Table of Contents for Journal of Cuneiform Studies 77 (2025)
This contribution provides an edition of a small new join to paragraph §10′ of the Zalpa Text (CTH 3.1), one of the most intriguing texts of early Hittite historiography. The join is notable for containing the name Ḫuzziya. The ongoing discussion on the dating of the Zalpa Text is critically reviewed, and it is argued that the Ḫuzziya mentioned in the join is Ḫuzziya I, probable founder of the Hittite kingdom. While not ending the dating debate once and for all, the join represents another step forward toward situating this puzzling text in the arc of early Hittite historiography.
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This article publishes nine new texts relating to ritual and cult in Old Babylonian Sippar. On internal grounds, they likely stem from Sippar-Amnānum (Tell ed-Dēr). Seven of these explicitly attest the banquets of particular deities, including Gula, Adad, Sîn, Šamaš, and Ea. Evidence for the influence of Annunītum and her cultic household is given in the texts. One text attests a night-vigil and provides evidence for a ritual most likely connected to (Ištar) Annunītum.
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This contribution provides a new edition of TCL 15, 8 (AO 5374) and interprets the text as a mortuary ceremony for an (early) Old Babylonian royal figure, who is helped in his transition from this world to the next by netherworld gods and kings of the past, and eventually ends up in the skies as a star. The new edition is an occasion to discuss the relationships among Old Babylonian Emesal liturgies and relationships between Old Babylonian and later texts. The list of past kings includes the names of Ur III monarchs as well as kings of the Isin Dynasty. Such use of the past is further illustrated by an administrative text found at Ur (U.30628) that inventories precious objects in memory of kings of both dynasties (appendix 1).
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Cuneiform incantations present modern researchers with a conundrum. On the one hand, they appear to be texts spoken over an individual to heal and protect from harm, but on the other, they are written on clay tablets, a medium more associated with educated scribal literature. Inscribed amulets, however, provide examples of written incantations that clearly had a place in magical praxis. This article presents editions of four zi … pa₃ incantations from amulets—two of which are entirely new to scholarship—and uses these four texts as a test case for comparison with zi … pa₃ incantations from clay tablets. This comparison reveals that there are significant similarities between the amulet incantations and those from single incantation tablets and larger compendia, suggesting that there may be less of a divide between the Sumerian incantation tradition and actual magical praxis than is sometimes thought. At the same time, the variation among the amulet texts themselves and between the amulet texts and other early zi … pa₃ incantations indicates that the amulets are not copies or excerpts from precisely worded scripts but appear to be creative adaptations of basic forms and textual structures.
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Located in the storage of the archaeological collections of the Finnish Heritage Agency lies a well-preserved clay cylinder inscribed with cuneiform script. The text on it describes the building activities of the Neo-Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II (604–562 BCE), and in particular recounts his renovation of the temple of the god Lugal-Marada in Marad. As one of around fifty known recensions of this inscription, the Helsinki Cylinder reveals limited new historical information. Instead, much more pressing is the question of how the cylinder arrived in Finland and how it ended up seemingly forgotten in the storage of the Finnish Heritage Agency. In this article, we trace the cylinder’s journey to Finland, discuss how we, as scholars, should deal with unprovenanced objects such as this one, and provide an edition of the text it contains.
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This article aims to enhance the understanding of the Hittite god Pirwa by analyzing descriptions of his statues in two oracle texts (KBo 44.209(+) and Çorum 6-1-96) and a cult inventory (KUB 38.4). In contrast to previous interpretations, I propose that the term 𒀹dupau-x[ in KUB 38.4 obv. 4 is a noun denoting a striking weapon rather than a Luwian genitive adjective linked to el-tù-ḫu “whip.” Accordingly, Pirwa is depicted as a horseman holding a striking weapon in his right hand and a whip in his left. The study also investigates the term ašuša-, suggesting it may refer to either the god’s earrings or components of the horse tack or rider’s gear. Furthermore, the mention of a mountain in Çorum 6-1-96 obv. 5′ is interpreted not as a specific mountain name but as a mountain-shaped feature of the divine statue. The article additionally delves into the hapax legomenon karzana- in Çorum 6-1-96 obv. 6′, linking it to the noun karza(n)-, which is associated with weaving activities in festival texts. Both terms are traced to the Indo-European root *(s)ker– meaning “to cut/scratch,” proposing that while karza(n)– likely signifies a weaving stick or shuttle, karzana– might denote a stick-shaped device used as a type of insignia or a weapon.
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Old Babylonian precursors of terrestrial omens generally cover topics similar to those found in the first millennium series Šumma ālu ina mēlê šakin without having identical omens. The present article will focus on a group of omens that are handed down in a hitherto unknown continuity over nearly 1500 years. They are first attested in the Old Babylonian omen compendium MS 3104 and are integrated almost verbatim as the thirty-third nisḫu in the divinatory corpus of Late Babylonian Uruk. Four excerpt tablets from Nineveh and a Neo-Babylonian manuscript have been discovered by the authors to record a choice of the very same omens. The article discusses the place of these omens in the Šumma ālu series and gives a full edition of the “thirty-third nisḫu” omens as well as copies of the newly identified manuscripts.
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Ancient Near Eastern scribes used several nonphonetic signs and marks to improve the readability of their texts. One of these resources was the so-called Glossenkeil. This article presents the first study of the use of the sign, here called “wedge-mark” to avoid terminological bias in the analysis of its function, in documents from ancient Nuzi. Based on the analysis of a wide repertoire of sources, the article concludes that the sign only had a paragraphemic function and was used optionally. To understand how Nuzi scribes used the sign, other topics related to it are also discussed, such as indentation. Finally, the evidence from Nuzi is considered in the light of general ancient Near Eastern scribal practice.
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In this article, we present an updated edition of a Sargonic document first published by Bertrand Lafont in 2020. We offer several new readings and perspectives but admit that our understanding of the text is still incomplete. The preserved portion of the text records a land claim against Adab by Šubur-Nagarpae, the ensi of Umma usually known as Šubur, and settled by Naramsin in favor of Adab. The process involved witnesses from neighboring (yeta’ātim) towns and Adab, but also cities from much further east, Tallani, Ibrat, and Pašime. The last preserved section of the text describes the “piling up of the boundary markers” (in sapāki pulukke) in the presence of both ensis. Lugal-ša, ensi of Adab, is attested here for the first time.
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This article presents a new edition and commentary of the Hittite letter HKM 48, from the ancient town of Tapikka (Maşat Höyük), dating approximately to the early fourteenth century BCE. In this letter, two subordinates of the Hittite king, Mariya and Ḫapiri, write to their lord with news on a task they were assigned: the capture of birds and, perhaps, other animals. The second part of the article discusses various aspects of interest within the letter’s content. In particular, a novel understanding of the primary concerns of the text and of the logic within the epistolary exchange is proposed, primarily centered on a new identification of the animals mentioned in a passage difficult to interpret.
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