Mesopotamien: Spaturuk-Zeit und frauhdynastische Zeit.

• Author: POWELL, MARVIN A.
• Position: Review

Mesopotamien: Spaturuk-Zeit und frauhdynastische Zeit. By JOSEF BAUER, ROBERT K. ENGLUND, and MANFRED KREBERNIK. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, vol. 160:1; Annaherungen, vol. 1. Gottingen: VANDENHOECK & RUPRECHT, 1998. Pp. 627, maps, illustrations. DM 210.

This work is, in reality, three books in one. Part 1 (pp. 13-233), by R. K. Englund, treats "Texts from the Late Uruk Period," Part 2 (pp. 235-427), by M. Krebernik, treats "Die Texte aus Fara und Tell Abu Salabih." Part 3 (pp. 429-585), by J. Bauer, treats "De[n] vorsargonische Abschnitt der mesopotamischen Geschichte." To the editors, Pascal Attinger and Marcus Wafler, who have obviously invested a good deal of labor in production of the volume, we owe part 4 (pp. 587-627: abbreviations and nine sets of indices).

The book arose out of a series of lectures and seminars given by the three authors at the University of Bern and represents, as the editors say in their brief preface (p. 11), an attempt to accomplish the "possible," defined as "Annaherungen an grosse, abgrenzbare Ausachnitte, dargestellt von kompetenter Seite," whereby, in this case, the main focus is "Philologie und Geschichte." The resulting work is--not surprisingly, given the well-known competence of editors and authors--of good quality.

It is, however, a work for specialists who deal with third-millennium Mesopotamia. In content, it is a bit of a "mixed bag." While Englund's contribution is a kind of summary and vademecum that rests upon his many years of experience with the Berlin Uruk project, Bauer's has more in common with old-fashioned Kulturgeschichte. In terms of new ideas and systematic organization of the material, Krebernik's contribution will probably turn out to have the most enduring value and will also be of continuing utility to students of third-millennium palaeography. Users will also find the bibliographies appended to each part useful.

Like much that is done in our field, the right hand often does not know what the left is doing. Krebernik (p. 259) and Bauer (p. 431) both conclude that the Fara period texts are most likely to be dated just prior to Ur-Nanse of Lagas. Bauer places UrNanse ca. 2500 B.C. by assuming that Sargon of Akkad's reign began in 2350 and that 150 years intervened between Ur-Nanse and Sargon. This seems also to be the assumption of Englund (p. 23), who places the Fara texts in the twenty-sixth century. Bauer's assumption rests upon hardly more than an inexplicable faith in the...