Volume 108, Issue 1

By the end of the reign of Šar-kali-šarrī, the hegemony that Akkad held over southern Mesopotamia was weakening. The governors of Sumer began to assert their independence and break free from Akkad’s control, and the Gutium presence posed a significant threat to Akkad’s power. The present article includes a copy, edition, and commentary of an unpublished Sargonic letter, specifically concerned with the political machinations occurring during this period of upheaval in the Late Akkadian period. Of particular interest are references to the governors of Umma and Adab, the ensi -ship of Gutium, and military action at Uruk. Additionally, the events detailed in this new letter closely parallel another letter from Girsu, suggesting that the two letters are synchronous correspondence. The new letter furthers our understanding of the intrigue amongst the political elite and the events leading to the end of Akkadian supremacy in Sumer.

This article presents a newly deciphered Old Babylonian fragment of the Epic of Gilgameš. The passages of text preserved on it tell of Enkidu’s encounter with the prostitute and of his arrival in the city of Uruk, and clarify the relationship between other sources for the same episode. The perceived difference between the Old and Standard Babylonian poems’ treatment of Enkidu’s seduction disappears. The extant versions can be reconciled in a single narrative, common to all versions, that holds two different weeks of sexual intercourse. The different narrative strategies deployed in describing them are one of the ways in which the poem explores Enkidu’s psychological development as he changes from wild man to socialized man.

The article presents a philological edition of a tablet stemming from the Sealand dynasty that ruled southern Babylonia during the late Old Babylonian and the early Kassite period. It contains a bilingual Sumero-Akkadian hymn to the gods of Nippur for the sake of the Sealand king Ayadaragalama. The article examines the hymn in its literary context, especially in relation to earlier Old Babylonian royal hymns, and in its historical context, focusing especially on the situation in Nippur during the period of the First Sealand dynasty.

This article analyses a selection of texts from Emar (modern Tell Meskene) in order to illuminate Late Bronze Age trade and financial activities run by private investors and travelling merchants in Northern Mesopotamia and the Levant. In the first part of the article, two cases of redemption of indebted merchants show how capital-lenders secured their investments through personal and real-estate guaranties. The second part of the article examines the various weight standards used by merchants in international trade activities, and shows how this metrological multiplicity is reflected in the figures recorded in the texts.

This study presents a further investigation into the library of the so-called Haus des Beschwörungspriesters , also known as N4 library, the largest and richest Neo-Assyrian private library. The research is based mostly on colophons, and also involves other texts originating in and outside Assur. Its purpose is to investigate further the functions of the exorcist family members in the Aššur temple and at the court and their kinship and professional relationships.

The top part of the famous basalt stele of Kubaba from Karkemish, made by Kamani around 790 BC, was discovered in 2015. This allows for a new discussion of the development of the iconography of the goddess. The stele completes the genealogy of the Karkemish rulers from the 9th century BC and includes the first mention of Sangara in hieroglyphic writing. Thanks to a study of archival materials in the British Museum and the rediscovery of additional stele fragments in the 1911-1920 dig house at the site, the later history of the monument now becomes better known.

The many gold and silver artifacts from the Early Dynastic Royal Tombs of Ur in Mesopotamia are among the greatest metal finds of Ancient Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC. Within the framework of a research project, 32 of these artifacts were analyzed for their composition using a portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer and a scanning electron microscope. Predominantly gold-silver alloys rather than pure gold were identified, containing up to 50 wt.% of silver and often with additional copper content well above 10 wt.%. This spectrum of composition ranges from alloys that could be of natural origin to alloys that were intentionally produced. Some gold artifacts were deliberately blended to gold-silver-copper alloys for color gradation. In addition, Sumerian written sources from the end of the third millennium BC can be compared to the results of the analyses of this study and offer more information on the processing of these metals at that time. In the present study, it is shown that gold originating from placer deposits was brought to Ur. Direct association of gold artifacts with lapis lazuli in many precious objects from the Royal Tombs and the particular composition of inclusions of platinum group minerals in the worked gold both point to a possible provenance in northern Afghanistan. One significant result was the confirmation of the use of depletion gilding for the removal of copper from surfaces; the technique of refining silver-bearing gold, known as parting, is not thought to have been known at this time. A previous version of this paper has been presented as a talk at the 62 e Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale of Philadelphia 11 th –15 th July 2016 by A. Hauptmann, S. Klein and R. Zettler under the title: “A. Hauptmann, S. Klein, and R. Zettler, Sorts of Gold, Sorts of Silver from the Royal Tombs of Ur, Mesopotamia”. “For the late Hans-Gert Bachmann, the pioneer of ancient gold metallurgy. (Andreas Hauptmann)”