Altakkadisches Elementarbuch.

• Author: Foster, Benjamin R.
• Position: Book review

Altakkadisches Elementarbuch. By FRANCIS BREYER. SILO, vol. 3. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2014. Pp. xiv + 263, illus. [euro]28 (paper).

This is intended as a self-teaching manual for students interested in Old Akkadian, a problematic linguistic concept the author grapples with on pp. 9-20. Breyer aims at far more than the sketch of language, writing, and selected reading exercises that one might expect from the title, offering extensive comments on cultural and historical context as well. One finds a short history of the Akkadian period, comments as to whether or not the Sargonic achievement constituted a territorial tate, remarks on ancient historical memory, society, and religion, plus a whole chapter on art and archaeology, all to the purpose of making this fascinating and complex phase of Mesopotamian history accessible to the student. The reading passages include inscriptions of Sargon, Rimush, Manishtusu, and Naram-Sin, letters, administrative documents, and inscriptions of rulers of Gutium, Elam, Mari, Ebla, and other places, a glossary and sign list, a brief bibliography, and other indices and aids. The readings include new copies by the author and copies taken from a variety of publications (with no indication that permissions were given to use copyrighted materials, a surprising omission for a distinguished academic publisher).

The challenge of any commentary is what to include and where to stop. To this reader, Breyers purpose was laudable and the undertaking courageous, but I might have wished for more attention to the interpretive problems of the readings presented, to show how difficult some of these really are, and correspondingly less to more general matters. For example, pp. 112-13, the author glosses words that can be easily looked up in an Akkadian dictionary, but offers no comment on the major problem with the meaning of iste (line 36), a decision that changes understanding of the text in a fundamental way: does it mean "with" (so Gelb, Kienast, and Sommerfeld) or "from" (so Farber and Frayne, to this reviewer less likely), and what basis do we have for deciding? This is surely a case where the student will need a teachers help.

Or, p. 82, could not the author do a little more with pasisum than a student could easily find (Archi, Vicino Oriente 10 [1996]: 37-71) and perhaps note, to reject it if he wishes, Hallo-van Dijk, Yale Near Eastern Researches 3 (1968): 7-8? So too the royal title dannum (pp. 108, 177, etc.)...