the gods of ebla - archi, alfonso

8/18/2019 The Gods of Ebla - Archi, Alfonso

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The Netherlands Institute for the Near East

Leiden

The Netherlands Institute in Turkey

Istanbul

Annual Report 2 1


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The Netherlands Institutefor the Near East

Witte Singel 25, 2311 BG Leiden

P.O.Box 9515, 2300 RA Leiden

www.nino-leiden.nl

The Netherlands Institutein Turkey

İstiklal Caddesi, Nur-i Ziya Sk. 5,

Beyoğlu, Istanbul

P.K. 132, Beyoğlu 34431, Istanbul

www.nit-istanbul.org

Front cover:

Still images of 3D model of shabti in

the Böhl Collection (Inv. no. 1342).

Visit www.nino-leiden.nl to view or

download this Annual Report as a pdf

file, containing the full 3D model.

In the digital Annual Report, it is possible

to turn the model in any direction and

view the shabti from all sides.

For information on this and otherEgyptian objects in the Böhl Collection,

see the article by E.J. Holwerda

on pp. 35-43.

3D model and stills by P. Del Vesco.


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Annual Report • Netherlands Institute for the Near East , Leiden • Netherlands Institute in Turkey , Istanbul • 1

Preface Jesper Eidem

General Director NINO and NIT

Both NINO and NIT enjoyed a busy andproductive 2010. Due to a temporary moratorium

on new excavation permits in Syria the NINOproject at Qala’at Halwanji (see article pp. 19-25)

was postponed to 2011. The interval was usedto round off the investigations at Tell Aushariye(see www.aushariye.hum.ku.dk), where asuccessful final season took place in the springof 2010. The NIT excavations at Barc ın Höyükproceeded in summer(see article pp. 13-17),and in autumn theinstitute moved to new

and better locations within the RCAC ofKoç University.

To ensure the futureof our archaeologicalprojects applications

were prepared andsubmitted by bothNINO and NIT to

The Netherlands Organisation for ScientificResearch (NWO), and in early 2011 we receivedofficial confirmation of substantial subsidiesgranted to both institutes. With this supportour activities in the Middle East are funded forthe next few years, and we have high hopes forimportant results from these endeavours.

Our work in the Middle East is of coursemuch dependent on the local environments,and the recent dramatic developments inseveral parts of the region, which at the time of

writing have not yet produced stable situations,

have already had some negative effects onarchaeological sites. It is to be hoped that such

effects remain slight, and that scientific workcan soon be resumed everywhere. Our work ispart of a global concern for shared culturalheritage, and as such not political. On a morepersonal level, however, thoughts are verymuch with friends, colleagues and associates inthe Middle East, and we share their hopes for a

peaceful and prosper-ous future.

The NINO library, where ready access tothe books is muchappreciated by themany users, both fromthe Netherlands andabroad, continued ahealthy growth withclose to 1000 newacquisitions. Plans for

web-based, open accessto the NINO collections are being developed,and will hopefully reach maturity in 2011.

During the year the complete range ofNINO publications appeared in new splendidcovers, designed by C.H. van Zoest, andbeautifully printed by Peeters in Belgium. The2009 Annual Report, the first to appear inprinted version and supplied with articlesdetailing aspects of our activities, was widelydistributed, and solicited many positivecomments. We hope this year’s report meets

with similar success!

Tell Aushariye, Syria.


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2 • Annual Report • Netherlands Institute for the Near East , Leiden • Netherlands Institute in Turkey , Istanbul

Figure 1. Major sites in the Levant and Syria ca. 2400 BC.The approximate extent of the Kingdom of Ebla is marked by a broken white line.

Ebla conquered the city of Hashshum on its northern border ca. 2375 BC.


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Figure 2. The foundations of the Temple of Kura (or “Red Temple”) discovered in

2008 under a later temple (first half of the second millennium BC) devoted to Ishtar.

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texts like incantations and some lexical lists which the Eblaite scribes adapted and

translated. These are the earliest vocabularies wehave. Only five Sumerian gods appear in theselists for purely lexical reasons (including Enlil,the head of the pantheon, and the Moon godNannar). Ebla not only constitutes the earliestSemitic culture known to us,but it is also that in whichSumerian and, more generally,Mesopotamian influence isleast evident.

The administrative textsfrom Ebla document notonly the city’s pantheon, butthat of the entire kingdom,that is to say, most of north-

western Syria. Ebla confirms what we have known for along time: there was nosingle, shared Semiticpantheon. Undoubtedly,there are the commoncelestial divinities: the Sun (see separate text box) andthe Moon (see separate textbox). The only fully-personified, shared Semiticdivinity is Ishtar , probably connected with thestar (planet) Venus as early as the thirdmillennium. She was known throughout theSemitic-speaking regions, and was the mostimportant goddess of Mari already from thethird millennium. The epithet “Ishtar-of-the-poplar” ( populus Euphratica ), known at Ebla as

well as at Mari, points to the roots of her cultlying in the Euphrates valley. Ishtar was the

object of a specific cult at Ebla as “Ishtar-of-the-palace”, and also appears in the weddingritual of the royal couple.

The concentration of political power in Syriainto three regional states, Ebla, Mari and Nagar

(in the Habur River triangle) – a process that dates to themid-25th century – did notpromote the tutelary gods ofthese three cities to the statusof regional deities. Forexample, the god of Ebla wasKura and allied kings sworeallegiance in his temple (Fig. 2).His relevance, however, didnot extend beyond the cityboundaries. In the politicaltreaty between Ebla and

Abarsal (Tell Chuera), theonly specific gods invokedare the Sun-god and Hadda.Representatives from the cityof Nagar swore allegiance at

Tuttul (Tell Bi’a, upstream ofMari), in the temple of Dagan.

In the geo-political scenario describedabove, certain “principal gods” emerged,

whose area of influence did not, however,coincide with any of the regional states.

Dagan was the god of the middleEuphrates. His main sanctuary was at Tuttul, acity that probably remained independent until

Utu or Shamash, the Sun Deity

The Sun was the god of justice, theguarantor of treaties, since it witnessedeverything from heaven. This deity isreferred to both as female and as male: inan incantation, the Sumerogram Utu (whichwas read Shamash in Eblaite) takes a verb inthe feminine form, while in the marriageritual for the royal couple, the name of thegod is related to a masculine form of a verb.

The gender of this deity is not obvious inOld Akkadian either. In some personalnames it is female: Ummi-Shamash “mymother is the Sun”; in others it is male:Sharru-ki-Shamash “the king is like the Sun”.The latter is in line with the other OldAkkadian documentation, such as seals,where Shamash is portrayed as a masculinefigure. It is hard to explain this duality atEbla, because it was scarcely influenced byBabylonia. Originally the Sun had to be

feminine in Semitic, according to Arabic andthe West Semitic languages.

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the middle of the 25th century when it wasconquered by Mari. Dagan was known by the

significant title of “king of the country” fromthe land of Sumer, in southern Mesopotamia,to Mari. Dagan maintained this role in thesame area throughout the second millennium,even though he was now part of a morecomplex theological context.

West of the Euphrates was the realm of thestorm-god Hadda of Aleppo. His temple layon a rocky rise, now covered by the medievalcitadel in the centre of Aleppo.

To the west, the area of the cult of the godHadabal extended beyond the mountainranges which form a natural border to thenorth-west and west of the Aleppo plain. Thenumerous cult places dedicated to this god

were situated mostly in rural centres in theOrontes valley. One of the three mainsanctuaries was at Hamadu, modern-day Hama,roughly seventy kilometres south of Ebla.

The Lady of Nagar was the goddess of theUpper Khabur, known at Mari also in the

Amorite period. She has to be identified withHaburîtum, “the Lady of the Habur” of the Third Dynasty of Ur.

While these regional “principal gods”survived the invasion of the Amorites, the citygods like Kura and Hadabal disappeared.

There were goddesses who shared theirpower with their male partners, and others whohad their own specific prerogatives and abilities.Ishhara was associated directly with the Eblaite

Zuen or Sîn, the Moon God

This deity is rarely attested at Ebla, andusually preceded by the number 2: perhapsthe two phases of the Moon. This nameoccurs not only in Old Akkadian but also inSouth Arabic, a conservative language.

Another deity, Shanugaru, representedthe new Moon, because a ritual mentionshis “two horns.” The cult of this deity wascommon to Syria and northern Mesopotamia,because it is attested in the secondmillennium in Syria at Emar and Mari on theEuphrates, and at Qattara, west of theTigris. Marten Stol was able to identify it

with the Jebel Sinjar, a range of mountainsin the form of a crescent.

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dynasty, and there was an “Ishhara-of-the-king”.Her cult was widespread in numerous small

centres of the Ebla kingdom, as far as theEuphrates. At the end of the third millennium,Ishhara reached the kingdom of Ur, in southernMesopotamia, together withother Syrian gods (e.g.Dagan) as a consequence ofthe relations of Sumer withthe Syrian city-states of thatperiod. In Babylonia she wasin part assimilated withIshtar. In Syria she remained

the tutelary goddess of Ebla,as it appears from theHurrian Epic of Freeing , of the16th century.

The Amorite dynasty which settled in Ebla at thebeginning of the secondmillennium venerated Ishtar.

The inscription on a statuesays: “For Ishtar, Ibbit-lim,the son of Igrish-Hepa(t),the king of Eblaite stock,offered a basin in thetemple.”

Rashap (Reshef), who was widely veneratedin the following millennia as a warrior-godthreatening pestilence and death, wascelebrated particularly in Atanni, a citymentioned in the tablets from Alalah (thereforein the Antioch plain), and in Tunip, the capitalof a kingdom during the second millennium,

probably to be identified with Tell ‘Asharneh,on the Orontes not far from Hama. A

common epithet of Rashap was “of-the-garden”, which does not seem to refer to “thecemetery”, neither at Ebla, nor at Ugarit.

At Ebla, the spouse ofRashap was Adamma –there is also an “Adamma-of-the-garden”. In the secondmillennium this goddess wasno longer associated withRashap, but was included inthe Hurrian pantheon andassociated with the goddessof Karkamish, Kubaba, the“Goddess of the Lawsuit”.

What escapes us in adiachronic analysis is how adivinity could have its rootsin a relatively large territory,as is the case of Rashap, who

was a god of the Orontesregion, and yet be specifically

related to a universal andunavoidable fact like death.For Rashap one would

expect a great central sanctuary. When insteada god is given a particular function which many

would need on particular occasions, such asthat of oracles, one would expect him to havesanctuaries in various different localities.

The idea of cyclical renewal was a basicelement of the cult. Kura (not a war-god)received each year 500 grams of silver to renew

Zilashu and Ea/Enki

Zilashu was at Ebla undoubtedly a godof wine, because his name is a dissimilatedform from Eblaite tirishu, related to theNorthwest-Semitic word for “(new) wine”In Akkadian, Sirash is instead the goddess ofbeer, and also a common word for beer.Beer took the place of wine, since wine was

not produced in Sumer.The god Ea, Sumerian Enki, was the godof wisdom, who also had the function oftrickster. The name has to be read Hay(y)a,probably from the root meaning “to live”.While the incantations and hymns importedfrom the region of Kish present a totalfusion between Ea and Enki, the Eblaiteadministrative texts relate Ea to the wine-god Zilashu and Rashap.

Some of his rites were celebrated “in thegarden”. Semitic Ea/Hayya was thereforeoriginally a god of prosperity, probably ofthe subterranean water and perhaps alsorelated to the underworld. All mythological

thought concerning the Mesopotamian Eawas received from the Sumerians.

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The Gods of Ebla

Figure 4. Statuette of bull with human face, an example of the composite style

of Ebla: the wooden figure is covered by gold foil, with the beard in steatite.

Figure 3. Fragment of a male statue head, steatite. The lost

face, originally in wood, was covered by gold or silver foil.


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the face of his statue (Figs. 3-4). Rashapreceived, instead, a mace and two bull horns.

The case of Hadda of Halab is peculiar: he isthe only god who received a mace and two bullhorns twice a year, in the third and eightmonths. The semi-annual event must havebeen linked to the seasonal cycle: perhaps in

April the triumph of nature was celebrated, areawakening brought about by the end of

winter and arrival of spring rains; the festival inSeptember must have marked the period in

which new rain is invoked to end the dry andhot season.

The ancestors

The ancestor cult is a common trait in Syrianand Mesopotamian religion (Fig. 5). Ourevidence concerns just the dynastic cult, which

was closely connected with the marriage ritualof the royal couple. This ritual lasted 21 days.

The second week was spent at Nenash, a smallplace outside Ebla, seat of the mausoleum ofsome of the most ancient kings. There theMother-goddess “makes the announcement

that there is a new god Kura, a new goddessBarama; a new king, a new queen,” whichmeans that through the ritual, the king andqueen “substituted” their ancestors. Each year,in the month in which the king’s marriage hadoccurred, a commemorative ceremony tookplace at Nenash, which included a new dressingceremony of the king and queen in themausoleum, and a ritual meal.

The names of the deceased kings appear in thedocuments always preceded by the Sumerogram

dingir “god”, precisely as we find in the Ugariticlists. There is no doubt that dingir “god”

indicates that the king was deified. Theancestors were considered protective spirits.

The funerary ceremony had a peculiarcustom. In case of the death of an importantperson (belonging to the royal family or that ofthe minister) garments were “consigned for thefunerary ceremony”, also for some illustriousancestor, first of all to the direct previous kingsIgris-Halab and Irkab-damu. Only if thedeceased was a woman did female ancestorsreceive clothes together with two silver toggle-pins. Such clothing was used to dress figuresrepresenting the most important ancestors(possibly just a wooden frame with a mask),

which were exhibited during the funeralceremony. The presence of the ancestors,materialized in the funerary rites by means ofimages dressed with their usual garments, hadthe function of stressing the deceased’sappurtenance to the former members of thefamily; to reaffirm his/her status; to introducehim/her into the Netherworld. This is exactly

what we find at Ugarit, a thousand years later:the king achieved his privileged status in theUnderworld greeted by his ancestors who hadbeen evoked in the funeral ritual precisely forthis purpose.

The Passing of the Pantheon

In conclusion, Ebla shows the pantheon ofthe Semitic speaking population of thenorthwestern part of the Near East, as yetuninfluenced by Sumerian culture. This

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Figure 5. The royal hypogeum below the Palace, burial place of the kings of Ebla during the early second millennium BC.

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assumption can be supported by the cases ofZilashu and Ea/Enki (see separate text box).

One has to notice that according to thirdmillennium sources (Ebla, Old Akkadian), Eldid not exist, il being just a common namemeaning “god,” as in the expression: “the godof Abraham”. The god El was introduced inthe pantheon of Ugarit by theologians who

wanted to imitate the Babylonian generationsof gods.

What was the destiny of these gods in latertimes? With the arrival of the Amorites, Hadda

of Aleppo strengthened his role, becoming thedominant god throughout all of Syria. This wasdue to two factors. First, a more homogenouspopulation, even though the geo-politicalsituation remained unaltered in the first half ofthe second millennium with Syria still dividedinto three states: Mari, Aleppo and Qatna.Second: a common and fairly homogenouspantheon was consolidated, in certain aspectsas a result of Mesopotamian influence. Thegods were classified in generations. Dagan was

included in this system assuming thecharacteristics of a “former god”. Mariprovides the equation: Enlil (head of theSumerian-Akkadian pantheon) = Dagan;Hurrian texts that of Kumarbi (father of

Tessup) = Dagan. Dagan’s spouse (accordingto the Ebla texts) was Shalash; the Hurrianoffering lists from Aleppo paired her withKumarbi (while the Hurrian myths do notmention Kumarbi having any spouse). Dagan’scult expanded into the West; at Ugarit he was

related also to the cult of the dead. Dagan wasthe most long-lived god, being mentioned also

by the Church Fathers. Hadda assumed,instead, the role of the younger, victorious god,“the Lord”, Ba’al.

In a few cases, time caused a matrimonialcrisis. Adamma, originally spouse of Rashap,

was associated in the second millennium withthe goddess Kubaba.

Kamish’ curriculum vitae was similar to that ofRashap. His cult was well-established at Ebla.His three cult places were, however, in the south,

for example at Ibal, east of Qatna and Homs.Later he appears at Ugarit. In the first millenniumKamosh was the national god of Moab.

Further Reading

A recent general introduction to AncientNear Eastern religion is:

Daniel C. Snell, Religions of the Ancient Near East ,Cambridge University Press 2010.

For the archives of ancient Ebla see:

P. Matthiae, The Royal Archives of Ebla , Skira 2007.

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Figure 1. Plan of Barcın Höyük with the location of the trenches excavated in 2010.


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The NIT excavations at Barcın Höyük, 2010Fokke Gerritsen and Rana Özbal

The excavations at Barc ı n Höyük continued in thesummer of 2010. The previous NINO-NIT Annual

Report presented an introduction to the site and theresearch project and described the activities of the 2009campaign. In the current contribution we will focus onthe first results of the 2010 season.

Introduction

Remains from several periods wereencountered in the 2010 excavations, includingthe Early Bronze Age and Late Roman, but theemphasis of the investigations was on the Late

Neolithic levels. From them, we hope to learnabout the character and development of one ofthe earliest farming communities innorthwestern Anatolia. On current evidence,the early periods of occupation represented atBarc ın Höyük predate those of most otherexcavations in the Marmara Region, and thesite offers an important opportunity to studythe place and role of the Marmara Region inthe development of agriculture and animalhusbandry.

Excavations were carried out in five trenches(L12, L13, L14, M10 and M11), all of which

were excavated also in previous years (Fig. 1).Investigations in L13 and L14 had thecharacter of soundings, aiming primarily atobtaining stratigraphic information. Theinvestigations in L12, M10 and M11 on theother hand aimed at exposing architecturalremains and indoor and outdoor settlementspaces from a single stratum.

Houses and courtyards in

trenches M10, M11 and L12

Three trenches were excavated over the fullarea of nine by nine meters, and as in previousyears they continued to yield remains ofdomestic architecture and outdoor living areas.No work was done in trench L11 this year inorder to give the other trenches the opportunityto reach the same stratigraphical level.

One goal for L12, for example, was toexpose the remainder of the house whosenorthern half was first discovered in 2007 inL11. The southern and eastern walls of thehouse were found indeed, as was evidence for acomplex use history of the building of whichmany aspects remain to be investigated. One,perhaps two, walls of an adjacent building tothe south were encountered as well.

Similarly, trench M11 yielded several post-and-loam walls of houses, and indoor andoutdoor floors and garbage deposits. Muchmore than in earlier years, the Neolithicremains encountered in this trench were more

coherent and informative, and are beginning toproduce a picture of an intensively used andinhabited area within a Neolithic settlement.

Whereas the upper levels dating to theNeolithic from trenches M10, M11 and L12had been rather heavily disturbed by pits, thelayers that were reached in particular in M10showed many fewer disturbances. At the endof the season, the remains of (probably) threeadjacent houses were exposed in M10,bounded to the north by an open courtyard


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The NIT excavations at Barc ın Höyük, 2010

Figure 2. Burnt rubble in the interior of a house in M10.

The row of small round pits in the foreground indicate the location of the post-built wall of the house.

Figure 3. Restored ceramic vessel with four vertically

pierced lugs from which the pot could be suspended.


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area with a series of outdoor surfaces. One ofthe houses was destroyed by a fierce fire (Fig.

2). The small corner which we exposed in the2010 campaign yielded many fragments ofheavily burnt loam with impressions of

wooden beams and reeds and among them twopot lids, originally unbaked, and a ceramic

vessel completely contorted by the fire. Thereis a real chance that this house will provide us

with a wealth of information onthe building and the suite ofactivities that took place inside.

Through an ongoing programof micro-archaeological and soilchemistry analyses from indoorand outdoor surfaces we hope togain an understanding of thecharacter and distribution of dailyactivities within the settlement.

The artifacts collected from theNeolithic, made mainly from stone(flint and obsidian), bone andpottery, give further insight into the material

culture of the period. The pottery from theselevels (Fig. 3), dated provisionally to the 63rd and 62nd centuries BC, fits in with the material

we know from other sites in the Marmara area,including Fikirtepe and Menteşe.

Towards the oldest occupation levelsin trench L13

In the northeast corner of trench L13 a 4x4meter deep sounding was dug with the aim ofreaching the natural surface below the moundand establishing the date of the initial

occupation of the mound. While this goal wasnot reached, and we now know that there is

about a meter of cultural deposits still toexcavate to reach the base of the mound, thesounding yielded important information. Itproduced a long sequence of outdoor surfaces,predating the levels reached in the othertrenches on the site. The surfaces incorporate anumber of small pits with heavily burnt sides

and bases, and two burials.Significant quantities of ceramics,chipped stone artifacts and faunalremains came from the surfaces

and the deposits between thesurfaces. This material representsmainly garbage, but as stratifiedgarbage it is of great value todistinguish changes over time inceramics, stone tool use and diet.

Many of these analyses areongoing, but initial resultsregarding the pottery are veryexciting. Project ceramicist

Laurens Thissen reports: “In this year’s trenchL13 a hitherto unknown pottery assemblage iscoming to light (Fig. 4). Representing the oldestpottery yet found on the site, and indeed fromnorthwest Anatolia as a whole, technologicallythe material is outstanding. Although forms aresimple and in line with the later tradition, the

vessels display a sophisticated craftsmanship, which can be seen in their smooth walls, theirhighly and carefully burnished surfaces, andin a mastery over firing techniques.

Funding

The Barcın Höyük Excavationswere funded between 2005 and2010 by a grant from NWO, the

Netherlands Organization forScientific Research, withadditional funding from theNINO-NIT research budget.

Following the end of the2010 season a new applicationwas submitted to NWO, forfunding for four more seasonsof excavations and analysis atBarcın Höyük. Early in 2011 thenews came that the applicationwas successful!



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Figure 5. Excavations in trench L13.

A Late Roman mudbrick wall runs from bottomright to center left. The area in front of itbelongs to the Late Roman occupation phase.Excavator Stefan Kooi stands directly behind thewall on levels dating to the Neolithic period.

Figure 4. Neolithic ceramics from the sounding in trench L13.


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Predominantly tempered with crushedcalcite, pots are very well suited to cooking.

Overall colours are shades of brown like thoselater on, but in the deepest layers yet reachedthere is also a tendency towards light grey,cream and pinkish surfaces. Especially thecream vessels have a smooth feel, are very wellmade, and by their characteristics seem toimitate stone vessels, fragments of which arefound sporadically in Barc ın Höyük. Despitethis pottery being the oldest found so far on thesite, it surpasses the later material techno-logically and esthetically, while simultaneously

fitting the tradition in terms of shapes,decoration techniques, and, probably, of use.”

A Late Roman occupation phase

The excavations in L13 and L14 also led tothe discovery of an occupation phase that wehad only had some glimpses of in the form ofsmall finds found out of context. It has nowbecome clear that the southern slope of theprehistoric mound was dug into in the LateRoman period to create a terrace for a building

made of mudbricks (Fig. 5). A section of theback wall of this building was found, set closeagainst the artificially steepened slope of theNeolithic mound. The interior surface of this

wall was covered with lime plaster. It had asquare bin set against it, next to which acooking pot lay squashed on a burnt floor.

The southern boundary of this Late Romancomplex, possibly a farmstead, was formed bya ditch running southeast to northwest throughtrench L14.

Team members in 2010

Archaeologists: Fokke Gerritsen, Rana Özbal, Aysel Arslan, Elisha van den Bos, GökhanÇakan, Kim Dekker, Cansu Demir, KerimKartal, Stefan Kooi, Emre Kuruçay ırl ı, GizemMeşekoparan, Naz Özkan, Anestis Vasilakeris,

Jolande Vos; Archaeometry: Hadi Özbal, Ayla Türkekul-B ıy ık; Ceramics: Laurens Thissen;Chipped stone: Ivan Gatsov, Petranka Nedelcheva;Faunal remains: Alfred Galik, Doris Würtenberger;Botanical remains and wood: René Cappers,Reinder Neef; Human remains: Jessica Pearson;aDNA: Joachim Burger; Conservation: P ınar

Güler; Registrar: Diane Özbal; Turkish governmentrepresentative: Ebru Dumlup ınar.



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Figure 1. Seal image on QH.09-01.


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In the NINO/NIT Annual Report 2009 (pp. 3- 10) an article described the first investigations at the

site of Qala’at Halwanji in northern Syria 2008-9. Inthis issue a seal image is presented, found on clay corksexcavated at the site in 2009.

Introduction

One day in the 18th century BC a shipment ofjars arrived at a hilltop fortress on the Sajourriver in present-day northern Syria. The jars

were closed with corks made of unbaked clay,and across the corks were images, produced bya cylinder seal rolled upon the clay

when still moist. This had beeneffected by an as yet unidentifiedindividual, who was responsiblefor the shipment, and wanted toprevent any tampering with ituntil it reached its properdestination. This person wasevidently an important figure –to judge from the quality of theseal used. Let us take a closerlook at the image on the seal, as

impressed on one of the corks (Fig. 1). The central element is a boat with the godHaya (a Syrian form of the Sumerian Enki; seethe article by A. Archi, text box p. 7), enthronedon a lion-footed chair on a platform. He isapproached by his double-faced vizier (inMesopotamia known as Isimud) leading asupplicant king by the hand. Behind the god isa naked figure punting the boat, which in bothprow and stern is supplied with water godsjoining as a stylized stream under the boat.

Next to this scene is a number of animalcontest scenes involving lions, bulls, and a stag.

Horizontal borders of guilloche bands frame theseal image.

Although the outlines and details of theimpression are somewhat blurred, it is clearthat the original seal image was executed withgreat skill. It was cut in negative on a surface ofhard stone, probably haematite, and just a fewcentimeters square. The figures have realisticproportions and elegant poses; their faces,

muscles, garments etc. arerendered with many details.

Who owned this seal? Wheredid the jars come from? Whatdid they contain? Who wasreceiving them? What was theancient name of the fortress?

These are just some of thequestions which intrigue us.Precise information is perhapsforthcoming as excavation of thehilltop fortress proceeds, but for

now we must remain with some hints andsuggestions.

Qala’at Halwanji

The modern name of the hilltop is Qala’atHalwanji, Arabic for “Castle of the sweet-

vendor” – after the nearby modern village ofHalwanji (Fig. 2). It is partly covered with theburied ruins of a fortress which wasconstructed here in the Middle Bronze Age,nearly 4000 years ago. The fortress existedbriefly in the early 18th century BC until

Corks, broken jars, and the God of Wisdom.A seal image from ancient Syria in context

Jesper Eidem

Mari

Famous ancient city on theEuphrates in Syria, excavatedsince the 1930’ies by Frencharchaeologists. In the MiddleBronze Age palace, destroyed ca.1760 BC, large royal archives ofclay tablets (ca. 20.000) inscribedwith text in cuneiform writingwere found. These texts providea sometimes very detailedhistorical panorama of the last ca.30 years before the destruction.


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Corks, broken jars, and the God of Wisdom. A seal image from ancient Syria in context

Figure 2. 3D model of Qala’at Halwanji with inset showing sondages in the area of the “Governor’s Palace”.


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destroyed by fire, probably as a result of warfare. Qala’at Halwanji was first identified as

an archaeological site in 2007, and in 2008-9 aSyrian-Danish expedition carried out preliminaryinvestigations, mapping the siteand excavating the first smalltrenches to get an impression ofthe archaeological situation. Itemerged that the site was erodedover much of its ca. 5 hectare sur-face, but in places exceptionally

well-preserved. Walls still standingup to three meters high were

excavated in the southwest cornerof the site, and they probablybelonged to the administrativecenter of the fortress. Provisionally we refer tothis structure as “The Governor’s Palace”.

The small sections of the building exposed sofar has walls ca. 1,6 m thick and made of greybricks, similar also in size (34 x 34 x 14 cm) tothose in the contemporary rampartsections excavated. If we assumethat the southwest corner of thesite was occupied by a single, largebuilding, we can estimate that itcovers an area of ca. 50 x 50 m= 2500 sqm. This would make itcomparable in size to anotherMiddle Bronze Age ‘palace’,excavated by German archaeologists at TellBi’a, some 120 kms southeast of Halwanji.

The clay corks were found in Sondage 19, which featured a northern wall, parallel with –

and partly beyond the edge of the trench (Fig. 3). The room/space south of this wall contained

numerous crushed vessels, both items from thecollapsed roof or upper storey, and items

originally placed on the floor. Aninteresting assemblage on thefloor was found close to the

wall. It consists of four cups,five trifoil jugs, and threemedium sized jars, all heavilyburned, and smashed into manysmall pieces – so that restorationof this set is not yet completed

(Fig. 4). Together with thispottery were two clay jar corksand a small limestone lid,

certainly once used to close the three jarsfound (Fig. 5). The clay corks are conicalcovers which originally was used to seal theopening of a jar with a rim dm of ca. 10 cm.

They were supplied with rollings from acylinder seal, from the broaderbase and across the pointedupper end to the opposite base.

One specimen (QH.09-2) hadtwo – the other (QH.09-1) threerollings made with the same seal(Fig. 4).

Interestingly a small fragmentfrom the top of a similar object

and sealed with the same seal was found in fillin Sondage 13 to the west. Similar objects havebeen found in Tell Bi’a (ancient Tuttul), wherethe sealings, however, were made on strips of


Vintage wine

Texts from Mari mentiondifferent qualities of wine, the besta kind of liqueur created bycondensing wine of lower quality,and referred to as sī mum. Winehad to be consumed within a fewyears, and was usually diluted withwater before serving.

The city of Karkemish (on the

border between Turkey andSyria) was an important center forwine trade.

The price of wine

A ca. 10 litre jar with wine cost60 “grain” of silver – including amere 3 “grain” for the empty jar.60 “grain” was 1/3 of a shekel (= 8grams). It is not easy to translatethis into a modern price, but weknow it was possible to live fairlywell (food, oil, firewood etc.) on 7shekels a month.


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Figure 3. Floor with crushed vessels in Sondage 19.The bottom of cork QH.09-1 is visible in the lower

right corner (indicated).

Figure 4. Close up of cork in situ.


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finer clay attached to the cap, itself made ofcoarser clay. Most of the corks found at Tell Bi’a

were apparently applied locally, so that thecontents of the jars were either produced closeto the site, or ‘rebottled’ there. Such a scenariois less likely for the Halwanji corks.

The Historical Context

We plan to carry out aprogramme of residue analysis onceramic vessels from Halwanji,but until firmer evidence isavailable it seems likely that the

sealed jars from Sondage 19 couldhave contained wine. Wine was widely consumed in elite contexts,and from the archives of cuneiform textsexcavated at ancient Mari (see separate textbox) we have a good deal of information onthis (see separate text boxes). Thus we knowthat wine was usually transported in jarscontaining ca. 10 litres each, and this could fitthe examples from Halwanji, which had amaximum capacity of some 15 litres. Wine was

traded or exchanged as gifts, and reachedcentral Syria (Mari) from the region of modern Aleppo and a number of towns in northernSyria or southern Anatolia.

Also the seal fits into this geographicalhorizon. Actual cylinder seals or impressions

with similar style and imagery found elsewheremostly derive from the same general region.

We may therefore assume that the Halwanjijars arrived from a location within that region,but unfortunately not with confidence point to

a specific town. The closest parallel to theHalwanji sealing is found on an envelope for a

cuneiform tablet excavated in Kültepe, ancientKanesh (see separate text box), in southeastern

Anatolia, and shown here in Fig. 6. On this sealthe god Haya is not seated in aboat, but the association with

water is indicated by streamsemanating from his shoulders andsurrounding the swirl of watergods next to the main scene. Thesupplicant led by the double-faced

vizier is beardless and bare-headed,

in contrast to the counterpart onthe Halwanji seal, who is a royalfigure. Apart from the main

scene, otherwise rare in this period, one notesthe similarities in details and not least in style

which the two seals share. Interestingly theswirl of water gods on the Kültepe seal, also afairly rare north Syrian feature, is found,

virtually identical, on another seal impressionfrom Qala’at Halwanji. The two seals clearlybelong in the same tradition, and must have

been made not very far apart in time and space. The Kültepe tablet is dated with the name of

an eponym official, Tab-silli-Assur, and since thesequence of these eponyms is known, it can beestablished that the envelope with its sealing

was made in the year 1776 BC (according to theconventional chronology). Use of the two sealsconsidered here may of course have extendedover a fairly long period, but hardly more than50 years, which would date the arrival of our jarsto Halwanji between 1800-1750 BC.


Kültepe

Ancient Kanesh was thecapital of an Anatolian kingdom.In Kanesh was also a colony ofmerchants from the city ofAssur in modern Iraq (some1200 km to the southeast). Themerchants exported tin andwoolen textiles to Anatolia,where they sold these goodsfor silver (see article in NINO/ NIT Annual Report 2009, 22-25).


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Figure 5. Partly reconstructed jars and jug from Sondage 19.

Figure 6. Seal image on tablet found at Kültepe.



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As mentioned the jars were found together with broken jugs, which could have been used

to serve wine – into the cups found. Did thefire which destroyed the fortress perhapsdisturb a wine-tasting session – or a night-capin the “Governor’s Palace”?Perhaps we shall know one day...

Incidentally 1776 BC is exactlythe year in which the famousnorth Mesopotamian kingShamshi-Adad I died (seeseparate text box). In earlierpresentations we have discussedthe possibility that Qala’atHalwanji could be identical witha fortress established 1786 BC bythis king, and modestly namedDur-Shamshi-Adad, “TheFortress of Shamshi-Adad”. The fortress wasintended to guard the frontier between hiskingdom and the kingdom of Jamhad to the

west, but was conquered by Jamhad in 1779BC. Recently other scholars have suggested thatthis fortress should be sought more to thesouth, and this can not be excluded. Moreevidence is needed to solve this problem, and

we hope it may appear in the new series ofSyrian-Dutch excavations at Qala’at Halwanjiplanned to begin in late 2011.

Acknowledgments

In 2008 and 2009 the archaeological work atQala’at Halwanji was directed by J. Eidem,then senior fellow in the Cluster of Excellence

‘TOPOI’, Freie Universität Berlin, and Syrian co-directors were A. Nasser (2008) and M. Fakhru

(2009). The work was generously sponsored bythe Augustinus Foundation (Copenhagen) andthe Danish Institute in Damascus.

Photos Figs. 1 and 3-5 byHenrik Brahe; 3D model Fig. 2by Paolo Del Vesco; seal imageFig. 6 after N. Özgüç, Seals andSeal Impressions of Level Ib fromKarum Kanesh . Ankara 1968, Pl.XIc.

Further Reading

For a general description ofthe site of Qala’at Halwanji see:

J. Eidem, Qala’at Halwanji: A4000 year old fortress in Syria, Annual Report

NINO/NIT 2009 , 2-10.

Syrian seals from the Middle Bronze Agehave been studied in:

A. Otto, Die Entstehung und Entwicklung der Klassisch-

Syrischen Glyptik. UAVA 8. W. de Gruyter 2000. Texts from ancient Mari relating to wine

have been studied in:

G. Chambon, Les Archives du vin de Mari . FM XI.Paris 2009.

An alternative location of Dur-Shamshi-Adad(at Tell Qitar, some 35 kms south of Halwanji)is suggested by A. Otto and N. Ziegler in:

Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum and Nele Ziegler (eds.), Entre les fleuves 1. BBVO 20. Berlin 2009.


Shamshi-Adad

Although less known than hisfamous contemporary, Hammurabiof Babylon, Shamshi-Adad (ca.1850-1776 BC) was a key figure ofhis time. Originally king of a smallarea in central Iraq, he created alarge, but short-lived empire

covering most of modern northernIraq and eastern Syria. He placedtwo sons as viceroys on the flanksof the empire. The older Ishme-Dagan in the east, and the younger Jasmah-Addu in Mari in the west.


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Figure 1. PF 0688 with impression of seal PFS 0857s, the seal of Gobryas

(image courtesy Persepolis Fortification Archive Project).


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Many nations, many tongues

When king Darius (521-486 BC ) proudlyproclaimed the vastness of his realm, the firstever world empire, he was hardly overstatingits diversity by calling it an empire of ‘manytongues.’ Indeed, historians of the Achaemenidor Persian Empire (c. 550-330 BC ) have to cope

with sources written in Old Persian, Elamite,Babylonian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Demotic,Lydian, Greek and other languages, not tomention archaeological and iconographicmaterial. Even more challenging, however, isthe task to integrate these sources – each with

its own limitations and problems – into acoherent perspective. Greek narrativehistoriography, especially the celebratedHistories of Herodotus, has long functioned asthe central ‘story’ of the Achaemenid empire,but has now largely ceded that position, aftercritical re-evaluation of its (often unintentionally)biased and limited views. This, naturally, doesnot mean that Greek evidence should beignored – if only because sources from withinthe Achaemenid empire hardly include any

narrative historiography – but rather that itshould be carefully evaluated against thebackground of primary evidence.

One major corpus of primary sources is thePersepolis Fortification Archive. Excavated in1933/34 at Persepolis, a royal residence in the

Achaemenid heartland of southwestern Iran,the archive comprises about 7000 to 8000legible tablets and fragments inscribed inElamite cuneiform, up to 1000 tablets written

in Aramaic alphabetic script, and at least some5000 tablets that have only impressions of

cylinder and stamp seals. Most of the Elamiteand Aramaic tablets are sealed as well. Thethousands of seal images in the archive are areal gold mine for specialists of Achaemenidiconography (Fig. 1).

An Imperial Universe

The texts and intricate sealing patterns fromthe Fortification Archive bear witness to ahighly complex institutional administration.

This complexity lies, first, on the level of

speech. Aramaic and Elamite (a language fromsouthwestern Iran) were used as bureaucraticlanguages in a milieu where Old Iranian wasthe predominant spoken language, as appearsfrom the many Old Iranian loanwords in thetexts. Second, the territory under purview ofthe organisation was vast (roughly the size ofSwitzerland) and its dependent manpower ranin the tens of thousands, not to mention itsinnumerable fowl, sheep and cattle. But mostimportant is the fact that, though dated tablets

stem from a relatively short period (509-493BC ) and represent but a fragment of an even vaster documentation, they touch on manyfeatures central to understanding the

Achaemenid empire. The archive pertains tothe production, storage and redistribution oflocally produced food commodities; recipientsincluded gods, royals, nobles, officers andtroops, officials and craftsmen, travellers,labourers and animals. As such, it informs uson crop production and livestock breeding, but

Xerxes, Atossa, and thePersepolis Fortification Archive

Wouter F.M. Henkelman


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Xerxes, Atossa, and the Persepolis Fortification Archive

Persepolis Fortification Tablet NN 1657

TransliterationObverse (01) 7 QA ZÍD.DAMEŠ kur-mán HAL

(02) mi-┌ ri ┐-iz-za-na HALtam5-šá-ka4-ma(03) hi-še HALba-ir-da AŠri-pi ku-(04) ti-ra! HALše-ir-šá da-ma(05) a-ak 3 HALak-ka4-ia-┌ še i-da-ka4 ┐

(06)HAL

EŠŠANA-ik-ka4-mar AŠ

ba-ir-da(07) la-ak-ka4 ┌ hu ┐-pi-be galLower edge (08) du-┌ iš ┐ [1] ┌ AN ┐na-anReverse (09) ANITIMEŠ ┌ AN ┐sa-a-kur-ri-┌ zí-iš ┐[(-na) AŠ ]

(10) be-ul 24-┌ um-me ┐-man-na [gal](11) ap-pi-┌ e-na ┐ 1 ┌ QA tanMEŠ ┐ (12) 1 HALpu-hu 1 QA du-iš!-da(13) AŠhal-mi HALEŠŠANA-na ku-iz-za

Translation01 7 l. flour, 01-02 allocation from Mirizza, 02-03 a Parthian named Tamšakama, 03-04 spear bearer, 04 sent/assigned by Xerxes(*Xšēršā ), 05 together with his three companions, 06-07 sentfrom the King to Parthia: 07-08 they received (it as) ration (for)1 day. 09-10 Third month, 24th year. 10-11 Their ration (was) 1.5 l.,12 1 servant received 1 l. 13 He (T.) carried a sealed documentfrom the King.

Figure 2. NN 1657: obverse, lower edge and reverse (image courtesy Persepolis Fortification Archive Project).


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also on bureaucratic principles, taxation,infrastructure, economic development, royal

roads, status of women, organisation of labour,markets, the royal table, demo-graphy, royal building projects,cultic matters, the pantheon, etc.

The tablets, tiny as they are andmundane as their individualcontent may be, offer us preciousglimpses into an imperial universe.

Most of the Elamite tablets aretongue-shaped objects with amaximum width of only 6 cm.Such tablets record single transactions and areknown as memoranda. They are usually sealedon the flattened left edge, and on the reverse.If, for example, a traveller on an officialmission would receive provisionsat one of the way stations alongthe royal roads, a memorandum

would be written for eachcommodity issued. The store-keeper of the way station wouldrole his seal over the left edge andthe traveller would acknowledgereceipt by doing the same on thereverse of the tablet. After acertain interval, such memoranda

were collected at the way stationand transported to Persepolis,

where they were checked andprocessed into registers andaccounts of various formats andlayouts.

Irdabama and Xerxes

One subject for which study of theFortification Archive has proven to be

particularly fruitful is that of thestatus of royal women, particularlyIrdabama. This eye-catchingpersonality, perhaps the mother ofDarius, underlines the fragmentaryperspective of the Greek sources,

which never mention her name. Bycontrast, Herodotus treats us tosome ‘inside’ stories about Xerxes’mother Atossa, who, as he claims,

was a main force behind Darius’ decision toinvade Greece and the selection of her son ascrown prince in 486 BC. As to the date andcircumstances of Xerxes’ selection, one text is

of special interest:7 litres of flour, allocation from Mirizza,a Parthian named Tamšakama, spearbearer, sent/assigned by Xerxes,together with his three companions,sent from the King to Parthia: theyreceived (it as) ration (for) one day.

Third month, 24th

year. Their ration(was) 1.5 litre, one servant received 1litre. He (T.) carried a sealed documentfrom the King.

The document, first publishedhere, dates to May/June 498,making it the earliest datedreference to Xerxes. It predates486 BC, the date of Xerxes’selection as crown prince

according to Herodotus, by twelve years. And


Economic power

Documents from theFortification Archive showthat Irdabama was owner ofdomains in southwestern Iranand in Babylonia, and directorof a force of thousands ofdependent labourers. She hada private administrative staffand headed her own royalhousehold and ‘royal table’.

Power behind the throne?

Herodotus tells us thatAtossa was able to influenceDarius to choose her sonXerxes as heir to the throneover his firstborn son.

It has long been suggestedthat Xerxes was actually

selected because Atossa wasa daughter of Cyrus theGreat and belonged to thepreceding Teispid dynasty.This way of saving Herodotus’face is, however, squarelycontradicted by the tablets,which clearly show that queenIrtaštuna, another daughterof Cyrus, was the leader ofthe remaining Teispids.


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Figure 3. Persepolis, palace of Darius:image of crown prince Xerxes andattendants; the faces have been mutilatedduring the Macedonian invasion or at alater date (image Oriental Institute of

the University of Chicago).


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although our text does not state Xerxes’ rank,it does indicate that he had at least attained a

position of some importance. Parthian men,spear bearers, were assigned by him. The termused, dama , suggests in this context a role in thechain of command, perhaps as (a) commanderin the important satrapy ofParthia. Since the Parthianmen were travelling from theking to Parthia, and werecarrying a sealed authorisationfrom the King, they may havebeen initially dispatched by

Xerxes to report to his father.Having done so, they werenow heading back with theking’s response. The contextmakes the scribe’s silence onXerxes’ title (or the fact thathe was Darius’ son) eloquent:his position was apparently

well-known.

Other primary sourcesconfirm the impression givenby NN 1657. At Persepolis, inthe palace ( tacara ) of Darius,most reliefs showing thefigure of the king are inscribed

with captions identifying“Darius the Great King, son of Hystaspes, the

Achaemenid” (DPa). One caption, however,speaks of “Xerxes, son of king Darius, an

Achaemenid” (XPk). The absence of the titleking, and the fact that the palace was built in

the reign of Darius, leads to the conclusionthat Xerxes is here referred to as crown prince.

If Atossa’s status depended on Xerxes’election as crown prince, one would expect tofind abundant references to her, starting, at thelatest, in 498 (the date of our text). Instead, we

find only two texts referring to‘Udusana’, dated to 500/499,and nothing beyond that.

There is no indication that herstatus was comparable to thatof Irdabama and Irtaštuna.Moreover, the royal ladyIrdabama is, in contrast to

Atossa, well attested in thelater years of the archive.

Xerxes himself relates inan inscription (XPf) thatDarius had chosen himamong his brothers and madehim “greatest” (i.e. crownprince). He does not mentionhis mother or the Teispid line,

but instead highlights his patri-lineal descent. Unless we forcethe Herodotean perspective ofthe all-powerful Atossa untothis primary source, itsmessage is clear enough. The

Fortification Archive, too, time and againdemonstrates the centrality of the King of Kings.Royal women indeed occur as responsibleactors heading their own econonomic house-holds, but their power is always a derivative of


Archive at Risk

Since 1935, the Persepolis Fortificationtablets, Iranian state property, have beenon loan to the Oriental Institute of theUniversity of Chicago for the purpose ofstudy and publication. They are currentlyunder threat of being auctioned to cover(a small) part of the damages awarded to

survivors and relatives of the victims ofterrorists’ attacks in Beirut (1983) and Jerusalem (1997), who have successfullyfiled cases before US courts against theIslamic Republic of Iran, purportedly co-sponsor and co-organizer of the attacks.

Under the US Anti-Terrorist Act, theplaintiffs were awarded damages worthabout 3.5 billion USD, and – if Iran doesnot comply with the verdict – have theright to lay claim on Iranian property inthe US. A legal battle is now being foughtto determine whether the law applies tocultural goods like the tablets. As Gil

Stein, director of the Oriental Institute,has stated, “If this actually happens, it wouldbe a loss to science of unprecedentedscale, and it would rob the Iranian peopleof one of the most important symbols oftheir cultural heritage and identity.”


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Figure 4. Map of southwestern Iran, indicating the approximate area covered by the

Persepolis Fortification Archive and schematic trajectories of the main royal roads.


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that of the king and does imply political status. Though their rights and status were unheard of

in fifth-century Athens, they were not theplotting powers behind the throne that Greekhistorians liked to fantasize about.

As for Atossa: the evidence from the tabletssuggests that she did not rise to real prominencebefore 493 BC (the end of the archive) andprobably not until after the accession ofXerxes. She may subsequently have gained arole comparable to that of Irdabama duringDarius’ reign, but this is speculation.

Thanks to the Fortification Archive,Irdabama emerges as a historical person, whereas Atossa remains what she already hadbeen for Herodotus: nothing but a name.

Further reading

P. Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander. A History of thePersian Empire , Winona Lake 2002 (esp. 520-524,958-959).

P. Calmeyer, Aufreihung – Duplik – Kopie –Umbildung, in: A. Kuhrt and H.W.A.M. Sancisi-

Weerdenburg (eds.), Method and Theory (Achaemenid History 3), Leiden 1988, 101-119.

M.B. Garrison & M.C. Root, Seals on the PersepolisForti fi cation Tablets, Part 1: Images of Heroic Encounter ,2 vols. (Oriental Institute Publications 117),Chicago 2001.

W.F.M. Henkelman, The Royal Achaemenid

Crown, Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran 28(1995/96), 275-293.

W.F.M. Henkelman, “Consumed before theKing.” The Table of Darius, that of Irdabamaand Irtaštuna, and that of his Satrap, Karkiš, in:B. Jacobs & R. Rollinger (eds.), Der Achämeniden- hof (Classica et Orientalia 2), Wiesbaden 2010,667-775.

A. Kuhrt, The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period , 2 vols., London 2007.

H.W.A.M. Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Exit Atossa:Images of Women in Greek Historiography onPersia, in: A. Cameron & A. Kuhrt (eds.), Images ofWomen in Antiquity , London/Detroit 1983, 20-33.


Virtual rescue?

In response to the threat ofloosing the physical tablets (seeprevious text box), an emergencyproject and an internationalcollaboration has been set up tosave at least their contents. The

members of the PersepolisFortification Archive Project arecurrently working hard tophotograph and publish all partsof the archive. Advancedphotographic techniques areapplied, including ‘polynominaltexture mapping’ (PTM), whichresults in image files that allowusers to change the direction andintensity of light (and therewiththe shades in cuneiform signs andseal impressions).


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Figure 1. Franz Böhl on a camel at Gizeh (Egypt)

on April 15, 1928.

Figure 2. Fragment of textile with fringe, lines oflight threads, and coloured tapestry-woven insets

(Inv. no. BEg 1, 64 x 51 cm).


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Since 1951, NINO is the owner of the BöhlCollection, named after its collector. Known for its

cuneiform tablets, the Böhl Collection also contains 75small Egyptian objects of great variety. Among themare figurines, amulets, groups of shabtis (funerarystatuettes), the face of a coffin, a leather sandal, awickerwork bag and an animalmummy. The Egyptian objectsrarely left their storage drawers,and remained without properresearch, description or publicationuntil this year, when they were thesubject of a Master’s thesis.

Documentation, research

and collection management

Research on the Egyptiancollection was long overdue,as its existence was unknownto many, including mostEgyptologists working in theNINO library. A full inven-tory list of the objects did notexist. Research thereforestarted with compiling thisbasic list. For the first timesince the objects were collected by Böhl, eachobject received a full description, accompaniedby photographs. An assessment of the objects’current condition was made, in order to under-take action towards optimal preservation. Forinstance, a piece of linen fabric, apparently leftfolded up since acquisition, received ‘emergency’treatment by a textile expert and is now safeand stable due to these conservation measures

(Inv. no. BEg 1; see below and Fig. 2). Further-more, the ancient history of the objects was

investigated: an interpretation of their date,provenance, original use or owner, and so on.Unfortunately, written sources on thisneglected part of the collection are scarce.

Interpretations were made ofthe collection’s more recenthistory, concerning acquisition,locations and purpose.

Finally, the role of (ancient)Egypt and the Egyptianobjects in Böhl’s life andcareer was investigated.

History of the Egyptian

collection

Böhl acquired his firstantiquities in 1922, when he

was able to buy the collectionof the Assyriologist Felix ErnstPeiser († 1921), comprising926 cuneiform tablets. Asmall piece of paper preserved

in Groningen, presumably acaption, mentions an Egyptianobject, ‘collection Böhl’ and ‘Peiser’. It is theonly indication that the Peiser collection alsocontained at least one Egyptian object, and thattherefore the starting point of the Egyptiancollection is June 1922.

The objects were kept and displayed forscientific and educational purposes at theSemitistische Werkkamer en verzameling vanBabylonische en Egyptische oudheden in Groningen,

From the NINO collections:

The Egyptian objectsEsther J. Holwerda

Prof. Dr Franz Marius Theodor

de Liagre Böhl, 1882-1976

Böhl was a renowned expert on theOld Testament and later on a well-knownAssyriologist. He was the son of EduardBöhl, professor of Evangelic Theology inVienna, and his Dutch wife JacquelineBaroness of Verschuer. Böhl extended his

surname to ‘De Liagre Böhl’ in 1949, inorder to keep a family name alive.

After a professorship in Hebrewlanguage and linguistics and ‘Israeliteantiquities’ at the University of Groningenfrom 1913 to 1927, Böhl was appointedprofessor of Assyriology at LeidenUniversity. He was co-director of theNetherlands Institute for the Near Eastfrom its foundation in 1939 until 1955.Until his death in 1976 he remained activein the academic world, publishing andattending events. In 1973, his bibliographycounted 321 published books, articles,

contributions and reviews.


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Figure 4. Plan of “chapels” A-F at Tehneh (after: Paleological Association of Japan,Report of the excavations at Akoris in Middle Egypt 1981-1992 , Kyoto 1995, Fig. 11).Inv. nos. 1339-1342 were among the shabtis found in the ‘southern room’ of Tomb 2(entrance through indicated shaft) during the 1926 excavations by Abu Seif.


The Egyptian objects

Figure 3. Shabtis belonging to Ankhefendjehuty,22nd dynasty (Inv. nos. 1339, 1340, 1342,

height 14.1, 15.7 and 14.3 cm).


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which Böhl opened on November 7, 1925. Theearliest documentation of the Semitistische Werk-

kamer may provide information on Böhl’s privatecollection, but its archive is yet to be located.

After having accepted the position ofprofessor of Assyriology at Leiden Universityin 1927, Böhl left behind several Egyptianobjects from his private collectionfor the Semitistische Werkkamer .

The current location of theseobjects is presumably an externalstoreroom of the UniversityMuseum at Groningen.

Once settled in Leiden, Böhlfounded the Assyriologische Werk- kamer and housed his collectionthere. Due to the proximity of theNational Museum of Antiquities,the Egyptian collection lost itseducational value and would rarelybe seen again. The collection wasrelocated to the nearby buildingof the National Museum of

Ethnology in two installments in 1935 and1937, and would remain in two basementrooms for the duration of sixteen years.

On July 13, 1951, the entire Böhl Collection was sold to NINO. As co-director of theInstitute, Böhl was ensured of partial govern-ance over the collection, as well as the right topublish (about) the objects. The focus being onthe cuneiform tablets, the Egyptian objects wereneglected. In the absence of a catalogue,publications and even a full inventory list, the

existence of the Egyptian collection was by thistime already virtually unknown to employees,

students, and visitors at the Institute. WhenNINO moved into a newly built Leiden Uni-

versity building in 1982, the Böhl Collection washoused in a purpose-built vault. Despite beingat hand for educational use, the Egyptian part

of the collection hardly ever servedthis purpose, as most of the Egypt-ology staff was – until recently –not aware of the existence ofEgyptian material in the vault.

Acquisition of Egyptian objects

Unfortunately, Böhl’s extensiveprivate correspondence and the fewother remaining documents, withone exception, give no clues as tohow the objects were acquired. Asingle receipt is preserved, writtenby a dealer at Luxor called Mohareb

Todrous and dated January 4, 1930.It concerns the purchase of tenEgyptian objects, of which several

are in the present collection. At the time, Böhl visited sites throughout Egypt in his capacity astravel guide. Since he travelled to Egypt almostyearly from 1925 to 1930, it is most likely thatsome or all of the other objects were purchasedduring similar travels or stop-overs in Egypt.However, European and Middle Easternauctions must be considered possible sources,as well as the possibility that some Egyptianobjects were mere ‘bycatch’ with purchases ofcuneiform tablets at auctions or art dealers.



The travelling years: 1925-1936

In April 1925, Böhl visitedEgypt for the first time, havingafternoon tea on top of theGreat Pyramid – somethingwhich “every proper tourist

must experience”. He thenbriefly visited Egypt every yearon his way to and from theexcavations of Sichem inPalestine, which he attended in1926, 1927 and 1928. Böhl wasa travel guide in Egypt in 1928,1930 and 1936.

Having lost his heart to Iraq,Böhl simply ceased to long forEgypt (as he himself stated) andwould not visit the countryagain after 1936.


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Face of the Egyptian collection

The object presented on the opposite page was connected to a human burial: a face, withpart of a wig, and neck, of a wooden coffin(Inv. no. 1356; Fig. 5). A layer of dark materialhas been applied to the wood, and over it, a layerof greyish plaster with organic additives. Theplaster is painted with red and black paint.Several peg holes, some still containing a peg,

were made to attach the face to a coffin.

The red skin-tone implies that it was probablymade for a male deceased. The execution of

the piece, with its disproportionally large eyes,long and narrow nose bridge, and small mouth,is somewhat lacking in finesse. This wouldsuggest that the piece was made for someoneranking not too high on the social ladder, or ina provincial workshop.

Böhl dated the object to the 22nd dynasty –but this is feasible only if he had specificknowledge of the original context of the piece.No specifics are known about its acquisition;there is no note of information mentioned by

an antiquities’ seller, for instance. On stylisticgrounds, the face should rather be attributed tothe Ptolemaic period.

Visit www.nino-leiden.nl to view or downloadthis Annual Report as a pdf file, containing a 3Dmodel of this object. In the digital AnnualReport, it is possible to turn the model in anydirection and view the object from all sides.

3D model by P. Del Vesco.


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Figure 5. Face of a coffin (Inv. no. 1356, 26.5 x 11.0 x 4.8 cm).


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Figure 6. CT image showing the contents of the animal mummy

(courtesy Amsterdam Medical Center).


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A highlight of the collection

The overall quality of the collection may beconsidered mediocre, but investigations broughtto light interesting stories behind severalobjects. For instance, it was possible to identifythe exact room in a tomb within a cemetery at

Tehneh, in which a group of shabtis (Inv. no.1339-1342; Figs. 3-4) were excavated in 1926.

After the piece of textile (Inv. no. BEg1; Fig. 2) was treated by an expert, it turned out to be partof a reused interior hanging, showing an unusualcombination of decorative techniques. It datesto the Roman period, 3rd-4th century AD.

However, surely the mostexciting discovery concerns theelaborately wrapped animalmummy from the Roman period(Inv. no. 1355; Fig. 7). It haspainted facial markings of a falcon,and the front of the body isdecorated with an intricate patternof alternating light and dark linen.

In the first to second centuries

AD especially, animal mummies were produced on a large scale.Priests sold them to temple

visitors, who in turn would havethem offered to the god of thetemple. Animals were bred in

captivity on temple terrain, to be purposelykilled and mummified. Falcons, however, weredifficult to breed or keep in captivity. It istherefore not surprising that mummiesrepresenting falcons often contain other bird



Animal mummies

Millions of mummified animalshave been found throughoutEgypt, as they became popularvotive offerings mainly duringthe Roman period. They rangein size from mature crocodilesto dung beetles.

Most Egyptian gods areassociated with one or moreanimals and were regularlydepicted in animal form or withanimal heads.

The falcon is connected toHorus, the sky-god associatedwith the king, as well as thefunerary deities Sokar andQebehsenuef, and the war godMontu.

Figure 7. “Falcon” mummy (Inv. no. 1355),

purchased in Luxor on January 4, 1930; height 23.8 cm.


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Figure 9. Detail of painted falcon markings

on the face of the animal mummy.

Figure 8. CT image showing the bone structure in the

animal mummy (courtesy Amsterdam Medical Center).

Figure 10. Udjat amulet – human eye witha falcon’s facial markings

(Inv. no. BEg 6, 1.6 x 1.7 cm).


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species, a few bones or feathers, or no animalmaterial at all. Böhl’s animal mummy proved to

be an unusual specimen. The mummy was brought

to the Academic MedicalCenter in Amsterdam andscanned in a CT-scanner,

which revealed its contentsfor the first time since themummy was wrapped some2000 years ago (Fig. 6). Anornithologist, experienced inanalysing and determiningbirds within mummies, usedthe CT images of the mummy’scontents for a determinationof species. It turned out to bethe head and rump of achurch-owl ( Tyto alba ), withlegs of another, undeterminablespecies of bird (Fig. 8). Thelegs are not attached, but theirposition is such that the over-all look is anatomically correct.It is a purposely made, fullsubstitute for a falcon, which must have beenunavailable.

All this considered, the mummy with itselaborate interior and exterior, is the result ofsome considerable effort and an unexpectedhighlight of the Egyptian collection.

Object photos: Fig. 2 by Gillian Vogelsang- Eastwood, Figs. 3, 5, 7, 9, 10 by Sigrid M. van Roode.

Selected literature

General information on Böhl:

Th. C. Vriezen, LevensberichtF.M.Th. De Liagre Böhl, Jaarboekvan de Koninklijke Nederlandse

Ac ad emie va n We tens ch appen , Amsterdam 1976, 218-223.

Böhl’s accounts of his 1928travels in Egypt:

R. Casimir, Met de “Telegraaf”naar de oorden der Oudheid. Reis- brieven van R. Casimir , Amsterdam1928.

Böhl’s reflections on variousof his travels:

F.M.Th. de Liagre Böhl,Oudheidkundige verkenningen inoosterse landen, Jaarbericht van hetVooraziatisch-Egyptisch gezelschap

Ex Oriente Lux No. 12, Leiden1952, 171-183.

Böhl’s bibliography can befound in two parts in:

F.M.Th. de Liagre Böhl, Opera Minora – Studies en bijdragen op

assyriologisch en oudtestamentisch terrein , J.B. Wolters,Groningen/Djakarta 1953, 534-549.

M.A. Beek, A.A. Kampman, C. Nijland, J.Ryckmans (eds.), Symbolae Biblicae et Mesopotamicae

– Francisco Mario Theodoro de Liagre Böhl Dedicatae ,Leiden 1973, 412-416.



The fleshpots of Egypt

Böhl was, according to his livelyaccounts in a Dutch newspaper, deeplyimpressed by the ancient sites in Egyptitself. Yet he sought out Iraq as hispromised land in 1932 and would “hankerno more after the fleshpots of Egypt”.

Böhl’s scientific work was only on rareoccasions – and then mainly indirectly –related to ancient Egypt. His comparativestudies confirm an interest in andknowledge of ancient Egypt. Thisknowledge must have given Böhl some

insight into the background of the objectshe purchased during his travels.

However, at a time when qualityantiquities were readily available in Egypt,Böhl compiled a somewhat mediocrecollection with little cohesion, comparedto contemporary private collectors. Thequestion remains: did Böhl have a trueappreciation for Egyptian antiquities?

Perhaps one event in 1952 is a case inpoint. When the opportunity waspresented to him, Franz Böhl consentedto a trade of a funerary statuette (Inv. no.1341), one of a set of four, for his true

passion: a cuneiform tablet.


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Figure 1. Tablet LB 2783, donated by Mrs Anna C.M. Vijn.

Dimensions: 2.0 x 4.4 x 4.0 cm.

Figure 2. Tablet LB 2782 (obverse and reverse),donated by Mrs A.M. van Ingen Schenau.

Dimensions: 5.4 x 5.3 x 2.1 cm.


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On Thursday November 25, 2010, during ashort ceremony in the office of the Director of

NINO, two private owners of two cuneiformdocuments formally donated their tablets tothe Institute. The two tablets are now enteredinto the catalogue of the Böhl Collection asLB 2782 and LB 2783.

Some time earlier the previous owners hadconsulted me, as daily curator of the collectionand staff member in the Department of

Assyriology, for a professional opinion onthese documents. One tablet, which belongedto Mrs Anna C.M. Vijn, is a fragment of a

word list; the other, which belonged to Mrs A.M. van Ingen Schenau, is an administrativedocument from the Ur III period. Once I hadgiven them an assessment of the texts and hadexplained the context of the documents andtheir importance for Assyriology, both owners

were convinced that the tablets should notremain isolated in a private collection, butrather form part of a larger and publiccollection where they will be accessible tospecialists from all over the world. Both of thenewly acquired documents are of limitedinterest in isolation, and only gain realimportance when placed in the wider contextof cuneiform studies.

From head to toe

The fragment of the word list (LB 2783)comes from the Sumerian lexical series Ugu-mu “my cranium”, well-known in the OldBabylonian period (ca. 1800 BC ). It lists theparts of the body, starting at “the cranium”

down to “my toe nails”, and then lists somediseases. The provenience is almost certainly

Larsa. The interesting aspect of this fragment isthat it very likely joins a tablet from the Cotsencollection (Princeton, USA) recently publishedby Mark Wilson, in Education in the EarliestSchools (Los Angeles, 2008), text 122 on p. 217f.Monolingual (Sumerian) and bilingual(Sumerian-Akkadian) versions of this text areknown, and it was an important work in theOld Babylonian school curriculum.

Groceries for Tummal

The tablet (LB 2782) from the so-called UrIII period (± 2000 BC ) records a labour forceof 60 persons for the transport of vegetablesfrom Umma to Tummal, a temple-city nearNippur where the goddess Ninlil was

venerated. It is dated to “the ninth month(November-December) of the seventh year ofKing Shu-Suen (2030 BC )”, and is sealed by thescribe Gududu, the servant of the king. Thisseal is known from other tablets from Umma,and registered as no. 163.1 in R.H. Mayr, Seal

Impressions of Ur III Umma (Leiden, 1997).

NINO and the Department of Assyriologyat Leiden University welcome such donations.

We hope that other private owners ofcuneiform tablets might be inspired by theexample, and give their cuneiform documents anew and better home in our collection. For ourpart, we will do all we can to preserve them forposterity and make them accessible to theinternational scholarly world.


Two new cuneiform tabletsTheo J.H. Krispijn


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49/72


NINO activities Jesper Eidem

General Director NINO and NIT

Introduction

NINO continued, during its 71st year ofactivity, to serve NearEastern scholarship bothin the Netherlands andinternationally. Some ofthe activities are listedbelow: the research ofstaff and fellows,lectures, library facilities,and publications. More

will be added in the

coming years. We hopeto obtain support for publication online of ourcollection of Near Eastern objects (the BöhlCollection), as well as our collections ofphotographs and slides. We also hope to beable to expand our activities in the MiddleEast. As a modest preview of things to come

we have supplied the cover of this AnnualReport with a still of a 3D model (of anEgyptian shabti statuettefrom the Böhl Collection).

The ‘real’ 3D model canbe downloaded andmanipulated from our

website, where moremodels should becomeavailable soon...

2010 was my firstcomplete year as directorof NINO/NIT, and also the year my familyand I settled in earnest in the Netherlands. Iremain grateful for the warm and generous

welcome we have received in our new country, within NINO and other academic institutions,

as well as in Dutch society at large.

StaffStaff members of

NINO are:

Dr J. Eidem, director(0.7 fte general manage-ment, 0.3 fte research),Mrs G.H. Bolten, libraryassistant (1.0 fte); MrR.T. Dickhoff, adminis-

trator (1.0 fte); Mrs C. Hoorn-Janssen, financialadministration assistant (0.6 fte); Mrs M.W.Keuken, MA, library assistant (0.4 fte); Mrs

A.M. de Vries-Heeroma, MA, librarian (1.0fte); Ms C.H. van Zoest, MA, secretary andpublications assistant (1.0 fte).

Activities and publications by staff

members and research fellows

Dr J. Eidem, DirectorContinued review of

NINO/NIT plans andprocedures with staff andcolleagues. In January hetravelled to Brussels forthe annual meeting ofthe ARCANE SteeringCommittee, and to Berlinto participate in the

international workshop “TheMesopotamian Piedmont in the 2nd MillenniumBC”. In February he visited Istanbul and

L e c t u r e

2 8 J a n u a r y

L e c t u r e

1 8 F e

b r u a r y


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NINO activities

Damascus, and gave lectures at the DutchInstitutes in both cities. In April and May he

directed final excavations at the site of Tell Aushariye in Northern Syria, and madepreparations for the new NINO project atQala’at Halwanji in 2011 (see article pp. 19-25).He continued to work as epigrapher for theItalian Mission to Tell Mishrifeh (Syria) and theDanish Archaeological Expedition to Kuwait,and deciphered new inscriptions retrieved bythese projects in 2010. In October he againbriefly visited Istanbul and Damascus.

He continued work ondata from his recent ex-cavations in Syria, anddid editorial work on theproceedings of the work-shop “Constituent, Con-federate, and ConqueredSpace in Upper Mesopo-tamia” (held in Berlin2009) in cooperation withthe Cluster of Excellence‘Topoi’ at the Freie Universität in Berlin.

Prof. Dr J.F. Borghouts, research fellowSpent the larger part of the year under

review on finalising a grammar of MiddleEgyptian, titled Egyptian. An Introduction to theWriting and Language of the Midldle Kingdom .Preparing the camera-ready manuscript took aconsiderable amount of time, as it involvedmultiple fonts, one of which hieroglyphic. It

was published in November, in two volumes,altogether a good 1050 pages.

He spent the remainder of the year on aReference Grammar of Middle Egyptian , intended to

appear in the Handbuch der Orientalistik with BrillPublishers. Most effort went into rewriting theextant text, updating and systematizing it. Oncethis is completed – in a few years – he willcontinue working on the edition of a largemagical papyrus kept in Turin (transcriptionand the larger part of the commentary areready), and a monograph on Apopis (severalchapters have been written, and the entirematerial has been kept up to date).

This work was done inthe continual benefit fromthe immediate accessi-bility of older and recentpublications in the NINOlibrary.

On 22 November hedelivered a lecture on

Egyptian Magic in theNational Museum of An-

tiquities, Leiden, at a symposium accompanying

the Museum’s exhibition on the subject.Borghouts supervised the following PhDstudents: V. Massa (Demotic temple oaths), C.ten Hacken (Arabic “Life of St. Aur” ofNaqlun), J. Hagen (Qasr Ibrim texts) and L.Roeten (Old