OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, 08/01/2011, SPi 00001253263.INDD001253263.INDD i 88/1/2011/1/2011 55:27:32:27:32 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, 08/01/2011, SPi F. A fi sh-cloaked apkallu-sage, the embodiment of cuneiform scholarship, created by artist Tessa Rickards based on original monuments from ancient Kalhu and Til-Barsip. 00001253263.INDD001253263.INDD iiii 88/1/2011/1/2011 55:27:32:27:32 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, 08/01/2011, SPi CUNEIFORM CULTURE Edited by KAREN RADNER and ELEANOR ROBSON 1 00001253263.INDD001253263.INDD iiiiii 88/1/2011/1/2011 55:27:33:27:33 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, 08/01/2011, SPi 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. 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Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by MPG Books Group, Bodmin and King’s Lynn ISBN –––– 00001253263.INDD001253263.INDD iivv 88/1/2011/1/2011 55:27:33:27:33 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, 08/01/2011, SPi C List of Figures ix About the Contributors xv A c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s xxiii Note on Typographical Conventions xxv Introduction K R E R xxvii PART I. MATERIALITY AND LITERACIES . Tablets as Artefacts, Scribes as Artisans J T . Accounting in Proto-cuneiform R K. E . Numeracy and Metrology G C . Levels of Literacy N V . Literacy and Gender B L PART II. INDIVIDUALS AND COMMUNITIES . 1 e Person in Mesopotamian 1 ought B R. F . 1 e Scribe of the Flood Story and his Circle F K . Feasts for the Living, the Dead, and the Gods H B . Cuneiform Writing in Neo-Babylonian Temple Communities M J 00001253263.INDD001253263.INDD v 88/1/2011/1/2011 55:27:33:27:33 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, 08/01/2011, SPi vi . Freedom in Ancient Near Eastern Societies E V D PART III. EXPERTS AND NOVICES . Teacher–student Relationships: Two Case Studies Y C S K . Patron and Client: Zimri-Lim and Asqudum the Diviner D C . Learned, Rich, Famous, and Unhappy: Ur-Utu of Sippar M T . Music, the Work of Professionals N Z . 1 e Education of Neo-Assyrian Princes S Z PART IV. DECISIONS . Judicial Decision-making: Judges and Arbitrators S D-L . Royal Decision-making: Kings, Magnates, and Scholars K R . Assyria at War: Strategy and Conduct A F . Manipulating the Gods: Lamenting in Context A L . Magic Rituals: Conceptualization and Performance D S PART V. INTERPR ETATIONS . Sheep and Sky: Systems of Divinatory Interpretation U S K 00001253263.INDD001253263.INDD vvii 88/1/2011/1/2011 55:27:33:27:33 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, 08/01/2011, SPi vii . Making Sense of Time: Observational and 1 eoretical Calendars J M. S . Letters as Correspondence, Letters as Literature F H V . Keeping Company with Men of Learning: the King as Scholar E F . From Street Altar to Palace: Reading the Built Environment of Urban Babylonia H D. B PART VI. MAKING KNOWLEDGE . 1 e Production and Dissemination of Scholarly Knowledge E R . Tablets of Schools and Scholars: a Portrait of the Old Babylonian Corpus S T . Adapting to New Contexts: Cuneiform in Anatolia M W . Observing and Describing the World through Divination and Astronomy F R . Berossos between Tradition and Innovation G D B PART VII. SHAPING TR ADITION . Agriculture as Civilization: Sages, Farmers, and Barbarians F. A. M. W . Sourcing, Organizing, and Administering Medicinal Ingredients B B . Changing Images of Kingship in Sumerian Literature N B 00001253263.INDD001253263.INDD vviiii 88/1/2011/1/2011 55:27:33:27:33 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, 08/01/2011, SPi viii . 1 e Pious King: Royal Patronage of Temples C W . Cuneiform Culture’s Last Guardians: the Old Urban Notability of Hellenistic Uruk P C Index 00001253263.INDD001253263.INDD vviiiiii 88/1/2011/1/2011 55:27:33:27:33 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, 08/01/2011, SPi F . Map of the ancient Near East, showing the major places mentioned in this book xxiv . Map of ancient Mesopotamia, showing the major places mentioned in this book xxvi . Clay tablets containing diff erent inclusions . A sample of the variety of shapes and sizes of clay documents – . 1 e folds in a tablet, showing the method of manufacture . Rulings made on clay tablets by a stylus and by string . Nail and hem impressions on clay tablets . ‘Firing holes’ in a Neo-Assyrian scholarly tablet . Fragment of a clay envelope and a tablet inside its envelope . Two Neo-Assyrian scribes (detail of a stone relief from Tiglath-pileser III’s palace at Kalhu, modern Nimrud, Iraq) . Fragment of a Neo-Assyrian prism, showing the layers of its construction . Overview of the chronology and historical developments of the earliest literate periods in Babylonia . Denise Schmandt-Besserat’s schema of the history of writing . Formats of the proto-cuneiform texts . Proto-cuneiform numerical sign systems – . 1 e administrative exercise tablet MSVO : and the calculations implicit in the text . 1 e account MSVO : from Jemdet Nasr . Equivalencies in grain accounts . Accounts of domestic ‘herds’ of slaves . Numerical qualifi cation of young animals and humans . Two Neo-Assyrian offi cials weigh what may be round metal bars on a balance scale (detail from the Rassam Obelisk) . Metrological table written by the scribe Warad-Sin . 1 e evolution of the discrete counting system 00001253263.INDD001253263.INDD iixx 88/1/2011/1/2011 55:27:33:27:33 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, 08/01/2011, SPi x . 1 e number , in the discrete counting system . Inscribed jar excavated by André Parrot at Mari . Fragments of an Old Babylonian copy of the archaic list of professions Lu A . Neo-Assyrian list of archaic sign forms, accompanied by contemporary signs . Old Babylonian school text: list of animals . Calcite vessel from Ur, c . , with an inscription of Šuqurtum, one of king Šulgi of Ur’s lukur -women . Nail with an inscription relating the construction work undertaken by the en -priestess Enanedu at Ur in the early second millennium . Writing exercise, now known as Syllable Alphabet A, written by a girl, probably at Sippar, c . . Cylinder seal (and its modern impression) of Pu-abi, queen of Ur, c . . House rental contract: the only text written by Ipiq-Aya as a contract scribe . Ipiq-Aya’s family tree . 1 e seals of Ipiq-Aya, his sons, and father . Lapis lazuli cylinder seal with a banqueting scene (from the so-called Queen’s Grave of the Early Dynastic Royal Cemetery of Ur) . 1 e top scene from the ‘Peace panel’ of the so-called ‘Standard of Ur’, showing a banquet with seated men drinking to the accompaniment of a musician playing a lyre . Administrative tablet from ancient Garšana, recording the delivery of beer, bread, meat, and various soup ingredients for fi ve banquets in honour of fi ve diff erent deities . Fragment of a drinking straw made out of a bent bronze sheet ( c . mm thick) (from a cremation burial excavated at Dur-Katlimmu, modern Tell Sheikh Hamad, Syria) . E-hursag-tilla, the temple of Ninurta at Babylon, aW er excavation and minor restoration . Commemorative stela set up in honour of a priest by his son . Student’s copy of a legal document, referring to a temple offi ce . 1 e reception suite (‘salle du trône’) of the ‘Small Eastern Palace’ at Mari, where Asqudum had his living quarters . Clay liver models from Mari . 1 e cylinder seal of Kabi-Addu, son of Asqudum 00001253263.INDD001253263.INDD x 88/1/2011/1/2011 55:27:33:27:33 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, 08/01/2011, SPi xi . When Ur-Utu’s house was on fi re, the way out . 1 e tablets from the special box in Ur-Utu’s house . Silver lyre from the Early Dynastic Royal Cemetery of Ur, third millennium . Statue of the ‘august musician’ Ur-Nanše, c . th century , excavated at Mari . Old Babylonian clay plaque, probably from Ešnunna, showing a pair of acrobatic dancers (huppûm ) . Modern impression of an Old Babylonian cylinder seal, showing a dance performance reminiscent of the wild dance (gu štum ), which was performed annually in the streets of the city of Larsa .