Urnamma of Ur in Sumerian Literary Tradition.

• Author: Veldhuis, Niek
• Position: Reviews of Books

Urnamma of Ur in Sumerian Literary Tradition. By ESTHER FLUCKIGER-HAWKER. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, vol. 166. Fribourg, Switzerland: UNIVERSITY PRESS; Gottingen: VANDENHOECK & RUPRECHT, 1999. Pp. xviii + 384, illus. FS 120.

This volume, a reworked version of the author's dissertation, Contains fresh editions of all known Urnamma hymns and the composition known to modern scholars as Urnamma's Death. (1) The first chapter ("Introduction") contains three unrelated sections discussing preliminary matters. In the first section (Historical Background) the author summarizes the little we know about the beginnings of the Ur III empire, and discusses the chronological problems of the end of the Lagas II dynasty (see now also C. E. Suter, Gudea's Temple Building: The Representation of an Early Mesopotamian Ruler in Text and Image [Groningen: Styx Publications, 2000], 15-28). In section 2 the evidence for the reading namma (LAGABxHAL) in the royal name [[blank].sup.(d)][ur-.sup.d] namma is collected and evaluated. Section 3 gives a succinct history of the publication of Sumerian royal hymns followed by an outline of the study at hand.

The second chapter ("A General Survey of the Urnamma Hymns") begins with a discussion of the conventional typology of hymns in Sumerological literature. Although the author expresses some dissatisfaction with this typology (p. 15) no alternative is proposed, and the usual classification (Type A; Type B. II; etc.) is used throughout the book. Section 2 (Catalogue) provides all bibliographical details of the texts studied, most of which information is repeated in the editions in chapter 5. Section 3 (Orthography) demonstrates one of the extraordinary features of this particular corpus: the high frequency of unorthographic spellings, only partly due to the fact that some of the sources come from Susa (Urnamma A, sources Sb1, Sb2, and Sb3). The final section of chapter 2 briefly lists and discusses the glosses in the Urnamma hymns.

Chapter 3 is called "On the Historical Correlations of the Urnamma Hymns." It includes a list of the deeds of Urnamma referred to both in hymns and in other sources. The author is critical of D. R. Frayne's theory that Urnamma C is a chronological summary of Urnamma's reign. The new edition of Urnamma C and a re-evaluation of Ni 4375 enables the author to demonstrate that Frayne's hypothesis cannot be upheld.

Chapter 4 ("Continuity and Change in Royal Hymnography") is devoted to the place of the Urnamma hymns in the history of Sumerian literature. In section 1 (Legitimacy and Kingship) the author traces various ways of expressing royal legitimacy in texts from the Pre-Sargonic to the Isin-Larsa periods. This prepares the background for showing the specific manner in which the Urnamma hymns treat this topic. The remaining two sections of this chapter compare the Urnamma hymns with other text groups. Section 2 (Urnamma and Ismedagan) is a brief but interesting discussion designed to show that "Ismedagan's literary portrait was not solely modeled on Sulgi but also on Urnamma" (p. 68). Section 3 (The Urnamma Hymns and Related Genres) discusses relations between Urnamma hymns and various other texts and text groups: hymns (3.1); statues, stelas, and self-laudatory hymns (3.2); and lamentation literature (3.3). The latter section focuses specifically on Urnamma A (Urnamma's Death). This chapter contains much interesting material and displays the author's broad familiarity with Sumerian literature.

The final chapter, the major part of the book, presents editions and translations. One hymn is edited for the first time...