Lexical lists

The cuneiform lexical lists are a series of ancient Mesopotamian glossaries which preserve the semantics of Sumerograms, their phonetic value and their Akkadian or other language equivalents.[1] They are the oldest literary texts from Mesopotamia and one of the most widespread genres in the ancient Near East. Wherever cuneiform tablets have been uncovered, inside Iraq or in the wider Middle East, these lists have been discovered.[2]

16th tablet of the Urra=hubullu lexical series, Louvre Museum

History

The earliest lexical lists are the archaic (early third millennium BC) word lists uncovered in caches of business documents and which comprise lists of nouns, the absence of verbs being due to their sparse use in these records of commercial transactions. The most notable text is LU A, a list of professions which would be reproduced for the next thousand years until the end of the Old Babylonian period virtually unchanged. Later third millennium lists dating to around 2600 BC have been uncovered at Fara and Abū Ṣalābīkh, including the Fara God List, the earliest of this genre. The tradition continued until the end of the Ur III period, after which marked changes in the form of the texts took place. This era, the Old Babylonian period, saw the emergence of the UR5-ra = hubullu themed list. Similarly, lists of complex signs and polyvalent symbols emerged to support a more nuanced scribal training.[3]: 13–18 

The Kassite or the Middle Babylonian period shows that scribal schools actively preserved the lexical traditions of the past[4] and there is evidence of the canonization of some texts, such as izi = išātu and Ká-gal = abullu. The works SIG7+ALAN (ulutim) = nabnītu and Erim-huš = anantu are thought to have been composed at this time. The first millennium BC represents a further expansion and refinement of the texts and the introduction of commentaries and synonym lists.[5]

Function and typology
Lexical list of synonyms; "explicit" Malku = šarru tablet 3, reverse Sumerian/Akkadian. Nineveh, 7th Century BC British Museum.

Lexical lists fall within one or more of the following broad categories:

  • simple sign lists and syllabaries
  • complex or compound sign lists, name lists
  • acrographic sign lists, ordered by sign shape or orientation
  • thematic lexical texts
  • synonym and/or antonym lists
  • lists expounding homophony (multiple symbols, single sound) and polyvalency (single symbols, multiple meanings)

The extant texts can be classified by typology as follows:

  • Prisms and large tablets
  • Teacher-student exercises
  • Single column tablets
  • Lentils ("practice buns")

This would also have included wax-covered writing boards, though no known examples survive.

List of lexical and synonym lists

The following provides a listing of the various synonym, lexical and grammatical lists whose occurrences have yielded a name used in antiquity or significance has resulted in a designation in modern Assyriology, where the MSL (Materialem zum sumerischen Lexikon / Materials for the Sumerian Lexikon) or other references in square parentheses give the primary publication of the lexical texts, the synonym texts not qualifying for inclusion in this (MSL) series.

  • á = idu a brief two-tablet sign list of the first millennium [CT XI 28-32[p 1]][6]: 624 
  • A-áA = nâqu, "to cry, groan", a 42-tablet, 14,400 entry list[5] [MSL XIV[p 2]]
  • Abū Salābīkh god-list [SEL 2 3-23[p 3]]
  • AD-GI4, Archaic Word List C, "tribute",[7] a misnomer based on identification of gú/gún with tax, a concise archaic Sumerian, or perhaps proto-Euphratic, word list of animals, numbers, foodstuff and agricultural terminology[8]: 183  embedded in a thanksgiving ritual, first encountered in Uruk and later in Ur and Fāra[9][KAV 46-47, 63-65[p 4]]
  • alan = lānu, an acrographic word list[6]: 634  [CT XVIII pl. 38, 39-41, 47,[p 5] CT XIV pl. 11[p 6]]
  • An = Anum, a Sumerian god synonym-list on six tablets thought to have originated during the late Kassite era[10] [CT XXIV 20-50[p 7]][p 8]
  • An = Anu ša amēli, "An is the Anu of man", undoubtedly a Kassite product according to Lambert, an Akkadian list of around 160 divine names[10][CT XXV, pl. 47, 48,[p 9] CT XXVI, pl. 50[p 10]][p 8]
  • An = šamu, possibly an explicit version of Malku = šarru [CT XVIII, pl. 24[p 5][11]]
  • ki-ulutin-bi-še3 = ana ittišu, legal terms, a phrasebook with sentences used in contracts [MSL I[p 11]]
  • AN.ŠÁR = Anu, a single-tablet synonym list of deities of Neo-Assyrian origin, a later continuation of An = Anum, designated tablet IX.[12]
  • An-ta-gál = šaqû, an Assyrian word list giving synonyms and antonyms on ten tablets[5] [MSL XVII[p 12]]
  • Assyrian Temple List, extant in copies from Nineveh and Assur[p 13]
  • Babylonian Temple List[p 13]
  • Birds, archaic word-list
  • Canonical Temple List, a theological list extant from the Library of Ashurbanipal[p 13]
  • Cattle, archaic word-list
  • Cities/god list, early dynastic tablet found in single exemplar from Ur with two simple lists[13]: 390 
  • Dimmir = dingir = ilum, Emesal vocabulary, an Assyrian list [MSL IV[p 14]]
  • Diri, DIR siāku = (w)atru, "to be bigger than", list of complex or compound signs composed of two or more basic signs on 7-tablets and 2,100 entries[5] [MSL XV[p 15]]
  • EaA = nâqu, a sign list with the format: Sumerian gloss–Sumerian sign–Akkadian translation which eventually grew to 8-tablets and a line-count of around 2,400 by the Neo-Babylonian period[MSL XIV[p 2][14]
  • Ebla syllabaries, vocabulary and sign list, c. 2400 BC, one of the syllabories is an adaption of LU A to local Syrian vernacular
  • Erim-huš = anantu, a list explaining rare words in literary texts giving brief sequences of synonyms or near-synonyms on 7 tablets[5] [MSL XVII[p 12]]
  • Fāra god lists (there are at least five), the earliest extant god-lists with around 500 of them listed without elaboration, from Šuruppak c. 2600 BC[p 16]
  • Fish, archaic word-list
  • Genouillac, or Mari, god list, an Old Babylonian god list of 473 names in 10 columns [TCL 15 10[p 17]]
  • Geography X, early dynastic list of place names and terms[13]: 383 
  • Great Star List, a first Millennium list on perhaps 10 tablets[15] [CT XXVI pl. 40-49[p 10]]
  • ḪAR.GUD = imrû = ballu, or mur-gud = im-ru-ú = bal-lu, "fodder", a commentary on the UR5-ra hubullu series
  • HAR(or UR5)-ra = hubullu, "commercial loan" the most important thematically arranged word-list, around 3300 lines long and comprising six themed sub-lists, 9,700 entries on 24 tablets[5] [MSL V-XI[p 18][p 19][p 20][p 21][p 22][p 23][p 24][p 25]]
  • igituḫ (igi-du8-a) = tāmartu, "visibility"[16][p 26]
  • Isin god list, Old Babylonian era local variant list.[17]
  • izi = išātu a Kassite-era acrographic word list, on more than 30 tablets[5] [MSL XIII[p 27]]
  • Ká-gal = abullu, "great gate", list of temples and other building types [MSL XIII[p 27]]
  • List C, of Akkadian personal names
  • List of diseases, bilingual, Old Babylonian origin [MSL IX[p 23]][6]: 630 
  • LÚ A, nám ešda, archaic list of professions with 140 entries, 185 exemplars dating from Uruk IV onward[6]: 613 
  • lúazlag2 = ašlāku, "fuller", more extensive bilingual list of professions (Old Babylonian Lu2) [MSL XII[p 28]]
  • LU E, early dynastic list of professions apparently created to replace LÚ A with an updated list of professions, its life was however much shorter, about three centuries until the Sargonic period[13]: 391 
  • lú = ša, a five-tablet canonical list of terms referring to human beings (only unilingual copies extant) [MSL XII[p 28]][6]: 629 
  • lù = zitàte [MSL XII[p 28]]
  • Malku = šarru, "king", 8-tablet Akkadian synonym list with around ten percent of its content drawn from West-Semitic, Kassite, Hurrian, Hittite and Elamite languages [AOAT 50[p 29]]
  • Metal, NAGAR, an archaic word-list originating in the Uruk IV period but with 56 exemplars in the later Uruk III/Jemdet Nasr period[18]
  • Níg-ga = makkūru, "property",[19] acrographic exercises beginning with the symbol NÍG [MSL XIII[p 27]]
  • Nippur god list, gives approximately 270 divine names and dates from the Old-Babylonian period[p 30]
  • Officials, early dynastic list of job titles[13]: 398 
  • Plants, archaic word-list
  • proto-Aa, bilingual version of Proto-Ea with a number of Akkadian translations for each of the Sumerian values (Old-Babylonian)
  • proto-Ea, the designation for two different texts, a syllabary and a vocabulary, a format with, and one without glosses, expounding polyvalency (Old-Babylonian)[6]: 620 
  • proto-Diri, complex signs (Old-Babylonian)
  • proto-Izi, a more advanced lexical exercise, an acrographic list (Old-Babylonian)
  • proto-Kagal, acrographic exercises, beginning with terms related to gates and buildings and concluding with terms prefixed with GIŠ determinative (Old-Babylonian)
  • proto-ki-ulutin-bi-še3 (Old-Babylonian)
  • proto-Lú, a thematic list of titles and professions, kinship terms, and other designations for human beings (Old-Babylonian) [MSL XII, 42[p 28]]
  • proto-Ur5-ra, a six "tablet" early version of the later work with each tablet ending with the doxology dnisaba zà-mí: Nisaba be praised (Old-Babylonian)[20]
  • Reciprocal Ea, list of homophonous signs[5]
  • SAG A, sag = awīlum, Old-Babylonian acrographic list [MSL SS 1[p 31]]
  • SAG B, sag = ilum, Middle-Babylonian acrographic list [MSL SS 1[p 31]]
  • SIG7+ALAN (ulutim) = nabnītu, "form" or "appearance", an Akkado-Sumerian vocabulary of the names of body parts and related terms on between 32 and 54 tablets with at least 10,500 entries[5] probably composed during the Kassite period, which uniquely orders thematically and in etymological sequence [MSL XVI[p 32]]
  • Syllabary A, an elementary sign list [MSL III[p 33]]
  • Syllable Alphabet A, a very elementary exercise thought to date to the Ur III period,[8]: 196  the only Old Babylonian exercise that was thoroughly standardized all over Babylonia[13]: 385  [MVN 6 4[p 34]]
  • Syllabary B, a two tablet compendium, a sign list derived from EaA = nâqu, the oldest copies being Middle-Babylonian[21]
  • Syllable Alphabet B, Old Babylonian sign-list, from Nippur, called the "Sumerian Primer" by Chiera, a standardized and repetitious sign exercise [MSL SS 1[p 31]]
  • Syllable Vocabulary A, Syllable Alphabet A with speculative Akkadian translations [MSL SS 1[p 31]]
  • Šarru or "Group Vocabulary 3", seemingly an expansion of Malku = šarru[22] [CT XVIII, pl. 29-30,[p 5] CT 51, 168[p 35]]
  • šaššu = ḫurāṣu, synonym list, an explicit version of Malku = šarru [CT XVIII pl. 11-14[p 5]]
  • Table of Measures
  • Tin.tir = Babylon, a five tablet list of Sumero-Akkadian toponyms with about three quarters of its 300 lines of text extant[p 36]
  • tu-ta-ti, Old-Babylonian sign-list, with three syllables in u-a-i sequence, 3 versions[3]: 44 
  • ù = anāku, a neo-Babylonian grammatical text [MSL IV, 129[p 14]]
  • Ugu-mu, "my cranium", list of around 250 body parts ordered from head to foot, physiognomy and physiological conditions, in use from the Old Babylonian to the Kassite period[23][MSL IX[p 23]]
  • ummia = ummianu, "scholar", non-canonical profession list of the first Millennium
  • Ur-e-a = nâqu [MSL II[p 37]]
  • Ur-Nanshe (not to be confused with the founder of the first dynasty of Lagash), a curricular personal name list from the Old Babylonian period[24]
  • uru.an.na = maštakal, the "Babylonian Pharmacopoeia", Assyrian four-tablet list of plants for medicinal purposes with directions for use in the third column, which remains unpublished[25]
  • Vessels and Garments, archaic thematic word-list[13]: 400 
  • Vocabulary Sa, sign list with Akkadian translations [MSL III[p 33]]
  • Vocabulary Sb [MSL III[p 33]]
  • Weidner god-list, Anum, a traditional god-list, the forerunner to An = Anum, with copies extant as far back as the Ur III and Isin-Larsa periods.until the first millennium BC, featuring 30 ancestors of Enlil[p 38][26]
  • Wood, archaic word-list
  • Word list D, "grain", an archaic Sumerian word list

Generically identified Neo-Babylonian grammatical texts (NBGT) and Old-Babylonian grammatical texts (OBGT) have been omitted.

Primary publications
  1. R. Campbell Thompson (1900). Cuneiform texts from Babylonian tablets, &c. in the British Museum. Part XI. British Museum. plates 28-32 line art.
  2. M. Civil; Margaret W. Green; Wilfred G. Lambert (1979). Ea A = nâqu, AaA = nâqu, with their Forerunners and Related Texts (MSL XIV). Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.
  3. A. Alberti (1985). "A Reconstruction of the Abū Salābīkh God-List". Studi Epigrafici e Linguistici sul Vicino Oriente Antico. 2: 3–23.
  4. Otto Schroeder (1920). Keilschrifttexte aus Assur, Verschiedenen Inhalts (KAV or WVDOG 35). J. C. Hinrichs. plates 46-47, 63-65 line art.
  5. R. Campbell Thompson (1904). Cuneiform texts from Babylonian tablets, &c. in the British Museum. Part XVIII. British Museum. line art.
  6. R. Campbell Thompson (1904). Cuneiform texts from Babylonian tablets, &c. in the British Museum. Part XIX. British Museum. line art.
  7. L. W. King (1908). Cuneiform texts from Babylonian tablets, &c. in the British Museum. Part XXIV. British Museum. plates 20-50 line art.
  8. R. Litke (1998). A Reconstruction of the Assyro-Babylonian God-Lists, An: dA—nu-um and An: Anu ša amēli. Yale University.
  9. L. W. King (1909). Cuneiform texts from Babylonian tablets, &c. in the British Museum. Part XXV. British Museum. line art.
  10. L. W. King (1909). Cuneiform texts from Babylonian tablets, &c. in the British Museum. Part XXVI. British Museum. line art.
  11. Benno Landsberger (1937). Die Serie ana ittišu (MSL I). Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.
  12. Antoine Cavigneaux; Hans G Güterbock; Martha T. Roth; Gertrud Farber (1985). The Series Erim-huš = anantu and An-ta-gál = šaqû (MSL XVII). Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.
  13. A. R. George (1993). House Most High: The Temples of Ancient Mesopotamia (MC 5). Eisenbrauns.
  14. Benno Landsberger; Richard T. Hallock; Th. Jacobsen; A. Falkenstein (1956). Emesal-Vocabulary; Old Babylonian Grammatical Texts; Neobabylonian Grammatical Texts (MSL IV). Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.
  15. M. Civil (2004). Series DIRI = (w)atru (MSL XV). Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.
  16. Manfred Krebernik (1986). "Die Götterlisten aus Farā". Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie. 76: 161–204.
  17. H. de Genouillac (1930). Textes religieux sumériens du Louvre (TCL 15). plate 15 line art.
  18. Benno Landsberger (1957). The Series HAR-ra = hubullu. Tablets I-IV (MSL V). Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.
  19. Benno Landsberger (1958). The Series HAR-ra = hubullu. Tablets V-VII (MSL VI). Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.
  20. Benno Landsberger (1959). The Series HAR-ra = hubullu. Tablets VIII-XII (MSL VII). Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.
  21. Benno Landsberger; Anne Draffkorn Kilmer; Edmund I. Gordon (1960). The Fauna of Ancient Mesopotamia. First Part: Tablet XIII (MSL VIII/1). Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.
  22. Benno Landsberger, Anne Draffkorn Kilmer (1962). The Fauna of Ancient Mesopotamia. Second Part: HAR-ra = hubullu. Tablets XIV and XVIII (MSL VIII/2). Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.
  23. Benno Landsberger, M. Civil (1967). The Series HAR-ra = hubullu. Tablet XV and Related Texts. Ugu-mu. List of Diseases. With Additions and Corrections to MSL II, III, V, and VII (MSL IX). Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.
  24. Benno Landsberger; E. Reiner; M. Civil (1970). The Series HAR-ra = hubullu. Tablets XVI, XVII, XIX and Related Texts (MSL X). Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.
  25. E. Reiner, M. Civil (1974). The Series HAR-ra = hubullu. Tablets XX-XXIV. Miscellaneous Geographical Lists (MSL XI). Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.
  26. B. Landsberger; O. R. Gurney (1958). "igi-duḫ-a = tāmartu, short version". Archiv für Orientforschung. 18: 81–86. JSTOR 41637503.
  27. M. Civil; Hans G. Güterbock; William W. Hallo; Harry A. Hoffner; Erica Reiner (1971). Izi = išātu, Ká-gal = abullu, and Níg-ga = makkūru (MSL XIII). Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.
  28. M. Civil; R. D. Biggs; Hans G. Güterbock; Hans J. Nissen; E. Reiner (1969). The Series lú = ša and Related Texts (MSL XII). Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.
  29. Ivan Hrusa (2010). Die akkadische Synonymenliste malku-sarru: Eine Textedition mit Übersetzung und Kommentar (AOAT 50). Ugarit-Verlag.
  30. Charles F.Jean (1931). "Noms Divins Sumériens: Listes des Élèves - Scribes de Nippur du 3e Millénaire Environ Avant J.-C". Revue d'Assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale. 28 (4): 179–194. JSTOR 23294299.
  31. M. Civil; O. R. Gurney; D. A Kennedy (1986). The Sag-Tablet. Lexical Texts in the Ashmolean Museum. Middle Babylonian Grammatical Texts. Miscellaneous Texts (MSL SS 1). Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.
  32. Irving L. Finkel, M.Civil (1982). The Series SIG7.ALAN = Nabnitu (MSL XVI). Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.
  33. Benno Landsberger; Richard T. Hallock; A. Sachs; H. S Schuster (1955). Das Syllabar A - Das Vokabular Sª - Das Vokabular Sb - Berichtigungen und Nachträge zu MSL II - Indices zu MSL II (MSL III). Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.
  34. Giovanni Pettinato (1977). Testi economici di Lagas del Museo di Istanbul, parte 1 La. 7001-7600. Multigrafica Editrice. 6.
  35. C. B. F. Walker, ed. (1972). Cuneiform texts from Babylonian tablets in the British Museum, Part 51. British Museum. No. 168
  36. A. R. George (1992). Babylonian Topographical Texts. Peeters.
  37. Benno Landsberger (1951). Der Serie Ur- e - a = nâqu (MSL II). Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.
  38. E. F. Weidner (1924). "Altbabylonische Götterlisten". Archiv für Keilschriftforschung. 2: 1–18.

References
  1. Jeremy A. Black (1996). Sumerian Grammar in Babylonian Theory (Studia Pohl). Loyola. p. 3.
  2. Yoram Cohen. "Lexical Lists: Compositions for Reading and Writing the Cuneiform Script". Shnaton. (in Hebrew).
  3. Niek Veldhuis (1997). Elementary Education at Nippur: The Lists of Trees and Wooden Objects (Doctoral Dissertation). Groningen.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. Niek Veldhuis (2000). "Kassite Exercises: Literary and Lexical Extracts". Journal of Cuneiform Studies. 52: 80–82. doi:10.2307/1359687. JSTOR 1359687. S2CID 162919544.
  5. Jon Taylor (2007). "Babylonian lists of words and signs". In Gwendolyn Leick (ed.). The Babylonian World. Routledge. pp. 432–443.
  6. Antoine Cavaigneaux (1980–83). "Lexikalische Listen". In Erich Ebeling; Bruno Meissner; Dietz Otto Edzard (eds.). Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie: volume 6, Klagegesang - Libanon. Walter De Gruyter. pp. 609–641.
  7. Miguel Civil (2013). "Remarks on AD-GI4 (a.k.a. "Archaic Word List C" or "Tribute")". Journal of Cuneiform Studies. 65: 13–67. doi:10.5615/jcunestud.65.2013.0013. S2CID 163638035.
  8. Niek Veldhuis (2006). "How did they Learn Cuneiform? "Tribute/Word List C" as an Elementary Exercise". In Piotr Michalowski, Niek Veldhuis (ed.). Approaches to Sumerian Literature: Studies in Honour of Stip (H. L. J. Vanstiphout). Brill.
  9. Erlend Gehlken (2017). "Ad AD-GI4 – Paying More Tribute to 'Tribute'". NABU (2): 53–57. no. 29.
  10. W. G. Lambert (1969). "Götterlisten". Reallexikon Der Assyriologie Und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie, Bd. 3/6. p. 478.
  11. R. Campbell Thompson (1904). Cuneiform texts from Babylonian tablets, &c. in the British Museum. Part XVIII. British Museum. line art.
  12. E. Reiner (1996). "The synonym Iist Anšar = Anu". N.A.B.U. Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires (4). note 125.
  13. Niek Veldhuis (2010). "Guardians of Tradition: Early Dynastic Lexical Texts in Old Babylonian Copies". In Heather D. Baker; Eleanor Robson; Gábor Zólyomi (eds.). Your praise is sweet: A memorial volume for Jeremy Black. British Institute for the Study of Iraq.
  14. Niek Veldhuis (2011). "Levels of Literacy". In Karen Radner, Eleanor Robson (ed.). Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture. Oxford University Press. p. 78.
  15. Ulla Koch-Westenholz (1994). Mesopotamian Astrology. Museum Tusculanum Press. p. 187.
  16. tāmartu, CAD T p. 111.
  17. C. Wilcke (1987). "Die Inschriftenfunde der 7. und 8. Kampagnen (1983und 1984)". In B. Hrouda (ed.). Isin – Išān Baḥrīyāt III. Die Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen 1983-1984. Verlag de Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. pp. 83–120.
  18. Sharon R. Steadman, Jennifer C. Ross (2016). Agency and Identity in the Ancient Near East: New Paths Forward. Routledge. p. 85.
  19. makkūru, CAD M1, p. 133.
  20. Niek Veldhuis (1998). "A Late Old Babylonian Proto-Kagal / Nigga Text". Acta Sumerologica. 20: 211.
  21. William W. Hallo (Jan–Apr 1982). "Notes from the Babylonian Collection, II: Old Babylonian HAR-ra". Journal of Cuneiform Studies. 34 (1/2): 84. doi:10.2307/1359994. JSTOR 1359994. S2CID 163481389.
  22. Wayne Horowitz (1998). Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography. Eisenbrauns. p. 285.
  23. Yoram Cohen (2012). "The Ugu-mu Fragment from Ḫattuša/Boğazköy KBo 13.2". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 71 (1): 1. doi:10.1086/664449. JSTOR 664449. S2CID 164054144.
  24. Jeremiah Peterson (2013). "A Preliminary Catalog of Old Babylonian Sources for the Curricular Personal Name List Ur-Nanshe". NABU (2): 34–36. n. 21
  25. James Kinnier Wilson (2005). "The Assyrian Pharmaceutical Series URU.AN.NA : MAŠTAKAL". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 64 (1): 45–52. doi:10.1086/429166. JSTOR 429166. S2CID 161138265.
  26. Daisuke Shibata (2009). "An Old Babylonian manuscript of the Weidner god-list from Tell Taban". Iraq. 71: 35.
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