Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T21:57:51.578Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Tell Brak and Nagar*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Extract

The seal impression Aleppo Museum 6763 was discovered by Sir Max Mallowan and published by him in Iraq IX (1947), pl. XXIV: 1. It is unclear how much contact Mallowan's epigraphist, Gadd, actually had with the material (Finkel 1985, 201), but in any case the inscriptions on the seal impressions were not then read. The Mallowan glyptic from Brak in Aleppo was missing for many years (Finkel 1985, 199 n.2), but has recently been rediscovered by Hamido Hammade, Curator of Syrian Antiquities. We publish the impression here in advance of the full catalogue of the Brak glyptic which is now in preparation because of the importance of the inscription.

The impression was made onto a flat strip of unbaked clay with a smooth unmarked back which is broken at both ends. It seems most likely to me that this type of sealing—which is not uncommon—was made simply to see what the design looked like. It is not impossible that the impression (or indeed the seal itself) was brought to Brak from elsewhere for some purpose such as to authenticate other sealings or to identify a person, but the seal could also have belonged at Brak. This uncertainty means that the inscription cannot furnish proof of the ancient name of Tell Brak.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 55 , October 1993 , pp. 201 - 207
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The authors wish to thank David and Joan Oates for permission to publish the sealing presented here; Hamido Hammade, Curator of Syrian Antiquities in the National Museum, Aleppo, for rediscovering it and giving us access; and Professor H. Kühne and U. Runge for help with the photograph. The section on the impression is by Matthews and the section on the inscription by Eidem; each has sole responsibility for his section.

References

Archi, A., n.d., paper given at the Aleppo conference 10 1992.Google Scholar
Astour, M., 1987, Semites and Hurrians in Transtigris, in Owen, D. I. and Morrison, M. A. (eds), Studies on the Civilization and Culture of Nuzi and the Hurrians 2. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 368.Google Scholar
Boehmer, R.M., 1965, Die Entwicklung der Glyptik während der Akkad-Zeit. Berlin: De Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Catagnoti, A., in press, The Lists of the Eblaite hub2.ki and the Onomasticon of Nagar in the Ebla Texts, Miscellanea Eblaitica 4.Google Scholar
Catagnoti, A. and Bonechi, M., 1992, Le volcan Kawkab, Nagar et problèmes connexes, NABU 1992, 65.Google Scholar
Charpin, D., 1990, A Contribution to the Geography and History of the Kingdom of Kahat. In Eichler, S., Wäfler, M., and Warburton, D. (eds), Tall al-Hamīdīya 2. Freiburg/Göttingen: Universitätsverlag Freiburg/Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 6685.Google Scholar
Collon, D., 1985, First Impressions. London: British Museum Publications.Google Scholar
Collon, D., 1990, “The Life and Times of Teheš-atal”, RA 84, 129136.Google Scholar
Donbaz, V., 1988, Some Neo-Assyrian Contracts from Girnavaz and Vicinity, SAAB vol. II/1, 330.Google Scholar
Durand, J.-M., 1987, L'Organisation de l'éspace dans le palais de Mari: le témoignage des textes. In Lévy, E. (ed.), Le système palatial en Orient, en Grèce et à Rome. Strasbourg, 39110.Google Scholar
Durand, J.-M., 1991, L'emploi des toponymes dans l'onomastique d'époque Amorrite, SEL 8, 8197.Google Scholar
Eidem, J., 1991a, Tell Leilan Tablets 1987: A Preliminary Report, AAAS 37/38 (1987/1988), 110127.Google Scholar
Eidem, J., 1991b, Jakūn-Ašar(?) at Tell Brak, NABU 1991, 108.Google Scholar
Eidem, J., 1991c, The Tell Leilan Archives 1987, RA 85, 109135.Google Scholar
Finkel, I., 1985, Inscriptions from Tell Brak 1984, Iraq 47, 187201.Google Scholar
Gelb, I. J., 1944, Hurrians and Subarians. OSAC 22. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gelb, I. J. and Kienast, B., 1990, Die altakkadischen Königsinschriften des dritten Jahrtausends v. Chr. Freiburger Altorientalische Studien Bd. 7. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.Google Scholar
Illingworth, N. J. J., 1988, Inscriptions from Tell Brak 1986, Iraq 50, 87108.Google Scholar
Kessler, K., 1984, Nilabšinu und der altorientalische Name des Teil Brak, SMEA 24, 2131.Google Scholar
Laroche, E., 1977, Glossaire de la Langue Hourrite II. RHA XXXV.Google Scholar
Mallowan, M. E. L. Sir, 1947, Excavations at Brak and Chagar Bazar, Iraq 9.Google Scholar
Oates, D., 1982, Excavations at Tell Brak, 1978–81, Iraq 44, 187207.Google Scholar
Oates, D., 1985, Excavations at Tell Brak, 1983–84, Iraq 47, 159173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oates, D., 1987, Excavations at Tell Brak, 1985–86, Iraq 49, 175191.Google Scholar
Oates, D and J., , 1990, Aspects of Hellenistic and Roman Settlement in the Khabur Basin. In Matthiae, P., Loon, M. van, and Weiss, H. (eds) Resurrecting the Past. A Joint Tribute to Adnan Bounni. Istanbul, 227248.Google Scholar
Seux, M.-J., 1967, Épithètes royales akkadiennes et sumériennes. Paris: Letouzey et Ané.Google Scholar
Weiss, H., 1992, Habur Triangles: Third Millennium Urban Settlement in Subir, NABU 1992, 126.Google Scholar
Wilhelm, G., 1988, Gedanken zur Frühgeschichte der Hurriter und zum hurritisch-urartäischen Sprachvergleich. In Haas, V. (ed.), Hurriter und Hurritisch. Konstanz: Universitätsverlag Konstanz GMBH, 4369.Google Scholar
Wilhelm, G., 1989, The Hurrians. Warminster: Aris and Philips.Google Scholar