The opening of the Epic of Gilgamesh

N.A.B.U. 1998 n°3 (Septembre) persons. (1) The statement that the beardless person in the Assyrian royal chariot is a royal Babylonian eunuch is incorrect. That individual is the bearer of the parasol. With one known exception, the parasol-bearer of the Assyrian king is always beardless, as seen on the reliefs of Ashurnasirpal II, Tiglath-pileser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib, Ashurbanipal. Of related interest, large numbers of beardless persons represented on the reliefs of Ashurbanipal are identifiable as male; are they all castrated eunuchs? On this question, a reasonable solution was proposed by Oppenheim (JANES 5 [1973]: 325-334). (2) Two attributes associated with the feminine sphere are the mural crown and the mirror. SchmidtColinet acknowledges an association of the mural crown with women. Yet, without compelling evidence the author states that the wearers of the mural crown on the Assyrian exemples are males (eunuchs). Traditionally, in ancient Near Eastern art it is women who wear mural crowns and variant tiara types. On this subject, see: Börker-Klähn, CRRAI 39 (1997), 227-237: Karageorghis, Bibliotheca Mesopotamica 21 (1986): 129-139; Markoe, BASOR 279 (1990): 18, fig. 8; Mallowan, Nimrud and Its Remains, (1966, rev. ed., 1975), figs. 146, 148-151. In the ancient Near East, information on mirrors is furnished by artifacts, representations in art, and texts. In my survey of ancient mirrors, the evidence supports the contention that mirrors were a special attribute of ranked females: goddesses, royalty, and upper class women (Source. Notes in the History of Art 4 (2/3) 1985: 2-9). On the Louvre bronze relief the two attributes of femininity are given to the royal person standing behind the Assyrian king, who is either Sennacherib or Esarhaddon: therefore, the royal person must be Naqi'a (Reade, CRRAI 33 (1987), pp. 143-144). (3) Finally, attention is directed to the renderings of the enthroned person in the garden and the servants who bring food to the royal banquet. It is clear that subtle modelling accentuates the fullness of their bodies, including the high breast line, the heavy thigh and the full, rounded chin. Surely the ample bodies of these figures identify them as women, whose physical features may reflect the desired outward aspect for the ladies of the royal harem. These women are rendered quite differently from the more slender, muscular Assyrian men. For good comparative illustrations, see: SAA 6, fig. 25 (queen), SAA 7, fig. 3 (female servants), fig. 33 (girl with tray), fig. 36 (male attendants). Iconography and artistic style reaffirm the generally accepted identities of the mural-crowned persons: they are Assyrian queens. Dr. Pauline ALBENDA (15-06-98) 445 Neptune Avenue - 14D Brooklyn, NY 11224 - USA 99) A new join to the Epic of Gilgameß Tablet I — The present writer, during a recent visit to the Students' Room of the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquites at the British Museum, identified Rm 956 as the beginning of Gilgameß Tablet I and joined it to Rm 785 + 1017 (join Lambert) + BM 34248 (Lambert) + 34357 (George). The small fragment contains part of the beginning of Tablet I, ll. 1–8: 1 . . . i]ß-√di∫ ma-a-[ti] 2 . . . ]-√ú ka∫-la-mu ⁄a-√as∫-[su] 3 . . .] √i∫-mu-ru iß-di ma-√a∫-[ti] 4 . . . i-d]u-ú ka-la-mu ⁄a-a[s-su] 5 . . . mit-⁄]a-riß pa-x[ x] 6 . . . ] ßá ka-la-mu [x (x)] 7 . . . i-mur-m]a ka-tim-ti ip-√tu∫ (joins Rm 785+ here) 8 . . . ß]á √la-am∫ a-bu-bu The first line is evidently to be restored [ßá nag-ba i-mu-ru i]ß-di ma-a-[ti]. The reading iß-di ma-a[ti] is confirmed by the parallel in l. 3. The broken sign after PA in l. 5 seems to be SAL (less likely DI), which might indicate that the last word is to be restored as pa-r[ak-ki] (George). It should be noted that the information concerning the NB tablets of Gilgameß I in S. Parpola's The Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh (SAACT 1, Helsinki 1997) p. xiii is inaccurate. The four fragments listed there as parts of a ‘MS b' (which include Rm 785+) cannot belong together. They are written in different scripts and display different profiles. T. KWASMAN (04-09-98) Martin Buber Institut Universität zu Köln Kerpenerstrasse 4 50937 KöLN ALLEMAGNE – 89 – N.A.B.U. 1998 n°3 (Septembre) 100) The opening of the Epic of Gilgameß – Kwasman's splendid join of Rm 956 to CT 46 19 (Rm 785+), announced above, yields the first significant new evidence for the opening of the Epic of Gilgameß to appear since Paul Haupt's publication of the fragment 81-2-7, 93 in 1891 (in A. Jeremias, Izdubar-Nimrod, pls. 2–4). It solves at last the conundrum set by the fragment K 2756C (Haupt, Nimrodepos, no. 1a), on which the beginning of the first preserved line reads, against our expectations, [ . . . (= space for several signs) ßá n]ag-ba i-mu-ru. R. Campbell Thompson recognized this problem in his edition of 1930 but glossed over it, stating that ‘it is uncertain whether anything more than this catch-line [i.e. the well-known incipit, ßa nagba ºmuru] is to be supplied in the big gap at the beginning' (Thompson, Epic of Gilgamish, p. 71). The existence of the ‘big gap' has been ignored ever since. The new join demonstrates that the first preserved line of K 2756C is not the incipit of the Standard Babylonian epic, as everyone had assumed from Haupt's time to the present, but is in fact line 3, and that the opening of the text takes the form of a repeated couplet of a type common in ancient Mesopotamian poetry: [ßa nagba ºmuru [x x x-ti ºd]û [Gilgåmeß ßa n]agba ºmuru [x x x-t]i ºdû i]ßdº måti kalåma ⁄assu ißdº måti kalåma ⁄assu [He who saw all, (who was) the] foundation of the land, [who knew . . . ,] was wise in all matters! [Gilgameß, who] saw all, (who was) the foundation of the land, [who] knew [ . . . ,] was wise in all matters! A. R. GEORGE (04-09-98) SOAS, University of London Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square LONDON WC1H 0XG, GRANDE-BRETAGNE [email protected] 101) More on Kassite Aßßalban – In NABU 1997/109 J. A. Brinkman discussed a number of entries in the Kassite-Akkadian vocabulary published by Balkan, Kassitenstudien I, 3-4. For line 35 he proposed the reading áß-ßal instead of Balkan's áß-rak and he pointed to the personal name Aßßalban in a number of Kassite records. The same Kassite name is attested in the geographical name Ål-Aßßalban, which occurs as uru–aß-ßal-ban¡‹ in PBS 2/2, 100:7 (correct RG 5, 41 accordingly) and as uru–aß-ßa-al-ban in the unpublished text CBS 2105:10 (list of persons grouped by town). The element aßßal is translated by mªdû in the vocabulary (see above), the element ban probably has to be identified with the divine name attested in names like Karzi-Ban and KaßtiBan, for which see Hölscher, Die Personennamen der kassitenzeitlichen Texte aus Nippur 118-119. The name can thus be normalized as Aßßal-Ban. Wilfred van SOLDT (19-06-98) Leiden University, Assyriological Institute POB 9515 2300 RA Leiden, PAYS-BAS – 90 –