Untersuchungen zur Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archäologie

This is the first philological-critical edition and detailed investigation of a literary disputation between two women conducted in the Sumerian language, written approx. 4,000 years ago in Babylonia. Their debate on the status of womanhood finally ends up in court. “Two Women B” thus provides unique insights about the construction of ideal womanhood and procedural law in ancient Babylonia.

Eight disputations on precedence have been preserved from Ancient Mesopotamia. In these texts, two opposing understandings of everyday life engage in a verbal argument. The works served at one time to teach oratorical competency to individuals receiving advanced literacy training. This volume examines the argumentation structure of the dialogues, thereby contributing to research on oratorical practice in the Ancient Middle East.

The Tawagalawa Letter (13^th century BCE) is the most important source on diplomatic contacts between the Hittite Empire in Asia Minor and the land of Ahhiyawa, whose location and population (Mycenae versus Asia Minor) used to be a matter of great contention. Based F. Sommer’s influential text edition of 1932, six researchers from different disciplines have now developed a revised version reflecting the state of research today.

The present work attempts to close a gap in our knowledge of the history of Sumerian between the extensive and well-understood corpus of texts from the late 3rd to early 2nd millennia B.C.E. and the sparsely-attested Sumerian of the 1st millennium BCE. Consulting new textual materials from the Vorderasiatisches Museum of Berlin, this investigation devotes special attention to key linguistic features of Sumerian in this epoch, the contexts and ideological significance of its use, and scribal education in Kassite Babylonia generally. Although it may seem to handle disparate themes at first glance, these topics are in fact linked since scribal education provided the key source for knowledge of Sumerian in a time when there were no longer native Sumerian speakers. The analysis and the comparison with previous and subsequent epochs provided here allow lines of development and regional trends to come into clearer view, but they also show the inherent difficulty in describing Kassite Sumerian as a language and in assessing its quality.

The present work attempts to close a gap in our knowledge of the history of Sumerian between the extensive and well-understood corpus of texts from the late 3rd to early 2nd millennia B.C.E. and the sparsely-attested Sumerian of the 1st millennium BCE. Consulting new textual materials from the Vorderasiatisches Museum of Berlin, this investigation devotes special attention to key linguistic features of Sumerian in this epoch, the contexts and ideological significance of its use, and scribal education in Kassite Babylonia generally. Although it may seem to handle disparate themes at first glance, these topics are in fact linked since scribal education provided the key source for knowledge of Sumerian in a time when there were no longer native Sumerian speakers. The analysis and the comparison with previous and subsequent epochs provided here allow lines of development and regional trends to come into clearer view, but they also show the inherent difficulty in describing Kassite Sumerian as a language and in assessing its quality.

Karduniaš, as the kingdom of the Kassites in Babylonia was called in ancient times, was the neighbor and rival of great powers such as Egypt, the Hittites, and Assyria. But while our knowledge of the latter kingdoms has made huge progress in the last decades, the Kassites have until recently been largely ignored by modern scholarship. Recently a number of scholars have embarked on research into different aspects of Late Bronze Age Babylonia. The desire to share the results of these new investigations resulted in an international conference, which was held at Munich University in July 2011. The presentations given at this meeting have been revised for publication in the current volume.
This book gives an overview of current research on the Kassites and is the first larger survey of their culture ever. An invaluable introduction by Kassite expert Professor John A. Brinkman is followed by seventeen specialist contributions investigating different aspects of the Kassites. These include detailed historical, social, cultural, archaeological, and art historical studies concerning the Kassites from their first arrival in Mesopotamia, during the period when a Kassite Dynasty ruled Babylonia (c. 1500-1550 BC), and in the subsequent aftermath. Concentrating on southern Mesopotamia the contributions also discuss Kassite relations and presence in neighboring regions.
The book is completed by a substantial bibliography and a detailed index.

Karduniaš, as the kingdom of the Kassites in Babylonia was called in ancient times, was the neighbor and rival of great powers such as Egypt, the Hittites, and Assyria. But while our knowledge of the latter kingdoms has made huge progress in the last decades, the Kassites have until recently been largely ignored by modern scholarship. Recently a number of scholars have embarked on research into different aspects of Late Bronze Age Babylonia. The desire to share the results of these new investigations resulted in an international conference, which was held at Munich University in July 2011. The presentations given at this meeting have been revised for publication in the current volume.
This book gives an overview of current research on the Kassites and is the first larger survey of their culture ever. An invaluable introduction by Kassite expert Professor John A. Brinkman is followed by seventeen specialist contributions investigating different aspects of the Kassites. These include detailed historical, social, cultural, archaeological, and art historical studies concerning the Kassites from their first arrival in Mesopotamia, during the period when a Kassite Dynasty ruled Babylonia (c. 1595-1155 BC), and in the subsequent aftermath. Concentrating on southern Mesopotamia the contributions also discuss Kassite relations and presence in neighboring regions.
The book is completed by a substantial bibliography and a detailed index.

Alhena Gadotti offers a much needed new edition of the Sumerian composition Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld, last published by Aaron Shaffer in his 1963 doctoral dissertation. Since then, several new manuscripts have come to light, prompting not only a new edition of the text, but also a re-examination of the composition. In this book, Gadotti argues that Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld was the first, not the last of the Sumerian stories about Gilgamesh. She also suggests that a Sumerian Gilgamesh Cycle, currently only attested in old Babylonian manuscripts (ca. 18th century BCE), was in fact developed during the Ur III period (ca. 2100-2000 BCE). Providing a new way to look at the Sumerian Gilgamesh stories, this book is relevant not only to scholars of the ancient Near East, but also to anyone interested in epic and epic cycle.

The volume Literarische Texte aus Ur: Kollationen und Kommentare zu UET 6/1-2 [Literary Texts from Ur: Collations and Commentaries on UET 6/1-2] contains corrigenda and addenda to the Sumerian and Akkadian literary cuneiform texts on clay tablets from the ancient city of Ur, in modern Iraq, published by C.J. Gadd and S.N. Kramer in UET 6/1-2 (London 1963 and 1966).
It deals with problematic forms and readings of individual characters, the archaeological context of the tablets, the types of clay tablets, and the trace fossils preserved on them.

The first regional and chronological categorisation of the cylinder seals used in Syria and North Mesopotamia from about 1800 - 1730 BC. The methodology is new, based firstly on dated seals, some of them only recently excavated, and secondly on the political structure and historical processes of an age which witnessed a new beginning and high point in the history of the region.

The result is the identification of regional groupings of seals which coincide approximately with the regional states developing at that time. In each centre the development can be observed of an official iconography for the seals of the ruling elite at court.

The groupings of seals provide evidence of immanent developments, foreign influences and mutual relationships. By localising particular topic groups and motifs, it is possible to identify gods and other figures.