Abnormal Interests

« Modern Times Have Been Rough for Six Old Tablets from Ugarit
Main
It's Back: Privatization of Social Security »

February 8, 2006

A Strange Little Tablet Cast on My Shelf

The other day I mentioned that I had dental casts of the Ugaritic and Akkadian tablets that were publish as the Claremont Ras Shamra Tablets. Well, it turns out that I have another cast of an Ugaritic tablet that is not part of that collection. This tablet is KTU 4.193 (RS 15.176 bis). KTU 4.193 tablet was discovered in the central palace at Ugarit (room 52) and was published by Charles Virolleaud in 1957. The obverse (front) tells of some kind of garment that was delivered to an unknown person whose name (or title) begins with an "m." and the reverse tells of a different kind of garment delivered to the same person (?). We are told that both garments were delivered in the month of pgrm.

Here is a picture of the cast of the obverse:

The picture is approximately full scale. The broken tablet is about 5.4 cm high by 3.3 cm wide. The original is a light milk chocolate in color.

The obverse reads:

b yr[h ]
pgr[m ]
yşa[PN ]
mš[lt ]
[b]d . m[ ]

And the reverse reads:

b yr[h]
pgr[m]
yşa[PN ]
lbš[ ]
[b]d . m[ ]

Assuming that only a little is missing on the right edge, a translation of the obverse might go something like this;

In the month of pgrm [unknown person] delivered mšlt (some kind of garment) to M . . .

And the reverse would translate,

In the month of pgrm [unknown person] delivered lbš (some other kind of garment) to M . . .

The idea that a personal name is to be read in the right lacunae of line 3 of the obverse and line 3 of the reverse is based on a very similar text, KTU 4.192, which tells of still some other kinds of garments being delivered in the month of mgmr by a person whose name can be read. Based on KTU 4.182:35-40, pgrm is possibly the month after mgmr.

Not too exciting. Around half of the 1500 or so Ugaritic tablets are about this level of excitement.

However, the month name is of some interest. It may indicate the month of funerary sacrifices. Hebrew has a word that means "corpses" (פגרים) which may be related. A similar month name is also known on an Akkadian tablet from Alalakh. So what month is it? Well, no one knows for sure. If you're interested in Ugaritic month names, check out Gregorio del Olmo Lete's Canaanite Religion, pages 25 and 26 and the references in the footnotes.

There's something else that I wonder about. Is the name or title that begins with an "m." mlk, "the king"? Well, not very likely, because KTU 4.192:5 appears to have a different name where KTU 4.193 has the "m[." However, that name is not totally readable either. KTU 4.316 may also represent a related genre although it appears that the delivery of real-estate rather than garments is documented in this text. While very fragmentary, the otherwise unreadable name here appears to begin with an "i." So the "king" interpretation, while intriguing, is likely not the most parsimonious rendering. It was fun while it lasted.

Why do I have a cast of this particular tablet? Good question!

You may also ask why the "a" in line 3 and at least part of the "l" in line 4 of the obverse are not visible on the cast. That's a good question also. There is no question that Virolleaud was able to read these signs sometime before 1957. There is also no doubt that this is a very accurate cast of KTU 4.193 as it looked in February of 1970.

PS: I indicated that about half of the tablets from Ugarit are not, on their own, very interesting. That's the glass half-empty view. The glass half-full view is that half of the tablets from Ugarit are very interesting on their own. There is also a full glass view to which I subscribe. Taken in the context of each other and in the context of all other ancient Near Eastern texts and archaeology, the whole lot of them continue to be very exciting.

References:

Posted by Duane Smith at February 8, 2006 7:08 PM | Read more on Ugarit |

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.telecomtally.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1567

Comments

Sorry, comments are closed for this post.
Send me an email if it is important.

Tags: