Akkadian Texts Research Articles

Towards a word similarity gold standard for Akkadian: creation and model optimization

Abstract We present a word similarity gold standard for Akkadian, a language documented in ancient Mesopotamian sources from the 24th century BCE until the first century CE. The gold standard comprises 300 word pairs ranked by their paradigmatic similarity by five independently working Assyriologists. We use the gold standard to tune PMI + SVD and fastText models to improve their performance. We also present a hyper-parametrized PMI + SVD model for building count-based word embeddings, that aims to deal with the data sparsity and repetition issues encountered in Akkadian texts. Our model combines Dirichlet smoothing with context distribution smoothing, and uses context similarity weighting to down-sample distortion caused by formulaic litanies and partially or fully duplicated passages.

The The Semitic Origins of the Term "Sūqa".

The term “sūqa”, which appeared continuously in ancient Egyptian texts from the Late Egyptian to demotic and continued to be used in Coptic, is similar to the Arabic word "souqa" meaning the lower class of society. A comparable word has attested in the Akkadian texts from the Old Babylonian and Assyrian periods. Thus, the aim of the study is to find an etymological link between the Akkadian word and its Egyptian and Arabic counterpart. The problem of the research and its hypothesis lie in linking the Akkadian origins of this term to the Egyptian ones and then the Arabic ones. The most important problem facing this study is that the word does not appear in the currently published studies of borrowed words or expressions borrowed from the Semitic languages to the Ancient Egyptian language, and therefore the bridge language that transports the word needs research and study. The aim of the study is to form a general perception about the development of the word and its transfer from one language to another. The hypothesis of the study is based on the fact that the Arabic word “sūqa” cannot be of Arabic origins; rather, it is a semitic word that has been transferred to the Arabic language through the Egyptian language. To prove this hypothesis, the methodology of the study will rely on analyzing texts of the three languages and the examination and analysis of this word “sūqa” and its synonyms in each language, according to their context to deduce their significance and to verfy the scientific hypothesis of the study. In conclusion, one main finding of the study is that it has demonstrated that the word “sūqa” appeared in Akkadian texts to mean "street", and then it was transferred to the Late Egyptian with a change of meaning to be associated with “foolishness” and “inferiority”, which is the same change of meaning with which it was transferred to Arabic. It also shows the congruence between the word in Arabic poetry and that in ancient Egyptian texts, but with a clear meaning associated with low social class and another associated with arrogance and class superiority.

Across Cultures, Across Languages. Interconnectivity in the Late Bronze Age Ugarit

The spread of cuneiform writing and associated linguistic and literary traditions represents one of the key moments in the cultural history of the ancient Near East. This complex and multilayered process can indisputable be considered an excellent example of cultural transfer. Its long duration and the state of preservation of the sources allow us to follow this process in its entirety, but also to focus on specific details. The aim of this article is to identify the importance of cultural transfer in the Akkadian texts of Ugarit, more specifically with respect to the origins of the phrase “according to the loyalty of someone’s heart”.

Sacred Texts and the First Myth about the Creation of Writing

Abstract No myth about the origin of writing is known so far for Mesopotamia (only a legend). By applying the new Hylistic methodology for research into mythology, the first known myth of the creation of writing can be reconstructed. The myth we call Nissaba Creates Writing for the Sacred Song of Enlil narrates the creation of writing, which serves to immortalise the divine song at the very moment when the supreme god is creating it orally. Results of this investigation bear important implications for two phenomena, concerning sacred texts and the origin of writing. (1) From an emic perspective, texts created by the gods turn out to be sacred, even numinous, in their conception. Further analysis of the subscript “Nissaba praise!” or of the subscript ka enim-ma, the latter properly understood as “wording of the divine words,” demonstrates that many Sumerian and Akkadian texts were indeed regarded as sacred texts. Ancient Mesopotamia thus proves to be a culture based on sacred texts. (2) The myth Nissaba Creates Writing for the Sacred Song of Enlil sheds new light on the origins of writing as perceived from the culture of the inventors of writing: the decisive function of the creation of writing was seen not in overcoming economic challenges, but in coping with ritual needs. Re-examining the historical evidence from this perspective opens up new possibilities for a cultural history of the origins of writing.

Существовала ли вавилонская философия?

The article criticizes the theory of the assyriologist M. van de Mieroop about the existence of Babylonian philosophy, set forth in his monograph and detailed theses. Each thesis of this theory is quoted and analyzed in detail. The differ­ences between the philosophical statement and the philosophical worldview from the religious and scientific statements of the peoples of ancient Mesopotamia are determined. It has been established that a philosophical statement can only be the author’s and is necessarily criticized by other authors. In philosophical rea­soning about the universe, the principle of non-possessiveness of the universal is obligatory. The universe is understood by philosophers as the unity of all things. At the same time, the universe is conceived as consisting of primary elements. In philosophical thinking there is a hierarchy of categories, the idea of the begin­ning, the limit and the infinite. Unlike the philosophers, the authors of the Sume­rian and Akkadian texts were nameless and did not quote or criticize each other. In their reasoning, the universal is always associated with the belonging of many things to one subject, and the world order is understood exclusively as power. The universe appears in the Sumero-Akkadian texts as a multitude of possessed things. Cuneiform texts up to the 5th century B.C. do not know the concept of primary elements. They lack logical definitions and chains of logical reason­ing, the hierarchy of categories, the idea of the beginning, the limit and the infi­nite. Thus, the constructions of the priests and scientists of ancient Mesopotamia, from our point of view, cannot be called philosophical texts.

The Land Yassan during the 18th Century BC.

There are many Akkadian texts from the ancient Babylonian period mentioning a country called “Yassan”, located in northern Mesopotamia. It is not well known in recent studies, and where it’s located, what is its geographical framework, who governed it, and what is the nature of its relationship with the contemporary political entities neighboring it? This is the problem that the research aimed to clarify; Depending on the available textual evidence. It became clear that Yassan is the name of a country on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, north of the town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, which played an important role in the conflicts and alliances that arose in the region of Syrian Jazīra and Mount Sinjar, during the reign of Zimri-Lim king of Mari, and after the collapse of the Kingdom of Mari, and the division of the region into many small political entities. The research traces the history of the country during the 18th century B.C., during the reign of two kings in Razama (North), which was its capital, and they are known in the texts of Mari, Šubat-Enlil and Qaṭṭara, and it shows the nature of its relations with the neighboring political forces, as well as distant ones such as the Kingdom of Yamḫad / Ḫalab "Aleppo" which her king (Ḫammurabi) had begun to gain loyalists, and extend his influence in those areas, and trying to precede the expansion of the influence of Ḫammurabi king of Babylon there.

Unpublished Economic Akkadian Texts In The Iraq Museum

The cuneiform texts of the Akkadian period show a number of developmentsIn economic affairs, including the expansion of agricultural land and the diversity of agricultural crops This is because of the fertile and plentiful pastures in the region as well as the development of methods , This has helped to increase the surplus of agricultural production and the devlopment of industrial crafts and Increasing interest in raising animals and their products and achieving surplus production for commercial purposes as well on the expansion of trade exchanges as a result of large military conquests. The reserach consists of the photocopies of these cuneiform texts with their original photos followed by a bibliography of Arabic and English soueces and an abstract in English.

The Ransom in Akkadian Texts

Social phenomena were common in the societies of the ancient Orient and continued over time until the modern era, including the phenomenon of ransom, linked to a situation in which there was a forced kidnapping, then the demand for ransom in the form of a sum of money to release the kidnapped, and it usually occurs in societies in which the ruling political power weakens or collapses, Then groups outside the laws and customs appear, and are active in the periphery areas, where they resort to killing, kidnapping, looting and theft. Ransom was known in the Akkadian language as ipṭi/erum, and the phenomenon spread during the second millennium B.C, in many separate areas of the ancient Orient (northern Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and Canaan), so what are its causes, how were its procedures and payment of the required sum and what is its relation to the situation Social and political, and what is the position of the rulers of it? This is what the research tries to clarify by presenting the Akkadian textual evidence that indicated or documented the case of the ransom, and then extrapolated it to extract general information related to it.

Mereological themes in cuneiform worldmaking

ABSTRACT Taking as a point of departure Nelson Goodman’s idea that it is the frames of reference and the descriptions that refer within those frames that make for ways of worldmaking, this paper considers descriptions of the world attested in Akkadian cuneiform texts as a way to approach the Babylonia literati’s notion of ‘world.’ In this corpus, descriptions of world-parts display mereological themes of complementarity, correspondence, and the relation of counterparts. Meronyms, or names for parts of the one whole (we would say ‘world,’ or ‘universe’), and the part-whole relationships they indicate, are of importance to this inquiry into worldmaking.

Was a Sacred Curtain (Parokhet) Depicted on Portable Shrines in the Ancient Near East?

The Parokhet, or sacred curtain, was an important item of cultic paraphernalia in the ancient Near East. It is known from the Sumerian and Akkadian texts, the biblical tradition, the Second Temple in Jerusalem, Greek temples, and synagogues of the Roman and Byzantine eras, and is still in use today. We suggest that such a sacred curtain is depicted on several of the miniature clay objects known as portable shrines. In Egypt, thanks to the dry climate, a miniature curtain of this kind has indeed been preserved in association with a portable shrine. Depictions of shrines on Egyptian sacred barks also include life-size curtains.

Restoration of fragmentary Babylonian texts using recurrent neural networks

The main sources of information regarding ancient Mesopotamian history and culture are clay cuneiform tablets. Many of these tablets are damaged, leading to missing information. Currently, the missing text is manually reconstructed by experts. We investigate the possibility of assisting scholars, by modeling the language using recurrent neural networks and automatically completing the breaks in ancient Akkadian texts from Achaemenid period Babylonia.

Herodicus in Babylon

Abstract This paper deals with the epigram of Herodicus (apud Ath. 5.222a). First it is examined as a piece of Greek literature—with a history, a number of imitators, a Greek intellectual and scholarly context, and the expressive resources of the Greek language. Several cruces are discussed, but the meaning of the final two words of the poem—θεόπαις Βαβυλών—is of particular importance. The internal syntactic structure of the compound adjective θεό-παις is analysed using comparative evidence from Greek. But the actual comparandum that is argued to be crucial for establishing its meaning is an epithet of Babylon found in Akkadian and Sumerian. The basis for the relevance of this is the existence of Akkadian texts in Greek script (the ‘Graeco-Babyloniaca’), which are reviewed in full as part of the evidence for cultural contact in Hellenistic Babylon.

Are there two types of men in Leviticus 20:13?

The law of Leviticus 20:13 contains a curious non-symmetry: “a man [’ish, אִישׁ] may not lie with a male [zakar, זָכָר]”. If the purpose of the law was to forbid sexual activity between two people of the same sex, we would expect two identical terms for “man” to emphasise their similarity. The paper looks at two possible ways to account for this non-symmetry: it may be due to merging legislation from two sources, or the two terms may be synonymous. While surveying the concept of homoerotic inclination in the large corpus of Akkadian texts, the cognate term zikaru is found in two of these texts where its meaning of “male” implied heteroerotic inclination. If this meaning existed also in Hebrew, the two types of male who must not lie together may refer to “any male” (’ish) and a “heteroerotic male” (zakar). In this case, sexual activity between two homoerotically inclined males may still be regarded as immoral, but it was a capital crime only if a heteroerotic male was involved. The possibility of this interpretation means it is no longer certain that Leviticus condemned all homoerotic activity.

Sumerce ve Akadca Metinlerde Rüya Türleri

Eski Mezopotamya toplumunun inançları hakkında bilgi veren birincil kaynaklar çivi yazılı belgelerdir. Bu belgeler, III. Binyıl'dan I. Binyıl'a kadar farklı dönemlerde Sumerce ve Akadca olarak yazılmışlar ve Mezopotamya'daki farklı yerleşim yerlerinden çıkarılmışlardır. Konumuzla ilgili bilgi veren kaynaklar içerisinde hem edebi ve mitolojik metinler hem de tarihî metinler/mektuplar bulunmaktadır. Eski Mezopotamya kaynaklarında geçen rüyalar hakkında daha önceki yayınlarda çeşitli sınıamalar yapılmıştır. Burada söz konusu çalışmalar da dikkate alınarak çivi yazılı belgelerdeki rüya kayıtları incelenecek ve bu rüyaların mevcut türlerden hangisine girdiği tespit edilmeye çalışılacaktır. Ayrıca bu rüyaların içerikleri hakkında bilgi sunulacaktır.

The Witchcraft Series Maqlû by Tzvi Abusch

Reviewed by: The Witchcraft Series Maqlû by Tzvi Abusch Michael S. Moore tzvi abusch, The Witchcraft Series Maqlû (WAW 37; Atlanta: SBL Press, 2015). Pp. xiv + 201. Paper $29.95. Complementing Gerhard Meier's long-standing, sturdy edition (Die assyrische Beschwörungssammlung Maqlû [AfO Beiheft 2; Berlin: n.p., 1937]), this affordable paperback features an Akkadian transcription plus English translation of the longest and most famous of the Mesopotamian rituals against witchcraft, self-titled "Maqlû" ("burning," CAD M:252) in the final line of each tablet. Prefacing this is a forty-page introduction to the bizarre world of ancient Near Eastern witchcraft generally and Maqlû particularly, its major points reflecting those penned in previous studies (e.g., A.'s revised dissertation, Babylonian Witchcraft Literature: Case Studies [BJS 132; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987]). Simultaneously with this WAW volume, Abusch also publishes a detailed edition of Maqlû in a critical edition entitled The Magical Ceremony Maqlû: A Critical Edition (Ancient Magic and Divination 10; Leiden: Brill, 2015), a volume representing the culmination of the life work of one of the world's foremost experts on this ritual series. For many years A. has argued that the nine tablets making up the standard version of Maqlû (including the ritual tablet), far from being inchoate, disconnected Sammeltafeln, constitute instead a "single complex ceremony" (p. 4; see his "Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Literature: Texts and Studies, Part I. The Nature of Maqlû: Its Character, Divisions, and Calendrical Setting," JNES 33 [1974) 251-62, here 252). From ABL (Assyrian and Babylonian Letters Belonging to the Kouyunjik Collections of the British Museum [ed. Robert F. Harper; 14 vols.; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1892–1914]) 56.2′-6′ he argues that āšipu-"exorcists" annually recite the first two divisions of Maqlû on the night of Abu 28, finishing the third and final division the next morning. Evidently they choose the month of Abu (July–August) because so many "black-headed people" believe this to be a "time when spirits are thought to move back and forth between the netherworld and this world" (p. 4). A. attempts to reconstruct Maqlû's history of composition by inter-textually examining portions of the standard version alongside other incantational fragments and intratextually comparing similar paragraphs within Maqlû itself. Example: "The [End Page 106] incantations found on the fragmentary Nimrud tablet CTN [Cuneiform Texts from Nimrud] 4.92 + 145 + 147 are . . . variations of incantations found in Maqlû 5-8" (p. 129). Synoptically publishing these Akkadian texts alongside each another allows interested students the chance to reconstruct this history for themselves (pp. 130-31), even though A. himself leans toward assigning greater antiquity to the Nimrud texts. With regard to structure, the Maqlû ritual(s), like all elimination rites (see David P. Wright, The Disposal of Impurity: Elimination Rites in the Bible and in Hittite and Mesopotamian Literature [SBLDS 101; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987]), embody the usual priestly sequence of activity—construction, destruction, and elimination. "Building upon the basic ritual of burning, drowning, and burial, the ceremony takes up and integrates the additional themes of destruction and release of witchcraft as well as protection against future witchcraft attacks." Or, to use A.'s language, the "main concern" of Maqlû is "the judgment, execution, and expulsion of the witch" (pp. 17, 19). One of the distinctive features of this WAW edition is the author's proposal that a "divergent proto-form" of Maqlû "may already have existed in Aššur towards the end of the middle Assyrian period," and that the "long ritual with its nearly one hundred incantations" most likely "grows out of a much shorter ritual" and not the other way around (p. 5). Where the shorter ritual includes some ten incantations, the longer one multiplies this by a factor of ten. With regard to content, this ritual/incantation series preserves some of the most terrifying words ever uttered, presuming as it does the existence of a universe in which kaššāp(t)ū-"sorcer(esse)s" regularly and relentlessly prey on the "souls" of their neighbors (see Richard C. Steiner, Disembodied Souls: The Nefesh in Israel and Kindred Spirits in the Ancient Near East, with an Appendix on the Katumuwa Inscription [ANEM 11...

Susa Funerary Texts


 
 
 A group of seven short late Old Babylonian texts, written in Akkadian, found in the early twentieth century in a grave in Susa, form the focus of this paper. The texts, which have attracted much scholarly attention since their publication in 1916 by Jean-Vincent Scheil, have until now not been collated. They are presented here with improved readings, a new translation, and extensive commentary. The mention in two of the texts of an alleged chthonic “weigher” is philologically disproved: psychostasia, the weighing of souls, did not exist in ancient Mesopotamian religion . The suggestion of some scholars that these Old Babylonian Akkadian texts are witnesses to Elamite, or even Iranian, belief in the weighing of souls is methodically refuted . The nature of the seven so-called Susa Funerary Texts (SFT) is discussed, demonstrating their close contacts to two other well-known Mesopotamian genres—personal prayers and reports of oracular or prophetic visions . Finally, the question of their unusual find spot, viz., in a grave, is discussed and the possibility raised that this peculiar location is a result of the texts’ magical function .
 
 

IM 160096 : un charme pour calmer un bébé qui pleure

Abstract This paper presents a new Akkadian text from the Iraq Museum with a magico-poetic formula to calm a crying baby.

Emphasis in the Akkadian Language

Emphasis is considered as an important outstanding stylistic phenomenon in the Akkadian language. One can understand the importance of this phenomenon and analyze it to throw some light on its secrets via reading, analyzing, studying, the cuneiform texts written in the Akkadian language and contrasting them with some other Arabite languages. The researcher tackles the relations found in a text in both of its oral and semantic aspects via the analysis of the objectives intended on the part of the addresser when he is forming his message and the addressee''s comprehension of the message which may vary among the cases of showing; attestation, mendacity, denial or hesitation. This, indeed, compels the addresser to form his message in such a way as to be convenient with any of the above mentioned cases. Such object is, indeed, applicable via the use of emphasis on the following levels: ( 1 ) Semantically via the oral repetition of meaning, or ( 2 ) Orally via the use of some utterances indicating assertion, the use of the present form of the verb preceded by a demand, the use of an oath to indicate assertion or the use of an attributive expression to indicate assertion. The second type, i.e., the oral emphasis has been tackled in some details. Generally, the emphasis is divided into the following two main types: First- The Oral Emphasis: This type of emphasis is used to strengthen the speech, confirm it and make the addressee understand without any illusion, ambiguity or oblivion. In this type of emphasis, there is a follower which determines the followed part of the text; i.e., the first utterance that is uttered identically. This style; i.e., the oral emphasis was so common in the Akkadian texts especially those recitative ones in which the above mentioned procedure was unequivocally followed for the sake of the emphasis which creates the effect on the addressee. Second- The Semantic Emphasis : In this type of emphasis, there is a follower which determines the followed part of the text so as to remove the ambiguity and the semantic expansion. This type of emphasis is applicable via the use of some special utterances, sentences containing a present verb preceded by a demand, an oath, attributive expression or the use of an article.

The Writings: Job–Sirach

The WritingsJob–Sirach Christopher T. Begg, Paul R. Redditt, John Thomas Willis, William J. Urbrock, and Rory K. Pitstick 1880. [Wisdom Literature; Egyptian Literature] Michael V. Fox, “Gauging Egyptian Influences on Biblical Literature,” Subtle Citation, 229–41 [see #2037]. My main role in the panel [from which this article and others in the above collective derive] was to address the questions presented by the editor [Ziony Zevit]: “When you intuit that there is or may be an Egyptian ‘connection’ for a particular biblical text, how do you determine the nature of the connection? What are you looking for?” In the following, I concentrate on Wisdom Literature, the genre for which Egyptian parallels have been adduced most extensively, and reflect on some of the claims of Egyptian dependence I have either asserted or denied—or both—in earlier publications. I summarize the arguments for the literary connections but leave much out, because my purpose is to probe the type of reasoning used and its validity . . . [p. 230, adapted]. In conclusion, in answer to Zevit’s question to the panel, “What are you looking for,” I’d answer: A strong congruity between source and receptor in specific and independent variables, both in form and content, with unpredictable similarities unique to the texts in question, together with a verifiable path of geographical and temporal transmission. But insisting that all these criteria be met would obscure some real and significant connections between Israel and its environment. It is often legitimate to accept a partial case. I try to calibrate the claims made to the strength of the evidence, and then to use the proposed parallels with vigor but not mania (p. 239, adapted).—C.T.B. [End Page 655] 1881. [Job; Mesopotamian Literature] Edward L. Greenstein, “The Book of Job and Mesopotamian Literature: How Many Degrees of Separation?” Subtle Citation, 143–58 [see #2037]. The Book of Job, as is well known, belongs to an ANE literary tradition of texts about pious sufferers. . . . Perhaps the texts closest in content to Job are the two Akkadian poems, “Let Me Praise the Lord of Wisdom” . . . and the so-called “Babylonian Theodicy.” The former was already known in an abbreviated form among the Syro-Canaanite scribes of the 2nd millennium b.c.e. . . . However, in spite of many similarities between these Akkadian texts and Job . . . one would be hard pressed to establish a direct dependency.… By contrast, the narrative framework of Job . . . relates a tale of testing that has no parallel in Mesopotamian literature or, as far as I know, in ANE literature in general. . . . Accordingly, the present discussion focuses exclusively on the poetic core of the Book of Job (pp. 143–45). The poetry of Job makes use of a variety of literary elements that are known from Mesopotamian literature from diverse periods. We find the theme of theodicy and the topos of the complaining pious sufferer. We find the motif of the womb that is figured like a barred door and of semi-mythological creatures made of metal, stone, and other components. I have also joined earlier scholars in discerning a possible dependence of Job on a passage from Enūma elish tablet IV. In this last instance, I based my contention on the presence of a linguistic link between the Babylonian source and Job. When applying the standard of identifying shared words and phrases, one may suggest that the poet of Job knew some Babylonian language and may have had a certain acquaintance with some Babylonian literature as well. The more one can establish a dependence on the level of language the better one can hypothesize a familiarity with Mesopotamian literature on the part of the author of Job in a more general way. Even so, I have not yet found a sure basis for claiming a direct knowledge of Mesopotamian pious sufferer texts by Job’s author. My judgment then is that ancient Hebrew authors became familiar with such texts, as they did with many other types of wisdom literature, via local sources available to them (p. 154, adapted).—C.T.B. 1882. [Job; F. Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov] George Pattison, “Hiob als Inter-text: Dostojewskis...

An Unpublished Old Akkadian Text of a New Governor of Umma

This unpublished text is under number (IM. 204243) its measurements (10.8 x 9.5 x 2.5 cm). It is one of the holdings which reached the Iraqi Museum through confiscation. It is considered as one of the most important administrative texts of grain records belonging to the city of Umma during the reign of ŠUL Governor in the Akkadian period (2371- 2230 BC.). What gives this text its extreme importance is that it is considered as the first cuneiform text discovered belonging to this ruler who had achieved a highly balanced accounting of the city of Umma in the field of administrative building (house of the scepter) (É . GIDRU) which is the centre of local government of the city. Large quantities of grain crops which came from the territory of the city were recorded in the text, which was under the supervision of the chief of peasants King (SAG. APIN. NA LUGAL. KE4. NE) charged of its administration from the Akkadian King and they have delivered grain crops to the stores city Umma.