Kuttamuwa Inscription Lines 6-13: Image, Text and Translation

As I noted in my previous post, an 8^th cent bce inscription from Zincirli has been uncovered in situ and is now a hot topic of discussion among scholars (for details on Zincirli, go here). Here is a high-resolution image (HT Chip Hardy). Click again to enlarge. Jim Getz provides a copy of Dennis Pardee’s transcription based on the latter’s SBL presentation.

Below the fold, I provide the text of the entire inscription in transliteration and in sense-unit by sense-unit format. I also include a translation of all thirteen lines. Note that d and r are virtually indistinguishable in the script; I transliterate with one rather than the other based on lexical and semantic, not paleographical considerations. The transliteration is best viewed after the font Gentium Alt is installed on your computer; it can also be converted to other fonts like Charis SIL.

1. ʾnk.ktmw.ʿbd[.]pnmw.[zy].qnt.l[y].nṣb.b
2. ḥyy.wšmt.wth.bsyr.ʿlmy.wḥggt.s
3. yr.zn.šwr.lhdd.qrpdl.wybl.lng
4. d.ṣwrn.wybl.lšmš.wybl.lhdd.krmn
5. wybl.lkbbw.wybl.lnbšy.zy.bnṣb.zn.
6. wʿt.mn.mn.bny.ʾw.
7. mn bny.ʾš.wyhy.lh.
8. nsyr.znn.wlw.yqḥ.mn
9. ḥyl.krm.znn.šʾ.
10. ywmn.lywmn.wyh
11. rg.bnbšy
12. wyšwy
13. ly.šq

אנך כתמו

עבד פנמו

זי קנת לי

נצב בחיי

 

ושמת ותה

בסיר עלמי

וחגגת סיר זנ

 

שור להדד קרפדל

ויבל לנגד צורנ

ויבל לשמש

 

ויבל להדד כרמנ

ויבל לכבבו

 

ויבל לנבשי

זי בנצב זנ

 

ועת מנ מנ בני

או מנ בני אש

 

ויהי לה

נסיר זננ

 

ולו יקח

מנ חיל כרמ זננ

שא יומנ ליומנ

 

ויהרג בנבשי

וישוי לי שק

I am Kuttamuwa,

servant of Panamuwa,

 

I who acquired for myself

the stele while I was living.

 

I placed it

in my permanent chamber

and feted this chamber:

 

a bull for Hadad of QRPDL;

produce for opposite the depictions,

produce for Shamash;

produce for Hadad of the vineyards,

produce for his vessel;

 

produce for my life-breath

that is in this stele.

 

Now, whosoever of my sons

or whoever of the sons of another,

 

and the selfsame chamber

belong to him indeed,

 

would that he take

from the richness of the selfsame vineyard

an offering year by year,

 

and slaughter on behalf of my life-breath

and lay out for me a thigh.

 

I understand נ in נסיר to represent נא. I would have expected it to be conjoined to the preceding לה.

As previously noted, the translation is no more than a first stab. I imagine that (ashes of?) the named foods would have been placed before the appropriate objects in the permanent funerary chamber in which the stele was displayed. The narrative point of view of the inscription is haunting: it is as if the dead man is speaking and recounting what he did while he was living.

Thanks to Jim Getz, I was able to compare my tentative translation with that of Pardee’s from his SBL presentation. However, it does not seem right to divulge Pardee’s translation online without permission. I differ with Pardee regarding the precise sense of a number of vocables in context, but not, so far as I can see, regarding the general sense of the inscription. In response to questions, I would be happy to expand on my interpretation and translation choices.

Pdf of this post here.

Comments

[Cristian]

Thanks for the post. Can you send me this in PDF and/or WORD?

[anonymous]

Thanks for posting. FYI - you have an inadvertent typo on line 8 of your transcription (you have an extra "g" in it - you mean "nsyr.znn" and not "nsyrg.znn".)

[John Hobbins]

Thanks, anonymous. I'll fix it.

I am also working on a PDF version.