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Urkesh

Abstracts

Walther Sallaberger and Aage Westenholz 1999

Marco De Pietri – November 2019

Mesopotamien. Akkade-Zeit und Ur III-Zeit.
OBO 160/3,
Fribourg, Göttingen: Academic Press, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.
[herausgegeben von Pascal Attinger and Markus Wäfler].
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This double-author book offers an overview on the history of Mesopotamia during the Akkadian and Ur III periods.

Chapter 1 (by A. Westenholz) deals with the political history of the Old Akkadian period: after an introduction, the author introduces the chronology and the history from the prelude of the empire to the fall of Akkad; moreover, she explains aspects of society, literature, religion, art, internal and foreign relations.

Chapter 2 (by W. Sallaberger) focuses on the Ur III period: after having displayed the beginning of the Third Dynasty of Ur, the author presents the historical framework (from Ur-Namma to Ibbi-Suen), the figure and role of the king, and the organization of the state; afterward, he offers information about the documentation, the sealing practices, the calendar and the archaeological findspot and contexts of the main sources (this section is also enriched with four appendixes about textual document).

Chapter 3 includes abbreviations and indexes.

Urkesh is specifically referred to in four spots:

  • on p. 48, n. 157, where Westenholz includes Tell Mozan as one of the most typical and important Old Akkadian archives (quoting the publication of the texts in Milano 1991);
  • on p. 59, the author recalls how in Upper Mesopotamia there were local kings defined as endan, a Hurrian title attested on seals (as for this topic, Westenholz mentions, in n. 239, to the seals/sealings from Urkesh, referring to Buccellati and Kelly-Bucellati 1996; on the same page, also Tišatal of Urkesh is mentioned as one of these endan, who commissioned the first Hurrian inscription (see below, p. 74, n. 350);
  • on p. 72, n. 345, the author mentions the children nurse um-me-da attested on seals from Urkesh, dating to the reign of Tupkiš (a reference to Buccellati and Kelly-Buccellati 1996, pp. 21ff. is established);
  • on p. 74, n. 350 Westenholz quotes the Tišatal inscription in these regards: “The earliest Hurrian texts, the inadequately published inscriptions of Tish-adal of Urkesh (see Parrot and Nougayrol 1948; Muscarella 1988; Collon, D. 1987, First Impressions. Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East, London, p. 40) are probably a trifle later than Sargonic”.

Urkesh is also located on the folding map attached to the volume.

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