GMTR

Guides to the Mesopotamian Textual Record

(GMTR)

Editors : Eckart Frahm - Michael Jursa



The series Guides to the Mesopotamian Record provides concise treatments of individual groups, or genres, of cuneiform texts. It targets an audience of specialists, both students and scholars, by presenting up-to-date surveys of the status quaestionis, but also strives to make the results of recent scholarship in Assyriology more accessible to the non-specialist audience of scholars from other fields, such as theologians, classicists, Egyptologists and historians of literature, religion, science and economics. Future volumes will treat Mesopotamian literature, lexicography, divination, medicine and magic, as well as commentaries, Assyrian and Babylonian royal inscriptions and Assyrian archival documents.





1

Michael Jursa : 2005                                          xii + 189 pp.

Neo-Babylonian Legal and ISBN 3-934628-69-9

Administrative Documents.

Typology, Contents and Archives SOLD --- A new, revised edition is in preparation.



1. Introduction

2. Neo-Babylonian archival documents as material objects

3. Personal names

4. The principal text types and their subject matter

5. Some quantitative data

6. Neo-Babylonian archives: generalities

7. The main archives

8. Abbreviations

9. Bibliography

10. Indexes



2

Benjamin R. Foster : 2007                                               xii + 147 pp.

Akkadian Literature of the Late Period ISBN 978-3-934628-70-0            28,- EUR



B.R. Forster surveys the literature of Babylonia and Assyria from 1200 BCE to the beginning of the Christian Era. Based on his experience as editor and translator, he provides readers with an overview of all genres (historical literature, epics, hymns, fables, wisdom literature ...). Augmented by an extensive bibliography and index, the books is designed to be used as a reference volume both by scholars and students.



1. Reading Akkadian Literature Today

2. Human Experience in Akkadian Literature
2.1. The Remote Past; 2.2. The Dramatic Present and the Beginning of Modern Times; 2.3. The Envisioned Future: Literary Prophecies; 2.4. Ancient Wisdom; 2.5. The Human Plight; 2.6. Fables: 2.7. Debates; 2.8. Humorous Stories; 2.9. Parody and Satire; 2.10. Jokes and Riddles; 2.11. Love Lyrics; 2.12. Laments; 2.13. Praise of Kings, Cities, and Temples; 2.14. Autobiographical Reflection

3. Confronting the Divine in Akkadian Literature 3.1. Mythology: Stories about the Gods; 3.2. Mythology: Stories about Gods and Human Beeings; 3.3. Devotion: Speaking to the Gods; 3.4. Divine Speech : the Magic Arts; 3.5. Divine Speech in Oracles; 3.6. Visions of the Netherworld; 3.7. Laments over Gods

4. Aspects of Akkadian Literature of the Lalte Period

5. Bibliography

6. Index

3

Karen Radner : ISBN 3-934628-71-0

Assyrian Archival Documents. (not yet published)

Letters, Legal Records and

Administrative Texts



4

Rocío Da Riva : 2008                                            xiv + 162 pp.

The Neo-Babylonian Royal Inscriptions. ISBN 978-3-934628-83-0         28,- EUR

An Introduction



Rocío Da Riva provides the reader with a detailed overview of the Neo-Babylonian royal inscriptions that were among the first cuneiform documents discovered in Mesopotamia by early western travellers and scholars: "The scope of this book is to give a brief introduction (.) and to familiarize the non-specialist with this textual corpus without sacrificing the precision an Assyriologist would expect." Her study covers various aspects of these texts: their findspots, the process of their creation, their writing and the language of the inscriptions, questions of chronology, and their structure and contents.



1. Introduction

2. Definition, classification and function of the royal inscriptions

3. The media of the royal inscriptions

4. The process towards the creation of a royal inscription: circumstances of composition

5. The findspots of the inscriptions

6. Dating the royal inscriptions

7. Writing

8. The language of the inscriptions

9. Structure of the inscriptions

10. The contents of the inscriptions

11. Conclusions

12. Appendices

13. Abbreviations

14. Bibliography

15. Indices

16. Concordance of inscriptions



5

Eckart Frahm : 2011                                            xii + 483 pp.

Babylonian and Assyrian Text Commentaries. ISBN 978-3-86835-056-2          56,- EUR

Origins of Interpretation



The systematic study of written texts began, not in Biblical Israel or the classical world, but in ancient Mesopotamia. Nearly one thousand clay tablets from Babylonia and Assyria, dating from the eighth to the second century BCE, comprise the earliest substantial corpus of text commentaries known from anywhere in the world. Texts commented on by Mesopotamian scholars include literary works, rituals and incantations, medical treatises, lexical lists, laws, and, most importantly, omen texts. Frahm's book provides the first comprehensive study of the challenging and so far little studied Babylonian and Assyrian text commentaries. Topics discussed include the place of commentaries in the Mesopotamian philological tradition, cuneiform commentary types, hermeneutic techniques used by the ancient scholars, the sources of their explanations, the socio-cultural milieu of Mesopotamian commentary studies, canonization and the formation of the commentary tradition, the reception history of the Babylonian Epic of Creation, and the legacy of Babylonian and Assyrian hermeneutics. A complete catalogue of the commentaries and full editions of two typical examples complete the study, which is accompanied by a bibliography and ample indexes.



1. Introduction

2. Philology and divination: ancestors and correlates of the commentary tradition

3. Temporal and geographical distribution of the commentaries

4. Typology of the commentaries

5. Hermeneutic techniques used in Babylonian and Assyrian commentaries

6. Sources of the explanations

7. Texts commented on and their commentaries: an overview

8. The socio-cultural milieu of Mesopotamian commentary studies

9. Canonization and the formation of the commentary tradition

10. Cultic commentaries and other “explanatory” texts

11. A case study of Mesopotamian hermeneutics: The reception history of Enūma eliš

12. The legacy of Babylonian and Assyrian hermeneutics

Appendix (I. Selected text editions ; II. Some statistics)

Abbreviations; Bibliography; Indices

Ugarit-Verlag, Ricarda-Huch-Str. 6, D-48161 Münster

1
Michael Jursa :	2005 xii + 189 pp.
Neo-Babylonian Legal and	ISBN 3-934628-69-9
Administrative Documents.
Typology, Contents and Archives	SOLD --- A new, revised edition is in preparation.

1. Introduction
2. Neo-Babylonian archival documents as material objects
3. Personal names
4. The principal text types and their subject matter
5. Some quantitative data
6. Neo-Babylonian archives: generalities
7. The main archives
8. Abbreviations
9. Bibliography
10. Indexes

2
Benjamin R. Foster :	2007 xii + 147 pp.
Akkadian Literature of the Late Period	ISBN 978-3-934628-70-0 28,- EUR

B.R. Forster surveys the literature of Babylonia and Assyria from 1200 BCE to the beginning of the Christian Era. Based on his experience as editor and translator, he provides readers with an overview of all genres (historical literature, epics, hymns, fables, wisdom literature ...). Augmented by an extensive bibliography and index, the books is designed to be used as a reference volume both by scholars and students.

1. Reading Akkadian Literature Today
2. Human Experience in Akkadian Literature	2.1. The Remote Past; 2.2. The Dramatic Present and the Beginning of Modern Times; 2.3. The Envisioned Future: Literary Prophecies; 2.4. Ancient Wisdom; 2.5. The Human Plight; 2.6. Fables: 2.7. Debates; 2.8. Humorous Stories; 2.9. Parody and Satire; 2.10. Jokes and Riddles; 2.11. Love Lyrics; 2.12. Laments; 2.13. Praise of Kings, Cities, and Temples; 2.14. Autobiographical Reflection
3. Confronting the Divine in Akkadian Literature	3.1. Mythology: Stories about the Gods; 3.2. Mythology: Stories about Gods and Human Beeings; 3.3. Devotion: Speaking to the Gods; 3.4. Divine Speech : the Magic Arts; 3.5. Divine Speech in Oracles; 3.6. Visions of the Netherworld; 3.7. Laments over Gods
4. Aspects of Akkadian Literature of the Lalte Period
5. Bibliography
6. Index

3
Karen Radner :	ISBN 3-934628-71-0
Assyrian Archival Documents.	(not yet published)
Letters, Legal Records and
Administrative Texts

4
Rocío Da Riva :	2008 xiv + 162 pp.
The Neo-Babylonian Royal Inscriptions.	ISBN 978-3-934628-83-0 28,- EUR
An Introduction

Rocío Da Riva provides the reader with a detailed overview of the Neo-Babylonian royal inscriptions that were among the first cuneiform documents discovered in Mesopotamia by early western travellers and scholars: "The scope of this book is to give a brief introduction (.) and to familiarize the non-specialist with this textual corpus without sacrificing the precision an Assyriologist would expect." Her study covers various aspects of these texts: their findspots, the process of their creation, their writing and the language of the inscriptions, questions of chronology, and their structure and contents.

1. Introduction
2. Definition, classification and function of the royal inscriptions
3. The media of the royal inscriptions
4. The process towards the creation of a royal inscription: circumstances of composition
5. The findspots of the inscriptions
6. Dating the royal inscriptions
7. Writing
8. The language of the inscriptions
9. Structure of the inscriptions
10. The contents of the inscriptions
11. Conclusions
12. Appendices
13. Abbreviations
14. Bibliography
15. Indices
16. Concordance of inscriptions

5
Eckart Frahm :	2011 xii + 483 pp.
Babylonian and Assyrian Text Commentaries.	ISBN 978-3-86835-056-2 56,- EUR
Origins of Interpretation

The systematic study of written texts began, not in Biblical Israel or the classical world, but in ancient Mesopotamia. Nearly one thousand clay tablets from Babylonia and Assyria, dating from the eighth to the second century BCE, comprise the earliest substantial corpus of text commentaries known from anywhere in the world. Texts commented on by Mesopotamian scholars include literary works, rituals and incantations, medical treatises, lexical lists, laws, and, most importantly, omen texts. Frahm's book provides the first comprehensive study of the challenging and so far little studied Babylonian and Assyrian text commentaries. Topics discussed include the place of commentaries in the Mesopotamian philological tradition, cuneiform commentary types, hermeneutic techniques used by the ancient scholars, the sources of their explanations, the socio-cultural milieu of Mesopotamian commentary studies, canonization and the formation of the commentary tradition, the reception history of the Babylonian Epic of Creation, and the legacy of Babylonian and Assyrian hermeneutics. A complete catalogue of the commentaries and full editions of two typical examples complete the study, which is accompanied by a bibliography and ample indexes.

1. Introduction
2. Philology and divination: ancestors and correlates of the commentary tradition
3. Temporal and geographical distribution of the commentaries
4. Typology of the commentaries
5. Hermeneutic techniques used in Babylonian and Assyrian commentaries
6. Sources of the explanations
7. Texts commented on and their commentaries: an overview
8. The socio-cultural milieu of Mesopotamian commentary studies
9. Canonization and the formation of the commentary tradition
10. Cultic commentaries and other “explanatory” texts
11. A case study of Mesopotamian hermeneutics: The reception history of Enūma eliš
12. The legacy of Babylonian and Assyrian hermeneutics
Appendix (I. Selected text editions ; II. Some statistics)
Abbreviations; Bibliography; Indices