List of eponyms

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In ancient times, an eponym list was a written directory of the names of important state officials, after each of which a year was named.

Assyrian eponym list

In the Assyrian Empire , the date of the reign of the king or the eponymous official ( līmu , old Assyrian līmum ) was used. The order of these officials and the most important events of that year were recorded in lists of eponyms . A typical entry reads: "In the year of the eponymous official Bêl-iqišanni, governor of Šibhiniš, (campaign) against Hubuškia ."

The oldest date passed down in this way is 1876/75 BC. For the period between 892 and 648 BC Continuous lists are available. The office was obviously reserved for high officials, mostly provincial governors , and since the Central Assyrian period the king himself could become līmu . Shalmaneser III around 827/26 BC Chr. Līmu , Šamši-Adad V. 823/22, Aššur-nirari V. 753/752.

For example, the following are documented as līmu :

  • Aššur-bêla-kaʾʾin, highest military leader (856/855 BC)
  • Aššur-bunaja-usur, royal cupbearer (855/854 BC)
  • Abi-ina-ekalli-lilbur, Herald of the Royal Palace (854/853 BC)
  • Ashur-taklak, royal steward (805/804 v. Chr.)
  • Mutakkil-Marduk, chief eunuch (798/797 BC)

In Neo-Assyrian times, a fixed order seems to have developed in which the king was līmu in his first year of reign , followed by the high court officials and the provincial governors in order of importance.

From the eponymous year of Bur-Saggile, governor of Guzana , a solar eclipse has been handed down that, based on astronomical calculations, took place on June 8th, 763 BC. And serves to anchor the list in time. In the specialist literature this fixed date is often given as  June 15 , which, however, according to the proleptic Julian calendar 763 BC. Is calculated. In direct comparison, the beginning of spring fell on March 28th. In conversion to today's Gregorian calendar , 7 days must therefore be deducted. The result is June 8th.

The eponym usually began in the month of sippu . In troubled times, e.g. During the fall of the empire, for example, some places (e.g. Dur-Katlimmu ) used their own eponyms.

Weekly eponyms were called hamuštum . The names of weekly eponyms have been handed down from the Kaneš trading colony , including locals.

Roman time

In Roman times lists of eponyms were also created, the so-called fasti consulares .

See also

  • Dynastic calendar , for calendar systems in which entire eras are named after families, rulers and officials, but within which the years are counted numerically
  • List of calendar systems , including those that are named after the official of the introduction (like our Gregorian calendar after Pope Gregory VIII.)

literature

Assyrian eponym list
  • Irving L. Finkel, Julian E. Reade: Lots of Eponyms . In: Iraq , Vol. 57 (1995), pp. 167-172, ISSN  0021-0889 .
  • Jean-Jacques Glassner: Chroniques Mésopotamiennes (La roue à livres, vol. 19). Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1993, ISBN 2-251-33918-3 (English translation: Benjamin R. Foster (Ed.): Mesopotamian chronicles (Writings from the ancient world, Vol. 19). Brill, Leiden 2005, ISBN 90- 04-13084-5 .)
  • Klaas R. Veenhof: Aspects of old Assyrian trade and its terminology . Brill, Leiden 1972 (also dissertation, University of Leiden 1972).
  • Alan Ralph Millard : The Eponyms of the Assyrian Empire. 910-612 BC (State archives of Assyria studies, vol. 2). Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, Helsinki 1994, ISBN 951-45-6715-3 .
  • Abraham J. Sachs: Absolute Dating from Mesopotamian Records . In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences . Vol. 269, No. 1193, 1970, pp. 19-22, ISSN  0080-4614 .
Roman time

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The calculations are based on Jean Meeus: Astronomical Algorithms - Applications for Ephemeris Tool 4,5 - . Barth, Leipzig 2000; and Ephemeris Tool 4.5 conversion program .
  2. ^ Klaas R. Veenhof: Aspects of old Assyrian trade and its terminology . Brill, Leiden 1972, p. 111.