Volume 105, Issue 1-2

Abstract: The family of Mannum-mēšu-liṣṣur belongs to the wealthy and well known families from Old Babylonian Nippur. This article will trace the development of its property through the eight documented generations spanning 150 years in total (Lipit-Enlil d to Samsu-iluna 29, ca. 1871–1721 B. C.). The study is based on 30 legal documents mentioning members of the family, and thus forming the archive of Mannum-mēšu-liṣṣur. Special attention will be paid to the inheritance documents.

Abstract: Antoine Cavigneaux’s (2014) recent edition of the Tell Haddad version of Adapa allows for a fresh assessment of the myth in all of its available versions. Close examination of the Tell Haddad version and the Amarna Tablet in particular reveals that the two display different sets of logic and foci, with only the latter concerned especially with Adapa and his fate. This distinction is reflective not merely of fluidity in copying but instead appears to indicate evidence of revision in the course of transmission. I greatly appreciate the constructive feedback that I received on this article from Jerrold Cooper, Paul Delnero, Daniel Fleming, and Thomas Schneider. I take full responsibility for the ideas in and final shape of this article, however, including points at which I depart from their suggestions. I also wish to thank Antoine Cavigneaux for his tremendous generosity in allowing me advance access to his much-coveted edition of the Tell Haddad version of Adapa.

Abstract: In a recently published Old Babylonian Sumerian solar hymn, a diseased supplicant inquires into the nature of a past but unknown religious offence with which he has angered his personal god. The present article contains an interpretation of this passage and a discussion of its various Hittite versions, which range from an almost literal translation (in the Prayer of Kantuzili) to renderings that were strongly adapted to Hittite customs (in the prayers of Mursili II.). This unusually well-documented case offers new insights into the translation and adaptation of literary texts in the ancient Near East.

Abstract: The delivery of a basalt fragment to the Hatay Arkeoloji Müzesi by a farmer who had found it at Tell Tayinat drew our attention to four other basalt fragments inscribed with cuneiform from Tell Tayinat that are currently in the collection of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. We are grateful to Heather Snow for sharing unpublished records that she assembled in the course of researching her monograph in preparation on the finds of the University of Chicago’s Syrian-Hittite Expedition and to the Shelby White Foundation for funding the future publication of this monograph; to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the University of Toronto for their funding of the Tayinat Archaeological Project; to the Hatay Arkeoloji Müzesi’s Director Nilüfer Sezgin and our representative Ömer Çelik for access to the fragment in their collection; to Tayinat Archaeological Project photographer Jennifer Jackson for photographing and creating the PTM file of that fragment; to the Oriental Institute’s registrar Helen McDonald for access to the fragments in their collection; to Walter Farber for discussing aspects of the Chicago inscriptions with us; and to Grant Frame for reading a draft of this article. Abbreviations follow RlA, with the following addition: RINAP 1 = H. Tadmor/S. Yamada, The royal inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III (744–727 BC) and Shalmaneser V (726–722 BC), Kings of Assyria. The Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period 1 (Winona Lake 2011). In the normalization of logograms, we have tried to follow the lemmatization of the RINAP project (http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap). Our study of the five basalt fragments has identified them as pieces of a hitherto unrecognized stele of Sargon II. In this article, we describe the fragments; explain why they derive from a single monumental stele; edit the cuneiform text inscribed on the fragments; discuss reasons for attributing the stele to Sargon II; and, finally, consider why Sargon II may have erected it at Tell Tayinat.

Abstract: À travers l’étude des attestations des verbes walḫ- « frapper » et ḫatt- « percer, transpercer » dans les textes religieux hittites, plusieurs pratiques de violence ritualisée seront mises en évidence. Celles-ci consistent principalement en bastonnades, flagellations ou percements de chair auto-infligés ou dispensés par d’autres en vue d’une purification, d’une oblation et/ou d’une mortification.

Abstract: The Musée du Louvre holds one of the most significant collections of Akkadian royal statuary’s extant vestiges. This article coincides with the restoration and reassembly of a seated statue of King Manishtushu, the third monarch of the dynasty, considered one of the main promoters of this outstanding art. The author takes a new, overall look at royal imagery based on a thorough study of the seated statue, now on view in the Louvre’s permanent display.