“Tablette de Samarra,”
RA 9:1, pp. 1-4.
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Thureau-Dangin publishes here a bronze/copper tablet (today at the Louvre Museum: AO 5678) found, according to the seller’s words, at Samarra.
The tablet is inscribed in Akkadian, paleographically datable between the Akkad period and the Ur III period, on a face and on a side, on a total of 21 lines. The text reports a dedication of a temple of Nergal at Ḫawilum, made by Ari-sen, “pasteur de ville expérimenté”, defined also “roi d’Urkiš et de Nawar” and “fils de Sadarmat, le roi” (pp. 1-2).
The author recalls how the names of Urkesh and Nawar are also attested on two tablets of Dréhem, published by Genouillac: the first of these tablets (AO 5565) mentions “An-na-ri, citoyen d’Urkiš, au jour où il est venu d’Urkiš” (p. 2).
On the base of these texts, the author suggests that “la tablette de Samarra inviterait à chercher l’emplacement des pays de Nawar et d’Urkiš sur la rive gauche du Tigre, entre le Zab inférieur et le Diyala” (p. 3).
An etymological analysis of the name of Ari-sen is then offered, stressing its Hurrian origin and is interpreted as follows: “Ari « il a donné » […]. si-en, il rappelle še-en-ni (šeni) « frère » ” (p. 3).
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