Mitologa y religin del oriente antiguo II/1: Semitas occidentales (Ebla, Mari) by P. Mander; J. M.

Durand Review by: Robert D. Biggs Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 59, No. 2 (Apr., 2000), pp. 127-128 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/545617 . Accessed: 09/09/2013 19:47
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APRIL 2000

BOOKREVIEWS

127

Built on Solid Rock: Studies in Honour of Professor Ebbe Egede Knudsen on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday,April 11th, 1997. Edited Institute for Comparative by ELIEWARDINI. Research in Human Culture, Oslo, Serie B: Skrifter. Oslo: Novus Forlag, 1997. Pp. vi + 308. N.Kr. 375. Most of the papers in this Festschrift reflect the honoree's interest in Semitic languages. Several deal specifically with Hebrew and Syriac grammar. Others deal with Arabic. Cyrus Gordon, surely the doyen of Semitic language studies in North America, chronicles his studies and contributions to the subject in his "Philology of the Ancient Near East: My Seventy Years in Semitic Linguistics." Bo Isaksson, in "The Monastery of St. Catherine and the New Find," describes in some detail the discovery of manuscripts in 1975 that consisted of more than seventy boxes of discarded manuscript fragments. Most sensational was the discovery of additional leaves of Codex Sinaiticus. The several pages of references are valuable for the bibliography, which includes studies published in Greek in Athens. In "Wie arabisch ist Uzbekistan-Arabisch?" Otto Jastrow investigates the characteristics of these dialects and the influence on them by other languages of the area. In "Straw in the Neo-Assyrian Period," Edward Lipinski discusses the uses of straw and refers to a number of contracts for the delivery of straw both in Assyrian and Aramaic documents. On p. 187, in the context of manure, he says: "Yet, this agricultural use of straw is not mentioned explicitly in earlier texts." In view of doubts about the use of manurefor fertilizer in ancient times, I would be inclined to think that the straw/manureassociation is for use as fuel, especially for breadmaking, as is common in rural Iraq. In the only article in the volume devoted to pharaonicEgypt, Saphinaz-Amal Naguib discusses autobiography and identity. Heikki Palva's article "Linguistic Observations of the Explorers of Arabia in the 19th Century"is very interesting for the suggestions on how the explorers and travelers heard spoken Arabic and how it was that they often wrote of the "purity"of the dialects in Arabia. It is pointed out that Palgrave's comment, "here the smallest and raggedest child that toddles about the street lisps in the correctest book-

Arabic that ever De Sacy studied or Sibawee'yah professed" is certainly not true. The editor, Elie Wardini, ends the volume with "An Assyrian Letter, Christiania Anno 1872," in which he publishes a letter written in Assyrian (Modern East Aramaic) by a visitor to Christiania (modern Oslo), Norway from Urmia. He mentions that the letter is "beautifully handwritten"but publishes only a rendition in Syriac type. This is an altogether worthy volume honoring an Assyriologist who has also made considerable contributions to the study of a wide range of Semitic languages.
ROBERTD. BIGGS

The University of Chicago

Mitologia y religi6n del oriente antiguo II/1: Semitas occidentales (Ebla, Mari). By P. MANDER and J. M. DURAND. Colecci6n: Estudios Orientales 8. Barcelona: Editorial AUSA, 1995. Pp. 576. The first part of the volume (by Pietro Mander, written in 1991 and translated for this volume by G. del Olmo Lete) is entitled "Los dioses y el culto de Ebla." By now, a great deal has been written on Ebla, its language, its religion, and its culture. By necessity, much of what Mander has to say is not new. Nevertheless, it reflects the latest thinking of a scholar who has devoted considerable energies to the study of Ebla. He is one of the dwindling number of scholars who still write Ibbi-Sipi' instead of the widely accepted Ibbi-zikir. In discussion of the historical texts, he writes of the "treaty" between Ebla and Assur but does not mention that many scholars do not accept the interpretation of the second party as Assur. He points out (on p. 19) that i-li-lu is the earliest syllabic writing of the name of the god Enlil, but furtheron he observes that apparently en-lil in personal
names is to be read rul2-"D. He also points out

(on p. 76) that Dahood interpreted i-li-lu as "god of gods," but adds that people are far from concurringwith the proposed interpretations. Mander comments extensively on various deities. He cites approvingly Lipinski's etymology of Da-mu as dcm, "support."He discusses at

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128

JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES

VOL. 59

No. 2

length the question of whether there is a deity have been discovered during excavations in Ya at Ebla. Israel, particularlyfrom Tel Arad and Tel BeerIn a much longer contribution, Jean-Marie sheba, but this is by far the largest group. The Durand (whose manuscript dates from 1994, new texts come from clandestine digging, but all also translated by G. del Olmo Lete) writes on may be judged by prosopography to originate religion in Syria during the period of the Amor- from the same site or group of closely related ite kings according to documents from Mari. It sites. The illegal excavators sold the ostraca to constitutes a thorough discussion of the panthe- various collectors, who have either returnedthem ons of Mari and the other areas that occur often to the State of Israel (the ostraca published by in the Mari texts. He also has considerable dis- Lemaire are now in the Israel Museum) or made cussion of prophecy at Mari (well known from them availablefor publication(the presentwherehis own publications and the publications of oth- abouts of 28 of those published by Ephcal and ers in French). He likewise has a detailed discus- Naveh are indicated, the rest are in unidentified sion of divination, which, as is well known, we private collections-presumably for these latter have more informationon for the second millen- the editors saw only photographs).One senses a nium from Mari than anywhere else. bit of pique on the part of the Israeli editors The volume ends with a very thorough index when they remark that the ostraca in the Israel covering both parts of the volume. This is espe- Museum "were, for some odd reason, entrusted cially valuable for locating discussions of divine for publication to a non-Israeli scholar" (p. 7). names. Questions of 'turf' aside, they need not have Both authors and the editor of the series, feared, for Lemaire seems to have done a creditG. del Olmo Lete, deserve our thanks for this able job on the texts assigned to him-though fine volume. there will undoubtedlybe some sniping going on regarding relatively minor differences in readROBERTD. BIGGS ings and/or interpretations.The editors of both volumes worked very rapidly: EphCal/Naveh say The University of Chicago explicitly that they first saw photographs of these texts five years before publication (p. 7), while Lemaireobserves that the last group of his Aramaic Ostraca of the Fourth Century BC texts entered the Israel Museum in 1994 (p. 7). and JOSEPH The format of the Israeli publication is the from Idumaea. By ISRAELEPHCAL NAVEH. Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, The more pleasing, for the photographs appear facHebrew University, Israel Exploration Soci- ing the transliteration and translation, but the ety, 1996. Pp. 100 + 201 figs. $20. commentaryis in the form of notes at the bottom Nouvelles inscriptions aramdennes d'Idumde au of the latterpage; Lemaire'sorganizationis more followed by transtraditional,with transliteration Musde d'Isracl. By A. LEMAIRE. Transeuphratine Suppl., no. 3. Paris: Gabalda, 1996. lation followed by commentary, with the plates bound together at the end of the volume. Pp. 169 + 48 pls. 260 francs. A total of 419 inscriptions are published in Both publications contain a section where a these volumes, 201 by Ephcal and Naveh, all general interpretation of the corpus is presented. Aramaic, all but two from the fourth century Lemaire'sis longerand more discursive(pp. 127(these two are dated by their script to the fifth 56), with sections on paleography, vocabulary century); 218 by Lemaire, of which 199 are (including propernames), dating, presumed findAramaic, 3 Hebrew, 1 Phoenician, and 15 "dou- spot, and the datain the texts for political history; teuses," most dated to the fourth century (the the introductionto the Israeli publication (pp. 9Hebrew ostraca are dated to ca. 600 B.c. and 18) treats essentially the same topics, with less thus, like the Phoenician text, do not belong to emphasis on paleographyand more on the topics the same corpus as the Aramaic texts, though dealt with in the ostraca themselves as visible in that does not preclude a common geographical the vocabulary and structure of the texts. Both origin). Significant numbers of Aramaic ostraca volumes also have complete indexes of attested

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