Volume 106, Issue 2

Abstract: This article offers a reconstruction of the sequence of month-names at Urusaĝrig (Irisaĝrig, Āl-šarrākī), the site of newly published cuneiform texts. In addition, the leap years and the earlier calendar of Urusaĝrig are discussed.

Abstract: This article examines a part of the Yaḫrūrum šaplûm archives dated to the reign of Samsu-iluna (1749–1712 BCE). Soldiers from Uruk and Malgium in Babylonian service were assigned individual parcels of date-palm orchards in return for providing military service, taxes, and seasonal corvée labor. The texts studied in this article are concerned with the corvée labor of these soldiers on state land. Officials issued specific records to the soldiers to account for the work done so they could keep the usufruct of their orchards.

Abstract: Published here for the first time is the jewel of the cuneiform tablet collection of the Otago Museum in Dunedin, New Zealand. This tablet, E2014.62 preserves a rather unique exemplar of the medico-magical corpus. The obverse gives prescriptions against Lamaštu while the reverse preserves what seem to be a related ritual and accompanying incantations. The very bottom of the reverse provides a drawing of a human-type figure with a goat-like head, which we tentatively identify with “an oath with the feet of a goat”.

Abstract: The mathematical tablet BM 46550 offers the first evidence that a method for computing and verifying reciprocal numbers, thus far attested only in the Old Babylonian era, continued to be applied, in a similar manner, in the Neo- or Late Babylonian era. At least part of the tablet was computed on the spot, some of the columns being written from bottom to top. The mathematical tables are accompanied by an unusual drawing, apparently unrelated to the text.

Abstract: Despite its ubiquitous presence and obvious cultural significance in Mesopotamian art and architecture, the Akkadian language never developed a specific term for the color ‘blue.’ This article seeks to explain this omission and the Akkadian color system in light of ethno-linguistic data collected in the University of California-based World Color Survey project and the physical evidence for blue pigments and colorants. Special attention is paid to the results of multispectral-imaging analysis conducted on Yale University’s Assyrian relief sculpture from Nimrud. This investigation has revealed the use of Egyptian blue pigment in unexpected and hitherto unknown contexts in Assyrian architectural design.

Abstract: The introductory part of the paper is devoted to the notions case, semantic roles, Sumerograms, Akkadograms and hybrid writings. The main part of the paper presents possible competing uses of Akkadographic analytic case markers and Hittite case endings and local adverbs. It further describes the written norm of Akkadographic analytic case markers with Sumerographic and Akkadographic common nouns, numerals, proper nouns and hybrid writings. The paper thus tries to point out that the use and semantics of Akkadographic analytic case markers is more limited than that of Hittite case endings and local adverbs.