Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 69:2 (NA 2018)
Article: The Process Of Producing The Standard Inscription Of Ashurnasirpal II At Nimrud/KalḪu
Author: J. Caleb Howard

TynBull 69:2 (2018) p. 305

The Process Of Producing The Standard Inscription Of Ashurnasirpal II At Nimrud/KalḪu 1

J. Caleb Howard

([email protected])

In spite of the fact that the Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions have been known and read for a century and a half, the mechanics of their production are still poorly understood. Studies thus far have relied mainly on references to production in Neo-Assyrian letters and inferences from the final forms of Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions. Textual variation between manuscripts of the same composition and the formats and execution of the inscriptions are largely untapped sources of information for the mechanics of production.

The purpose of this dissertation is to reconstruct, in as much detail as the data allow, the process of producing the manuscripts of a single composition among the Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions, namely, the Standard Inscription of Ashurnasirpal II from Kalḫu (modern Nimrud) which was repeated over four hundred times on architectural components of the Northwest Palace, mainly on the faces of stone orthostats.2 This reconstruction relies especially on variation among the manuscripts of this composition at all levels of textuality as well as observations on the formatting and execution of the text on the orthostats.

The data-set of the dissertation is presented, organised, and analysed in a series of appendices. Appendix 5 contains a catalogue of all manuscripts of the Standard Inscription known to the author, along with relevant information about the artefacts on which each manuscript was incised, publication information, and textual formatting of the

TynBull 69:2 (2018) p. 306

manuscripts. Appendix 4 presents a score (Partitur) of 231 manuscripts of the Standard Inscription, based on first-hand collation of 78 of the manuscripts and collation of the remainder of manuscripts from legible photographs. Each manuscript is cited using a siglum which indicates its primary context in the Northwest Palace and its artefact type, and transliterations of the manuscripts indicate relevant details of textual formatting, such as line breaks and uninscribed space. Appendix 3 tabulates all variants in the Standard Inscription manuscripts in the data-set, categorising them using both rubrics reflecting levels of textuality (variations of palaeography, orthography, grammar, and content) and text-critical rubrics (omissions, additions, and substitutions). Appendix 2 presents all variants in the Standard Inscription manuscripts which are shared by two or more manuscripts at the same places of variation. Appendix 1 presents all variants shared by...