Sumerian Literature Research Articles

Jordan W. Jones. She Opens Her Hand to the Poor: Gestures and Social Values in Proverbs

Jordan W. Jones. <i>She Opens Her Hand to the Poor: Gestures and Social Values in Proverbs</i>

Genesis 11, 1–9 and its Sumerian Predecessors in Comparative Perspective: Early Views on “National Culture” and its Nature

The paper discusses some key texts from Ancient Mesopotamian and also Hebrew mythologies which may have had several indications and contained many ancient understandings about the early views on the modern notions of a nation, national culture and the role of language on these beliefs. The possible connection of the Sumerian epic tale Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta is discussed in context with the Enuma Eliš myth in context with Hebrew Genesis’ the Tower of Babel story and the character of these text and the nature of their evolution is analysed. Based on some Sumerian royal correspondence, hymns, and epic literature and the worldview presented in Sumerian literature it is concluded that that certainly and especially a sort of a language based cultural and also ethnical understanding about a “distinct nation” culturally separate from “other” nations already existed more than 4000 years ago; reflected in many ways similarly also in the stories of Hebrew Genesis.

“The Significance of the Inanna/Ishtar Myths in Revelation 17”

“El significado del mito de Inanna/Ishtar en Apocalipsis 17”

The sea in Sumerian literature

Surveying the references to the sea in Sumerian literature, this paper discusses the general idea that the sea is underrepresented in Mesopotamian cultures of the third millennium BCE. The common idea on Mesopotamian civilizations is that these were based on the rivers. However, recent research suggests the early Mesopotamian urban settlements of the third millennium BCE are on the ancient coast of the Persian Gulf and in the middle of lagoons or marshes. Coastal marsh cultures would not only have looked at the mainland, but also to the sea. Through a study of Sumerian literature and royal inscriptions, the historical relationship of the Mesopotamian cultures with the Persian Gulf is discussed. The image of the sea that emerges from literary sources reflects the changes that occurred in coastal region of southern Iraq during the third millennium BCE.

Enheduana and the Invention of Authorship

The first known author, Enheduana, gained a central place in the literary culture of ancient Iraq long after the death of Sumerian, the language in which her poems were written. The essay argues that her authorship served to depict the Sumerian literary heritage as a tangible object that could be acquired by people who did not speak Sumerian as their native language, since Enheduana’s poems condensed a cacophony of independent traditions into a single entity. The process primarily took place in the city of Nippur in the troubled decades after 1740 BC, as the ancient scholars desperately needed to assert their importance. They did so by claiming special access to Sumerian literature, and authorship served as an ideal vehicle to represent that literature and that access. In short, Enheduana became a body and a bridge for Sumerian literature, condensing it into a single object and allowing it to move into a new cultural context.

Rezension zu W.W. Hallo, with the assistance of Harold Torger Vedeler, Sumerian Literary and Historical Inscriptions

Rezension zu W.W. Hallo, with the assistance of Harold Torger Vedeler, Sumerian Literary and Historical Inscriptions

“As Your Name Indicates”: Philological Arguments in Akkadian Disputations

AbstractContenders in Akkadian disputation poems make use of a large array of arguments to build their cases. The most common ones are material arguments, which rely on the benefits that they offer to humans. A second type of argument, termed here philological, is predicated on the alleged superiority of a litigant’s name or title over its rival’s. This superiority is demonstrated by means of the same set of hermeneutical techniques that are found in Mesopotamian exegesis and Mesopotamian literature at large. The present paper collects the philological arguments that can be found in debate poetry, discusses their discursive role and studies their parallels in Sumerian and Akkadian literature. Particular attention is given to the phrase mu-ni|bi-gin₇ ||kīma šumīšū-ma, “like its name,” which is argued to be a technical term for introducing such philological discussions. Akkadian debate poems are lighthearted texts, but elucubrations of this type are common in serious texts as well. This fact suggests we should take these arguments seriously, however unpalatable from a modern etymological point of view they might be, just like the fanciful etymologies of Plato’sCratylus.

The Sumerian Discourse Markers u4-ba and u4-bi-a

In Old Babylonian Sumerian literature, the temporal phrases u4-ba and u4-bi-a typically occur in complementary distribution. Previous analyses have focused on morphological disparity to differentiate the two. The present paper considers pragmatic functions within a larger discourse structure, analyzing them as discourse markers, specifically temporal connectives. In this study based on a corpus analysis of Old Babylonian literary compositions, I argue that in Sumerian discourse, u4-ba primarily marks perspectival shifts and refocusing, and u4-bi-a indexes sequential and consequential action.

THE MYTH OF DILMOUN Features of sumerian Mythological Literature

THE MYTH OF DILMOUN Features of sumerian Mythological Literature

The Textual Criticism of Sumerian Literature. By Paul Delnero. (Journal of Cuneiform Studies Supplemental. Series 3.) pp. 210. Boston, American Schools of Oriental Research, 2013.

The Textual Criticism of Sumerian Literature. By Paul Delnero. (Journal of Cuneiform Studies Supplemental. Series 3.) pp. 210. Boston, American Schools of Oriental Research, 2013.

Two Additional Old Babylonian Sumerian Literary Letters From Nippur

Abstract: In this study we examine two previously unpublished Old Babylonian Sumerian literary letters from Nippur. We offer a general introduction to the corpus to which they belong, as well as a critical edition, translation, commentaryand photographs.

Land surveying in ancient Mesopotamia: ethical ‘Algebraic Geometry’

The earliest known evidence of a system of land measurement comes from Ancient Mesopotamian clay tablets dating from around 3500 BC. This essay suggests why and how the practice began and how it developed until the Old Babylonian era 2500 years later. Archaeological evidence from clay tablets, analysed in relation to the natural environment and social context of the time, shows the interdependence of Mesopotamian mathematics and land surveying as a response to practical needs, made possible by the invention of writing. Sumerian literature of the time is cited to show that land surveying was practised by the gods who handed down its symbols to earthly rulers to imbue them with justice and truth.

Sumerian Hymn from Boǧazköy

Summary The archives of the Hittite capital Hattusa (Boǧazköy) are one of the most important sources for the Sumerian literature of the Late Bronze Age. At the end of the Old Babylonian period, school and literary texts of Mesopotamian origin spread toWestern regions reaching cities such as Ugarit, Emar and Hattusa where they were copied by local scribes or stored as library copies. The present paper gives a new edition of the fragment KUB 4.7 which was found at Hattusa and contains a hymn to the god Nergal also known from Old Babylonian and first millennium parallel texts.

The Flood Motif as a Stylistic and Temporal Device in Sumerian Literary Traditions

Abstract Recent scholarship suggests the Flood motif and its literary representations may have emerged and developed relatively late in Sumerian literary traditions. To investigate how the Flood motif gained its entry in the literary traditions, the current study traces the dissemination of the temporal expression eĝir a-ma-ru ba-ur3-ra-ta “After the Flood had swept over . . .” and its variants in Sumerian mythological and chronographic sources during the Old Babylonian period. This study seeks to demonstrate that when the Flood motif first emerged explicitly in Sumerian literary traditions it manifested as an innovative stylistic and temporal device for introducing the primeval time of origins as well as for marking the (re-)beginning of time. Coming to grips with this initial stage of development of the Flood motif will shed important light on some key conceptual and literary processes through which the Flood motif and its mythological and chronographic representations formed and evolved during the Old Babylonian period.

The stylistic role of the anticipatory genitive construction in sumerian literature

Résumé La construction génitivale inversée est assurément une construction morpho-syntaxique sumérienne originale; elle dérive de la construction génitivale standard et est employée comme outil stylistique dans la littérature. La construction génitivale inversée constitue un outil particulier pour mettre l’accent sur le nom régi, en le déplaçant au début de la construction génitivale. Une des fonctions stylistiques les plus significatives du génitif inverse est la singularisation d’un ou de plusieurs mots clés à l’intérieur d’une composition littéraire, en le(s) plaçant au début de la phrase. Un examen des textes sumériens littéraires montre que ce phénomène, à la fois grammatical et stylistique, est largement répandu. Dans ces compositions, le mot-clé apparaît souvent au début de la phrase, qu’il soit sujet, objet ou mot régi, et cela en dépit de l’ordre des mots habituel en sumérien.

A New Old Babylonian Sumerian Literary “Catalog”?

A New Old Babylonian Sumerian Literary “Catalog”?

Mesopotamian Medicine and Religion: Current Debates, New Perspectives

AbstractThe study of Mesopotamian medicine, while unprecedentedly productive, is stuck in a historiographical rut that cognate disciplines left some years ago. I review the current state of the field from a peripheral vantage point and use case studies from Sumerian literature and Neo‐Assyrian royal letters to exemplify alternative approaches that do not sacrifice philological rigour for anthropological attention to socio‐intellectual context.

A New Occurrence of the Seven Aurae in a Sumerian Literary Passage Featuring Nergal

AbstractA brief and fragmentary newly reconstructed Sumerian literary passage contains a portion of a hymn to Nergal or a hymnic passage centered around Nergal. Most notably, it contains a rare reference to seven aurae (ni2 imin), which is attested elsewhere only in conjunction with Huwawa.

The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature

With invaluable help from and in close co-operation with colleagues from around the world, the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature project at the University of Oxford has compiled, lemmatised and made publicly available a large body of Sumerian literature. Building a corpus of literary compositions originally written on clay tablets in the cuneiform script, and dating back nearly four thousand years, poses special challenges, not least with regard to mark-up and automatic processing of data. Some of these challenges are discussed in this paper together with issues relating to the fact that Sumerian is a language isolate and lacks resources we take for granted when working with other languages, modern or extinct, such as a standardised sign list and a comprehensive dictionary.

The Literature of ancient Sumer

An extensive introduction discusses the literary qualities of the works, the people who created and copied them in ancient Iraq, and how the study of Sumerian literature has evolved over the last 150 years.