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The Sumerian expression igi-kar2 revisited
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2014
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In 1968, the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary translated the Old Babylonian term aširtu, which in the OB period corresponded to the Sumerian expression igi-kar2, as “an offering of a pious gift to the gods”. In texts from the preceding Ur III period, however, the expression igi-kar2 has usually been associated with the expression gurum2 (written IGI.GAR) and translated “inspection”. In 1982, Piotr Steinkeller demonstrated, in a short article published in ASJ, that igi-kar2 and gurum2 refer to two separate words. He showed that the compound verb igi…kar2 denoted “to examine” in both the Ur III and Old Babylonian periods. For the compound noun igi-kar2 in the Ur III period, Steinkeller referred to the Umma text TJAMC IES 126, where the expression appears together with the institution an-za3-gar3, which — in accordance with its Akkadian equivalence dimtum — has been understood as “some type of fortified building”. This connection led Steinkeller to propose the meaning “provisions, supplies” for igi-kar2 in the Ur III period, seemingly more appropriate for a delivery to the military structure of an-za(3)-gar3.
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- Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2008