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BILINGUALISM and KINGSHIP an Analysis of Mesopotamian Bilingual Inscriptions from the Old Akkadian Until the Old Babylonian Period

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BILINGUALISM and KINGSHIP an Analysis of Mesopotamian Bilingual Inscriptions from the Old Akkadian Until the Old Babylonian Period BILINGUALISM AND KINGSHIP An Analysis of Mesopotamian Bilingual Inscriptions from the Old Akkadian until the Old Babylonian Period Research Master’s Thesis Master’s Program: Classics and Ancient Civilizations Specialization: Assyriology Lucrezia Menicatti s1781537 [email protected] Leiden University July1st 2019 Supervisor: Dr. J.G. Dercksen Second Reader: Prof. Dr. C. Waerzeggers Contents Abbreviations .............................................................................................................. III Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1. Sargonic Bilingual Inscriptions ................................................................... 4 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 4 1. Sources ............................................................................................................................... 5 1.2 Audience, Context and Tradition ..................................................................... 6 1.2 Material Features ............................................................................................ 8 2. Akkadian and Sumerian .................................................................................................... 9 2.1 Writing System and Lexical Discrepancies ...................................................... 9 2.2 Structural Differences ....................................................................................11 3. Composition of the Sumerian Texts ................................................................................ 12 3.1 Writing System..............................................................................................12 3.2 Vowel Harmony ............................................................................................13 4. Morphology ..................................................................................................................... 14 4.1 Nominal System: The Terminative case marker ...............................................14 4.2 Verbal Affixes: The Indirect Object Prefix .....................................................16 4.3 The Conjunction u3 and a Rare Sumerian Prefix ..............................................19 5. Conclusive Remarks ........................................................................................................ 22 Chapter II. Ur III Bilingual Inscriptions ...................................................................... 24 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 24 1. Two Šulgi Building Inscriptions ..................................................................................... 26 1.1 Sources .........................................................................................................26 1.2 Šulgi 23 and Šulgi 24 ....................................................................................27 1.3 Šulgi 27 and Šulgi 28 ....................................................................................29 1.4 Two Royal Languages ............................................................................................................. 30 2. Šulgi 38: A Bilingual Stele Inscription ........................................................................... 31 2.1 The Old Babylonian Copy ..............................................................................31 2.2 Copy, Transliteration and Translation ............................................................32 2.3 Commentary ..................................................................................................35 2.4 The Curse Formula ........................................................................................36 I 2.5 The Sumerian Version ...................................................................................38 2.6 Observations .................................................................................................40 3. Conclusive Remarks ........................................................................................................ 41 Chapter III. Old Babylonian Bilingual Inscriptions .................................................... 43 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 43 1. The Corpus ...................................................................................................................... 45 1.1 Hammurrabi and Samsu-iluna Inscriptions ......................................................45 1.2 Old Babylonian Inscriptions from Copies .......................................................47 1.3 Textual and Structural Features ......................................................................48 2. Akkadian Influence on Sumerian .................................................................................... 51 2.1 Akkadian Reinterpretation of Sumerian: Sumerian Verbs and Constructions .....52 2.1.1 The verb ĝar ............................................................................................................................ 52 2.1.2 The construction igi-bar .......................................................................................................... 53 2.1.3 The Verb ku 4 .......................................................................................................................... 54 2.2 Akkadian Reinterpretation of Sumerian: Grammatical Elements ......................55 2.2.1 Sumerian Dative Plural ............................................................................................................ 55 2.2.4 Sumerian Enclitic Copula ........................................................................................................ 57 3. Ammi-ṣaduqa 1................................................................................................................ 60 3.1 The Text .......................................................................................................60 3.2 Copy, Transliteration and Translation .............................................................62 3.3 Commentary ..................................................................................................65 3.4 Observations .................................................................................................68 4. Conclusive Remarks ........................................................................................................ 70 Conclusions ................................................................................................................. 72 Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 75 Online Sources ............................................................................................................. 82 II Abbreviations Bibliographical Abbreviations:1 AlT: The Alalakh Tablets ANET: Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament BT: Brockman Tablets CDLI: Cuneiform Digital LIbrary Initiative http://cdli.ucla.edu/ CM: Cuneiform Monographs ePSD : electronic Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary Project http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/ ED: Early Dynastic FAOS: Freiburger Altorientalische Studien IOS: Israel Oriental Studies LAOS: Leipziger Altorientalische Studien OB: Old Babylonian PDT: Die Puzris-Dagan-Texte der Istanbuler Archaologischen Museen PTS: Tablet siglum of the collection of the Princeton Theological Seminary SAT: M. Sigrist, Sumerian Archival Texts TCNU: A. Archi, F. Pomponio, G. Bergamini. Testi Cuneiformi Neo-Sumerici da Umma TU: F. Thureau-Dangin, Tablettes d'Uruk VA: Museum siglum of the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin ZATU: M. W. Green and H. J. Nissen, Zelchenliste der archaischen Texte aus Uruk 1 The abbreviations listed here are not included in the bibliographical abbreviations list of CAD U/W. For the other abbreviations, see CAD U/W (vii-xxix). III Linguistic Abbreviations: A: agent ABL: ablative ABS: absolutive ADV: adverbiative COM: comitative COP: copula DAT: dative DO: direct object ERG: ergative GEN: genitive H: human IO: indirect object IPFV: imperfective LOC: locative MI: middle marker MOD: modal NH: non-human NEG: negation, negative NMLZ: nominalizer/nominalization OBJ: object OO: oblique object PFV: perfective PL: plural PRED: predicative POSS: possessive SBJ: subject SG: singular SUB: subordinate VNT: ventive VP: vocalic prefix IV Introduction The composition of bilingual inscriptions is a well-established and well-attested tradition throughout Mesopotamian history. Sumerian-Akkadian bilingual inscriptions started to occur at the end of the third millennium B.C., during the Old Akkadian period (2334-2154 B.C.). Afterwards, until the Kassite (1600-1150 B.C.) and Isin II periods (1150-1025 B.C.), several Mesopotamian rulers had their inscriptions composed in a bilingual version.2 The corpus of Mesopotamian royal inscriptions has been deeply studied over a long time. Primary editions, as well as hand-copies and transcriptions were already published in the first half of the nineteenth century.3 The inscriptions were later re-edited and re-studied until the past few decades. A few editions focused specifically on certain periods,4 while others selected larger groups of texts. In this
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