“Die Inschrift des Tišatal von Urkeš,”
in Bibliotheca Mesopotamica 26 BM 26 = UMS 3, pp. 117-146 (with 3 plates: XIII-XV).
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In this contribution, Wilhelm re-edit the inscription of Tišatal king of Urkeš, inscribed in Hurrian on a stone tablet kept at the Louvre Museum (AO19938), related to the bronze lion-shaped foundation nail (AO19937) [for pictures of the items, see here], both coming from Urkesh, the cultic centre of the god Kumarbi.
The author starts recalling the first publication of the objects, made by Parrot and Nougayrol in 1948 on RA 42, pp. 1-20. Then, a discussion about the possible and alleged findspots for the objects advanced in the past is summarized.
Even if the dating of the tablet is unclear, the author suggests the early Akkadian period. Wilhelm then recalls some previous studies on the texts (apart from the aforementioned edition), namely those of I.M. Diakonof (1971), he himself (in 1989), I.J. Gelb and B. Kienast (in 1990).
The discovery of a Hittite-Hurrian bilingual text on 1983 at Boğazköy allows to better understand the Hurrian language and to better define the meaning of Tišatal's inscription.
The present author offers a new transliteration and translation of the text and analyses in detail each line of that inscription, mostly commenting some terms previously sometimes misread, such as the very name of king Tišatal (previously allegedly read as Tišri). A discussion about all the important terms is presented (endan, purli, dPIRIG.GAL) together with the analysis of other verbal or pronominal forms.
[M. De Pietri – July 2019]