British Institute for the Study of Iraq (Gertrude Bell Memorial) – förlag

Volume four in the British School of Archaeology in Iraq's study of the city of Abu Salabikh. Volume Four is a two-volume set, with the first book containing the text and the second book containing the plates.

This penultimate volume of CTN provides an up-to-date edition and commentary on two major archives from the Kalhu acropolis, from the field seasons of 1953-1956: the business documents (mostly grain loans on triangular dockets) and a few administrative texts from the Nabu Temple (Part I: texts Nos. 1-59) and the legal documents from the household of Šamaš-šarru-uṣur (Part II: Nos. 60-115); also included are three texts from the “Town Wall Palace” (Part III: Nos. 116-118). S. Herbordt provides a new study of the seal impressions based on drawings and photos, and photographs of both the impressions and unsealed tablets are included where available. The handcopies on Plates 1-44 are from Wiseman, Parker, Postgate and Mattila.Many of these texts were edited previously by Wiseman and Parker in articles in Iraq, but some were only catalogued and others had lain for years uncopied in both the Iraq Museum and the British Museum. Bringing them all together has enabled a more detailed study of the two main archives with the benefit of the advances in our understanding of Neo-Assyrian over the last half century. This gives a valuable insight into the activities of both a major temple and an elite household in the 8th-7th centuries BC.

This book gathers together hitherto unpublished letters from William Kennett Loftus (1820-1858) to friends and relatives in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The letters have been transcribed and are introduced by John Curtis. Loftus was a geologist attached to the Turco-Persian Frontier Commission which in the years 1849-52 was charged with establishing the border between Persia and the Ottoman Empire. In this position he was able to undertake pioneering archaeological work at sites such as Warka in Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Susa in Persia (Iran). As well as providing information about Loftus’ archaeological work, there are vivid descriptions of celebrating the birthday of Queen Victoria in Baghdad, contending with wild tribesmen, travelling on horseback through the Taurus Mountains in winter, working in temperatures of up to nearly 50° centigrade in the summer, and hunting hyenas and wild pigs. The book also contains genealogical information about Loftus and his family.