Note on the Aramaic Treaty of Bar-ga'ya and Mati‘el

Extract

Father Ronzevalle has now published the text of the important stela from Sudschîn, 14 miles south-east of Aleppo, Mélanges de l'Université Saint-Joseph, xv, 235–260 (1931). On face Aa Bar-ga'yā, king of K-T-K, and Mati‘el, king of Arpad, engage in a treaty before certain gods, most of whom are Babylonian with the exception of the Aramaic Sun-god and ('Elyōn) “the most high”, a title of the same Aramaic deity, the 'Elioun of Sanchounyathōn. In line 10 occur the deities N-K-E and K-D-'-H which may be Aramaic transcriptions of Babylonian, eventually Sumerian deities. Dussaud, Comptes Rendus, 1931, 315, identified these gods with the two titles of Tammuz, Nagar, and KA-DI, which occur together regularly in the Tammuz hymns. The readings of and which Dussaud took from Meissner, Babylonien und Assyrien, ii, 168, as Nagar and Kadi, were read Lamga and Kasa in my edition. Lamga is only a phonetic variant of Nagar > Lagar > Lamga(r), and there is no reason why the classical form Nagar should not be preferred to the dialectic Lamga. Also Zimmern, Sumerisch-Babylonische Tamuzlieder, Berichten der Phil. Hist.Klasse der Königl. Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften lix, 212, preferred the classical form Nagar, and so does Witzel, RA. 10, 173; 16; 176, 7, etc. Zimmern does not commit himself on the reading Ka-di, which I read Ka-sá, but transcribes KA-DI. Witzel like Meissner reads Ka-di.