Volume 107, Issue 1

Abstract: This article offers a first edition of BM 23820+23831, a manuscript of a previously unknown Old Babylonian Sumerian poem on the relationship between the goddess Innana and king Išme-Dagan of Isin. The king is initially depicted as a humiliated supplicant who suffers under Innana’s wrath, until the intervention of his personal god restores Innana’s favour. A mythological catalogue lists other individuals and places who offended the goddess and were destroyed by her in retribution.

Abstract: The following examines the Akkadian scribal annotation tayyartu , “return,” demonstrating that it refers to a repetitive section of a text that was not copied by the scribe. Editions of two texts where this annotation occurs, a Mīs Pî-type incantation and an Emesal prayer, are included. In addition, the phenomenon of repetition and abbreviation in incantations and Emesal prayers is briefly discussed.

Abstract: This article presents a new private Middle Assyrian letter that was sent by a woman to her husband. The letter is concerned with a liability borne by the husband. Of particular interest is an aphorism or popular saying which was drawn from the world of medicine, delivered by the woman at the close of the letter.

Abstract: CT 51, 56 (BM 34545) is a prebend sale from the E-kar-zaginna temple in Babylon within the Šumu-libši family. It is suggested here that the prebend belonged to a lamentation singer ( kalû ) and was inherited by his son, who sold it because he became an exorcist ( mašmaššu ) rather than a kalû . Some of the protagonists and witnesses in the sale belonged to the circles of well known urban families, among them the Egibis and members of the clergy. In addition to another promissory note (BM 34536), CT 51, 56 constitute a fragment of a yet unknown archive of the Šumu-libšis, a family of the minor clergy in Babylon.

Abstract: A fragment of a stone “mould” shows the deified Naramsîn and Ištar, both sitting on a stepped construction. This extraordinary image is set in a mythic scenery with mountain-gods and a water-goddess. Philologists and archaeologists alike were inspired by this intricate image; their interpretations are manifold and erudite, nevertheless highly speculative. But, alas, this unique objet d’art is without known provenance. All the motifs of this tableau are known from other Near Eastern artefacts, but all of them show aberrations that are at fault with the well-known Mesopotamian iconographic conventions of the 3 rd millennium BC. The technique of the engraving excludes the use of this stone as a mould; moreover, the arrangement of the scenes in radial segments runs contrary to Near Eastern norms for decorating circular objects. Die Literaturabkürzungen folgen denen des RlA. Ich danke W. Sallaberger für intensive Gespräche, E. Fischer, H. Gries, S. Klein (Archäometrie), A. Schmitt und D. Wicke für konstruktive Kritik und J. Curtis für weitreichende Hilfe.

Abstract: Three institutions are found in the Syrian-style legal documents from Emar: the city, the palace and the „brothers“. As will be shown, most of these legal documents can be assigned to one of three groups that differ in form, content and function. Each group can be associated with one of the three institutions, which functions as the principal guarantor of the respective documents. The identification of these groups not only helps to characterize the role of the three institutions more precisely but also has important consequences for the interpretation of the corpus of Syrian legal documents as a whole and its relationship to the Syro-Hittite texts.