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