Akkadian Documents from Ras Shamra

Abstract

RAS SHAMRA CONTINUES to maintain its position as one of the greatest archaeological treasure-troves of the Near East. After a full quarter of a century since its lucky discovery and nearly a score of seasons of excavation, the site does not begin to show any signs of diminishing returns. Virtually each season so far has been highlighted by outstanding contributions affecting our understanding of broad aspects of the ancient Near East. The latest campaigns have been no exception to this happy norm. Foremost among the manifold finds from this site are, of course, its unique epigraphic treasures. The Ugaritic material, however, has tendedunderstandably enough-to divert attention from the fact that other scripts and languages had been in use in that same city. Yet to date Ras Shamra has yielded no less than five different scripts which were employed for a total of eight separate languages.2 Within this literate and polyglot maze, classic cuneiform-syllabic, with but a thin sprinkling of logograms-ranks second only to the alphabetic script in which Ugaritic proper is recorded. Syllabic cuneiform was employed locally as a vehicle for Akkadian, Hurrian, Sumerian, and Hittite. Occasional specimens in that medium, representing sundry Akkadian texts and the Sumero-Hurrian Vocabulary, have appeared from time to time in periodicals.3 The 15th campaign, however, and even more so the 16th, recovered so many syllabic texts that an exclusive publication of this material became necessary. This has now