Die mittelassyrischen Briefe aus Tall Seh Hamad.

• Author: Liverani, Mario
• Position: Review

By EVA CHRISTIANE CANCIK-KIRSCHBAUM. Berichte der Ausgrabung Tall Seh Hamad-Dur-Katlimmu (BATSH), vol. 4; texts, 1. Berlin: DIETRICH REIMER VERLAG, 1996. Pp. x1 + 245, 46 plates. DM 128.

The excavation of Tell Sheykh Hamad on the middle Khabur by a German team under the direction of Hartmut Kuhne (Freie Universitat Berlin) has produced an impressive set of archaeological and textual data that has improved our knowledge of middle- and neo-Assyrian "provincial" government in the Syrian Jezira. The growth and functioning of the Assyrian empire, previously known almost exclusively from the core area of "Assyria proper," now can be investigated also from the perspective of the peripheral areas. Tell Sheykh Hamad (ancient Dur-Katlimmu) is by far the most (and best) investigated Assyrian site outside of Assyria proper.

The information published so far belongs to the archaeological aspects: excavation reports, survey reports, studies of the paleo-environment (see the list at pp. ix-xii). The book under review is the first in the series of text-editions. Previously published texts include only an "itinerary": W. Rollig, "Ein Itinerar aus Dur-katlimmu," Damaszener Mitteilungen 1 (1983): 27984, and some post-Assyrian tablets: H. Kuhne, J. N. Postgate and W. Rollig, "Vier spatbabylonische Tontafeln aus Tall Seh Hamad," State Archives of Assyria Bulletin 7 (1993): 75-128. Eva Cancik has done an excellent work in publishing about thirty middle-Assyrian letters (plus a dozen fragments of letters and envelopes), the largest corpus of this kind of tablet beyond Assur. It is interesting to note that additional material of similar date and typology, also from the western regions, is also being published by Cord Kuhne (Tell Khuwera) and by F. Wiggermann (Tell Sabi Abyad), so that the entire corpus of middle-Assyrian letters will shortly be enlarged by another fifty percent (see the useful list at pp. 232-45). The study of form and style of middle-Assyrian letters (pp. 50-69) is especially relevant for the use of sealed envelopes (the naspertu-maknaktu system), for the greetings formula ultaka in ana dinan beliya attalak, and for the question of Koinzidenzfall or "epistolary perfect."

The Dur-Katlimmu letters were found in a building (Gebaude P, on the acropolis) with workshops and storerooms, the archive being located on the upper floor above room A (see pp. 3-9). Yet the content of the letters does not have much to do with administration of crafts or storage...