OT UCT7-0 ARUELONA, ESPAGNE 30) Qatum ba"itum - A Check-list - Lines 14ff. in ARMT XXVI/1, 171. a letter of Ilum-ma-ahum, Yamsi-hadnQ and Masum sent to SQmu-Dabf read : ma-ti-ma-a lu la i-na sii-mi-im i-nni-tit i-na i;-da id-du-su-ma / ib-lu-ut istu qa-tam ba-i-ta i-ip-pe-su wa-ar-ka-num mi-turn li-ul i-ba-al-lu-ut. As noticed by J.-M. Durand in his edition, this passage contains most probably a proverb or a wisdom saying which stems from a common pool of stock phrases of the times. The difficult term qatu(m) ba"Ttu(m) was rendered by him in ARMT XXVI/1, p. 350 as « la reddition des comptes par excellence, celle que les humains doivent a Dieu le jour de leur mort », based on the first millennium expression ina qatim P/DN bu"iim, « to call somebody to account » (cf. CAD B 364^ 4 and f "i { \ ,j i Two other Man letters utilise this expression as a term to designate certain administrative activities. The new evidence might therefore supply the daily-life background to the above mentioned image. ARM IV 86:14-23 (collations J.-M. Durand): [Id-tries' /a] *al-na fe-er ii-me-^da-gan / [in-na-as-sah]u a-na pt'-i tup-pa-tim la-bi-ra-tim I [ m ... cl ] im-me-er'-da-nu / [it m...z]i-ik-ri-es4-tdr / [na-si]-hi i-s[a]-an-niqti fa mi-tu / [u] /a ba-al-tu-ma an-ni-is / [it-ta]-na-<js-ra-hu i-sa-*anl-ni-qu-ka I [ki-ma q]a-tu ba-i-[t]u' i-na l[i]-i[b]-bi / [na-si-hi i]-ba-ai-si pu-ha-[a]t / m[i'-(l/tu-tim i-na] ma-r[i^] li-fi-ib, « The men which have to be deported to ISme-Dagan according to the old tablets, PN| and PNj are going to check the deportees. As for the dead and the living, they are going to check you here omnipotently.1 Once the check-list is established among the deportees, let the replacement of the [missing/dead] dwell in Mari. »The other example for this term is attested in an unpublished Mari letter A. 1155: 5-8 r U4-uml ka-Sadi-ia-[ma] / [sa]-ag-ba-am a-[di b]a-')-tim [X] I [af-t]a-ka-an u fa-bu-um / [e]-ni-ii u-ul la mu-Ii-tim, « On the day of my arrival I have fixed the place of the patrol-unit (sagbum) until the check-up. The troop, however, is exhausted and not (fitting for) a night-watch*. The writer repeats this term in lines 23-26 : a-na sa-a[g]-[b]iim / Sa fra^-za-fma-a^ u-ul a-na-'l-id / sa-ag-bu-[um a]n-nu-um / $a a-di ba-f'i^-tim Sa-ak-nu qe'-ru-fub^, «I do not worry about the patrol-unit of ON. This patrol-unit which is placed until the check-up is at hand ». Thus, the term qatu(m) ba"fiu(m) has a clear administrative significance of a list of names used for the organisation of army units or other groups of people. (Note that in both ARM IV 86 and in ARMT XXVI/1 171 the term is used in reference to dead and living men.) No doubt, qatum in this case should be connected with its known meaning as «list» (cf. CAD Q, '197,14). This term, however, is not limited to administrative language, as proves the passage from ARMT XXVI/1 171. Lines 14ff. which concern us may be now translated as follows : « Whenever has a man who died of thirst and has been thrown to a river come back to life?! Once (the ' ' gods) prepare check-list,^ dead man cannot later on'come back to life! ». Without loading too much theological weight on this still somewhat vague term, it seems that it echoes the well known Mesopotamia!! '•' notion of (up'iTmatim. Old-Babylonian literary texts do reflect, in fact,- the belief that man's destiny is determined, or even predetermined, by the gods. In 'A Man and his God', to name only one obvious example, | ,j 1, -f] \\ N.A.B.U. 1994 (n°2 -him) after the suffering hero was on the verge of death, his god changed suddenly his attitude and in a dramatic shift put an end to his torment. Next, the god speaks to the man, saying: su-um-ma-ma-an la qd-bi-a-at a-na ba-lafi-im / ki-ma-ma-an te-le-'i di-a-am ka-ab-ta ku-ul-la-ti-H-Su ta-ai-du-ud. « I f you had not been ordained to life, how possibly could you have suffered the severe malady to its end?! » (W.G. Lambert, Studies E. Reiner, 1987, 192: 50-51). Or, in a positive formulation, the god makes it clear that the man could overcome his great suffering only because he was destined in advance to life. There were different views regarding the irreversibility of such a predetermined destiny. The Mari "proverb (used in a rhetorical effort to convince the addressee to send finally the requested aid) holds that once a man is dead all the help in the world won't do any good. Other, less definitive and clearly popular views existed as well. See, for instance, the Old-Babylonian declarative personal name Uruk^ mi-turn i-ib-ta-lu-uf, « Dead(= destroyed)-Uruk-would-come-back-to-life! », or the Old-Babylonian incantation, YOS 11, 3: 7-9, which mentions the dead coming back to life from the netherworld: mi-turn iS-tu er-$[e]-ti>n i-ba-lu-(a-am-ma. But this is a totally different question. 1. In this text (11. 20. 40) one finds the sole examples hitherto known of /ar<3/ium-Ntn. Cf. CAD $2, 40a 7) and AHw b 1183 . 2. So already in J.-M. Durand's forthcoming translation of Mari letters to be published in LAPO, Les Editions du Cerf, Paris. 3. For a similar usage of the stative qerub in Mari cf. AKMT\XW\ 56: 7 and 62 : 51. 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