Testi amministrativi della III Dinastia di Ur dal Museo Statale Ermitage.

• Author: HEIMPEL, WOLFGANG
• Position: Review

Testi amministrativi della III Dinastia di Ur dal Museo Statale Ermitage, San Pietroburgo, Russia. By FRANCO D'AGOSTINO. Materiali per il Vocabulario Neosumerico, vol. 20. Rome: BONSIGNORI EDITORE, 1997. Pp. 1 + 121.

This new volume is printed in a smaller format than earlier contributions to this series. It contains an interesting introduction by N. V. Kozlova about the history of the collection of the cuneiform tablets that is now in the Ermitage in St. Petersburg, translated by d'Agostino from Russian into Italian (pp. xii-xxv); a catalogue of 215 published texts detailing date, key words, and key phrases (pp. xxvii-xliii); a typology of the texts according to the format of the first volume of the series, a chronological arrangement, and grouping by find-site (pp. x1v-1); transliterations of all texts (pp. 3-61); indices of divine, personal, place, professional, month, and year names, and words (pp. 65-119); and copies of difficult signs (p. 121).

Most texts are from Umma, a few from Lagash and Drehem. Two tablets from Lagash, 119 and 120, have four columns each. Despite their poor preservation they are potentially important. 119 lists barley expenses for a wide variety of destinations, among them the mortuary cult of the mother of the High Priestess (ki a nag ama nin-digir). The other texts are short.

The transliterations make an impression of reliability. There are few obvious errors. I noted the following: 172 and 175 are dated to the first month, not the second. The first sign of the month name is probably mas, not mas. 178 is dated to the second month, not the third. The reading zeh[sub x] for SAL.AS.GAR is outdated. The pronunciation was asgar according to the semi-ideographic spelling, esgar according to Proto Ea 432 (Materials for the Sumerian Lexicon XIV [Rome: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, 1979], 49). The qualification DU of young goats and sheep should be read gub, not gin. In line 1 of 172 read ab-a-am. 161, line 3, must be read sila[sub 4] AS ur[sub 4], not sila[sub 4], nu-ur[sub 4]. The latter is found in texts form Girsu but not Umma.

Notes to select texts:

13 is a record of fodder for "good fattened rams." It includes the term udu sila[sub 4] sila[sub 4]. D'Agostino considers this a scribal error. MVN 5 35 registers 30 udu sila[sub 4] sila[sub 4], MVN 5 44, of the same date as 13, registers 30 u[sub 8] sila[sub 4] sila[sub 4] and so does 38.(*) According to the low fodder rate of 1/3 quart per day the animals were...