William Wolfgang Hallo 1964

“The Road to Emar,”
JCS 18:3, pp. 57-88.
Webpage

Trades and commercial routes were always a key topic in the research about ancient Mesopotamia. Hallo offers in this paper the integration of the text of tablet YBC 4499 to previous material edited by Goetze in 1953 [JSTOR or Urkesh’s Website, Abstract], reporting ancient Mesopotamian itinerary texts. These sources are described by Hallo as “an even closer approximation to the modern map […], a second variety of ‘practical’ geographic texts. In the absence of real maps, the ancient routiers are our best source for the localization of the innumerable place names mentioned in the contemporary sources” (p. 62).

Urkesh is not directly mentioned on tablet YBC 4499: nevertheless, Hallo, in integrating this text with those published by Goetze, offers some useful remarks.

The first remark concerns the position of Urkesh, said to be “lying in the North” [note, mDP: of Mesopotamian area] (p. 63).

The second remark is in the table on p. 65, where Urkesh is inserted into the reconstruction of the ancient road leading to Emar (from Larsa?), being put just after Šunâ and just before Ašnakki.

The third remark in on pp. 70-71, where the author includes Urkesh on the route from Aššur to Ašnakkum, (erroneously) suggesting its identification with Amuda.

The forth remark is strictly connected with the previous one: Hallo recalls again the hypothesis of identification of Urkesh with Amuda, proposed firstly by W.J. van Liere [“Urkiš, centre religieux hurrite retrouvé dans la haute Jézireh Syrienne”, Annales 7 (1957), pp. 91-94; quoted on p. 83, n. 18].