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July 10, 2006

Which of These Tablets is Written in Ugaritic?

I'm working on my next post on how to identify a scribal school and as part of that I've been looking at several additional "school texts." In the course of this activity, I was reminded of something that one or perhaps two of you might find abnormally interesting.

Below are four lines from two different tablets. One tablet is written in alphabetic cuneiform and the other is written in syllabic cuneiform. Your mission, should you accept it, is to identify which one reflects the Akkadian language and which one is very likely in the Ugaritic language.

KTU 1.67:4-7    KTU 10.1:7-10

Unless you know these tablets or tried to read them, your first guess would be that the alphabetic cuneiform text, on the left, was in Ugaritic and the syllabic cuneiform text, on the right, was in Akkadian. But, you'd be wrong. The text on the left is from KTU 1.67:4-7 and it is one of a couple of tablets in alphabetic cuneiform from Ugarit that is completely or partially in the Akkadian language. The others are KTU 1.69, 1.70 and the first seven lines of KTU 1.73. The remainder of KTU 1.73 is in Ugaritic but the whole tablet is written alphabetically.

The text on the right is from KTU 10.1:7-10 and is usually thought to be in the Ugaritic language although it is written in the syllabic cuneiform. And whatever language it is written in, it is clearly not written in Akkadian. I'll be posting my translation and notes on this text in the next day or two. For the remainder of this post I'll will assume it is in the Ugaritic language.

Remember, these are school texts. But what were the student scribes supposed to learn from them? Let's assume they were written from dictation. This assumption may not be correct but it is useful as a starting place. In the case of KTU 1.67 and the other Akkadian texts written in alphabetic cuneiform, does this imply that the student could understand Akkadian but not Ugaritic and was just learning the alphabet? Not likely. The scribe who wrote KTU 1.73 clearly knew both languages. Does it imply that the student knew Ugaritic and was learning Akkadian but had not mastered any or much of the complex writing system? I don't think this is very likely either. Try the same set of questions on KTU 10.1. I have some ideas on this but I'm not ready to let you in on them just yet.

In addition to the Akkadian and Ugaritic languages being written in both alphabetic cuneiform and syllabic cuneiform, tablets in the Hurrian language from Ugarit were written in both scripts also.

References:

The autograph of KTU 1.67:4-7 is from Herdner, Abdree, Corpus des tablettes en cunéiformes alphabétiques, découvertes à Ras Shamra-Ugarit de 1929 à 1939 (CTA), Mission de Ras Shamra, 10, Paris: P. Geuthner, 1963, Figure 239

The autograph of KTU 10.1:7-10 is from Nougayrol (1968): Nougayrol, Jean, "Textes Suméro-Accadiens des Archives et Bibliothèques Privées d'Ugarit," Ugaritica V, Mission de Ras Shamra, XVI, Paris: P. Geuthner, 1968, 432

Posted by Duane Smith at July 10, 2006 7:30 PM | Read more on Ugarit |

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