Nabû, the Avenger

B 158 is a Seleucid-period manuscript of the bilingual Balaĝ prayer Ukkin-ta eš-bar til-la. The tablet, which was found at Babylon in 1902 and is edited here for the first time, contains major portions of text that have hitherto been unknown. The prayer is suffused with first-millennium Nabû theology and contains a unique literary request for revenge against the enemy in the mountain lands. The findspot of B 158 may shed light on the provenance of the Late Babylonian kalûtu library of the Nanna-utu family.

Ein Ensemble ungewöhnlicher Reliefs im Militärpalast von Ninive

Out of the looting tunnels on Tell Nebi Yunus at Nineveh, which were dug into the ruins of the Late Assyrian military palace by henchmen of the so-called Islamic State, there came, amongst other objects, relief panels featuring anthropomorphic representations. These figures, shown in frontal view, are unusual when compared to the wider repertoire of Assyrian images known from the royal palaces on Kuyunjik. The decoration and context of these stone slabs raise questions regarding their function.

The Excerpt Tablets of Šumma ālu: Reconstructing Tablets 80 to 95

Our knowledge about the omen series šumma ālu ina mēlê šakin has much advanced since the first manuscripts were edited. Even though the overall structure of Šumma ālu is generally well established, the final third of the series still poses considerable problems. In this article we will present a new reconstruction for the sequence from Tablet 80 to 95. As colophons with catchlines and Tablet numbers are scarce for this part of the series, we have developed a new method for the reconstruction mainly relying on clusters of excerpt tablets originating from Nineveh.

“The just judgements that Ḫammu-rāpi, a former king, rendered”: A New Royal Inscription in the Istanbul Archaeological Museums

This article publishes a royal inscription preserved on a clay tablet housed in the Istanbul Archaeological Museums. The inscription, which was intended for display on a stele, commemorates a royal grant of tax exemptions to nine Babylonian cities and presents the royal protagonist as a second Ḫammu-rāpi. The name and titulary of the king in question are not preserved, and the attribution of the inscription is accordingly uncertain. Following Jean-Vincent Scheil’s attribution of the text already in 1902, the study that accompanies an edition of the text argues that it should be attributed to Nabonidus, king of Babylon 556–539 BC, and explores its historical significance in this context.

A New Interpretation of the Opening Lines of the Assur Letters

In this paper a new interpretation of the hatura-clauses in the Hieroglyphic Luwian Assur letters will be presented. First of all, it will be argued that the Hieroglyphic Luwian lexeme hatura-, which is usually connected to the Hittite verb ḫatrae- ‘to send’, ‘to write’ and translated as ‘letter’, is in fact related to the Hittite word ḫattuli- and Cuneiform Luwian ḫattulaḫid-, meaning ‘health’,‘wellbeing’. Secondly, the article will suggest that the Hieroglyphic Luwian word api, which is usually translated as ‘back’, or ‘again’, primarily functions as a discourse marker. Lastly, it will be proposed that the Hieroglyphic Luwian word for ‘letter’ or ‘message’ is (*205)atun(i)-. These new interpretations yield a better understanding of the opening lines of the Assur-letters and elucidate some other opaque passages of this intriguing correspondence.1

New Light on Dilbat

Recent excavations by the Department of Archaeology of the University of Babylon (Iraq) have brought to light the ruins of a temple at Tell al-Deylam, about 30 km south of Babylon. Thanks to a number of inscribed bricks it can securely be identified as “E-Ibbi-Anum”, the temple of Dilbat’s city god Uraš, which confirms earlier attempts to identify the site with that city. The Sumerian text of the inscriptions allows a secure dating of the building to the Kassite period, more precisely, the reign of a king named Kurigalzu (probably I).1