MEDICAL TABLETS FROM THE ARCHIVE OF THE EGIBI FAMILY? AN EDITION OF BM 30918 AND BM 31071

Building on recent advances in the field of Neo- and Late Babylonian medicine, this paper presents the edition and thorough analysis of two unpublished medical tablets from the collections of the British Museum (BM 30918 and BM 31071). In the first part, the archival and social context of these tablets will be explored, while also reporting on findings about how they might fit into the larger corpus of Late Babylonian medical texts. The two tablets are published in the second part of the paper. The aim of this paper is to illustrate that the discussed tablets contribute a lot to our understanding of how medicine as a scientific field worked in the latter half of the first millennium B.C.E. It advances further and draws up more comprehensively the thesis about the “personalisation” of medical knowledge, put forward only recently in the scholarly literature. In addition, it also collects evidence that ties Itti-Marduk-balāṭu, an important member of the Egibi family, to the craft of incantation priests (āšipūtu); this person has so far been known mostly for his activity as a businessman.

THE BATTLE OF GAUGAMELA AND THE QUESTION OF VISIBILITY ON THE BATTLEFIELD

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the long-standing topographical enigma of the identification of Gaugamela. In this study, a GIS method known as viewshed analysis is employed to solve a certain historical problem.1 According to ancient sources, on the eve of the battle the approaching Macedonian army and the Persian troops that were waiting on the battlefield could not see each other because of intervening hills at a distance of c. 12 km. However, the two armies gained a full view of their respective positions once the Macedonians reached the hills c. six km away from the Persian positions. Our analysis shows that the identification of the battlefield near Tell Gomel, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, is consistent with the visibility requirements of the ancient sources, while the previous identifications of the battlefield in the vicinity of Karamleis and Qaraqosh (Stein 1942; Sushko 1936; Zouboulakis 2015, 2016) feature poor results in terms of expected visibility.

FRAGMENTS OF THE THIRD MILLENNIUM BC FROM NIGIN

The ancient city of Nigin in the State of Lagash is largely attested in the epigraphic sources of the rulers of the First Dynasty of Lagash. Conversely, the archaeological evidence of the Early Dynastic Period is so far very scanty and limited. This paper presents a small group of documents to be dated to the Early Dynastic Period IIIb that were found out of context, but that nevertheless point to a phase of occupation of Nigin in the third millennium BC and are coherent with the information we already know about history of the city and the State of Lagash.

A CYLINDER SEAL FROM TELL ABU AL-DHAHAB DATED TO THE FIRST SEALAND DYNASTY (1740–1374 BC)

This article presents a unique cylinder seal found at the site of Tell Abu al-Dhahab, in the Iraqi marshes. The cylinder seal, made of alabaster, is dated to the First Sealand Dynasty period and contains a scene with an introduction to a seated deity. It is accompanied by an inscription identifying the father of its owner as the overseer of the incantation priests. The aim of the article is both to discuss the cylinder seal, but also contextualize it within the temple where it was found and the period to which it is dated.

AN UNPUBLISHED LETTER OF SAMSU-ILUNA KING OF BABYLON

This short letter of Samsu-iluna (1749–1712 B.C), king of Babylon, is preserved in the Slemani Museum, along with a number of other Old Babylonian documents. The article gives a brief overview of the letters of Samsu-iluna. The short letter appears to be addressed to one Ipqu-Gula, who may be a šassukkum-official (the head of the cadastre-office) from Isin. The article presents a copy, transliteration, translation of and commentary on this cuneiform document, which adds to the small number of letters sent directly by Samsu-iluna that are currently available.

THE ASSYRIAN DISTANZANGABEN IN RELATION TO THE REGNAL YEARS RECORDED IN THE ASSYRIAN KING LIST

Several so-called Distanzangaben (lit. “designations of distance”), found in Assyrian inscriptions, record time spans between events (mainly building activities) of Assyrian rulers. Such chronological data have mostly been studied as entities (for purposes of absolute chronology), and only rarely with regard to their composition. While some of the Distanzangaben can be explained as mere summations of the regnal years recorded in the Assyrian King List, others remain enigmatic. The present article attempts to trace the composition of every Distanzangabe. For those compiled by Tiglath-pileser I and Esarhaddon, ideological purposes seem to be implied. The one compiled by Sennacherib sheds light on the chronology of Tiglath-pileser I's campaigns.

ABU SALABIKH – ABSOLUTE RADIOCARBON CHRONOLOGY

This article presents a new absolute chronology for the archaeological site of Abu Salabikh, Southern Iraq, during the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. The main goals of this study were to synchronise the sequences of the West and Main Mounds, corroborating the dating schemes based on archaeological and textual finds, and assigning an absolute date to the transition between Uruk and Early Dynastic (ED) periods. Previously published dates and newly produced 14C measurements were used in tandem with Bayesian statistical models to arrive at more precise time estimates. Some inconsistencies in the results point to possible disturbance of the archaeological sequence in the context of tannur kilns and highlight the need for careful sample collection and selection methodology. The results suggest a hiatus in settlement between the Uruk and ED periods c. 3000 BC, and confirm the date of c. 2650-2500 BC for the Early Dynastic ED IIIa Fara-style texts.