Sumerian fish identification

[ummia-inim-gina]

I have recently been trying to find out information of fishing and the identification of fish in ancient Sumer. So I wrote John Halloran, who runs a Sumerian lexicon (www.Sumerian.org). He was very helpful and wrote back
"Book 18 (XVIII) of the great Sumerian lexical list Harra=hubullu (Hh) is devoted to fish and birds. Lines 1-137 to fish and lines 138-385 to birds. Only about half of the Akkadian translations are preserved on the clay text. This lexical list is in Volume 8, part 2, of the series Materialien zumsumerischen Lexikon. For identifications of many of the Sumerian fish names you would want to refer to my printed book Sumerian Lexicon."
"There is a bibliography of Sumerian fish identifications at the web site of Brian Coad. The introduction is at: www.briancoad.com/Introduction/history.htm 74'. Regards"

Very helpful but I don't have nor can afford to buy any of these books (Sorry to sound like a dead beat but I am a humble Muhaldim by profession, or a "baker" if you want to be a dick about it, so I barely get by). So was wondering if anyone knows were I can find this information that has been put on line. Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

[galzugaltumu]

Hi Enlil,

it's true that the lexical compendium Ur5-ra = hubullu include also a long list of fish names and bird names or designations. Unfortunately it is very difficult to identify such animals with concrete living beings. One of the great scholars of Assyriology, Armas Salonen, dedicated one book to research for fish names, another for bird names. These books are very helpful, but many notes are only speculative.

I have also to state here, that the above-mentioned lexical list is first attested at the beginning of the second millennium. But there are also older lists or so-called forerunners. Thematic lists with fish and bird names are already attested in the Uruk III-period. But due to the fact, that all lists of the third millennium - despite equations in the lists of Ebla - are monolingual, so we have only listings of words. The interpretation is sometimes only possible through later contexts, by the way the use of different fishes in literary compositions.

You shouldn't label "book" 18 of the aforementioned list. It's "tablet" 18. This is more appropriate. A very good book is Niek Veldhuis' "Nanshe and the birds" (it's late and I'm tired, so please apologize if I don't state the full citation of this book). In this book he collects in a catalogue lexically attested bird names and try to identify them with birds nowadays.

Best wishes,
galzugaltumu

[ummia-inim-gina]

Would you mind posting some of Armas Salonens speculations, I'd love to hear them. It doesn't matter if they are 100% correct. I write historical fiction so it doesn't have to be proved true, It has to be possible that it is true. I really am just looking to gain a better understanding of what it would be like to be a fishermen in Sumer, specifically during the end of the Isin/Larsa period. Any information about the Tigris river would be helpful also.
From what I can read on line most of the fish that comes out of the Tigris that are edible are species of catfish and carp. Also it mentions Bull sharks, do bull sharks really swim in the Tigris?
Here is a list of the vocabulary I have been able to research from the on line lexicon that I can identify with fishing so far

Ku6 or Kua ; Fish
essad ; fishermen
gi-a-dag ; raft
ma ; boat
estub ; a river carp
gir-us ; an inexpensive fish
sag-kur ; a fish (head+strong)
gam-gam ; a fish (replicated curved, shrivaled)
gir-gir ; (to seek refuge)
ubi ; a marine and fluvial fish
i-ku6 ; fish oil
ba ; shelled creature, like a turtle or snail
al-lu5 ; crab
al-lu5-hab ; crab net
sa-ZI-Zi-a ; trawling net
is-louru ; a net trap

[madness]

Enlil,

The ePSD website contains the entire Hh text.

psd.museum.upenn.edu/PSD/html/utf8/lexical/Thematic/HH/
psd.museum.upenn.edu/PSD/html/utf8/lexical/Thematic/HH/Hh_XVIII.htm

[galzugaltumu]

Yes, the ePSD contains this list, I forgot it yesterday. There is a project-site which the ePSD is connected to: the DCCLT.

ummia-inim-gina, please be very careful with the indeces. It's extremely important to add them always, because ma(1) means "fig" or another kind of fruit (reading pec3) and only ma2 is "boat, ship". These two signs are completely different. And it is i3-ku6 "oil (of) a fish" because i-ku6 means "oh fish".

galzugaltumu

[saharda]

I'm still using the free version of the Lexicon.

If you are interested in what it would have been like to be a fisherman in ancient Sumer you might want to look closely at the way the Marsh Arabs of Iraq live and then remember that the religion was an integral part of life.

[us4-he2-gal2]

Excellent responces all, I really dont know much about fish in Mesopotamia. "Nanshe and the birds" IS a wonderful book, seems its really could be central here. But I have seen it on amazon listed at over $700 dollars. Almost fell off my damned chair when I saw that.


Would very much love to learn more about archaic lexical lists Galzugaltumu, thrilled we are touching on that in a different thread. Also thank you for mentioning indeces, Enlil this is tricky stuff for us layman - feel welcome to join me on the 'from fingers to forks thread', an effort to augment our ANE explorations is a way to put it.

Great urling Madness! ;] - Saharda, Im not really up on current affairs, my mind being somewhat narrowly focused, but Im of the understanding the marsh Arabs way of life was in recent years, threatened if not completely disrupted by the diversion of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Im not informed as to what if any recovery there has been in that tragedy. But yes I believe there was some continuation observed in the Marsh Arab way of life and material culture, with that apparent in cuneiform and archaelogical record.

Enlil - You've probably reviewed these by now, but I wanted to recommend if you have not seen it yet, the composition "The home of the fish" that is ETCSL t.5.9.1 , the poem seems to lure the fish into a 'house' of some sort, the words seem designed to reassure the fish and to compell it to bring other fish with it. Concievbly this may be the literary expression of an actual fishing technique - I am at work at the moment and cant reference Kramer who Im pretty sure commented on this text. The end however reads:

13-17. But you won't be dangling from their claws, you won't be snatched up by their feet! Time is pressing, my fish! Just you come to me! Time is pressing! Just you come to me! Nanše, the queen of the fishermen, will be delighted with you.


Many fish are mentioned in this text. Also a great text to consider in case you havent seen it yet is the debate between Fish and Birds ETCSL t.5.3.5

cheers

[ummia-inim-gina]

Perfect, thanks everyone!