Hashban
and Ashkelon on a text in 423 BCE
I
ran into this Heshbon text while studying my lesson for each Sabbath.
Actually
the text dates from year 41 of Artaxerxes I and thus in the year 423/2 BCE or
his last year.
Heshbon
is mentioned in line 8 on 86a a text which is maybe in the BM 5305.
Copy
of original was published by Hilprecht and Clay in 1898 in the study of the
Business Texts of the Murashu Brothers of Nippur. (see pp. 161-162).
The
text definitely reads Heshbon at the end of the line in the form:
Ḫa-aš-ba-a. See my
yellow marker in line 8. Just before the word omitted in the margin.
Right
before the word appears the sound er and it is used before all cities. Maybe it
refers to the Akkadian form uru for city.
It
also appears before Ashkelon = Iš-ka-lu-nu in line 10 in the middle, see
my yellow marker and before that word is also the sound er = uru. There are
many cities listed here anyway.
I
could not get hold of the translation so your curiosity will be just as strong
as mine.
In
the meantime I verified with René Labat Manuel that er=uru. So Heshbon and Ashkelon
was indeed a city in 423/2 BCE.
Two
other cities and probably a comparative word appeared before Heshbon.
“uru
A9-ka-bi-šu uru Uš-ra-u-a a-na-na-u uru Ḫa-aš-ba-a”
Translated as: “city of Akabišu, city of Ušraua similarly the city Ḫasban”.