Akkadian week (short notes) 
by koot van wyk 28 November 2008   Seoul South Korea
 
I do not want to run ahead with my thoughts, but I am now in the process of looking at the  "week" in Akkadian literature.

Busy working on the "Assyrian week" by Balkan discussing B. Landsberger, J. Brinkman, Tur- Sinai and W. Hallo's views.

 

My own view is developing and may be found in the confinements of all of them but not one in  particular.

 

It appears to me this stage that we had in ancient times three (or more) different kinds of  "week" units.

 

a. Total week which are 7 days which the Enuma Elish and Atrahasis provide lost of evidence  in the form of

"six days and seven nights .....".

For example Gilgamesh in Tablet XI says: "When the seventh day came I sent out the dove to  see if the waters have abated..."

For me this is a clear indication that the Assyrians reckon their days from the morning.

He will not send out the bird on Friday night. But he will send it out on Saturday morning.

Thus, the reason why the text do not say: "seven days and seven nights" in the Gilgamesh  epic, the enuma elish and the Atrahasis, is because the daytime seventh day was a work off  day? My suggestion.

The Gilgamesh epic describes many things in cycles of seven days. No more. There are some  evidence of more but the seven days cycle is the most used description. The text definitely  dates to the time of Ashurbanipal in 650 BCE.

 

b. hamistum which are 5 days

Many texts do indicate that there is a five day week (discussed by J. Brinkman, B.  Landsberger, Tur-Sinai, Balkan, Hallo etc.)

The text read for example adi hamistu asaqqil "until the 5 days shall I pay".

The term hamistu is debated to be: one fifth month; one week of 5 days; a commitee of 5  persons that sits during the week with debt legal cases.

Balkan favors that hamistum (5 day week) = subitum (7 day week)

 

c. 6 day working week of the letter of Mesad Hashevayu who's garment was taken for stopping  to work before Sabbath (7th day).

 

How does it work?

The normal week is seven days. The labor week is six days and the judicial week for laywers  or judges or officials were five days or hamistum.

(This part of the conclusion is creative since I do not find these scholars suggesting that  they are all running concurrently.

 

Sunday to Friday was the working week for laborers.

Monday to Friday was the working week or hamistum for judicial officers.

Sunday to Saturday is the total week.

The emergency agricultural week is seven days for the farmer (see below). It is working also  on the 7th day or resting day. 

 

A fourth possible week is an (d) emergency labor week of seven days for the farmer as  explained in the ANET text "A farmers calendar".

 

SABBATH

The other interesting point is Sabbath.

The Hebrew word for week is sabu`a (seven day week) (plural sabu`aot).

The Akkadian word for week is sebutum (seven day week) (Landsberger, Gelb, Balkan etc).

The Middle Egyptian word for seven is sfh (Van Wyk).

 

The fixing of the Sabbath on the seventh day seems to have a built in phonological ring in  it that sounds the same?

 

End item

 

koot

28 November 2008

Seoul

South Korea