Dedications to Ishtar-Kititum: an Old Babylonian Temple Archive in its Context

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In modern Irak, during the archaeological excavations of the Oriental Institute of Chicago in the mid-thirties, a huge Old Babylonian temple complex has been uncovered in Tell Ishchali. The temple of the goddess Ishtar-Kititum features homogeneous design, excellent state of preservation, and holds a large archive. Its administrative texts, letters, legal documents and literary compositions offer probably a unique insight into the functioning and the life of an Old Babylonian temple. The reason why this meaningful material is not worked up and recognized is due mainly to the fact that the most significant part of the cuneiform text, which was excavated before the archaeological surveys, has not been published yet. One of the biggest group of texts within the wide administration of the Kititum temple witnesses the management of the treasure of the goddess, chiefly made of jewellery and textiles. They presumably comprehend about 100 administrative documents, which have been only partially published and, as a result, have not been fully investigated yet. The present research project addresses itself to these still unknown documents and therewith aims to add new historical, religious and cultural aspects to the current picture of the Old Babylonian society. Using the example offered by the documents of Kititum temple the question about the practice of dedicating gifts to the gods in its material, historical and cultural context will serve the investigation as a central theme. Who dedicated these expensive objects to the goddess? When and why did these dedications take place? What kind of objects did they dedicate to the goddess? The texts from the Kititum temple give now the chance to answer these questions, since the special state of the source material allows us more than ever to connect the written administrative evidence with the correspondent archaeological findings from the treasury of the temple. This approach should be also combined with a sociological analysis in order to achieve profitable evaluations in cultural and historical prospect. Its outcome will be a basic research with a ground-breaking approach which provides the text edition with its archaeological context as well as with a sociological analysis of the current Old Babylonian society.The written evidence of the treasury from Ishchali represents a almost unique source for the inquiry into the dedication practices in an Old Babylonian temple, that shows incisive insights into its material culture too. It is one hundred years now since the excavations of the Kititum temple has come to an end. Scholars are bound to counteract the decline of the clay tablets as written tools, to study these texts and to bring them out.