The Sumerian Proverb Collections: A Preliminary Report

Abstract

THE ENTIRE collection of Sumerian proverb material from Nippur, over 90% of which has until now remained unpublished, consists of 446 pieces, of which 397 were excavated over fifty years ago by the Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, and 49 excavated only two years ago by the Joint Expedition of the Oriental Institute and the University Museum. Of the pieces excavated by the earlier expedition, 303 are located in the University Museum and 94 in the Museum of the Ancient Orient in Istanbul. About 65% of this material are small fragments containing from one to ten proverbs, often badly broken. Another 15% consist of lenticular school tablets containing usually only one proverb with the schoolmaster's copy repeated below or on the reverse by the pupil. The remaining 20% consist of tablets in various states of preservation, ranging in size from one to twelve columns. As of today, it is possible to distinguish ten separate proverb collections, the texts of which will be reconstructed from at least 193 tablets and fragments. The remaining 253 pieces have not yet been placed. Of these ten collections, the extant texts of two have now been completely reconstructed. This article aims to describe one of these two collections. As in the case of practically all the Sumerian literary material from Nippur, the copies of this collection were actually inscribed during the first third of the second millenium B. c., although it is quite reasonable to assume a considerably older date for their origin, especially in view of the fact that some of the same proverbs are found on school tablets from Ur, Susa and other provenances, dating from approximately the same time as those from Nippur. This collection consisted originally of approximately 212 proverbs, of which 98 are complete and 29 others almost so.' The text has been pieced