Volume 95, Issue 1-2

In seeking to recover the semantic relationships that led the Euphrates and Sippar to share the writing UD.KIB.NUN , this paper begins with an analysis of the earliest writings for river and city. It is found that the essential elements of this Diri compound, KIB.NUN , first designated the divine Euphrates; only as a secondary development did the city borrow the spelling from the river. Further, it is suggested that the writing UD.KIB.NUN belongs to the UD.GAL.NUN orthographic tradition. As for the city taking its spelling from the river, the explanation lies, on one hand, in the functional overlap of the Sun- and River-gods and, on the other, in the unique topography of the Sippar region. The aspect of divine judge defines both the Sun-god, the patron deity of Sippar, and the River-god, the divine Euphrates being a particular manifestation of d í d / d Nāru – indeed, the textual and artistic records together describe a mythological and cosmographical conception that links these two deities. The Sippar region, it is argued, was an early cult center of the River-god and was regarded as a numen loci on account of the unique geomorphological conditions specific to the area.

Ces pages sont consacrées à une étude de AK «faire». Après une discussion du paradigme (2) et des graphies (non-)standard et gloses de lecture de AK (3), le lecteur trouvera quelques ajouts et corrections au PSD A/III 70–76, a k 1–7 (4) et une liste des «composés » de AK et des expressions idiomatiques formées avec AK (5). Des remarques de détail touchant les autres lexèmes inclus dans le PSD A/III (pp. 1–69 et 131–217) closent l’article (6).

The fragmentary nature of cuneiform documentation provides a generous canvas for historical speculation; indeed, without such speculation our reconstruction of the ancient past would be dry, disjointed, and chaotically discontinuous. But speculation carries risks, and new information more often than not wreaks havoc on even the most carefully woven historical narratives. In a recent paper I suggested that the royal houses of Mari and Ur were strongly linked during the last century of the third millennium BC, during the time we call the Ur III period; similar views were independently expressed by Tonia Sharlach. Some time after the article had been given at a conference, thoroughly revised, read by a number of colleagues, submitted for publication, and promptly forgotten, new evidence came to light that may effect parts of the narrative. But, as is often the case, the new information is also fragmentary: it casts doubt on some of my assertions, but it also fails to provide any definitive answers.

Among the functions which are usually ascribed to the Akkadian Gt-stem, the separative and the “intensive” (durative/habitual) functions are problematic because they do not recur in any other Semitic language, and because their relationship to the basic detransitive meaning of the t -infix is unclear. It is argued here that the Gt-stem does not have a separative function, and that the alleged separative Gt-stems represent a typologically not uncommon extension of a reflexive marker to motion verbs, which gives them a basically ingressive meaning. Moreover, the “intensive” function is argued to be a secondary development specific to literary Babylonian and largely unrelated to the original function of the t -infix.

The three calendrical scrolls from Qumran, 4Q320, 4Q321, and 4Q321a, contain diverse calendrical materials, including a system for dating lunar phenomena over a triennial cycle of months. These scrolls, known for some time now, were published in their official editions recently in DJD XXI. Research into the full significance of the scrolls continues. Below we will propose that the lunar data in the three scrolls match that in Late Babylonian astronomical texts.

Die wichtigsten Dokumente zur althethitischen Geschichte wurden vor ungefähr 80 Jahren, also in den frühen Jahren der modernen Hethitologie, von E. Forrer im Rahmen einer auch heute immer noch als Standardwerk geltenden Arbeit zusammen mit ihren Textumschriften zusammengestellt. Kumulativ, aber gleichwohl sehr sparsam, kamen später weitere schriftliche Zeugnisse des althethitischen Textensembles historischen Inhalts hinzu. Unter diesen gelten natürlich die bilingualen Annalen von Ḫattušili I. als die wichtigsten Funde; sie stammen aus den Boğazköy-Ausgrabungen von 1957 und sind fast vollständig erhalten auf uns gekommen.

Nathan Wasserman , Kienast, Burkhart : iškar šēdlebi : Die Serie vom Fuchs. (Freiburger altorientalische Studien 22). Stuttgart: Steiner, 2003. x, 72 S. 17 × 24 cm. ISBN 3-515-08126-7. Price: € 30.00. Michael P. Streck , Wasserman, Nathan : Style and Form in Old-Babylonian Literary Texts. (Cuneiform Monographs 27). Leiden: Brill & Styx 2003. xxvii, 239 S. 16 × 24,5 cm. ISBN 90 04 12404 7. Preis: € 85,00. Jörg Klinger , Hunger, Hermann und Regine Pruzsinszky (Hrsg.): Mesopotamian Dark Age Revisited. Proceedings of an International Conference of SCIEM 2000, Vienna 8 th –9 th November 2002. (= Contributions to the Chronology of the Eastern Mediterranean 6). Wien: Österr. Akad. der Wiss., 2004. 95 S. 21 × 30 cm. ISBN 3-7001.3278-6. Preis: € 25,00. Dietz Otto Edzard †, Whiting, R. M. (Hg.): Mythology and Mythologies. Methodological Approaches to Intercultural Influences. (Melammu Symposia II). Helsinki: The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 2001. xxv, 288 S. 21,5 × 28,0 cm. ISBN 951-45-9049-X. Preis: $ 75,00. Kai Alexander Metzler , Nebes, Norbert (Hg.): Neue Beiträge zur Semitistik. Erstes Arbeitstreffen der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Semitistik in der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft vom 11. bis 13. September 2000 an der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena. (Jenaer Beiträge zum Vorderen Orient 5). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2002. vii + 299 S. 17 × 24 cm, ISBN 3-447-04606-6. Preis: € 74,– D. O. Edzard †, Andronov, Mikhail S. : A Grammar of the Brahui Language in Comparative Treatment. München: Lincom, 2001. ii, 112 S. 15 × 22,5 cm. ISBN 3895864129. Joost Hazenbos , Klengel, Horst : Hattuschili und Ramses. Hethiter und Ägypter – ihr langer Weg zum Frieden. Kulturgeschichte der antiken Welt 95. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 2002. 179 S., 49 Farb- und 31 Schwarzweißabb. 18 × 25,5 cm. ISBN 3-8053-2917-2. Preis: € 39,80. Ursula Seidl , Garrison, Mark B . und Margaret Cool Root : Seals on the Persepolis Fortification Tablets, vol. I: Images of Heroic Encounter; Charles E. Jones : Seal Inscription Readings. (OIP 117). Chicago: Oriental Institute, 2001. 2 Bde. (Text und Tafeln), XXXIII, 562 S., 25 Tabellen, 9 Abb., 291 Tafeln. 23,5 × 30,5 cm. ISBN: 1-885923-12-0. Preis: $ 140,00. Eingegangene Bücher