Neo-Sumerian Administrative Texts in the British Museum.

• Author: Sharlach, T.M.
• Position: Nisaba, vol. 9 - Book review

Neo-Sumerian Administrative Texts in the British Museum. By M. MOLINA and M. SUCH-GUTIERREZ. Nisaba (Studi Assiriologici Messinesi), vol. 9. Messina: DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE DELL' ANTICHITA DELL' UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI MESSINA, 2005. Pp. 312. [euro]40 (paper).

The book under review is the ninth in the Nisaba series, published by two Spanish scholars, Manuel Molina and Marcos Such-Gutierrez. The 365 Sumerian texts published here are part of the vast collections of the British Museum, and the majority come from Umma. The texts, presented in the order of their accession numbers, appear in transliteration, with copies of problematic signs or lines. Some texts have brief commentaries, including notes (in English) on vocabulary or expressions. The volume also includes the usual helpful aids needed for text volumes--indices, which comprise almost a third of the book (pp. 203-312), concordances, and lists of texts grouped according to content (e.g., "reeds," "administration of persons," et cetera). The volume also contains a catalog of seal impressions, though, unfortunately, most of the seals are described (e.g., "presentation to seated goddess") rather than drawn.

The texts range in date from Shulgi year 30 to Ibbi-Sin year 2, with one text identified as possibly Ibbi-Sin 3 (no. 17), though, as the authors note, the year could also refer to Shulgi 44. One Sargonic text, possibly from Nuzi (Gasur), is included here (no. 138). Perhaps it should have been published elsewhere as it appears extraneous in the present volume. There is much here for scholars interested in the Sumerian language and the history of the late third millennium B.C.

Those interested in the study of Sumerian and its linguistic intricacies will find a number of commentaries on words and phrases at the end of the text in which they appear. For example, after no. 69 is a commentary on the difference between se gis ra and se bad ('beating with flails' versus 'sledging'); after no. 255, Molina and Such-Gutierrez provide the following brief commentary on the ma-di-[tum.sup.zabar], "ma-di-tum = manditum ... is a metal attachment (CAD M/1, p. 208) used for mounting precious objects." While this is very helpful to the scholar going through the volume text by text, insights published in this way are likely to get lost. The reviewer has certainly had the experience of coming across a word, remembering that someone had written a commentary on it in a text volume or review, and spending...