{
  "type": "portal",
  "project": "saao/saa03",
  "source": "http://oracc.org/saao/saa03",
  "license": "This data is released under the CC0 license",
  "license-url": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/",
  "more-info": "http://oracc.org/doc/opendata/",
  "UTC-timestamp": "2024-06-07T07:33:45",
  "chunks": [
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e57",
      "text": "Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "This subproject of State Archives of Assyria online (SAAo) includes a web version of the introduction of the book A. Livingstone,  Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea  (State Archives of Assyria 3), 1989 (2014 reprint), as well as fully searchable and richly annotated (lemmatised) editions of fifty-two pieces of Neo-Assyria literature. The introduction can be accessed via the links in the SAA 03 main menu and the corpus can be browsed by clicking on  this link  [/saao/saa03/pager] . Buy the book from  Eisenbrauns  [https://www.eisenbrauns.org/books/titles/978-1-57506-334-8.html] , an imprint of Penn State University Press.      The editions presented on SAAo/SAA03 have been adapted from A. Livingstone,  Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea  (State Archives of Assyria 3), 1989, and they were lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2019-20, as part of the  Munich Open-access Cuneiform Corpus Initiative  [https://www.en.ag.geschichte.uni-muenchen.de/research/mocci/index.html]  (MOCCI; see below for details). The annotated editions are released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0.      Click  here  [/saao/index.html]  to visit the Main SAAo Portal and  this link  [/saao/pager]  to browse the entire SAA corpus.     The web version of the introduction of SAA 3 was prepared by Jamie Novotny, 2020.    Since August 2015, SAAo has been part of the  Munich Open-access Cuneiform Corpus Initiative  [https://www.en.ag.geschichte.uni-muenchen.de/research/mocci/index.html]  (MOCCI), which is based at and supported by  Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München  [https://www.en.uni-muenchen.de/index.html] . Between 2015 and 2020, work on SAAo was supported by the  Alexander von Humboldt Foundation  [https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/web/home.html]  through funds provided to  LMU's Alexander von Humboldt Chair of the Ancient History of the Near and Middle East  [https://www.en.ag.geschichte.uni-muenchen.de/chairs/chair_radner/staff_radner/index.html] .    For further details, see the  “About the Project”  [/saao/abouttheproject/index.html]  page."
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  » SAA 3 Foreword"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e229",
      "text": "Foreword"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "First we would like to thank the editor, Dr. Alasdair Livingstone, for his wholehearted and enthusiastic participation in the project. This book is doubtless not the one that he would have prepared had he set out to produce a work on Assyrian literature  ab initio , but the completion of a volume within the somewhat limiting framework of the SAA series format in a timely manner owes much to his willing co-operation. These texts call for much more comment and discussion than can be provided by this format and we fully expect that Dr. Livingstone will provide additional commentary in the near future. One of the goals of the series is to provide Neo-Assyrian texts with the best possible transliterations, and towards this end Dr. Livingstone has made five collation trips to the British Museum in London and one to various museums in Berlin.     The project wishes to express its appreciation to the many institutions that have continued to make the publication of this series a possibility: The British Museum, London; Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin; Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Berlin; Musée du Louvre, Paris; and the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft. It must be kept in mind that behind the names of these institutions there are people, too numerous to be thanked individually here, whose work makes possible the access to texts and illustrative material without which the project could not function.    Our thanks are again due to the Olivetti (Finland) Corporation for continuing to provide the project with computer hardware and software, maintenance, and advice; to the Finnish Ministry of Education for providing printing subsidies for the volumes of the series; and last, but hardly least, to the Academy of Finland for the financial support that has made the project a reality.     Helsinki, May 1989   Robert M. Whiting"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  » SAA 3 Preface"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e348",
      "text": "Preface"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "The present volume began as a corpus of nine texts, but background research and the realization that it would be necessary to include certain Assyrian texts written in the Standard Babylonian dialect resulted in its expansion to the present size. Although the subject of Assyrian as opposed to Babylonian literature has been neglected, its importance has not passed unnoticed. Referring to the lyrical passages in Sargon II's account of his eighth campaign, formulated as a letter to the god Assur, and deploring the one-sided view of Assyrian civilization often current, A. L. Oppenheim wrote as follows of the citizens of the god's city:    These citizens must have been interested in hearing about the sounds and smells of the mountain forests, the dizziness felt on dangerous trails, they must have enjoyed the references to cities that grow like trees (l. 239) or shine like stars (l. 288) on mountaintops. Such imagery can have meaning only to an audience that is receptive to the beauties of a landscape seen in its reflection in a poet's soul. It is rather obvious that appreciation for such literary genres can only be the result of a living tradition that has conditioned the audience. One may think in this respect of the lost love songs that are listed in the unique catalogue found in Assur (KAR 158) and of all the songs of battle and triumph, the songs in praise of the king and of the city, and those songs which we cannot even imagine, that have all disappeared because not even their incipits were written down or the songs themselves in such numbers as to bring about their preservation and discovery. One may, moreover, think of the epical tradition of Assyria, of which only a few fragments have survived and which it will be the task of future historians of Mesopotamian literature to follow up and to relate in some way with the contemporaneous revival of such literature in Babylonia.   All this unexpected complexity and multifaceted sophistication shows that we have not yet begun to utilize all the information that the cuneiform texts contain. (JNES 19 1960, p. 147)    Apart from the special case of KAR 158, the material referred to by Oppenheim is substantially that which forms the contents of this book, and it is hoped that the book constitutes at least a small step toward realizing his stated objectives. If so, this results from a co-operative effort. My greatest debt of thanks is to Prof. S. Parpola, for involving me in the project in the first place, and for constant encouragement and advice throughout the processes of research and completion of the manuscript. The selection and order of texts in this edition owes much to him, and many of the new texts included in it were originally identified by him. At the final stage, Prof. Parpola devoted a very substantial amount of his time and energy to scrutinizing the transliterations and translations, contributing important new readings and interpretations and thereby improving the final version. He also contributed the present reconstruction of the Nineveh version of the Marduk Ordeal (no. 35), and personally prepared the score transliterations of texts 34, 35 and 38, the glossary, and all the indices to the volume. Thanks are also due to Prof. Parpola's assistants, Raija Mattila, Laura Kataja, and Hannes Hägglund for their help and co-operation during my stay in Helsinki, and at other times, and the competent work done by them in entering text and monitoring the photocomposition process is gratefully acknowledged.    My work has also benefited from the advice of Prof. K. Deller, who read through an initial version of the manuscript in the summer of 1988, and made many valuable suggestions. Subsequently, despite the pressures of running three Departments during the temporary vacancy of the Heidelberg chairs of Semitics and Islamic Studies, he was always ready to discuss textual difficulties and problematic passages, conversations which invariably led to new insights.    A substantial debt of gratitude is owed to Dr. R. Whiting for handling communication between Heidelberg and Helsinki, and the gradual incorporation into the computerized manuscript of new material and corrections sent from Heidelberg. Moreover, during a two week research visit which I was able to make to the Department of Asian and African Studies, University of Helsinki, in September/October, 1988, Dr. Whiting read through many of the texts with me from the point of view of English style, an exercise which not infrequently led to improving the translation.    Prof. W. von Soden communicated new readings of his for certain lines of the Underworld Vision of an Assyrian Crown Prince (no. 32); his contributions are acknowledged individually in the critical apparatus to that text and he is thanked here for his generosity. Both Prof. W. G. Lambert and Prof. R. Borger read through a list of texts to be included, and made helpful suggestions. Prof. H. Tadmor extremely generously gave permission to include his new reconstruction of no. 33 in the volume even before the appearance of his own fundamental study of this important text.    The selection of illustrations has benefited not only from the expertise of Dr. J. Reade, but also from that of Frau Dr. E. A. Braun-Holzinger. At an early stage in the preparation of the manuscript, before it had become clear that Dr. Reade would act as general editor for illustrations for the whole series, Dr. Braun-Holzinger sought out and collected suggested illustrations on the basis of a list of key words and topics, with much scholarly engagement. She produced a substantial amount of useful material, but in a special working session with Dr. Reade on the illustrations for the whole series, held in Helsinki in October 1988, it was decided that many of her suggestions would fit other volumes in the series better, and were accordingly set aside for that purpose. On the basis of our discussions, Dr. Reade subsequently made available a large selection of excellent British Museum prints, and the final selection from this material was made in the course of the paste-up process by Prof. Parpola in consultation with Dr. Reade. My thanks are thus due to both Dr. Reade and Dr. Braun-Holzinger, but I would like to emphasize that the bulk of the final illustrations and all the captions for them stem from Dr. Reade alone. Special thanks are due to Nadja Wrede for taking time from her doctoral work to prepare the line drawing of the engraving on a pebble given on p. 41.    Thanks are due to the Trustees of the British Museum for permission to collate or publish certain tablets in their keeping, and for providing photographs for study and for illustrations, and to their staff in the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities for their unfailing courtesy and assistance. Dr. I. L. Finkel helped with the collations, and provided valuable information about the rules of play of the Royal Game of Ur from an unpublished text. I am grateful to the Director of the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, Frau Dr. L. Jakob-Rost, for permission to make collations of tablets in her care, and to Dr. J. Marzahn for his helpfulness. Prof. J. Renger, Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft, and Frau Dr. E. Strommenger, Museum füir Vor- und Früihgeschichte, Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin, made it possible for me to consult excavation photographs of Assur tablets in the Charlottenburg Museum. Prof. 0. R. Gurney generously lent me such photographs as he had available of the Sultantepe tablets included in this volume.    Financial support to undertake collation trips and my visit to Helsinki was provided by the Academy of Finland.    I would like to express my awareness of, and appreciation for, the large amount of time and dedication expended by the project staff and the staff of the Helsinki University Press in the production of the volume.    Finally, I would like to thank my parents for providing me with a liberal education involving three distinct parts of the world. The book is dedicated to Anita and Kristina.    Heidelberg, May 1989   Alasdair Livingstone"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  » Cultural and Historical Background"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e502",
      "text": "The Cultural and Historical Background of the Corpus"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "Babylonian versus Assyrian Literature      It has sometimes been asserted that the Assyrians possessed no literature, although it would be truer to say that they adopted the Babylonian literature as their own. This fact must be stressed at the outset, since it is critical for the bi-cultural nature of the contents of the present volume as well as its lack of linguistic uniformity in contrast to the other volumes in the series. Interest in the literature from the South is well attested on the part of Assyrian kings from the Middle Assyrian period on, and this was only one aspect of a multi-faceted cultural borrowing. Already in Middle Assyrian times the Babylonian calendar replaced the original Assyrian one. Gods of Sumero-Babylonian origin infiltrated the Assyrian pantheon, or were equated with Assyrian gods. In many cases (cf. text no. 38 in the present corpus) the drive to introduce originally Babylonian ritual practices into Assyria is made explicit. By the Sargonid period a long and complicated history of Assyrian-Babylonian affairs on the political and cultural planes had also transpired and many of the texts here edited reflect aspects of this history. The prestige of the Babylonian language and literature in particular manifested itself in various ways. Assyrian kings corresponded with many Babylonians in Babylonian, although at times Aramaic was not even allowed in the return correspondence. The military annals of the Sargonid kings were composed in Babylonian, albeit with frequent Assyrianisms. The Assyrian interest in Babylonian literature reveals itself above all in the collections of the libraries of Assurbanipal (see below)."
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  »  Cultural and Historical Background  » What is Meant by Literature"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e623",
      "text": "What is Meant by Literature in this Volume"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "Having asserted that the Assyrians adopted the Babylonian literature as their own, it must be explained that while the above statements apply to written literature generally, the word literary in the title of this book is used in a much more restricted sense. Accurate definition is extremely difficult, since ancient civilizations obviously produced written material to satisfy their own needs and objectives, and these do not necessarily answer neatly to the categories of modern literary criticism or folkloristics. Moreover, in many cases the circumstances in or for which a given work was composed are not known. The term \"belles lettres\" may be suggestive, but a definition must be by exclusion: compositions exemplifying and expressing a creative effort, but not including functional genres such as rituals, incantations, or royal inscriptions, which follow a fixed tradition and format, nor the day to day religious literature."
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  »  Cultural and Historical Background  » Babylonian Background"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e738",
      "text": "The Babylonian Background of Assyrian Literature"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "Apart from the problem of definition, many gaps remain to be filled before a history of Babylonian or Assyrian literature can be written. Nevertheless, a number of attempts have been made to review the material. Among these could be mentioned a synopsis of the presently known textual groups and compositions, and several interpretive essays. [[1]]  Additionally, an attempt has been made to see the literature in its historical development. [[2]]  This study suggests that the first major stimulus for the development of Akkadian literature may have been at the time of the first hegemony of a native Akkadian dynasty over Sumer and Akkad (c. 2300-2200 B.C.). At least, under this dynasty royal inscriptions were produced in a Semitic dialect, Old Akkadian, and there are a few examples of literary texts in this dialect.    But it is not until from half a millennium later that a flourishing Akkadian literature is preserved. The language, Old Babylonian, shows radical differences from Old Akkadian which do not seem to be explicable by simple linguistic evolution. However, Old Babylonian literature — as distinct from the amply attested letters — employed certain features known from Old Akkadian, presumably as part of a conscious attempt to create an elevated and archaic style. These features included original locative and terminative nominal endings and certain words, often employed in senses somewhat different from those known from the Old Akkadian texts. Sumerian influence also continued to be pervasive. Natural and linguistic influence in personal letters contrasts with exaggerated Sumerianisms in the literature.    Later, as Babylonia fell under Kassite domination, there was much literary activity, but this seems to have lacked spontaneousness. There was a striving to employ, and even to contrive artificially, words and expressions which revealed great erudition, but were unlikely to have had an immediate impact on the common man.              1  W. Röllig, \"Überblick über die akkadische Literatur,\" RlA 7 (1987), 48ff; W. von Soden, \"Das Problem der zeitlichen Einordnung akkadischer Literaturwerke,\" MDOG 85 (1953), p. 14; A. L. Oppenheim,  Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization , (1964, rev. ed. 1977), p. 228ff; W. G. Lambert, \"Zum Forschungsstand der sumerisch-babylonischen Literaturgeschichte,\" ZDMG 1975 Suppl. III/1, p. 64ff; E. Reiner, \"Die akkadische Literatur,\" in W. Röllig (ed.),  Altorientalische Literaturen . Neues Handbuch der Literaturwissenschaft, Bd. I (1978), p. 151ff; W. von Soden,  Einführung in die Altorientalistik  (1985), p. 194ff.    2  W. G. Lambert, \"Literary Style in First Millennium Mesopotamia,\" JAOS 88 (1968) 123ff."
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  »  Cultural and Historical Background  » First Millennium Literature"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e893",
      "text": "First Millennium Literature"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "Old texts continued to be recopied, and new texts were also produced, following traditional types and forms of literary language. In spite of this weight of tradition, there is a small but definable group of texts, with examples in both Late Babylonian and Neo-Assyrian dialects, where there is a clear attempt to escape from the tradition, and produce new material, whether by introducing elements from the colloquial or folk tradition, or by improvisation. In a sense, it is this small group of poetical works written in Neo-Assyrian dialect which forms the core of the present collection of texts, since it cannot be denied that it represents a native Assyrian creative initiative. It is the purpose of this volume to present these texts together with examples of literary prose in Neo-Assyrian and to bring them into association with a larger group of texts written contemporaneously in Assyria in the Standard Babylonian or Late Babylonian dialects, but which belong to the category of Sargonid Court Poetry, or specifically represent the Assyrian as opposed to the Babylonian cultural view-point."
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  »  Cultural and Historical Background  » Ashur and Royal Ideology"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e1008",
      "text": "Aššur, Anšar, and Royal Ideology"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "The subject of Mesopotamian royal ideology, even confined to one period, is of course vast, but there are certain points salient in the present volume which should be singled out and brought forward for notice. Sargonid scribes frequently wrote the name of the Assyrian national god, Aššur, with the signs AN.ŠÁR, originally used to designate a primeval deity in Babylonian theogonies, whereas earlier scribes did not do so. Behind this scribal innovation lies an ideological coup. In one Babylonian theogonic system, Anšar and Kišar — literally \"heaven circle\" and \"earth circle\" — precede the senior Babylonian gods Enlil and Ninlil, separated from them by Enurulla and Ninurulla (\"Lord\" and \"Lady\" of the \"primeval city\" ). [[3]]  In this way, the Assyrian Aššur, who did not figure in the Babylonian pantheon at all, was made to appear to be at the head of it. A form of this ideology is stated in the Marduk Ordeal, no. 34, l. 54: \"It is said in  Enuma Eliš : When heaven and earth were not yet created, Aššur (AN.ŠÁR) came into being.\"    A further point which is relevant to the understanding of some passages is the virtual identity of the god Aššur and the city Assur. While it was not unusual for a god to be evoked by the name of his temple — or even occasionally by the name of the city of which he was patron — recently collected evidence shows that Aššur, city and god, constitutes a special case. [[4]]   Being a numinous phenomenon associated with a particular locality, and originally lacking a personified identity, the god Aššur did not at first have a family as was usual with Babylonian and Sumerian gods. At a later stage Enlil's (Illil's) wife, Ninlil (Mullissu) was attributed to him, identifying Aššur himself to some extent with Enlil. Later, as can be seen for example in the Aššur hymn, no. 1, he took on attributes of Marduk, particularly strongly during the reign of Sennacherib. It is well known that the Assyrian kings considered themselves to be the appointees of the god Aššur, in which capacity they also exercised the highest priestly function in his temple. It is interesting to note the extension of this idea to actual genealogical relationship, both with the god Aššur and with the !stars of Nineveh and Arbela ( stated clearly in nos. 3, 11, and 13). [[5]]  Finally it is perhaps instructive to observe an occasional similarity in terminology between statements of Aššur's relationship to Assurbanipal, and the latter's relationship to foreign rulers trained at the Assyrian court and installed by him (e.g. no. 3, obv. 23 compared with no. 31, rev. 12).              3  See W. G. Lambert, \"Göttergenealogie,\" RIA 3 (1971), 469ff.     4  W. G. Lambert, \"The God Aššur,\" Iraq 45 (1983) 82ff. Cf. the identification of Athena with Athens, discussed by M. P. Milsson in  Geschichte der Griechischen Religion, , Bd. I, (2. Auflage, München 1955), p. 433ff.     5  Part of the background is discussed by W. G. Lambert, \"The Seed of Kingship,\" in CRRAI 19 (1974), 427ff."
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  » Sources and Attribution"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e1163",
      "text": "The Sources and Attribution of the Texts"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "The Assurbanipal Libraries     The libraries assembled by Assurbanipal at Nineveh have probably contributed more than any other single source to modern knowledge of ancient Mesopotamian literature. Using the material from these libraries is however a painstaking process, since they were smashed to pieces and burned when Nineveh was sacked in 612 B.C. by a coalition of Median and Babylonian forces. This was the final outcome of the Assyrian attempt to control Babylonia, a theme ever present in several of the genres presented below. Clay tablets are not destroyed by fire, but many pieces have been lost and some probably remain yet to be recovered. Despite these difficulties, the extreme importance of this material, now housed in the British Museum, can be gauged by the fact that it accounts for 42 of the total of 65 tablets or fragments edited here.    Little is known of the arrangement of the libraries in Nineveh, but something can be said of their formation and composition. An  amat šarri , or royal directive, in Babylonian dialect, instructs a certain Šadunu to obtain for the king a number of specified compositions in Borsippa, [[6]]  and other evidence shows that this was not an isolated occurrence. It was usual then for such compositions to be recopied in Neo-Assyrian script and entered into one of the libraries. Some tablets with Assurbanipal colophons specify the cities from which exemplars had been used in various stages of the redaction of the text. As to where the new tablets were to be placed, many tablets were specified in their colophons for Assurbanipal's palace, while others were for the temple of Nabû. In several texts edited below, Assurbanipal emphasizes his eruditeness and strong dependence on Nabû, patron of the scribal craft (cf. in particular nos. 2, 12, 13, and 47). Several ancient catalogues of texts and tablets suggest that present knowledge of the content of late libraries is not so incomplete as one might have feared, since most of the texts can be identified. [[7]]  In relation to specifically Assyrian literature, however, the situation is more complicated, as will be explained below. What is at least certain is that literature in a strict sense constituted a relatively small proportion of texts, within a much greater mass of functional and quasi-scientific material: ritual directions, incantations, divination, magic, omens, medicine, astronomy, as well as lexical and historical texts, and much else.              6  CT 22 1, edited by E. Ebeling,  Neubabylonische Briefe  (1949), Nr. 1, p. 1ff.     7  W. G. Lambert, \"Ancestors, Authors, and Canonicity,\" JCS 11 (1957) p. 1ff with additions and corrections on p. 112; idem, \"A Catalogue of Texts and Authors,\" JCS 16 (1962) 59ff; idem, \"A Late Catalogue of Literary and Scholarly Texts,\" Kramer Anniversary Volume, AOAT 25 (1976) 313ff; S. Parpola, \"Assyrian Library Records,\" JNES 42 (1983) 1ff."
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  »  Sources and Attribution  » Other Libraries"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e1316",
      "text": "Other Libraries Represented in the Present Corpus"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "In Assur, the source of 11 texts in the present corpus, some idea of the distribution of texts and libraries within the city at the time of its destruction can be gained, since the exact find spots of the objects found were recorded. [[8]]  Of these 11 tablets, information is available on five. The Assurbanipal coronation composition was found in a private house within a large library and archive belonging to a family of exorcists, the older members of which bore the title \"exorcist of the Aššur temple\". In the same house were found the tablet with the mystical compendium (no. 39), and a tablet with part of the Marduk Ordeal composition (no. 34). A further tablet of the latter was found in the library of the Aššur temple. The composition the \"Assyrian Crown Prince's View of the Netherworld\" was found in a private house in a library of which remain 20 tablets or fragments of miscellaneous contents. The impression given by these find spots agrees generally with the distribution of literature within the various libraries and archives in Assur. Specialist priests did not necessarily confine themselves to their speciality, a circumstance reflected also in the study of intertextuality, which is discussed below in relation to two specific examples.    Of the remaining 13 texts in the present corpus, one was found in the non-literary archive of the governor's palace at Calah, one is of unknown origin, and the rest are from the private library partially recovered at the provincial town near the modern village of Sultantepe.               8  This information has been made accessible by 0. Pedersén,  Archives and Libraries in the City of Assur: A Survey of the Material from the German Excavations , Part II, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Studia Semitica Upsaliensia 8 (1986). Cf. also idem, \"The Libraries in the City of Assur,\" in CRRAI 32 (1986), p. 143ff."
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  »  Sources and Attribution  » The Scribes"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e1451",
      "text": "The Scribes"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "Unfortunately, little is known of the scribes responsible for the works in the present volume, apart from, in a few cases, their names, official positions, and the names and official positions of their forefathers, recorded in the colophons of tablets (cf. especially nos. 10 and 39). However, the existence of the texts themselves, and of the Assurbanipal libraries, testifies to the prestige of the scribal art. Colophons of Assurbanipal library tablets sometimes contain the information that they are for the king's own reading (as in no. 47, rev. 7). Assurbanipal himself even boasts: \"I study stone inscriptions from before the flood, which are difficult, obscure and complicated! \" (Streck Asb 256:18). In no. 12, obv. 8, a text possibly to be associated with Assurbanipal (see discussion below), the speaker claims to have even as a child longed to sit in the tablet house. In no. 2, rev. 22, Assurbanipal's acrostic hymn in praise of Marduk, one can scarcely doubt that the \"humble, constantly praying scholar\" is Assurbanipal himself. In view of the Babylonian associations already referred to, it is interesting to note in no. 49 the reference to Babylonian scribes from Borsippa, dwelling in the city of Assur. In the first text presented, \"the writing on the celestial firmament\" is even used as part of a metaphor describing the might of the chief god of Assyria.    But the life of a scribe was not always easy, [[9]]  and there was much competition and jockeying for position, circumstances lying behind an allusion in no. 32, rev. 33-34. [[10]]  In the final analysis, the achievement of the scribes was in the literature which they produced. The contents of the present book confirm a statement made some half a century ago by a modern scholar who himself trod the pavements and entered the palaces, temples, and private houses of Assur and Babylon. Walter Andrae wrote:\" (They) were not simply scribes, but philosophical poets, in whose oratory and writing the king found pleasure.\" [[11]]               9  Cf. S. Parpola, \"The Forlorn Scholar,\" in F. Rochberg-Halton (ed.),  Language, Literature, and History: Philological and Historical Studies Presented to Erica Reiner  (1987), p. 257ff.    10  This allusion is discussed by W. von Soden, ZA 43 (1936), p. 11.     11  W. Andrae,  Das wiedererstandene Assur . Zweite durchgesehene und erweiterte Auflage herausgegeben von B. Hrouda (1977), p. 19."
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  »  Sources and Attribution  » The Kings"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e1606",
      "text": "The Kings"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "An overall view is given here of those texts which can be associated definitely with a particular king.   Shalmaneser III (858-824 B.C.)    No. 17 Urarṭu (Ararat) campaign    Šamši-Adad V (823-811 B.C.)    No. 41 Letter from the god Aššur concerning the king's campaign against Babylonia, and in particular the capture of Der.    Sargon II (721-705 B.C.)    No. 4 Prayer for the king's health and the land's prosperity, appended to a Nanaya hymn.   No. 18 Military account in epic style    Sennacherib (704-681 B.C.)    No. 33 Inquiry into the reason for his father's death on the battlefield    Esarhaddon (680-669 B.C.)    No. 10 Praise of the city of Assur    Assurbanipal (669-627 B.C.)    No. 1 Aššur hymn    No. 2 Marduk hymn    No. 3 Hymn to Ištars of Nineveh and Arbela    No. 5 Nanaya hymn    No. 6 Hymn to Tašmetu and Nabû    No. 8 Praise of the city of Arbela    No. 12 Righteous sufferer's prayer to Nabû (arguably Assurbanipal)    No. 13 Dialogue between Assurbanipal and Nabû    No. 19 Assurbanipal addresses Ištar    No. 20 Wars in Elam    No. 21 Wars in Elam    No. 25 Literary letter praising the king    No. 26 \"   No. 27 \"   No. 28 \"   No. 31 Defeat of Teumman    No. 32 Underworld vision (if Kummâ is Assurbanipal)   No. 44 Letter from the god Aššur   No. 45 \"   No. 46 \""
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  » Nature and Content"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e1833",
      "text": "The Nature and Content of the Corpus"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "Poetical Compositions in Neo-Assyrian Dialect   The following is a list of the \"Court Poetry\" referred to above that constitutes the core of the present corpus.      Text no. Content Find spot   8 Praise of the city of Arbela Huzirina (Sultantepe)   9 Adulation of Uruk Nineveh   10 Hymn to the city of Assur Huzirina    12 Righteous sufferer's prayer Huzirina   14 Nabû/Tasšetu love lyrics unknown   15 A woman dies in childbirth Nineveh   16 Collection of short elegies Huzirina    48 Incantation/ritual for birth Nineveh       This short list includes genres of considerably varying character, and it is highly unlikely that these individual and specialized texts existed in isolation. There must have been much more poetical material in Neo-Assyrian, oral literature not yet reduced to writing at the time of the collapse of the Assyrian civilization, written on perishable materials, or simply not yet discovered.    Indeed, this assertion is proved by the fact that one of the Sultantepe tablets listed above clearly presents excerpts; the texts from which the excerpts were made are not yet known. This text, no. 16, consists of a series of only thematically related sections ruled off from each other by the ancient scribe. The same considerations would apply to the Na'id-Šihu (prose ) composition in Middle Babylonian tinted with Assyrianisms (no. 50). Copied on the same tablet as a composition in Middle Babylonian dialect with which it has no thematic relation, it is obviously an excerpt from a historical epic.    So, rather than presuming to discuss \"Neo-Assyrian literature\", the aim here will be to put the more significant texts included briefly into their context and in so doing to illustrate how they give various dimensions to the theme of the present book: literature produced at or for the Sargonid court. Firstly, however, a discussion of the language of the other texts, and an excursus on the problem of intertextuality are given."
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  »  Nature and Content  » Language of the Other Texts"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e2052",
      "text": "The Language of the Other Texts"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "Apart from (more or less) pure Neo-Assyrian, represented by the texts listed above, and by nos. 5, 7, 17, 34, 35, 51, the other languages involved are Standard Babylonian and Late Babylonian. The latter is represented most strongly in no. 25 ( along with nos. 26-28), in a complex form, where the problem arises from the admixture of dialects. The work is written in what is essentially Standard Babylonian, but with many Late Babylonianisms (forms such as  lid-di-nu-uʾ , grammatically impossible  -ši-na-a-ta ) and also a definite Assyrianism (obv. i 11  is-si-lim ). In this case the deviations cannot be explained away by saying that the scribe was influenced by his own dialect, since two dialects are involved and the problem may be associated with the redaction of the text. More usually, it is a question of Standard Babylonian with varying degrees of Assyrianization. In the first place infiltrate small items of vocalization, secondly Assyrian grammatical forms, and finally idiom and vocabulary which are exclusively Neo-Assyrian. In addition to this, within the Standard Babylonian material there is considerable variation in the complexity of the language, and the extent to which Sumerianisms and archaisms are resorted to.    In the list of genuinely Neo-Assyrian poetical texts given in the previous section the prominence of the northern cities of Nineveh and Huzirina (albeit some 400 km to the west) is noticeable. However, the relevance of geographical and chronological factors in the extent of Assyrianization in linguistically mixed texts remains to be investigated. A related question is whether many Standard Babylonian texts in Assyrian libraries were consciously or subconsciously Assyrianized. In no. 5, obv. 8, an unnecessary sign seems to have been inserted to guarantee an Assyrian pronounciation. Was there a conscious attempt to Assyrianize, but without going the whole way? An analogy can be given from the point of view of actual content. In association with religious reforms referred to below apropos of the Marduk Ordeal (nos. 34 and 35) the name of Aššur was inserted in place of that of Marduk in certain Assur manuscripts of the Babylonian epic of creation  Enuma Eliš  (KAR 117 rev. 3-4 [Tablet One] and KAR 173 obv. 1, 10, 13, rev. 19 [Tablet Three] ). In spite of the inconsistencies caused by this change, there was reluctance to tamper with the text of the work to the extent of producing a consistently Assyrian epic, with Assur playing the part of Marduk."
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  »  Nature and Content  » Intertextuality"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e2194",
      "text": "Intertextuality"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "In the context of a civilization where literary material was handed down over many centuries, and where there were no conceptions of copyright or in the majority of cases even of authorship, the concept of intertextuality takes on a new meaning. Study of Babylonian and Assyrian literature can give the impression that it is imbued with the results of an interaction between an oral tradition on the one hand, and the traditional redaction of textual material on the other. The purpose of this section is to defend and illustrate this statement by analysing two specific texts. The first is the text dubbed by modern scholarship Assurbanipal's Coronation Hymn (no. 11) and the second the compendium of mystical lore (no. 39).     Assurbanipal's Coronation Hymn    This tablet from Assur has a total of 39 lines, 21 on the obverse, and 18 on the reverse and is complete apart from internal damage to a few lines. A final ruling and space at the bottom of the tablet show that the text is complete. There is no colophon, but there is scarcely any doubt that the composition pertains to the beginning of the reign of Assurbanipal. The first two lines invoke Šamaš and Aššur to appoint the king, prolong his reign, and extend it over the whole known world, using language which could be paralleled in many texts, and belongs to the standard phraseology of Mesopotamian kingship. Šamaš is appropriate with regard to the world regions: traversing the heavens, he sees the whole world.    It is Aššur who gives the sceptre. The king is then commanded to extend the land at his feet: to conquer was part of the  raison d'être  of the Assyrian state. A parallel in the Middle Assyrian coronation ritual [[12]]  is particularly close: \"May your foot be agreeable in Ekur, and your hands on the breast of Aššur, your god. May your priesthood ( šangūtu ) and the priesthood of your sons be agreeable before Aššur, your god. With your just sceptre, widen your land! May Aššur give you command, obedience, consent, justice, and peace!\" (col. ii 32-36). As royal insignia the Middle Assyrian text speaks of the \"crown of Aššur and the weapons of Mullissu\" (col. ii 15), and of a turban(? ): \"May Aššur and Mullissu, the lords of your turban(?) ( kulūlu ), put the turban(? ) on your head for a hundred years!\" Then there is an obscure line in the Neo-Assyrian text, for which an emendation is offered. This involves the idea that Šerua is invoked to intercede for Assurbanipal with Assurbanipal's personal god, her husband Aššur. This is followed by an elaborate simile (obv. 5-7) expressing the wish that the gods of Assyria may find Assurbanipal acceptable as king. This can be compared generally with the use of cosmic hyperbole in similes describing the king or his reign in letters from Assyrian courtiers (e.g. LAS 121, 123, 125, 129, 143, 145 etc.).    The next line refers to  kittu  and  mēšaru , concepts of legal and fiscal order customarily expressed by Mesopotamian kings at the beginning of their reigns. The text then turns (obv. 9-14) to expression of the idea of a golden age. This is paralleled in essence in letters from courtiers (especially LAS 121) and also in royal inscriptions (especially Prism B // Prism D ll. 22-38); it is known that the beginning of Assurbanipal's reign coincided with a period of unusual economic prosperity. After an emphatic statement (obv. 15) of the kingship of Aššur (paralleled in the Middle Assyrian coronation ritual \"Aššur is king, Aššur is king!\" (col. i l.29)), the concept of Assurbanipal's divine parentage (cf. nos. 3 obv. 13-15 and 13 rev. 6-8 in the present corpus) is elaborated. There follows a short section repeating the content of the first two lines but invoking \"the great gods\" in general.    The parallels mentioned so far point not to textual borrowing, but to the existence at the Assyrian court of certain kinds of language and thought, which are found crystallized in similar but not identical ways in various texts. The next lines are paralleled exactly in a  tākultu  prayer (obv. 19-rev.3, ending with a scribal ruling, see Menzel Tempel II T143). Either these lines were in general use in various contexts, or the present text quotes from the  tākultu ; rev. 3 makes it clear that the previous lines are part of a prayer.    The remaining 11 lines of text contain a mythological blessing in which each of five of the most prominent deities in the early Mesopotamian pantheon give to the king an attribute appropriate to that deity's own office. For the antiquity of this section, it is noticable that both Marduk and Aššur are missing. There then follow three curses against those who would perpetrate various types of disloyalty. Finally, there is a blessing, in which \"as many gods as there are\" are invoked to gather and bless Assurbanipal, \"a circumspect man ( ma-li-ku a-me-lu )\", and to equip him for war and rule.    Thus, these final 11 lines comprise three individual sections which are only related to each other in the most general sense. It is therefore striking that the first two of these sections are closely paralleled in a text in Neo-Babylonian script, VAT 17019, being pinned on at the end of a text recording the creation of \"the king, the circumspect man\" (LUGAL  ma-li-ku a-me-lu ). [[13]]  The coincidence of the two generally unrelated sections makes it seem certain that the material was taken from the coronation composition. This would then be one of the unusual examples of transmission of literature from Assyria to Babylonia.    The explanation why this material has been added to an otherwise unrelated text probably lies in the use of the expression \"the circumspect king\" in the coronation composition, which provides a somewhat artificial connection between the two works. The alternative, that VAT 17019 was composed with Assurbanipal as the king created, seems impossible for two reasons. Firstly, there would seem to be no reason to avoid mentioning him by name until the final lines of the composition. Secondly, the text comes to a conclusion, stylistically and logically, with the final line before the quotation: \"Thus Belet-ili created the king, the circumspect man!\"    This case study of intertextuality shows borrowing on two distinct levels, within the context of a specific type of material, probably partly oral, and direct verbatim takeover from one text to another. It also shows how items relating to, or taken from, various spheres of literary activity at the court have been forged into a single more or less coherent text.      The Mystical Compendium, No. 39    According to its colophon, this Assur tablet was written by, or belonged to, a certain Kiṣir-Aššur, an exorcist of the Aššur temple, the son of Babu-šumu-ibni, an official of Ešarra. The purpose here is not to give a detailed discussion of its contents, but to use it to illustrate intertextuality; some remarks on the genre it represents are given below.    The first section, giving a mystical representation of a god in terms of animals, objects, and substances is paralleled in four other texts. Two of these, one from Assur (no. 38 r. 9-17) and one from Nineveh (no. 37 r.2-5), are given in the present corpus and it can be seen that at least the former contains a less full version: 9 as against 18 lines. Two Babylonian parallels are known (see MEW p. 96). One text, once represented by manuscripts from Nippur and Borsippa, gives five lines, but this is equivalent to two and a half lines in the Assyrian text, since the lines are short. The other gives the equivalent of one and a half lines; it probably comes from Babylon and refers in its colophon to copies from Babylon and Borsippa, and seems incidentally to have been written by a Hebrew scribe (Šemaya).    A further section of no. 39, rev. 22-25, is not strictly paralleled in the former of the two Babylonian texts referred to above, but one line shows that the same thought is involved. The next section is closely paralleled in an astro-mythical compendium (AfO 19 105ff.).             12  K. Fr. Müller,  Das assyrische Ritual . Teil I: Texte zum assyrischen Königsritual, MVAG 41/3 (1936), p. 8ff; Menzel Tempel II (1981) T7 gives col. ii 30-34 of KAR 217.     13  W. R. Mayer, \"Ein Mythos von der Erschaffung des Menschens und des Königs,\" Or. 56 (1987) 55ff."
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  »  Nature and Content  » Hymns"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e2419",
      "text": "Hymns to Gods, Temples, Cities and Kings"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "To any extent to which the texts included here have a unity in content, it is that the majority are concerned with, or express in one way or another various aspects of the  raison d'être , idealized functions, and goals of the Assyrian state, naturally within the parameters of hymnic and mythological diction, and mainly from the view point of Assyrian kingship. In view of this, there is no question about the appositeness of their inclusion under the rubric \"Court Poetry\". It is notable that the main principal deities and cities which might have been expected are included: Aššur and the Ištars of Nineveh and Arbela on the Assyrian side, and as originally Babylonian imports, Marduk (with spouse Zarpanitu) and Nabû (with spouse Tašmetu), the latter being equivalent to Muati with spouse Nanaya; among the cities Assur, Nineveh and Arbela are represented but Calah is missing.    It must however be stressed that this apparent completeness is totally illusory, since the individual works come from various find-spots, and although they are all classifiable as hymns, they are diverse, both stylistically and in the contexts in which it appears likely that they might have been used. The word \"hymn\" has been used for convenience, but it should be understood that elements of prayer ( with emphasis on petition ) are also involved.    The metrical schemes employed are various. The traditional short line with ( usually ) four beats to the line and an iambus at the end is represented in nos. 1, 4 and probably 6. No. 8, in praise of the city of Arbela, has a short line, but with a different structure. The most complex example is the acrostic, no. 2, with some short lines of the traditional type, but many long ones, required in order to encompass the learned subject matter. There are a few other examples from the late period of royal acrostic hymns. This acrostic reads  a-na-ku aš -[ šur-ba-ni ]- ap-li šá il-su-ka bu-u [ l-li-ṭ ] a -[ ni-m ] a ma -[ r ] u-du-uk da-li-li-ka lu-ud-lul , \"I am Assurbanipal, who has called out to you: Give me life, Marduk, and I will sing your praises! \" Nos. 4, 6, 7, and 11 include allusions which suggest or prove that they were used in cultic or ceremonial contexts.    Of the hymns to cities, nos. 8 and 1 0 concentrate on the cities themselves and activities within them. This type of literature may be a native Assyrian development, since there are very few hymns to cities and no exactly corresponding examples in Babylonian literature, compared with the three Assyrian examples within a very much smaller corpus. [[14]]  The Nineveh example is only partially relevant. The first three lines are in praise of the city, leading to one line in praise of Emašmaš, and the rest praises the Lady of Nineveh and petitions her on behalf of Assurbanipal.    In spite of the lack of Babylonian parallels, these compositions can be seen as a development from hymns to temples, a genre which goes back to the earliest times. The hymn praising Uruk, no. 9, brings Uruk into association with other cult centers, both Assyrian and Babylonian. It is possible that what lies behind this is the special position occupied by Uruk at certain times in the politics of Assyria in relation to Babylonia.    The general points which are particularly stressed in these hymns are the appointment and genealogical position of Assurbanipal in relation to Aššur or the Ištars, the prosperity of Assyria and its cities, the contentedness of the citizens, and the need to educate mankind in the praise of the gods of Assyria.             14  One example is hymnic material praising Babylon: E. Ebeling, KAR 321:1-11 ; Th. Pinches, TBWW p. 15ff."
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  »  Nature and Content  » Elegaic Poetry"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e2608",
      "text": "Elegaic and Other Poetry"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "Despite the varied subject matter of these compositions, a note of elegy gives them some degree of unity. Stylistically, with the exception of no. 13 which is actually poetical prose but has been placed here because of its association with no. 12, these compositions share the feature of recurrent grammatically unnecessary long vowels at the end of words; it could be supposed that this feature reflects the manner of recitation.    No. 12 is the only Assyrian example of a genre well represented in Babylonian literature in two varieties, the repentant sinner and the righteous sufferer. It is not impossible that the text could be taken to describe the agony of any righteous sufferer (who conceives his suffering as a divine punishment but considers himself innocent), but from internal evidence and parallels it could be argued that it applies to a particular Assyrian king. Diakonoff (AS 16 344 n. 9) has suggested that the king may be Esarhaddon, but this seems unlikely, since the reading on which the suggestion is partly based is impossible. Four pieces of evidence speak for Assurbanipal: ll. 4-5 could refer to Assurbanipal's political family problems, especially involving Šamaš-šumu-ukin, as well as the sins of his forefathers, especially Sennacherib; ll. 6-8 would fit well with Assurbanipal's enthusiasm for the scribal art and personal claims to literacy. Finally, some of the phraseology is similar to that in the dialogue between Assurbanipal and Nabû, no. 13, ( esp.  la tumaššaranni , \"do not desert me\" and the references to an \"ill-wisher\",  haddânu ). There is also similarity to a section appended to a building inscription of AssurbanipaI. [[15]]    No. 14, love lyrics of Nabû and Tašmetu, has the same general background as no. 6. There are Neo-Assyrian letters and documents concerning the arrangements for this or a similar event and numerous parallels in Babylonian. The subject matter and background of no. 15, a touching elegy concerning the death of a woman, has recently been discussed in detail by E. Reiner (see references in critical apparatus). The \"boat\" metaphor, which in birth incantations refers to the foetus or unborn baby is used here in a transposed sense, describing the woman herself.    The final example of elegaic poetry found here (no. 16) is a longer text subdivided into sections by the ancient scribe. Although somewhat disparate in subject matter, these sections have the common theme of death and destruction, and this theme has been used to provide a key to elucidation of difficult passages. Although the name of the god Tammuz occurs nowhere in the text, this has been used to provide a designation since it has been applied generally to certain mainly Sumerian compositions which have broadly similar themes.               15  Streck Asb p. 248ff."
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  »  Nature and Content  » Epical Poetry"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e2766",
      "text": "Epical Poetry Praising the Military   Might and Exploits of Assyrian Kings"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "These texts are to be distinguished from the annals and other royal inscriptions in that the language is poetry, or by the literary devices employed. Something must be said here of the historical background. The first text no. 17, concerns a campaign to Urarṭu of Shalmaneser III. Although it is true that his name is nowhere mentioned in the text, there is little doubt about its ascription, since the  turtānu , or second-in-command, is specified as Aššur-belu-ka\"in, who occupied the office of eponym in the year following Shalmaneser's accesion year. The references to discipline under and campaign routes followed during the reign of Shalmaneser's father, Assurnasirpal II (883-859) in ll. 16 and 19 can be understood as historical allusions within the argument of the text: Assurnasirpal was renowned as a warrior and with his reputation for cruelty must have exercised excellent discipline.    No. 18 concerns an episode in the wars of Sargon II (721-705) against Elam. There is a reference to Ellipi, a land lying between Media and Elam, whose rulers remained loyal to Assyria during the time of Sargon.    The remaining texts in this section, with the exception of no. 23, the precise background to which is uncertain, concern Assurbanipal's Elamite wars. Resulting indirectly from the usurpation of the Elamite throne by Teumman (Elamite: Tept-Humban), the wars led to the establishment of Elam as a state dependent on Assyria."
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  »  Nature and Content  » Literary Letters"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e2902",
      "text": "Literary Letters"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "The ability to write literary letters with high-sounding phraseology, a complex structure and intricate argumentation was cultivated at the Assyrian court. While some of these letters have a high literary quality, they are excluded from the present volume because they remain in the final analysis letters, and not literature. [[17]]  The texts given here are not letters in the normal sense, but literary works formed apparently by excerpting sections of eulogy in praise of Assurbanipal from letters, and perhaps improvising similar material to give continuity.    Great ingenuity is exercised in constructing elaborate figurative language. For example, in no. 25 (obv. ii 13-1 4) there is an imaginative allusion to the rules of the royal board game of Ur, or a similar game. Complicated lines of argument are employed which appear convoluted to the modern reader but relate closely to the logic of the Assyrian and Babylonian pseudo-sciences. Typical of this intellectual argumentation is, for example, the section obv. ii 20-24 in no. 25 where a favourable statement about Assurbanipal's reign is made to follow by inference from astronomical observations. The historical events alluded to involve in particular the Šamaš-šumu-ukin wars.                17  See e.g. K. Deller, \"Die Briefe des Adad-šum-uṣur,\" AOAT 1 (1969) 45ff, esp. p. 51."
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  »  Nature and Content  » Royal Propaganda"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e3048",
      "text": "Royal Propaganda"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "All the texts included under this heading are related in some way to problems of both dogma and policy in the relationship of Assyria to Babylonia. The cultural dependence of Assyria on Babylonia, and Babylonia's religious prestige made impractical the solutions imposed by Assyria on other lands. At the same time, there was a fundamental difference between the operation of the Assyrian state, with one national cult in which the king regularly played a central role, and the pluralistic nature of Babylonia, reaching back to a remote history of independent city states. Associated problems confounded attempts to create a partial monarchical union. These difficulties, and the ideological cruces which arose in response to them — especially following Sennacherib's violent destruction of Babylon in 689 B.C. — lie, whether directly or indirectly, behind the content of all the texts in this section.    The first two examples, nos. 29 and 30, are unique and involve compilations of material directed with invective against Bel-eṭir, the son of Ibâ, who seems to have been involved in rebellious activities against Assyria. Details of particular historical events are alluded to, as well as to Elamite princes who were being protected and Assyrianized at the Assyrian court. No. 29 plays on the genre of  narû  literature, by citing in its opening lines the Cuthean legend of Naram-Sin, the message of which, as made clear in its epilogue, is not to undertake hostilities. But the underlying element is farce: \"This is the stele which the prostitute set up for the son of Iba, the farter, and left for posterity\". The events involved here can be brought into association with the content of letters and other material and a detailed study is planned.    No. 31, concerning the defeat of Teumman, is also related in content. The episode described, when Assurbanipal heard of the advance of Teumman and the Elamite army, is paralleled in the Historical Prism B, [[16]]  where it is also stated that the king was in Arbela when the news of the advance of the Elamites under Teumman reached him. He expresses to Ištar of Arbela indignation that such news should come at such a time, and is duly reassured by her.    No. 32 is a unique composition with historical allusions, placed within the context of a vision of the underworld by an Assyrian crown prince. The language is Standard Babylonian, and the form and style are similar to those of epic. However, the veiled references to Sennacherib and to court politics bring the work into the category of propaganda. It is possible, though not certain, that the crown prince, referred to by the name Kummâ, is Assurbanipal.    No. 33 concerns the religious and political problems of the balance of importance between worship of Aššur and worship of Marduk. Sennacherib asks whether the demise of Sargon in battle and the fact that his body was not recovered and correctly interred, a fact of great importance in Mesopotamian eschatology, was due to his having overemphasized the worship of Aššur. The king recounts how he attempted to obtain a divine answer by means of extispicy, using separate groups of priests to avoid complicity.                 16  Piepkorn Asb p. 65ff."
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  »  Nature and Content  » Mythological Texts and Explanatory Works"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e3206",
      "text": "Mythological Texts and Mystical and Cultic Explanatory Works"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "Nos. 34 and 35, usually referred to as the Marduk Ordeal texts represent two different versions of what is essentially the same work, one version being known from Assur and the other from Nineveh and Calah. The work is strictly speaking not a commentary (elucidating another independent work), but an explanatory composition existing in its own right. Ritual practices and other cultic matters — some explicitly Babylonian — are given fanciful if learned interpretations. Part of the underlying theology involves the Sargonid equation of the primeval god Anšar with the Assyrian national god Aššur (see above) and the attempts referred to above to replace Marduk by Aššur in the Babylonian epic of creation,  Enuma Eliš , in certain manuscripts from Assur. In certain sections, the purpose of the work is to explain Babylonian ritual practices according to Assyrian ideas. Marduk is represented as having to undergo a river ordeal. He is also made to explain that certain mythological exploits sometimes attributed to him were not done for his own glory but were favours for Aššur. At least for these sections it is probable that the historical background is the sack of Babylon by Sennacherib, and \"captivity\" of Marduk (in the form of his statue or symbol ) in Assyria.    The next text, no. 36, is too broken to allow confidence as to its placing, but it has been included here since it seems to combine cultic and mythological elements. No. 37 concerns a ritual in which the king was the principal participant. Individual ritual acts are recounted and in each case subjected to a mythological explanation.    It is certain that these mythological explanations do not represent the actual meaning of the ritual acts but put forward an interpretation on the parts of the ancient scholar or scholars responsible for them. There are several elements in this interpretation. In the first place, there is an element of symbolism. Individual objects in the rituals, correspond to objects in the mythological explanations. Thus a cultic oven represents a mythological fire, torches represent arrows, and a pancake represents the torn out heart of a slain god. Further, the king himself and the  šangû  priest represent victorious gods, while defeated gods or hostile mythological beings are represented by sacrificed animals. A deeper element probably lies in the selection of the material used.    The rituals obviously belong to the state cult, while the myths belong to, or are constructed on the model of, those myths in which a rebellious god or malignant monster is defeated and killed by a beneficent and heroic god, often with the result of saving the cosmos from threatened destruction. It is therefore at least conceivable that one purpose of the text is to express a view of the essential nature of carrying out the state cult and ritual practices, in order to ensure the correct function of the universe, and especially the prosperity of the state.    In its basic structure, no. 38 is similar, but the subject matter is the cult of the temple of Egašankalamma, either the temple of Ištar in Arbela, or alternatively, as a by-name of the Emašmaš, the temple of lštar in Nineveh. At the outset, the drive to emulate the cult practices of Babylonia (in this case of Nippur) is stated clearly. The first section involves the cult of Ištaran. Cult acts are given explanations similar to those in the preceding work. The subsequent sections are more various in character and include in particular explanations of rites of fertility. For example, in l. 39 what seems to be a fairly simple ritual of fertility — a woman is carried by certain individuals ( \"the city\" or \"populace\") on their necks and shoulders while seed is scattered in a field — is given a complex explanation. This involves the identification known from other texts of seeds in the earth with gods in the underworld. The final section concerns the cult of Tammuz, and the dates given can be associated with information in Neo-Assyrian letters concerning the dates of the ceremony, as well as other material.    No. 39, some aspects of which have already been discussed above in relation to the background of intertextuality, is more varied in content. The first section attempts to describe or depict a god by equating parts of his body with animals or objects, of which at least most had a use or function in cult. This section could thus conceivably be seen as an attempt to express a unity within the cultic scene and to read a deity into it. Between sections (obv. 24-29 and rev. 17-25) similar in content to nos. 37 and 38, various items of cosmological speculation are given, followed by etiological speculation about specific animals. The first and last parts of no. 40 belong to the same category as nos. 37 and 38, but the basis is a ritual calendar. In between these two sections there is miscellaneous theological and mythological speculation."
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  »  Nature and Content  » Oracles from Ashur"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e3355",
      "text": "Oracles from the God Aššur: Aššur Replies to the King's Letters"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "Within the extremely large corpus of Assyrian royal annals is a smaller group of texts in which the information given is directed to a god in the form of a letter. The texts given in this section are conceived as answers by the god Aššur to such letters. In order to emphasize the closeness of communication between god and king, the god is represented as repeating verbatim the words of the king.    The first three examples (nos. 41, 42, and 43) concern campaigns of Šamši-Adad V (823-811) against Babylonia. No. 44 relates to Assurbanipal's wars against Šamaš-šumu-ukin. No. 45 can probably be identified by the reference in rev. 4 to killing dispatch riders.    It should be noted that the prophecy texts sometimes referred to as oracles ( those frequently commencing  la tapallah  ..., \"Do not fear ...\") constitute a different genre from that involved here. [[18]]              18  Discussed by M . Weippert, \"Assyrische Prophetien der Zeit Asarhaddons und Assurbanipals,\" ARINH (1981), p. 71ff."
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  »  Nature and Content  » Varia"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e3506",
      "text": "Varia"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "At least in a general way, no. 48 should be associated with royal correspondence on the subject of, and rituals connected with, childbirth (cf. LAS 339+ with further references). It is interesting to note also the antecedent Middle Assyrian birth rituals and incantations where the cow of Sin is prominent. [[19]]  Of no. 49 not enough is preserved for confidence even as to the general nature of the original text, but one could perhaps think that this is part of a composition in which the principal figure is Nabû. No. 50 is an excerpt from an otherwise unknown historical epic.             19  W. G. Lambert, \"A Middle Assyrian Tablet of Incantations,\" AS 16 (1965), p. 283ff; idem, \"A Middle Assyrian Medical Text,\" Iraq 31 (1969) 28ff."
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  » On the Present Edition"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e3626",
      "text": "On the Present Edition"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "The objective of the present edition is to make examples of Late Assyrian literary creativity available in a manner usable by both the specialist and lay reader, following the objectives set for the SAA series, and already exemplified in the first two volumes. Every effort has been expended to make the edition as complete and reliable as possible, by collation of the originals and identification of previously unpublished fragments, but no claim is laid to absolute finality. Obviously, the final word can only be said when the whole of Akkadian literature becomes available and detailed comparative study of textual history can be attempted with confidence. Even a small discovery can cast an entirely new light on a text. Moreover, major collections of texts already discovered are not yet available: a case in point is the contents of the Nabû temple library in Calah.    General Structure of this Edition   The classification is necessarily a modern one, since whatever ancient system of classification might have been used is unknown. Broadly, compositions of a more poetical type have been placed in the first section of the book, and prose sections at the end, but subject matter has also been taken into account. The structure of the edition is clear from the itemized list of texts and the notes on Assyrian and Babylonian literature given above. It is intended at a later stage to give a full-scale commentary on selected texts.    Texts Included and Excluded   An attempt has already been made above to define what is understood by literature in the present corpus, and why the term \"Court Poetry\" has been intro03 duced, as well as to emphasize the complexity of the Babylonian influence on Late Assyrian culture and literature. All those texts have been included which constitute literature in a strict sense, and can be shown to have been composed in Assyria in Neo-Assyrian times. However, texts which merely insert, for example in a prayer, the name of an Assyrian king, perhaps supported by a single line of epithet, have been excluded. M. Streck (Asb p. CLXIVff) gives a list of thirty hymns or prayers attributable to Assurbanipal, but the majority of these have been excluded here because they are votive, functional, or simply follow standard prayer formulations with the name of the king inserted. Also excluded are a number of marginal cases, where an Assyrian temple is involved but the text seems to be substantially Babylonian in origin (rather than simply in language), with minor alterations. It is conceded that in some cases, for example where numerous Babylonian parallels, or even forerunners can be adduced, absolute consistency is impossible. The problem of where to draw the line is even more difficult with regard to the historical-literary material. The recently published texts concerning Esarhaddon's attempts to return the statue or symbol of Marduk represent a typical borderline case. [[20]]    Critical Apparatus   Collations are indicated by a single exclamation mark and supported by copies of signs or explanations in the final section of the book. Some copies of newly identified texts or fragments are also given. Double exclamation marks indicate emendations. The textual apparatus gives variants, where there is more than one manuscript available. Comments are kept to a minimum, and are mainly devoted to problems in the text, elucidation of lexical items, or Akkadian expressions necessarily left untranslated.    Glossary and Indices   The glossaries, electronically generated, are intended to be as comprehensive as possible, and generally follow the pattern set by previous volumes. Keywords are given in both Assyrian and Babylonian form (e.g.,  arādu  and  urādu , with cross-references under both lemmata) depending on the morphology of the relevant context form, homophonic forms being listed under Assyrian lemma ta only (e.g. urrad under  urādu  only, not under  arādu ). The meanings assigned to the lemmata are kept to a minimum and only include ones actually attested in the volume. Please note that the sorting programme treats short and long vowels as different letters and hence  ālu  comes after  atû ,  bābu  after  batāqu , etc.             20  W. G. Lambert, \"Esarhaddon's Attempt to return Marduk to Babylon,\" in AOAT 220 (Fs Deller, 1988 ), p. 157ff."
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#Breadcrumb",
      "text": "Home  » SAA 3 Abbreviations and Symbols"
    },
    {
      "type": "h1",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#d4e3808",
      "text": "Abbreviations and Symbols"
    },
    {
      "type": "div",
      "url": "saao/saa03/index.html#innerContent",
      "text": "Bibliographical Abbreviations      ABL R. F. Harper,  Assyrian and Babylonian Letters  (London and Chicago 1892-1914)   ABRT J . A . Craig,  Assyrian and Babylonian Religious Texts  (Leipzig 1895)   AfO Archiv für Orientforschung    AHw W. von Soden,  Akkadisches Handwörterbuch     AJSL American Journal of Semitic Languages    AMT R. C. Thompson,  Assyrian Medical Texts  (London 1923)    AnSt Anatolian Studies    AOAT Alter Orient und Altes Testament    AoF Altorientalische Forschungen    ARINH F.M. Fales (ed.),  Assyrian Royal Inscriptions: New Horizons in Literary, Ideological and Historical Analysis  (Orientis Antiqui Collectio XVIII, Rome 1981)    AS Assyriological Studies    ATAT H. Gressmann,  Altorientalische Texte zum Alten Testament  (Berlin and Leipzig 1926)    BA Beiträge zur Assyriologie    Bauer Asb Th. Bauer,  Das Inschriftenwerk Assurbanipals  (Leipzig 1933)    BM tablets in the collections of the British Museum    Bu tablets in the collections of the British Museum    CAD Chicago Assyrian Dictionary    CRRAI Rencontre assyriologique internationale, comptes rendus    CT Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum    CTN Cuneiform Texts from Nimrud    DT tablets in the collections of the British Museum    EAK W. Schramm,  Einleitung in die assyrischen Königsinschriften  II (Leiden 1973)    Ebeling TuL E. Ebeling,  Tod und Leben nach den Vorstellungen der Babylonier  (Berlin and Leipzig 1931)    En el. Enuma Eliš     Geers copies of Kuyunjik tablets by F.W. Geers    GPA J .N. Postgate,  The Governor's Palace Archive  (CTN 2, London 1973)    JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Soceity    JCS Journal of Cuneiform Studies    JKF Jahrbuch für Kleinasiatische Forschung    JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies    JRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society    K tablets in the Kuyunjik collection of the British Museum    KAH 0. Schroeder,  Keilschrifttexte aus Assur historischen Inhalts , Zweites Heft (Leipzig 1922)    KAR E. Ebeling,  Keilschrifttexte aus Assur religiösen Inhalts  (Leipzig 1919)    KB Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek    Langdon Creation S. Langdon,  The Babylonian Epic of Creation  (Oxford 1923)    LAS S. Parpola,  Letters from Assyrian Scholars to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal  I, II (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 5/1-2, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1970, 1983)    LKA E. Ebeling and F. Köcher,  Literarische Keilschrifttexte aus Assur  (Berlin 1953)    MAOG Mitteilungen der Altorientalischen Gesellschaft    MDOG Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft    Menzel Tempel B. Menzel,  Assyrische Tempel  (Studia Pohl: series maior 10/I-II, Rome 1981)    MEW A. Livingstone,  Mystical and Mythological Explanatory Works of Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars  (Oxford 1986)    MVAG Mitteilungen der Vorderasiatisch-Ägyptischen Gesellschaft    NE P. Haupt,  Das babylonische Nimrodepos  (Assyriologische Bibliothek 3, Leipzig 1891)    OECT Oxford Editions of Cuneiform Texts    Or. Orientalia, Nova Series    Piepkorn Asb A. C. Piepkorn,  Historical Prism Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal  (Assyriological Studies 5, Chicago 1933)    RA Revue d'assyriologie    RlA Reallexikon der Assyriologie    Rm tablets in the collections of the British Museum    SAA State Archives of Assyria    SAAB State Archives of Assyria Bulletin    SAHG A. Falkenstein and W. von Soden,  Sumerische und akkadische Hymnen und Gebete  (Zürich-Stuttgart 1953)    Seux Epithètes M.-J. Seux,  Epithètes royales akkadiennes et sumériennes  (Paris 1967)    Sm tablets in the collections of the British Museum    Streck Asb M. Streck,  Assurbanipal  I-III (Vorderasiatische Bibliothek 7, Leipzig 1916)    STT The Sultantepe Tablets    TBWW Th. Pinches,  Texts in the Babylonian wedge-writing, ... Part I: Texts in the Assyrian language only, from the Royal Library at Nineveh  (London 188 )    TIM Texts in the Iraq Museum    TRAB F. Martin,  Textes religieux assyriens et babyloniens, première série  (Paris 1903)    VAT tablets in the collections of the Staatliche Museen, Berlin    ZA Zeitschrift für Assyriologie    ZDMG Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft    Zimmern Neujahrfest H. Zimmern,  Zum babylonischen Neujahrsfest , Berichte über die Verhandlungen der Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, philologisch-historische Klasse 58/3 (= I, Leipzig 1906); 70/5 (= II, Leipzig 1918)         Other Abbreviations and Symbols      adv. adverb   Aram. Aramaic, Aramean   Babyl. Babylonian   LB Late Babylonian   MA Middle Assyrian   MB Middle Babylonian   NA Neo-Assyrian   NB Neo-Babylonian   OA Old Assyrian   Oakk Old Akkadian   OB Old Babylonian   SB Standard Babylonian   e. edge   obv. obverse   r., rev. reverse   s. (left) side   coll. collated, collation   frg. fragment   MS manuscript   unpub. unpublished   var. variant   ! collation   !! emendation   ? uncertain reading   : :. :: cuneiform division marks   * graphic variants (see LAS I p. XX)   0 uninscribed space o r nonexistent sign   x broken or undeciphered sign   ( ) supplied word or sign   (( )) sign erroneously added by scribe   [[ ]] erasure   [...] minor break (one or two missing words)   [......] major break   ... untranslatable word   ...... untranslatable passage   → see also   / (in score transliteration) line boundary   + joined to, (in score transliteration) continuing line"
    }
  ]
}
