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September 2, 2007

The Horse Tablets in Archaeological Context

I thought I was about ready to post on a possible prehistory of text of KTU 1.85, the Ugaritic veterinary text that I've been "horsing around" with, when something struck me as possibly important or at least abnormally interesting. Two of the four tablets came from the same exact location at Ugarit. I had known that Schaeffer discovered KTU 1.71 and KTU 1.72 near, within or in the entrance of Tomb V on the acropolis at Ugarit and the texts on these two tablets have a significant commonality not shared with the other two related tablets (KTU 1.85 and KTU 1.97). Section 8 is missing from them. There's a good explanation for the missing section (a species of haplography by homoioteleuton) that I will cover in more detail in another post. I will say that I think the other possible explanation, dittography in the case of KTU 1.85 and KTU 1.97, very unlikely. Unfortunately section 8 is too badly broken to reconstruct but we can be completely certain it existed, possible differences, on both KTU 1.85 and KTU 1.97. KTU 1.71 and KTU 1.72 also have at least one very interesting difference between them in section 10.

Anyway, it occurred to me that not only the common find spot but also the nature of the local archeological assemblage, including any other tablets found in that location, might be relevant to the prehistory of the text. That information, such as it is, is scattered around several publications, only one of which do I have handy: Schaeffer's report on the spring 1933 season at Ugarit. In that report, Schaeffer, 120, said the following:

Un autre gite à tablettes a été découvert au S. W. de la bibliothèque. Les fragments très dispersés gisaient entre 0 m. 70 et 1 m. 40 de profondeur; la plupart reposaient entre 1 mètre et 1 m. 10, donc au même niveau que les tablettes, en fait, plusieurs morceaux de cette compagne complètent les pièces antérieurement trouvées. Il en est ainsi, notamment, d'un beau morceau qui se raccorde à la grande tablette relatant le mythe d'Aleïn dont il constitue le début de la première colonne et, sur le revers, la fin de la sixième. Cette superbe tablette comptait jadis près de 400 lignes d'une écriture très fine et fort belle. Parmi les nouveaux textes découverts cette année, je signale aussi une sorte de traité des maladies ou vices de conformation des chevaux, et des remèdes qu'il convient d'y appliquer. . . . Je mentionne également plusieurs fragments de tablettes accadiennes et sumériennes qui complètent les lexiques trouvés antérieurement à Ras-Shamra, ainsi qu'une tablette de comptabilité, d'après M. Thureau-Dangin, qui va présenter plus loin cet intéressant document, des quantités de laine teintée en pourpre, énoncées en talents de 3.000 sicles. [Emphasis added, references removed]

Schaeffer did not mention Tomb V in this paragraph although he does elsewhere, 119, in the report. In any case, tablets that appear to have been in, near or at the entrance to Tomb V may well be from the collapse of the house above the tomb. I need to look more closely at the tablets from Tomb IV and some secondary literature to be sure this is always the case.

It's hard to know (nor is it very important to know) which of the two "horse" tablets Schaeffer means.

So what are these other tablets? The beau morceau of the mythe d'Aleïn (Ba'al) is likely KTU 1.7 or perhaps KTU 1.9 (or both). And if I am correct about this, then four truly weird tablets also belong to archaeological environment of our two horse tablets. All four are written in alphabetic cuneiform but three are in the Akkadain language and one is in Hurrian. However, I need to confirm all this from another source. While not mentioned in the quotation above, Schaeffer, 118, found the inscription KTU 6.12 very near KTU 1.71 and KTU 1.72. All three share the same topographical point (pt. 583). But beyond that, I'm not sure what else was found in the general area and context. So on Tuesday or Wednesday it's back to the library to see if I can identify all the tablets found at or around this location, Ugaritic or otherwise, and see if I can better understand the archaeological context.

In case you are wondering, KTU 1.85 was found in Rashapabu's house, west of the North Palace, and KTU 1.97 was discovered in the House of the Literary Tablets. The archaeological contexts of these two tablets may also be important and I plan to do some research on that also. But there is somewhat better documentation for the finds at Rashapabu's place and the House of the Literary Tablets.

The most accessible place to find the topographical points for the tablets is in Dietrich, Loretz and Sanmartin. But learning exactly were they these points are in relationship to each other requires a little more work.

References:

Posted by Duane Smith at September 2, 2007 1:53 PM | Read more on Ugarit |

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