Old Babylonian Cuneiform Texts from the Hamrin Basin: Tell Hadad.

• Author: Yuhong, Wu
• Position: Review

By AHMAD KAMEL MUHAMED. Edubba, vol. 1. London: NABU, 1992. Pp. 69, photos, drawings. [pounds]20 (paper).

This very useful book will be welcomed by scholars who study the history of the kingdom of Eshnunna during the Old Babylonian period, especially because only a small portion of the large number of tablets excavated from the Diyala region has so far been published. In it, A. K. Muhamed has copied twenty-four Old Babylonian tablets now in the Iraqi Museum that were excavated from Tell Had(d)ad, the ancient Me-Tur(r)an. He has also transliterated the tablets and provided them with content descriptions. In an appendix, L. G. Werr draws and describes the seal impressions. There is a drawing of the plan of "house 2," where the tablets were excavated, and a map of the Old Babylonian sites in the Hamrin Basin that gives readers a better grasp of the Eshnunna region. Indices of proper names and of logograms, a table of the museum registrations that gives find spots for the tablets, and photographs of the tablets make this publication very attractive.

In chapter one, information on nine Diyala Basin sites and seven in the Hamrin Basin are introduced seriatim, giving readers a fuller comprehension of excavations since 1930 and understanding of regional history. In chapter two, apart from the edition of twenty-four texts, there is discussion of the dates of texts nos. 1, 3, 15, 16 and those for Hadad texts as yet unpublished (nos. 559, 561, 567, 569, 570). Copies of these dates are presented in pl. 37.

Texts 1-9 are purchase contracts of houses and fields. The first group of the archive, texts 7-9, belongs to the reigns of Naram-Sin and Dadusa. According to their seals, texts 7 and 8 are dated to the reign of Dadusa, and, according to its oath, text 9 to the reign of Naram-Sin. The buyer in the three contracts is Yasub-El, son of Belhanum. Text 10, an adoption contract dated by the oath and seals to Ibal-pi-El II, is related to no. 8 belonging to the archive of Yasub-El. The first witness of no. 8 is Me-Apsum, son of Ezatum, the sassukkum land registrar (of Me-Turan), who used the seal of his father (Ezatum), the servant of Dadusa. In no. 10, Me-Apsum is the fifth witness listed and he used his own seal with Ibal-pi-El's name. Text 2 is dated to the reign of Silli-Sin according to the oath, and the buyer is Muhadum, the son of our Yasub-El. The father of Muhadum is the buyer in nos. 9, 7 and 8, dated to the reigns of Naram-Sin and Dadusa. The buyer...