As of today there are several variant versions of the myth relating to the death of Dumuzi, the more important of which are: “Inanna's Descent to the Nether World”, “Dumuzi's Dream”, “Dumuzi and the galla.” The text here edited, inscribed on a hitherto unpublished tablet, BM 100046, consists of an account of Dumuzi's death that parallels to some extent the hitherto known versions, but includes a number of rather unusual themes and intriguing motifs not found in any of them. It is a pleasure and a privilege to dedicate this study to Oliver Gurney with whom I collaborated in preparing a volume of Sumerian literary texts in the Ashmolean Museum (OECT V), and who moreover published in the year 1962 an exemplary summary of what was then known about Dumuzi and his tragic death.

The trade in tin, textiles, and silver between Ashur and its trading colony Kanesh is by now well known from the partly published archives from Kanesh. While the textiles involved were primarily produced in Ashur itself, a small proportion of them were imported from Babylonia, being described in the texts as “Akkadian textiles”. This link in the trading chain is still scarcely documented in the absence of the trading archives which must be presumed to have existed at Ashur, and probably at Sippar. The Babylonians themselves were actively involved in the trade, as is shown by the well-known but still inadequately published letter VAT 9249, referring to the absence of the Akkadians and their textiles from Ashur because of a revolt in their country.

From its geographical position the city of Sippar must have occupied a focal position in trading relations between Babylonia and the kingdoms to the north and north-west. It naturally figures in the Old Babylonian itinerary from Larsa to Emar. Some years ago W. F. Leemans summarised the evidence for trading relations between Sippar and Assyria and the Middle Euphrates and for Sippar's involvement in the trade in tin in the reverse direction from Ashur to Babylonia.

In presenting the following study for publication in honour of Professor O. R. Gurney, it is our hope that one who has made generous contributions to the growing corpus of Akkadian medical texts, and who has long been interested in the place and purpose of magical figurines in ritual texts, will look with favour upon a contribution which involves both fields. The paper has been written by the second author from a basic manuscript of the selected text contributed by the first; and this happy circumstance allows us also, however marginally, to associate our work with the name of Benno Landsberger, for the text is one which was studied jointly by Landsberger and Mrs Ritter during his last years. There can be no doubt at all that Landsberger would have been pleased to participate in a Festschrift honouring one of his own students, and in a sense three generations of scholarship are represented in this study.

I. Over the last ten years, criteria for dating Hittite texts have gradually been evolving. In the first stage, so-called “orthographic” peculiarities were identified which enabled a rough division of texts into Old, Middle and Late (or Empire) texts. The Middle Hittite group was a new discovery, causing a major reshuffle of texts and a consequent re-writing of Hittite history. The two prominent studies were the pioneering one by Carruba (1969) and that of Houwink ten Cate (1970) which utilized a larger corpus of texts. The latter separated the distinctive features into linguistic and philological characteristics and added some observations on the use of topoi which he divided into groups exhibiting similarities in content matter, similarities in structure and lexical correspondencies, all typical for certain periods. These criteria were largely accepted, with a notable dissension by A. Kammenhuber and a strong scepticism by J. D. Muhly. A general survey of current subdivisions of periods is summarised by J. J. S. Weitenberg.

It is now forty years since Oliver Gurney published his dissertation entilted “Hittite Prayers of Mursili II”. His careful analysis of the texts as well as his translation have stood the test of time admirably. While writing, Gurney learned about the prayers to the Sungod which had been found in the 1930s, but their publication came too late for inclusion in his work. Since then much has been written about these recent finds and their relation to the texts of Muršili. On this happy occasion I want to offer to my friend a hitherto unpublished fragment which forms part of the prayer to the Sungoddess of Arinna (KUB 24.3), completing the beginning of column ii. It was H. Otten who recognized it as belonging to that tablet; he must have communicated this fact to E. Laroche, who included it as 544/u under nr. 376, A, in the second edition (1971) of his Catalogue des textes hittites (CTH).

The extent to which Hittite has preserved Indo-European ablaut patterns has always been a matter for debate. Variations in the vowel of the root occur in both the -mi and the -ḫi conjugations, although roots of the shape TeRT- have eliminated vocalic variation altogether, and certain other verbs, such as pai- “go” have similarly only one form of the root. In those roots which end in a single consonant and show variation in the root vowel several types may be distinguished. In the -mi conjugation the type represented by 3 sg. ku-en-zi, 3 pl. ku-na-an-zi or 3 sg. ku-e-ir-zi, 3 pl. ku-ra-an-zi has always been recognized as reflecting inherited e/zero alternation, as seen also in Sanskrit 3 sg. hánti, 3 pl. ghnánti. This type presents no difficulties from the comparative point of view except for the appearance of the e-grade of the root in some persons where zero grade might have been expected, as in the preterite plural and 2 pl. imperative, which is identical in form with the 2 pl. indicative of the preterite.

The seal-inscriptions published here have been chosen as a fitting, albeit very modest, tribute to Professor Gurney as they both have a faint Hurrian flavour. One appears on the seal of a royal scribe bearing a Hurrian name; the other gives us the name of a new king of Ḫaraḫar, a place currently located in a Hurrian, or Human-influenced, region and whose only hitherto known king bore the Hurrian name, Ankiš-atal. The seals will be fully published by Dr D. Collon in a forthcoming volume of the Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in The British Museum: only the inscriptions are therefore discussed in these pages.

1. BM 102055 = 1905-12-9,3 is a seal of the in-na-ba-type characteristic of the later part of the Third Dynasty of Ur and lingering on into the following period, but it shows clear signs of re-use. The legend (in Akkadian, judging by line 2) reads.

The legacy of the Assyrian empire consisted chiefly in the administrative structure inherited by its successors, and hence Assyriologists have always been conscious of the interest of the “army” of officials who appear in the correspondence and administrative documents found in the palaces of Assyria. In reconstructing this system the views of the Assyrian scribes themselves are obviously worthy of our careful attention, and a long-known “practical” list of officials, etc. from Kouyunjik (K 4395, hereafter “the Kouyunjik list”) has been joined by two copies of a longer list from Sultan Tepe (STT 382 to 385, hereafter “the Sultan Tepe list”). Although parts of each are missing, and their arrangement is far from consistent, both lists give an invaluable idea of how the scribes viewed the different professions and appointments, and, within their own limits, they are obviously meant to give a fairly comprehensive account. Moreover, and this is of particular importance, they are lists of Assyrian terms, composed freshly from Assyrian sources and not dependent on the Babylonian lexical canon. Hence there is a reasonable expectation that they will give a picture of the situation at about the time in which we are interested, and we may even be allowed to hope that the lists may have been “up-dated” in the course of their existence to allow for changes. This hope does indeed seem to be fulfilled by the individual entries, which coincide very well with the repertoire of titles and their Schreibweise as these are known from 7th century documents. In this article devoted to a single title, šaknu, we shall have frequent occasion to refer to these practical lists, underlining their value to the “Neo-Assyriologist”.

The purpose of this article is to publish a third version of the ancient Babylonian myth of the Twenty-one “Poultices”, and to comment on the mythological content of all three, while leaving details of the strictly medical aspects to others. The two hitherto known versions of this myth are both preserved on Late Assyrian tablets from Assur: LKA 146, the whole of which is relevant, and BAM 313, of which only part is of direct concern. The tablet published here for the first time, BM 33999, is of Late Babylonian date, probably from Babylon, and is now in the British Museum, by kind permission of whose Trustees it is available.

“Poultices” (mêlu) were a common form of Babylonian medicine. A number of drugs, usually between two and four, were combined and then applied to a person's body with the aid of a leather strap or pouch. When specified, the neck is always the part of the body involved, and the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (sub voce) assumes that this was always the case, but perhaps it would be wise to leave the question open for the present.

The lack of stratified examples of Hittite jewellery emphasizes the importance of the evidence afforded by inventories such as the Inventory of Manninni recently published by Dr S. Košak. Although many of the words designating specific pieces of jewellery or goldwork cannot yet be translated, a study of the inventories combined with contemporary archaeological evidence can assist in forming a more detailed assessment of the products of Hittite jewellers and gold workers. It is possible to make some tentative suggestions concerning the identification of different types of jewellery mentioned in the Manninni inventory with reference to excavated pieces, some of which, although originating from sites beyond the area of direct Hittite influence yet can be dated to a period contemporary with or slightly earlier than the Hittite inventories. The Manninni inventory has been assigned to the 13th century B.C. by F. Kammenhuber but in Košak's view it could have been composed at any time during the later Hittite Empire.

In every aspect of Turkish studies, the non-Turkish scholar is at a disadvantage in trying to understand the complexities of the Turkish heritage. However hard we may try to learn and understand the language, customs, arts and crafts, through a lifetime of labour, enthusiasm and long residence, our Turkish colleagues should be able to do this better and with greater understanding. During the nineteenfifties, while living in Ankara, one used to regret the lack of interest in Seljuk art and architecture and complain about the absence of any reliable information about the flat woven rugs known as kilims that were just starting to appear in the market.

Things have greatly changed in the thirty years that have since passed; and there is a healthy revival in Turkish art of the Seljuk and Ottoman periods, not only in Turkey, but at last also in the West. The interest in Turkish kilims is a modern phenomenon; we have valuable studies on the Türkmen nomads of Anatolia, which never even mention the word kilim. In Turkey also few scholars, except Yusuf Durul who has devoted his life to the study of Yörük textiles, were attracted by kilims. Samples of Old Turkish carpets and kilims, published by the Sümerbank, Istanbul, 1961 broke the ice, at least in Turkey. Then came an exhibition at the Textile Museum, Washington D.C. in 1969 and its fine publication by A. N. Landreau and W. R. Pickering entitled From the Bosporus to Samarkand. Flat woven rugs (1969), followed in rapid succession by three publications by the Akbank in Turkey: C. Kerametli and Z. Güvemli: Türk ve Islam Eserleri Müzesi (1974); Belkis Acar's Kilim ve düz dokuma yaygilar (1975) and Yusuf Duru's Yörük kilimleri (1977) all published in Istanbul. Then came a kilim exhibition in London, published by D. Black and C. Loveless in The undiscovered kilim, London 1977, followed by W. T. Ziemba, A. Akatay and S. L. Schwartz: Turkish flat weaves, London 1979, and now we have a sumptuous book by Yanni Petsopoulos: Kilims, Thames and Hudson, London 1979 (price £38.00) with not less than 278 illustrations of Anatolian kilims alone, many in colour and all old, i.e. before the introduction of chemical dyes, tentatively put at 1900, and nearly all in western collections, many private.

A Babylonian text from Sultantepe published by Professor Gurney in 1964 noted that the age of seventy marked a “long life” though it goes on to list eighty as “old age” (šībūtu) and ninety as “extreme old age” (littūtum). In congratulating my teacher and colleague on his long life of scholarship this contribution carries with it best wishes for his continuing work as ana labīrūti illak. Having been with Professor Seton Lloyd at Sultantepe on the day in 1951 when the site was first surveyed and chosen as full of promise it would seem appropriate to offer here a text which virtually completes the first tablet of the poem of the Righteous Sufferer (ludlul bēl nēmeqi). In 1954 Professor Gurney made available, in conjunction with W. G. Lambert, a new text from Sultantepe which marked a notable advance on our hitherto scanty knowledge of that tablet. Subsequently Professor Lambert published the first part of the hymn of praise to the god Marduk (ll. 1–12) with which this classical poem opens.

Oliver R. Gurney hat mit seinen formvollendeten Kopien von Keilschrifttexten, die dem assyriologischen “Leser” zusätzlich zu reicher Belehrung seltenen ästhetischen Genuss schenken, auch das Unikum einer assyrischen Provinzbibliothek erschlossen und damit der uns bekannten altmesopotamischen Literatur nebenher unter anderem zwei Werke zugefügt, welche zwei neue literarische Gattungen vertreten. Das Schelmenmärchen vom “Armen Jungen aus Nippur” ist dank Gurneys Bearbeitung und Kommentar ein Klassiker der babylonischen Literatur geworden. Neben ihm hat der “Brief des Gilgameš”, in seiner Art ebenso überraschend und neu, nicht zu Unrecht anscheinend wenig Beachtung gefunden. Der Gratulant, seit seinem Erscheinen von ihm angezogen, hat sich zweiundzwanzig Jahre lang immer wieder vergebens bemüht, die Geheimnisse des ihm rätselhaften Textes zu ergründen. Statt eines Ergebnisses legt er nunmehr eine Reihe von Fragen und Überlegungen dem Herausgeber des merkwürdigen Briefes und den Mitstrebenden vor.

The basic morphology of Hittite is now relatively well known — for the classical period at least; that of the minor Anatolian languages still calls for continuous reassessment whenever new data become available. The need is particularly great in the case of the languages of the Luwian group: Cuneiform Luwian, Hieroglyphic Luwian and Lycian. In what follows I shall try to collect some data which concern the nominal inflection of Hieroglyphic Luwian. This can only be a small return for all that I owe to Oliver Gurney, to his teaching and to his unrestrainable kindness and generosity; it is good to know that I share this debt with all those who have worked in this country on the Indo-European languages of Anatolia — and with innumerable others.

I am very happy to be able to offer to Oliver Gurney, to whom I owe many years of generous and unstinted teaching, advice and support, a token Hieroglyphic repayment for my Cuneiform debt to him. I only trust that this contribution of mine to this journal, being the first which has not had the benefit of his careful scholarship and judicious criticism, will not fall below his high standards.

Of the two large stelae found at Tell Ahmar (the ancient Til-Barsip), the mutilated TELL AHMAR 2, now in the Louvre, names as its author a certain king Hamiyatas, who presumably ruled the city Til-Barsip and its surrounding territory, although his and his kingdom's titles have been carried away by the damage to the stele. In the remains of his genealogy, Hamiyatas names Masuwarazas, perhaps his father, but perhaps grandfather or even earlier forebear. The broken stele TELL AHMAR 1, a new edition of which is here presented, has lost the name, office and titles of the author and preserves only his genealogy, “Hapatilas's great-grandson, the ruler Ariyahinas's son” (by which patronymic he must be named by us).