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Prism fragments from Sippar: new Esarhaddon inscriptions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Pamela Gerardi
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Extract

Among the tablets from Sippar in the British Museum catalogued by E. Leichty, four unidentified prism fragments were found. Fragments of two of these had earlier been rejoined and copied by Pinches. All four prism fragments come from relatively small five-sided prisms and are written in neo-Babylonian script. The prisms share features that suggest they may be fragments or duplicates of the same or very similar inscriptions: appearance and orthography (texts 1 and 2); identical lines and columns showing third-person verbal forms (texts 2 and 4); and similar closing sections (texts 1 and 3). Transliterated and translated below, the texts of the prism fragments are not identifiable as duplicating in style or content any other known inscription of an Assyrian king. They are for this reason interesting.

1. BM 56617 (87–7–14, 996b + 1815), joined and copied by Pinches, is the largest of the fragments published here. The records of the British Museum state that the prism fragment comes from Aboo-Habba (Sippar). The fragment preserves four of its five faces; the top and bottom of the prism are broken away. The preserved portion of column i begins with the usual opening titles of the king and thus the missing portion above–at least 5 lines–probably contained an invocation to a deity. The prism should probably be assigned to Esarhaddon, although his name does not appear in the inscription, because of the appearance of Sennacherib's name as the first name in the genealogy that follows the king's titles.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 55 , October 1993 , pp. 119 - 133
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1993

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References

1 Leichty, E., Tablets from Sippar, 3 vols. Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum, 6–8 (London: British Museum, 1986–1988)Google Scholar.

2 The fragments and the copies made by Pinches are published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum. I am grateful to J.A. Brinkman, Barry L. Eichler, and Erle Leichty for suggested readings and commenting on a preliminary draft of the text editions; to R. Borger for his suggestions and comments on the final draft; and to Maria deJ. Ellis who collated the texts at the British Museum and provided copies of some of the traces.

3 These inscriptions should belong to an Assyrian king rather than a Babylonian king since only the Assyrian kings wrote on prisms; but see below note 16.

4 Reade, J., “Rassam's Babylonian Collection: The Excavations and the Archives”, in Leichty, E., Tablets from Sippar 1, [Introduction] p. xxxiii Google Scholar: “Rassam dispatch dated 8 May 1882”.

5 An example of a short series of blessing with a third-person object appears in an Esarhaddon inscription ( Borger, , Asar., p 7, Ass. C iv 3–12Google Scholar; Lambert, , AOAT 220, 162 iv 3ffGoogle Scholar.: liša]lbirū palêšu Anum Antum ikrib ūmē ruqūte lik[tarr]abūšu ana dārātim [Enl]il Ninlil šīmtu ṭābtu šīmat labāri lišīm šīmatsu …), but there again the object is still clearly the king.

6 Cf. Aššurbanipal, , Edition B (Piepkorn, AS 5), i 27ff.Google Scholar: d IM ŠÈG.MEŠ-šú ú-maš-še-ra dÉ-a ú-[paṭ-ṭi-ra A.K] AL.MEŠ-[šú] 5 KÙŠ še-am iš-qu [ina A]B.SÍN-ni-[šú] e-rik šu-bul-tu 5/6 KUŠ SI.SÁ EBUR na-pa-aš dNISABA ka-ayya-na [ú-šaḫ-na-bu gi] -pa-ru ṣip-pa-a-ti šu-ta- [am-mu-ḫa in] -bu [MÁŠ.ANŠE šu-te-šur ina ta-lit-ti] ina BAL.MEŠ-ya ḪÉ.NUN ṭuḫ-du…, “Adad released his rains and Ea let loose his floods; the grain grew 5 cubits tall in its furrow and the ear of barley reached five-sixths of a cubit in length; the grasslands constantly produced thriving crops and an abundance of cereals…”. See the discussion in Parpola, , AOAT 2, pp. 104–105 Google Scholar.

7 Similar language may be found in several Esarhaddon inscriptions but there the verbs are precative, indicating a request for prosperity rather than a prevailing condition of prosperity. See Parpola, , LAS 2, pp. 104–5Google Scholar.

8 Grayson, A. K., Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles. Texts from Cuneiform Sources 5 (New York: J.J. Augustin, 1975) p. 83 Google Scholar.

9 Chron. 14, 15–19 (ABC, p. 126).

10 Chron. 1, ii 36–45 (ABC, p. 78.).

11 See Brinkman, J. A., Prelude to Empire. Occasional Publications of the Babylonian Fund, 7 (Philadelphia: The University Museum, 1984), p. 78 and note 380Google Scholar; and more recently “The Babylonian Chronicle Revisited”, in Lingering over Words, Abusch, T. et al., eds., Harvard Semitic Studies 37 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990) p.92 Google Scholar “…, it has been pointed out that the Elamite attack description is suspect on other grounds: it largely repeats for the sixth year of Esarhaddon an entry already given for the sixth year of Aššur-nadin-šumi”. Brinkman concurs with my assessment that the text published here is clear evidence that there was an Elamite attack on Sippar, supporting the entry given in Chron. 1 for the sixth year of Esarhaddon.

12 Reade, , “Introduction” p. xxxv Google Scholar.

13 RIA 2, 275 Google Scholar, “é-dúr-gi-na”; VAB 4, 74, 29Google Scholar; 108, 60; 170, 69; 182,7; PBS 15, p. 43 iii 7Google Scholar; Unger, , Babylon, p. 147 Google Scholar.

14 Bauer, T., Das Inschriftenwerk Assurbanipals (Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs, 1933), p. 76 Google Scholar: K.2632 iii 9–23: d Aššur šar ilāni dlamassaka ša ibnûka ittika illak dMarduk apkallu niklāta šar šamê u erṣetim ša Esagita u Babili tēpušuma taddašši ittika illak dNabu bēl ḫarrān apil dZ[a] rpanitu šarrat rabīti ittika illak ša bīt abīšu tēpušūma taddašši AN.GAL d Anum rabû ittika illak ša bīt […] E-dim-gal-kalam-ma tēpušu[ma] taddašši d Samaš kakkab […] ittika illak ša a- […] ša irâmu Ebabbarra tu-[uddissu] d Šar-ṣarbi ša-pa-[za…].

15 Borger, , Asar., p. 21 ep. 21 23Google Scholar, Babylon Inscription.

16 The inscription is unusual. The ten-sided prism, found at Babylon ( Unger, , Babylon, pp. 282–294 Google Scholar), preserves portions of five faces. It contains a building inscription in columns i and ii similar to a known cylinder inscription: Langdon, , VAB 4, 9 Google Scholar. The inscription continues, however, in columns iii–v with a list of senior officials of the household and the realm and vassals. It is not at all clear for what purpose the inscription was composed.

17 Especially inscriptions 12, 13, 16, and 23 in Langdon, , VAB 4 Google Scholar.

18 Zadok, R., Geographical Names According to New and Late Babylonian Texts. Répertoire Géographique des Textes Cunéiformes (Wiesbaden: Ludwig Reichert, 1985), pp. 70–72 Google Scholar.

19 Zadok, , Rép. Géo. 8, pp. 70–71 Google Scholar. See also Joannès, , NABU (1987), 55, n. 99Google Scholar.