New Information Gained by the Tayinat Version of ‘Succession Oath Documents’ of Esarhaddon and a Reexamination of the Documents

Abstract

The Tayinat Archaeological Project of Toronto University, in 2009, excavated a large clay tablet along with 10 other tablets at Tell Tayinat, Turkey, which was identified as a copy of the 'Succession Oath Documents' issued by the Assyrian king Esarhaddon in 672 BC. These documents were known through the Nimrud version published by D. J. Wiseman in 1958, and reedited by myself in 1987. As J. Lauinger, who published the Tayinat version in 2012, pointed out, the tablets were excavated in situ at the sacred precinct in the center of the mound, and had been issued to the governor of Kunalia. Through this information, Tell Tayinat was definitely identified with the ancient city Kunalia.
　The present author considers §30 (ll. 353-359), now restored by the Tayinat version, to be especially important here. The mood of the verb in line 353 of the conditional clause has proven to be indicative, not subjunctive, as I had expected before. Indicative verbs are generally used in conditional clauses led by "if" (šumma). However, the usage of subjunctive verbs in conditional clauses had not yet been elucidated in any Akkadian grammars, which had regarded the subjunctive as an expression of an oath, and in translation, merely gave instructions to omit the word "if" and to render affirmative subjunctive verbs in the negative, and negative subjunctive verbs in the affirmative.
　However, almost all of the conditional clauses in these documents are in the second person plural, and are in fact, followed by curses as apodoses, mostly placed in the latter part of the documents. Only §57 is an utterance of an oath and consists of a conditional clause (protasis) in the first person plural subjunctive, and a directly following self-curse (apodosis).
　Sometimes, with verbs in the second person plural indicative and subjunctive are combined in the same conditional clause, as in the case of §30. In my view, the indicative is used to explain certain given conditions and the subjunctive affirmative ('if you should do ...') that follows, indicates something that the speaker assumes that 'you' ought not to do ; the negative subjunctive ('if you should not do ...') expresses something that 'you' ought to do.