A NEO-ASSYRIAN TEXT DESCRIBING A ROYAL FUNERAL John Mc GINNIS - Cambridge K.7856 has never been published in cuneiform, though Meissnerl quoted from it, and Ebeling, working from Meissner's notes, included an edition of it in his Tad und Leben nach den Vorstellungen der Babylonier. While collating this tablet in the British Museum I found that it was not a single columned tablet written on both sides as his edition would suggest, but a corner of a tablet which probably had at least four columns on each side. Remains of a second column are preserved on both sides of the tablet: these constitute lists of garments, and it was this that led to my being able to join K. 7856 with K.6323, a tablet published by Johns as ADD 941. All of Meissner's minor restora tions have been verified. A new copy and edition of K.7856 + K.6323 appear below. I would like to thank Mr. J.N.Postgate and Mr. J.V.Kinnier Wilson for the bountiful assistance which they have given to me. K.7856 + K.6323 Transliteration Obverse, col. I l' [x x x x ]-Isul-nu 2' [x x u-s]e-pi!-su 3' [AD] 'ba-nu!l-u-a 4' [qe]-'reb!l KI.MAH su-a-tu 5' a-sar ni-~ir-ti 6' ina I.GIS LUGAL-ti 7' (a-bis us-ni-il-su 8' NA4a-ra-nu 1) 1898 p60-62. 2) Ebeling 1931 p56-58; Frankfort (1978 p244) and Labat (1939 p119) translated the part ofthe tablet edited by Ebeling. 2 JOHN Me GINNIS 9' a-sar ta-a~-lil-t[i]-su 10' ina URUDU dan-ni 11' KA -sa ak-nu-uk-ma 12' u-dan-ni-na si-pat- sa ' I 13' u-nu-ut KU.GI KU.BABBAR 14' mim-ma tar-si-it KI.MAH 15' si-mat be-lu-ti-su 16' sa i-ram-mu 17' ma-har dUTU 18' u-kal-lim-ma 19' rit'-ti AD ba-ni-ia 20' a-na KI.MAH GAR-un 21' [q ]i-sa-a-ti a-na mal-ki 22' da-nun-na-ki MES 23' it DINGIR a-si-bu-ut KrI-tim I 24' [u-q ]a-a-a-is col. II l' 1 [ x x (x) ] 2' 1 [ x x x (x) ] 3' 2 " [ x x (x) ] 4' 16 SAGS[U x (x) ] 5' 5 sik-na-a'-n[i] 6' 15-su sa-har-rat " 7' 8-su E.A MES " 8' 6 ~ip-rat 9' 4-su KuSrDA.E.'sfR 10' 5 GU.LA [ ] 11' 5 muk-lal [ ] 12' 5 KI.TA hal [ ] 13' 3 ga-mi-di x [ (x) ] 14' 3 KI.TA hal [x] 15' 4 SAGSU.BABBARM[ES] 16' 4-su sa-har-rat [ (x) ] 17' 4-su E.A MES [ (x) ] 18' 4 sik-na-n[i (?) (x) ] Reverse, col. I' l' 2 [ x x x (x) ] 2' 1 [ x x x (x) ] A NEO-ASSYRIAN TEXT DESCRIBING A ROYAL FUNERAL 3 Col. II' l' [X x ] qa [ x (x) ] 2' [X a]n-ni sa [ x (x) ] 3' [ (x) ] E.GAL [ (x) ] 4' 'i'-rab-bi-[~ u] 5' 'a -na9a-[x,(x)] ' 6' a-na dGIS ANSE (?) [ x ] MES 7' 'ANSE'.KUR la! rak-b[utu] 8' a-du-uk-m[a] 9' a-na qi-bi-ri 10' ad-din-su-nu-ti 11' 1 ~a-lam man-za-si 12' 1 SAGSU.NIM KU.GI 13' 4 BAR.DIB SU 4 14' 4 sal-tu! 'hall 1~' 4 KI.TA M[ES (?) (x) ] 16' 4 na-~a-[ bat (x) ] 17' 1 BAR [ x x (x) ] 18' 1 [ x x x (x) ] Col. III' 1 1 tap-pa-a[l-tu (x) ] 2 ZAG MI D A (?) [ x (x) ] 3 10 (?) x x [ x x ] (about 15 lines missing) ;, 'ME"" 19' [x x x G]U· .ZI· ~. 20' 1 [ka]p-pi KU.GI 21' 2 zer-re-tu " 22' 2 qa-butu KU.BABBAR MES 23' 10 ANSE.KUR MES 24' 30 GU 4 MES 25' 300 UDU 26' [PAP] an-ni-u LUGAL KURURI 27' [GI]SNA URUDU sa GIRn.MEs 28' [x x ] KU P A [ x ] 29' [x x ] hi x [ x ] 4 JOHN Me GINNIS Col. IV' l' u-nam-ba-a hi-ra-a-te 2' i-ta-nap-pa-la a-tap-pe MES 3' sa GIS u GURUN DU-su-nu 4' ud-du-ru pa-nu-su-un 5' ib-ka-a ~i-ip? -[pa-ti] 6' sa ina di-si DA [ x ] 7' u-sar-bi-[ bu x (x) ] 8' NA4KUN [MES] 4 9' ut-ta-[az-za-ma] 10' ut-ta-[ ah-ha-su] 11' BA[DMES x x (x) ] (about 8 lines missing) 20' [x x x x (x) ] x 21' [x x x (x) ] dPA!-u-a 22' [x x (x) ] ig!-ni 23' [x x (x) ] x -a Translation Obv. col. I [ ... ] The father my begetter in kingly oil I gently laid [in] that secret tomb. I sealed· the entrance to the sarcophagus, his resting-place with tough bronze and cast for it a potent spell. Objects of gold and silver, everything worthy of a tomb, the regalia that he used to love, I showed to Shamash and placed with my father in the tomb. I offered gifts to the princely Anunnaki and the spirits who dwell in the underworld. Col. II [ ... ] 1 [ ... ] 1 [ ... ] 2 " [ ... ] 16 headdresses [ ... ] 5 siknu-garments, 15 lots of saharratu-garments" , 8 lots of bit-ahi garments", 6 $ipirtu-garments, 4 pairs of sandals, 5 w.rap[s], 5 shaw[ls], 5 lower garment[s], 3 gamidu-garments, 4 white headdresses, 4 lots of saharratu-garments, 4 lots of bit-ahi-garments, 4 siknu-garments. Rev. col. I' [ ... ]2 ... 1[ ... ] Col. II' A NED-ASSYRIAN TEXT DESCRIBING A ROYAL FUNERAL 5 [ ... ] 9 times (?) [ ... ] to Gilgamesh unridden horses I slaughtered and put them in the tomb. 1 statue on a base, 1 gold Elamite headdress, 4 red kusitu-garments, 4 [ ... ], 4 lower garments, 4 coats, 1 [ ... ], 1 [ ... ]. Col. III' 1 rug with a black border (?) [ ... di]shes, 1 goldkappu-dish, 2 gold chains, 2 silver cups, 10 horses, 30 oxen, 300 sheep, [all] this (of) the king of Urartu, [1] bronze [be]d with feet, [ ... ] Col. IV' The ditches cried out and the channels replied; the surface of all the trees and fruit turned dark. The orchards wept, which in the grass [ ... ] grew weak [ ... ], the thresholds howled, the walls[s] wailed. NOTES Obv. col. I. 3' For a similar use of bft ni~irti cf Nabonidus describing the tomb of his mother (Gadd 1958 p52 III.16). 1.5' I. GIS was "corrected" by von Soden (1936 p255 n1) to KISAL, and this gave rise to Frankfort's (1978 p244) "royal esplanade", but examination of the tablet con firms that the former reading of Meissner and Ebeling was correct. 1.8' For ~aliilu used of the dead cf ina kimahhi ... usa~lilu-su of YOS I no.43 1.3. Frankfort translated this as the "groove for its cover" (1978 p244 and n.49) , basing this on von Soden's translation "Sargdeckel" (1936 p255 n.2), and justifying it with the incomprehensible logic "the place can only have an opening if it is a groove"! 1.9' The "entrance" may well refer to one of the doors leading into an individual chamber as in the royal cript at Assur. See Haller 1954 p170-181. 1.16' Shamash was evidently in some aspect the god of the dead: cf his epithets sar etimme ("Ruler of Ghosts" - K. Tallqvist Akkadische Gotterepitheta [1938] p456) and bel mfti ("Master of the Dead" - ibid. p459). Thus too Shamash is the god invoked by vagrant souls (BWL p134 1.145). I. 22' That ilu could mean "departed spirit" was suggested to me by J. V. Kinnier Wilson. The nearest that the dictionaries offer are the shades of the dead kings and heroes (AHw ilu B.3 and B.2 respectively) and babies (CAD ilu 6). As the first category falls in the area of the present text, I would go further and suggest that what is meant is that the new king made offerings to his own ancestors. That such a cult existed among the Neo-Assyrian kings at least until Ashurnasirpal has already been suggested as an explanation of the "Stelenreihen" at Assur: see J.V.Canby, Iraq 38 (1976), "The Stelenreihen at Assur, Tell Halaf and Massebot". col. II: The translations of textiles follow Postgate 1973 and 1979. 6 JOHN Me GINNIS II.S' and 18' This may be the siknu-garment (AHw siknu A.S, but only Old Assyrian), otherwise unattested in Neo-Assyrian. II.6' For saharratu see Postgate 1979 p6. The occurrences inADD are listed on vol. 4 p349. II.7' For E.AMES see CAD ahu B.4d, AHw ahu(m) II 5(d) and Postgate 1979 p5. The logogram also occurs in ADD 941. vii.6. The plural reading bit ahi is sugge.sted by the entry in the Practical vocabulary of Assur E.AMEs_*hi (Landsberger-Gurney 1957-8 p3311.282 and the note on 1.282 on p335). Cfthe garment hullan ahi, translated by CAD hullanu (a) and AHw hullanu (2) as "with armholes". II.10' For GU.LA = hullanu see Postgate 1973 note on no. 1521.1 and Landsber ger-Gurney 1957-58 p330 1.236. II.11' This must be the garment maklqlalu, and though this writing is not given in the dictionaries, it also occurs in ADD 680 r.4, 957.7 and 977.iii.6. Even so it is not without difficulty. A value of mak for the MUG sign is not one hitherto recognised (cf W. von Soden-W. R6llig Das akkadische Syllabar [1976] no. 3) though we might propose to read it mak here. There are a few parallels for a sign with a principal reading x of CuC having a secondary value CaC in Neo-Assyrian, though not many. Thus BUL = bal (op. cit. no.10), DUH = tah (ibid. no.117) and SUN = san? (ibid. no.7). We might then read the group either phonetically makx-lal(a), or as a pseudo-logogram MAK x• LAL. Note that the maklalu was also part of the Hittite royal wardrobe (KBo 9 43.27, quoted by CAD maklalu). , II .12' For KI. T A hal as an abbreviation for (TUG)KI. TAMES hallupate see Postgate 1973 note on no.153 1.7, and occurrences cited on ADD vol.4 p367. 11.15' For the lexical entry SAGSU .BABBAR see MSL X p148.105; p151.130 and p154 C.13. The item was a standard part of the royal apparel: see Kinnier Wilson 1985 p30 1.10 and p.82 1.14, and CAD kubsu LB. Rev. col. II' .6' Alternatively, the last signs might be read a-na dGIS.BAR [x (x) ] giving "[I cast(?)] into the fire". 11'.12' Cf TUG SAGSU.NIM.MAK1 Landsberger-Gurney 1957-58 p3311.272. , II' .13' BAR.DIB = kusftu. II' .17' This may be restored either as BAR.[DIB] (= kusftu) or as BAR.[SI(G)] (= parsigu). III'. 1 CAD dapastu, AHw tappastu. A restoration tap-pa-a[ s-tu] is also possible. III'.2 "With a black border" is doubtless a possible translation, though not certain; compare [ '" ]BI ZAG MI of ADD 682 which Johns, in the index (vol.4 p365), lists as a word ZAG .MI (without translating). Note that if this column is also a list of textiles, as seems likely from the first line, then this second line c(;lnnot be a new item as it does not commence with a numeral. This supports the suggestion that line 2 is a description continuing the entry of line 1. III' .19' The restoration [pu ]r-si-te was suggested by Geers in a pencil note in the British Museum copy of ADD. A NEO-ASSYRIAN TEXT DESCRIBING A ROYAL FUNERAL 7 III' .21' See AHw kappu II (5). III' .27' Geers (loc. cit.) suggested a restoration of al[am], but there is not enough space for this at the beginning of the line. col.IV' That this passage should be considered poetry is evident from its content, rhythm and use of the apocopated suffix -sun of the "hymnal-epic dialect". IV'.6 Frankfort's rendering "what was green", though conforming to his theory of the regeneration of nature, is not supported by the text (particularly as he translates the verbs in the sentence in the present tense). Commentary What first strikes one about this text is the interchange of literary passages with bureaucratic lists, and that the former are written in Babylonian - note for instance the suffix -sunuti (rev .II' .11') and the lexicon (iibis (obv.I.6') - but the latter emphatically in Assyrian as the spellings of man-za-si (rev.II' .11'), qa-butu (rev. III' .22') and many of the garments show. The text is therefore in some sense composite. The very specific detailing of the lists must mean that they record'the actual grave-goods from a particular (royal) burial-and the way they are written leaves no doubt that this was in Assyria but the question remains as to whether the literary passages were composed for the occasion (in which case it would be expected that the scribe used Babylonian) or whether they were older works, perhaps chanted at the grave-side, incorporated in this description of a specific funeral. There are in fact three literary sections, each of a different character. The first (obv. col.l) is a statement of a king (?) telling how he placed "my father" in the tomb, and here it seems that the living successor is speaking. The "Lament of Nature" (rev.col.IV') could be a poem commissioned for the occasion or, alternatively, an older work here recorded because it was recited in the course of the mourning. If this were the case, perhaps it was traditionally so. But the most interesting piece is that of rev .col.II'. If the living king is speaking and the reading a-na dGIS (1.6') "to Gilgamesh" is correct, it would be first-hand evidence of the Neo-Assyrian kings sacrificing to the demi-god. Ur-Nammu, too, made offerings to Gilgamesh (amongst others) at his arrival in the underworld3 and the co-incidence of this, along with the fact , that vessels, animals and textiles are also mentioned in the Ur-Nammu text4 strongly suggests a continuity of tradition, either in actual practice or in the literary trasmission. This discussion of the nature of the text naturally raises the question of its date. Even if some of the literary material is older, the lists of garments firmly date the text to the Neo-Assyrian period (hallupu [obv .II.12' and 14',rev .II' .15'] and gammidu [ob- 3) Kramer 1967 p114 1.91-95. 4) See below. 8 JOHN Me GINNIS v .II.13'] for instance are attested only for thatperiod) and the conclusion of von Soden5 that it was written in the reign of either Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal is still most likely. As has often been pointed out6 there are few cuneiform inscriptions dealing with , the burial of kings 7 though with the help of archaeology a fair picture can be given. From the "Dynastic Chronicle" we know that the kings of Babylon (at any rate of the Second Sealand Dynasty) were buried within palaces8 and perhaps these are the same as the E.NAM.US of later texts9 With the Assyrians we may be more certain: at Assur . Andrae found under the Old Palace the vaulted tombs of six Assyrian kings and these 10, must very likely be the bit kimahhi ("Tomb Chamber") referred to for Sennacheribll a , wife of Esarhaddon called Esar-harmat12 Ashurbanipal13 and in the present text. At , Nimrud too a rich grave of NA date was found under the North-West Palace14 . Meissner15 took lines 4-5 of the first column "in kingly oil I gently laid" to mean that corpses were preserved by immersion in oil, and whilst one's initial feeling would be that it means rather that the body was only anointed in oi116 there are several references in , 5) 1936 p254. 6) Labat 1939 p118; Oppenheim, Ancient Mesopotamia (1964) p234; Michalowski Or 46 (1977) p220; Moorey 1984 p14. 7) See Labat 1939 p118-28 and Wiseman 1985 p112-115 for royal burials, Heidel 1949 p150-65 and RIA "Grab" for Mesopotamian burial practices in general. The few funerary texts that we have are listed in HKL III §22. 8) The "Palace of Sargon" and the "Palace of Kar-Marduk" - see Moorey 1984 p14-18 and Grayson Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles (1975) p40-41 & 139-44 (Chr. 18). Note also the omen quoted by Labat 1939 p124 & n.28. Moorey suggests that usurpers were as a rule buried in a swamp, but it may simply be that the swamp of Bit-Hasmar was the homeland ofthe usurper Ea-Mukin-Zeri. Note that burial in the swamps is recorded both by Strabo XVI. xi. 2 in the case of the Babylonian kings and by Urukinimgina "in the reeds of Enki" (gi-den-ki-ka-ka) in his reforms: ct. M. Lambert RA 50 (1956) p172, section 7. 9) Unger 1931 p161, 230 & 237. 10) Haller 1954 p170-81. The three of these that could be identified proved to belong to Assur-bel-kala, Assurna~irpal and Samsi-Adad V. There is nothing to support Haller's suggestion (p181) that two of the others might have belonged to Sennacherib and Esar-harmat. The complex of vaults might be the bft sarriini ma'dllti (House of Many Kings) of Ebeling SVAT p19 obv.1.7. 11) OIP 2 p151 -nos. XIII & XIV. 12) Borger Die lnschriften des Esarhaddons, Konigs von Assyrien (1956) plO no.lO. 13) Weidner AfO 13(1939-41) p213f; Ebeling SVAT p18-19. 14) Mallowan Nimrud and its Remains (1965) p114-116. 15) Babylonien und Assyrien (1920) vol.I p425. 16) And in this context it is particularly irritating that in both places where Nabonidus describes the burial of his mother and father, with the words" ... his corpse in sweet oil", the verb is broken off: t.GIS DUG AD -su [ ... ] (Gadd 1958 p52 H 1 B 1.15); I.GIS DUGsal-mat-su u-[ ... ] (VAB IV p294iii.28). Samma tiiba 6 limme in a funerary text published by Scheil (RA 13 [1916] p171 no.41.5) cannot be taken as dependable as that part of the text is damaged. Note however the letter from Mari ARM VII. 58 in which two sorts of oil-- saman erinnim and saman diqariitim - are sent to a grave, and in sufficiently small quantities (1 qa of each) that they must have been intended either for anointing or for incense. A NEO-ASSYRIAN TEXT DESCRIBING A ROYAL FUNERAL 9 Classical writers referring to this as a custom of the Babylonians. Thus, Ctesias tells how Alexander inspected a tomb in Babylon in which the body could be seen floating in oil17 , and the Armenian version of the Pseudo-Callisthenes' Life of Alexander records that the body of Alexander himself was preserved for taking for burial in Alexandria in, a mixture of oil, honey, incense and aloes The custom reported by Herodotus of how 18. 19 the Babylonians buried their dead in honey may also refer to such a practice. Let us now turn to the lists of objects. It seems most likely that these were the goods put in the grave for use in the next world, and whilst, since the vaults at Assur have been robbed20 we have no actual specimens of Assyrian royal grave goods, there are parallels , for each class among them - bed21 vessels22 animals23 and garments. The presence of , , garments amongst grave goods is not well documented by archaeology because the fabric has mostly perished24 but testimony to this comes from texts listing grave-goods , from the Pre-Sargonic25 Old Babylonian26 and Neo-Babylonian periods27 , . In all these cases it is not clear whether the items were for the occupant of the grave to wear in the afterlife or for use as gifts to the gods of the netherworld. The former is not of itself unlikely - we know that the Neo-Assyrian court employed a battery of textile workers28 and as the Neo-Assyrian kings do not appear to have taken their retainers to the grave, they may have needed a supply of linen to be provided29 On the other hand, . the lines obv.I.19-22 of our text "I had gifts made to the princely Anunnaki and the gods who dwell in the underworld" imply that at least some of the goods were destined for the 17) F. W. Konig Die Persika des Ktesias von Knidos (AfD Beiheft 18, 1972) p10 no.2l. 18) E.A. W. Budge The History of Alexander the Great (1889, repr. 1976) p141 III.xxii. 19) Book 1.198, followed by Strabo XIV.i.20. 20) Haller 1954 p17l. 21) Cf Foxvog 1980 p70 lines 15 & 30. 22) Tsukimoto 1980 pI29-30, 1.5 & 20-25; Kramer 1967 p114 1.96-100; Gilgamesh VIII.v.47-48. 23) See below. 24) Though traces of the coarse cloth in which bodies were commonly wrapped do sometimes survive (Postgate 1980 p71; RIA "Grab" I.l.l.b, ("Mattengrab"). Nevertheless, we know that in the first millen nium in Ur, for instance, some people were buried in their clothes, as the presence of the metal fibulae indicates (UE IX p56). Exceptions to this are the remains of linen garments found in the NA bronze coffins from Ur (Curtis 1983 p89 & 94-5 appendix by H. Granger-Taylor) and the linen and wool garments of a grave of NA date, also from Ur (UE VIII p89 Grave No.47). 25) Foxvog 1980 p67-70, 1.9-14 & 26-29; Bauer 1969 pl08 & n.2; Kramer 1967 p118, 1.97. 26) Tsukimoto 1980 p129 1.12-15. 27) VAB IV p294 1.24-5. 28) Kinnier Wilson 1972 p67-70. 29) We must not overlook the line labsii-ma kfma i~~ari ~ubiit kappi ("they were clothed like birds with wings as garments") of Gilgamesh VII.iv.38, the Descent of Ishtar and the epic of Nergal and Eriskigal (see CAD kappu' A 1.c), but on its own this is insufficient evidence to conclude that the Babylonians believed that normal clothes were no longer worn in the Underworld. Fish's "garment for the dead" (tug ba-an-us; Iraq 5 [1938] p166) does not settle this either way. 10 JOHN Me GINNIS netherly deities, and this practice is in fact attested elsewhere30 A third ppssibility might • be that the garments were meant for clothing an image of a god or the }ieceased. This was argued by Bauer for his Pre-Sargonic texts31, and though one m~y note in this context that at least the hulliinu garment of obv.II.5' is one known to have been used for the dressing of divine statues32 and that a statue is listed in our present text (re , v. III' .11 '), there is really no evidence to support this idea. With the sandals, however, we may be on firmer ground. Actual sandals made of silver have been excavated from a grave at Abu Salabikh33 and they are listed in the , Old-Babylonian funerary text already mentioned34 Perhaps these were intended for . the dead to wear on his journey to the underworld-. In function this would be no different from the iS$uing of sandals to messengers as known to us from Ur III35 and OB36 texts, but more specifically this exact purpose - to journey to the underworld - is attested in the Lall1astu rites. Here, Thureau-Dangin has demonstrated37 how references in the Lamastu texts match up with objects depicted on the plaques to show how oil, clothing, sandals, bread and water were all provided the demon to induce her to travel back below. Lastly we come to the animals listed in our texts. These are the 10 horses, 30 oxen and 300 sheep of rev.II' .23'-25' and the horses of rev. II' .7'. Animals are included among grave-goods for one of three purposes - for food, for offerings or for draught - and all of three may be represented here: This is suggested by a comparison with the Ur-Nam mu text, where that king slaughters oxen and sheep for a banquet38 as well as making offerings of oxen, sheep, kids and asses to various deities39 Furthermore, it seems that . Ur-Nammu arrived in the underworld by means of a chariot40 and this cannot but remind us of the ED burials from Ur41 Kish42 Abu Salabikh43 and elsewhere44 where , , skeletons of equids/bovids and/or the remains of chariots have been excavated. 30) Kramer 1967 p118 1.54f; Tsukimoto 1980 p131; B. Kienast AS 16 p148. 31) 1969 pll0: "obwohl das Wort alam [ = statue] in den Totenopferlisten nicht vorkommt ... keiner der Texte benennt das Kultgebaude". 32) See CAD hulliinu (e). 33) Postgate 1980 p73. 34) Tsukimoto 1980 p129 1.14. 35) See Salonen 1969 p23-5. 36) E.g. ARM 1.17. 37) RA 18 (1921) p183-7. 38) Kramer 1967 p114 1.80. 39) Ibid. 1.86-90, 101-104, 112-118. 40) Ibid. 1.74-75. 41) UE II p34, 109 & 409. 42) Moorey 1978 p104-110. 43) Postgate 1986. 44) Foxvog 1980p67 1.8. For the latest examination of all the evidence, see 1. Zarins in Equids in the Ancient World edited by R.H. Meadow and H.-P. Uerpmann (1986).