Ritualbeschreibungen und Gebete III.

• Author: Koubkova, Evelyne

Ritualbeschreibungen und Gebete III. By STEFAN JAKOB. Keilschrifttexte aus Assur literarischen Inhalts, vol. 9 / Wissenschaftliche Veroffentlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft, vol. 154. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWTTZ VERLAG, 2018. Pp. ix + 242, illus. [euro]54.

The present volume makes accessible seventy-four tablets and fragments of prayers and ritual texts from Middle and Neo-Assyrian Assur. Most of the texts are published here for the first time, some represent duplicates to known texts (e.g., nos. 35, 50), and some form joins to previously known fragments, which are reedited together with the new ones (nos. 30,33,36,37, 57,68). The volume contains a comprehensive scholarly apparatus, including indices, glossaries, and bibliography. Cuneiform copies of all tablets are provided (pp. 161-236), as well as photos of individual tablets (pp. 237-42). The reasons for selecting these particular photographs (nos. 1, 10, 35, 51, 54, 60, 67) are not entirely clear.

The exact find spots of most texts from Assur are unfortunately unknown. Exceptions in the present corpus are nos. 8 and 9 from the so-called Tiglath-pileser Library of the Assur temple (N1), nos. 4 and 10 from the archive of the chief singer (nargallu) (N3), and nos. 12, 13, 42, and possibly 41 (on palaeographical grounds) from the house of the exorcist (N4).

Due to the fragmentary nature of most texts in this volume, many readings and identifications remain uncertain. However, new joins and duplicates reveal the continuing progress in understanding the Assur text corpus. After Maul and Straub 2011 and Meinhold 2017, this is the third contribution by the Heidelberg-based Assur project carrying the label Ritualbeschreibungen und Gebete. (Note that in the introduction [p. 1] the author calls the series by mistake Ritualanweisungen und Gebete. In fact, Mesopotamian ritual texts are often prescriptive rather than descriptive and so this little slip seems to be quite fitting.) The volume includes many tablets from the Middle Assyrian period, the main area of expertise of the volume's author.

Nos. 1-9 are literary prayers composed in the names of Middle and Neo-Assyrian kings (Samsi-Adad IV, Shalmaneser II, Adad-naraff II, and Samsi-Adad V). Despite their fragmentary nature and repeated motifs, these texts offer important evidence for otherwise poorly documented time periods. Most of them show the close connection of Assyrian kings to the goddess IStar; no. 6 and possibly no. 4 refer to the...