The Old Babylonian Tablets from Al-Rimah

Abstract

In the last decades, archaeologists have excavated a number of sites in the middle Euphrates valley, recovering archives which have permitted reconstruction of a distant period in the history of the Ancient Near East. These excavations include ones at Tell Hariri (ancient Mari), Tell Shemsharra (Shusharra), Chagar Bazar, Tell al-Rimah, and Tell Taya. As is neatly summed up in its forword (p. v), the volume under review constitutes the editio princeps of all the Old Babylonian tablets from Tell al Rimah found in the course of excavations conducted on that site from 19641971 by Professor David Oates on behalf of the British Schools of Archaeology in Iraq. volume is introduced by Oates. Stephany Dalley, who bore the brunt of this publication, contributes chapters on The Chronology and History of the tablets from Room II of the palace, The Iltani Archives, and The [Economic] of Rooms II and XVII, the last consisting of 163 and 74 documents respectively. C. B. F. Walker publishes some 33 Miscellaneous Texts from the Palace Area [chapter IV], and, in a short appendix (p. 356), gives a digest of 6 additional tablets found too late for proper inclusion within the volume. J. D. Hawkins presents 57 Tablets from the Temple Stairway [chapter V], and studies The Inscribed Seal Impressions [chapter VI]. Exceptionally clear hand copies for all these texts are given in plates 1-109, with photographs of specimen tablets and seal impressions occupying 3 additional plates. Elaborate indices enhance the usefulness of this well-bound and moderately priced volume. These consist of lists of Personal, Divine, Geographical, Months, and limu names. A short index of Words discussed, a concordance of field and museum numbers, specifically relating each document to its archaeological provenance, conclude a volume which