A Middle Assyrian Tablet of Utukkū Lemnūtu, Tablet 12

Abstract

The Middle Assyrian Tablet BM 130660 adds new material to the latter part of Tablet 12 of Utukkū Lemnūtu , which is imperfectly known from NA and LB sources, mainly from Kuyunjik and Assur. The gaps in the previous publications can now be restored from the MA tablet, together with unpublished duplicates from Kuyunjik, Babylon, Borsippa, and Nimrud. The bilingual MA tablet is of particular interest because, although in SB dialect, it differs substantially from the NA and LB copies of Tablet 12. Although many of the MA textual variants are purely orthographic, the following types of significant variants can be distinguished: First, grammatical variants in the MA Akk. may affect the meaning of a passage, such as the MA use of lipparis in place of liprus in the parallel texts (1. 26′). In some cases the MA grammatical variant may indicate a corrupt text, or a misunderstanding of the Sum., as in 1. 30′, in which the MA Akk. reads, “may the wise judges, holy ones of Istar(?), exclude him from the house”, whereas the NA/LB recension reads correctly, “may the great wise judge Istar exclude him from the house”.