Two Old Babylonian Contracts

Orientalia Nova Series 88, 2019

RBC [Rosen Babylonian Collection] 733 is a hitherto unpublished Middle Assyrian tablet from the Yale Babylonian Collection (YBC). In this short article, Jaume Llop presents an edition, commentary and copy of this sealed debt note from the YBC. Agnete Wisti Lassen has copied the seal and analysed its traces on the tablet.

Semitic and Assyriological studies, 2003

2011

The Old Babylonian prism here published is a compendium of model contracts (and one legal provision) written in Sumerian and it is a direct expression of the scholastic legal tradition in Southern Mesopotamia. 2 As Martha Roth asserted in her study about a similar prism, 3 Mesopotamian legal tradition is evidenced by two types of documents: the first one is represented by "handbooks", that is compendia of contractual clauses and specific terminology (as, for example, the series Ana ittisˇu, from now on: Ai.), or collections of model contracts, that follow the common patterns of Sumerian contract types (loan documents, sale contracts, contracts of adoption, of manumission of slaves, etc.). The second type of document is the product of the students of the Eduba: texts (or sentences) written by the trainee from dictation or by copying the text produced by 1 The writer owes a debt of gratitude to M. Roth for her kindness and helpfulness in the enlightening discussions in Paris during the RAI 2009; moreover her Ph. D. dissertation (see fn. 3 below) was absolutely essential to the understanding of the model contracts here published. I also wish to express my gratitude to M. Stol, who offered many valuable suggestions for interpreting obscure passages, and to B. Foster, who kindly placed at my disposal some unpublished material held in the Babylonian Collection in the University of Yale. A heartfelt thanks goes to Prof. F. D'Agostino for his support in the preparation of this study and for his revision of the manuscript. Mrs. Politi has revised the English form of the article and for this I want to thank her warmly (obviously I bear the full responsibility for any mistakes or inaccuracies). A special thank is due to W. Sallaberger for his kind hospitality during my stay at the Library of the Institut für 2 Gabriella Spada the teacher, in which, as it is to be expected, there are often many mistakes and anomalies. The prism here edited belongs to the first type of documents highlighted by Roth and was written by an expert scribe, who gathered the model contracts with accuracy and professional organization, as we shall see.

Five issues pertaining to the history of Babylonia in the Chaldean and early Achaemenid periods (the so-called "long 6th century BCE") are discussed below. The first two concern the connections of Babylonia with the West, viz. the Levant and Egypt. It is argued here that Adad of Hallab, who was worshipped in Borsippa, refers to the storm deity of Aleppo, and not to a deity of a small north Babylonian settlement as was suspected earlier. The subsequent section discusses the incorporation of the Egyptian prisoners of war in the workforce of the Babylonian . = son; w. = witness; wi. = wife. Images of the tablets are found on the web: CBS = http://cdli.ucla.edu, museum no. in Alphabets, Texts and Artifacts; Studies Presented to Benjamin Sass temples. They were organized in decuries like the indigenous and other workmen. The third section is another step in my pursuit of the ever-increasing material concerning the Chaldeo-Arameans. They emerged as a significant population group in Babylonia during the first millennium BCE alongside the long-established Babylonian urbanites. The penultimate section is about a new chief administrator of Esaggila, the temple of the capital of Babylon, and an unknown stage in the career of the future king Neriglissar. The last section contains information about prices of several items.

NABU 2018/3v Edition of an Old Babylonian loan contract.

1980

This review article of the editio princeps of the OB texts found at Rimah concentrates on the archives that are contemporaneous with the rulers of Zimri-Lim of Mari and Hammurabi of Babylon. Since that edition did not present interpretations of the evidence, this review will overview the information that pertains to the social and political life of an Old Babylonian town. In the last decades, archaeologists have excavated a number of sites in the middle Euphrates valley, recovering archives which have permitted reconstruction of a distant period in the history of the Ancient Near East. These excavations include ones at Tell Hariri (ancient Mari), Tell Shemsharra (Shusharra), Chagar Bazar, Tell al-Rimah, and Tell Taya. As is neatly summed up in its forword (p. v), the volume under review "constitutes the editio princeps of all the Old Babylonian tablets from Tell al Rimah found in the course of excavations conducted on that site from 1964-1971 by Professor David Oates on behalf of the British Schools of Archaeology in Iraq." The volume is introduced by Oates. Stephany Dalley, who bore the brunt of this publication, contributes chapters on "The Chronology and History of the tablets from Room II of the palace," "The Iltani Archives," and "The [Economic] Tablets of Rooms II and XVII," the last consisting of 163 and 74 documents respectively. C. B. F. Walker publishes some 33 "Miscellaneous Texts from the Palace Area [chapter IV]," and, in a short appendix (p. 356), gives a digest of 6 additional tablets found too late for proper inclusion within the volume. J. D. Hawkins presents 57 "Tablets from the Temple Stairway [chapter V]," and studies "The Inscribed Seal Impressions [chapter VI]." Exceptionally clear hand copies for all these texts are given in plates 1-109, with photographs of specimen tablets and seal impressions occupying 3 additional plates. Elaborate indices enhance the usefulness of this well-bound and moderately priced volume. These consist of lists of Personal, Divine, Geographical, Months, and limu names. A short index of "Words discussed," a concordance of field and museum numbers, specifically relating each document to its archaeological provenance, conclude a volume which *This is a review-article of The Old Babylonian Tablets from Tell al Rimah, by Stephanie Dalley, C. B. F. Walker and J. D. Hawkins; with an Introduction by David Oates. xvi + 272 pp. + 112 plates. London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq. 1976. should become a model of efficient use of space and of promptness of publication. Complex as the editing must have been, I observed few writers' lapses (p. 33, 8th 1. read ARM 11:119), and remarkably few typographical errors: p. 4, n. 25 Andariq!; p. 8, last para. read ARM:39!; p. 43's reference is to IX:27:ii:32!; text 42:11 should read mu-ut!-ki; 67:18 should read a-ha!-su; 267:25 should have LU!. A number of incorrect citations of PNs (pp. 257ff.) were obviously due to filing and transferring ab-di-istar, 173!:3; amur/mu-ur-sa-dUTU, 62:16, 19!; ba-ba-az-zu, 246!:4; no ba-ah-di-dISKUR in 208:6 [97:6]; ik-su-ud-ap-pa-gu, 81:4; i-ni-ibdUTU, seal 16!; ka-ak-su, 322:vi:31!; mu-tu-haad-ki-im, 161:9! ; su-re-e, 244:iii:14! ; zi-ra-is!-se. a-gaap-se-ni is wrongly judged to be a GN rather than a PN. But collation here is surely in order since it is unlikely to have a KI in this context. pa-as-(si)-it-[he] of 207:i:5, 208:i:5; 210:i:4 should be added to the list of PN. For other suggestions on reading see below, sub IV. After presenting alternate readings and understanding of individual words and passages in the text, this review will concentrate mostly on the Rimah texts which are contemporaneous with the period of Hammurabi of Babylon. In turn, it shall discuss the chronology of Karana's rulers as could be reconstructed from Mari and Rimah evidence, and offer some comments on the personalities met with in the iltani archives. Finally, this review will offer a short list of alternate readings for PNs and GNs collected in the indices. At the outset, it would be well to state that Dalley's identification of Rimah with Karana has a good chance of vindication, although one would have liked her to have assessed the Nuzi and 1st millennium evidence concerning Karana (cf. Lewy, JAOS 88(1968), 155; Oppenheim Dream Book, 2609). Text numbers following Roman numerals are those of the ARM(T) series. At my disposal as of this writing are I-XV, XVII/i-XVIII. Text numbers without such numerals refer to Rimah's archives. As this goes to press, no reviews of this volume were available to me. ISee now: Birot, RA 72, 187ff.; Anbar, BiOr 35, 208ff.; Pomponio, OA 16, 332ff.] 453

NABU, 2021

(JAPAN) 41) Miscellaneous notes on the Middle Babylonian documents-Previously, the Middle Babyloniann aklu documents were treated in my dissertation (Murai 2018). My further considerations, remarks less relevant to the main theme of my dissertation, I am including herein. 1)