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Two Sketches from the Life at Ur

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

C. J. Gadd
C. J. Gadd*
Affiliation:
London
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Extract

Among the small minority of literary texts from Ur written in Akkadian probably the most interesting are two presented here, which are of a specially vivid and humorous character. But while the first was meant very seriously, and becomes rather absurd only through the over-earnestness of the composer, the second appears to be ludicrous of set purpose, and as such would once have been thought surprising. But in recent years several glimpses have been caught of a thin vein of humour underlying the massive strata of Babylonian gravity. Without more introduction we proceed to

U.16900 F is a complete tablet, long and narrow (13 × 5 cms.), having the external peculiarity of a hole pierced from edge to edge. This has been carefully located, for if a rod is inserted and held horizontally the tablet rests with its obverse at a slope convenient for reading, but in order to read the reverse the tablet must be held; when released it goes back to its former position with obverse facing the reader. Anticipating the contents, we may suppose that it was set up on a support facing an image of the Moon-god, and was designed, with the usual importunity of Babylonian petitioners, to be there incessantly obtruded upon the divine attention until satisfaction was granted.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , Autumn 1963 , pp. 177 - 188
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1963

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References

1 The cuneiform texts are to be included in the Second Part of U.E.T. VI.

2 See a recent appreciation by Kraus, F. R. in J.N.E.S. 19 (1960), 117Google Scholar.

3 Was this perhaps a figure of the petitioner himself, holding the (movable) tablet in his hand, and presenting the obverse towards the god? This is suggested by the absence of any self-introduction, the god being supposed to recognize his fellow-townsman at sight. It might be rewarding to assemble the known examples of these ‘revolving” tablets, and see whether their contents indicate the uses to which they were put, or the places where they were exhibited. A tablet of similar shape, and much concerned with oaths, is the Susa deed in M.D.P. 28, no. 399, but the contents are not alike; see Klíma, J. in Arch. Or. 28 (1960), 49Google Scholar. Some Assyrian examples with this external feature are mentioned in A.f.O. 14, 364Google Scholar; 17,266; and 20,116.

4 A fault imputed to the ‘heathen’ in general; Matthew vi, 7, ‘they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking’.

5 Ius iurandum perinde aestimandum quam si Iovem fefellisset: deorum iniurias dis curae. Tacitus, Ann. I, 73.

6 Proverbs xxv, 26, ‘Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked’.

7 U.E.T. V, Indexes, from which the following details are taken.

8 A rather common name in the Ur III and Old Babylonian periods; the best known individual is the conceited and turbulent ‘sophomore’ who engages in a violent quarrel with his ‘big brother’, described in one of the Sumerian stories of school-life; see for the present my Teachers and Students in the Oldest Schools, p. 36, and Gordon, E. I. in Bibl. Orient. xvii, p. 143Google Scholar.

9 Whereas the ‘correct’ form is doubtless Kuzzulum. In Holma's monograph upon the quṭtulu names is found (p. 54) Ḫu-zu-lum, and this, in view of the not uncommon interchange of ḫ and k, is probably the same as Kuzulum. The name appears to be taken from kuzullu, a kind of basket(?): M.S.L. VII, 68Google Scholar, 18a, kutullum is explained as ku-zu-ul-lu šá GI.MEŠ, and in U.17207—109 (to be published) is found PISÁN (ku-za-lum) NUN.

10 Neither is any more information to be gained from the occurrences (listed ibid.) of a name written E-la-li.

11 The principal function of this worker (blanchisseur) has already been indicated by Lambert, M. in R.A. 50, pp. 98 and 208 (references kindly given to me by Miss B. Parker)Google Scholar. A fortunate ambiguity in English allows the ‘Sumerogram’ to be translated literally, for the Oxford English Dictionary, under ‘clothier’, gives as a secondary meaning ‘a fuller and dresser of cloth (U.S.)’. It is, however, more in keeping with modern usage to translate as ‘cleaner’.

12 It seems that the proposal of ‘improved methods’ now comes from the other side of the counter, for the following appeared in a recent newspaper (December 1962): ‘Is the public being cleaned at the cleaners? Whenever I take in clothes I am asked if I want to pay extra for “best cleaning”.’

13 By Speiser, E . A. in J.C.S. 8, 98 SGoogle Scholar.

14 See a critique of this in Lambert, W. G., Babylonian Wisdom Literature, pp. 139 ffGoogle Scholar.

15 J.C.S. 8, p. 105Google Scholar. Or possibly, as in the mime, with a single performer taking both parts in turn, thus displaying his versatility; but line 36 of the ‘Cleaner’ is hardly compatible with this.

16 E. Wüst, in Pauly-Wissowa-Kroll, s.v. Mimos.

17 “Many subjects are taken from the life of tradesmen; … the ‘Fuller’, then the ‘Ropemaker’, the ‘Dyer’, the ‘Saltman’,” etc. Mommsen, History of Rome, Bk. V, ch. 12 (English tr.).

18 A. Gellius, XVI, 7 preserves one of his fragments together with several other low expressions connected with the laundry and cleaning trades, which occurred in various mimes by this writer.

19 In Greek, the earlier mimes were in prose (Aristotle, Poet. 1447 b. 10 ff.), the later in the ‘limping’ verse.

20 See W. von Soden in A. Falkenstein und W. von Soden, Sumerische Hymnen, Einfuhrung 40 f. I forbear to enquire whether it is possible to apply more exact rules which have lately been formulated by Held, M. in J.C.S. 15 (1961), 3Google Scholar, and by Oesa, P. F. Gössman, Das Era-Epos, 73 ffGoogle Scholar.

21 But we are hardly in a position to detect vul garisms in Akkadian if any such are present—they would reside in the vocabulary.

22 The writer has to apologize for the consequent deficiencies in the translation; but this text has been long before him without much advance in his understanding of particulars, and the time has come to lay its contents before others better equipped to contribute to its full understanding. With this ‘Clothier's Tablet’ he has greatly missed the aid, which he had with the ‘Glazier's Tablet’ in Iraq III (1936), 87 ff., of an old friend Thompson, R. Campbell, formerly Editor of this JournalGoogle Scholar.