The cuneiform inscriptions and the Old Testament - The Search For ...

BOOK OF NEHEMIAH I. 69
tions where we have their corresponding ideograms.
Lastly, they are exhibited in the tables of months dis-
covered at Niniveh, which record the phonetic equivalents
of the above ideograms. Of these tables we possess
several; see Norris Diet. p. 50, P. Haupt Akkadische u.
Sumerische Keilschrifttexte 44. 64. The first of these
remarkable lists (Norris I, 50) consists of three columns,
of which the first column exhibits the ideograms for the
respective months , which ordinarily appear in the
inscriptions ; the second gives their names in the old
Babylonian non-Semitic, Sumiro-Akkadian language; and
lastly the third contains the Babylono-Assyrian terras that
correspond to them. We give a list of these last names
with the respective Hebrew equivalents by their side* :
Ni-sa-an-nu "jqi;] ^^^
Ai-ru (Var. Ai-ri) "^sf^
T
Si-va-nu (Var. Si-man-nu) niQ
Du-u-zu (Var. Du-'-u-zu) I'lSp
A-bu (Var. A-bi) 3{,{
U-lu-lu %^^
Ta§-ri-tav (Var. Tag-ri-tuv) ^*lJ£fn
A-ra-ah sam-na (Var. A-ra-ah sa-am-nu) PK^mO
Ki-si-li-vu (Var. Ki-is-li-vu) 1^D3
Ti-bi-tuv (Var. Ti-bi-i-tav) HDIO
Sa-ba-tu
I03l^« **
* All the names quoted below are to be found in the Bible,
excepting Ab, Tammuz, Tishri and Marcheswan.
** Observe how in these names, with the solitary exception of
Arab samna, the organic sound § corresponds to ^ and s to Q,
contrary to the rule that otherwise prevails with respect to the
adoption of foreign words. See further on this subject Berl. akade-
mische Monatsber. 1877, pp. 82 foil. With regard to pji^nHO instead
•^f lOtiTIlN) comp. the form ]')i3pi arising from Du-u-zu, Du-'-u-zu