CAPUT.CULTER

This hapax is attested in an inscription from Karkamiš, dating to the late 9^th or early 8^th century BCE.

[A.P.]

3pl. pret. ind. act.

/.../

CAPUT.CULTER?-tá

KARKAMIŠ A24a2+3, §3 (Karkamiš)

At KARKAMIŠ A24a2+3, §3, Hawkins 2000a:136 expresses doubts over secure identification of the sign CULTER, because it lacks its usual ladder-like pattern inside; Taş & Weeden 2011a:58 seem to be rather more certain about it, however.

[A.P.]

The word has not yet been fixed with a semantic interpretation, because it is quite unclear what it could mean. The inscription KARKAMIŠ A24a2+3 is severely fragmented, and §3 represents the first fully preserved clause of the text: pa+ra/i-na-sa-pa-wa/i-ta-a(URBS) (ASINUS₂.ANIMA)tú+ra/i-la-ka-li-si-i-zi ARHA CAPUT.CULTER^?-tá, approx. /Parnassa=ba=wa=tta turlaKalisinzi ahha …-nta/, ‘ (as I …-ed the farmers for us), and they CAPUT.CULTER-ed away / in their entirety the turlaKalisi-s in Parnassa’ (cf. Hawkins 2000a:135).Note that Hawkins 2000aassigns the sentential roles in a different way, because he regards the first word as an acc. sg. with its regularly missing /n/ at least on the graphemic level. His translation therefore runs: ‘and the turlaKalisi-s CAPUT.CULTER-ed Parnassa away’, which is also possible, but it is not clear what /turlaKalisi-/ denotes. The logograms ASINUS₂ and ANIMA suggest an equid, but Taş & Weeden 2011a:58 consider it to denote a people. The passage is discussed in great detail by Taş & Weeden 2011a:58, who regard the verb as denoting a hostile action because of the context, which deals with military encounters. This is possible, but until further evidence emerges, no meaning is assigned here.

[AH.B.]

Unclear.

[AH.B.]