This article provides a general survey of the extant corpus of letters in the Ugaritic language, ... more This article provides a general survey of the extant corpus of letters in the Ugaritic language, and then attempts a typology of the epistolary function of messages within that corpus, using « Speech Act Theory » as developed especially by J. Austin and J. Searle.
Le cursus scolaire en ecriture locale suivi par les scribes apprentis d'Ougarit au XIIIe siec... more Le cursus scolaire en ecriture locale suivi par les scribes apprentis d'Ougarit au XIIIe siecle avant J.-C. comptait plusieurs types d'exercices, dont le plus evident sans doute sont les listes de signes. D'apres la documentation qui nous est parvenue, une seule liste de signes servait de modele dans la formation des scribes alphabetisants du royaume : celle qui commence par les signes ʾA, B, G ... – sequence destinee, comme chacun le sait, a connaitre une longue histoire a travers le monde. Bien que l'on ne puisse certainement pas affirmer que les scribes d'Ougarit ont invente l'ecriture alphabetique, il est vrai que les plus anciens exemplaires connus jusque-la de l'outil de son enseignement – l'« abecedaire » – proviennent d'Ougarit. Les fouilles de Ras Shamra ont livre en effet non pas seulement quelques-uns, mais tout un corpus d'abecedaires. Parce que les documents de ce corpus sont assez divers – fait inattendu etant donne la simplicite...
Plusieurs elements laissaient penser que certains textes de la 5e campagne de fouilles a Ras Sham... more Plusieurs elements laissaient penser que certains textes de la 5e campagne de fouilles a Ras Shamra (1933) conserves au Musee pouvaient etre de la main du scribe Ṯabʾilu ; parmi ceux-ci se trouvent deux des celebres textes akkadiens en ecriture alphabetique : RS 5.156+ (KTU 1.70) et RS 5.303bis (KTU 1.73).
La fusaiole inscrite RS 5.179 fut recemment identifiee dans les collections d'archeologie com... more La fusaiole inscrite RS 5.179 fut recemment identifiee dans les collections d'archeologie comparee du Musee d'Archeologie nationale de Saint-Germain-en-Laye et correspond a l'objet MAN 76780.03. Ellle provient des fouilles de 1933 de C.F.A. Schaeffer sur l'acropole du tell de Ras Shamra - Ougarit et daterait du XIIIe s. av. J.-C.
The authors of this article (part one of a two-part study) approach the methodological problems o... more The authors of this article (part one of a two-part study) approach the methodological problems of identifying plant names in the ancient Ugaritic language through the study of one particular dossier: that of the plant whose name was written in Ugaritic alphabetic script as dprn (this word seems promising as a test case, since it is relatively well attested, since it occurs in a variety of contextual environments and in both of the writing systems in active local use at Ugarit in the 13th c. BC, and since it has plausible phonological and semantic parallels in several related (and non-related) languages. It thus provides a convenient pretext for exploring the many questions involved in any attempt to link ancient words in long dead languages with material realities.
La fusaiole inscrite RS 5.179 fut recemment identifiee dans les collections d'archeologie com... more La fusaiole inscrite RS 5.179 fut recemment identifiee dans les collections d'archeologie comparee du Musee d'Archeologie nationale de Saint-Germain-en-Laye et correspond a l'objet MAN 76780.03. Ellle provient des fouilles de 1933 de C.F.A. Schaeffer sur l'acropole du tell de Ras Shamra - Ougarit et daterait du XIIIe s. av. J.-C.
Baudez Claude F. Rapport préliminaire sur les activités de la Mission archéologique française au ... more Baudez Claude F. Rapport préliminaire sur les activités de la Mission archéologique française au Honduras (décembre 1964-mai 1965). In: Journal de la Société des Américanistes. Tome 54 n°1, 1965. pp. 136-141
Several members of the epigraphic team of the Franco-Syrian Mission de Ras Shamra have been worki... more Several members of the epigraphic team of the Franco-Syrian Mission de Ras Shamra have been working actively on questions of prosopography in recent years. Thanks in large part to scribal colophons which have yielded some of the most important data, it is possible in some cases to trace the genealogy of certain families of scribes over several generations. This paper presents some results of our recent work on several such scribal families, and especially on the family-oriented educational contexts in which young apprentices were trained as scribes. Since the most important data derives from the XIIIth century BC, and since it was probably during this period that the alphabet was adopted, adapted, and institutionalized as the primary graphic vehicle for managing the domestic affairs of the kingdom of Ugarit, we will also explore some possible relationships between such families of intellectuals on the one hand, and the implementation and teaching of both the Mesopotamian cuneiform a...
Persée - Portail des revues scientifiques en SHS eBooks, 2012
, . Une bibliothèque au sud de la ville***. Textes 1994-2002 en cunéiforme alphabétique de la Mai... more , . Une bibliothèque au sud de la ville***. Textes 1994-2002 en cunéiforme alphabétique de la Maison d’Ourtenou. Lyon : Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée Jean Pouilloux, 2012. -1 p. (Ras Shamra-Ougarit, 18
La tablette ougaritique RS 31.043 (=KTU 4.754) ne semble pas etre un document juridique, mais plu... more La tablette ougaritique RS 31.043 (=KTU 4.754) ne semble pas etre un document juridique, mais plutot un simple texte economique, sans valeur juridique explicite ; au lieu du mot ypḥ, " temoin ", il faut probablement lire yp˹ʿb˺... : apparemment l'anthroponyme ypʿbʿl, atteste ailleurs dans l'onomastique ougaritaine.
Les etudes recentes sur le scribe Tab'ilu et son oeuvre ont mis en valeur l'importance de... more Les etudes recentes sur le scribe Tab'ilu et son oeuvre ont mis en valeur l'importance des tablettes et fragments de la 5e campagne de fouilles a Ras Shamra (1933). Cet article marque l'etude renouvelee du dossier des textes akkadiens en ecriture alphabetique et en particulier RS 5.156 et RS 5.303bis.
This article provides a general survey of the extant corpus of letters in the Ugaritic language, ... more This article provides a general survey of the extant corpus of letters in the Ugaritic language, and then attempts a typology of the epistolary function of messages within that corpus, using « Speech Act Theory » as developed especially by J. Austin and J. Searle.
Le cursus scolaire en ecriture locale suivi par les scribes apprentis d'Ougarit au XIIIe siec... more Le cursus scolaire en ecriture locale suivi par les scribes apprentis d'Ougarit au XIIIe siecle avant J.-C. comptait plusieurs types d'exercices, dont le plus evident sans doute sont les listes de signes. D'apres la documentation qui nous est parvenue, une seule liste de signes servait de modele dans la formation des scribes alphabetisants du royaume : celle qui commence par les signes ʾA, B, G ... – sequence destinee, comme chacun le sait, a connaitre une longue histoire a travers le monde. Bien que l'on ne puisse certainement pas affirmer que les scribes d'Ougarit ont invente l'ecriture alphabetique, il est vrai que les plus anciens exemplaires connus jusque-la de l'outil de son enseignement – l'« abecedaire » – proviennent d'Ougarit. Les fouilles de Ras Shamra ont livre en effet non pas seulement quelques-uns, mais tout un corpus d'abecedaires. Parce que les documents de ce corpus sont assez divers – fait inattendu etant donne la simplicite...
Plusieurs elements laissaient penser que certains textes de la 5e campagne de fouilles a Ras Sham... more Plusieurs elements laissaient penser que certains textes de la 5e campagne de fouilles a Ras Shamra (1933) conserves au Musee pouvaient etre de la main du scribe Ṯabʾilu ; parmi ceux-ci se trouvent deux des celebres textes akkadiens en ecriture alphabetique : RS 5.156+ (KTU 1.70) et RS 5.303bis (KTU 1.73).
La fusaiole inscrite RS 5.179 fut recemment identifiee dans les collections d'archeologie com... more La fusaiole inscrite RS 5.179 fut recemment identifiee dans les collections d'archeologie comparee du Musee d'Archeologie nationale de Saint-Germain-en-Laye et correspond a l'objet MAN 76780.03. Ellle provient des fouilles de 1933 de C.F.A. Schaeffer sur l'acropole du tell de Ras Shamra - Ougarit et daterait du XIIIe s. av. J.-C.
The authors of this article (part one of a two-part study) approach the methodological problems o... more The authors of this article (part one of a two-part study) approach the methodological problems of identifying plant names in the ancient Ugaritic language through the study of one particular dossier: that of the plant whose name was written in Ugaritic alphabetic script as dprn (this word seems promising as a test case, since it is relatively well attested, since it occurs in a variety of contextual environments and in both of the writing systems in active local use at Ugarit in the 13th c. BC, and since it has plausible phonological and semantic parallels in several related (and non-related) languages. It thus provides a convenient pretext for exploring the many questions involved in any attempt to link ancient words in long dead languages with material realities.
La fusaiole inscrite RS 5.179 fut recemment identifiee dans les collections d'archeologie com... more La fusaiole inscrite RS 5.179 fut recemment identifiee dans les collections d'archeologie comparee du Musee d'Archeologie nationale de Saint-Germain-en-Laye et correspond a l'objet MAN 76780.03. Ellle provient des fouilles de 1933 de C.F.A. Schaeffer sur l'acropole du tell de Ras Shamra - Ougarit et daterait du XIIIe s. av. J.-C.
Baudez Claude F. Rapport préliminaire sur les activités de la Mission archéologique française au ... more Baudez Claude F. Rapport préliminaire sur les activités de la Mission archéologique française au Honduras (décembre 1964-mai 1965). In: Journal de la Société des Américanistes. Tome 54 n°1, 1965. pp. 136-141
Several members of the epigraphic team of the Franco-Syrian Mission de Ras Shamra have been worki... more Several members of the epigraphic team of the Franco-Syrian Mission de Ras Shamra have been working actively on questions of prosopography in recent years. Thanks in large part to scribal colophons which have yielded some of the most important data, it is possible in some cases to trace the genealogy of certain families of scribes over several generations. This paper presents some results of our recent work on several such scribal families, and especially on the family-oriented educational contexts in which young apprentices were trained as scribes. Since the most important data derives from the XIIIth century BC, and since it was probably during this period that the alphabet was adopted, adapted, and institutionalized as the primary graphic vehicle for managing the domestic affairs of the kingdom of Ugarit, we will also explore some possible relationships between such families of intellectuals on the one hand, and the implementation and teaching of both the Mesopotamian cuneiform a...
Persée - Portail des revues scientifiques en SHS eBooks, 2012
, . Une bibliothèque au sud de la ville***. Textes 1994-2002 en cunéiforme alphabétique de la Mai... more , . Une bibliothèque au sud de la ville***. Textes 1994-2002 en cunéiforme alphabétique de la Maison d’Ourtenou. Lyon : Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée Jean Pouilloux, 2012. -1 p. (Ras Shamra-Ougarit, 18
La tablette ougaritique RS 31.043 (=KTU 4.754) ne semble pas etre un document juridique, mais plu... more La tablette ougaritique RS 31.043 (=KTU 4.754) ne semble pas etre un document juridique, mais plutot un simple texte economique, sans valeur juridique explicite ; au lieu du mot ypḥ, " temoin ", il faut probablement lire yp˹ʿb˺... : apparemment l'anthroponyme ypʿbʿl, atteste ailleurs dans l'onomastique ougaritaine.
Les etudes recentes sur le scribe Tab'ilu et son oeuvre ont mis en valeur l'importance de... more Les etudes recentes sur le scribe Tab'ilu et son oeuvre ont mis en valeur l'importance des tablettes et fragments de la 5e campagne de fouilles a Ras Shamra (1933). Cet article marque l'etude renouvelee du dossier des textes akkadiens en ecriture alphabetique et en particulier RS 5.156 et RS 5.303bis.
The tell of Ras Shamra on the Mediterranean coast of Syria has yielded thousands of cuneiform tab... more The tell of Ras Shamra on the Mediterranean coast of Syria has yielded thousands of cuneiform tablets which shed light on the scribal traditions of ancient Ugarit, a city-state which flourished during the latter part of the Late Bronze Age. This dissertation treats one aspect of the local scribal practice, the letter-writing tradition in the Ugaritic language. The studies presented here contain a description and analysis of the formal characteristics of all currently known Ugaritic letters, not only stereotyped formulas, but also patterned motifs found in the body. Chapters 1-4 treat the major epistolary formulas, building on previous research by incorporating data from unpublished letters, by approaching the formal analysis from the wider perspective of cuneiform letter-writing in Late Bronze West Asia, and by consistently attempting to understand the patterns of formal variation in terms of social vocabulary drawn from the letters themselves. Chapter 5 is a preliminary study of the structural patterns in the body of Ugaritic letters. A dual emphasis on form and function is attempted; the provisional conclusions are intended to complement a more traditional philological approach in the ongoing interpretation of Ugaritic epistolary prose. On a broader level, the Ugaritic letter-writing tradition shows striking formal kinship with the Akkadian and Hittite epistolary traditions of the "Western periphery"; formal similarities with contemporary Mesopotamian traditions are much less pronounced. These parallels suggest that the Ugaritic epistolary tradition was a local manifestation of a common "Amorite" heritage which persisted among the scribal cultures of Hittite Syria. In its contemporary context, however, the Ugaritic tradition should ultimately be considered as independent, since none of the contemporary or anterior traditions is fully parallel. It was a local scribal culture, unique in many respects, and not demonstrably derivative of the traditions of neighboring cultures.
The Ugaritian poets' stereotyped use of body-based metaphors for conveying the experience of inte... more The Ugaritian poets' stereotyped use of body-based metaphors for conveying the experience of intense emotions such as delight, fear or grief has long been recognized. Several " stock " phrases and passages appear repeatedly in a number of different lyric and epic songs, all of which were probably set down in writing (in the local vernacular and by means of the alphabetic cuneiform script then in use) in the mid-to late 13th century BC. This presentation will give a brief survey of the body-based vocabulary used in these stock phrases, along with an overview of the history of their interpretation, and of the (lexicographic) problems which remain unresolved. A sketch of where (that is, in which internal organ or organs) the Ugaritian poets believed the individual emotions to manifest themselves will then be attempted, and some synchronic and diachronic comparisons with other ancient literatures made.
Historiographie des religions antiques : regards croisés sur la formation de la discipline http:/... more Historiographie des religions antiques : regards croisés sur la formation de la discipline http://mediterraneesansfrontieres.org/index.html Cet atelier, consacré à l'historiographie critique de l'étude des religions de la Méditerranée ancienne, a le but de familiariser étudiant.e.s et auditeur.e.s avec les grands courants de pensée qui ont façonné dans le passé et nourrissent actuellement la recherche sur les religions de cinq grandes aires :
I had the pleasure of talking with my journalist friend and colleague Jean-Pierre Constantin of R... more I had the pleasure of talking with my journalist friend and colleague Jean-Pierre Constantin of Radio France Internation (RFI) on 15 August 2024 about an ancient people called “Amorites” in the sources, and what we can know (and what we do not know!) about the language(s?) they spoke. The recent and important publication of Andrew George and Manfred Krebernik of a new Akkadian-Amorite bilingual is also discussed. The episode was part of Jean-Pierre’s radio series called “le Berceau de l’histoire”, and aired on RFI on 16 August 2024.
I had the pleasure of talking with my journalist friend and colleague Jean-Pierre Constantin of R... more I had the pleasure of talking with my journalist friend and colleague Jean-Pierre Constantin of Radio France Internation (RFI) on 24 January 2023 about the scribes of ancient Ugarit, and in particular, about an imagined “conflict”, or at least tension, of the type “Ancients versus Moderns” which may well have been felt by the scribes working in the kingdom of Ugarit in the mid-13th century BC, a conflict here conceived and presented to a certain extent on the analogy of that well-known episode in 17th century French history. The episode was part of Jean-Pierre series called “le Berceau de l’histoire”, and aired on RFI on 16 August 2023.
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