Tátrai Vilmos szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 94. (Budapest, 2001)

EVERLING, JÁNOS: Cuneiform Royal Inscriptions of the Museum of Fine Arts

CUNEIFORM ROYAL INSCRIPTIONS OF THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS The Museum of Fine Arts of Budapest houses eleven Sumerian administrative documents,

1 ten royal inscriptions, a late Old-Babylonian administrative text and a Hittite fragment. The Collection of the Egyptian Department incorporates a dozen of inscribed seals from Mesopotamia as well. In the following pages we will present the royal inscriptions in their chronological order. The provenience of the cuneiform royal inscriptions is better known than that of the Sumerian administrative documents.

2 Among the sellers we find five individuals, all Hungarian citizens.' The only case (no. 2.), where the tablet comes from the collection of another Hungarian museum, is probably connected with a notice taken by Zoltán Oroszlán and Aladár Dobrovits of a Nebuchadnezzar royal inscription in the inventory of the first exhibition of the Egyptian Department.

4 The royal inscriptions of Amar-Suen (2046-2038 B.C.) and Nebuchadnezzar (605562 B.C.) are attested in the cuneiform collection of the Museum of Fine Arts. Their regnal dates are given according to the medium chronology.'' In this paper we have used the conventional assyriological abbreviations.

6 1 Cf. Everting, J., Sumerian Texts in the Museum of Fine Arts, BullMusHongrBA 90-91 (1999) pp. 7-22. 2 In their case we are aware of the provenience of no. 11. (56.105 E) only: purchase from J. K. 3 On the circumstances of the provenience of no. 3. see Dobrovits, A., BullMusHongrBA 26 (1965) p. 3. 4 Oroszlán, Z. - Dobrovits, A., Az Egyiptomi Gyűjtemény. Vezető, Budapest 1939, p. 121. 5 Cf. Parker, R.A. - Dubberstein, W.H., Babylonian Chronology 626 B.C. - A.D. 75., Providence 1956. 6 Gasche, H. - Degrave, A. - Jannsen, C, Outils Bibliographiques, Mesopotamian History and Environment Series I, Northern AkkadProject Reports 8 (1993) pp. 49-77.