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

在现代伊拉克，芝加哥东方学院在三十年代中期的考古发掘中，在Tell Ishchali发现了一个巨大的古巴比伦神庙群。伊什塔-基提图姆女神的神庙具有均匀的设计，良好的保存状态，并拥有大量的档案。它的行政文本、信件、法律文件和文学作品可能为了解古巴比伦神庙的功能和生活提供了独特的见解。这些有意义的材料之所以没有被整理和认可，主要是因为在考古调查之前挖掘出来的楔形文字的最重要部分尚未发表。在基提图姆神庙的广泛管理中，最大的一组文本见证了女神宝藏的管理，主要由珠宝和纺织品制成。他们大概了解大约100份行政文件，这些文件只是部分公布，因此尚未得到充分调查。目前的研究项目以这些仍不为人知的文件为研究对象，目的是为古巴比伦社会的现状增添新的历史、宗教和文化方面的内容。以基提图姆神庙的文献为例，在其物质、历史和文化背景下，关于向神奉献礼物的做法的问题将作为调查的中心主题。谁把这些昂贵的物品献给了女神？这些奉献是什么时候以及为什么发生的？他们献给女神什么样的物品？基提图姆神庙的文本现在给了我们回答这些问题的机会，因为原始材料的特殊状态使我们比以往任何时候都更能将书面的行政证据与神庙宝库中相应的考古发现联系起来。这种方法还应与社会学分析相结合，以便在文化和历史前景方面进行有益的评价。其结果将是一项具有开创性方法的基础研究，该方法提供了具有考古背景的文本版本以及对当前古巴比伦社会的社会学分析。伊什卡利宝藏的书面证据为研究古巴比伦神庙的奉献实践提供了几乎独一无二的来源，也显示了对其物质文化的深刻见解。基提图姆神庙的挖掘工作已经结束了100年。学者们一定会抵制泥板作为书写工具的衰落，研究这些文本并把它们带出来。

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.