Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-4hvwz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-27T12:05:32.589Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On Standardisation and Variation in the Introductory Formulae of Neo-Assyrian Letters1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2014

Mikko Luukko
Mikko Luukko*
Affiliation:
Universität Würzburg, Institut für Altertumswissenschaften, Altorientalische Philologie, Residenzplatz 2, Tor A, 97070 Würzburg, Germany, mikko.luukko@uni-wuerzburg.de
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The introductory formulae of Neo-Assyrian letters sent to the king or a superior official during the eighth century B.C. attest to a highly standardised form of letter writing (especially in the address), proving scribal sensitivity to an established letter writing etiquette. The introductory formula reflects the office of the sender; exactly the same formula (including the greeting) may be used by successive officeholders. Yet these formulae are by no means entirely uniform. In particular, the presence or absence of a blessing may tell us about the sender's relationship with the Assyrian king.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 74 , 2012 , pp. 97 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

This is a revised version of a paper presented at the 57th RAI in Rome on the 8th July 2011. It is based on research carried out as part of the project “Mechanisms of Communication in an Ancient Empire”, led by Professor Karen Radner (University College London) and funded by the British Arts and Humanities Research Council. I should like to thank Greta Van Buylaere, Martin Worthington and Silvie Zamazalová for reading and commenting on a draft of this paper.

References

Aynard, M.-J. and Durand, J.-M.. 1980. “Documents d'epoque medio-assyrienne”, Assur 3/1, 1–54.Google Scholar
Brinkman, J. and Donbaz, V.. 1985. “Two Middle Assyrian Texts from Assur”, ZA 75, 78–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cancik-Kirschbaum, E. C. 1996. Die mittelassyrischen Briefe aus Tall Šēḫ Ḥamad / Dūr-Katlimmu. Berichte der Ausgrabung Tall Šēḫ Ḥamad / Dūr-Katlimmu (BATSH) 4, Berlin.Google Scholar
Cole, S. W. 1996. Nippur IV: The Early Neo-Babylonian Governor's Archive from Nippur. OIP 114, Chicago.Google Scholar
Cole, S. W. 1996b. Nippur in Late Assyrian Times – c. 755-612 BC. SAAS 4, Helsinki.Google Scholar
Cole, S. W. and Machinist, P.. 1998. Letters from Priests to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal. SAA 13, Helsinki.Google Scholar
Dietrich, M. 2003. The Babylonian Correspondence of Sargon and Sennacherib. SAA 17, Helsinki.Google Scholar
Donbaz, V. 2004. “Selected Middle Assyrian Private Letters Housed at Istanbul,” in Frame, G. (ed.), From the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea. Studies on the History of Assyria and Babylonia in Honour of A. K. Grayson. PIHANS 101 (Leiden) 67–80.Google Scholar
Ebeling, E. 1927. Keilschrifttexte aus Assur juristischen Inhalts. WVDOG 50, Leipzig.Google Scholar
Ebeling, E. 1933. “Urkunden des Archivs von Assur aus mittelassyrischer Zeit: Aus dem Briefwechsel eines assyrischen Kanzlers”, MAOG 7/1-2, 1–89.Google Scholar
Faist, B. I. 2001. Der Fernhandel des assyrischen Reiches zwischen dem 14. und 11. Jh. v. Chr. AOAT 265, Münster.Google Scholar
Finkelstein, J. J. 1953. “Cuneiform Texs from Tell Billa”, JCS 7, 110–76.Google Scholar
Frame, G. 1999. “My Neighbour's God: Aššur in Babylonia and Marduk in Assyria”, Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies Bulletin 34, 5–22.Google Scholar
Freydank, H. 1976. Mittelassyrische Rechtsurkunden und Verwaltungstexte. VS 19 (NF 3), Berlin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freydank, H. 1982. Mittelassyrische Rechtsurkunden und Verwaltungstexte II. KS 21 (NF 5), Berlin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freydank, H. 2001. Mittelassyrische Rechtsurkunden und Verwaltungstexte IV. Tafeln aus Kār-Tukultī-Ninurta. WVDOG 99, Saarbrücken.Google Scholar
Freydank, H. and Feller, B.. 2004. Mittelassyrische Rechtsurkunden und Verwaltungstexte V, Saarbrücken.Google Scholar
Freydank, H. and Saporetti, C.. 1989. Bābu-aha-iddina: Die Texte, Rome.Google Scholar
Friedrich, J., Meyer, G. R., Ungnad, A. and Weidner, E. F.. 1940. Die Inschriften vom Teil Halaf. Keilschrifttexte und aramäische Urkunden aus einer assyrischen Provinzhauptstadt. AfO Beiheft 6, Berlin.Google Scholar
Fuchs, A. and Parpola, S.. 2001. The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part III. Letters from Babylonia and the Eastern Provinces. SAA 15, Helsinki.Google Scholar
George, A. R. 1992. Babylonian Topographical Texts. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 40, Louvain.Google Scholar
Grayson, A. K. 1996. Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium B. C. II (858–745 B. C.). RIMA 3, Toronto.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kwasman, Th. and Parpola, S.. 1991. Legal Transactions of the Royal Court of Nineveh, Part I. SAA 6, Helsinki.Google Scholar
Lanfranchi, G. B. and Parpola, S.. 1990. The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part II. Letters from the Northern and Northeastern Provinces. SAA 5, Helsinki.Google Scholar
Llop, J. 2003. “Zur Tilgung von šurqu B in CAD Š/III”, AoF 30, 3–10.Google Scholar
Luukko, M. 2004. Grammatical Variation in Neo-Assyrian. SAAS 16, Helsinki.Google Scholar
Luukko, M. 2007. “The Administrative Roles of the ‘Chief Scribe’ and the ‘Palace Scribe’ in the Neo-Assyrian Period,” SAAB 16, 227–56.Google Scholar
Luukko, M. 2012. The Correspondence of Tiglath-pileser III and Sargon II from Calah/Nimrud. SAA 19, Helsinki.Google Scholar
Luukko, M. and Van Buylaere, G.. 2002. The Political Correspondence of Esarhaddon. SAA 16, Helsinki.Google Scholar
Mattila, R. 2000. The King's Magnates: A Study of the Highest Officials of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. SAAS 11, Helsinki.Google Scholar
Maul, S. M. 1998a. “tikip santakki mala bašmu… Anstelle eines Vorwortes”, in Maul, S. M. (ed.), Festschrift für Rykle Borger zu seinem 65. Geburtstag am 24. Mai 1994. tikip santakki mala bašmu… CM 10 (Groningen) vii–xvii.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maul, S. M. 1998b. “Marduk, Nabū und der assyrische Enlil. Die Geschichte eines sumerischen Šu'ilas”, in Maul, S. M. (ed.), Festschrift für Rykle Borger zu seinem 65. Geburtstag am 24. Mai 1994. tikip santakki mala bašmu… CM 10 (Groningen) 159–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mynárová, J. 2007. Language of Amarna - Language of Diplomacy: Perspectives on the Amarna Letters, Prague.Google Scholar
Parker, B. J. 1997. “Garrisoning the Empire: Aspects of the Construction and Maintenance of Forts on the Assyrian Border”, Iraq 59, 77–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, B. J. 2009. “Ašipâ Again: A Microhistory of an Assyrian Provincial Administrator,” in Luukko, M. – Svärd, S. – Mattila, R. (eds.), Of God(s), Trees, Kings, and Scholars: Neo-Assyrian and Related Studies in Honour of Simo Parpola. StOr 106 (Helsinki) 179–92.Google Scholar
Parpola, S. 1971. Letters from Assyrian Scholars to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanípal, Part II A: Introduction and Appendixes, Kevelaer – Neukirchen-Vluyn.Google Scholar
Parpola, S. 1981. “Assyrian Royal Inscriptions and Neo-Assyrian Letters”, in Fales, F. M. (ed.), Assyrian Royal Inscriptions: New Horizons in Literary, Ideological, and Historical Analysis. Papers of a Symposium held in Cetona (Siena) 06 26-28, 1980 (Rome: Istituto per l'Oriente) 117–34, Charts 1–4.Google Scholar
Parpola, S. 1983. Letters from Assyrian Scholars to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal, Part II: Commentary and Appendices. AOAT 5/2, Neukirchen-Vluyn.Google Scholar
Parpola, S. 1987. The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part I. Letters from Assyria and the West. SAA 1, Helsinki.Google Scholar
Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10, Helsinki.Google Scholar
Parpola, S. 1997. “The Man Without a Scribe and the Question of Literacy in the Assyrian Empire”, in Kühne, H. – Pongratz-Leisten, B. – Xella, P. (eds.), Ana šadî Labnāni lū attik. Beiträge zu altorientalischen und mittelmeerischen Kulturen. Festschrift für Wolf gang Röllig. AOAT 247 (Kevelaer – Neukirchen-Vluyn) 315–24.Google Scholar
Pomponio, F. 1998. “Nabû. A. Philologisch”, Reallexikon der Assyriologie 9, 16–24.Google Scholar
Porter, B. N. 1997. “What the Assyrians Thought the Babylonians Thought about the Relative Status of Nabû and Marduk in the Late Assyrian Period”, in Parpola, S. – Whiting, R. (eds.), Assyria 1995. Proceedings of the 10th Anniversary Symposium of the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, Helsinki, September 7-11, 1995 (Helsinki) 253–60.Google Scholar
Postgate, J. N. 1973a. The Governor's Palace Archive. CTN 2, London.Google Scholar
Postgate, J. N. 1973b. “Assyrian Texts and Fragments”, Iraq 35, 13–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radner, K. (1998–9) and Baker, H. (2000–2011) (eds.) 1998–2011. The Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Helsinki.Google Scholar
Reynolds, F. 2003. The Babylonian Correspondence of Esarhaddon and Letters to Assurbanipal and Sin-šarru-iškun from Northern and Central Babylonia. SAA 18, Helsinki.Google Scholar
Saggs, H. W. F. 2001. The Nimrud Letters, 1952. CTN 5, London.Google Scholar
Sallaberger, W. 1999. “Wenn Du mein Bruder bist,…”: Interaktion und Textgestaltung in altbabylonischen Alltagsbriefen. CM 16, Groningen.Google Scholar
Salonen, E. 1967. Die Gruss- und Höflichkeitsformeln in babylonisch-assyrischen Briefen. Studia Orientalia 38, Helsinki.Google Scholar
Tallqvist, K. 1914. Assyrian Personal Names. Acta Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae 43/1, Helsinki.Google Scholar
Tsukimoto, A. 1992. “Aus einer japanischen Privatsammlung: Drei Verwaltungstexte und ein Brief aus mittelassyrischer Zeit”, WdO 23, 21–38.Google Scholar
Van Buylaere, G. 2007. “SAA 5, 55, and SAA 5, 61, Rejoined,” SAAB 16, 1–4.Google Scholar
Weidner, E. F. 1959–1960. “Der Kanzler Salmanassars I.,” AfO 19, 33–39, Taf. V–VII.Google Scholar
Wilhelm, G. 1997. “Der Mittelassyrische Brief eines Verwalters an seinen Herrn”, in Kühne, H. – Pongratz-Leisten, B. – Xella, P. (eds.), Ana šadî Labnāni lū attik. Beiträge zu altorientalischen und mittelmeerischen Kulturen. Festschrift für Wolfgang Röllig. AOAT 247 (Kevelaer – Neukirchen-Vluyn) 431–34.Google Scholar
Yamada, S. 2008. “Qurdi-Assur-lamur: His Letters and Career”, in Cogan, M. – Kahn, D. (eds.), Treasures on Camels' Humps: Historical and Literary Studies from the Ancient Near East Presented to Israel Eph'al (Jerusalem) 296–311.Google Scholar