The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary is one of the great humanitarian projects of our time. Conceived in the 1920s it has had a colourful and checkered history, spanning the leaps in technology from file cards to the internet and seeing the services of three generations of the world's leading Assyriologists. This history can now be succinctly reviewed in Erica Reiner's An Adventure of Great Dimension: The Launching of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 2002)Footnote ¹. The first volume to appear, in 1956, was H and now, fully half a century later, the project is approaching completion. After these two new volumes, T and Ṭ, there remains just U, which is expected imminently. The value of these volumes to Assyriology cannot be overstated.

A few comments on individual lexemes:

tabālu:

note BM 75617.1–2 (Strassmaier 246/3), KÙ.BABBAR ta-ba-la šá ni-qu-qu šá zik-ra-tu4 šá ^mdUTU-ŠEŠ-it-tan-nu i-ta-ba-la

tablu:

add BM 79128.11 (Jursa Das Archiv des Bēl-rēmanni (Leiden, 1999) p. 252)

tabnītu:

is not a “type of offering” but is now well understood to mean the arrangement of offerings for presentation to the deity. The task was undertaken by the mubannû.

*tagrību:

delete this entry – the reference in CT 55 243.8 is to be read [n]a-ak-ri-ma-nu (a leather bag).

tahapšu:

for the latest on this item see S Zawadzki Garments of the Gods (OBO 218, 2006) p. 134–5.

takiltu:

according to Zawadzki (op. cit p. 131) this colour (blue) was a signature of the goddess Šarrat Sippar.

tallu:

note silver for repair of the tallu erê ša ^gišGIGIR in BM 64023:

BM 64023 (Bertin 1891)

5.7 × 4.3 cm Cambyses 27/5/3

1. 1 [x]+9 ½ GÍN KÙ.BABBAR KÙ.BABBAR T[A er]-bi qu-up-[pu]

2. 2 [er]-bi šá KÁ ^dA-nu- ni -tu ₄

3. 3 [x]+9 GÍN KÙ.BABBAR su-pa-an-du

4. 4 1/3 6 1/2 GÍN KÙ.BABBAR šá er-[bi]

5. 5 PAP 5/6 ma-na 1 GÍN a-na

6. 6 bit-qa šá tal-lu e-re-[e]

7. 7 šá ^gišGIGIR SUM-na

8. 8 ^itiNE UD 27 [KÁM]

9. 9 MU 3 KÁM ^mKam-bu-z[i-ia]

10. 10 LUGAL TIN.TIR^ki LUGAL KUR.KUR

11. 11 5 GÍN KÙ.BABBAR ina ši te ne/tu4

Notes

1. l.3 supandu (meaning unknown) also occurs in Nbn. 159.7 and BM 76711.6.

2. l.11 end of line not understood.

Translation

tarāṣu:

BM 62195.rev.1–3: 4 GÍN KÙ.BABBAR gin-nu šá 4 ma-la-a-ta šá qé-me šá ta-ra-ṣu šá ^itiBÁR.

tašlīšu:

it is possible that in the Neo-Babylonian period the tašlīšu was identical with the kizû (who, whatever else, in the context of labour gangs is clearly also an individual in charge of groups of five men. This issue is further examined in my forthcoming work on the armed forces of the Ebabbara).

tehirtu:

this term is discussed by Bongenaar The Neo-Babylonian Ebabbar Temple at Sippar: its Administration and its Prosopography (Leiden, 1995) p. 359. BM 61271 may be added to the references cited there.

tikku:

in BM 40547.2 (M Weszeli WZKM 87 (1997 p. 231 No. 4) a donkey has the cuneiform sign LÚ written on its neck and rump (cf. ṭurru D below).

titurru:

also mentioned in BM 61175.rev.10.

tuqqunu

(“of appropriate quality”): note that McEwan read MUN.HI.A tu ₉-uq-qu-nu in GCCI 1 238.4 (NABU 1990/3 No. 93) but this seems highly unlikely as a reading of KU = tu ₉ is too abstruse for a Neo-Babylonian economic document.

*turmedīsu:

an object made of bronze written tur-me-di-su in BM 64017:

BM 64017 (Bertin 1880)

4.0 × 3.0 cm Cambyses 21/1/8

1. 1 ½ ma-na 4 GÍN KÙ.BABBAR

2. 2 a-na tur-me-di-su

3. 3 šá ^dUTU a-na

4. 4 ^mLib-luṭ ^lúSIMUG

5. 5 SUM-na

6. 6 ^itiBÁR UD 21 KÁM

7. 7 MU 8 KÁM ^mKam-bu-zi-ia ^!

8. 8 LUGAL TIN.TIR^ki LUGAL KUR.KUR

Translation

turminabandû:

this stone occurs among the list of stone chippings laid down by Sennacherib as hardcore when he built his stables at Nineveh (MacGinnis, Iraq 51 (1989) p. 187f).

turminû:

this stone also occurs among Sennacherib's list of chippings at Nineveh (MacGinnis, Iraq 51 (1989) p. 187f).

tuttu:

BM 54242.1–2 3 GUR tu-ut-tu ₄ (Mulberry) ha-ar-bu-[tu ₄]/ub-bu-lu NÍG.GA LUGAL šá [. . .

ṭātu

“bribe”: the ṭa-wa-ti-šú occuring in a harrānu text from Borsippa (MacGinnis Iraq 56 (1994) p. 118) is probably to be understood as a writing of this lexeme.

ṭerdu:

for the latest on this word see M Jursa “ṭerdu. Von Entführung in Babylon und Majestätsbeleidigung in Larsa” in S. Graziani (ed.), Studi sul Vicino Oriente Antico dedicati alla memoria di Luigi Cagni, Istituto universitario orientale dipartimento di Studi Asiatici Series Minor 61 (Naples, 2000).

ṭūbu:

note gold a-na ṭu-ub-bu BM 62610.2.

ṭūdānu:

also BM 68140.2’ (ṭu-da-nu).

ṭuppi mār banûti:

to the references cited add BM 64650, the tablet of manumission written by a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar for her slave Nabû-mukku-elip (MacGinnis ASJ 15 (1993) p. 99f).

ṭupšar ēkalli:

note the edition of BM 59098 appearing in the review by MacGinnis of R Da Riva Der Ebabbar-Tempel von Sippar in frühneubabylonischer Zeit appearing in AfO 50 (2003/2004) p. 407 n. 5.

ṭurru D:

to the list of animals with marks branded on their rump, add the example of a donkey with the sign LÚ written on its neck and rump quoted sub tikku above.

Finally, note the two loanwords from Aramaic (ṭullumā’u “liar, cheater” and tamīru “perfect”), which will be of particular interest to the first millenniumists.

In summary, this book marks another extraordinary milestone in the long progress of the Assyrian dictionary as it finally approaches completion. The editors and staff deserve our deepest praise for their part in this phenomenal achievement.