|
The Ugaritic Tablets Digital Edition A Joint Project of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the West Semitic Research Project of the University of Southern California Affiliated with InscriptiFact General Editors Wayne T. Pitard and Bruce E. Zuckerman Contributing Editors Jo Ann Hackett, Theodore J. Lewis, Chip Dobbs-Allsopp, Steve Wiggins
The inscribed clay tablets from the ancient city of Ugarit, Syria, are without doubt the single most important source of information about ancient Canaanite culture that we possess. Dating from the late second millennium B.C.E., they constitute a massive collection of political, economic and cultural documents unparallelled in Syria-Palestine, and they include the only surviving collection of Canaanite religious and literary texts yet discovered. They have thus opened an extraordinary window into one of the most significant and influential cultures of the Ancient Near East, a culture that spanned all of Palestine, Lebanon and coastal Syria during the second and early first millennia B.C.E. It is from this culture that western civilization received its writing system (the alphabet) and from which ancient Israelite culture emerged, providing the western world with its religious foundations. These tablets have illuminated both of these extraordinary contributions in profound ways. In the first place, they are the earliest known substantial corpus of literature written in the alphabetic script. In addition, these tablets have illuminated the strong debt that biblical religion owes to the Canaanite culture out of which it emerged. A strong case can be made that the Ugaritic tablets have had a more profound effect on the study of the origins of biblical religion than any other manuscript discovery of the twentieth century. In many ways the most significant tablets discovered at Ugarit were those found between 1929 and 1931 in the library of a house apparently occupied by a high priest devoted to the worship of Baal, the deity of fertility and storm, who was frequently villified by the biblical writers as a serious rival of Israel's God. Among the texts found in this library are the only preserved manuscripts of the great narratives of BaalÕs exploits, a foundational source for the study of Canaanite religion. In addition, two narrative poems were found, the protagonists of which are ancient kings (one of whom is also given passing mention in the book of Ezekiel). Both of these narratives contain striking thematic parallels to the biblical stories of the patriarchal and matriarchal ancestors in the book of Genesis. The library also included other fragmentary narratives and ritual texts. Besides this major collection, caches of other religiously significant tablets have been found elsewhere at Ugarit in various palaces and houses. Indeed, texts continue to be found in the ongoing excavations at Ras Shamra (the modern name of the city mound) and at nearby sites. In all, some 175 religious and literary texts written in the Ugaritic alphabetic script have been recovered so far, as well as 83 letters, nearly 800 economic and administrative documents, 10 legal texts, 25 scribal exercise tablets, and numerous small fragments. These texts lie at the foundation of all scholarly discussion of Canaanite civilization and its relationship to biblical Israel. Furthermore, because of the close relationship between the Ugaritic language and Biblical Hebrew, the tablets have also provided an extraordinary new source of information applicable to the study of Hebrew philology, linguistics and prosody. Numerous insights and refinements in our knowledge of the language of the Bible have come as a direct result of our knowledge of Ugaritic. It may therefore come as a surprise that these tablets have never been published in a way fully adequate for scholarly research, in spite of their exceptional importance for scholars engaged in ancient Near Eastern and biblical study. Two large-scale editions of the tablets have appeared over the past 35 years (Andrˇe Herdner, Corpus des Tablettes en cunˇiformes alphabˇtiques, (CTA) 1963; and M. Dietrich, O. Loretz, and J. Sanmart’n, Die Keilalphabetischen Texte aus Ugarit, (KTU) 1976--revised 1995). Both editions are major scholarly achievements that have become essential to the study of the Ugaritic literature. Nonetheless they significantly disagree with each other on the readings of the texts on numerous occasions, especially in the many areas where the tablets have been damaged over time. This has been a serious problem for scholars because neither edition has provided usable photographs that can be consulted to make an independent judgment as to which collation (if either) might be correct. Scholars must rely instead on the published transcriptions or the drawn facsimiles of the tablets produced by the original editor, Charles Virolleaud, primarily in the 1930Õs. This situation has perforce made our understanding of these texts far more tentative and uncertain than should be necessary. Within the past few years, it has become increasingly clear to scholars in the field and in the related fields where Ugaritic studies have proven so important, that better, clearer and more detailed evidence for the tablets is vital for settling many of the basic epigraphic issues in dispute, as well as the largely historical, religious and cultural theories which depend on them. In 1986 John F. Healey called for a new effort in securing readings of the texts: ". . . there are so many uncertainties in readings, despite KTU [the 1976 edition of the tablets], that Ugaritic studies is in danger of getting bogged down in alternative readings and mistaken readings." And in 1989, Simon Parker wrote: "An adequate, publicly available edition based on the best current photographic technology (i.e. high resolution macro-photography using various light sources and angles) remains the great desideratum of Ugaritic studies." In sum: what is needed are new epigraphic editions of the texts, based on detailed photographic data which provide sufficient visual information for scholars to establish secure and stable readings for these texts. An important step toward fulfilling this need began in 1982, when Bruce Zuckerman founded the West Semitic Research Project (WSRP), a non-profit research program under the auspices of the University of Southern California. The goals of WSRP are two-fold: (1) to develop photographic and other imaging techniques that allow for clear and detailed documentation of ancient inscriptions written in the Northwest Semitic languages; and (2) to establish a broadly accessible archive of these images for the international scholarly community. It has now amassed a corpus of over 100,000 images of all manner of early Northwest Semitic texts, including early Canaanite and Aramaic texts, the earliest known Jewish papyri, a number of Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as the Leningrad Codex, the earliest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. As the earliest substantial corpus of literature written in an alphabetic script, the Ugaritic tablets have always been a high priority for WSRP. In 1983 Bruce and his brother Kenneth were graciously allowed to use their photographic techniques to document an important group of Ugaritic tablets in the Louvre collections. Besides taking general reference shots of the tablets, the Zuckermans also focused on taking numerous detailed photographs--especially where readings were disputed and/or controversial. This project proved to be very successful, and it became clear that detailed macro-photographs of the tablets could provide the decisive evidence needed to resolve most of the difficult readings in the texts they had documented. In 1989 Wayne Pitard became involved in the program of the WRSP, particularly to work on the Ugaritic tablets. He received training in the photographic techniques the Zuckermans had developed and travelled on his first expedition with larger format cameras in the summer of that year. Since then he has undertaken four other photographic trips, in three cases accompanied by other members of the WRSP photographic team: in 1994, with Andrew Vaughn, in 1995 with Theodore J. Lewis, in 1997 with Brian Schmidt, and in 1999. In addition, Zuckerman travelled to the British Museum in 1996 to document KTU 1.18, which is on permanent loan there. In 1997, Marguerite Yon, director of the current archaeological mission to Ugarit, granted us permission to examine and rephotograph the original negatives of the photos taken of the tablets in the 1930s. These early images are a very important source of epigraphic information because some of the tablets have deteriorated or been damaged over the decades since their discovery. Thus the original photos, while not nearly as detailed as the modern WSRP images, in some cases preserve the only surviving evidence for traces of letters that no longer exist on the tablets. The methodology employed by the West Semitic Research Project for photographic documentation of ancient inscriptions is relatively straightforward. Because the photographers chosen for their various projects are first and foremost trained philologists and epigraphers who are specialists in the study of the texts they are documenting, the initial focus is on collating the damaged and controversial passages, to determine by direct examination what traces have been preserved. Once a good sense has been established of what data remains, photographic documentation is done at three levels of magnification: (1) reference shots of the various faces of the tablet (i.e., front, back and edges); (2) "sweeps," or section shots which consist of overlapping, mid-range images, usually covering 8-12 lines of text. These are generally suitable for reading undamaged or slightly damaged text, as well as gaining a clear, overall picture of the ductus of the scribe; (3) macro-shots, which are detailed closeups of all the damaged or controversial areas of the tablet. The photos are taken in large-format (4-by-5-inch sheet film) for optimal resolution. For each photographic setup a series of exposures is taken, usually employing four types of film: color transparency (e.g., Ektachrome 100 Plus), high resolution, color negatives (Pro 100), black and white medium contrast, high resolution negatives (T-Max); and black and white high contrast, ultra-high resolution negatives (Technical Pan). Following the trip to Syria in 1999, the WSRP now possess a substantial archive of photographs of the most important narrative and ritual texts from Ugarit (KTU 1.1-24, along with a sampling of religious texts found in the 1960Õs). In addition, Marguerite Yon, director of the current archaeological mission to Ugarit, granted us permission in 1997 to examine and rephotograph the original negatives of the photos taken of the tablets in the 1930s. These early images are a very important source of epigraphic information because some of the tablets have deteriorated or been damaged over the decades since their discovery. Thus the original photos, while not nearly as detailed as the modern WSRP images, in some cases preserve the only surviving evidence for traces of letters that no longer exist on the tablets.
THE DIGITAL EDITION (Back to top) While the original plan had been to publish the new edition of these texts in a traditional book form, by the mid-1990s it had become clear that computer technology was at a point where a digital edition, making use of the computerÕs ability to work in numerous ways with images, would be preferable. Zuckerman began discussing the idea with Pitard early in 1994, and with the help of funding from the University of Illinois, a prototype for such an edition was developed by Barbara Fossum and Steven Weintz of the Visualization Laboratory of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois. This was presented at the 1995 meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. It became the basis for our projected CD ROM edition of the texts. Continuing need to photograph and collate the texts led to delays in preparing the CD ROM, so that by 1998 it became clear that developments in delivery systems of the Internet now made it feasible to develop the Ugaritic Tablets Digital Edition as a website instead of a CD ROM. There are several advantages to creating a UTDE website. First, it makes our materials more easily available around the world. Second, it can be added to and corrected much more easily than a CD-ROM. Thus we will be able to supplement the site whenever a new portion of a text has been completed. Our goal is to eventually have the entire corpus of Ugaritic texts available on the site. We are beginning with the religious/literary texts, but hope to include the other genres as time goes on. Our present intention is to get KTU 1.1-24 and a few additional texts online over the next few years.
NAVIGATING THE SITE (Back to top) The format of the site is, at this point, fairly simple. Following the home page, the user will find a page from which one can move to the General Introduction, to the Ugaritic texts themselves, to a virtual tour of the site of Ugarit, or to our image archive, where eventually we expect to have our entire collection of photographs available for inspection at high resolution. By mid-December we anticipate having some 150 images online and available, making us of the MrSid compression process of LizardTech, Inc. This part of the site requires that the user download the free MrSid viewer from the LizardTech website. Each tablet will have a base page, from which one can go to an introduction of the text, a transliteration of the text, a collection of epigraphic notes, or a translation and commentary. The user can also go directly to the high-resolution MrSid images available for that tablet from this page. Various general shots available without the MrSid encoding can be examined from the page as well. Finally, one can move to the detailed study of individual lines from this page by clicking the line number. The images within the tablet editions are all accompanied by the editorsÕ facsimile drawings, which are intended to indicate exactly how they interpret the traces on the tablet visible in the photograph. The facsimiles can be accessed by moving the cursor over the image. These facsimiles are color coded: turquoise indicating the fully preserved edge of a wedge, purple indicating damage to the surface of the tablet, and green indicating encrustation which has filled in some of the wedges on the tablets. The pages dedicated to individual lines of the tablet include a legible image of the line, with the editorsÕ facsimile, a transliteration of the line, and epigraphic notes dealing with issues surrounding the reading of the line. A button on the upper left side allows the user to see detailed images of individual letters from that line which may help in analysing the epigraphic issues.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (Back to top) Numerous people and organizations over the years have played significant roles in making the Ugaritic Tablets Digital Edition possible. The editors wish to thank the Directorate of Antiquities and Museums of Syria and its directors, Ali Abu Assaf and Sultan Muhesen for their support and aid in examining and photographing the tablets in Damascus and Aleppo. Thanks also go the Annie Caubet, director of Oriental Antiquities at the Louvre Museum in Paris for her generous support for our work there. We also could not have done this work without the aid of the Mission de Ras Shamra, its director, Marguerite Yon, and its director of epigraphic materials, Pierre Bordreuil. Professor Dennis Pardee of the University of Chicago has also given us considerable advice and counsel. We thank the University of Illinois and the University of Southern California for their substantial support of the project. At the University of Illinois, we especially thank Jesse Delia, Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences; the Campus Research Board; Numa Markee, Director of the Language Learning Lab; Jim Witte and Amber Landis of the LLLÕs Outreach Program; and Barbara Fossum and Steve Weintz, both formerly of the Visualization Laboratory of the Beckman Institute. At the University of Southern California we especially thank the Information Services Division and Li Hunt of the Digital Imaging and Archiving Department, for their enormous support. Funding has also been provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities (the Writings of the Ancient World Project) and the Ahmanson Foundation, for which we are grateful. Pitard also gratefully acknowledges the aid of a Fulbright Grant which allowed him to work in Syria for six months during 1999. At West Semitic Research, we thank Dr. Marilyn Lundberg for her untiring work on numerous aspects of this project. We also thank Sharon Brown for her longsuffering help. And we cannot forget John Ellison, who as a graduate student came to WSR and worked for a summer scanning and studying most of the images that you will see on this site.
|