Volume 112, Issue 1

Linear Elamite writing was used in southern Iran in the late 3 rd /early 2 nd millennium BCE (ca. 2300–1880 BCE). First discovered during the French excavations at Susa from 1903 onwards, it has so far resisted decipherment. The publication of eight inscribed silver beakers in 2018 provided the materials and the starting point for a new attempt; its results are presented in this paper. A full description and analysis of Linear Elamite of writing, employed for recording the Elamite language, is given here for the first time, together with a discussion of Elamite phonology and the biscriptualism that characterizes this language in its earliest documented phase.

B 158 is a Seleucid-period manuscript of the bilingual Balaĝ prayer Ukkin-ta eš-bar til-la. The tablet, which was found at Babylon in 1902 and is edited here for the first time, contains major portions of text that have hitherto been unknown. The prayer is suffused with first-millennium Nabû theology and contains a unique literary request for revenge against the enemy in the mountain lands. The findspot of B 158 may shed light on the provenance of the Late Babylonian kalûtu library of the Nanna-utu family.

Our knowledge about the omen series šumma ālu ina mēlê šakin has much advanced since the first manuscripts were edited. Even though the overall structure of Šumma ālu is generally well established, the final third of the series still poses considerable problems. In this article we will present a new reconstruction for the sequence from Tablet 80 to 95. As colophons with catchlines and Tablet numbers are scarce for this part of the series, we have developed a new method for the reconstruction mainly relying on clusters of excerpt tablets originating from Nineveh.

This article offers an edition and an attempt at an interpretation of text BM 40757, which records a ritual related to the New Year Festival (NYF), or Akītu, of Marduk in Babylon. The text contains information on the festival’s structure, setting, and organization. It clarifies aspects related to the arrival of the river procession at the Akītu temple, the participants and deities involved, their spatial and ritual arrangements, the offerings and rites performed, the ceremonial elements involved, and the specific spaces in which the rites were carried out. It also illustrates aspects of urban cultic topography and, more importantly, features of the Akītu temple’s layout.

Out of the looting tunnels on Tell Nebi Yunus at Nineveh, which were dug into the ruins of the Late Assyrian military palace by henchmen of the so-called Islamic State, there came, amongst other objects, relief panels featuring anthropomorphic representations. These figures, shown in frontal view, are unusual when compared to the wider repertoire of Assyrian images known from the royal palaces on Kuyunjik. The decoration and context of these stone slabs raise questions regarding their function.