. PSBA Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology. RBA M. Jastrow Jr. Religion of Babylonia and Assyria. Boston I898. German revision. Giessen 1912. REC F. Thureau-Dangin. Recherches sur l'origine de l'Ecriture Cun6iforme. Paris 1898. RMA Thompson. Reports of Magicians and Astrologers. London 1900. RTC F. Thureau-Dangin. Recueil de Tablettes Chald6ennes. Paris I903. RU Geo. A. Reisner. Tempelurkunden aus Telloh. Berlin 1901. RUBI W. F6rtsch. Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen usw. Leipzig 1914. Sa, Sb. Syllabaries; see Friedrich Delitzsch. Assyrische Lesestiicke, third, fourth and fifth editions. SAD D. W. Myhrman. Sumerian Administrative Documents. Philadelphia 19Io. SAI Bruno Meifiner. Seltene assyrische Ideogramme. Leipzig 1910. SAKI F. Thureau-Dangin. Die Sumerischen und Akkadischen Konigsinschriften. Leipzig 1907. SCWA William Hayes Ward. Seal Cylinders of Western Asia. Washington I907. SRD W. M. Nesbit. Sumerian Records from Drehem. New York 1914 TD H. de Genouillac. Tablettes de Drehem. Paris I9 I. TrD H. de Genouillac. La Trouvaille de Drehem. Paris 1911. UDT J B. Nies. The present volume. TLeipzig 1919. YBC Yale Babylonian Collection. I. II. III. IV Rawlinson. Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia. a = adjective G. S. = grandson pro, pronoun accd. = according to L. ~ Leit prob. == probably adv. - adverb 1. - line R. and Rev. = reverse B. = brother L. E. _ left edge R. E. = right edge bf. before Lo. E. lower edge r. n. royal name c. = conjunction M. - mother riv. n. =- river name cn. - connective n. noun r. pro. relative pro- Col. _ column nr. number noun comp. compare O. and Obv. Obverse Rt. = right D. - daughter p. and pg. = page S. - son d. = dingir p. p. post position t n. - temple name d. pro. demonstrative pro- p. c. phonetic com- U. E. = upper edge noun plement v. f. - verbal form E. edge pl. = plate v. i. = verbal infix F. - father pl. n. = place name v.p. -p verbal prefix f. n. - field name p. n. - personalname () [ ] = what is bro- G. F. randfather pos. pro. = possessive pro- ken away, supplied, or g. u. - god name noun translated. gr. n. - granary name prep. -- preposition Introduction. The one hundred and eighty autograph texts, from Babylonian tablets of the Ur Dynasty, published in this volume form part of my private collection. Eighty two of them were acquired in Bagdad in 1904 and doubtless were the results of Arabic digging after the close of the French excavations at Tello. The remaining io8 were purchased more recently; io6 in I9rI from a Paris dealer and two in 1913 in New York. Those acquired in 1911 are all from Drehem. -They correspond to tablets published recently by Thureau - Dangin, Genouillac, Langdon and others as from that place. The two purchased in I913 are probably from Jokha. Internal evidence and correspondence to collections already published make the sources of these practically certain, though they were not excavated by responsible people. Those from Tello, t to 90, together with 162 A and 167 A, but excluding Nos. 30, 3I, 33 A, 37 A, 44 and 45 which are from Drehem, also 70 A and 73 A from Jokha, correspond to texts published by Reisner, Thureau-Dangin, Radau, Lau, Barton, Pinches and others. The remainder, except the two from Jokha, are to be classed with Nippur texts of the Ur period, to which they closely correspond. The texts have, so far as possible, been grouped according to their nature and contents, though it was thought desirable not to follow this arrangement with the "case tablets", No 2 to 31, but to keep these together. As may be seen from the catalogue and translations, twenty of them refer to grain transactions, two to sheep and one each to cattle, oil, wool, bread, pitch, pottery, employment of men and contracts for loans of money and grain.
Zeitschrift Für Keilschriftforschung Und Verwandte Gebiete
ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR KEILSCHRIFTFORSCHUNG UND VERWANDTE GEBIETE UNTER MITWIRKUNG DER HERREN A-. Amiaud und E. Babelon in Paris, G. Lyon in Cambridge - Mass. und Theo. G. Pinches in London HERAUSGEGEBEN VON CARL BEZOLD UND FRITZ HOMMEL PRIVATDOZENTEN AN DER UNIVERSITÄT MÜNCHEN. ERSTER BAND. LEIPZIG OTTO SCHULZE II QUER-STRASSE II 1884. INHALT. Seite Eb. Schräder, Zur Frage nach der Aussprache der Zischlaute im Baby¬ lonisch-Assyrischen . j A. H. Sayce, Ihe origin of the Persian cuneiform alphabet ... 19 St. Guyard, Quelques remarques sur la prononciation et la transcription de la chuintante et de la sifflante en Assyrien. 27 Fr. Hommel, Zur altbabylonischen Chronologie. 32 J. Oppert, Un acte de vente conservé en deux exemplaires .... 45 J. N. Strassmaier, S. J., Fünf babylonische Verträge aus der Zeit von Nebukadnezzar. o_ St. Guyard, Questions sumero-accadiennes. Rud. Dvorak, Ueber „tinüru“ des Assyrisch-Babylonischen und die entsprechenden Formen der übrigen semitischen Sprachen A. Amiaud, Quelques observations sur les inscriptions des statues de Tell - Loh . Fr. Hommel, Die sumero-akkadische Sprache und ihre Verwandschafts¬ verhältnisse . 16119 Fb. Schrader, Nachtrag zu seinem Aufsatz „Ueber die Aussprache der Zischlaute im Babylonisch-Assyrischen“ A. H. Sayce, The literary works of Ancient Babylonia. Eb. Schrader, Kineladan und Asurbanipal . A. Amiaud, L’inscription A de Gudea. P. Jensen, De incantamentorum sumerico-assyriorum seriei quae dicitur „surbu“ tabula VI. Theo. G. Pinches, Additions and Corrections to the Fifth Volume of the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia .... SPRECHSAAL: Fr. Hommel, An die Leser und Fachgenossen statt eines Vorworts . 65 J. N. Strassmaier, Aus einem Briefe desselben an Dr. C. Bezold 70 Fr.
Pre-Islamic Arab Queens Author(S): Nabia Abbott Reviewed Work(S): Source: the American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, Vol
Pre-Islamic Arab Queens Author(s): Nabia Abbott Reviewed work(s): Source: The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, Vol. 58, No. 1 (Jan., 1941), pp. 1-22 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/529209 . Accessed: 05/05/2012 13:07 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures. http://www.jstor.org The American Journal of SEMITIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES Volume LVIII JANUARY 1941 Number 1 PRE-ISLAMIC ARAB QUEENS NABIA ABBOTT Arab queens make their first recorded appearance in history with the dramatic entry of the Queen of Sheba and her historic visit to King Solomon in the tenth century before Christ. The familiar bibli- cal version of her story leaves the enterprising queen unnamed and the location of her kingdom within Arabia uncertain. But it depicts her as endowed with wealth, power, knowledge if not wisdom, and curios- ity. It furthermore started her on her way to recognition in three great world-faiths.
Aims and Organization of the " Repertoire Geographique Des Textes Cuneiformes" and Historical Geography
Originalveröffentlichung in: Sumer 42, 1986, S. 40-43 AIMS AND ORGANIZATION OF THE " REPERTOIRE GEOGRAPHIQUE DES TEXTES CUNEIFORMES" AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY BY: W. RÖLLIG Place and time are the two coordinates between which These were for the most part simply collections of material, the history of a people, or [ for that matter ] the history of all which did not lead to any clear localizations, but this is unde- peoples, takes place. All historical writing - whether religious rstandable in view of the difficulty of the material. history, social history, literary history, economic history or In 1921 Emil Forrer attempted to put the historical whatever - has as an inescapable precondition that these two geography of northern Mesopotamia and Syria on a sound coordinates be properly determined. This is easier to achieve footing with his " Die Provinzeinteilung des assyrischen Rei in the case of time, i. e. chronology, than of place. Nevertheless ches". That he was not entirely sucessful is certainly no repr. everyone recognizes that geographically determined features oach to him, for archaeological investigation of the area was influence history. Mountains form boundaries. Likewise still in an incipient stage, so that many of his suggested identi- rivers are often insurmountable barriers, though at the same cations could not be tested. On the other hand later Assyrio- time they connect Valleys and plains. It goes without saying logists cannot so easily escape reproach, for they have in the that it is important to know in what places Settlements lay intervening decades taken over the often hypothetical sugge- and how they were connected to their enviroment - or perh- stions of Forrer as secure resure results and transmitted them aps separated from it.
Umma4n-Manda and Its Significance in the First Millennium B.C
Umma 4n-manda and its Significance in the First Millennium B.C. Selim F. Adalı Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Arts Department of Classics and Ancient History University of Sydney 2009 Dedicated to the memory of my grandparents Ferruh Adalı, Melek Adalı, Handan Özker CONTENTS TABLES………………………………………………………………………………………vi ABBREVIATIONS…………………………………………………………………………..vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS…………………………………………………………………...xiv ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………………..xv INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………………...xvi 1 SOURCES AND WRITTEN FORM………………………………………………………...1 1.1 An Overview 1.2 The Written Forms in the Old Babylonian Omens 1.3 The Written Form in the Statue of Idrimi 2 ETYMOLOGY: PREVIOUS STUDIES…………………………………………………...20 2.1 The Proposed ma du4 Etymology 2.1.1 The Interchange of ma du4 and manda /mandu (m) 2.2 The Proposed Hurrian Origin 2.3 The Proposed Indo-European Etymologies 2.3.1 Arah ab} the ‘Man of the Land’ 2.3.2 The Semitic Names from Mari and Choga Gavaneh 2.4 The Proposed man ıde4 Etymology 2.5 The Proposed mada Etymology 3 ETYMOLOGY: MANDUM IN ‘LUGALBANDA – ENMERKAR’……………………44 3.1 Orthography and Semantics of mandum 3.1.1 Sumerian or Akkadian? 3.1.2 The Relationship between mandum, ma tum4 and mada 3.1.3 Lexical Lists 3.1.3.1 The Relationship between mandum and ki 3.1.4 An inscription of Warad-Sın= of Larsa 3.2 Lugalbanda II 342-344: Previous Interpretations and mandum 3.3 Lugalbanda II 342-344: mandum and its Locative/Terminative Suffix 4 ETYMOLOGY: PROPOSING MANDUM………………………………………………68 4.1 The Inhabited World and mandum 4.1.1 Umma
Babylonians and Assyrians, Life and Customs by Rev
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Babylonians and Assyrians, Life and Customs by Rev. A. H. Sayce This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at http://www.guten- berg.org/license Title: Babylonians and Assyrians, Life and Customs Author: Rev. A. H. Sayce Release Date: April 16, 2008 [Ebook 25080] Language: English ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS, LIFE AND CUSTOMS*** Babylonians And Assyrians Life And Customs By The Rev. A. H. Sayce Professor of Assyriology at Oxford London John C. Nimmo 14 King William Street, Strand MDCCCC Contents Editor's Preface . 3 Chapter I. Babylonia And Its Inhabitants . 5 Chapter II. The Family . 14 Chapter III. Education And Death . 38 Chapter IV. Slavery And The Free Laborer . 56 Chapter V. Manners And Customs . 74 Chapter VI. Trades, Houses, And Land; Wages And Prices 87 Chapter VII. The Money-Lender And Banker . 121 Chapter VIII. The Government And The Army . 134 Chapter IX. The Law . 155 Chapter X. Letter-Writing . 165 Chapter XI. Religion . 183 Appendix: Weights And Measures . 208 Index . 210 Footnotes . 233 [ii] Series Advertisement. Series of Handbooks in Semitics Edited By James Alexander Craig Professor of Semitic Languages and Literatures and Hellenis- tic Greek, University of Michigan Recent scientific research has stimulated an increasing interest in the study of the Babylonians, Assyrians, and allied Semitic races of ancient history among scholars, students, and the serious reading public generally.
The Last Days of the Kingdom of Israel Unauthenticated Download Date | 11/6/18 2:50 PM Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft Herausgegeben von John Barton, Reinhard G. Kratz, Nathan MacDonald, Carol A. Newsom and Markus Witte Band 511 Unauthenticated Download Date | 11/6/18 2:50 PM The Last Days of the Kingdom of Israel Edited by Shuichi Hasegawa, Christoph Levin and Karen Radner Unauthenticated Download Date | 11/6/18 2:50 PM ISBN 978-3-11-056416-7 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-056660-4 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-056418-1 ISSN 0934-2575 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Hasegawa, Shuichi, 1971- editor. | Levin, Christoph, 1950- editor. | Radner, Karen, editor. Title: The last days of the Kingdom of Israel / edited by Shuichi Hasegawa, Christoph Levin, Karen Radner. Description: First edition. | Berlin; Boston : Walter de Gruyter, [2018] | Series: Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, ISSN 0934-2575 ; Band 511 Identifiers: LCCN 2018023384 | ISBN 9783110564167 Subjects: LCSH: Jews--History--953-586 B.C. | Assyria--History. | Bible. Old Testament--Criticism, interpretation, etc. | Assyro-Babylonian literature--History and criticism. Classification: LCC DS121.6 .L37 2018 | DDC 933/.03--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn. loc.gov/2018023384 Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliografic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
HOMMEL'S "ANCIENT HEBREW TRADITION." THE announcement that a book was to appear from the pen of Prof. Fritz Hommel on the subject indicated by the above title would be quite sufficient to ensure it eager anticipation and respectful hearing. The writer of these lines read the author's alluring work, Die Semiten, soon after it appeared, fifteen years ago. The graphic chapters in the earlier part of that volume on the Semites in Egypt, based mainly on Lepsius' Denkmiiler, and the skilful attempt to trace the ancient migrations of the Phamicians, followed by the vivid description of the early culture, language, and religion of Babylonia, from that time forth invested the be ginnings of human civilization on the Nile and in Western Asia with an interest that gave a fresh impetus to all sub sequent studies in this fascinating region. Prof. Hommel shares with Prof. Georg Ebers the faculty- somewhat rare among German savants-of investing his delineations with charm. His history of Babylonia and Assyria, which deserves to be better known, is replete with information on every page. Yet he never wearies the reader. His pages are never encumbered with such a crowded maze of details that no definite impression emerges from the weltering chaos-the debris and shavings of the German workshop in the form of footnotes, quotations, and parenthetic references to learned Zeitschriften, expressed in cipher, that make the life of an English student a burden. Prof. Hommel is endowed with literary and artistic sense. He carries the heavy weight of his great knowledge as an Orientalist-for he is eminent as an Arabist as well as a cuneiform scholar with the ease, lightness, and grace of a youthful warrior.
A History of Babylonia and Assyria A History of Babylonia and Assyria Volume I Robert William Rogers Published 1900 A.D. Assyrian International News Agency Books Online www.aina.org 1 A History of Babylonia and Assyria CONTENTS PREFACE.............................................................................................................................................................3 BOOK I: PROLEGOMENA.................................................................................................................................4 CHAPTER I..........................................................................................................................................................4 EARLY TRAVELERS AND EARLY DECIPHERERS......................................................................................4 CHAPTER II ......................................................................................................................................................15 GROTEFEND AND RAWLINSON ..............................................................................................................15 CHAPTER III .....................................................................................................................................................26 EARLY EXPLORERS IN BABYLONIA......................................................................................................26 CHAPTER IV.....................................................................................................................................................30
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Institutional Repository of the Freie Universität Berlin Christian W. Hess Mapping the Linguistic Landscapes of Mesopotamia Summary Though Ancient Near Eastern Studies has increasingly paid Karten zu altorientalischen Sprachen, von den Anfängen der attention to language contact and areal linguistics in recent Spracharealen im 19. Jh. bis hin zur Kartographie einzelner years, there have so far been but few systematic attempts at Artefakte in rezenteren Publikationen. Die unterschiedlichen placing the relevant languages on a map. The essay provides a Kartierungsgrammatiken, die in den Karten angewendet wer- survey of maps of the languages of the Ancient Near East from den, implizieren z. T. weit auseinanderliegende Narrative von the first areal maps in the 19th century to the artefact maps Sprachgeographie. Die rezente Tendenz zur Kartierung einzel- in recent publications. The different visual grammars used in ner Artefakte deckt sich dabei mit der Tendenz, Sprache nicht the cartography of these ancient languages also imply widely einfach als statischen Spiegel ethnischer Identität zu sehen, varying narratives of linguistic geography. The recent move to- sondern als öffentlichen Ausdruck sprachlicher Identitäten in- wards artefact mapping shifts the discussion away from static nerhalb der Landschaften Mesopotamiens. interpretations of language as a strong correlate of ethnicity to- Keywords: Alter Vorderer Orient; Sprachkartierung; Sprach- wards an interpretation of language as a public expression of wechsel; Linguistische Geographie; Linguistische Landschaf- linguistic identity within the landscapes of Mesopotamia. ten Keywords: Ancient Near East; language change; language mapping; linguistic geography; linguistic landscapes The following is a revised and expanded version of a paper pre- sented at the Berlin conference on Mapping Ancient Identities Obwohl sich die Altorientalistik in den vergangenen Jah- in 2013.