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The Tell Al Rimah Tablets, 1965
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2014
Extract
During the 1965 season of excavation at Tell al Rimah, Middle Assyrian tablets and fragments amounting to 115 registration numbers were discovered. Of those included, however, almost half are minor fragments which, entered in the excavation catalogue in view of the possibility of their supplying joins, have no independent value as epigraphic material. A number of joins have been made subsequently, and the tablets and larger fragments bearing sufficient consecutive text to provide some information (in some cases only personal names) now amount to 56. With the exception of four, which in view of problems arising from the preliminary study of my copies are left to await collation, all these are published herewith, together with a few minor fragments which either bear the name of a limu, or might be placeable as joins.
The great majority of the tablets come from Phase I level of the courtyard on the south side of the temple. Of the others, TR. 2903 and TR. 2913 are from site A, Shrine, Phase I, whilst TR. 2904 to TR. 2912 inclusive are from site A, Trench Ab, Courtyard, Phase I. It may be noted that the legible documents amongst TR. 2903 to TR. 2913 appear to have belonged to the same group of families as the tablets of the main archive.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1968
References
1 See Iraq XXVIII (1966), p. 130.Google Scholar
2 See Iraq XXVIII (1966), p. 125.Google Scholar
3 See e.g. Soden, W. von, AHwb, 49Google Scholar; Landsberger, B., J.N.E.S. 24 (1965) 285ff.Google Scholar (arguing (p. 294) for reading anaku); Oates, D., Iraq XXVIII (1966), pp. 130–1.Google Scholar
4 Abu-ṭāb was amongst the commonest of Middle Assyrian names. Fifteen persons bearing the name are listed by Ebeling, E. in “Die Eigennamen der mittelassyrischen Rechts- und Geschäftsurkunden” (MAOG XIII/I (1939), 6.Google Scholar
5 In TR. 2030, 3 and TR. 2903, 3, further slight traces after SAG in (d)KUR.NA.SAG may indicate that the latter reading does not represent the complete form of the name.
6 For possible Akkadian values of SAG in personal names of this period see Fine, H. A., Studies in Middle-Assyrian Chronology and Religion (1955), 43–44.Google Scholar
7 Op. cit., 79–88.
8 In the transliterations, all ideograms of relatively frequent occurrence have, except where damage in the text admits doubt as to the particular signs which have been assumed in the traces, normally been represented in the appropriate Akkadian form only, according to the following equations:
AN.NA anāku DINGIR ilu
ANŠE imēru DINGIR.AMAR.UTU (d)marduk
DINGIR.BÀ (d)sin DINGIR.u (d)adád
DINGIR.ISḪUTU (d)adad DINGIR.UTU (d)šamaš
DINGIR.KUR.NA (d)Šadānu DUB.SAR ṭupšarru
(For the equation see p. 173 below) DÙG.GA ṭābu
DUMU māru
DINGIR.MAR.TU (d)amurru DUMU.SAL mārtu
DINGIR.NIN (d)bēltu É.GAL ekallu
EN bēlu MA.NA manû
GAL rabû MU šumu
GU4alpu SÙN nadānu
GUN biltu ŠÀ libbu
IGI pānu ŠE še'u
ITU arḫu ŠEŠ aḫu
KA pû ŠU qātu
KAM erēšu U4ūmu
KIŠIB kunukku UD.KA.BAR siparru
LÚ amēlu UGU muḫḫi
LUGAL šarru URU ālu
The following additional symbols are used in transliteration:
(m) determinative diš
χ unrecognized sign wholly or partially extant
[χ] one lost sign
χ(?) possibility that the traces include part of one further unrecognized sign
(χ) (?) possibility of one lost sign
… loss of more than two signs, up to one-quarter of a line of text
...... loss of between one-quarter and one-half of a line of text
......... loss of between one-half and three-quarters of a line of text
............ loss of more than three-quarters of a line of text
(l) the reading is certain, but the sign is in an unusual form
(l ?) the reading is that of the proposed transcription if it may be assumed that the sign is in an unusual form
[PN] a lost personal name
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