Die aramaischen Inschriften aus Assur, Hatra und dem ubrigen Ostmesopotamien (Datiert 44 v.Chr. bis 238 n.Chr.)

Abstract

Die aramaischen Inschriften aus Assur, Hatra and dem ubrtgen Ostmesopotamien (datiert 44 v.Chr. bis 238 n.Chr.), by Klaus Beyer. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998. Pp. 191. DM 83.00 (paper). Beyer's book is a continuation of his important collection of Aramaic texts from the Dead Sea (and surroundings) and its supplementary volume (Die aramaischen Texte vom Toten Meer [1984], Erganzungsband [1994]). This is the first systematic presentation of the east-Mesopotamian dialect of Aramaic, which became the official administrative language of the eastern part of Mesopotamia (p. 7), beginning from the first century C.E. onwards. Its development is parallel to the standardization of Syriac as the official chancellery language in the northwestern corner of Mesopotamia/Syria around Edessa. Beyer does not provide the editio princeps of these texts, but rather has tried to bring together all the texts pertaining to this new written language in a systematic manner. The approximately six hundred inscriptions are to be dated between 44 B.C.E. and 238 C.E. and have been recovered from thirteen different locations, including Assur, DuraEuropos, Hatra, and Sa'adiya. Beyer follows the original numbering system in order to avoid confusion with yet another numbering system-a phenomenon which is, for example, visible in Ugaritic studies and which requires double (or even triple) indexing. However, this sometimes results in puzzlement when one looks at inscription Al (coming from Assur), which is followed by A3b. The reader has no indication what happened to A2 or A3a, and given that the original publications are not readily available and mostly written in Italian, a language to which not every scholar has easy access, some comments on the numbering system would have been in order. Beyer does mention that he is following the original numbering system (p. 6), but this indication is buried in his section on signs and abbreviations. Each text presentation includes three sections. After the name, numbering, and a possible date (based upon inner-textual evidence), Beyer provides the original text in an especially designed font (digitized by U. Seeger and designed by Beyer himself [p. 1211). This is followed by the transcription and the German translation. It is interesting to see that the transcriptions reproduce the standard Aramaic phonology (p. 9) without taking into account any possible historical developments of the language. I think this decision a wise one, since vocalic/consonantal changes are increasingly difficult to document, especially in a limited body of texts from distinct locations. Furthermore, it is clear that both Syriac and east-Mesopotamian are dialects of Aramaic and thus closely related to their mother tongue. While we know quite a bit about Aramaic (in all its stages), knowledge about the east-Mesopotamian dialect is scarce and limited. In the translations Beyer opts to translate the onomastica as well and includes an indication of their origin (if not Aramaic). In order to distinguish the translation (which often includes an entire sentence, when understood as a nominal sentence), small capitals are utilized, thus differentiating between the regular text of the inscription and the translation of the name. The reader should be aware of this distinction in order to avoid confusion. Beyer has divided the inscriptions into nine subdivisions according to geography and provenance (pp. 11-119). Most of the inscriptions originate from Hatra (pp. …