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XXIII. The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Van. Part VII

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

A. H. Sayce
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Extract

In the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, October, 1894, I showed that the Kelishin inscription (No. lvi) was a bilingual, the Assyrian transcript of it having been discovered by M. de Morgan, and I was thereby enabled to confirm some of my interpretations of Vannic words and grammatical forms and to correct others. My conclusion was disputed by Drs. Belck, Lehmann, and Scheil, but the question has now been decided in my favour. Dr. Leopold Messerschmidt, together with Dr. Belck, has made a careful examination of a cast of M. de Morgan's squeeze in the light of the fresh materials obtained by Drs. Belck and Lehmann in their scientific mission to Armenia, and the result is to prove that the Vannic and Assyrian texts are close representatives one of the other. The revised texts have been published by Drs. Belck and Messerschmidt in Anatole I (1904), and Dr. Lehmann has written upon them in the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, lvi, 4 (1904), pp. 825–829.

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Articles
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Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , July 1906 , pp. 611 - 653
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1906

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References

page 621 note 1 Su-i-ni in lxxix, 16, is the 3rd pers. of the verb su, ‘ to make,’ and has nothing to do with su, ‘many.’ In this passage the squeeze shows that the word following the determinative of ‘ bronze ’ is really du-di-e, which must therefore be the Vannic name of that metal. The word preceding the determinative is di-ri, the derivative of which, diri-nis, denotes a class of workmen (‘ smiths ’?) in the Toprak Kaleh tablet (1. 8). The whole passage, consequently, may be: D.P. TUR-MES-ni-s a-lu-[s?] u-ru-li-ni su-i-ni D.P. TUR-se [i ?-]bi-ra di-ri ERU du-di-e te-ra-gi, ‘ some of the citizens (?) have made the seed-plot for the citizens with picks of copper, iron, (and) bronze.’ In this case diri will be ‘ iron.’ I think that teragi signifies ‘ with picks ’ or ‘ chisels.’ In 1. 31 the sense may be ‘ making a way for the water with picks.’ The passage translated above might conceivably be rendered: ‘ Who of posterity will make a (similar) seed-plot for posterity,’ etc., but the use of the ideographic ‘ sons’ in 1. 11 of the inscription seems to oblige us to refer the expression to ‘ the sons of Tosp.’

page 630 note 1 According to Professor Lehmann's copy the first paragraph is—(1) a-ku-ki-mu Ru-śa-a-u Ar-gis-te-khi (2) Sa-ga-as Tar-a-nis Is-qu-gu-ul-khi-e (3) u-la-qu MAT Ma-na-i-di A-ta-h-a (4) e-śi-i-a MAT SARRI-ni AN Khal-di-ni a-su-me (5) Ru-śa-a-khi-na MAT Qi-el-ba-ni-ta (?) (6) BIT PARA-ni IB-NI; i.e., ‘ To my lord Ruśas son of Argistis (says) Sagas of Taras (elsewhere called Tarius); from the midst of Isqigulus in the land of the Minni for the royal land of Khaldis I have sent the men of the place of Atahas: in Qielbanis in the province of Ruśas one is building a sanctuary.’ Asu-me seems to represent the ordinary 1st person of the verb rather than the precative, and in Ruśa-u the final vowel must be ü. So ula-qu for ula-ki. A list of the workmen follows; the second in the list are the di-ri-ni-e-i from di-ri, which we find in Sayce, lxxix, 17.

page 637 note 1 In Sayce, lxiv, 7, 8, 18, Sarduris prays for YUME-MES gazuli pili śiprugi-ni, ‘ prosperous days (and) pure (?) water.’ Pili, ‘ water,’ has, of course, no connection with pi, acc. pi-ni, ‘ name,’ which we find e.g. in xxxiv, 13–15: ha-al-du-bi ALU Lu-nu-u-ni-ni me-e-si-ni pi-i D.P. Me-nu-u-a-li-e a-tsi-li-ni, ‘ I changed its name of Luminis to Town (?) of Menuas.’

page 640 note 1 T. denotes the Topzawa inscription; T-K. the Toprak Kaleh tablet.