Neo-Assyrian Specialists: Crafts, Offices, and Other Professional Designations.

• Author: Jakob, Stefan
• Position: Book review

Neo-Assyrian Specialists: Crafts, Offices, and Other Professional Designations. By HEATHER D. BAKER. The Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, vol. 4, pt. 1, Professions Index. Helsinki: THE NEO-ASSYRIAN TEXT CORPUS PROJECT, 2017. Pp. xvii + 397. $94 (paper). [Distributed by Penn State Univ. Press, University Park, PA]

A brief introduction is provided by the author outlining the aim of this volume as a supplement to the Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire series, with a focus on named individuals and their offices or professions. After a detailed presentation of her method of organization, H. Baker discusses different aspects in three concise subsections. In the first, "Specialization in Assyria," several spheres are distinguished, each represented by an exemplary text that offers a contemporary perspective: 1) urban (edict appointing an official from Assurnasirpal II's era), 2) scholarly (lexical professions lists from Nineveh and Huzirina), and 3) provincial (Vassal Treaties of Esarhaddon).

The section "Terminology" is limited to the examination of rank order. There are three different terms that qualify the position of an individual within the hierarchy: dannu 'strong', rabiu 'great', and saniu 'second, deputy, assistant', whereby the first two are often interchangeable.

In the following section, "A Note on Slaves," the term urdu is discussed. It is clear from the sources that this word had a wide range of meanings in Neo-Assyrian times. Urdu could designate a 'slave', but also a 'servant' or a 'subordinate', who was not object of sale, inheritance, etc. This means that the term urdu does not necessarily determine a priori the social status of the title holder.

The main chapter is clearly structured. In the introductory section, offices and professions are treated in alphabetical order of the Akkadian terms. Each paragraph contains the various attested writings of a lemma, including variants and ideographic writings in reference to the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (CAD). This is followed by the names of title holders, each complemented by a concise description...