STUDIA ORIENTALIA PUBLISHED BY THE FINNISH ORIENTAL SOCIETY 106 OF GOD(S), TREES, KINGS, AND SCHOLARS Neo-Assyrian and Related Studies in Honour of Simo Parpola Edited by Mikko Luukko, Saana Svärd and Raija Mattila HELSINKI 2009 OF GOD(S), TREES, KINGS AND SCHOLARS clay or on a writing board and the other probably in Aramaic onleather in andtheotherprobably clay oronawritingboard ME FRONTISPIECE 118882. Assyrian officialandtwoscribes;oneiswritingincuneiformo . n COURTESY TRUSTEES OF T H E BRITIS H MUSEUM STUDIA ORIENTALIA PUBLISHED BY THE FINNISH ORIENTAL SOCIETY Vol. 106 OF GOD(S), TREES, KINGS, AND SCHOLARS Neo-Assyrian and Related Studies in Honour of Simo Parpola Edited by Mikko Luukko, Saana Svärd and Raija Mattila Helsinki 2009 Of God(s), Trees, Kings, and Scholars: Neo-Assyrian and Related Studies in Honour of Simo Parpola Studia Orientalia, Vol. 106. 2009. Copyright © 2009 by the Finnish Oriental Society, Societas Orientalis Fennica, c/o Institute for Asian and African Studies P.O.Box 59 (Unioninkatu 38 B) FIN-00014 University of Helsinki F i n l a n d Editorial Board Lotta Aunio (African Studies) Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila (Arabic and Islamic Studies) Tapani Harviainen (Semitic Studies) Arvi Hurskainen (African Studies) Juha Janhunen (Altaic and East Asian Studies) Hannu Juusola (Semitic Studies) Klaus Karttunen (South Asian Studies) Kaj Öhrnberg (Librarian of the Society) Heikki Palva (Arabic Linguistics) Asko Parpola (South Asian Studies) Simo Parpola (Assyriology) Rein Raud (Japanese Studies) Saana Svärd (Secretary of the Society) Editorial Secretary Lotta Aunio Typesetting Noora Ohvo ISSN 0039-3282 ISBN 978-951-9380-72-8 Gummerus Kirjapaino Oy Jyväskylä 2009 CONTENTS Preface .....................................................................................................................xi Bibliography of the Publications of Simo Parpola ................................................xv NEO -ASSYRI an STUDIES Eunuchen als Thronprätendenten und Herrscher im alten Orient ............................1 CLAUS AMBO S The Origins of the Artistic Interactions between the Assyrian Empire and North Syria Revisited ...............................................................................................9 SANNA ARO Aramaic Loanwords in Neo-Assyrian: Rejecting Some Proposals .......................19 ZACK CH ERR Y “To Speak Kindly to him/them” as Item of Assyrian Political Discourse .............27 FREDERICK MARIO FALE S Osservazioni sull’orticoltura di epoca neo-assira ..................................................41 SABRINA FAVAR O Assurbanipal at Der ................................................................................................51 ECKART FRA H M A “New” Cylinder Inscription of Sargon II of Assyria from Melid.......................65 GRANT FRAM E “Wiping the Pot Clean”: On Cooking Pots and Polishing Operations in Neo-Assyrian Sources ............................................................................................83 SALVATORE GASP A The Camels of Tiglath-pileser III and the Arabic Definite Article .........................99 JAAKKO HÄMEEN -ANTTILA Informationen aus der assyrischen Provinz Dūr-Šarrukku im nördlichen Babylonien ...........................................................................................................103 KARL H EIN Z KESSLE R A Neo-Assyrian Royal Funerary Text ..................................................................111 TH EODORE KWASMAN A Happy Son of the King of Assyria: Warikas and the Çineköy Bilingual (Cilicia) ............................................................................127 GIOVANNI B. LANFRANC H I Remembrance at Assur: The Case of the Dated Aramaic Memorials ..................151 ALASDAIR LIVIN G STON E The Chief Singer and Other Late Eponyms .........................................................159 RAI J A MATTIL A Family Ties: Assurbanipal’s Family Revisited ....................................................167 JAMIE NOVOTNY & JENNIFER SIN G LETAR Y Ašipâ Again: A Microhistory of an Assyrian Provincial Administrator ..............179 BRADLEY J. PARKE R Neo-Assyrian Texts from Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon: A Preliminary Report ....193 OLOF PEDERSÉ N Noseless in Nimrud: More Figurative Responses to Assyrian Domination ........201 BARBARA NEVLIN G PORTE R The Assyrian King and his Scholars: The Syro-Anatolian and the Egyptian Schools .....................................................................................221 KAREN RADNE R Fez, Diadem, Turban, Chaplet: Power-Dressing at the Assyrian Court ...............239 JULIAN READ E Die Inschriften des Ninurta-bēlu-uṣur, Statthalters von Kār-Salmānu-ašarēd. Teil I .....................................................................................................................265 WOLF G AN G RÖLLI G Who Were the “Ladies of the House” in the Assyrian Empire? ..........................279 SAANA SVÄRD & MIKKO LUUKK O I Feared the Snow and Turned Back ....................................................................295 GRETA VAN BUYLAER E ASSYRIOLOGIC A L an D IN TERDISCIPLI na RY STUDIES Maqlû III 1-30: Internal Analysis and Manuscript Evidence for the Revision of an Incantation ...................................................................................307 TZ VI ABUSC H Some Otherworldly Journeys in Mesopotamian, Jewish, Mandaean and Yezidi Traditions ..................................................................................................315 AMAR ANNU S The Diverse Enterprises of Šumu-ukin from Babylon ........................................327 MU H AMMAD DANDAMAYE V “Armer Mann von Nippur”: ein Werk der Krisenliteratur des 8. Jh. v. Chr. ........333 MANFRIED DIETRIC H Two Middle Assyrian Contracts Housed in Istanbul ...........................................353 VEYSEL DONBA Z Two Bilingual Incantation Fragments ..................................................................361 MARK H AM J. GELLE R Wilhelm Lagus: A Pioneer of Cuneiform Research in Finland ...........................367 TAPANI HARVIAINE N Wisdom as Mediatrix in Sirach 24: Ben Sira, Love Lyrics, and Prophecy ..........377 MARTTI NISSINE N A Mesopotamian Omen in the Cycle of Cyrus the Great ....................................391 ANTONIO PANAIN O with an “Appendix on Cuneiform Sources” by GIAN PIETRO BASELLO Some Reflections on Metaphor, Ambiguity and Literary Tradition .....................399 SIMONETTA PONC H I A Reflections on the Translatability of the Notion of Holiness ...............................409 BEATE PON G RAT Z -LEISTE N Altorientalisches im Buch Judith .........................................................................429 ROBERT ROLLIN G E R Bibliography ........................................................................................................445 Abbreviations ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������502 “TO SPEAK KINDLY to HIM/Them” AS ITEM OF ASSYRIAN POLITICAL DISCOURSE Frederick Mario Fales Mio caro Simo, this small contribution is to celebrate some thirty-five years of great friendship and cooperation, and especially to recall a memorable meeting for the founding of the SAA among the wind, clouds and far-off waves of Helsinki, together with our friend JNP and our Teacher KHD, in 1986. For the future, I trust you and I will a thousandfold more joyfully exclaim “Look at the sea!” in your tongue – toasting to Assyria at sunset on the Baltic or on the Adriatic. 1. INTRODUCTION Political speech has, in all times and places, had its particular keywords, which often stem from the general and commonly understandable layers of language, but which are made to assume specific idiomatic connotations – denser, deeper, or wider – in relation to the circumstances of their application. Long-standing research on political lexicography of ancient and modern statehood has brought to light the many shifts to which particular terms were subjected over time, in relation to changing political circumstances and intended audiences: it may suffice to ponder on the term “democracy” in its many nuances throughout the present-day world to gain a preliminary idea. In research on the Neo-Assyrian period, political lexicography has, to a certain extent, been investigated as regards the Assyrian Royal Inscriptions (ARI), in their quality as official utterances of the Empire; but hardly at all on the corpus of the State Archives of Assyria (SAA). Now, the texts of the SAA may be safely dubbed “everyday texts” – as they usually are – in the sense that they appear to have been made out on any possible day of the week, month, or year. On the other hand, if the aim of this label were that of underscoring a total and irreconcilable opposition in the quality of political discourse between these texts and the ARI, it would prove to be – at least in part – a misnomer. In point of fact, many of the SAA documents had implications for official policy-making in their own right, although they employed textual stylemes/ modules not tied to the literary tradition, and which reflected – instead – the day- to-day linguistic variety of Neo-Assyrian, so as to be readily understandable both to the army officer in the far-off outpost and to the learned exorcist working in the 28 FREDERICK MARIO FALES annex of the royal palace itself. Specifically, the letters traded between courtiers and the Assyrian king – which make up the majority of all NA epistolography, and thus form a large body within the overall SAA corpus – show the presence