Mikko Luukko | Julius-Maximilians - Universität Würzburg (original) (raw)
Papers by Mikko Luukko
In: E. Frahm (ed.), Companion to Assyria (Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World), 2017
The Assyrians spoke and wrote Assyrian, a dialect of Akkadian (an East Semitic language, written ... more The Assyrians spoke and wrote Assyrian, a dialect of Akkadian (an East Semitic language, written in cuneiform script), but their land, Assyria, was also home to other ethnic groups that had their own cultures and languages. From the time of our first written sources onwards, at the end of the third millennium bce (all following dates are bce), Assyria's ethno-linguistic landscape was characterized by a considerable degree of diversity, which was nourished by trade, military expansion, and migration. Aramaic, a West Semitic language written in alphabetic script, gained particular prominence in the multifaceted linguistic environment of the Assyrian Empire and its periphery. By the end of the Neo-Assyrian Period, Aramaic was widely used in the Near East as the lingua franca. This chapter is intended to present the reader with an overview of the history of the languages and writing systems used in Assyria and its periphery, with particular emphasis upon the history, development, and grammatical nuances of Akkadian, particularly the Assyrian dialect.* Languages Assyrian The Assyrian language and the eponymous language of Babylonia, Assyria's southern neighbor, are the two main dialects of Akkadian. Although most modern scholars view the two dialects as separate forms of the same language, ancient scribes considered Babylonian and Assyrian distinct languages, not subsumed under the overarching identifier "Akkadian" as used by modern Assyriologists: *We would like to thank Graham Cunningham, Bert Kouwenberg, and Jaume Llop for their critical remarks and suggestions.
Die Welt des Orients, 2016
This article provides a first edition of an intact Neo-Assyrian estate sale from the final period... more This article provides a first edition of an intact Neo-Assyrian estate sale from the final period of the empire in the late seventh century BCE. The publication is not based on the original tablet but on a cast kept at the Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur in Mainz. At the moment the location of the original tablet is unknown, but it was almost certainly found in modern southeastern Turkey, most likely in the Mardin area, close to the Syrian border. The document uses the standard formulae known from many Neo-Assyrian legal transactions, and the tablet's excellent state, reflected by the cast, makes it exemplary. Moreover, the text adds to our knowledge new, previously unattested personal names, and we also get to know the identities of two high officials (a mayor and a royal delegate) and a chariot driver who all act as witnesses. * We would like to thank Daniel Schwemer, Nils Heeßel and the other participants of the Würzburg Cuneiforum for their suggestions for improvements of our readings of the cast; Tuviah Kwasman, Karen Radner and Enrique Jiménez for reading and commenting a draft of the article; Gerfrid Müller, Michele Cammarosano and Ignaz Hetzel for providing us with a 3D-model of the cast and Gernot Wilhelm and Daniel Schwemer for the permission to publish the cast.
Journal of Near Eastern Studies 73_2 (2014) 211-18, 2014
An interesting Middle Assyrian letter from the Leuven collection (NP 46) was recently published ... more An interesting Middle Assyrian letter from the Leuven
collection (NP 46) was recently published by H. Hameeuw. Soon after having seen the publication of the tablet, the present authors joined their e!orts to better understand the grammar and content of this fascinating letter.
The introductory formulae of Neo-Assyrian letters sent to the king or a superior official during ... more The introductory formulae of Neo-Assyrian letters sent to the king or a superior official during the eighth century B.C. attest to a highly standardised form of letter writing (especially in the address), proving scribal sensitivity to an established letter writing etiquette. The introductory formula reflects the office of the sender; exactly the same formula (including the greeting) may be used by successive officeholders. Yet these formulae are by no means entirely uniform. In particular, the presence or absence of a blessing may tell us about the sender's relationship with the Assyrian king.
frontispiece. Assyrian official and two scribes; one is writing in cuneiform on clay or on a writ... more frontispiece. Assyrian official and two scribes; one is writing in cuneiform on clay or on a writing board and the other probably in Aramaic on leather. me 118882.
In a way, this bibliography is a continuation of the previous bibliographies compiled by The diff... more In a way, this bibliography is a continuation of the previous bibliographies compiled by The difference between Hämeen-Anttila's bibliography and the present one, however, is that we have tried to provide both the professional Assyriologist and the student of Assyriology with a considerable selection of secondary literature too. Therefore, this bibliography does not only list Neo-Assyrian text editions or studies that almost exclusively deal with the various linguistic aspects of Neo-Assyrian. One of the main reasons for this decision is simply the fact that during the last ten-twenty years the Neo-Assyrian data have often been approached in an interdisciplinary way. Hence, without listing titles belonging to relevant secondary literature, the viewpoint on Neo-Assyrian studies would remain unsatisfactory. Moreover, one could even maintain that during the last ten years, at the latest, the focus of Neo-Assyrian studies has somewhat shifted from its traditional philological roots to more interdisciplinary studies, at least quantitatively. Doubtless, this shift has affected the applied methods and methodologies in an unprecedented way. Nevertheless, many readers may still be puzzled when seeing titles listed here that refer to biblical, Aramaic, Greek, Median, Neo-Babylonian, Neo-Elamite, Phoenician and Urar\ian topics, but do not mention Neo-Assyrian at all. This results from an attempt to see Neo-Assyrian studies as part of a bigger picture.
When we think of the Neo-Assyrian "chief scribe", rab \upšarri, 1 or "palace scribe", \upšar ēkal... more When we think of the Neo-Assyrian "chief scribe", rab \upšarri, 1 or "palace scribe", \upšar ēkalli, 2 most of us probably associate their jobs almost solely with scribal work.
Volume XI (1997) IDIOMATIC MEANINGS OF SIDDUIN NEO-ASSYRIAN* Mikko Luukko -Helsinki Two important... more Volume XI (1997) IDIOMATIC MEANINGS OF SIDDUIN NEO-ASSYRIAN* Mikko Luukko -Helsinki Two important usages of the word idddu in Neo-Assyrian are overlooked in the standard dictionaries: 1. The prepositional/adverbial nature of the phrase illa siddi "along(side)," and 2. the idiomatic meaning of the phrase (ina) siddi arki, "cxtensively."
Books by Mikko Luukko
Ancient Magic and Divination 8/2, 2016
Websites by Mikko Luukko
In: E. Frahm (ed.), Companion to Assyria (Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World), 2017
The Assyrians spoke and wrote Assyrian, a dialect of Akkadian (an East Semitic language, written ... more The Assyrians spoke and wrote Assyrian, a dialect of Akkadian (an East Semitic language, written in cuneiform script), but their land, Assyria, was also home to other ethnic groups that had their own cultures and languages. From the time of our first written sources onwards, at the end of the third millennium bce (all following dates are bce), Assyria's ethno-linguistic landscape was characterized by a considerable degree of diversity, which was nourished by trade, military expansion, and migration. Aramaic, a West Semitic language written in alphabetic script, gained particular prominence in the multifaceted linguistic environment of the Assyrian Empire and its periphery. By the end of the Neo-Assyrian Period, Aramaic was widely used in the Near East as the lingua franca. This chapter is intended to present the reader with an overview of the history of the languages and writing systems used in Assyria and its periphery, with particular emphasis upon the history, development, and grammatical nuances of Akkadian, particularly the Assyrian dialect.* Languages Assyrian The Assyrian language and the eponymous language of Babylonia, Assyria's southern neighbor, are the two main dialects of Akkadian. Although most modern scholars view the two dialects as separate forms of the same language, ancient scribes considered Babylonian and Assyrian distinct languages, not subsumed under the overarching identifier "Akkadian" as used by modern Assyriologists: *We would like to thank Graham Cunningham, Bert Kouwenberg, and Jaume Llop for their critical remarks and suggestions.
Die Welt des Orients, 2016
This article provides a first edition of an intact Neo-Assyrian estate sale from the final period... more This article provides a first edition of an intact Neo-Assyrian estate sale from the final period of the empire in the late seventh century BCE. The publication is not based on the original tablet but on a cast kept at the Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur in Mainz. At the moment the location of the original tablet is unknown, but it was almost certainly found in modern southeastern Turkey, most likely in the Mardin area, close to the Syrian border. The document uses the standard formulae known from many Neo-Assyrian legal transactions, and the tablet's excellent state, reflected by the cast, makes it exemplary. Moreover, the text adds to our knowledge new, previously unattested personal names, and we also get to know the identities of two high officials (a mayor and a royal delegate) and a chariot driver who all act as witnesses. * We would like to thank Daniel Schwemer, Nils Heeßel and the other participants of the Würzburg Cuneiforum for their suggestions for improvements of our readings of the cast; Tuviah Kwasman, Karen Radner and Enrique Jiménez for reading and commenting a draft of the article; Gerfrid Müller, Michele Cammarosano and Ignaz Hetzel for providing us with a 3D-model of the cast and Gernot Wilhelm and Daniel Schwemer for the permission to publish the cast.
Journal of Near Eastern Studies 73_2 (2014) 211-18, 2014
An interesting Middle Assyrian letter from the Leuven collection (NP 46) was recently published ... more An interesting Middle Assyrian letter from the Leuven
collection (NP 46) was recently published by H. Hameeuw. Soon after having seen the publication of the tablet, the present authors joined their e!orts to better understand the grammar and content of this fascinating letter.
The introductory formulae of Neo-Assyrian letters sent to the king or a superior official during ... more The introductory formulae of Neo-Assyrian letters sent to the king or a superior official during the eighth century B.C. attest to a highly standardised form of letter writing (especially in the address), proving scribal sensitivity to an established letter writing etiquette. The introductory formula reflects the office of the sender; exactly the same formula (including the greeting) may be used by successive officeholders. Yet these formulae are by no means entirely uniform. In particular, the presence or absence of a blessing may tell us about the sender's relationship with the Assyrian king.
frontispiece. Assyrian official and two scribes; one is writing in cuneiform on clay or on a writ... more frontispiece. Assyrian official and two scribes; one is writing in cuneiform on clay or on a writing board and the other probably in Aramaic on leather. me 118882.
In a way, this bibliography is a continuation of the previous bibliographies compiled by The diff... more In a way, this bibliography is a continuation of the previous bibliographies compiled by The difference between Hämeen-Anttila's bibliography and the present one, however, is that we have tried to provide both the professional Assyriologist and the student of Assyriology with a considerable selection of secondary literature too. Therefore, this bibliography does not only list Neo-Assyrian text editions or studies that almost exclusively deal with the various linguistic aspects of Neo-Assyrian. One of the main reasons for this decision is simply the fact that during the last ten-twenty years the Neo-Assyrian data have often been approached in an interdisciplinary way. Hence, without listing titles belonging to relevant secondary literature, the viewpoint on Neo-Assyrian studies would remain unsatisfactory. Moreover, one could even maintain that during the last ten years, at the latest, the focus of Neo-Assyrian studies has somewhat shifted from its traditional philological roots to more interdisciplinary studies, at least quantitatively. Doubtless, this shift has affected the applied methods and methodologies in an unprecedented way. Nevertheless, many readers may still be puzzled when seeing titles listed here that refer to biblical, Aramaic, Greek, Median, Neo-Babylonian, Neo-Elamite, Phoenician and Urar\ian topics, but do not mention Neo-Assyrian at all. This results from an attempt to see Neo-Assyrian studies as part of a bigger picture.
When we think of the Neo-Assyrian "chief scribe", rab \upšarri, 1 or "palace scribe", \upšar ēkal... more When we think of the Neo-Assyrian "chief scribe", rab \upšarri, 1 or "palace scribe", \upšar ēkalli, 2 most of us probably associate their jobs almost solely with scribal work.
Volume XI (1997) IDIOMATIC MEANINGS OF SIDDUIN NEO-ASSYRIAN* Mikko Luukko -Helsinki Two important... more Volume XI (1997) IDIOMATIC MEANINGS OF SIDDUIN NEO-ASSYRIAN* Mikko Luukko -Helsinki Two important usages of the word idddu in Neo-Assyrian are overlooked in the standard dictionaries: 1. The prepositional/adverbial nature of the phrase illa siddi "along(side)," and 2. the idiomatic meaning of the phrase (ina) siddi arki, "cxtensively."
Ancient Magic and Divination 8/2, 2016