Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale <al-Qāhira> [Hrsg.]; Mission Archéologique Française <al-Qāhira> [Hrsg.]: Recueil de travaux relatifs à la philologie et à l'archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes: pour servir de bullletin à la Mission Française du Caire (13.1890)

126

AMARDIAN OR " PROTOMEDIC " TABLETS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM

tingue le nom de la prêtresse d'Amon sans que l'on sache comment elle se rattache
à la famille.

I llfcu O I

I oO- r (51 la © SI

Au revers, on voit, peinte en rouge sur fond blanc, une représentation où sont
résumées les croyances de la morte : un disque solaire m, placé entre les signes de
l'Orient ^ et de l'Occident jj\ répand sa lumière sur le monde, figuré par G££ l'hiéro-
glyphe des régions montagneuses.

(Sera continué.) G. MaSPERO.

AMARDIAN OR " PROTOMEDIC " TABLETS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM

BY

A.-H. Sayce

At the end of my Paper on the " Inscriptions of Mal-Ami r and the Language of the
second column of the Akhaemenian Inscriptions" in the second volume of the Travaux
du Congrès international des Orientalistes à Leide, I have added a postscript on a tablet
discovered in the Kouyunjik collection of the British Muséum by Dr. Strassmaier, wlhch
is written in the Amardian or " Protomedic " language and characters. Dr. Strassmaier
was not familiar with the Amardian syllabary, and his copy of the tablet was therefore
imperfect. In my postscript, accordingly, I could do no more than point ont one or two
words and forms in the inscription, which occur in the Amardian column of the Akhae-
menian inscriptions. I have since made a eareful copy of the tablet (K 1325), and
Mr. Pinches bas signalised to me the existence of some other tablets in the Kouyunjik
collection, which arc in the samc language and script. One of them (S 2144) is almost
perfect. Mr. Pinches was kind enough to make a copy of it for me, which I have sub-
sequently collated with the original. The other tablets are fragmcntary. A copy of one
of them (K 4G97) I owe to the kindness of Mr. Pinches; the two others (S 691 and
K 4713 b) I have copicd myself, and the second of my copies (K 4713 b) bas been
collated by Mr. Pinches with the original text. Ihave also examined K 4G97, but the
day was too dark to allow me to do so with satisfactory results.

The tablets are important for two reasons. First of ail tney show that the Amardian
syllabary already existed before the fall of Assyria, and thus necessitate our ascribing
the origin of the older syllabary of Mal-Amir to an earlier date than that which I assigned
to it in the Paper mentioned above. In the second place, tney introduce us to a style of
literaturé différent from that of the Akhaemenian monuments, and consequcntly présent
us with new words and forms. Thirdly, they help to fix the signification of certain words
found at Mal-Amir but not in the inscriptions of the Persian kings.