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Historical Texts and Fragments of Sargon II of Assyria: (I) The “Aššur Charter”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

H. W. F. Saggs
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Extract

In 1958 A. L. Oppenheim, in discussion with C. J. Gadd, whose assistant at the School of Oriental and African Studies I then was, kindly suggested that I should undertake a new edition of the historical texts of Sargon II; subsequently Professor Oppenheim sent me some notes (not copies) by Dr. Geers on Sargon texts. I undertook a considerable amount of work on this project, copying all unpublished fragments of relevant texts which I could discover in the British Museum, and re-copying some others where I felt able to improve substantially on the published version. Unfortunately, after this initial part of the work had been completed, other commitments mounted, severely limiting the time I could apply to my new edition. Thus my promised new edition, though in an advanced stage, had still not reached completion when I heard that a younger scholar was also applying himself to this project.

In these circumstances it seems that my most satisfactory course would be to leave the new edition to one who may have less commitments of other kinds, and to publish forthwith, as my own contribution, such copies and re-copies as would seem to assist in the elucidation of the history of the reign of Sargon II. The present article is an initial contribution in this direction.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , Spring 1975 , pp. 11 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1975

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References

1 I am glad to express my thanks to Dr. E. Sollberger, Keeper of the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities, British Museum, and to his predecessor, Dr. R. D. Barnett, for permission to copy and publish the texts of Sargon II to be dealt with in this and subsequent articles.

2 See most conveniently Luckenbill, D. D., ARAB II, §§ 78, 92, 99, 102, 104, 107, 117, 182Google Scholar.

3 Misgivings about the term are implied by some scholars' use of the phrase “the so-called Assur Charter”; see, e.g., Tadmor, H., JCS 12 (1958), 25Google Scholar; and Postgate, J. N., Neo-Assyrian Royal Grants and Decrees (1969), 12Google Scholar.

4 Logograms are transcribed into the Akkadian equivalent except where there is so much damage that it may be helpful to indicate the particular elements identified or restored, when Sumerian values are given. Transcription into Akkadian is in accordance with the systems of von Soden, W., Das Akkadische Syllabar (second edition, 1967), 75–76Google Scholar; and Borger, R., Akkadische Zeichenliste (1971), passimGoogle Scholar; in the case of divergence between them (as in daššur, an-šár = aššur), the form in Syllabar is followed.

x represents one complete but unrecognized sign, ˹x˺ one damaged and unrecognized sign, [x] one sign wholly lost. An attempt has been made to calculate accurately the extent of loss at the end of each line, on the basis of measurement of the maximum probable length of the lost section and the average number of signs in that length of text in the same and adjacent lines. It is hoped that the margin of error (due to variations in the length of signs and of lines) is not more than two signs in the longest gaps and one sign elsewhere.

5 Where the probable sense, but not the exact wording, of lost passages is clear, the proposed restoration has been included in the translation but not in the transliteration.