Thematic lists: UR.RA5 = hubullu

The list UR₅.RA is a straightforward, very lengthy list of Sumerian words with their Akkadian translations. It is the best attested of the lexical lists in the "libraries" of Kalhu, Huzirina and Uruk.

The first exemplars date from the end of the fourth millennium, when it was a monolingual list of Sumerian words. The first bilingual manuscripts, with a column added on the right for the Akkadian translation, date from the mid-second millennium. There are very few monolingual manuscripts dating from the first millennium, one of which is SpTU 3, 112 [/cams/gkab/P274486] from Uruk.

In the first millennium, UR₅.RA covered 24 Tablets and comprised over 9,700 entries, thematically arranged:

1-2 (added to the series only in the first millennium): translations into Akkadian of common Sumerian expressions or verbal forms, mainly legal and administrative (e.g., MSL 5, 46 [/cams/gkab/P338313/] from Huzirina);
3-5: wood and wooden objects;
6-7: tools and weapons;
8-9: reeds and objects made of reed (e.g., SpTU 2, 51 [/cams/gkab/P274482/]);
10: all kinds of vessels and containers;
11-12: leather, metals and objects made of metal (e.g., SpTU 3, 110 [/cams/gkab/P274485/]);
13-14: domestic and wild animals;
15: parts of the body;
16: stones (e.g., TCL 6, 36 [/cams/gkab/P383708]);
17: herbs, plants and vegetables (e.g., AfO 28, 111 [/cams/gkab/P247818]);
18: birds and fish;
19: textiles;
20-22: place names (e.g., SpTU 3, 114b [/cams/gkab/P274488/]);
23: drink and food (e.g., SpTU 3, 115 [/cams/gkab/P274489/];
24: honey, oil, milk, some fruits and vegetables, bitumen.

The list is also organised on graphemic principles. Words starting with the same determinative (a sign preceding or following the word, identifying the semantic class to which it belongs) are grouped together either on several Tablets or in a demarcated section of a Tablet. For instance, words on Tablets 3-4 all start with the determinative ^giš for "wood", marking trees as well as objects made of wood. On Tablet 23, beer and its by-products with the determinative ^kaš are distinguished from different types of flour with the determinative ^zi3.

The list was probably taught during both phases of scribal education: the first half during the first phase and the second half during the second phase, but the boundary between them is not clear. The distribution of the list over the four CAMS/GKAB "libraries" does not appear to be significant in this respect, as each contains manuscripts from across the whole series more or less equally.

The lexical list MUR.GUD may be interpreted as a commentary on UR₅.RA = hubullu. Next to the first two columns (the Sumerian word and its Akkadian translation) of words from UR₅.RA, it adds a third column that contains another word in Akkadian, an explanation of the first one. The first line of MUR.GUD offers a nice example:

(the logogram) MUR.GUD (means) imrû (in Akkadian – "fodder" – which means) ballu (in Akkadian – synonym of "fodder").

The first Akkadian word had become obsolete by the first millennium, so that the scribe also needed to learn a synonym. The list MUR.GUD does not contain all the entries that UR₅.RA does, while some entries in MUR.GUD do not appear in the UR₅.RA. Sometimes the second column is left blank. There is one manuscript of MUR.GUD in Kalhu (CTN 4, 215 [/cams/gkab/P363629/]) and two in Uruk (SpTU 2, 53; SpTU 3, 116 [/cams/gkab/P348656/]).

Thematic lists: UR.RA5 = hubullu

Further Reading