Volume 98, Issue 2

Two silver vessels – one found near Persepolis in Iran and the other from a grave at Gonur Depe in Turkmenistan – are discussed. Similarities in shape and decoration are highlighted, and a common place of origin is postulated. Three possible areas of origin are examined and the implications of a Central Asian origin are discussed in light of current debates about the historical geography of Iran in the late 3 rd millennium B.C.

A new fragmentary text from Nippur which clearly antedates the known corpus of ša 3 -zi-ga rituals may demonstrate the greater antiquity of the thus-named potency ritual in ancient Mesopotamia.

Die in den Jahresdaten der Texte von Tell Muhammad (Schichten II und III) genannten beiden Könige lassen sich mit den Namen der beiden Kassiten-Herrscher Nr. 7 und 8 der Synchronistischen Königsliste identifizieren. Dies erlaubt eine Berechnung des spätestmöglichen Zeitpunkts der Zerstörung Babylons (1530 v. Chr.); damit erweist sich der Ansatz der ‚Ultrakurzchronologie‘ (Fall von Babylon = 1499) als unhaltbar. Der hier begründete neue Vorschlag zum Enddatum der I. Dynastie von Babylon gelangt dagegen zu einem Ergebnis von ca. 1545 v. Chr. für diesen einschneidenden Wendepunkt der altmesopotamischen Geschichte.

This article (a) examines the Akkadian word turru , sometimes ṭurru , in architectural contexts and finds it to designate an angle at the intersection of two walls. In the light of this discovery the article goes on (b) to elucidate passages of Nebuchadnezzar II's inscriptions that describe his construction of the defences of Babylon on either side of the Ištar Gate, and (c) to consider other instances of turru , from which it emerges (d) that the meaning “corner angle” is not confined to architectural contexts, and (e) that bīt turrī , a technical term in damming, probably has nothing to do with turru “corner angle”.

À partir d'un nouveau joint entre les deux fragments hittites KBo 47.266 et KUB 35.136+, le présent article offre une nouvelle édition de ce texte. Celui-ci décrit une cérémonie religieuse relevant du culte de Lallupiya et Ištanuwa, deux villes de l'Anatolie occidentale. La col. i décrit certains des gestes rituels qui sont effectués lors de la cérémonie alors que la col. iv détaille les paroles des chants louvites entonnés à cette occasion par le chœur des hommes d'Ištanuwa.

A shared feature among ergative languages is that none are completely ergative in both morphology and syntax. In some facet of the language there is a split where the language no longer functions along ergative lines but follows a different system, often times nominative-accusative. Hurrian is no exception to the rule. While some theories have attempted to locate this split in ergativity, through a reexamination of the modal system clear evidence for it has now been identified.