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The Chronology of Alalakh Level VII once again

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Nadav Na'aman
Nadav Na'aman
Affiliation:
Tel Aviv University
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Extract

In an article published in Anatolian Studies XXVI (1976), I have questioned the accepted chronology of level VII in Alalakh, suggesting that four rather than two kings reigned in Alalakh during the period covered by the level VII archive. In the meantime two important works, bearing directly on the subject, have been published by Dr. Dominique Collon. The first is an enlargement of her thesis on the Alalakh seal impressions, including a detailed discussion of the seal impressions as well as of the overall problem of the archive and its inner division into generations (SITA, pp. 143–161). This most welcome contribution to the subject at hand adds much to our understanding of the chronology of level VII, although some of her points might be interpreted in a different way, as I hope to show below.

In her book Dr. Collon accepted the chronological system suggested by the CAH, according to which there were only two kings in Alalakh during the period of level VII. She again summarized her results in Anatolian Studies XXVII (1977), rejecting my suggested reconstruction of the chronology of the kings as well as of the generations in Alalakh.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 29 , December 1979 , pp. 103 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1979

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References

1 The abbreviations used here are according to Borger, R., Handbuch der Keilschriftliteratur II (Berlin, 1975)Google Scholar, with the following exceptions: AT = Wiseman, D. J., The Alalakh Tablets (London, 1953)Google Scholar; CAH = The Cambridge Ancient History, revised edition; New Look = Na'aman, N., “A New Look at the Chronology of Alalakh Level VII”, An. St. XXVI (1976), pp. 129–143CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rejoinder = Collon, D., “A New Look at the Chronology of Alalakh Level VII: A Rejoinder”, An. St. XXVII (1977), pp. 127–131CrossRefGoogle Scholar; SITA = Collon, D., The Seal Impressions from Tell Atchana/Alalakh (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 27) (Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1975Google Scholar).

2 The same chronological system was adopted also by Klengel, H., Geschichte Syriens im 2. Jahrtausend v.u.Z. I (Berlin, 1965), p. 287Google Scholar; Tadmor, H., in The World History of the Jewish People II, ed. Mazar, B. (Tel Aviv, 1970), pp, 76 ff.Google Scholar; Garelli, P., Le Proche-Orient asiatique des origines aux invasions des peuples de la mer (Nouvelle Clio 2, Paris, 1969), pp. 156 ffGoogle Scholar.

3 I wish to acknowledge my thanks to Dr. E. Sollberger and the staff of the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities of the British Museum for their co-operation and helpfulness at all times.

4 Fossey, C., Manuel d'Assyriologie II (Paris, 1926), pp. 210–212Google Scholar; Bottéro, J. and Finet, A., ARM XV (1954), p. 8, no. 64Google Scholar.

5 Rowton, M. B., JNES 17 (1958), pp. 100–102Google Scholar.

6 Cf. New Look, p. 130.

7 The mistaken reading of the seal SITA, no. 10, led to the compression of the reign of the last three kings of Yamhad into a single generation; cf. the Table in SITA, p. 145. But once we realize that YIrkabtum and YYarimlim III belong to different generations, the whole chronology of the last stages of the level VII archive should be revised.

8 Kühne, C., ZA 62 (1972), pp. 245 f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Klengel, H., AOF 2 (1975), pp. 53 fGoogle Scholar.

9 Cf. my remarks in New Look, p. 137, note c.

10 SITA, pp. 148–149; Rejoinder, notes 9, 11.

11 New Look, pp. 131 f. and n. 16 with bibliography.

12 Cf. my former remarks in New Look, p. 134. The tablet is badly damaged on the left and upper sides of the obverse, and sometimes it is hard to tell how many signs are missing at the opening of the lines. It looks as if four lines are damaged at the beginning, and the first intelligible line is marked as line 5. The following are some comments on the transcription:

Line 5: The subjunctive form iddinūma is most probably dependent on ša in the opening lines, parallel to AT 57:2–5Google Scholar; one might conjecture that lines 1–6 relate the previous events leading to the case dealt with in this legal document.

Line 6: The form išṭuru was restored parallel to line 16 below.

Lines 7–8: Compare AT 57:5–6Google Scholar. But the scribe selected in this case some unknown noun combined with the verb qerfû, in place of the well-known Old Babylonian phrase ilu qerû.

Line 10: For the writing di-i-nim compare rev. line 2: di-i-nim.

Lines 11–12: Compare AT 7:13–14Google Scholar; 455:23–24.

13 Some remarks on the continuation of the text: Lines 13–14 (and beginning of 15?) probably contain names of witnesses who “testified ([iq-bu]-ú-ma) that Yarimlim wrote (it) to his son [for a full property]” (lines 15–17). The rest of the obverse, most of it unintelligible, defines the legal status of the new property.

Rev., lines 1–6: “[Whomsoever in the future, con]cerning these towns and territories will raise claim against [Ammit]aqum—shall pay 1000 (shekels) of silver and 1000 (shekels) of gold to the god Hadad, 1000 (shekels) of silver and 1000 (shekels) of gold to the palace, and they shall pour (i-ša-ap-pa-ku) lead into his mouth.” Among the witnesses appears L[a]-ah-w[i-ṣ]a-du-uq SUKKAL.

14 The first line of AT 455 should be translated “Shenin-sharri, while he was still of sound mind (ina b[u-ul-ṭi-šu-ma])”; cf. AT 6:3.

15 My reading of this envelope is based on a photograph kindly supplied to me by Dr. Collon.

16 I have also asked prof. D. J. Wiseman, who has published tablet AT 455, for information concerning this problem. Prof. Wiseman replied that he does not know of any connection between tablet AT 455 and the envelope SITA, no. 10. He also informed me that since excavation numbers written on Alalakh objects or texts by Sir Leonard Woolley were often lost subsequently, some new numbers have been allocated by different persons, some after the tablets reached the Antakya Museum.

17 For the town Nashtarbi see: Astour, M., UF 2 (1970), p. 5Google Scholar. Nashtarbi was a small kingdom, as is indicated by the mention of its king in AT 269: 51, 69Google Scholar. The town once rebelled against YIrkabtum, as recorded in document AT 33:28–30Google Scholar [MU I]r-kab-tum LUGAL.E [MU?.US?.]SA uruNa-aš-tar-bi [itti-šu] ik!-ki!-ru “Year of king Irkabtum; [the year aft]er(?) the town of Nashtarbi rebelled [against him]”. For the form ikkirū compare AT 456:34Google Scholar.

18 For the translated part of AT 11 see Tsevat, M., HUCA 29 (1958), p. 114Google Scholar; CAD B 142b; CAD K 514a. For the expression qaqqadam mahāṣum in lines 14 and 20–21 see Draffkorn-Kilmer, A., JAOS 94 (1974), p. 182Google Scholar. The missing verb in line 15 is probably a form balāṭu (lines 13–15: “Thus said Tatteya: Yarimlim shall guarantee that I shall be provided for”).

19 For the town of Apishal see Gelb, I. J., AJSL 55 (1938), pp. 70–72Google Scholar; Wiseman, , The Alalakh Tablets, pp. 106 f.Google Scholar; Klengel, op. cit. (above, n. 2), p. 216 n. 13.

20 In AT 410, line 8 (Wiseman, , JCS 8, p. 29Google Scholar) read 15 KUŠ┌E.┐MÁ.EU (išpatu; cf. Wilhelm, G., ZA 63 (1973), p. 73CrossRefGoogle Scholar). In line 14 read 50 KUŠ.E.SIR (šēnu).

21 For the town Allishe see: Astour, M., UF 2 (1970), p. 4Google Scholar. The new text makes it clear that Allishe was situated near a river. For the town of Akubiya see Wiseman, ibid., p. 154, s.v..

22 The element -edatta could be connected with the West-Semitic word adt “the Lady”. See Gröndahl, F., Die Personennamen der Texte aus Ugarit (Studia Pohl 1), Rome, 1967, p. 90Google Scholar. The name Ishbi-edatta is then translated as “the Lady is satiated”.

23 The name Niqmi-addu is quite common throughout the Alalakh VII archive; the equation of such names requires much caution. I am inclined to connect the Niqmi-addu of AT 455:48Google Scholar with the priest Niqmi-addu of tablets AT 78:22Google Scholar and 80:14; cf. New Look, Table 4.

24 The balance of the year-names and the royal seal-impressions between the kings of Yamhad is quite different. Most of the year-names belong to the time-span betwen Niqmiepuh and Yarimlim III, while most of the royal seal-impressions belong to the time of the Yamhadean kings from Abbael to Niqmiepuh. By combining the two groups together one gets a roughly equal number for each of the kings of Yamhad (except YHammurapi II, who probably reigned for only a short time).

25 The name was erroneously transcribed in SITA, p. 47, no. 81 as Halpa-nubar. Arish-nubar is mentioned both in AT “18A” and AT 61:23Google Scholar. Accordingly, his seal appears both on “18A” and on the envelope 61A.

26 There is no justification for the correction suggested in SITA, p. 153 n. 1.

27 Cf. (on a rather different plane) the English colloquialism “eat humble pie”. [Ed.]