Abstract
The city of Uruk in southern Babylonian is one of two sites to have provided us with a significant number of scholarly cuneiform tablets from the second half of the first millennium BCE (Fig. 1.1). The contributions to this volume exploit both archaeological and internal textual evidence concerning scholarly archives in Uruk in order to investigate the ways in which different genres of scholarship were practiced, interacted with one-another, and resulted in the production of a written record. This introduction offers a general presentation of the different kinds of collections of tablets on which the different studies rely, for example archives of tablets found by archaeologists in situ, collections in museums, coherent groups which emerge from the analysis of colophons, or sets of texts published in various editions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
Beaulieu (1992).
- 4.
Pedersén (1998: 205–209).
- 5.
- 6.
Steele (2016).
- 7.
See Steele (2016) for a discussion of the circulation of astronomical and astrological knowledge between Babylon and Uruk.
- 8.
- 9.
Pedersén (1998: 3).
- 10.
Robson (2013: 40–41).
- 11.
Robson (2013: 41).
- 12.
Ossendrijver (2011b: 214–215).
- 13.
- 14.
Clancier (2009: 61).
- 15.
‘Schliesslich wurde in Schicht IV ein kleiner Raum (etwa 2 × 1,6 qm) freigelegt, in welchem auf einer dünnen Brandschicht mehrere, nur zum Teil erhaltene Tonkrüge entdeckt wurden, in denen sich Tontafeln befanden: etwa 32 vollständige oder fast vollständige Tafeln literarischen Inhalts; daneben mindestens 23 weitgehend erhaltene Urkunden und Verpflichtungsscheine. Die übrigen Tafeln befanden sich in gänzlich zerstörten Krügen, so dass auch von den Tafeln nur Fragmente und kleine Splitter vorhanden sind’ (von Weiher 1979: 95). See also Clancier (2009: 32) and Kose (1998: 382).
- 16.
Two medical texts mentioned by Clancier (2009: 401), SpTU 4, 152, and SpTU 5, 254, a commentary on a therapeutic text, come from room 4 according to von Weiher catalogue.
- 17.
See the chapter by Proust, Text 5.
- 18.
Gimil-Nanāya family archives includes not only tablets found in room 4 (W 23293/1–3, 6–12, 15–18, 20–22, 26–28, see details in Kessler 2004: 236), but also some tablets found in other findspots of the ‘House of the āšipus ’, and many tablets excavated elsewhere by illegal diggers (the whole Uruk Egibi archive is estimated at 200 tablets, see Jursa 2010: 157).
- 19.
See the chapter by Gabbay and Jimenez, and Kessler (2003: 235).
- 20.
- 21.
Jursa (2010: 168, 181).
- 22.
See the chapter by Gabbay and Jimenez, Text 5.
- 23.
- 24.
- 25.
Clancier (2009: 97).
- 26.
On the circulation of knowledge in the astral sciences between Babylon and Uruk, see also Steele (2016).
- 27.
- 28.
- 29.
Jordan’s excavations are reported in Jordan (1928).
- 30.
- 31.
Pedersén (1998: 209).
- 32.
VAT 9154 + U 109 + U 114; see Lindström (2003: 217).
- 33.
Lindström (2003: 66).
- 34.
Kraus (1947: 118–119).
- 35.
Lenzen (1962).
- 36.
van Dijk (1962: 43–44).
- 37.
van Dijk and Mayer (1980: 13).
- 38.
Kraus (1947).
- 39.
Lafont (1982: 182) refers to some tablets from the ‘époque sumérienne’ or possibly older.
- 40.
Neugebauer (1955).
- 41.
- 42.
- 43.
- 44.
VAT 7848 discussed in the chapter by Ossendrijver in this volume.
- 45.
VAT 7849 published by Linssen (2004).
- 46.
VAT 7826 published by Gabbay (2017).
- 47.
Weidner (1967: 5, note 2).
- 48.
Thureau-Dangin (1922: i). AO 6449–6496 were purchased from the Dumani brothers. Ariane Thomas, the curator of the Louvre Museum, kindly provided us with information about the sellers of the two other tablets: AO 6448 was bought by the Louvre from Elias Gégou, and AO 6555 from Mrs. Feverly through Father Scheil.
- 49.
AO 8530 published by Hunger (2014: No. 69).
- 50.
AO 7439 (purchased in January 1920) + AO 8648 + AO 8649 (both purchased from Gejou in 1923), published by Lackenbacher (1977).
- 51.
AO 7661 and AO 7662 purchased in December 1920 and published in Thureau-Dangin (1922: Nos. 36 and 37).
- 52.
We wish to express of thanks to Andrew Wilent for providing this and the following information about the tablets in Chicago. On this purchase, see Hilgert (1998: 2).
- 53.
The contracts and a few other tablets are published by Weisberg (1991).
- 54.
Most of the astronomical tablets contain texts of mathematical astronomy and are published by Neugebauer (1955); other astronomical tablets are published by Hunger (1988, 2001: No. 74), and Schaumberger (1955) (see also Steele 2017). The medical texts, which may or may not be from Uruk, are published by George (1991). For the literary text, a copy of tablet 2 of Gilgameš, see George (2003: 396).
- 55.
Hallo in Beaulieu (1994: viii).
- 56.
The first volume of Clay’s four-volume Babylonian Records in the Library of J. Pierpont Morgan series containing copies of 101 tablets from this collection was published in 1912. Although no scholarly tablets from Seleucid Uruk were included in this volume, one tablet with a higher registration number than the known scholarly tablets does appear, implying that the scholarly tablets were already part of the collection by this date.
- 57.
- 58.
NCBT 1231 published by Rochberg (1998: No. 9).
- 59.
NBC 7831 published by Beaulieu et al. (2018).
- 60.
van Dijk and Mayer (1980).
- 61.
- 62.
W.20040/111 published by Steele (2005).
- 63.
A 3414 + U 181a + U 181b + U 181c + U 181d, A 3427, U 195 and U 196, see Steele (2017).
- 64.
A 3456 + (Hunger 1988), U 134 (unpublished), U 192 (unpublished).
- 65.
The source of these observations was probably Babylon , see Steele (2016).
- 66.
W 20030/142 published in Sachs and Hunger (1988: No. 463).
- 67.
References
Aaboe, Asger. 1968–1969. Two atypical multiplication tables from Uruk. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 22: 88–91.
Al-Rawi, Farouk N., and Norman A. Roughton. 2003–2004. IM 44152: A Jupiter observational tablet from Uruk. Archiv für Orientforschung 50: 340–344.
Beaulieu, Paul-Alain. 1992. Antiquarian theology in Seleucid Uruk. Acta Sumerologica 14: 47–75.
Beaulieu, Paul-Alain. 1994. Late Babylonian texts in the Nies Babylonian collection. Bethesda, MD: CDL Press.
Beaulieu, Paul-Alain. 1995. Theological and philological speculations on the names of the Goddess Antu. Orientalia 64: 187–213.
Beaulieu, Paul-Alain. 2000. The descendants of Sîn-lêqi-unninni. In Assyriologica et Semitica: Festschrift für Joachim Oelsner, ed. J. Marzahn and H. Neumann, 1–16. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.
Beaulieu, Paul-Alain. 2003. The Pantheon of Uruk during the Neo-Babylonian period. Leiden: Brill-Styx.
Beaulieu, Paul-Alain, Eckart Frahm, Wayne Horowitz, and John M. Steele. 2018. The cuneiform uranology texts: Drawing the constellations. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.
Clancier, Philippe. 2009. Les bibliothèques en Babylonie dans la deuxième moitié du Ier millénaire av. J.-C. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.
Clancier, Philippe, and Julien Monerie. 2014. Les sanctuaires babyloniens à l’époque hellénistique. Évolution d’un relais de pouvoir. TOPOI 19: 181–237.
Clay, Albert T. 1923. Babylonian records in the library of J. Pierpont Morgan. Part IV: Epics, Hymns, Omens, and other texts. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Doty, L. Timothy. 2012. Cuneiform documents from Hellenistic Uruk. Yale Oriental Series, Babylonian Texts 20. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Gabbay, Uri. 2017. ‘Veiled, she circles the city’: A Late Babylonian variation on an Eršema to Inana (VAT 7826). Journal of Near Eastern Studies 76: 275–291.
George, Andrew. 1991. Babylonian texts from the folios of Sidney Smith, Part Two: Prognostic and diagnostic omens, Tablet I. Revue d’Assyriologie et d’Archéologie Orientale 85: 137–167.
George, Andrew. 1992. Babylonian topographical texts. Leuven: Peeters.
George, Andrew. 2003. The Babylonian Gilgamesh epic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hilgert, Markus. 1998. Drehem Administrative Documents from the Reign of Šulgi. Oriental Institute Publications 115. Chicago: Oriental Institute.
Hunger, Hermann. 1976. Astrologische Wettervorhersagen. Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 66: 234–260.
Hunger, Hermann. 1988. A 3456: eine Sammlung von Merkurbeobachtungen. In A scientific humanist: Studies in memory of Abraham Sachs, ed. E. Leichty, 201–223. Philadelphia: University Museum.
Hunger, Hermann. 1972. Die Tontafeln der XXVII. Kampagne. In XXVI. und XXVII. Vorläufiger Bericht über die von dem Deutschen Archäologischen Institut aus Mitteln der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinshaft unternommenen Ausgrabungen in Uruk-Warka. 1968 und 1969, ed. J. Schmidt 79–97. Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag.
Hunger, Hermann. 2001. Astronomical diaries and related texts from Babylonia. Volume V: Lunar and planetary texts. Vienna: Österreichishe Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Hunger, Hermann. 2014. Astronomical diaries and related texts from Babylonia. Volume VII: Almanacs and normal star Almanacs. Vienna: Österreichishe Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Jordan, Julius. 1928. Uruk-Warka: Nach den Ausgrabungen durch die Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs Buchhandlung.
Jursa, Michael. 2010. Aspects of the economic history of Babylonia in the First Millennium BC. Münster: Ugarit Verlag.
Kessler, Karlheinz. 2003. Zu den Urkunder des achämenidenzeitlichen Archivs W 23292 aus U 18. Baghdader Mitteilungen 34: 235–265.
Kessler, Karlheinz. 2004. Urukäische Familien versus babylonische Familien. Die Namengebund in Uruk, die Degradierung der Kulte von Eanna und der Aufstieg des Gottes Anu. Altorientalische Forschungen 31: 237–262.
Kose, Arno. 1998. Uruk Architektur IV. Von der Seleukiden- bis zur Sasanidenzeit. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.
Kraus, Fritz R. 1947. Die Istanbuler Tontafelsammlung. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 1: 93–119.
Lackenbacher, Sylvie. 1977. Un Nouveau Fragment de la « Fȇte d’Ištar ». Revue d’Assyriologie et d’Archéologie Orientale 71: 39–50.
Lafont, Bertrand. 1984. La collection des tablettes cunéiformes des Musées archéologiques d’Istanbul. Travaux et recherches en Turquie, Turcica 4: 179–185.
Lenzen, Heinrich J. 1962. XVIII. vorläufiger Bericht über die von dem Deutschen Archäologischen Institut und der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft aus Mittein der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft unternommenen Ausgrabungen in Uruk-Warka: Winter 1959/60. Berlin: Gebr. Mann.
Lindström, Gunvor. 2003. Uruk: Siegelabdrücke auf hellenistischen Tonbullen und Tontafeln. Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern.
Linssen, Marc J. 2004. The cults of Uruk and Babylon: The temple ritual texts as evidence for Hellenistic Cult practices. Leiden: Brill-Styx.
Neugebauer, Otto. 1935. Mathematische Keilschrift Texte I. Berlin: Springer.
Neugebauer, Otto. 1955. Astronomical cuneiform texts. London: Lund Humphries.
Ossendrijver, Mathieu. 2011a. Exzellente Netzwerke: die Astronomen von Uruk. In The empirical dimension of Ancient Near Eastern studies, ed. G.J. Selz and K. Wagensonner, 631–644. Vienna: LIT-Verlag.
Ossendrijver, Mathieu. 2011b. Science in action: Networks in Babylonian astronomy. In Babylon: Wissenskultur in Orient und Okzident, ed. E. Cancik-Kirschbaum, M. van Ess, and J. Marzahn, 229–237. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Pearce, Laurie E., and L.T. Doty. 2000. The activities of Anu-belšunu, Seleucid scribe. In Assyriologica et Semitica: Festschrift für Joachim Oelsner, ed. J. Marzahn and H. Neumann, 331–342. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.
Pedersén, Olof. 1998. Archives and libraries in the Ancient Near East 1500–300 B.C. Bethesda: CDL Press.
Robson, Eleanor. 2008. Mathematics in ancient Iraq: A social history. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Robson, Eleanor. 2011. The production and dissemination of scholarly knowledge. In The Oxford handbook of cuneiform culture, ed. K. Radner and E. Robson, 557–576. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Robson, Eleanor. 2013. Reading the libraries of Assyria and Babylonia. In Ancient libraries, ed. J. König, K. Oikonompolou, and G. Woolf, 38–56. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rochberg, Francesca. 1998. Babylonian horoscopes. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.
Sachs, Abraham. 1952. Babylonian horoscopes. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 6: 49–75.
Sachs, Abraham J., and Hermann Hunger. 1988. Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia. Volume I. Diaries from 652 B.C. to 262 B.C. Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Sarkisian, Gagik Kh. 1974. New cuneiform texts from Uruk of the Seleucid period in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Forschungen und Berichte 16: 15–76.
Schaumberger, Johann. 1955. Anaphora und Aufgangskalender in neuen Ziqpu-Texten. Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 52: 237–251.
Schroeder, Otto. 1916. Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmäler der Königlichen Museen zu Berlin, Heft XV, Kontrakte der Seleukidenzeit aus Warka. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs Buchhandlung.
Steele, John M. 2000. A 3405: An unusual astronomical text from Uruk. Archive for History of Exact Sciences 55: 103–135.
Steele, John M. 2005. A new scheme from Uruk for the retrograde Arc of Mars. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 57: 129–133.
Steele, John M. 2016. The circulation of astronomical knowledge between Babylon and Uruk. In The circulation of astronomical knowledge in the ancient world, ed. J.M. Steele, 93–118. Leiden: Brill.
Steele, John M. 2017. Rising time schemes in Babylonian astronomy. Dordrecht: Springer.
Thureau-Dangin, François. 1938. Textes mathématiques babyloniens transcrits et traduits. Leiden: Brill.
Thureau-Dangin, François. 1922. Tablettes d’Uruk à l’usage des prêtres du Temple d’Anu au temps des Séleucides. Textes Cunéiformes du Louvre 6. Paris: Geuthner.
van der Spek, Robartus J. 1987. The Babylonian city. In Hellenism in the East: The interaction of Greek and non-Greek civilizations from Syria to Central Asia after Alexander, ed. A. Kuhrt and S. Sherwin-White, 57–74. London: Duckworth.
van Dijk, Johannes. 1962. Die Inschriftendunde: Die Tontafeln aus dem rēš-Heiligtum. In XVIII. vorläufiger Bericht über die von dem Deutschen Archäologischen Institut und der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft aus Mitteln der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft unternommenen Ausgrabungen in Uruk-Warka: Winter 1959/60, ed. H. Lenzen, 43–61. Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag.
van Dijk, Johannes, and Walter R. Mayer. 1980. Texte aus dem Rēš-Heiligtum in Uruk-Warka. Baghdader Mitteilungen Beiheft 2. Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag.
von Weiher, Egbert. 1979. Die Tontafelfunde der 29. u. 30. Kampagne. In XXIX. und XXX. Vorläufiger Bericht über die von dem Deutschen Archäologischen Institut aus Mitteln der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinshaft unternommenen Ausgrabungen in Uruk-Warka. 1970/71 und 1971/72, ed. J. Schmidt, 95–111. Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag.
Waerzeggers, Caroline. 2003–2004. The Babylonian revolts against Xerxes and the ‘end of archives’. Archiv für Orientforschung 50: 150–173.
Weidner, Ernst F. 1915. Handbuch der Babylonischen Astronomie. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs Buchhandlung.
Weidner, Ernst F. 1925. Ein astrologischer Kommentar aus Uruk. Studia Orientalia 1: 347–358.
Weidner, Ernst F. 1941–1944a. Die astrologische Serie Enûma Anu Enlil. Archiv für Orientforschung 14: 172–195.
Weidner, Ernst F. 1941–1944b. Die astrologische Serie Enûma Anu Enlil. Archiv für Orientforschung 14: 308–318.
Weidner, Ernst F. 1954–1956. Die astrologische Serie Enûma Anu Enlil. Archiv für Orientforschung 17: 71–89.
Weidner, Ernst F. 1967. Gestirn-Darstellungen auf babylonischen Tontafeln. Vienna: Hermann Böhlaus.
Weisberg, David B. 1991. The Late Babylonian texts of the Oriental Institute collection. Malibu: Undena.
Acknowledgements
The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement No. 269804.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Proust, C., Steele, J. (2019). Introduction: Scholars, Scholarly Archives and the Practice of Scholarship in Late Babylonian Uruk. In: Proust, C., Steele, J. (eds) Scholars and Scholarship in Late Babylonian Uruk. Why the Sciences of the Ancient World Matter, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04176-2_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04176-2_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-04175-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-04176-2
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)