Studies in Aramaic Inscriptions and Onomastics

Book excerpt: The description, location, chronology, and nature of the bilingual archive from Ma'lana, called Ma'allanate by Assyriologists, is followed by the up-dated analysis of all the Aramaic texts and epigraphs, as well as of the proper names, occurring there or related to them. This material, so far scattered in a dozen of different publications, is now collected and reorganized in four chapters. All the texts dealt with date to ca. 700-620 B.C., from the office tenure of Hadddiy, the palace prefect of Queen Naqi'a/Zakutu, to the time of Sehr-nuri under the reign of Sîn-sarra-iskun. These chapters are followed by a palaeographic study of the inscriptions, presented with facsimiles, a detailed grammatical analysis, and a study of the legal contents of the deeds in light of parallel documents. There follow indices of proper names, subjects treated, sources used, and modern authors. A list of illustrations completes the volume.