Note 3 — PART I
Reading edition
Assyrian. Accadian month names, and translations.
1. Ni’sannu, Sara (or Bar) zig-gar (“the sacrifice of righteousness”).
2. Airu, Khar-sidi (“the propitious bull”).
3. ’Sivanu, or Tsivan, Mun-ga (“of bricks”), and Kas (“the twins”).
4. Duzu, Su kul-na (“seizer of seed”).
5. Abu, Ab ab-gar (“fire that makes fire”).
6. Ulûlu, Ki Gingir-na (“the errand of Istar”).
7. Tasritu, Tul-cu (“the holy altar”).
8. Arahk-samna (“the 8th month”), Apin-am-a (“the bull-like founder?”).
9. Cisilivu, or Cuzallu, Gan ganna (“the very cloudy”).
10. Dharbitu, Abba uddu (“the father of light”).
11. Šabahu, As a-an (“abundance of rain”).
12. Addaru, Se-ki-sil (“sowing of seed”).
13. Arakh-makru (“the incidental month”), Se-dir (“dark [month] of sowing”).
—Records of the Past, vol. i. p. 166.
[4] As evidence of the antiquity of a fixed calendrical method of counting the year, and of a method closely resembling, if not identical with, that used in the latest periods of Babylonian history, the importance and trustworthiness of these documents can scarcely be over-rated. They were inscribed on soft clay (which was afterwards baked either by sun or fire), many of them four thousand years ago. No correction or erasure can have been made in them since that date. A translation of one of these tablets as given at p. 75 in the Guide to the Nimroud Central Saloon, is here given as an example of the style of many others.
“No. 3. Tablet and outer case inscribed with a deed of partnership or brotherhood between Sini-Innanna and Iribam-Sin.
“Tablet. Ṣini-Innanna and Iribam-Sin made brotherhood; they took a judge for the ratification, and went down to the temple of the sun-god, and he answered the people thus in the temple of the sun-god: ‘They must give Arda-luštâmar-Šamaš and Antu-lišlimam, the property of Irabam-šin, and Ârdu-ibšînan and Antu-am-anna-lamazi, the property of Ṣini-Innanna.’ He proclaimed [also] in the temple of the sun-god and the moon-god: ‘Brother shall be kind to brother; brother shall not be evil towards, shall not injure, brother; and brother shall not harbour any angry thought as to anything about which a brother has disputed.’
“They have invoked the name of Innannaki, Utu, Marduk, Lugal-ki-ušuna, and the name of Ḫammurabi [Kîmta-rapaštu] the king.”
Here follow the names of eight witnesses. The translation of the inscription on the outer case is much to the same purpose, and need not here be quoted; the names of nine witnesses are appended to it. The Guide continues, after some other explanations, as follows:
“The whole of the first paragraph (except a few ideographs) is in Semitic Babylonian. The invocation is in Akkadian. The list of ‘witnesses,’ again, is in Semitic Babylonian, and the date in Akkadian.... The tablet is dated in the same way as the other documents of this class: ‘Month Adar of the year when Ḫammurabi the king made (images of) Innanna and Nanâ.’”