Inscriptions from Umma and Lagash Lagash and Umma Were Two
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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) -
Nabu 2015-2-Mep-Dc
ISSN 0989-5671 2015 N°2 (juin) NOTES BRÈVES 25) À propos d’ARET XII 344, des déesses dgú-ša-ra-tum et de la naissance du prince éblaïte* — Le texte administratif ARET XII 344 est malheureusement assez lacuneux, mais à notre avis quand même très intéressant. Les lignes du texte préservées sont les suivantes: r. I’:1’-5’: ‹x›[...] / šeš-[...] / in ⸢u₄⸣ / ḫúl / ⸢íl⸣-['à*-ag*-da*-mu*] v. II’:1’-11’: ...] K[ALAM.]KAL[AM(?)] / NI-šè-na-⸢a⸣ / ma-lik-tum / è / é / daš-dar / ap / íl-'à- ag-da-mu / i[n] / [...] / [...] r. III’:1’-9’: ⸢'à⸣-[...] / 1 gír mar-t[u] zú-aka / 1 buru₄-mušen 1 kù-sal / daš-dar / NAM-ra-luki / 1 zara₆-túg ú-ḫáb / 1 giš-šilig₅* 2 kù-sig₁₇ maš-maš-SÙ / 1 šíta zabar / dga-mi-iš r. IV’:1’-10’: ⸢x⸣[...] / 10 lá-3 an-dù[l] igi-DUB-SÙ šu-SÙ DU-SÙ kù:babbar / 10 lá-3 gú-a-tum zabar / dgú-ša-ra-tum / 5 kù-sig₁₇ / é / en / ni-zi-mu / 2 ma-na 55 kù-sig₁₇ / sikil r. V’:1’-6’: [x-]NE-[t]um / [x K]A-dù-gíd / [m]a-lik-tum / i[n-na-s]um / dga-mi-iš / 1 dib 2 giš- DU 2 ti-gi-na 2 geštu-lá 2 ba-ga-NE-su!(ZU) r. VI’:1’-6’: [...]⸢x⸣ / [m]a-[li]k-tum / [šu-ba₄-]ti / [x ki]n siki / [x-]li / [x-b]a-LUM. Tout d’abord, on remarquera qu’au début du texte on peut lire in ⸢u₄⸣ / ḫúl / ⸢íl⸣-['à*-ag*-da*- mu*], c’est-à-dire « dans le jour de la fête (en l’honneur) d’íl-'à-ag-da-mu ». -
After the Battle Is Over: the Stele of the Vultures and the Beginning Of
To raise the ofthe natureof narrative is to invite After the Battle Is Over: The Stele question reflectionon the verynature of culture. Hayden White, "The Value of Narrativity . ," 1981 of the Vultures and the Beginning of Historical Narrative in the Art Definitions of narrative, generallyfalling within the purviewof literarycriticism, are nonethelessimportant to of the Ancient Near East arthistorians. From the simpleststarting point, "for writing to be narrative,no moreand no less thana tellerand a tale are required.'1 Narrativeis, in otherwords, a solutionto " 2 the problemof "how to translateknowing into telling. In general,narrative may be said to make use ofthird-person cases and of past tenses, such that the teller of the story standssomehow outside and separatefrom the action.3But IRENE J. WINTER what is importantis thatnarrative cannot be equated with thestory alone; it is content(story) structured by the telling, University of Pennsylvania forthe organization of the story is whatturns it into narrative.4 Such a definitionwould seem to providefertile ground forart-historical inquiry; for what, after all, is a paintingor relief,if not contentordered by the telling(composition)? Yet, not all figuraiworks "tell" a story.Sometimes they "refer"to a story;and sometimesthey embody an abstract concept withoutthe necessaryaction and settingof a tale at all. For an investigationof visual representation, it seems importantto distinguishbetween instancesin which the narrativeis vested in a verbal text- the images servingas but illustrationsof the text,not necessarily"narrative" in themselves,but ratherreferences to the narrative- and instancesin whichthe narrativeis located in the represen- tations,the storyreadable throughthe images. In the specificcase of the ancientNear East, instances in whichnarrative is carriedthrough the imageryitself are rare,reflecting a situationfundamentally different from that foundsubsequently in the West, and oftenfrom that found in the furtherEast as well. -
The Calendars of Ebla. Part III. Conclusion
Andrews Unir~ersitySeminary Studies, Summer 1981, Vol. 19, No. 2, 115-126 Copyright 1981 by Andrews University Press. THE CALENDARS OF EBLA PART 111: CONCLUSION WILLIAM H. SHEA Andrews University In my two preceding studies of the Old and New Calendars of Ebla (see AUSS 18 [1980]: 127-137, and 19 [1981]: 59-69), interpreta- tions for the meanings of 22 out of 24 of their month names have been suggested. From these studies, it is evident that the month names of the two calendars can be analyzed quite readily from the standpoint of comparative Semitic linguistics. In other words, the calendars are truly Semitic, not Sumerian. Sumerian logograms were used for the names of two months of the Old Calendar and three months of the New Calendar, but it is most likely that the scribes at Ebla read these logograms with a Semitic equivalent. In the cases of the three logograms in the New Calendar these equiva- lents are reasonably clear, but the meanings of the names of the seventh and eighth months in the Old Calendar remain obscure. Not only do these month names lend themselves to a ready analysis on the basis of comparative Semitic linguistics, but, as we have also seen, almost all of them can be analyzed satisfactorily just by comparing them with the vocabulary of biblical Hebrew. Given some simple and well-known phonetic shifts, Hebrew cognates can be suggested for some 20 out of 24 of the month names in these two calendars. Some of the etymologies I have suggested may, of course, be wrong; but even so, the rather full spectrum of Hebrew cognates available for comparison probably would not be diminished greatly. -
Unit 6: Ancient Sumer Ancient Civilizations Options 5000BCE – 1940BCE
Unit 6: Ancient Sumer Ancient Civilizations Options 5000BCE – 1940BCE Period Overview The Ancient Sumer civilization grew up around the Euphretes and Tigris rivers in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), because of its natural fertility. It is often called the ‘cradle of civilization’. By 3000BCE the area was inhabited by 12 main city states, with most developing a monarchical system. The fertility of the soil in the area allowed the societies to devote their attention to other things, and so the Sumer is renowned for its innovation. The clock system we use today of 60-minute hours was devised by Ancient Sumerians, as was writing and the recording of a number system. The civilization began to decline after the invasion of the city states by Sargon I in around 2330BCE, bringing them into the Akkadian Empire. A later Sumerian revival occurred in the area. Life in Ancient Sumer Changing Times Although starting out as small villages and groups of During the 5th Millennium BCE, Sumerians began to hunter-gatherers, Sumer is notable because of its develop large towns which became city-states. This development into a chain of cities. Within the cities the was made by possible by their systems of cultivation of advantages of communal living soon allowed crops, including some of the world’s earliest irrigation individuals to take on other roles than farming, and a systems. These developing communities then were society of classes developed. At the top of the class able to devote time to pursuits other than gathering system were the king and his family, and the priests. -
A Comparison of the Role of Bārû and Mantis in Ancient Warfare
A Comparison of the Role of Bārû and Mantis in Ancient Warfare Krzysztof Ulanowski Divination played a huge role in both the Mesopotamian and Greek civiliza- tions. Diviners were consulted by their clients in all possible situations. The results of divination were especially important during times of war, when asso- ciated with the very life of the king along with thousands of others. Divination was a salient characteristic of Mesopotamian civilization; likewise, in Greek politics and warfare, a leader who ignored omens would incur the ominous anger impressions of those by whom he was followed.1 In this paper I will compare the role and responsibility of diviners in two different civilizations in relation to the affairs of war. What did the Assyrian bārû and the Greek mantis (μάντις) have in common and in what ways did they differ? Could they really decide the course of battles? Would it be possible to describe the skills of the bārû priest in the words of Euripides: “the best mantis is he who guesses well”?2 War When writing systems first appeared in the history of both Mesopotamian and Greek civilizations, the first written works not only had a codifying- mythological nature, but above all a military character. Weil’s essay, L’Iliade ou le poème de la force holds that “the true hero, the true subject at the centre of the Iliad is force”.3 Homer was the poet of war and the Iliad needs hardly be mentioned. In the case of Mesopotamian civilization, one could refer not only to The Gilgamesh Epic, but also to many other Sumerian, and therefore early texts which have war as a leading motif, such as The Victory of Eanatum 1 M.A. -
Forgetting the Sumerians in Ancient Iraq Jerrold Cooper Johns Hopkins University
“I have forgotten my burden of former days!” Forgetting the Sumerians in Ancient Iraq Jerrold Cooper Johns Hopkins University The honor and occasion of an American Oriental Society presidential address cannot but evoke memories. The annual AOS meeting is, after all, the site of many of our earliest schol- arly memories, and more recent ones as well. The memory of my immediate predecessor’s address, a very hard act to follow indeed, remains vivid. Sid Griffiths gave a lucid account of a controversial topic with appeal to a broad audience. His delivery was beautifully attuned to the occasion, and his talk was perfectly timed. At the very first AOS presidential address I attended, the speaker was a bit tipsy, and, ten minutes into his talk, he looked at his watch and said, “Oh, I’ve gone on too long!” and sat down. I also remember a quite different presi- dential address in which, after an hour had passed, the speaker declared, “I know I’ve been talking for a long time, but since this is the first and only time most of you will hear anything about my field, I’ll continue on until you’ve heard all I think you ought to know!” It is but a small move from individual memory to cultural memory, a move I would like to make with a slight twist. As my title announces, the subject of this communication will not be how the ancient Mesopotamians remembered their past, but rather how they managed to forget, or seemed to forget, an important component of their early history. -
Some Professions with Both Male and Female Members in the Presargonic E2-MI2 Corpus
ORIENT Volume 51, 2016 Some Professions with Both Male and Female Members in the Presargonic E2-MI2 Corpus Fumi KARAHASHI The Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan (NIPPON ORIENTO GAKKAI) Some Professions with Both Male and Female Members in the Presargonic E2-MI2 Corpus Fumi Karahashi* This paper will examine three professions (šu-i2, tug2-du8, and i3-du8) in the Presargonic E2- MI2 Corpus that included both male and female members, with the aim of assessing their socio-economic status and roughly delineating their internal organization. A pattern seems to be discernible, namely that each group was comprised of men who held subsistence land and thus were listed in Type I ration lists, and men and women who held no land but received barley rations every month, and thus were listed in Type II or IV lists. Assuming that the ration lists and land allotment texts reflect the socio-economic status of a receiver, these documents should in turn refect the workforce hierarchy. Keywords: women, Presargonic, Lagaš, queen’s household, E2-MI2 I. Introduction The so-called Presargonic E2-MI2 Corpus (ED IIIb), which originated in Girsu in the city-state of Lagaš, contains some 1,800 texts (Foxvog 2011, 59). Many were excavated clandestinely and reached museums in various parts of the world (Paris, Berlin, London, St Petersburg, Copenhagen, US, and so forth) via antiquities dealers in Baghdad (Prentice 2010, 2–5). The majority of the documents are dated to the last three rulers of Presargonic Lagaš, spanning more than twenty years (Visicato 2011, 301; Sallaberger and Schrakamp 2015, 70–74).1 The institution that produced these documents was called E2-MI2 during the reigns of Enentarzi and Lugalanda as well as the frst year of Urukagina, and then its designation was changed to E2- d Ba-u2. -
O L O G Y Ancient Society and Economy
oi.uchicago.edu O L O G Y Ancient Society and Economy I. J. Gelb This report gives the gist of a paper that was read in the "Special Session on Archaeology of Syria: 'The Origins of Cities of Mesopotamia in the Third Millennium B.C.' " In order to avoid further confusion in geographical terminology, two names were introduced in the paper: "Ebla" for northern Syria and "Lagash" for southern Mesopotamia or ancient Babylonia. The names of Ebla and Lagash were chosen to be used symbolically for Syria and Babylonia for obvious reasons, "Ebla" because it is the only site from which doc umentation is available, and "Lagash" because it contains the best documentation. For a person who, like myself, has worked for years on the socio-economic history of ancient Babylonia, working on Ebla has been like working in a different world. The vast majority of the sources pertaining to Lagash and its area concern agriculture, including not only plowed fields but also the adjoining pastures, orchards, and forests, pro cessing of agricultural products, manufacture of finished goods, and registration of the incoming and outgoing prod ucts in the chancellery and its affiliates. Contrasting with the Lagash sources, one finds almost no texts pertaining to agriculture at Ebla, as the overwhelming mass of the economic and administrative sources of Ebla deal with the production of sheep's wool (and much less of linen and goat's hair), manufacture of textiles, and the registration of finished products for internal consumption and export in the chancellery and its affiliates. Facing the archival treasures of Ebla, I felt somewhat like Francisco Pizarro when he entered an Inca storehouse in Cuzco and was overwhelmed by the mountain of wool blan kets piled up from floor to ceiling. -
The Lagash-Umma Border Conflict 9
CHAPTER I Introduction: Early Civilization and Political Organization in Babylonia' The earliest large urban agglomoration in Mesopotamia was the city known as Uruk in later texts. There, around 3000 B.C., certain distinctive features of historic Mesopotamian civilization emerged: the cylinder seal, a system of writing that soon became cuneiform, a repertoire of religious symbolism, and various artistic and architectural motifs and conven- tions.' Another feature of Mesopotamian civilization in the early historic periods, the con- stellation of more or less independent city-states resistant to the establishment of a strong central political force, was probably characteristic of this proto-historic period as well. Uruk, by virtue of its size, must have played a dominant role in southern Babylonia, and the city of Kish probably played a similar role in the north. From the period that archaeologists call Early Dynastic I1 (ED 11), beginning about 2700 B.c.,~the appearance of walls around Babylonian cities suggests that inter-city warfare had become institutionalized. The earliest royal inscriptions, which date to this period, belong to kings of Kish, a northern Babylonian city, but were found in the Diyala region, at Nippur, at Adab and at Girsu. Those at Adab and Girsu are from the later part of ED I1 and are in the name of Mesalim, king of Kish, accompanied by the names of the respective local ruler^.^ The king of Kish thus exercised hegemony far beyond the walls of his own city, and the memory of this particular king survived in native historical traditions for centuries: the Lagash-Umma border was represented in the inscriptions from Lagash as having been determined by the god Enlil, but actually drawn by Mesalim, king of Kish (IV.1). -
Households and the Emergence of Cities in Ancient Mesopotamia
Households and the Emergence of Cities in Ancient Mesopotamia The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Ur, Jason. 2014. “Households and the Emergence of Cities in Ancient Mesopotamia.” Cambridge Archaeological Journal 24 (02) (June): 249–268. doi:10.1017/s095977431400047x. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1017/S095977431400047X. Published Version doi:10.1017/S095977431400047X Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:12490321 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Open Access Policy Articles, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#OAP Post-print of Households and the Emergence of Cities in Ancient Mesopotamia Cambridge Archaeological Journal 26:2 (2014) CAJ-AR-2013-0011 Jason Ur Professor of Anthropology Department of Anthropology Harvard University [email protected] http://scholar.harvard.edu/jasonur Abstract The world’s first cities emerged on the plains of Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and Syria) in the fourth millennium BC. Attempts to understand this settlement process have assumed revolutionary social change, the disappearance of kinship as a structuring principle, and the appearance of a rational bureaucracy. Most assume cities and state-level social organization were deliberate functional adaptations to meet the goals of elite members of society, or society as a whole. This study proposes an alternative model. By reviewing indigenous terminology from later historical periods, it proposes that urbanism evolved in the context of a metaphorical extension of the household that represented a creative transformation of a familiar structure. -
Karduniaš. Babylonia Under the Kassites
557 BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS LXXV N° 5-6, september-december 2018 558 §2 The Early Kassite Period (pp. 45-92) by Frans van Koppen The generally neglected Early Kassite period is discussed at length by van Koppen. This chapter provides an in-depth study discussing first the Kassites in the Old Babylonian period and their military background, i.e., military specializa- tion, command structure, settlements and social organization, followed by a careful description of Kassite-Babylonian interactions in the Late Old Babylonian period, i.e., the Samḫarû and Bimatû under Ammī-ṣaduqa and the Kassite kingdoms in the Diyala under Samsu-ditāna, and finally the role of the Kassites in the Fall of Babylon and their position thereafter. §3 Political Interactions between Kassite Babylonia and Assyria, Egypt and Ḫatti during the Amarna Age (pp. 93-111) by Jared L. Miller Miller focuses on political history in the Late Bronze Age, providing a concise introduction to the political interactions between Kassite Babylonia and its neighbours in the Amarna Age. An interesting contribution is Miller’s update of the chronological synchronisms between Babylon, Assyria, Egypt and Ḫatti, resulting in a helpful chart (pp. 105-106). Finally, an enticing scenario is presented, based on a passage in a prayer of Muršili II (KUB 14.4 ii 3’-8’) regarding the Hittite tawannanna, the Babylonian wife of Šuppiluliuma I: here, Miller advocates a different reading than hitherto accepted, suggesting that she was siphoning off wealth from Hattuša to Babylon and discusses its possible political implications. §4 Of Kings, Princesses, and Messengers: Babylonia’s ASSYRIOLOGIE International Relations during the 13th century BC (pp.