Review of H. Reculeau/B. Feller, Mittelassyrische Urkunden aus dem Archiv Assur 14446 = KAM 10 (2012), Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 166/1 (2016) 229-232.
Biicherbesprechungen HERVE RECULEAU /BARBARA FELLER: Mittelassyrische Urkunden aus dem Archiv Assur 14446. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2012. vii, 112 S., 55 Abb., 2 Tab., 82 Taf. (Wissenschaftliche Veroffentlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 130). ISBN 978-3447-06812-3. € 68,-. The book under review is the tenth part of the sub-series "Keilschrifttexte aus Mittelassyrischer Zeit" (KAM). This book contains copies of 49 Middle Assyrian tablets and one Old Assyrian sale of a house plot, with the addition of a catalogue of the seal impressions. All texts were previously unpublished, with the exception of the Old Assyrian tablet (no. 1), which had a semi text edition by V. DoNBAZ 1 based on a photo. An updated edition appeared in a note by the reviewer. 2 The book contains a short introduction to the texts, summary of the context of each tablet and indices of proper names. The latter are especially useful as RECULEAU made extensive use of all previous studies. The overview of the tablets ("Inhaltsiibersicht") discusses the dating of individual texts, the context of tablets according to the three families (A, B and C) and a separation of all individuals with identical names in the indices. For instance, according to the indices there are four different persons found with the name Adad-begal in this volume, of which only one has a patronymic. RECULEAU is to be applauded for his efforts here, which made this volume more accessible. On the other hand, a more traditional approach to the copying of tables might have been better. Wedges are drawn according to the space they take on the tablet, rather than a more stylized form that is used in most text publications. The results are some overly large signs, which are unnecessarily difficult to read. One can find another example of this style in P. BoRDREUIL/D. PARDEE: Manuel d'Ougaritique. Paris 2004. However, the style fits much better the simple Ugaritic alphabet than the more complex Middle Assyrian syllabary. The new volume is co-authored by FELLER, who has been responsible for the seal impressions. A total of 103 different seals are counted in this book with a large number of additional photos of the tablets with impressions. The texts themselves were copied and described by RECULEAU. The volume contains the last unpublished tablets in Berlin from the Assur 14446 Archive of Qal'at Sirqat, numbered M 9 in ALCA 3 • The majority of texts from this archive had previously been published in KAJ4 and some in the MARV volumes, with subsequent studies. Most noticeably are the two Italian monographs DSC 1 and 3 by C. SAPORETTI, which contain both a study of the archive and an edition of all tablets published at that time. SAPORETTI reconstructed three families (A, B and C), subdivided into different generations (1, Ilff.). Subsequently, this subdivision was used in ALCA as well as in 1
"More Old Assyrian Tablets from Assur." In: Akkadica 42 (1985), pp. 1-23. "A late Old Assyrian sale of a house plot, KAM 10 1." In: Nouvelles Assyriologiques Breves et Utilitaires 2013/2 no. 32, Sp. 55-57. 3 = 0. PEDERSEN: Archives and Libraries in the City of Assur. Part. 1: A Survey of Material from the German Excavations. Uppsala 1985 (Studia Semitica Upsaliensia). 4 The abbreviations used in this review can be found in M.P. STRECK (ed.): Reallexikon der Assyriologie. Vol. 12. Berlin/New York 2009-2011, pp. 111-L. 2
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the volume under review. It would have been useful to have an overview of all tablets from the Assur 14446 archive such as we find in KAM 7 for Assur 10945-11019 (ALCA M 8). The texts are of interest as they are one of the few archives going back to the early Middle Assyrian period of Eriba-Adad 1/Assur-uballit I (the other main example being M 14). A small number of texts goes even back further, with KAJ 177 (M 9 16) belonging to the reign of Assur-nirari II (1424-1418/1414-1408) and mentioning his predecessor Assur-rabi. A list of these early texts can be found in SAPORETTI: Gli Eponimi Medio-Assiri.Malibu 1979, pp. 29-32. The texts of this volume are all somewhat younger, most of them belonging to the reigns of Eriba-Adad I and Assur-uballit I, this is also true for theM 9 archive on a whole (ALCA 1, pp. 89-90). Only a few texts might be younger, perhaps dating to the reigns of Adad-nirari I and Salmanassar I (nos. 27-31, 45, 47), two tablets might even date to Tukulti-Ninurta I (nos. 30, 45). The higher numbered tablets (nos. 30ff.) have no or heavily damaged dating information so that most of them received no comment on their chronological sequence. The main group of tablets is still significantly older than the majority of the Middle Assyrian texts, which either date to Salmanassar 1/Tukulti-Ninurta I or around Assur-dan I to Tiglatpilesar I. Nonetheless, one text (no. 1) is probably as old as the 17rh century BC and is closer to the Old Assyrian corpus than Middle Assyrian. Concerning the content, this volume does not contain many surprises. The M 9 tablets published in KAJ give a representative picture of the texts of this volume. Most of them are either loans or purchases dealing mostly with land, grain and tin. As a result formulas in these texts highly resemble the previously published texts. This is helpful for reconstructing broken passages in texts, e. g. no. 6: (5') [i-din-m]a u-sap-pi (6') [AN.NA up-pu l]aJqe 1 (7') [tu-a-ru u d]a-ba-bu (8') [la-as-su] "he sold it and handed it over. The tin is acquired and taken. There will be no withdrawal or litigation." (Reconstructed following texts such as KAJ 152: 13-15.) Letters are not to be found in this volume, to my knowledge MARV 2, 25 (M 9102) is the only letter in this archive. However, most passages of this text are very damaged. At the end of the volume we find some tables, similar to the gina?u-offering lists from M 4. Two texts from the archive will be discussed here that are of special interest and are neither loan nor purchase. The first is a royal document from the reign of Eriba-Adad, which was furthermore sealed with the seal of the king. In the catalogue, it is listed as Siegel 60 with a complete reconstruction and photos in table 23. With respect to content, the tablet is closest to KAJ 183 = KAV 93 (M 9 94), but other royal documents are known from this archive as well: KAJ 173 = KAV 210; KAJ 177; KAV 209-12; MARV 1, 41. In general we could state that royal documents are among the oldest Middle Assyrian private texts, being attested for the monarchs Assur-nirari II (KAJ 177) and Assur-rim-nisesu (MARV 1, 41). The text KAM no. 8 itself is one of the shortest of its kind: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. rev.
1-8) Eriba-Adad the steward has given the share of the palace of the house of Samasamiri the son of Mar-!Star to Iddin-Assur the son of Kid en-Kubi.
9-10) Month Belat-ekallim, day 20+n, eponymy Assur-le 7 i.
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It may be noticed how this text uses a perfect ittidin 1. 7, which is not unexpected, but still deserves further comment. It has been accepted for a long time that the perfect was in the process of replacing the preterite except for certain conditions, most noticeable the precative, negated past tense and past tense in depended clauses. 1 It should be noted that administrative documents still often use the preterite in main clauses as opposed to the corpus of letters, where it was fully replaced by the perfect except for the situations just noted. Especially the preterite iddin is still common in administrative documents. I gathered the following attestations, which are representative, but not complete: KAJ 1: 6; 146: 11; 147: 12; 148: 18; 149: 12; 151: 12; 153: 11; 154: 12; 155: 12; 164: 18; 165: 19; 174: 12;no.5:8; 14: 11; FINKELSTEIN, JCS 7/4 (1953) 12:20. Compare this to a smaller group of the perfect ittidin: KAJ 88: 16; 109: 21; 167:14;JCS 7/4 (1953) 2: 14; Subartu 14, 1: 18; 12: 9', 11'. Of these attestations some may be explained as expressing the futurum exactum or "Vorzeitigkeit in der Zukunft" (cf. GAG, 274 § 172h; 276 § 172f), however this explanation does not apply to the small group of royal documents which all use a perfect: KAJ 173: 8; 177: 12; 183: 7; KAV 212: 9; MARV 1, 41: 5, comparable is KAJ 172:11 and now we also have KAM 10 8:7. There does not seem to be any valid explanation why they used a perfect, contrary to what one would expect statistically, other than that both the use of iddin and ittidin are part of standard formula. Preterite iddin is for the most part limited to the formulaic iddin-ma usappi "he gave it and handed it over." Moreover, one may argue that the formula with ittidin has younger roots since it conforms more to the Middle Assyrian verbal system. The second text, no. 25, is a dedication text similar to KAJ 179 from the same archive. In both tablets a child is dedicated in the service of Adad by its father. For his upkeep the child receives some property. Both documents end with a prescription for the division of the inheritance of the dedicated child when he dies. The text is also referred to in D. ScHWEMER, Die Wettergottgestalten (2001) 578 n4672. It is one of the better preserved tablets in this volume, but it is unusual in some points: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. rev. 17. 18.
mLUGAL-diM DUMU rx-x-x1-diM
mJ-ri-ib-diM [DU]MU-su qa-as-sa a-na pa-ni diM be-li-su is-si-su-ma i+na ni-se-ti-su Y2 MA.NA KU.BABBAR a-na pa-ni diM irq 1-bi-su mi-im-ma an-ni-u ni-se-sa-ma i+na ur-ki-it-ti i+na IKU A.SA uURU' i+na bu 1-si u ba-si-e i+na mi-im-ma ma-na-ba-ti sa LUGAL-diM a-bu-su u-sa-du-su- DUMU I-ri-ib-diM DUMU.GAL 2-ta qa-ta-ti i-la-aq-qe-ma
1-4) Sar-Adad son of x x x-Adad has brought his son Eriba-Adad, the dedicated one, to Adad his lord. 5-7) At his installation he promised half a mina of silver before Adad. 7-18) All this is his' installation, in the future from the field of the countryside and the city, from the possessions and holdings, from whatever upkeep that Sar-Adad his father has made him deposit, the son of Eriba-Adad, (his) oldest son will take two shares and the brothers, (his) other sons, are equal in share.
u SES.MES {DUMU} DUMU.MES qa-ta mi-ta-ab-ru
1 Cf. W. MAYER: Untersuchungen zur Grammatik des Mittelassyrischen. Kevelaer 1971 (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 2), p. 58; henceforth UGM.
19-28) Witnessed by Er!b-Adad the priest the son of Dada, by Zadurum the son of Akuz!ya, by Silliya the son of Akap-tadi, by Kube-eris the son of Adad-begal, by Samas-mudammeq the scribe. Month Sa-kenate, eponymy Ussurum the son of Naimu.
The noun qassu (1. 3) is a PaRS form of qadasu, where !dl assimilated to IS/. Similar forms do also occur in Old Assyrian consecrations texts. 1 However, to my knowledge, it might be the first time qassu is attested in Middle Assyrian. Both HIRSCH as well as W. voN SoDEN (Akkadisches Handworterbuch, p. 996) assumed that it was a cult functionary or some kind of priest. In 1. 8 we have to analyse niszt(u) +sa + ma. The passage 11. 7-8 is in analogy with KAJ 179: 19-20 mimma annia ana nisesuma "all this is for his dedication". The latter is already problematic due to the erroneous accusative annia, however the use of a feminine pronominal suffix -sa referring to a masculine object in our passage is even more difficult. A further point of attention is the difference in terminology for "dedication"; nisitu (no. 25) vs. niSu (KAJ 179). No. 25 has some unusual sign values e. g. li (NI) in be-li-su 1. 4, which rarely occurs outside the onomasticon and is mostly limited to the PNs of the type Sil-li-DN (cf. 1. 22); ~i (Zf) in $i-li-a 1. 22; di (Tf) in A-kap-ta-di 1. 22. 2 Notice the variation of the PN Erib-Adad in mJ-ri-ib-dJM 1. 25:2 also in KAJ 183 = KAV 93:4. Interchangeability of lei /i/ in verbal forms is a known feature from Middle Assyrian, see UGM, 15 § 9. The verb u-sa-du-su (1. 14) is problematic. First of all it is missing a subjunctive -ni, because the verb is the verbal predicate of a relative clause. The verb itself can hardly be anything but aS-stem from nada?u "to make someone deposit", otherwise attested only in Old Assyrian (CAD N 1, 97b). However, if this is case we would expect usaddi'usuni, with the written form showing contraction (usaddusu-). Rare is the occurrence of a Middle Assyrian Gt-stem in the stative mi-ta-ab-ru 1. 18, of which there are less than five attestations in the corpus outside the verb alaku. A number of short notes on some individual texts: - no. 1) The suggestion to date the text to the last decade of the reign of ISme-Dagan I in a gap of eponym list KEL G is unlikely as the gap has been reconstructed in G. BARJAMOVIC et al.: Chronology, History and Society in the Old Assyrian Period. Leiden 2012 (PIHANS 120; Old Assyrian Archives, Studies 5). - no 2) Unusual use of Zf in e-zi-ib pi-i D[UB-pi-su pa-ni-t]i "aside from the content of his previous tablet". - no. 6) i-DA-tar 1. 11' is likely to be read i-sa 1-tar. - no. 7) We might probably reconstruct 1. 1'-12' as following: (11') i-di1-im-ma ru 1 [sap-pzl (12') up-pu la-qe? If this is correct, we have another case of assimilation of 111/n in iddimma (< iddin-ma). 1
H. HIRSCH: Untersuchungen zur Altassyrischen Religion. (2. Aufl.) Wien 1972 (Archiv fur Orientforschung 13/14), p. 57 n. 298. 2 Cf. tadi in H. FREYDANK/M. SALVINI: "Zu den Hurritischen Personennamen aus Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta." In: Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici 24 (1984), pp. 33-56, p. 50.
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- no. 9) This text is unusual for its use of U 1 in conjunctions rather than U 3 : 1. 16, 17. We also find this use of U 1 in the crowning ritual (published MVAeG 41/3) and a limited of other texts of the Assur 14446 archive e. g. KAj 44: 14; 69: 13. Also note Babylonian i-na-di-nu 1. 13 i/o Ass. iddunu (cf. UGM, 93). U 1 is also found in no. 18: 16. - no. 14) Notice the value Si (SI) in Si-im 1. 14 (cf. si-im no. 26:11) also occurring in Si-me no. 34: 4' and some other Assur 14446 text published in KAJ. This might be one of the few visible remnants of Old Assyrian scribal traditions. - no. 20) Unusual are the value ti 4 (DI) and sound change Iii> lei in re-da1 -nu i-ti 4 -iq-ma (edanu etiqma) "the term passed" 1. 8. A rare instance of ta (Ijl) and db in mTa-ab-$£1l£-d A_rsur1 no. 20: 14. - no. 31) An unusual infinitive for bapa'u "to break" can be found in a-na ba-pi 1. 11 with vowel contraction. Other unusual attestations of this infinitive appear to be Babylonian (Bah. bepu) e. g. a-na be-pe KAj 142:15; [a]-na be-pe MARY 3 11:22. These form probably are the reflections of borrowed legal formula cf. Old Babylonian texts from Susa e.g. DUB-pu (. .. )a-na be-pi na-di MDP 24,387: 14-15. - no. 32) Another case of U 1: 1 ANSE SE u 1 111 re1 -[$i-di] 1. 3'. - no. 40) A rare case of ME.ES i/o MES in 7 UD.ME.ES. Notice that ME.ES does also occur in no. 1: 21, 24. - no. 49) This texts features one of the few cases where "lzmu" in the genitive is spelled with MI in li-mi 1. 2, rather than li-me passim. Another example can be found in MARY 1, 49: 1, a tablet dated to Tiglatpilesar I. Summarizing, the volume stands out in that it provides archival context for all texts. It is to be hoped that we may see an update to studies DSC 1 and 3 dedicated to the Assur 14446 archive in the future. The authors are to be congratulated and we eagerly await the next publication in the series. jACOB jAN DE RIDDER, Leipzig
FRANCIS BREYER: Einfuhrung in die Meroitistik. Berlin: LIT-Verlag 2014. 336 S. (Einfiihrungen und Quellentexte zur Agyptologie 8.) ISBN 978-3-643-12805-8. € 34,90. BREYER has produced a rare introductory text for what translates as "Meroitic Studies". It is at present the only relatively comprehensive text in German. Potentially valuable as a teaching tool for German-speaking students of Egyptology, it is also cause for some concern. In his introduction BREYER deplores the absence of a German text in an otherwise rich tradition of Meroitic studies in the German language. This book is not necessarily the logical next step. The field of archaeology in Sudan, where the Meroitic Kingdom was located, has moved away from a dominant Egyptological tradition that consisted of mostly German and French language publications. This is the result of early and significant American involvement in Nubian archaeology and on-going British efforts together with mostly French, Polish and German missions in the region, none of whom claim predominance in the field. Also, the Sudanese and Africanists worldwide, who traditionally have little access to German-language literature, rarely use publications in languages that are no longer shared in this academic community. Indeed, today's German meroiticists have made important efforts to make their work accessible to the Sudanese rather than privilege their own students. That said, it is a commendable ambition to provide each interested group of students with a text in their own language, as it will undoubtedly facilitate their understanding of the material.
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