The Ancient Near East: History, Texts, etc.

Abstract

The Ancient Near East: History, Texts, etc. Christopher T. Begg, Isaac M. Alderman, Eric J. Wagner, CR, and Ryan C. Payne 22. Claus Ambos, "Rituale der Herrschaftslegitimation babylonischer und assyrischer Könige," Herrschaftslegitimation, 67-78 [see #703]. Among the rituals of legitimatization for kingship in ancient Mesopotamia designed to highlight both divine and human recognition of a king's rule was the coronation ceremony at the beginning of his reign and the complex of New Year rituals whereby his legitimation was re-affirmed on a bi-annual basis, once in the spring and again in the fall. Focusing on these New Year rituals, A. highlights the difference between them in Babylonia and Assyria. In the former case, the king underwent a variety of ritual humiliations in which, e.g., he was deprived of his regalia, slapped on the cheek by an officiating priest and required to address the great gods with abject prayers in which he confessed his sins and his abandonment by his personal gods before finally being restored to his royal dignity. In Assyria, by contrast, the emphasis in the royal New Year rituals was on the intimate, unbreakable bond between the god Assur and the king, the god's (chief) priest.—C.T.B. 23. Shlomo Bahar, "El Amarna 252,23-29, again," UF 44 (2013) 1-3. Lines 23-30 of tablet EA 252 of Labayu of Shechem are notorious for their difficulty. The particularly hard part of the tablet is its lines 27-29. The purpose of this paper is to point to sources which may shed light on these lines and which have not been used for that purpose hitherto. Two problems are posed by these lines: the interpretation of lines 27-28 and the understanding of the meaning of the form u-ṣur-ru-na in context (p. 1). In the course of his article, B. proposes "new and additional" arguments for the translation of Z. Cochavi-Rainey (2005), who, taking the above verbal form in the sense "watch, keep an eye on," renders the lines in question thus: "Moreover, if you say another thing, 'fall beneath them and they will smite you, my enemies. I shall keep an eye on (watch) the people who captured the town.'"—C.T.B. [End Page 8] 24. Angelika Berlejung, "Dimensionen der Herrschaftslegitimität: Ikonographische Aspekte königlicher Selbstdarstellung in den Kulturen der südlichen Levante der Eisenzeit anhand der Bildwerke van Baluʿa, Yarih-ʿ ezer und Askalon," Herrschaftslegitimation, 147-87 [see #703]. B. begins her essay with a consideration of the "dimensions of legitimation" as these have been developed especially by the political theorist D. Beetham according to whom the attainment and maintenance on the part of a ruler required conformity to societal rules, which are themselves grounded in convictions shared by both ruler and subordinates and an expression of consent to the ruler's exercise of authority from the side of the ruled. In her introductory segment, B. further focuses attention on ANE (more particularly southern Levantine) stone images of Iron Age kings and the ways in which they serve to legitimate the rule of the monarch represented by the image, e.g., by endowing his depiction with qualities of lastingness and timelessness, qualities which, in turn, were meant to evoke confidence and awe on the part of those who behold the image. In the second part of her essay, B. proceeds to examine in more detail the three royal statues of her title, i.e., the (proto-) Moabite king Baluʿa, the Ammonite ruler Yarih-ʿezer and an unidentified (kingly?) figure whose (headless) image was discovered in the Mediterranean waters close to the Philistine city of Ashkelon in 1985. In each instance, B. seeks to clarify how the given image does promote the legitimation requirements of the one depicted by conveying a variety of positive messages about his status and capacities.—C.T.B. 25. Stefan Bojowald, "Noch einmal zur Vertreibung von bösen Mächten in unbewohnte Gegenden: eine neu entdeckte innerägyptische Parallele für pBerlin 3027, Spruch B, I 4-5," BN 174 (2017) 107-11. B. returns once again to the...