« Scott McClellan Resigns
Main
On Unprovenanced Artifacts »
April 20, 2006
Citing Ugaritic Tablets and Texts and How to Get Them Online
Why do I use the KTU numbering system when referring to Ugaritic texts and tablets? There are two principle reasons: first, I think more of my readers who may want to look something up will have Dietrich, Lorenz, and Sanmartin's The Cuneiform Alphabetic Texts from Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani and Other Places than will have (at least these days) Gordon's Ugaritic Textbook or Herdner's Corpus des tablettes en cunéiformes alphabétiques, découvertes à Ras Shamra-Ugarit de 1929 à 1939. Second, with the exception noted below, the Ugaritic Data Bank has the texts online and in a downloadable database and uses the same numbering system.
In addition, Dietrich, Lorenz, and Sanmartin's work is more complete than the others just mentioned. Heck, they even have text numbers for the 500 plus texts that were still unpublished as of 1995! A considerable number of these texts have now been published and I'm sure they will be included in the next edition. How do you get KTU from The Cuneiform Alphabetic Texts from Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani and Other Places? Well, the first edition was called, Die keilalphabetischen Texte aus Ugarit. Einschließlich der keilalphabetischen Texte ausserhalb Ugarits, thus KTU.
The Ugaritic Data Bank uses UDA as a prefix instead of KTU but the numbering system is the same as Dietrich, Lorenz, and Sanmartin's. In other words, UDA 4.274 is the same as KTU 4.274. And it gives a cross references to every other system and publication of the text. By the way, this is a very large PDF file, some 2003 pages long. I recommend storing it locally. The Ugaritic Data Bank also has an extremely nice desktop software package that allows you search and display the whole tablet in transliteration, see a concordance of that text and look up all the other places where any word in the text can be found. They also give archeological information on each tablet and inscription and a list of alternate readings and collations. Good stuff. You can search this desktop database using any numbering system you like and a few you may not like. While the software and database is free they do want you to register, so the best way to get this software is by way of their home page.
Dietrich, Lorenz, and Sanmartin organize the texts into six large categories, Literary and Religious (1.xxx), Letters (2.xxx), Legal Texts (3.xxx), Economic Texts (4.xxx), Scribal Exercises (5.xxx) and Inscriptions (6.xxx). In addition to these categories they have "Not Classified Texts" (7.xxx), Illegible Tablets and Fragments (8.xxx), Unpublished Texts (9.xxx) and finally a category for Ugaritic texts written in syllabic script of which there is only one (not counting the vocabulary texts which they do not include), KTU 10.1. One can quibble here and there about the placement of several texts in this or that category but all in all this is a very good system. Note: the Ugaritic Data Bank uses the 9.xxx sequence for the Ugaritic column of the vocabulary texts from Ugarit. While this has some utility, not having the other columns greatly restricts it usefulness.
However, there are several others systems. The three most important other systems are the numbering system used in Gordon's Ugaritic Textbook, Herdner's system, and the identification numbers used by the excavators.
When I was first learning Ugaritic the most complete resource was Cyrus Gordon's Ugaritic Textbook. Gordon used his own numbering system for the alphabetic cuneiform tablets and inscriptions. For the three great religious and literary texts, which Virolleaud published separately, Gordon used names: Aqht, Krt and ‛nt. Three short inscriptions he called a, b and c. Aside from these cases, he generally followed a numbering system that related to the place of publication. Texts originally published in the journal Syria he numbered 1 through 173. Texts published in the journal Revue d'Assyriologie he numbered 300 to 335. Two texts, one published in the Mémorial Lagrange and the other published in the journal Orientalia were numbered 400 and 401 respectively. The texts from Beth Shemesh, Mount Tabor and Siyanna he numbered in the 500s. Texts numbered in the 1000s were first published in Le Palais Royal d'Ugarit II and texts numbered in the 2000s were first published in Le Palais Royal d'Ugarit V. Loren Fisher, building upon Gordon's system, called the two Ugaritic Claremont Ras Shamra Tablets 701 and 702. There is nothing wrong with this system and I have a certain nostalgia for it. In addition, many of my notes refer to Ugaritic texts by Gordon's system. The truth is that using the KTU system is sometimes a pain for me but its advantages are greater than its disadvantages.
Herdner's numbering system in Corpus des tablettes en cunéiformes alphabétiques, découvertes à Ras Shamra-Ugarit de 1929 à 1939 is often cited in older works but is now out of date. In addition, the two volumes are not readily available. While my local research library has a copy, I know of major research libraries that don't. The upside is that this monumental work includes transliterations, transcriptions and, for most of the tablets excavated before 1939, photographs.
Excavation numbers like RS 3.361 (aka KTU 1.1 or if you prefer Gordon, ‛nt pl. ix-x or perhaps you like Herdner CTA 1) are in some ways the least ambiguous and also the most difficult with which to work. One thing you can be sure of, if I cite the excavation number and nothing else, nearly every reader will need to go to some cross reference, like the one given in an appendix by Dietrich, Lorenz, and Sanmartin or the Ugaritic Data Base to find out what it is I am citing. Notice that Bordreuil and Pardee use excavation numbers plus a unique numbering system in Manuel d'Ougaritique. If they didn't also reproduce the texts they cite, I would find their volumes very hard to use. Frankly, I wish they had used the KTU system. The publication information has the same problem.
There are a number of other ways to cite Ugaritic texts. I don't think any of them have every been as popular as the three discussed above.
Posted by DuaneSmith at April 20, 2006 08:30 AM | Read more on Ugarit |
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://WWW.telecomtally.com/cgi-bin/blog/mt-tb.cgi/630
Comments
Post a comment
Please read Abnormal Interest's Comments Policy.