Historical Texts and Fragments of Sargon II of Assyria. 1. The "Aššur Charter"

Abstract

In 1958 A. L. Oppenheim, in discussion with C. J. Gadd, whose assistant at the School of Oriental and African Studies I then was, kindly suggested that I should undertake a new edition of the historical texts of Sargon II; subsequently Professor Oppenheim sent me some notes (not copies) by Dr. Geers on Sargon texts. I undertook a considerable amount of work on this project, copying all unpublished fragments of relevant texts which I could discover in the British Museum, and re-copying some others where I felt able to improve substantially on the published version. Unfortunately, after this initial part of the work had been completed, other commitments mounted, severely limiting the time I could apply to my new edition. Thus my promised new edition, though in an advanced stage, had still not reached completion when I heard that a younger scholar was also applying himself to this project.In these circumstances it seems that my most satisfactory course would be to leave the new edition to one who may have less commitments of other kinds, and to publish forthwith, as my own contribution, such copies and re-copies as would seem to assist in the elucidation of the history of the reign of Sargon II. The present article is an initial contribution in this direction.