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3104
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Cornell üniversity Library

THE EISENLOHR COLLECTION IN
EGYPTOLOGY AND ASSYRIOLOGY
PRESENTED TO CORNELL UNIVERSITY BY

A. Abraham
1902 '

A164153 4/9/1942
3947
 ZEITSCHRIFT
FÜR

ASSYRIOLOGIE
UND VERWANDTE GEBIETE

IN VERBINDUNG MIT

J. OPPERT IN PARIS, A. H. SAYCE IN OXFORD, EB. SCHRADER

IN BERLIN, UND ANDEREN

HERAUSGEGEBEN VON

CARL BEZOLD .

VIERTER BAND .
. MUR
PA MU

I
TA

RED
VI

G
D

ERO

LEIPZIG
OTTO SCHULZE
21 QUER - STRASSE 21

1889.
382

Sprechsaal.

Miscellaneous Notes. " )

By A. H. Sayce.
24. The language of the Su.
Professor Fr. Delitzsch was the first to draw atten
tion to the glosses in the Assyrian " syllabaries” which are
stated to be derived from the language of the Śu (Wo lag
das Paradies p . 236). He pointed out that Śu, like Qu,
which is employed in a similar way in the syllabaries, is
an abbreviated form , the two names recurring in the Old
Testament as yin and yup (Ezek. XXIII . 23). As Qu re
presents Qutu or Gutium, so , Prof. Delitzsch argued , Śu
would represent the Sutu, Semitic nomads on the eastern
side of Babylonia .
In the old geographical lists , however, it is not Gutium
and the Sutu which are associated or contrasted together
but Gutium and M ** ( El of which another spelling
was N ( LE (W. A. I. II. 50. 48 , 60). Moreover a
passage quoted by the Professor himself from the Legend
of the god Nerra (Col. IV , 11. 9. 12 ) shows pretty plainly
that the Śutu are not to be thought of in connection with
the technical name of ľu. Here the + E are

1 ) Cf. this Zeitschrift, 1885 , p . 399 ff.; 1887 , p . 331 ff.; 1888 , p. 231 l.
384 Sprechsaal.

reading of 7 in the language of Van. Con

sequently the name of Tessub will have been derived by

the Assyrian scribe either from the Vannic language itself
or from one cognate to it, and the land of Śüri(m) or
Śürîti will be the country known to the Assyrians in later
days as Nahri . It is possible that the name represents
the native sura ( s), which in a parallel text is rendered by
the ideograph * * (LV. 10 , of my collection ) ; one
of the titles of the Vannic kings was Khutes * Sura-ve
" king of the world " , and Argistis declares that he had
" built the strongholds of the country of Suras” (XLIII. 18) .
However this may be, we can now refer the other
words derived by the Assyrian syllabaries from the
language of Śu to the Vannic vocabulary. These are :
1 ) namallum (i . e . namáli) " a couch " ( W. A. I. II. 23. 63 ) ;
2 ) khârali " a door” ( W. A. I. II. 23. 21 ), both with the
common Vannic suffix -ali; 3 ) zalkh( u ) " lead" (W. A. I.
V. 29.41 ) for which ârakhi, doubtless to be corrected into
WRESI zârakhi, is given as a synonym in the next
line : both words have the common Vannic suffix -khi ;
4 ) ulnu " oil" or " butter " ( W. A. I V. 29. 27 ) ; 5 ) pitq (u )
" child " (W. A. I. II. 30. 48 ), apparently with the Vannic
gentilic suffix -ka (s) ') ; 6) Zizanu " the god Uras ” (W. A. I.
II. 57. 41 ) ; and 7 ) ene " god" (K. 2100 Rev. 11 ). With the
latter word we may perhaps compare the Vannic nus
" prince ".
25. The origin of the name of Armenia..
The name of Armenia is first found at Behistun where
it is written in the Persian cuneiform Armaniya, in Amar
dian Kharmanuya. What was the origin of it ?
The old etymology which derived it from the Hebrew
har " a mountain " and the name of the Minni must be
1) I do not feel certain, however, whether this is really intended to
be a ſu word.
 Sprechsaal . 385

rejected. Har is peculiar to Hebrew and no trace of it

has been met with in Assyrian, the Semitic language nea
rest to the Armenian region . The Minni , moreover, did
not inhabit Armenia , but lived to the east of the kingdom
of Biainas or Van and the Kotur range (see my memoir
on the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Van, J. R. A. S. XIV. 3 .
pp. 388 sq . ) .
A " syllabary" ( W. A. I. V. 12. 47 ) explains tir (?)- ga -an
igi kharsag -ki by “ Tir(?)- gan which lies before the mountain “,
and that again by Arman which is further interpreted padin
or “ mountain -plain ”. In the following line Tir (?) -ga -an
igi Gu - ti - ki is interpreted “ Tir (? )-gan which lies before
Guti” that is to say the country of " Kharkhar” . Now
Tir(?)-gan is evidently the Sumerian form of Arman or
Arwan and has the meaning of " a mountain -plain ". That
the name , the first character of which is unfortunately
mutilated, ought to be read Argan is shown by W. A. I.
V. 26. 16, 17 where the tree of Ar-ga -nu is equivalent to
the tree of Ar -man - nu . As the "mountain ” at the foot of
which Arman lay is associated with Gutium it must be
sought in its neighbourhood, and we should therefore be
inclined to place it near the Kurdish range north of Assyria.
As Kharkhar was separated from Assyria by Gutium, so
Arman might be expected to be separated from Assyria
by the Kurdish mountains. This would locate it in the
plain south of Lake Van , the Armenia of the Behistun
inscription . Hence I conclude that the name of Armaniya,
Aquevia has been formed from Arman by the adjectival
suffix ya . ' )
1 ) I must leave it undecided whether the country of the Armâ men
tioned in W. A. I. II . 31. 65 is Arman . On the other hand the country
of Armâya which is conjoined with the Akhlame or Akhlamiya of Armenia
in W. A.I. I. 13. 47 cannot be separated from Arman . It will be noticed
that both Akhlamiya and Armâya offer the same termination as Armaniya.
Later Armenian legend spoke of a king Aram who had conquered Syria
and Kappadokia , tho’ here perhaps we have a reminiscence either cf the
Aramaeans or of Arrame, the Vannic antagonist of Shalmaneser.