Sources of Early Akkadian Literature: SEAL

SEAL is an ongoing project which started in 2007. It aims to compile an exhaustive catalogue of Akkadian literary texts from the 3^rd and 2^nd millennia BCE, so as to enable an efficient study of the entire early Akkadian corpus in all its philological, literary, and historical dimensions. In the past years, SEAL underwent several phases and became a significant digital tool for every Assyriologist working on Akkadian literature. We are grateful to the two Principal Investigator of this project, who kindly accepted to describe for Mar Shiprim what they consider SEAL’s main achievements so far, and sent a preview of forthcoming publications and website improvements which we can expect in the near future.

Sources of Early Akkadian Literature: SEAL

Michael P. Streck (Leipzig) and Nathan Wasserman (Jerusalem)

Our interest in Akkadian literature grew independently. In 1999, Michael Streck (Leipzig) published his Die Bildersprache der Akkadischen Epic (AOAT 264), and in 2003, Nathan Wasserman (Jerusalem) published his Style and Form in Old-Babylonian Literary Texts (CM 27). Realizing the absence of an up-to-date scientific organ dedicated to Akkadian literature, we decided to join forces, and in the early 2000’s we have applied to the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development (GIF). Two consecutive grants from GIF, together with generous funding from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, allowed us creating SEAL: Sources of Early Akkadian Literature.

  When first launched online, in winter 2010, SEAL catalogued ca. 200 Old Babylonian literary texts. As of today, April 2020, 888 Akkadian and bilingual compositions are catalogued in SEAL – texts of all literary genres, from the Old Akkadian to the Middle Babylonian/Middle Assyrian periods, many of which are newly edited and translated. This growing number of compositions – which certainly will continue growing – proves how challenging and exciting is the study of the Akkadian literary system.

In the past decade, SEAL had more than 32,000 log-ins and 12,000 unique visitors reach from all over the world. The total number of items viewed in SEAL during these years exceeded 650,000.

In SEAL, we believe in two-way publication: digital and traditional print. Each of these has its inherent advantages and purposes. Resulting from SEAL, the following monographs were published and being prepared:

1. Wasserman, Akkadian Love Literature of the 3^rd and 2^nd Millennium BCE (Leipziger Altorientalistische Studien 4): Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 2016.
2. Zomer, Corpus of Middle Babylonian and Middle Assyrian Incantations (Leipziger Altorientalistische Studien 9): Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 2018.
3. Wasserman, The Flood: The Akkadian Sources. A New Edition, Commentary, and a Literary Discussion (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, 290), Peeters Publishers, Leuven, 2020.
4. Wasserman and Elyze Zomer: Akkadian Incantations of the Early 2^nd Millennium BCE (Leipziger Altorientalistische Studien), in progress.
5. Pohl: Old Babylonian Hymns, in progress.

We also had great fun writing together a number of papers, all resulting from our work on SEAL:

1. The Old Babylonian Hymns to Papulegara, Orientalia 77 (2008), 335–358, Tab. XXXVI-XXXVII
2. Dialogues and Riddles: Three Old Babylonian Wisdom Texts, Iraq 73 (2011), 117–125.
3. More Light on Nanāya, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie 102 (2012), 183–201.
4. Mankind’s Bitter Fate: The Wisdom Dialogue BM 79111+, Journal of Cuneiform Studies 66 (2014), 39–47.
5. On Wolves and Kings. Two Tablets with Akkadian Wisdom Texts from the Second Millennium BC, Iraq 78 (2016), 241–252.
6. The Man is Like a Woman, the Maiden is a Young Man. A new edition of Ištar-Louvre, Orientalia 87 (2018), 1–38 (Tab. I–II).
7. “I was not warm in the cold.” Another Old Babylonian Proverbial Collection, Iraq 81 (2019) 241–245.
8. History of Akkadian Literature, in: G. Rubio (ed.), A Handbook of Ancient Mesopotamia: Walter De Gruyter, forthcoming.

In 2019, a new and improved SEAL site was launched, under the address: https://seal.huji.ac.il/.

The new site – built on Drupal©, a free and open-source content management platform – features the following improvements:

• Every text has a permanent SEAL no., irrespective of its position in the Text Hierarchy, by which it can be safely cited.
• Every text has its own permanent URL which can be copy-pasted in references.
• Every text can be reached directly from Google.
• Enhanced search function. One may search by SEAL no., File Name, Siglum, Genre, Collection, or Provenance. Search by string is also possible (e.g. “rain”, or “Adad”, or pi/pí-i etc.).
• Extended, fully searchable bibliography pertaining to Mesopotamian literary texts.
• Texts’ fields are organized by tabs/categories – to minimize scrolling.
• High resolution photos and copies in a new, easy to use format (depending on legal rights).
• Stable fonts ensure less erratic screen behavior.

The indices of SEAL are now being rebuilt and cleaned. As long as this process goes on, the indices will remain hidden. We hope to have them open to all users in the near future.

Users should bear in mind that SEAL is an ongoing, open-ended research project, not a final publication – which means that it is not free of mistakes or inaccuracies. We welcome corrections, comments and suggestions. We give full credit to all contributors.

Michael P. Streck: mstreck@rz.uni-leipzig.de

Nathan Wasserman: nathan.wasserman@mail.huji.ac.il