Volume 97, Issue 2

The present article discusses the foundations of Sumerian morphosyntax in the light of a strongly typological, and – in parts – cognitive perspective. The general layout of Sumerian morphosyntax, morphosemantics, morphopragmatics, and meaning constructions can be derived from universal patterns of arranging the basic constituents of clausal expressions, namely reference and relation. These cognitive constituents can be interlinked with the help of specific echoes that show up (in Sumerian) as case and agreement markers. The way of expressing these echoes as well as their functional (or: semantic) scope locate Sumerian constructional types on the Accusative Ergative Continuum. We will argue that the Sumerian constructional patterns have started from a dichotomic way of distinguishing center and periphery in an ergative way. This constructional pattern had a ‘syntactic’ value, as it allowed diathesis in order to encode a non-punctional, durative aspect. This aspect construction showed up as an antipassive that later became grammaticalized as an expression of non-past constructions. This ‘tense-split’, typical for a number of adjacent linguistic areas, ended up in the grammaticalization of the antipassive as an accusative construction (‘ marû -construction’), whereas the past domain remained strongly ergative (‘-construction’). The accusative pattern then again allowed a diathesis which now was a passive in nature.

An examination of the data pertaining to the Šimaškian Yabrat (Ebarat) reveals that this Iranian ruler controlled, during the later phase of the Ur III period, a powerful state in central Iran. It appears that Yabrat's influence extended to the neighboring state of Anšan, which may even have been his political dependency. A close and dependent ally of the House of Ur until the reign of Ibbi-Suen, Yabrat subsequently became a major threat to Babylonia. The article seeks to reconstruct the history of the interactions between Yabrat and the Ur III state, and to provide an improved understanding of Šimaški as a political and geographic phenomenon. The question of the historicity of the so-called “Šimaš- kian King List” is also considered.

This article presents editions of KBo. 36, 47 and KBo. 42, 116, both fragments of Akkadian omens found in attuša. KBo. 42, 116 is identified as a fragment of šumma immeru omens. KBo. 36, 47 obverse is demonstrated to be an Akkadian šumma immeru omen text almost identical to the Emar šumma immeru recension. Its reverse is proven to be an Akkadian recension of šumma ālu omens that can be identified with Tablet 41 of the canonical šumma ālu series. This invites us to discuss the textual history of these omen genres and their transmission to the so-called Western Periphery.

A new ‘barrel cylinder’ fragment of Sargon II, from an unknown provenance, is published herein. The fragment yields a summary report of events from Sargon's reign up to his eleventh palû , in a geographical rather than in a chronological order. The 14 preserved lines are written in a NB ductus, closely resembling and partly overlapping those of the barrel cylinder fragment ND 3411 from Nimrud. The text of the new fragment is reconstructed and studied here with the help of the corresponding lines in the above Nimrud fragment, the Khorsabad cylinders and a cylinder fragment from Nineveh (K 1660).

In this article, collations of the 13 Graeco-Babyloniaca texts presently in the British Museum, as well as photographs of nine of these, are offered; the cultural Sitz im Leben of the Graeco-Babyloniaca is examined; a phonological analysis of Akkadian and Sumerian in Greek transcription is attempted; and M. Geller's thesis of a survival of the cuneiform tradition into the third century A. D. is critically discussed. Thus, the debate about these texts in this journal is continued.

H aas , V olkert : Die hethitische Literatur. Texte, Stilistik, Motive. Berlin, New York: de Gruyter, 2006. XVII, 364 S. 23 × 15,5 cm. ISBN-13: 978-3-11-018877-6. Preis: € 58,00. ( Stefano de Martino )