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Urra=hubullu

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16th tablet of the Urra=hubullu, Louvre Museum

The Urra=hubullu (𒄯𒊏 𒄷𒇧𒈝 ur5-ra — ḫu-bul-lu4; or HAR-ra = ḫubullu,[1] or Gegenstandslisten ("lists of objects")[1]) is a major Babylonian glossary or "encyclopedia".[2] It consists of Sumerian and Akkadian lexical lists ordered by topic.[3][4] The canonical version extends to 24 tablets, and contains almost 10,000 words.[5] The conventional title is the first gloss, ur5-ra and ḫubullu meaning "interest-bearing debt" in Sumerian and Akkadian, respectively. One bilingual version from Ugarit [RS2.(23)+] is Sumerian/Hurrian rather than Sumerian/Akkadian.

A partial table of contents:

  • Tablets 1-2: juridicial forms[1] thought to be possibly part of the ana ittišu series[6]
  • Tablets 3-7: names of trees, parts of trees, products of trees, and wooden objects[1]
  • Tablet 4: naval vehicles
  • Tablet 5: terrestrial vehicles
  • Tablets 10-12: names of vessels, ovens, clay objects, hides, chemicals, and objects of bronze, copper, silver[1]
  • Tablets 12, 14 & 15: systematic enumeration of the names of domestic animals, terrestrial animals, birds (including bats)[7] and parts of the body
  • Tablet 16: stones[1]
  • Tablet 17: plants.[8][1]
  • Tablet 19: names of wool and vestments[1]
  • Tablets 21-22: names of towns, countries, mountains, a and rivers[1]
  • Tablets 22-23: provisions[1]
  • Tablet 24: list of men[1]

The tablets form a series that had been arranged by time of the Sumarian Dynasty of Isin, with a bilingual tradition existing by the time the Kassites.[1] The bulk of the collection was compiled in the Old Babylonian period (early 2nd millennium BC), with pre-canonical forerunner documents extending into the later 3rd millennium.[9]

Like other canonical glossaries, the Urra=hubullu was often used for scribal practice. Other Babylonian glossaries include:

  • Ea: a family of lists that give the simple signs of the cuneiform writing system with their pronunciation and Akkadian meanings. (MSL volume 14)
  • "Table of Measures": conversion tables for grain, weights and surface measurements. Again, it is not clear how these tablets were used.
  • Lú and Lú=ša, a list of professions (MSL volume 12)
  • Izi, a list of compound words ordered by increasing complexity
  • Diri "limited to compound logograms whose reading cannot be inferred from their individual components; it also includes marginal cases such as reduplications, presence or absence of determinatives, and the like." (MSL volume 14)
  • Nigga, Erimhuš and other school texts
  • Ana ittišu: a legal glossary.[6]

Extant Tablets

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Many copies of the series are known in collections such as the Louvre, British Museum and Ashmolean Museum. The original Akkadian texts were found during the Oxford-Field Museum Expedition to Kish, Iraq (1923-1933).[10] The texts are collated and summarised by Meer (1939).[1]

References

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  • Benno Landsberger The Series HAR-ra="hubullu", Materials for the Sumerian lexicon (MSL), 5. 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11, Rome: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, 1957-
  • A. Poebel, The Beginning of the Fourteenth Tablet of Harra Hubullu, The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, Vol. 52, No. 2 (Jan., 1936), pp. 111-114
  • Soldt, W. H. van, "Babylonian Lexical, Religious and Literary Texts, and Scribal Education at Ugarit and its Implications for the Alphabetic Literary Texts," in: Ugarit: ein ostmediterranes Kulturzentrum in Alten Orient: Ergebnisse und Perspektiven der Forschung, Dietrich and Loretz eds., Abhandlungen zur Literatur Alt-Syrien-Palästinas, vol 7, Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 1995, 171-212

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Meer, P. E. Van Der (1939). "Tablets of the HAR-ra = ḫubullu Series in the Ashmolean Museum". Iraq. 6 (2): 144–179. doi:10.2307/4241653. ISSN 0021-0889. JSTOR 4241653.
  2. ^ Tarp, Sven; Gouws, Rufus H. (2023). "A Necessary Redefinition of Lexicography in the Digital Age: Glossography, Dictionography and Implications for the Future". Lexikos. 33. doi:10.5788/33-1-1826. ISSN 2224-0039.
  3. ^ Azevedo, Isabel Cristina Michelan de; Piris, Eduardo Lopes (June 2018). "Tradition of foreign language teaching and learning: focusing on the Brazilian Portuguese as a Foreign Language textbook". Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada. 18 (2): 417–443. doi:10.1590/1984-6398201812044. ISSN 1984-6398.
  4. ^ Watson, R.; Horowitz, W. (2011-01-01), "Chapter Seven. Further Thoughts: The Cognitive Function Of Writing In MUL.APIN", Writing Science before the Greeks, BRILL, pp. 157–168, doi:10.1163/ej.9789004202306.i-223.57, ISBN 978-90-04-20231-3, retrieved 2024-01-02
  5. ^ HOROWITZ, W (1988). "An Assur Source for Urra 21: KAV 80 90 137 ( ) 89". An Assur Source for Urra 21: KAV 80 90 137 ( ) 89. 35: 64–72.
  6. ^ a b Goetze, Albrecht (1939). "Review of Die Serie ana ittišu". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 59 (2): 265–271. doi:10.2307/594069. ISSN 0003-0279. JSTOR 594069.
  7. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2016-10-24). "Hittite kapart-/kapirt - 'small rodent' and Proto-Semitic *ˁkbr-t- 'mouse, jerboa'". Indogermanische Forschungen. 121 (1): 53–62. doi:10.1515/if-2016-0003. ISSN 1613-0405. S2CID 171132035.
  8. ^ Heeßel, Nils P. (2012-10-26). "Diagnosis, Mesopotamian". The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. doi:10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah21106. ISBN 978-1-4051-7935-5.
  9. ^ Steele, Colin (October 2016). "You could look it up: the reference shelf from ancient Babylon to Wikipedia". The Australian Library Journal. 65 (4): 342–343. doi:10.1080/00049670.2016.1242103. ISSN 0004-9670.
  10. ^ "Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK - Collections". CDLI. Retrieved 2024-10-25.
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