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University of Groningen Elementary education at Nippur. The lists of trees and wooden objects Veldhuis, Nicolaas Christiaan IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 1997 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Veldhuis, N. C. (1997). Elementary education at Nippur. The lists of trees and wooden objects. s.n. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). The publication may also be distributed here under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license. More information can be found on the University of Groningen website: https://www.rug.nl/library/open-access/self-archiving-pure/taverne- amendment. Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 04-10-2021 Elementary Education At Nippur RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN Elementary Education at Nippur. The Lists of Trees and Wooden Objects Proefschrift ter verkrijging van het doctoraat in de Letteren aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen op gezag van de Rector Magnificus, dr. F. van der Woude, in het openbaar te verdedigen op donderdag 25 september 1997 des namiddags te 1.15 uur door Nicolaas Christiaan Veldhuis geboren op 3 september 1960 te Bergum, gemeente Tietjerksteradeel Promotores: Prof. dr. H.J.W. Drijvers Prof. dr. P. Michalowski Co-promotor: Dr. H.L.J. Vanstiphout Table of Contents Preface ix 1 Introduction 1 1.1 History of Research 2 1.1.1 Lexical Lists as Ancient Dictionaries 2 1.1.2 Lexical Lists as Evidence for Cultural History 4 1.2 Research Questions 8 1.3 Structure of the Present Study 10 2 Old Babylonian Thematic Lists in their Educational Context 12 2.1 Third Millennium Predecessors 12 2.1.1 Archaic Lexical Lists 12 2.1.2 Later Third Millennium Sources 14 2.1.3 Ebla 15 2.1.4 The Third Dynasty of Ur 16 2.2 Old Babylonian Lexical Findings 18 2.2.1 Early Old Babylonian Period 19 2.2.2 Middle Old Babylonian Period 21 2.2.3 Late Old Babylonian Period 22 2.3 The Old Babylonian School 24 2.3.1 School Life: the Picture in Literary Texts 24 2.3.2 Archaeology and the Organization of the School 26 2.3.3 Educational Tools: The Typology of Lexical Exercise Tablets 28 2.3.3.1 Type I: Prisms and Large Tablets 29 2.3.3.2 Type II: Teacher-Student Exercises 32 2.3.3.3 Type III: Single Column Tablets 37 2.3.3.4 Type IV: Lentils 38 2.4 The Nippur Curriculum 40 2.4.1 Phase 1: Lists, Models, and Proverbs 41 2.4.1.1 Basics: Sign Elements, Syllable Alphabet, TU-TA-TI, and Name Lists 41 2.4.1.2 Lexical Lists: Ur5-ra 46 2.4.1.3 Advanced Lists 54 2.4.1.4 Model Texts and Proverbs 60 2.4.1.5 Summary of Phase 1 63 2.4.2 Phase 2: Literature 64 2.5 The Transmission of Ur5-ra to the First Millennium 67 2.5.1 The Middle Babylonian Period 67 2.5.1.1 The Middle Babylonian Peripheral Tradition. 67 2.5.1.2 The Structure of Middle Babylonian Peripheral Ur5-ra 68 2.5.2 First Millennium Standardized Ur5-ra= hubullu 71 2.5.2.1 Early Canonical Texts 71 2.5.2.2 First Millennium Ur5-ra 75 2.5.3 The Transmission of the Curriculum 75 2.6 Some Conclusions 80 3 The Organization of the Nippur List of Trees and Wooden Objects 84 3.1 The Main Sections of the Nippur Giš List 84 3.2 The Organization of a Section: Two Examples 90 3.2.1 Boats and Wagons 91 3.2.2 Agricultural Tools, Maces, and Boards (442-514) 95 3.2.2.1 Agricultural tools 95 3.2.2.2 Maces 98 3.2.2.3 Boards 100 3.2.3 The Organization of Sections in Other Parts of Ur5-ra 101 3.3 The Role of Akkadian 102 3.3.1 Akkadian Loan Words in Ur5-ra 103 3.3.2 Multiple Translations of the Same Entry 107 3.4 Graphemic Principles 111 3.5 Relations to Other Lexical Lists and Literary Texts 113 3.5.1 Correspondences with Other Parts of Old Babylonian Ur5-ra. 114 3.5.2 Kagal and Diri 117 3.5.3 Paradigmatic Sets 123 3.5.4 Relations between Lexical and Literary Texts 126 3.6 The Place of Ur5-ra in the Stream of Tradition 129 4 Old Babylonian Lexical Lists and the Science of Writing 137 4.1 Listenwissenschaft? 137 4.2 A Science of Writing 139 4.3 The Social Uses of the Science of Writing 142 5 Edition of the Giš Lists 147 5.1 Editing the Nippur Giš List: Methodological Considerations 147 5.1.1 The Concept Standard Text 148 5.1.2 The Digital Edition 149 5.2 Standard Nippur Text 151 5.3 Commentary to the Nippur Text 168 5.4 Score Edition of the Nippur Giš List 191 5.5 Non-Standard Nippur Texts 253 5.6 Non-Nippur Texts 260 5.6.1 The Isin Tradition 260 5.6.2 The Ur Tradition 270 5.6.3 Texts from Uruk 276 5.6.4 Unprovenanced Giš Lists 276 5.7 Catalogue 288 5.7.1 Tablets from Nippur 288 5.7.1.1 Prisms 288 5.7.1.2 Type I Tablets 288 5.7.1.3 Type II Tablets 290 5.7.1.4 Type III Tablets 321 5.7.1.5 Type IV Tablets (Lentils) 321 5.7.1.6 Type Unidentified 325 5.7.1.7 Nippur Tablets not Used 328 5.7.2 Tablets from Isin 330 5.7.3 Tablets from Ur 331 5.7.4 Tablets from Uruk 332 5.7.5 Tablets of Unknown Provenance 333 5.7.6 Tablets Excluded from the Edition 336 5.7.7 Addenda 337 Appendixes 339 Appendix 1 The Catalogue of Nippur Lexical Texts: Description 339 Appendix 2 Concordances: Museum Number - Siglum 343 Previous Publication - Siglum 353 Bibliography 356 Plates 387 Dutch Summary 399 Preface This dissertation is the result of a four-year project at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures of the University of Groningen. With this project the department partook in the research program 'Pre-Modern Encyclopedia' of the Centre for Classical Oriental Medieval and Renaissance Studies of the same university. The initiative for the project was taken by Dr H.L.J. Vanstiphout, who acted as my main advisor. He thus brought me back into Assyriology, and introduced me to an area of the field of which I was completely ignorant. I would never have dreamt of studying texts as boring as lexical lists. I soon learned that boring texts only exist by virtue of boring readers. I am very grateful to Dr Vanstiphout for pushing me in this direction, and for his unfailing enthusiasm and critical support of my work. Prof. Piotr Michalowski, my second advisor, followed the progress of my work at some distance, but with no less interest. His hints and remarks have been more important than can be acknowledged in a single paragraph. At some of the crucial junctures in the research process he pushed me so gently in one direction that I almost convinced myself that I had invented it all on my own. Prof. dr H.J.W. Drijvers acted as my promotor. Over the years he has actively supported my research. He carefully read a version of the manuscript, adding a number of important remarks. I was able to visit several foreign tablet collections thanks to financial support from the Neth- erlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Faculty of Arts of the University of Groningen. To both organizations I would like to express my sincere thanks. Prof. Åke Sjöberg, then curator of the Babylonian Collection of the University Museum (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia) allowed me free access to the tablet collections under his care. On two occasions (February 1994 and August-December 1995) I benefitted from the hospitality and helpfulness of Prof. Sjöberg and his staff. Dr Steve Tinney prepared an extract from the computerized catalogue of the Philadelphia collection for me and shared with me his vast knowledge of Sumerian and cuneiform. His Index to the Secondary Literature proved to be of immense value. The late Dr Hermann Behrens gave me copies of the computer files in which he had entered numerous lexical and literary compositions. These files have been of enormous value in the process of writing this study. Prof. Erle Leichty helped me out with a number of practical matters, and was always ready to answer my questions. The informed reader cannot fail to see how important my visits to Philadelphia have been for the final results of my research. The sheer joy of working for a period of time in the pleasurable chaos of the tablet room is difficult to express in a few words.
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