Die in Königsinschriften, Gebeten und einigen babylonischen Epen oft genannten Igigu-Götter stehen in jüngeren Texten gewöhnlich neben den Anunnaku-Göttern. Da in manchen von diesen den Anunnaku als Göttern der Unterwelt bzw. der Erde die Igigu als Götter des Himmels gegenübergestellt werden, hat man früher gemeint, man habe in der babylonischen Götterwelt seit jeher die beiden Gruppen der Igigu droben und der Anunnaku drunten unterschieden. Demgegenüber habe ich in einem 1962 in Leiden gehaltenen Vortrag, der in Compte Rendu de l'Onzième Rencontre Assyriologique internationale (Leiden 1964), S.102–111, veröffentlicht wurde, versucht aufzuzeigen, dass die mit beiden Bezeichnungen verbundenen Vorstellungen nicht immer die gleichen waren. Die Sumerer kannten nur die Anunna-Götter; die Belege für a-nun-na in der sumerischen Literatur hat seither A. Falkenstein in Studies in Honor of Benno Landsberger (A.S., 16 (Chicago), 1965, S. 127–140), erstmalig in sehr grosser Zahl gesammelt und geordnet. Das mit Igigu gleichgesetzte sumerische nun-gal-e-ne “grosse Fürsten” taucht, wie ich gezeigt habe, erst etwa gleichzeitig mit dem akkadischen Begriff in der Ḫammurabi-Zeit oder wenig früher auf und dürfte ein künstliches Übersetzungswort sein. Während ich mich bemüht habe, zwischen den Igigu und den Anunnaku in akkadischen Texten zu differenzieren, vertrat kürzlich B. Kienast in seinem Beitrag zur eben genannten Landsberger-Festschrift (S.141–158) “ Igigū und Anunnakkū nach den akkadischen Quellen” die Ansicht, dass beide Ausdrücke in den meisten Texten synonym seien (vgl. besonders § 45ff. seines Aufsatzes). Nur für die älteste Zeit (s. § 45) rechnet auch Kienast mit der Möglichkeit, dass der Begriff Igigu in einer anderen. Gottesvorstellung wurzeln könne als a-nun-na, weil die Götter der Akkader einen stärker kosmischen Charakter gehabt hätten als die der Sumerer, für die vor allem chthonische Vorstellungen bestimmend gewesen seien. Da ich mich Kienasts Auffassung in wesentlichen Punkten nicht anschliessen kann und einige wichtige neue Zeugnisse bekannt geworden sind, möchte ich hier kurz auf die Göttergruppenfrage zurückkommen, mich dabei aber im ganzen auf das altbabylonische Material beschränken.

This article presents new editions of three Old Babylonian wisdom texts. Text A contains dialogues between different professionals and their customers(?), Text B is a dialogue between a friend and his fellow, and Text C contains several riddles. All three texts are poorly preserved and the interpretation is tentative in many points.

This paper studies a group of documents produced in the course of investigation into the activities of a gang that operated in Uruk in the latter part of Nabonidus’ rule. It examines the composition of this criminal group and the offences committed by its members. Above all, however, it seeks to reconstruct the procedures implemented by the temple officials in response to a hitherto unpublished royal writ BM 114574, a document that throws new light on the involvement of the king in the administration of justice in the Neo-Babylonian period.

This article seeks to demonstrate that the correct arrangement of the bronze bands on the Shalmaneser III gates from Balawat can be established by comparing the position of the nail holes on the ends of the bands with those on the edging strips that were fixed to the edges of the doors and partly overlap the ends of the bands. This new approach confirms the order previously proposed by Curtis and Tallis for the bands on the left-hand gate, but a new arrangement is suggested for the four lower bands on the right-hand gate.

In the 1989 British Museum excavations at Nimrud four small glass plaques were found that were published in a recent volume of Iraq (Curtis, Collon and Green 1993: 15–16, Figs. 14: 5–6 and 16). They came from Room T20 in Fort Shalmaneser, and were found in a deposit that predated a reconstruction of the building probably in the reign of Esarhaddon. The plaques are almost square, measuring about 1·4 × 1·55 cm and 0·15 cm thick (Figs. 1–2). They are made of blue glass and have recessed designs showing six-petalled rosettes in glass of a different colour. Where this inlaid glass survives it is now white but may originally have been yellow. One of the plaques has a small hole right through the centre. It was suggested then that originally these glass plaques would have been mounted in bronze frames and would have been hammered on to various types of furniture as decoration. Further research, however, indicates that it may be possible to suggest a more specific use for these plaques.

A survey of glass plaques with rosettes reveals that there were two different types in circulation in the ancient Near East. First, there are large blue glass plaques where the rosette design is recessed into the surface and filled with what is now (where it survives) opaque white glass. A characteristic of plaques made in this way is that the inlaid rosettes are visible only from one side. Barag comments that “the petals were probably pressed into the blue matrix while both were in a viscous state” (1985: 72), but in the view of von Saldern (1966: 632–3) “the shallow depressions in the tiles to receive the white fillings were cut [my italics] into the blue glass.”

En se multipliant depuis une quinzaine d'années, les découvertes en Orient ont fait surgir en abondance des éléments de haute époque, qui incitent à reprendre le problème de l'origine de l'art minoen, tel qu'il s'est constitué au IIIe millénaire avant notre ère. Lors de ses premières découvertes à Cnosse, à partir de 1900, Sir Arthur Evans n'avait guère à sa disposition, pour établir des comparaisons dans un passé lointain, que la documentation égyptienne. Les remarquables découvertes, qui avaient tant surpris les égyptologues, de J. de Morgan, Fl. Petrie, Quibell, Reisner et autres, ouvraient la voie à des rapprochements entre le premier essor de l'art crétois et la civilisation déjà développée des temps prédynastiques et protodynastiques en Egypte, ce qu'on a appelé aussi la civilisation protolibyenne. Elle s'affirmait par l'art des palettes de schiste, par de beaux ivoires sculptés, des stèles royales, des vases finement taillés dans des pierres diverses, notamment ces bols en albâtre avec les curieux replis dits «à moustache», la technique de la glaçure, etc…Cependant, dès cette époque, en Egypte même, s'affirmait l'influence asiatique, qu'on a qualifiée d'influence sumérienne. Certes Sumer est à l'origine, mais ce mouvement, venu d'Asie, ne s'est répercuté jusqu'enÉgypte que par l'intermédiaire des Sémites. La langue égyptienne est un témoin certain de cette action, mais aussi tel monument comme le célèbre manche en ivoire du Gebel el Arak dont G. Bénédite, en le publiant, avait constaté qu'il n'avait pas de répondant dans l'art égyptien. Le motif du dieu, qu'on y voit, entre deux animaux affrontés peut remonter à un prototype sumérien, mais le costume du dieu est proprement sémitique. Ces mêmes Sémites sont apparus à Warka où ils chassent le lion à la lance et à l'arc — arme que les Sumériens abandonnent aux nomades et dont la flèche est armée d'un silex évasé qu'on retrouve sur les palettes de schiste égyptiennes.

In the Library of the Institute of Archaeology, London, there is a collection of aerial photographs of Iraq taken by the R.A.F. during the 1930s. One of a pair, taken near Zairwan (36° 26′ N; 41° 59′ E) demands publication for the information it gives on the extent and structure of the Roman limes (Plate XX).

The photograph shows a stretch of wall with faces of large orthostats and filled with material whose nature cannot be determined from the picture. The wall runs along a low ridge. There are remnants of other structures against the wall and others, less well preserved, spreading down the slope of the ridge. These structures seem to be of poor masonry and almost certainly post-date the wall itself. There is no reason to suggest that they have any rôle in connection with the functioning of the wall. On the other side of the ridge are clear traces of what is probably a road with small mounds running along either side of it.

Zairwan is north of Jebel Sinjar and to the north-east of the important town of Singara. It stands at the foot of the mountains and gives its name to a pass of no great quality running through them.

The fragment A 7876 (Oriental Institute, Chicago) occupies a special position among the cuneiform sources of the ritual Maqlû. The six-column tablet, inscribed in the Neo-Assyrian script of the 8th and 7th centuries BC, originally contained the complete text of the series with its nine canonical tablets. Taking into account the relevant duplicate manuscripts the article offers an annotated edition of this fragment and compares its style and format to other “large tablets” (dubgallu) of Babylonian literary texts.

Two unpublished terracottas from Ur, now in the British Museum, and a terracotta from Ur, now in the University Museum, Philadelphia, deserve attention for the contribution they can make to the problem of identifying the well known “goddess on a goose”. I am grateful to Carole Mendleson for the catalogue descriptions for Nos. 1–2.

(1) B.M. 127484. U. 17163 (Diqdiqqah), Plate VIIa. 60 × 78 mm. Chair relief. Bottom part only remaining. A figure, almost certainly the same goddess as No. 2 below), wearing a flounced and pleated skirt. She is seated on a standing “goose” and faces to the right with her feet resting on a seated “goose”. The entire scene is on a platform. This appears to be a sideways view of the scene shown in B.M. 1933–10–13, 215 (see No. 2 below) though there is no sign of flowing streams. The relief is well made with details of the standing bird's feathers clearly shown.

Smooth reddish clay, buff on the outside; feet of the chair broken off.

When the hoard of tools excavated by Loftus at Tell Sifr in Iraq, in 1854, was reassembled for publication some years ago (Moorey, 1971), a number of items mentioned by Loftus (1857, 268) could not be traced in the British Museum reserve collections nor was it then possible to arrange for the analysis of selected objects. In the intervening years the missing items have been located. The parts of two sheet-metal cauldrons (Figs. 1–3), with cast handle fittings, have now been identified whereas in 1970 only a single fragment was located (Moorey, 1971, no. 83). The “copper ingot” reported by Loftus has now also been traced (Fig. 4), as have a copper or bronze ferrule (Fig. 5) and the “dice-box” (Fig. 6). It has been possible to increase the significance of this still unique find by some investigation of the metals and alloys from which it was made (Table 1). The following notes are supplementary in every way to the original paper, whose substance is not repeated here. The numbering of objects in the previous paper is retained.

The Samarran ceramic assemblage of the Mesopotamian region has long remained an enigma. With the exception of the work of Braidwood et al. and Oates, the nature of the relationship between Samarran and other contemporary Mesopotamian and Iranian styles has not been systematically explored. This paper begins by challenging contemporary perceptions of the Samarran “culture” and continues by investigating the relationship of Samarran wares to those of the Hassuna and Ubaid traditions. Comparisons among these assemblages are made by means of recent miner-alogical data from the site of Tell 'Oueili (Tell 'Awayli) in southern Mesopotamia. The Ubaid 0 ceramic assemblage at Tell 'Oueili is seen to have a substantial Samarran component, and, in light of this information, new questions arise concerning the place of this style within the region. The data provided by Courtois and Velde are used to test the following hypotheses about Samarran ceramics: [1] that they were imported to the southern Mesopotamian plain, [2] that they were locally made in southern Mesopotamia, and [3] that they are an integral and undifferentiated part of the Ubaid 0 assemblage.

The Babylonian Flood Story contains a conundrum which has stimulated various solutions, none of them convincing. Recent advances in lexicography seem to dismiss them, but an entirely unrelated observation suggests a way to interpret the texts in keeping with Babylonian beliefs and practices.

After Ea had told Ut-napishtim how to prepare for his escape from the Flood, he gave him an explanation of his strange conduct for his fellow citizens. The gods had taken a dislike to Ut-napishtim, so he would go to dwell with his patron Ea in his home, the Apsu. Thereupon Ea would act, apparently to benefit the people, in fact, to indicate that the catastrophe was about to break. The manner and significance of Ea's action as described in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI, has long puzzled Assyriologists.

Dr Matthews was kind enough to show us a draft of the preceding article before publication so that we could reply, for which we thank him. Our original article was intended as a review of the problem of the Early Dynastic to Akkadian transition and as a quick general overview of the WF excavation at Nippur, rather than the final statement on either. The point of the article was not to define the Akkadian Period but to make steps towards the identification of an assemblage of material culture (pottery, tablets, objects, and seals) found in levels which are dated to the historical Akkadian Period. That assemblage included pottery types, but we did not suggest that a single pottery type or a few types alone should be the basis for dating; nor would we prefer, as is implied by Matthews, to define a period by pottery as opposed to other objects. What the Nippur WF excavation gave us was a well-stratified sequence of artifacts; and we were careful when suggesting the level at which we might have entered the Akkadian (historical) period not to be adamant about the date of the pertinent level and to precede it with a “transitional” level (Level XVII) which might have been either Early Dynastic or Akkadian. Perhaps we should have been more cautious and extended that transitional label to cover Level XVI as well.

The choice of this subject originates from the fact that the area of research to which I have been devoting myself recently includes the figurative cultures of Mesopotamia and Syria in the Early Dynastic and the Early Syrian periods, specifically in the field of war. Some of the data resulting from this research focus on the representation of the “head of the enemy”, which appears repeatedly in the documentation of the second millennium BC in Syria but so far seems to be absent in contemporary Mesopotamia. Despite the evident difference between the forms of representation from these two areas, I perceived in the figurative cycles of the Neo-Assyrian reliefs not only the recurrence of this theme but also the intentional display of severed heads, which reaches its climax in the numerous examples from the South-West Palace in Nineveh. My first aim is, therefore, to suggest a plausible approach towards identifying the origin of the display of “severed heads”, previously absent from Mesopotamian scenes of warfare, in the visual communication of the Neo-Assyrian period. My second aim is to offer an interpretation which may help shed light on ideological, cultural and anthropological aspects essential to the Neo-Assyrian political programme and its visual representation.

Hittite political history consists of a continuous series of wars. The Hittite empire, situated amidst bellicose neighbours and lacking natural frontiers, called for rulers whose power relied on strong armed forces. Every king, when he ascended the throne, at first had to fight against aggressive enemies, in order to keep the inherited territory intact, whereas later on during his reign, he usually endeavoured to expand its borders.

The sources on the warfare of Hittite kings are rather numerous; they can be traced from the very beginning of the Old kingdom until its disappearance (ca. 1600–1200 B.C.).

The composition of the battle of Til-Tuba from Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh is usually described as a relief depicting a recorded historical event. It is considered a good and solid example of the Assyrian concern with history and the Assyrian propensity for propagandistic depictions of current events. The scene, which is surely saturated in the ideology of empire, has already been discussed from that point of view. Is it true to the historical event? Is it an exaggeration? Did the Assyrians really do these things? How close or how distant is this depiction of the battle from the real historical event of war?

The Assyrian method of representation is generally one that is attentive to minute details and concerned with ethnographic accuracy, even when the composition is hierarchical and representations of the body are stylised into abstract patterns. Realism is certainly a distinctive aspect of Assyrian narrative art and accurate details of dress and landscape were used to create what Roland Barthes would have called the effect of the real.

The kiln furniture made for the Cuneiform Tablet Laboratory at the British Museum was nearing the end of its working life by 1992. A design project was thus undertaken to produce a kiln furniture solution that meets with the current conservation criteria, loosely based upon traditional potters' saggars. The primary innovation is a perforated refractory dish providing the same compartment throughout the firing and the desalination treatments. After three years' service the new kiln furniture's performance is assessed by comparison with the former “Inconel” firing basket and stainless-steel wire gauze equipment.