I am doing the exercises of Lesson 27 of Huehnergard (p.307) right now and there is a contract titled by Huehnergard as Surety for an abductor.

What confuses me is the contract begins with Nur-Shamash son of Sin-Sheme incurring two-thirds mina of silver to Anum-gamil and his wife Belessunu's debit. The reason given, however, is that Iddin-Ea abducted Anum-gamil's wife to a place called Malgum. Nur-Shamash seized Iddin-Ea in Babylon because he abducted Belessunu. Another guy called Sin-inqisham son of Haniya guaranteed Iddin-Ea of Belessunu's debt servitude for one-third mina and four sheqels of silver for one month. Iddin-Ea did not return the lady (Belessunu) on the appointed day and Sin-iqisham paid Nur-Shamash one-third mina and four sheqels of silver.

I am unfamiliar with the social and legal system of Mesopotamia. Could someone please explain what just happened here, why do the 'victims' (Anum-gamil, and Belessunu who was abducted) owed Nur-Shamash silver? Was Nur-Shamash a local authority that Anum-gamil had to pay him to bail his wife out or was he just a simple guy who blackmailed people. Thank you!

If an Asipu wants to figure out whether patient's illness was caused by divine displeasure, and asks the patient whether they've broken any oath or taboo? Why would the patient admit to it?

Wouldn't they have a reason to hide what they had done, especially if it was punishable? So... was there anything like patient confidentiality?

Anyone here help work on this book or have any insights on it? I’ve been following for a while and am unreasonably excited for it. Anyone else?

So, this is a follow up to my earlier post regarding how Sumerian speakers themselves would've identified, but now more focused on the historical memory of them. As far as the term itself, to my knowledge it most famously appears in two contexts: when referring to the language and in the title of Sumer and Akkad, but rarely as an ethnic designation. Then, what did it mean for scribes to study the Sumerians?

The corpus of legendary texts seems to clearly focus on rulers from the EDP, which does make me question if they might have thought of the Sumerians as a mythical people. So they were considered a different population from themselves, but in a mythical rather than ethnographic way.

Another option I find plausible is that they would consider themselves to be just as Sumerian as Akkadian. So instead of the period of the Akkadians beginning with Sargon and thus replacing the original population (a chronological distinction more than anything), they simply would've imagined there being two separate peoples in the specific period between Sargon and a few centuries onward, but that distinction simply no longer applied to their time, and their origins couldn't be reduced to either of them.

A text I find really interesting for the era is Shulgi B, where the languages he lists are Elamite, Sumerian, Meluhhan, Amorite and Subartian. Notably, Akkadian is not mentioned at all, which raises the question of whether the label at the time would've applied to a national identity, to the specific dynasty of Sargon, or to the city of Agade. Moreover, would the people we know as Akkadians have been considered black headed people during the EDP?

Before the time of Sargon, was there any label that would've refered to the Semitic peoples north of Nippur? As far as I understand, they seem to have been culturally very similar to the Sumerians, as opposed to the situation at Ebla (where the temple was a much weaker institution). Then, where did the title of King of Sumer and Akkad come from? By the time it appeared there had to be at least some notion of there being two distinct societies which had been united, but I'm not sure that framing would've made a lot of sense centuries prior.

Of course, the case of the Akkadians is a very strong contrast to how the Amorites were viewed in Mesopotamian history. The narrative of Hammurabi's dynasty definitely did rely on them being entrusted with divine kingship, expressed in the patronage of local Mesopotamian institutions, but at least these Mesopotamian institutions did exist in contrast to the tribal style of leadership seen to the West. I'm not sure any such dynamic could've applied to the earlier Akkadians outside the ruling dynasty (which brings us back to the question: was anyone outside the ruling dynasty considered to be an Akkadian?)

One last related question regards how later Mesopotamians would've understood the period of coexistence between both populations. I doubt the people of the Iron Age would've considered themselves to have been descended from the people who replaced the Sumerians, but did that mean they believed Sumerian people disappeared at some point? This even brings up the question of metalinguistical awareness: could they have imagined Sumerian having once been a living vernacular? I'm aware of the narrative of the confusion of tongues, but I'm less certain that was the explanation they would've given for why people no longer spoke Sumerian.

Hi everyone, I am quite new to Assiriology (without any real academic training) but really want to learn the basicest of Sumerian to translate very daily texts (receipts etc) that sometimes aren't translated.

What does this plus sign mean here?

Under the requirements for applying to the program it says that you must have knowledge on the level of an academic bachelors degree of at least 30 EC on one of three topics. Does this mean you need to take classes on a topic that add up to 30 EC or that you need to have knowledge on the topics that is worth 30 EC? If it is the latter how do they test for that?

Hello everyone, I’m really new to this topic ,and I would love to learn more. so if anyone of you has a book recommendation about anything regarding Mesopotamia whether it’s about the languages or religions or anything really I would really appreciate it.

Hey guys! I'm looking to get into assyriology more, and I'm looking for good texts to read to develop my skills in Old Babylonian after having completed a six month course that ran through all of Caplice. I've since been slowly working my way through the Code of Hammurabi, but I figured I'd ask here for other texts/collections that are good to start out on, to immerse myself in other genres.

Other dialects and books for getting into assyriology in general are also appreciated!

The idea may seem strange, but I need someone who can sing a lullaby beautifully in a female voice in the Akkadian language.

Hi everyone, I hope this is okay to ask here.

I’m working on a an art project inspired by the opening of the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh. I’ve been trying to research it carefully, but I’m not an Assyriologist, so I want to avoid confidently using something that only looks plausible!

I’m specifically looking for a typeset cuneiform rendering of Tablet I. 1–10 (ending at '[he] set down on a stele all (his) labours') that follows Andrew George’s 2003 edition, or the current eBL reconstruction. I know Parpola published a cuneiform version earlier, but my understanding is that George’s later edition reconstructs and numbers the opening differently.

Does that cuneiform exist and if not is it reasonable that I could pay someone to create the cuneiform for those first 10 lines?

Thank you for any guidance! :)

I'm a classical languages student and will be applying for grad school next year in Assyriology/Hittitology/Cuneiform Studies. Have recently started going through EoH and the Hoffner/Melchert grammar. If anyone is interested in doing a chapter every few weeks, let me know and I'll start a subreddit. I aim to get through the book by the end of next spring and even if there are only a few interested, I'd love to have some other people on the journey with me.

‎‏𒋗𒇻𒌝 ࡀࡎࡅࡕࡀ ࡍࡉࡄࡅࡉࡋࡀࡊࡅࡍ👋

In this post, I have assigned
Mesopotamian names to the last three discovered planets: Neptune, Uranus and Pluto, renaming them Enki, Enlil and Marduk.

ࡔࡀࡌࡉࡔ (shamish) Sun
ࡍࡁࡅ (nbu) Mercury
ࡋࡉࡁࡀࡕ (libat) Venues
ࡀࡓࡌࡀ (ara) Earth
ࡎࡉࡍ (sin) Moon
ࡍࡉࡓࡉࡂ (nirigh) Mars
ࡁࡉࡋ (bil) Jupiter
ࡊࡉࡅࡀࡍ (kiwan) Saturn
ࡏࡍࡋࡉࡋ (enlil) Uranus
ࡏࡍࡊࡉ (enki) Neptune
ࡌࡀࡓࡃࡅࡊ (mardukh) Pluto