Notes to Chapter 10. The Invention of Rivers

April 2024

ERRORS in databases:

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"Trinkaus1983Shanidar.d": duplicate bibliography "Trinkaus1983Shanidar" for site "Mes-rel".

On the difference between the -emic and -etic approaches, see mostly Buccellati 2006 Emic.
– [ Marco De Pietri, March 2024]

Upper sea in Naram-Sin, C A D (Vol. 4 = E), p. 113b; see the discussion in CAD on the difference between “upper” and “lower”.
– [ Giorgio Buccellati, July 2020]
Interestingly enough, this is the opposite of the modern, academic subdivision of Egypt (reflected also in ancient texts) into an ‘upper Egypt’ (to the South) and a ‘lower Egypt’ (to the North); this opposition of perception is due in fact to the different flow stream of the Nile and the two Mesopotamian main rivers; in a document dated to Thutmose III (1479-1425 BC), it is also noteworthy to stress how the pharaoh, having reached the Euphrates, was surprised by the fact that the rivers in Mesopotamia flowed ‘on reverse’. On this topic, see e.g. Spalinger 1978 Thutmose and most of all Goedicke 1974 Inverted.
– [ Marco De Pietri, March 2024]

On canals and canalization systems, see e.g. Liverani 2018 Paradiso, ch. 3.5.
– [ Marco De Pietri, December 2023]
It is noteworthy to recall that, according to Old-Babylonian (but maybe even earlier) mythology, the two great rivers were dug by the Igigi-gods; moreover, it is also interesting that this task was then passed to humankind: in this case, the myth could reflect the actual and political action of digging canals for farming and transportation purposes. On this topic see a passage from the first tablet of Atrahasis, available in the excerpts (after Foster 2005 Before, pp. 230, 238-239, ll. 25-26 and 338; Italian translation in Ermidoro 2017 Atrahasis, pp. 77, 91, ll. 21-22 and 337).
– [ Marco De Pietri, April 2024]

For the Sumerogram LUGAL = Sumerian lugal, ‘king’, see e P S D 2 at this link.
– [ Marco De Pietri, March 2024]
In Mesopotamia, the river (nārum in Akkadian) could also be deified, such in the case of the river conceived as a judge in ordeal trials; in this instance, the river was appelled with the Sumerogram ^dÍD, i.e. Sumerian i₇-lú-ru-gú (literally, ‘the river that receives man’; cf. Edzard 1980 Id), probably read ‘Idlurugu’ or ‘Ilurugu’ (see e P S D 2 at this link; cf. the divine name here); see Rd Aonline, sub voce; cf. Sallaberger 1993 Kalender, p. 46 and Soldt 2005 Ordal, p. 124, also available online on Rd Aonline, at this link (cf. also Krebernik 2008 Richtergottheiten and Scurlock 2011 Rubbing, p. 94).
– [ Marco De Pietri, March 2024]
About purification spells and rituals, see e.g. Scurlock 2011 Rubbing, p. 103.
– [ Marco De Pietri, March 2024]

C A D (Vol. 8 = K), p. 331b (Ašduni-erim): kibrātum arbīm ikkirūninni: cannot be the whole world.
– [ Giorgio Buccellati, July 2020]
Cfr Seux Epithetes.
– [ Giorgio Buccellati, July 2020]
The “uncivilized, unknown, strange, savage countries which are not part of the civilized world” (Glassner).
– [ Giorgio Buccellati, July 2020]
Aramaic quote about regions of the world (Mirko Nóvak in Tübingen).
– [ Giorgio Buccellati, July 2020]
Naram-Sin’s year is identified with letter “t” in the series of Frayne, in R I M E 2, p. 86.
– [ Giorgio Buccellati, July 2020]
Stela of Pir-Huseyn: Börker-Klähn N.25; it is said that Landsberger was doubtful about its provenance; strange hat/headgear: for mountains?
– [ Giorgio Buccellati, July 2020]
For the texts of the so-called Res Gestae Sargonis, see Westenholz 1997 Legends (about the defeat of Lugal-zagesi by Sargon, see specifically on pp. 231-237).
– [ Marco De Pietri, March 2024]
On Lugal-zagesi, king of Uruk, see e.g. Liverani 2014 History, pp. 112-113, 133; cf. also Van De Mieroop 2016 History, pp. 54, 68.

The text of Lugal-zagesi’s royal inscription is available, along with the transliteration from the original Sumerian, on E T C S R I at this link.
– [ Marco De Pietri, March 2024]
An image of this stela (today in the Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul) can be found on Mnamon, at this link.
– [ Marco De Pietri, March 2024]

Finkelstein for Aramaic.
– [ Giorgio Buccellati, July 2020]
Orsi 2012, pp. 108-113: “L’esigua sedentarizzazinoe della regione … possa in realtà rivelarsi solo apparente, e risultare dalla continuità nei centri insediati” (p. 109).
– [ Giorgio Buccellati, July 2020]
For the Sumerian logogram UB, see the e P S D 2 at this link. For its original pictorial sign, see Malbran Labat 1988 Cuneiform, pp. 138-139 (no. 306, see image)
– [ Marco De Pietri, March 2024]

The term ‘Mesopotamia’ is not Mesopotamian, but Greek, meaning ‘the land between the two rivers (Μεσοποτᾰμία, a deadjectival nominalization coined on the adjective μεσο-ποτάμιος, ‘between rivers’; see L S J, sub voce). Interestingly, a same meaning is in the Arabic بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن Bilād ar-Rāfidayn or بَيْن ٱلنَّهْرَيْن Bayn an-Nahrayn, the Persian میان‌رودان miyân rudân, and the Syriac ܒܝܬ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ Beth Nahrain ‘(land) between the (two) rivers’); it has been argued that the term could be a calque of the older Aramaic term (byn nhryn), with the Aramaic term itself likely being a calque of the Akkadian birit nārim (see e.g. Finkelstein 1962 Mesopotamia). [Cf. also the Egyptian toponym ‘Naharina’, referring to the area of Mittani, i.e. Egyptian nhrn, a loanword from Semitic: see Wb, 2.287.1; cf. Hoch 1994 Semitic, no. 253]. On this topic, see also the theme “Mesopotamia”.
– [ Marco De Pietri, March 2024]