Sumerian Hymns
from
Cuneiform Texts in the British Museum
Frederick Augustus Vanderburgh
Note
The so-called “Sumerian Question” as to the genuine linguisticcharacter of the ancient Non-Semitic Babylonian texts has agitatedthe Assyriological world for more than twenty years. The newSumerian matter from the monuments which is constantly comingto hand demands, in the interest of all those who can look uponthis discussion with impartial eyes, a most rigid and unprejudicedexamination. Dr. Vanderburgh in the following monograph hasadhered to the views expounded in my “Materials for a SumerianLexicon” (J. C. Hinrichs’sche Buchhandlung, 1905-1907), that theso-called Sumerian was originally a Non-Semitic agglutinative languagewhich, in the course of many centuries of Semitic influences,became so incrusted with Semiticisms, most of them the result ofa very gradual development of the earlier foreign sacred speechof the priests, that it is really not surprising to find the theorythat Sumerian was merely a Semitic cryptography set forth andvigorously upheld by so eminent a scholar as Professor Halévy(MSL., pp. VIII, IX).
The study of the more ancient Non-Semitic texts, more particularlyof the Sumerian unilingual hymns, cannot fail to shedadditional light on the nature of this peculiar idiom, besides furnishinga valuable addition to the study of the Babylonian religioussystem.
The texts of the hymns in Vol. XV. of the Brit. Mus. Cun.Texts are not always in good condition and present many difficulties,a solution of some of which, it is hoped, has been suggestedin this work with at least approximate correctness.
John Dyneley Prince
Columbia University
October 1st, 1907
To the
Rev. Edward Judson, D. D.,
in recognition of his friendship to the author
and of his interest in Oriental studies
Preface
Vol. XV. of the “Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets inthe British Museum, printed by order of the Trustees”, was publishedin 1902. Plates 7-30 of this valuable volume containhymns addressed to Bêl, Nergal, Adad, Sin, Tammuz, Bau and Ningirgilu.Of these, besides the translations given in the presentwork, the following have been translated and commented on; viz.,J. Dyneley Prince, Jour. Amer. Or. Soc., xxviii, pp. 168-182, ahymn to Nergal (Pl. 14); and a hymn to Sin (also rendered andexplained in this thesis) by E. Guthrie Perry, in Hymnen und Gebetean Sin (Pl. 17). In press at present are also translations byJ. D. Prince, a hymn to Bau, Vol. XV. Pl. 22 in the Harper MemorialVolume (Chicago); and, by the same author, a hymn toNingirgilu, Vol. XV. Pl. 23, in the Paul Haupt Collection to appearin 1908.
All these hymns in Plates 7-30 stand by themselves as distinctfrom anything hitherto published. They are unilingual, a fact indicatingthat they are very ancient and furthermore adding materiallyto the difficulty of their translation. This Thesis venturesa transliteration, translation and commentary of four of the hymnswhich are peculiarly difficult owing to their unilingual Non-Semiticcharacter. Of the history of the tablets in question, which are allin the Old Babylonian character, we have no information. Theymust tell their own story.
The writer of this Thesis wishes to acknowledge with muchappreciation the aid given him by Dr. Jo