With this book, the author edits nine highly interesting pieces of Sumerian literature for the first time (with input from Antoine Cavigneaux). After a preface (four pages), each of the nine compositions are presented with a title assigned by the author, an introduction, transliteration, translation, commentary and photographs.
The first composition is entitled An Isin Investiture and is “partially syllabic” (p. 2) (all titles are modern and assigned by the author), which means that in some instances, homophone signs or sign-combinations are used for Sumerian word-signs, e.g. ga-ba (l. 15’) used for the word-sign “gaba”. The author discusses the possible beneficiaries of this hymn-like composition, siding with the god Damu rather than an unnamed king. A neat orthographic feature highlighted by the author is the use of the sign YA in /CiaCa/ combinations (e.g. di-ya-ba, lugal-an-ki-ya-ka). Even in partially syllabic texts like this, such a spelling is unusual.
The next three compositions are hymns to gods on behalf of three different kings of Larsa, ordered according to their ascension to the throne.
The first, A Hymn to the Twin God(s) Enki Niraḫ for the King Gungunum, shows a new manifestation of syncretism in Sumerian literature. Although the author directs the reader to other evidence for a close relationship between the gods Enki and Niraḫ, he suggests that “this hymn is directed to one deity, called Enki-Niraḫ” (p. 11).
Another hymn follows, this time to Nanna for King Sîn-iddinam. The author notes that 5 lines are identical with a passage in Rīm-Sîn G, one of Sîn-iddinam's successors, which raises questions about the “creative process” in composing royal hymns (p. 23).
The third hymn is A Hymn to Utu for King Rīm-Sîn. The attribution to Rīm-Sîn is somewhat tentative, as the name is fragmentary (p. 34, l. 12), so it could be his brother Warad-Sîn or even Būr-Sîn. Acknowledging this, the author favours Rīm-Sîn in view of the substantive corpus of other Rīm-Sîn hymns (p. 33).
The other compositions are all exceptional in certain aspects. Scholars of ancient religion will be especially interested in The Fifteen Phases of the Moon and When the Moon Fell from the Sky. The former is a hymn to Suen, and gives further illustration of the double nature of Suen as both an abstract god and the moon in the sky. For each day up to the fifteenth day of the moon cycle, the hymn attributes a different quality to Suen's “crown” (Sum. men). As the author notes, it is not clear whether the crown is an aspect of the appearance of the moon on each of those days, or whether the moon is considered the crown of Suen itself (p. 49).
When the Moon Fell from the Sky is addressed to Ninlil but mostly deals with misfortune associated with a negative latitude of the moon, ranging from floods in the land to a shortage of beer and unhappy marital relations. Although much of the composition is lost, it seems to switch from the personal plea to a narrative mode which concludes with Enki urging Suen to move into a positive latitude again. Despite the long break, the interrelationship of narration and observations about the moon as an astral body is truly intriguing and, together with the previous composition, adds new facets to our understanding of the Mesopotamian pantheon. Perhaps more references to secondary literature, such as Stol, The Moon as Seen by the Babylonians (Amsterdam, 1992), would have been helpful for a general audience.
Another hymn, A Hymn to Utu upon the Renovation of a City, is very badly preserved and thus little that is definite can be said about this composition.
The collection of new texts ends with the lament Tears of a Fallen King in which a king realizes that for unclear reasons he and his descendants will be forgotten. A pessimistic view of remembrance, this text will be of interest not only to those interested in laments, but also those interested in memory studies and kingship.
Scholars concerned with textual criticism will be delighted to find an Old Babylonian recension of the text Ninisina's Journey to Nippur, which is otherwise mostly known from an Old Babylonian fragment and two Middle Assyrian texts. Filling in many gaps of the MA texts, the new manuscript “provides a glimpse into the evolutionary process by which a Sumerian work was tradited through centuries” (p. 87).
The commentaries to each composition are extensive and mostly on a line-by-line basis. Especially helpful are concordances in other literary compositions, which the author found through extensive lexical research. The references to ETCSL are useful for students. One can only join the author in thanking the scholars behind ETCSL and ePSD for facilitating the search for concordances and transforming the production of commentaries.
The book concludes with a helpful index listing each of the lexemes and its attestations, adding a column for syllabic spellings. A bibliography is not needed, as the most frequently cited works and websites are listed in the abbreviations.
In the preface, the author justifies his decision not to include scale drawings of the manuscripts with reference to new digital techniques available for reading and copying cuneiform tablets. Unfortunately, the photographs’ quality varies considerably in print and most do not allow the reader to verify the transliteration easily, the most notable examples being YBC 9869 and YBC 4650. Considering the high philological interest in these compositions and the omnipresent interpretational difficulties when reading Sumerian texts, well-lit, high resolution photographs would have been desirable. Perhaps this could be ameliorated by providing online access to the digital photographs, e.g. on CDLI, which would enable digital techniques to be applied to them.
Still, the preface and the commentaries are filled with interesting ideas, e.g. that syllabic texts were perhaps written predominantly by “novice scribes from dictation” (p. ix) and new ideas about compositional practices and textual criticism (see some examples above). The texts published in this volume and the author's ideas provide students of Sumerian with plenty of new, fascinating material to process in the future, for which the field can be very grateful.
