Chronological and Geographical Liminality in Early Mesopotamian Paleography: The Case of Umma and Adab (original) (raw)

In 1922 A. Deimel published his Liste der Archaischen Keilschriftzeichen, commonly known as LAK. After almost a century, this is still the standard sign list for Early Mesopotamian texts. In recent years, the corpus of Early Dynastic and Sargonic documents has increased enormously, especially after the publication of hundreds of tablets deriving from the neighboring regions of Umma and Adab. Due to these circumstances, there is renewed interest in the compilation of sign lists and syllabaries of third millennium cuneiform – some works have been announced and their publication is expected in the next years, as in the case of Early Dynastic Ebla (P. Paoletti) and Early Dynastic Fara (E. Zeran). Some first preliminary modern studies of Early Mesopotamian paleography have been already produced by, among others, M. Such-Gutiérrez, M. Maiocchi (Adab), A. Bramanti, and P. Notizia (Umma). The growing interest in the field of cuneiform paleography was also endorsed by the organization of recent international workshops (60th RAI – Warsaw, 64th RAI – Innsbruck) and symposia (Leiden 2009). Within this framework, and following in the footsteps of the available literature, it is time to reconsider the concept of chronological and geographical liminality in the third millennium, in an attempt to answer the following question: to what extent is paleography a diagnostic tool for shedding further light on the origin of a text? The corpus of documents from the regions of Umma and Adab provide a case study to test the potentiality of this approach, while navigating along the placid banks of the Tigris on a voyage from the Early Dynastic to the Sargonic times. Location: 64th RAI, Innsbruck. Event date: July 16-20, 2018