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An Assyrian Royal Inscription from a Series of Poems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

S. Langdon
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Extract

K. 4874 is the right half of a square tablet, originally about 5 inches wide and 4½ inches long. Translation by Sayce, but the text has not been published. Owing to its fragmentary condition, the document has value almost exclusively for Sumerian and Semitic philology. It must belong to a series, for part of the Sumerian catch-line is preserved. The only similar tablet, known to me, is the Assyrian copy of a Babylonian bilingual account of the return of the statue of Marduk from Elam to Babylon, K. 3444, with duplicate, K. 3317, published in IV Kaw. 20, No. 1. K. 4874 is not entirely bilingual. Of the 62 lines on this tablet, Obv. 11–12, 17, 22, 25–26–27, 36, have no Sumerian equivalents, unless it be supposed that these lines contained Sumerian translations on the left side of the tablet. Obverse 23 proves that it is a royal inscription and semi-historical.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 64 , Issue 1 , January 1932 , pp. 33 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1932

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References

page 33 note 1 Hibbert Lecures, 511–12.

page 33 note 2 Edited lastly by Hehn, BA. v, 339–44.

page 34 note 1 The subject is probably nišê.

page 34 note 2 Lines 11–12 have no Sumerian equivalents.

page 36 note 1 On kisittu, root, family lineage, see David, Martin, Die Adoption, p. 21Google Scholar , note 52.

page 36 note 2 One of the seven children of Enmešarra and identified with d. Bi-gĭr-guš and described as ša apsî, she of the abyss, Th. Dangin, Rit., 16, 6, or d-Ib. gĭr-guš, and identified with Antu gāmilat napišti d.Anim, RA. 16, 145, 11. The name, therefore, is interpreted šu = gamālu, zi = napištu, anna = Ann, i.e. “celestial bestower of life”. In CT. 24, 5, 13, she is the (dambanda) inferior consort of Enlil and nurse of Sin; Var. Schroeder, KAV. 50. iv, 1–3; and as bestower of life she is identified with Gula, KAV. 46, 19. Cf. Weidner, AKF. ii, 14, 21. In liturgies, gašan babbar d-Šu-zi-an-na-ge, after Šamaš and before ama é-uru-sag-ga gašan tin-dib-ba, i.e. Gula, BL. No. 92, R. 4; Th. Dangin, Uruh, 102, 5; 104, 9; BL. 15, 6; cf. p. 50, 20; Legrain, PBS., xiii, 16; i, 4, 6.

page 36 note 3 For îtût kun libbi, v. VAB. iv, 311; CT. 37, 5, 7.

page 37 note 1 This compound epithet probably denotes a noun in the singular, and not šêdu u lamassu. See BL. 131, against Streck, Assurb. ii, 38, 70.

page 37 note 2 Cf. gú-sa-bi = naphar-šunu, RA. 11, 145, 31. Cf. PBS. x, 249, 19; Ebeling, KAR. 58, B. 40. The Sumerian is unintelligible.

page 37 note 3 The force of the ending iš in this passage differs entirely from the adverbial -iš, aš, uš, of Accadian grammar. This adverbial iš was explained by the writer, PSBA. 1909, 110–4, as a decayed form of the pronominal suffix šu. But in this passage - iš has the same sense as Sumerian postfixed šú> eš, iš, and the syntax can not be explained in any other way. mahaziš is not an adverb, like tilaniš, or a preposition, like ašriš, iduš, but means ana mahazi. It is possible, then, that the entire series is of Sumerian origin as Delitzsch stated.

page 38 note 1 Entirely uncertain.

page 38 note 2 For è = hâṭu, v. Ebeling, KAR. 16, 7; SBH. No. 74, 1. 1.

page 38 note 3 Cf. gi = gimru; ASKT. 116, 7.

page 38 note 4 Cf. ib-dam = ramāmu, Br. 4980; ib-dam-mu-ni-ib-za = uttazzam, Hrozný, Ninrag, 8,13, K. 8531. See BA. v, 329, 9; Harper, Lett. 1202, R. 4; Ungnad, Bab. Briefe, 207, 14; azmaku-u-ma, “Then I complained” azāmu to roar, complain. False is SAI. 3384.

page 40 note 1 For the verbal form, v. Sum. Gr., p. 161 and n. 7; also ASKT. 104, 18.

page 40 note 2 The intervocalic glide u > m is rare in Accadian. See Brockelman, Vergleichende Grammatik, p. 54, 1.

3 For this reading, cf. AJSL. 33, 199, 287 KAL(ri-ib) = šûtuḳu. Hence sag-KAL = ašaridu, has also the value sag-rïb. Cf. iv, R. 24a, 57.