Old Babylonian Account Texts in the Horn Archaeological Museum.

• Author: Seri, Andrea
• Position: Book review

Old Babylonian Account Texts in the Horn Archaeological Museum. By MARCEL SIGRIST. Andrews University Cuneiform Texts, vol. 5. Berrien Springs, Mich.: ANDREWS UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2003. Pp. v + 325, illus. $39.99.

Volume five of the Andrews University Cuneiform Texts concludes the planned publication of the Ur III and Old Babylonian tablets of the Horn Archaeological Museum. The project started in 1984, when Marcel Sigrist published 974 Ur III documents. Two other volumes with Ur III texts appeared in 1988; three volumes dealing with Isin-Larsa year names were published in 1986, 1988, and 1990; and there are two volumes devoted to the Old Babylonian period (1990 and 2003). The collection now housed in the Horn Archaeological Museum was acquired in 1977 from the Hartford Seminary Foundation in Connecticut. Since the 3200 tablets for the Seminary were purchased on the London antiquities market in 1913, the exact provenance of these texts is unknown. In Old Babylonian Account Texts in the Horn Archaeological Museum (2003), Sigrist provides us with a careful edition that includes autograph copies, transliterations, and translations of 276 texts. The book contains detailed indexes of personal and divine names, toponyms, a descriptive catalogue, a chronological classification of the tablets, two tables of concordance, and lists of Akkadian words and signs. These philological tools render the contents of the texts easily accessible.

Year names are preserved for only 103 of the tablets bearing dates. There are ten documents from the reign of Rim-Sin of Larsa, while the majority of texts date to the First Dynasty of Babylon: fifteen from the time of Hammurabi, sixty-five from Samsu-iluna, six from Abi-esuh, one from Ammi-ditana, and one from Ammi-saduqa. Finally, there are three texts from kings of Uruk, one from the reign of Sumu-ditana of Marad, and one from Burnaburias of the Kassite dynasty. Although most documents record economic transactions, the volume also contains a variety of other texts. These comprise one royal inscription, three lexical lists, four mathematical texts, forty-three lentil tablets with different subjects, and ten letters (nos. 57-62, 135, and 260-62). The senders and addressees of most of the letters are lost, with the exception of no. 57 (from Marduk-nasir to awilum), no. 261 (from Mar-Kis to abija), and no. 262 (from Zababa-ilum to Zababa-musallim).

Herewith some comments on particular texts and people.

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