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Volume 51 (2008)
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Volume 51, Issue 1
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Articles
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Yoshinori Tsuruoka2008 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 1_1-1_21
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 21, 2012
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe UrIII dynasty can be characterized as a highly centralized bureaucratic state. A number of studies of trial documents (diti-la's) have focused on the reconstruction of the UrIII society, studying personal status, family, property, inheritance and so on. Yet surprisingly little has been written about the change of jurisdiction from the local power at Lagaš to the royal power of Ur.
Through analyzing the prosopography of ‘judges’ (di-ku5) mentioned in the UrIII ditilla's, this paper explains the process by which jurisdiction of courtcases in Lagaš was transferred from the local power to the royal power.
The first appearance of the word di-ku5 is in the year Amar-Suen 4. This is probably connected with the fact that the local administrative system of Lagaš had been radically changed in the year Amar-Suen 3 by royal intervention. In other words, the appearance of di-ku5's seems to be connected with royal power. However, upon investigating the prosopogtaphy of the di-ku5's, one finds that some di-ku5's belong to the royal power, and others belong to the local power. Therefore, in the year Amar-Suen 4 jurisdiction of Lagaš was not yet completely controlled by the UrIII court. The confrontation between the royal power and the local power was settled in the year Amar-Suen 7, when Ir-Nanna, who was chancellor of the UrIII state (sukkal-mah), was installed as governor (ensi2) of Lagaš. After the year Amar-Suen 7, jurisdiction in Lagaš was systematically controlled by the UrIII dynasty.View full abstractDownload PDF (4119K) -
Akira KOYAMA2008 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 22-45
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: March 30, 2014
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSIn Middle Egyptian grammar, the sḏm pw ir.n=f-construction (its passive form is sḏm pw iry) is a well-known narrative construction. Until now this construction has been regarded as a bipartite A pw or a tripartite A pw B nominal sentence. The purpose of this paper is to try a new approach to the sḏm pw ir.n=f-construction; it investigates the possibility of grouping this construction with the Spw-constructions, which were previously discussed in this Bulletin (Vol.49 No.1).
The following is a summary of the main conclusions in this paper.
(1) The sḏm pw ir.n=f-construction is an Spw-construction into which a (monopartite nominal) sentence sḏm ir.n=f/iry is embedded.
(2) The semantic functions of the sḏm pw ir.n=f-construction correspond to two of the subdivisions which the semantic functions of the Spw-constructions show.
i) The speaker/writer (S/W) presents to the hearer/reader (H/R) a state of affairs described by the embedded sentence (Q); Q is related to the preceding context (P).
ex. ḫr m-ḫt spr=f r ẖnw `ḳ pw ir.n s3-nswt Ḥr-dd=f r smit (Westc. 8 6-7)
Now when he arrived at the royal Residence (P), the king's son Hordedef entered to report (Q).
ii) S/W presents Q to H/R; Q is not related to a previous P.
ex. The beginning of a new episode:
`ḥ` p[w] ir.n s3-nswt Ḥr-dd=f r mdt (Westc. 6 22-23)
(Now) the king's son Hordedef stood up to speak (Q).
(3) The sḏm pw ir.n=f-construction is in complementar ydistribution with the “perfect” Spw-constructions (ink pw sḏm.n=i/h3.kwi, NP pw sḏm.n=f, sḏm.n=f pw, etc.) with respect to the combination patterns of the kinds of verbs (transitive verbs, verbs of motion, or other intransitive verbs) and the kinds of agents (1st personal pronoun, 3rd personal/indefinite pro-nouns, or noun phrases) that it can take.View full abstractDownload PDF (862K) -
Kazuhiko YOSHIDA2008 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 46-68
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: March 30, 2014
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSAlthough the formation of mediopassive verbs in Hittite is mostly regular, some 3 sg. mediopassives display idiosyncratic features which are hard to understand from either synchronical or historical point of view.
Synchronically irregular mediopassives such as lagāittari ‘lies, is laid (low)’, išḫuṷaittat ‘scattered’, sii̯ēttari ‘is pressed’ and laḫuttari ‘is poured’ should be regarded as medialized forms constructed with the productive mediopassive 3 sg. ending -ttanri (present) or -ttat (preterite) added to the corresponding active 3 sg. *lākai (← lāki), išḫuṷai, ši̯iē[t] and *lāḫui, respectively.
On the other hand, parḫattari ‘chases, pursues’, duu̯arnattari ‘breaks’ and zinnattari ‘is finished’ seem to be historically irregular. Parḫattari is a secondary replacement for the phonologically expected **parrattari (< *bhérh2o(-tori)) due to the morphological influence from the corresponding active stem par(a)ḫ-. Duu̯arnattari is originally a denominative (< *dhu̯erné-i̯o-r), with an unaccented suffix influenced by causatives in *-ei̯e/o-, while zinnattari goes back to a nasal-infix present *si-n-h1-ór, which is later replaced by *si-n-h1-ṓr with the vowel length copied from the correponding active *sinǣ́ti (< *si-né-h1-ti). Both and dhu̯erné-i̯o-r and *si-n-h1-ṓr underwent the loss of final -r and later came to take the innovative ending -ttari; hence the actually attested duu̯arnattari and zinnattari.
As a result of philological and linguistic analysis of the relevant forms, it has become clear that the irregularities found in these mediopassives are not archaic, but have been secondarily created relatively late during the period between Proto-Anatolian and Neo-Hittite.View full abstractDownload PDF (868K) -
Middle Assyrian Texts from the 2005 Excavation at Tell TabanDaisuke Shibata2008 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 1_69-1_86
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 21, 2012
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe 2005 excavation at Tell Taban (ancient Tabetu), located in the Middle Habur region, brought to light a Middle Assyrian archive which documents the administration of the local palace. This paper offers a preliminary report on this archive as well as a study of the political status of the city in the Middle Assyrian period on the basis of the new material. The cuneiform texts constituting the archive were written during the mid 13th and early 12th centuries B.C.E. The archive reveals that the city had an unusual political position within Assyria: the city was subject to Assyrian rule, but retained a privileged position as a local kingdom, differing from other provinces (pahutu) in many respects. First of all the city was governed not by a governor (bel pahete) but local rulers, who bore the title “king of the land of Mari” (šar mat Mari) and formed a local dynasty at least from the mid 13th to the early 11th centuries B.C.E. It seems very probable that this position was acknowledged in the Assyrian capital, the city of ššur. There is a possibility that the local dynasty was an offshoot of the Assyrian royal family. The geographical name “the land of Mari” in the titles of the local rulers, reminiscent of the city of Mari in the 3rd and early 2nd millennia B.C.E., seems to derive from a local tradition originating in the period when the city of Tabetu was ruled by the city of Mari and its successor, the city of Terqa, in the 18th century B.C.E.View full abstractDownload PDF (3551K) -
Koichiro WADA2008 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 87-109
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: March 30, 2014
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSIt is generally stated that in the Egyptian New Kingdom burials the bodies were placed with their heads pointing toward the West because of the Egyptians’ funerary belief that the deceased needed to face the rising sun for their resurrection.
However, this statement does not fully reflect the actual archaeological data. A survey of the plans of New Kingdom royal tombs shows that some changes in the head orientation took place during this period. Before the New Kingdom Period, bodies were normally placed with their heads pointed to the north. However, the tombs of the 20th Dynasty have a symbolic east-west axis that causes the westward head orientation of royal mummies, whereas in the 18th Dynasty tombs some of the decoration scheme and sarcophagus placements show compromising orientations between the north and west.
Non-elite burials in the Memphite and Heracleopolitan regions show a tendency different from the royal tombs in that there is more diversity of head orientation. Although about fifty percent of the burials in a given cemetery have the western head orientation, the considerable number of bodies are directed to the north, east and south. Since the burials of the previous periods in these regions do not show such diversity, it seems to be a noticeable feature of non-elite burial customs in the New Kingdom Period.
A seriation analysis shows that the diversity of head orientation in non-elite tombs is not the result of a historical transition as seen in the royal tombs since it is found among burials of the same period. B. J. Kemp suggests that lower-class people did not ignore the formal concepts of funerary belief, even though they often chose “unsuitable” head orientations. Instead they followed their own sense to decide what was appropriate for them. It might be fair to assume that the diverse head orientations in the New Kingdom burials reflect the ancient Egyptians’ trait of accepting the existence of alternative concepts.View full abstractDownload PDF (844K) -
Hiroyuki Ogasawara2008 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 1_110-1_139
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 21, 2012
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSAlmost all the Ottoman historians of the 15th century claimed that the Ottoman dynasty stemmed from Japheth, the son of Noah. Japheth was generally regarded as the ancestor of the Turks in Muslim historiography. That is why the Ottoman historians accepted Japheth as their ancestor, although the descendents of Japheth were less respected than those of Shem, from whom the Prophets originated.
In the second half of the 15th century, however, Oruç and Giese Anonymous quoted a hadith that “the descendents of Issac will conquer Constantinople” and mentioned that the Ottoman Sultans came from Issac, who was a descendent of Shem.
In 1480's, Saltuk-nâme and Oxford Anonymous claimed Esau, who was a son of Issac and the brother of Jacob, to be the Ottoman ancestor. The authors of these books narrated that the sons of Esau would be a king because Issac prayed to God for Esau. It appears that this account was based on the former Muslim historians like Mas‘udi and also that Esau was more respected than Japheth. Besides, Esau was also regardeed as the ancestor of the kings of Rum. Though “Rum” originally signified Roma, the Ottoman Sultans were the kings of Rum at that time. That might have helped the Ottoman historians to accept Esau as the ancestor of the Ottoman dynasty.
During the late reign of Bayezit II, three historians, Rûhî, Bitlîsî and Kemâlpasazâde strongly claimed that Esau was the ancestor of the Ottoman dynasty. Though they also briefly mentioned Japheth, they considered the Esau origin more important. The higher authority of Esau made the Ottoman historians of this period accept Esau as the ancestor. Nevertheless, after the reign of Bayezit II, the Ottoman historians accepted the Japheth origin again, because Japheth was “the authentic ancestor” according to the Islamic tradition. The changes in the Biblical origin of the Ottoman dynasty might reflect the development in the identification and legitimizastion of the Ottomans.View full abstractDownload PDF (5863K)
Notes
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Masashi ABE2008 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 140-164
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: March 30, 2014
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThis paper studies the development of craft specialization in stone tool production in the Early Bronze Age in the Southern Levant, in particular focusing on Canaanean blades and tabular scrapers. It seems that regional production centers of Canaanean blades and tabular scrapers developed near high quality Eocene flint sources in the Early Bronze Age. Intensive flint mining was probably carried out at these centers. The centers mass-produced these products with high skill and distributed them in large quantities to sites as far away as several dozen kilometers.
In the Early Bronze Age, a variety of daily commodities such as stone tools (Canaanean blades and tabular scrapers), copper tools and pottery were produced in regional production centers rather than in local settlements and were traded intraregionally in the Southern Levant. This suggests that the economy of the Southern Levant in the Early Bronze Age was highly in tegrated.View full abstractDownload PDF (1377K) -
Eiko MATSUSHIMA2008 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 165-180
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: March 30, 2014
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThough the “Fifty Names” of Marduk in Enūma eliš (below called Ee) is famous in Babylonian literature, we have not intensively discussed the significance of “fifty” names. VI 123 to VII 136 of Ee contain in fact fifty-one names. However, the epic insists on “fifty”, the number generally attributed to Enlil, the head of the pantheon before Marduk. Ee mentions the number “fifty” for the first time at the birth of Marduk and uses it repeatedly whenever the story takes a new turn. Analyzing the epic, We suspect that the author(s) made use of this number, in order to emphasize that the kingship of the Babylonian pantheon was transfered from Enlil to Marduk.
We have two related texts with Neo-Assyrian manuscrips. One, CT 25, 50+ Rm 52 contains the mystical numbers of the gods. Here, the fifty is attributed to Enlil and Ninurta, and ten to Marduk. The tablet was copied by the scribe at the reigns of Sargon and Sennacherib.
Another text, CT 13, 32, a commentary on Ee, says on rev.12’ the following “fifty = hansā, fifty is dBE”. dBE generally indicates Enlil, but the texts giving the reading have recently been found. It is thus possible to interprete the rev.12’ as “fifty hansā, fifty is dBE(=Marduk)". This reading seems most probable since the first half of rev.12’ is the same as Ee VII 144.
The use as dBE= dBēl dates the copy to the same period as CT 25, 50+ Rm 52. But at that time dBE may still have indicated Enlil as well. Perhaps, the author of CT 13, 32 made use of this double understanding to emphasize that the kingship of the gods had been transtered from Enlil to Marduk.View full abstractDownload PDF (449K) -
Notes on Its Symbolic ActsMasamichi YAMADA2008 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 181-197
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: March 30, 2014
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSIn the texts from Emar (and Ekalte), the following four expressions are found as symbolic acts performed on occasions of disinheritance: I. “to put one’s own garment on a stool and to go to where he/she likes”; II. “to slap one’s cheek” (subj.: mother); III. “to make one raise his/her hand from X (= to make one raise his/her hand from X)”; IV. “to break one’s staff.”
In wills and other legal documents concerning the inheritance of property, I and II are prescribed as punishments against mainly a son who does not care for his parent(s) (I and II) or against a widow who follows (i.e., remarries) a stranger (I). IV, and possibly III as well, are attested as disinheriting acts actually performed. Note that whereas I and II are well known in other Akkadian texts, III and IV are characteristic of the Emar texts. As for III, the causative expression with elû Š is quite rare in Akkadian, although its archetype with elû G is common. IV is particularly noteworthy, since it is attested in the above context for the first time in these Emar texts.
Here, breaking a “staff” represents annulment of the status of “son.” This symbolism probably represents the irreversibility of the decision on the analogy of the impossibility of mending the broken staff and probably also is based on the image of a son as the one who takes the hand (5) of his parent(s) to lead (cf., e.g., Isa 51: 18; Tob 5: 18). Finally, the enigmatic text of Emar VI 256: 5f., where we have no choice but to take the numeral “2” in the meaning of “second” or “twice, again,” becomes intelligible in the light of CH §169, which deals with disinheritance.View full abstractDownload PDF (732K)
Brief Communication
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Nobuo MISAWA2008 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 198-200
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: March 30, 2014
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSDownload PDF (126K)
Book Review
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Seiro HARUTA2008 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 201-207
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: March 30, 2014
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSDownload PDF (288K)
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