Sammlung hieroglyphischer Siegel, Vol. 1: Vorarveiten.

• Author: Dincol, Ali
• Position: Book review

Sammlung hieroglyphischer Siegel, Vol. 1: Vorarveiten. By MASSIMILIANO MARAZZI. 2 nd enlarged edition. Hethitoligie Portal Mainz, Materialien, vol. 7. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2008. Pp. xiii + 161, map. [euro]52 (paper).

The book under review is the revised and enlarged edition of Sammnlung hieroglyphischer Siegel (SHS) (1983). This second edition appeared as the seventh publication in the series Hethitologie Portal Mainz. Materialicen. and thus indicates the reason for republishing a twenty-six-year-old book: as part of the documentation of the glyptic material in the electronic medium. Indeed this intention is also indicated by a subtitle in the introduction (P. xii): "the importance (It'SHS and its function in the Main/.Portal. ..."

The need for such it tool documenting the Hittite glyptic is obvious. Every student feels the necessity to consult a reference book where information about seals is compiled. The first edition of SHS served this purpose for a considerable period in spite of its deficiencies. The most striking of these was the difficulty posed by the extreme employment of--in some cases unusual and unnecessary--abbreviations. For example. in section 0.9 (pp. 42-44), the abbreviation for seals found in Karahoyuk is KON, but there are several further seals in the Konya Museum which might also be marked by this set of letters (A. Dincol. "Drei hethitische Hierogly-phensiegel im Konya Museum." Altorientalische Forsuhungen 25 [1988]: 168-72). One might argue that at that time they had not yet been published. but we would expect them to be introduced into this new edition.

Unfortunately many more recent publications have intentionally been loft out (pp. xi-xii), among them Our article on the Konya Museum seals. We wonder what abbreviation would have been used for them if they had been taken into account. On the other hand. there seems to be no uniformity in the principles employed here for choosing abbreviations. The Einar seals are given as MSK (= Meskene). but the Ebla seals are cited as EBLA. not Tell Mardikh. In our opinion it is odd to abbreviate British Museum as BRIT, instead of using the more common BM. which appears in every inventory record of the museum.

Errata or desiderata in the first edition were corrected and completed by it Supplement in 1985 and by all article in Archiv fur Orientforschung 29/30 (1983/84): 605. Every reference hook is only as trustworthy as the carefulness of its preparation. Therefore the...