Among the richest collections of paintings, drawings, applied arts, numismatics, Oriental and ancient antiquities stored in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, there is one collection that does not seem to fall under the strict canons of fine art, although its scientific value is enormous. These are small clay tablets with cuneiform text, which record the almost three-thousand-year history of ancient Mesopotamia. There are just over 1,700 such cuneiform monuments in the collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts (1). They represent an amazing wealth of written monuments of ancient peoples and come from Sumer, Babylonia, Assyria, Iran, Cappadocia, Egypt. The collection is based on 1,319 tablets from the collection of a brilliant connoisseur of ancient history, Academician Nikolai Petrovich Likhachev (1862-1936). Over the years, he collected a collection of ancient manuscripts, Egyptian papyri, ancient cuneiform texts on clay tablets. Moreover, the valuables collected in his home in St. Petersburg were open to anyone interested in ancient history.

According to the" father of Russian Assyriology " Mikhail Vasilyevich Nikolsky (1848-1917), due to "exceptional scientific inquiries of N. P. Likhachev and exceptional success in the selection of scientific material, his collection is of exceptional interest to science" (2).

M. V. Nikolsky made the most significant contribution to the study and publication of N. P. Likhachev's collections. The result of his many years of truly ascetic work-

1. The author expresses his deep gratitude to the curator of the cuneiform collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Yu. A. Savelyev, who kindly provided materials about the collection.

2. Nikolsky M. V. Documents of economic reporting of the oldest era of Chaldea from the collection of N. P. Likhachev // Eastern antiquities. Proceedings of the Eastern Commission of the Imperial Moscow Archaeological Society, Vol. III, Issue II, St. Petersburg, 1908, p. 1.

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The first volume was a two-volume edition of 855 cuneiform texts, except for documents from the Tello period of the third dynasty of Ur (2112-2003 BC) [3]. One of the volumes (4) included excellent autographs and translations of tablets, which later formed a significant part of the cuneiform collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts.

The publication, which was carried out at an exemplary level for that time, includes introductory articles (general information, localization, calendar, etc.), excursions to sections on specific branches of the economy, transcription and translation of texts, autographs that are distinguished by perfect calligraphic art, which is not surpassed even today. Even today, the work of M. V. Nikolsky retains its scientific significance, but, of course, corrections are allowed in the interpretation, reading of signs, etc.

The main part of the collection was acquired by N.P. Likhachev from European antiquaries at the end of the last century, and the scientist bought from them a homogeneous series of tablets from the main Sumerian administrative centers, far ahead of the purchases of large European museums. For example, his collection included a large number of cuneiform documents from the Tello period of the third dynasty of Ur, apparently originating from excavations in this Sumerian city by the French archaeologist E. de Sarzec in 1894. The main part of these plaques ended up in the Louvre and the Ottoman Museum in Istanbul. Documents of N. P. Likhachev's personal archive preserved in St. Petersburg [5]. The inventory of his collection [6], in particular, states that cuneiform texts of the third Ur dynasty from Tello were purchased by N. P. Likhachev at the end of the XIX century in Paris from the antiquarian Mihran Sivajan. Part of the collection, published by M. V. Nikolsky (7), was bought by N. P. Likhachev at the beginning of our century from another famous Parisian antiquarian Elias Zhezhu, the rest of the tablets of the third dynasty of Ur, originating mainly from Umma and Puzrish Dagan, were not included in the publication of M. V. Likhachev. They were bought at the same time from Zhezhu and the London antique dealer Naaman.

In 1917, due to various circumstances, most likely financial, N. P. Likhachev decided to sell part of the collection. He divided the collection of cuneiform texts into two parts: one, a large one, still remained in his St. Petersburg home (now these tablets belong to the State Hermitage Museum), the other, more than 1300 cuneiform tablets, was sent to Moscow and transferred to the Historical Museum for storage. Later, the remaining collections of N. P. Likhachev in St. Petersburg formed the basis of the Museum of Paleography of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, created by him in 1925, of which he was the director almost until the end of his life. After the scientist's death, the museum he created ceased to exist, and its exhibits were transferred to the State Hermitage Museum and the Asian Museum.

In 1918, the Museum-Institute of the Classical East (MICW) was established in Moscow, which lasted until 1924. It was headed by the famous orientalist Vladimir Mikhailovich Vikentiev. The museum was interested in forming its own fund and asked N. P. Likhachev to sell the collection stored in the Historical Museum. In a letter to N. P. Likhachev dated December 9, 1918 (8), V. M. Vikentiev asks to allocate, first of all, from the Petrograd collections, monuments of various eras in the amount of 30,000 rubles, and to transfer the cuneiform tablets stored in the Historical Museum temporarily for storage to the newly established Museum of the Classical East. Most likely, at the same time, an agreement was reached on the purchase of a MIKVom.

3. He's the same. Documents of economic reporting of ancient Chaldea from the collection of N. P. Likhachev. The age of the Haggadeh Dynasty and the age of the Ur Dynasty // Ibid., Vol. V. Issue II, St. Petersburg, 1908.

4. Ibid.

5. Information about the St. Petersburg collections of N. P. Likhachev's documents was kindly provided to me by an employee of the Department of the East of the State Budget. N. V. Kozlova's Hermitage Museum, I express my deep gratitude to her.

6. Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. F. 246. On. 2. N 136.

7. Nikolsky M. V. Documents of economic reporting of ancient Chaldea from the collection of N. P. Likhachev. Part II. The age of the Haggadeh Dynasty and the age of the Ur Dynasty // Antiquities of the East. T. V. M., 1915.

8. Archive of the State Museum of Fine Arts. f. 4.

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signs and their price. Already on April 17, 1919, in his receipt, N. P. Likhachev reports that he received 35,000 rubles from V. M. Vikentiev in the final payment for the collection of cuneiform monuments sold to the National Museum Fund (9). Soon 1300 cuneiform tablets were transferred to the MIKV. In June of the same year, MI KB bought 20 more plates from N. P. Likhachev. In a note by V. K. Shileyko, who was commissioned by V. M. Vikentiev to receive the tablets, it is reported that he accepted 6 tablets of the pre-Argonian era, 6 tablets of the II Dynasty of Ur (as the third Dynasty of Ur was then mistakenly called), 1 tablet of the I Babylonian Dynasty, and 7 tablets of the later epochs (10). In 1924, after the MIKVAH was disbanded the collections went to the Museum of Fine Arts. So cuneiform tablets from the collection of N. P. Likhachev took a worthy place among other valuable collections of the State Museum of Fine Arts.

Any museum collection, especially those containing written sources, becomes truly valuable only when it becomes the subject of scientific research and can add to and expand our knowledge of the world around us. The Museum of Fine Arts received such a collection, but an Assyriologist was needed to inventorize and process it. N. I. Romanov, who headed the Museum in 1924, invited Prof. Vladimir Kazimirovich Shileyko (1891-1930). With the arrival of this outstanding Assyriologist in the Museum, a new stage in the study and processing of the cuneiform collection began. V. K. Shileyko's translations and transcriptions of Sumerian and Babylonian texts were the most complete and convincing for that time. In terms of his ability to interpret texts, he was a decade ahead of his foreign colleagues. The museum inventory of cuneiform texts compiled by him has not lost its value to this day.

The oldest cuneiform texts of the collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts are represented by economic documents from Lagash (Tello) of the time of the rulers (ensi) Enentarzi, Lugaland, Uruinimgins (Urukagins) (the second half of the XXIV century BC), similar to those included in the first volume of the fundamental edition of M. V. Nikolsky (11). The complete publication of two plates from the collection of V. S. Golenishchev, containing records of field measurement and livestock accounting, was carried out by V. K. Shileyko (GMII 12b (12) N 1445 and 1446) (13). In addition, the collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts contains documents from the time of Lugalda (N 1444, 1447 and 1448) from the Golenishchevsky collection. Three more tablets of the time of Lugalanda and Uruinimgina, which belonged to N. P. Likhachev and were not included in the First volume of M. V. Nikolsky, are described by V. K. Shileyko in the "Inventory of Cuneiform Writing of the State Museum of Fine Arts" (N 521, 522, 525). Tablet No. 1700, containing information about the sacrifice of Ensi Enentarzi at the altar, came to the Museum from V. K. Shileyko and was published later (14).

These documents add additional touches to the seemingly well-known picture of the actual appropriation by the Ensi and their wives of the largest farms of the temples of the Ngirsu and Baba deities in Lagash.

The documents of the next Akkadian period (late XXIV-first half of the XXII century BC) - the time of the emergence of despotism and the beginning of the unification of the Southern Two Rivers by Sargon the Ancient (2316-2261 BC) and his successors-are inferior to those considered in detail, formality, clarity of writing. Nevertheless, they provide researchers with sufficient grounds to draw conclusions about the peculiarities of the development of closed farms in individual cities and the connections between them, trends not only towards political, but also economic unification.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. Nikolsky. Documents ... III. Issue 11.

12. Hereafter, the inventory numbers of the cuneiform collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts 12b are indicated.

13. Shileyko V. K. Two pre-Argon tablets in the Moscow Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, 1916, pp. 87-91.

14. Perlov B. I. The cult of statues during the reign of Ensi Lagash Enlitarzi (XXIV century BC). Tez. dokl. nauchnoy sesii, posv. based on the results of the work of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in 1983. Moscow, 1985.

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Most of the tablets of the State Museum of Fine Arts of this time come from the Ummah and were published by M.V. Nikolsky (15), who divided them into two groups. The graphic and oval form of N 1-68 brings them somewhat closer to the archaic documents of the Lugalanda and Uruinimgina eras, while N 69-89, the quadrangular and larger letters, may be more recent, preceding the third dynasty of Ur. The constant reference of researchers to the publication of M. V. Nikolsky testifies to the paramount importance of the materials of this section of the cuneiform collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts for studying the economy of the Akkadian and subsequent period. These also include the Lagash tablets described in V. K. Shileyko's Inventory (often with a complete transcription and translation), and tablets of unknown origin. Some of the Lagash texts, apparently synchronous with the second series of M. V. Nikolsky (or the fourth RTC (16)), are attributed by V. K. Shileyko to the time of the Lagash dynasty of Ur-Bab (2136-2104 BC) or, with an unknown origin, to the time preceding the third dynasty of Ur. At the same time, monuments of a different nature are dated: inscriptions on votive objects from Lagash from the collection of B. S. Golenishchev. On one piece of sculpture (N 1346) (Ensi Lagasha Gudea?) an appeal to the goddess of cereals and scribal art Nisabe is stamped out, and another (N 1342) reports the installation of a statue in the temple. These inscriptions were examined by V. K. Shileyko (17). Votive inscriptions were sometimes placed on so-called "nails". These clay cones with a cap were placed in the base of the temple when it was laid. The collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts presents several such dedicatory "nails" with the names of the rulers of Lagash Ur - Bab and Gudea. Votive inscriptions on "nails" from the collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts have well-known analogies [18]. The same copies from the collection of N. P. Likhachev, kept in the Hermitage, were published by V. K. Shileyko in 1916.

Considering the exhibits of the Assyrian Hall of the State Museum of Fine Arts, an attentive visitor will not lose sight of the sign, one of the lines of which has been carefully destroyed (N 1351). What events are reflected in this document almost four thousand years ago? The tablet contains the wish of the" great messenger "Ur-Ab" good life " Ensi Lagash Nammahani. Nammakhani's name is completely taken down, which, according to V. K. Shileyko, reflects the power struggle of representatives of two branches of the descendants of the ruler Lagash Ur-Bab. In the ensuing struggle between Ur-Nin-Ngirsu and Nammahani, the latter was probably victorious, and Ur-Nin-Ngirsu was removed from power. It was not until many years after the victory of Ur-Nammu, the first king of the third dynasty of Ur, over Nammahani that the victor restored the aged Ur-Nin-Ngirsu to power in Lagash. V. K. Shileyko believed that it was an act of revenge on Ur-Nin - Ngirsu that could explain the destruction of the names of Nammakhani and his heirs.

Despite the harmony of this reconstruction, much of the sequence of rulers remains confused, leaving room for other hypotheses. Thus, the leading researcher of the history and culture of Near Asia, I. M. Dyakonov, places some Ensi (Ur-Mama, Lu-Gula, Lu - Baba) before Ur-Baba (20), whereas, according to V. K. Shileyko, they ruled after Ur-Gar, just before Ur-Nin-Ngirsu's return to power. the authorities. Later, I. M. Dyakonov believed that the Gudea line was continued by Ur-Nin-Ngirsu and his son Pirigme; Nammakhani came to power between 2113 and 2107 BC after Ur-Gar (21). V. K. Shileyko's suggestion about the restoration of Ur-Nin-

15. Nikolsky.. Documents... V. Issue II.

16. Thweau-Danin F. Recueil de tablettes chaldyennes. P., 1903.

17. Shileyko V. K. Assyriological notes/ / ZVORAO. 1921. XXV. P. 49.

18. Thweau-Danin F. Sumerischen und akkadischen Kunigsinschriften // Vorderasiatische Bibliothek. Bd I. Abt. 1. Lpz, 1906 (hereinafter - SAKI) N 62 d; 142 t; 144 a.

19. Shileyko V. K. Votive inscriptions of Sumerian rulers. Pg., 1916. p. 14.

20. Dyakonov, I. M. Social and political system of ancient Mesopotamia. Sumer, Moscow, 1959, pp. 241-242.

21. History of the ancient East. The origin of the oldest class societies and the first centers of slave-owning civilization. I. Mesopotamia. Moscow, 1983. p. 264.

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Ngirsu is based only on the identification of f. Tyro-Dangenom of the heir of Gudea with the same author of the dedication to King Ur-Namm (22).

Tablet No. 38, dated by V. K. Shileyko to the time of the Ur-Baba dynasty, is also related to this group of monuments. It contains a list of sacrificial offerings, which, along with the gods, names several deceased Ensi and their wives: Ur-Baba, Gudea, Ur-Nin-Ngirsu, Pirigme, as well as Nammahani and Ninhedu. Thus, the reconciliation of the two branches of Ur Bab's progeny took place, but it was not final, since Kaku(d) and Ur-Gar, the son and grandson of Nammahani and Ninhedu, are not named (23).

The main part of the cuneiform collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts dates back to the third Dynasty of Ur and contains about 1,250 documents of administrative and economic reporting [24]. 440 of them were published in the second part of M. V. Nikolsky's "Documents of Economic Reporting", including 358 tablets originating from Umma, one of the major centers of the state of the third dynasty of Ur. They are published in the second section of the publication (the first was composed of tablets from the Akkadian period and texts immediately preceding the third dynasty of Ur). The third section includes 82 documents from Puzrish (Tsiloush)- Dagan (modern Russian). Drehem) in the vicinity of Nippur - the largest Sumerian religious center. In Zillush Dagan, there was a reception point for cattle arriving from the cities of Sumer and the subject territories to provide the cult of the god Enlil. The organization of this specific economy is considered by M. V. Nikolsky in the introductory essay (25). About 300 tablets from the Ummah and more than 400 tablets from Ngirsu and other centers (collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts) that are not included in this publication are being prepared for the three-volume edition of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. The publication will contain transcriptions, translations and autographs of all the texts included in it, comments to sections and detailed indexes.

Cuneiform text No. 621 from Lagash (27th year of the reign of King Shulga) with a list of sacrifices attests to the rarely mentioned " Temple of the Herb of Life "(E-U-nam-ti), located in the southwestern part of Ngirsu, near the temple of Eanna (26). Probably, there were similar temples in other cities, in any case, the temple of the same name is named in a later text of King Larsa Varad-Sin (1834-1823 BC) [27].

Some types of documents stand out from the general monotony of economic reporting documents. These include administrative protocols N 309 (Nikolsky II, N 447, Umma) and N 1097, most likely from Ngirsu. Several signs represent official correspondence. Of undoubted interest is plate No. 142, which contains an order for the delivery of barley - it was included in the publication of one of the largest schumerologists, E. Solberger, as a document whose location is currently unknown and which was published according to Boissier's draft (one sign is reproduced inaccurately) [28].

The cuneiform collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts contains a single school tablet (N 511) with four lines of educational text containing brief maxims about the value of knowledge. A fairly qualified handwriting is most likely that of a Sumerian school teacher, edubba, or an older student (29).

Votive and commemorative inscriptions are also not numerous. These include

22. SAKI. S. 147. N 1.

23. Perlov В. The Families of the Ensi's Urbau and Gudea and their Funerary Cult // Death in Mesopotamia. (Mesopotamia 8). Copenhagen, 1980. P. 77-81.

24. Documents from the second half of Shulgi's reign (2086 BC).

25. Nikolsky. Documents... V. Issue II. P. 14.

26. Perlov B. I. The temple of the "Grass of Life" of the period of the III dynasty of Ur. Report conference of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts for 1981, Moscow, 1982, pp. 44-48.

27. Shileyko V. K. Votive inscriptions of Sumerian rulers. pp. 20-21 (in g-nam-ti-la V. K. Shileyko translates as "Temple of life preservation").

28. Sollberger E. Business and administrative Correspondence under the Kings of Ur. N 4. N.Y., 1996. N 175.

29. Perlov B. I. Sumerian school tablet from the collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts. Report conference of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts for 1986, Moscow, 1987, p. 6.

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presented in the exhibition of the Assyrian Hall mace made of dark stone (N 1349) with a poorly preserved dedication. According to V. K. Shileyko, it is addressed to the tsar of Shulgi, whose name has not been preserved, but is restored from the remnants of the titulature characteristic of the first half of his reign (30). The name of the third king of the third dynasty of Ur, Amar-Zuen (?) (2045-2037 BC), is mentioned on four building bricks used for laying palaces or temples (N 1781-1784).

After the fall of the third Dynasty of Ur, the rise of Babylon gradually begins, culminating in the reign of King Hammurabi of the First Babylonian Dynasty (1792-1750 BC), when Babylon reaches its highest power.

The Old Babylonian part of the cuneiform collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts has more than 80 tablets. These are mainly private law and administrative documents, 16 of which are included in the collection of A. P. Riftin (31).

The actual publication of 147 texts with autographs, transcription, translation, and detailed commentary is preceded by an introduction with general information about the essence of a private law document. The origin of the tablets (Larsa, Sippar, Dilbat, Cazallu) is largely established.

Documents of the North Babylonian Sippar relate to the famous temple of Shamash Ebabbar and highlight the business activities of its priestesses-naditu, especially prone to operations with land (N 1369 and 1418) [32]. You can attach to them N 1510 and 1510a (plate and envelope) a bill of sale for land that was not taken into account by A. P. Riftin. This document is the first to mention the name of the god Ikunuma, most likely the personal deity of one of the participants in the transaction. The cult of this deity existed for several generations, judging by the similar theophoric names in some Sippar documents of the late XIX - XVIII centuries BC. [33] From the documents not included in the collection of A. P. Riftin, we can also name a tablet No. 1315 from Larsa with a record of the amount of silver in payment for fish. Administrative records N 1317 and N 1321, with the exception of plate N 200 (Riftin, 1937, N 67), which are not included in the publication of Riftin, are of the same type as the published ones.

Several letters from the time of the First Babylonian Dynasty from the collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts, mostly of business content, are written quite freely and at length, which gives more actual language material, and at an everyday level. Of considerable interest is a poorly preserved letter from Hammurabi himself (N 198). On the front side is written the instruction of the king of Sin-Idinnam to deal with the complaint of a certain Apil-Amurru, who complains that a small plot of land was allegedly taken from him. The tsar orders: to organize a trial, to compensate for the captured and to report on the execution. This document recalls the judicial reform of Hammurabi, according to which the judicial process became subordinate to the king.

Other letters with names found in A. Ungnad's edition (34) come from Dilbat, a town in the vicinity of Babylon. Three of them (n.137-139) are addressed to Adad-rapi, an influential administrator and landowner, to his agent Lipit-Ea (during the reign of Hammurabi's son Samsuiluna). On one of them (No. 139) is an impression of the Adad - rapi seal and a date that is quite rare in letters. Lipit-Ea is also named in the Protocol (No. 140) in connection with a rather unusual situation: he lost his personal seal. Two letters deal mainly with everyday topics and shed light on the everyday life and family relations of the ancient Babylonians (N 135 and 136). V. K. Shileyko gives a transcription and translation of these texts with some omissions (35).

30. Shileyko. Assyrological notes, p. 58.

31. Riftin A. P. Starovavilonskie dokumenty v sobraniyakh SSSR [Old Babylonian Documents in the Collections of the USSR].

32. Ibid., p. 9.

33. Savelyev Yu. A. Kontrakt vremeni pervoi vavilonskoy dinastii iz sobranie GMII [Contract of the time of the first Babylonian Dynasty from the collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts]. Report conference of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts for 1977, Moscow, 1978, p. 10.

34. Ungnad A. Babylonische Briefe aus der Zeit der Hammurapi Dynastie. Lpz, 1914.

35. Inventory of cuneiform texts of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.

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Among the Old Babylonian tablets of the cuneiform collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts, there is one whose path to the Museum is unusual.

On a summer day in 1984, the Department of Ancient Oriental Art received a call from the museum's purchasing committee asking to see a cuneiform tablet that two women had brought. Cuneiform texts are very rarely examined (and most often they are fake), so the interest that this message aroused among the staff of the Department of Ancient Oriental Studies is understandable. The first thing that occurred to them was that the tablet was probably fake again, but one glance was enough to tell them that it was a genuine, well-preserved business document from the Old Babylonian period, most likely during the reign of Hammurabi, and of considerable museum value. One of the women, the owner of the sign, said that they came to Moscow on an excursion from Kaliningrad (formerly Konigsberg) and decided to contact the State Museum of Fine Arts on the recommendation of employees of one of the Kaliningrad museums, who could not determine what this small piece of clay is covered with some dashes.

The history of finding the cuneiform tablet is amazing. As it turned out, on the street in a pile of construction debris, a woman accidentally saw a small piece of clay with a regular shape with some badges, picked it up out of curiosity and brought it home. Before going to Moscow, remembering the find, I decided to show it to the staff of some metropolitan museum. The Museum's offer to leave the plaque for purchase was accepted, and it was soon purchased (N 1772). How did the Old Babylonian tablet get to the shores of the Baltic Sea? As far as is known, there were no cuneiform collections in the museums of pre-war Konigsberg, but one of the largest German Assyriologists, Professor A. Ungnad, lived and taught at the university in this city. According to some sources, he had a collection of cuneiform texts. However, nothing is known about her fate. A. Ungnad died trying to get out of the besieged city. It is possible that he hid the collection in an abandoned house, which was then destroyed during the assault on Konigsberg or demolished at a later time. If this is true, then the old Babylonian tablet was most likely once part of the collection of A. Ungnad, probably lost forever.

Texts of a different nature, from the first quarter of the second millennium BC, are not numerous in the collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts. These include an inscription of religious and memorial content (No. 1577 from the collection of B. S. Golenishchev), belonging to Varad-Sin, king of Larsa in the Southern Two Rivers region under the rulers of the Amorite - Elamite dynasty, i.e. preceding the Old Babylonian period proper.

Amorite society absorbed the traditions of culture and statehood of the third millennium BC, which was expressed in Accadization, imitation of the titulature of the kings of the third dynasty of Ur, and the use of the Sumerian language in religious and official inscriptions, which had fallen out of everyday use. Several copies of this inscription are known, carefully carved in Sumerian on dark stone tiles (36). Two of them, from the collection of N. P. Likhachev, were published by V. K. Shileyko (37). The inscription refers to Nin - Insina, the patron goddess of Isshin, a city with stronger Sumerian traditions (a rival of Larsa).

A special group in the cuneiform collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts consists of religious texts. These include several hepatoscopic texts, i.e. records of predictions of priests-fortune-tellers on the liver of a sacrificial animal. It was believed that based on the experience of observing the intestines, it was possible to link certain symptoms with real events and predict upcoming ones using the post quern ergo propterea quern principle. Records of historical events in omens of omina are believed to have served as one of the origins of the historical chronicle genre. Two tablets of omens (N 1723 and 1724) were published in an outstanding work

36. SAKI. S. lHd.

37 Shileyko. Votive inscriptions of Sumerian rulers. N 20-21.

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V. K. Shileyko (38), which establishes the similarity of the principles of Babylonian exispition (divination by entrails) with the Greco - Roman ones described by some ancient authors (Seneca, Lucian, etc.).

The cuneiform collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts contains the only Sumerian literary text (N 1725). He became truly world-famous among Assyriologists and philologists. V. K. Shileyko successfully worked with Sumerian and Akkadian literary texts, but did not publish them. After his death, Vera Shileyko, a researcher at the Museum, gave the plaque to the State Museum of Fine Arts, and it "disappeared" in the collection for many years, waiting for its researcher. This is the moment. In 1957, an outstanding American sumerologist, Prof. S.-N. Kramer of the University of Pennsylvania, who immediately noticed this tablet, realized its great value - it contained two funeral songs composed in the name of Ludingir, who mourns his father-Nanna and wife-Navirtum (39). The songs are noted for their high literary merit and, in addition, contain interesting information about how the Sumerians imagined the afterlife. A tablet written around 1700 BC. in Nippur (the work itself may refer to an earlier time), it undoubtedly came out of the walls of the scribal school-eduba and is an educational text, as indicated by a copy of one of the lines in another educational Nippur tablet.

Having received permission from the Museum to publish the tablet and its photo, S.-N. Kramer published this literary text on his return to the United States [40]. So a new Sumerian literary genre, still unknown to researchers, was discovered - funeral songs, or "elegies", as S. N. Kramer conditionally called them, and the hitherto unknown tablet became one of the museum's masterpieces.

To the next, Kassite period (beginning of the XVI-end of the XII century BC), there are several economic records, one of which (N 1148) has an exact date - the 1st year of the reign of Shagarakti-Shuriash-1242 BC.

The museum's collection has written monuments found on the periphery of Mesopotamia and beyond. In the 80s of the last century, B. S. Golenishchev purchased tablets with an unknown cuneiform script in Turkey (Kayseri, ancient Caesarea). He himself published 24 of them in autographs, with a large introductory article, where, based on a comparison with the Assyrian and Babylonian writing, the researcher established the Akkadian language of the texts [41]. In fact, this was the first thorough publication and research, since only two tablets were previously published by A. Sayes. With the accumulation of material, especially after the beginning of archaeological excavations, experts came to the conclusion that these texts were written in the old Assyrian dialect, i.e. they are the oldest monuments in the Assyrian language. V. K. Shileyko in his publication of several Golenishchev tablets from the collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts (42), with a complete processing of these documents, including the study of morphological, lexical and However, the study of paleographic features provided a fairly convincing confirmation of this conclusion. Fifteen tablets from the Golenishchev collection were reprinted in the collection of ancient Assyrian documents by G. Eisser and Yu. Levi (43). Their complete publication (100 tablets from the State Museum of Fine Arts, 21 from the Hermitage) was carried out in I960 by N. B. Yankovskaya (44), taking into account all the latest data, including archaeologists-

38. Schileiko W. Bin omentext Sargons von Akkad und sein Nackklang bei romischen Dichtern // АЮ. 1929. Bd V. Ht6. S. 214- 218.

39. The text of the work is written in Sumerian with subscript Akkadian glosses.

40. Kramer S. N. Two Elegies on the tablet of the Pushkin Museum, Moscow, 1960.

41. GollenischeffW. Vingt-quatre tablettes cappadociennes. St.- Pb? 1891.

42. Shileyko V. K. Dokumenty iz Gul-Tepe [Documents from Gul-Tepe]. Academy of History of Material Culture, I. Pg., 1921, pp. 356-364.

43. Eisser G? Lewy J. Die altassyrische Rechtsurkunden vom Kultepe // Mitteilungen der Vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft. 1935. N 33, 35.

44.Yankovskaya N. B. Cuneiform texts from Kul-Tepe in the collections of the USSR, Moscow, 1968.

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research on Kyul Tepe, which discovered the ancient city of Kanish. The research is preceded by an extensive introductory article and comments, the documents are provided with transcription, translation and an excellent autograph. A detailed glossary completes the publication. In another work, N. B. Yankovskaya examines the documents of the peripheral society of the Hurrian state of Arraphi in Northern Mesopotamia (45). It includes 100 Hermitage plaques and 10 from the collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts (3 of them are from the collection of V. S. Golenishchev, 7 - according to inventory data-were transferred to V. K. Shileyko). The tablets are written in Akkadian with signs of Hurrian influence. The Hurrians, a people apparently of Caucasian descent, akin to the Urartians, made up a third of the total population of the Nuzis. Data from legal documents dating back to the 14th century BCE revealed some features of the Arrapha social system. Published documents "are not inferior to previously published foreign collections in terms of the value of specific information contained in them" (46).

The complex international situation in the Eastern Mediterranean of the 15th and 14th centuries BC is reflected in the letters of the Amarna Archive found in Egypt, compiled in cuneiform script in the Akkadian language used in international diplomatic correspondence, as well as in Hittite and Hurrian languages, and the Akkadian language of letters of the rulers of cities on the eastern Mediterranean coast was strongly influenced by Canaanite. Three letters (N 1574-1576) from the collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts, acquired by B. S. Golenishchev, are addressed to the pharaoh from Byblos and the state of Amurru, which arose in the foothills of Syria and Phoenicia at the beginning of the XIV century BC. A large message from Rib-Addi, the ruler of Byblos, a city that was in the orbit of Egyptian influence since the III millennium BC.E. (N 1574), differs little in content from his other numerous letters: these are mostly complaints about the hostility of neighboring rulers and the usual requests for military assistance. He also owns a fragment of letter No. 1575. The surviving part of the letter of Asiri (N. 1576), the ruler of Amurru, is not very rich in information, because, in accordance with the accepted etiquette, it is replete with self-deprecating assurances of loyalty and traditional greetings. The Amarna letters of the Golenishchevsky collection were repeatedly included in publications from the 90 - ies of the last century [47].

The spread of cuneiform writing is attested, along with Hurrian and Hittite, and Elamite inscriptions. In Elam, the oldest state to the east of the Two Rivers (modern times). Khuzistan) with a population that is supposed to be related to the Dravidian-speaking population of India, the original hieroglyphic script gave way to cuneiform writing as early as the end of the third millennium BC under Sumerian-Akkadian influence. Several fragments of it on bricks of the second millennium BC, originating from the ancient Elamite city of Susa, also came to the State Museum of Fine Arts from the collection of B. C. Golenishchev.

The next section of the cuneiform collection of the Museum, which contains tablets of the New Assyrian period, is mainly represented by a few fragments of royal inscriptions and chronicles of the IX - first half of the VII century BC (almost all of them were acquired by B. S. Golenishchev), of which the following deserve mention.

1. Fragments of the" standard " text of Ashurnatsirapal (883-859 BC) with titulature, a brief genealogy, a description of campaigns, mainly in Northern Mesopotamia and Syria, and a report on the construction of a palace in the new capital of Kalhu (Nimrud) (48). The largest of them is a fragment of an alabaster slab (N 1676).

2. Massive bricks of unburned clay from the ziggurat in Kalhu with a brief inscription of Shalmaneser III (859-825 BC) (N 1675, 1785).

45. She's the same. Legal documents from Arrapha in the collections of the USSR // Peredneaziatskiy sbornik [Peredneaziatskiy sbornik], Moscow, 1961, pp. 424-580.

46. Ibid., p. 450.

47. Winckler H.. Abel L. Der Tontafelnfmd von El-Amarna. В., 1889-1890 (N 34, 67, 71); Winckler H. Die Tontafein von El- Amama. В., 1896 (N 48, 71, 112); Knudtzon E. Die El-Amama Tafeln. Bd I-II. Lpz, 1908, 1915 (N70, 137, 160).

48. Budge EA.W., King L.W. Annals of the Kings of Assyria. I. L., 1902. P. 212.

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3. The inscription of Ashurbanipal (668-626 BC) on a limestone slab from Nineveh with an appeal to the god Nabu on the occasion of the expansion of the temple of Ezida (49) (N 1677).

4. Royal chronicles: a fragment of the" barrel "of Sennacherib (705-681 BC) with the beginning of the text [introduction, the first campaign against Babylon and Elam (N 837)] of the type of the so - called Bellino and Rassam cylinders; a fragment of the" prism " with the chronicle of the same king, a later text describing the construction in Nineveh, the expansion and renovation of the palace (50) (N 1502); a fragment of two faces of the "prism" of Esarhaddon (681 - 668 BC) about the campaign to the "land of the sea" at the beginning of the reign (51) (N 1505).

5. Fragment of a bilingual spell of the evil spirit with alternating lines of Sumerian and Akkadian text. The back may contain fragments of the scribe's remark about copying from the ancient original (?) and the date (N 1666).

From Urartu, a state that occupied part of the Armenian Highlands and Transcaucasia in the IX-VI centuries BC and competed with Assyria during periods of strengthening, there is an inscription on a stone slab (N 1679) with the name of King Argishti (VIII century BC). The slab was received by the Museum from A.V. Zhivago.

In the Museum's cuneiform collection, the New Babylonian and Persian periods of Babylonian history (late 7th-4th centuries BC) are represented by more than 30 tablets (52). For the most part, as far as possible, due to poor preservation, they are legal documents of a private legal nature, which is natural for a society that has reached a fairly high level of commodity - money relations and private property. Among them are contracts for the purchase and sale, including slaves and land plots (N 1504, 1513, 1575, 1659), a document on the dowry for a certain Belitum (N 1507); on the adoption (of a slave?) (N 1498); surety for debtors (N 1756). The largest number of loan entries, including a joint venture agreement with a loan received by one participant from another (N 1508). The obligation to return bricks taken from the temple of Eanna (N 1329) can probably already be attributed to the category of administrative and economic records. Among them, it should be noted the schedule of offerings to temples in grain and small cattle (N 1703, 1726).

Of particular interest in this section is the only letter in the collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts of the New Babylonian period (No. 1514), of excellent preservation, concerning 10 shekels of silver, which must be immediately handed over to the addressee's agent, having drawn up a debt document in the presence of witnesses. The names of the sender, the slave Dayan-Bel-utsur, and the addressee Iddin-Marduk, his master, are well known from documents and business correspondence of the third quarter of the sixth century BC.

Royal inscriptions are represented by impressions on bricks of the well-known text of Nebuchadnezzar P (606-562 BC) in several versions, one of which (N 1771) has been preserved in its entirety: "Nabukudurriutsur-king of Babylon," trustee "(of the temple) Ezida, the first-born son of Nabuapluutsur King of Babylon." The collection also contains a small fragment (N 1788) of the inscription of the same king (such inscriptions are not numerous, they are written on longer bricks, by hand, and not stamped), the so-called "Lebanon-Inschrift", about the delivery of cedar for the palace roof, with an appeal to the god Marduk about the gift of prosperity, long years life and reign over the " blackheads "(the traditional name of the inhabitants of Babylonia) to himself and his descendants (53).

Two inscriptions with religious content do not have a sufficiently precise attribution.

49. Streck М. Asurbanipal und die letzte Assyrische Konige // Vorderasiatische Bibliothek. VI. Lpz, 1916. Judging by the mention of the campaign to Elam, it dates back to the 40s of the VII century BC.

50. Wed. WM, N 103000 (Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum 26) - 694 BC; Chicago "prism" - Luckenhill D. D. Annals of Sennacherib. Chicago, 1924. Col. V, 52 ff.

51. Winckler H. Altorientalische Forschungen I Reihe. Bd VI. Lpz, 1897. S. 522.

52. The earliest tablet dates from 632 BC; it is not clear to which of the three Artaxerxes the latest tablet belongs: to the fifth or fourth century BC.

53. Koldewey R. Der Wiederersteheme Babylon. В., 1990. Abb 55 ("die sechzeilige Lebanon-Inschrift von den Sudburg"); Walker C.B. Cuneiform Brick Inscription in the British Museum. L., 1981. N 99.

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The first one, applied along the hollow cone (N 1336), promises benefits to those who, having discovered the burial, do not disturb it, but put it in order. The content is notable for its overall positive orientation - not the threat of punishment for destruction and neglect, but retribution for the good done. Given the lack of archaeological evidence, it is hardly possible to rely absolutely on epigraphic features, since the Old Babylonian inscription of signs does not exclude their deliberate archaization, as in the official inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar II (54). A yellow stone tile (N 261) with a relief image of the evil demon (female) Lamashtu and her spell on the back belongs to a well-known type of amulet, common in Babylonia and Assyria in the first century BC (55) Here we do not have reliable grounds for specifying the dating and origin. The standard inscription on the amulet is only the beginning of a large text on clay tablets (56).

In Hellenistic times, the Akkadian language was replaced by Aramaic, with an alphabetic script, it spread in Mesopotamia even before the middle of the first millennium BC, but in legal and religious practice, cuneiform writing was preserved until the first century AD to record not only Akkadian, but also Sumerian texts. With the arrival of the Greek population after the campaigns of Alexander the Great and the foundation of the poleis in Babylonia, the Greek language also came into use.

Probably, the tablet (in two fragments N 1692 and 1693), written in Akkadian in a Greek semi-cursive, should be dated to the Hellenistic period. Inscriptions of this type are known, although in general this method of writing is not widely used.

The text of the tablet of the State Museum of Fine Arts, published by V. K. Shileyko (57), contains an appeal to the deity with a request to grant benefits to four named people: long days of prosperous life, wisdom, long offspring and (NB!) scribal skill.

As it was noted, the cuneiform collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts is rarely updated, and it would seem that its main composition, which was scientifically processed by outstanding Assyriologists M. V. Nikolsky and V. K. Shileyko, has already been largely studied. Nevertheless, the collection contains even greater potential opportunities for research, and among them, first of all, it should be noted signs in envelopes. The tablet was placed in a rectangular clay envelope, on the surface of which a summary of the tablet was applied. Often the inscription was certified by the impression of a cylindrical seal. Thus, the document itself was preserved and its authenticity was certified. When the recipient received the document, the envelope was broken. The cuneiform collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts contains a whole series of unopened envelopes. It is clear how interesting it is to get the full text on the plate and compare it with the short entry on the envelope. Sawing envelopes requires a highly qualified restorer, training him in special techniques. Abroad, the technology of opening clay envelopes is practiced quite successfully.

Sometimes new arrivals pose difficult tasks for curators of museum collections. In the mid-1970s, the purchasing commission of the Museum purchased a plaque (N 1772) with the text of the economic content of the time of the III Ur dynasty. Later, when working on a catalog of cuneiform texts from the collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts, it turned out that the envelope from this tablet with an almost similar one was slightly different from the original one.

54. Delitzch F. Die Schriftdenkmaler aus babylonischen Sargen // Mitteilungen der deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft. 1901-1902. N 11. S. 15 (Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmaler. I. N54); idem. Babel und Bubel. 1913. S. 10. Abb. 40 (the author notes the Old Babylonian character of signs).

55. Frank К. Babylonische Beschworungsreliefs. Lpz, 1908; idem. Lamastu, Pazuzu und Danionen // Mitteilungen der Altorientalische Gesellschaft. XIV. Ht 2. Lpz, 1941 (with a list of known specimens); Thureau-Dangin F. Amulettes rituelles contre Labartu / / Revue d'assyriologie et d'Archeologie Orientate. 1921. 18. P. 161.

56. Eheling F. Die Sammlungen von Beschworungsformein // Der Alte Orient. 1953. XXI. S. 357; Myhrman D.W. Die Labartu-Texte. Strassburg, 1902.

57. Schileiko W. Ein Babylonischer Weihtext Griechischer Schrift // Archiv fur Orientforschung, Bd 5. Ht 1. В., 1928.

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abbreviated text, with the seal of the official has long been stored in the State Museum of Fine Arts (N 1702). There was a truly rare case - the envelope and its seemingly forever lost tablet were reunited. We can only guess when and how their paths diverged. Nevertheless, we can assume the following. It is known that N. P. Likhachev presented some tablets from his collection to M. V. Nikolsky, as well as to V. K. Shileyko, and in the late 1930s envelope No. 1702 came to the Museum from his widow, Vera Konstantinovna Shileyko. It is possible that the plate No. 1772 was also given to someone by N. P. Likhachev, and then it already got to its last owner, V. K. Luknitskaya.

The collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts is inferior in number to the collections of cuneiform texts of the British Museum, the Near Asian Museum in Berlin, the Louvre in Paris, and the Hermitage. Nevertheless, it contains monuments representing almost all periods of cuneiform writing since the XXIV centuries BC and originating from different regions of the Near East. This high-quality completeness is the result not of a random combination of circumstances, but of the systematic collection of such outstanding specialists as N. P. Likhachev and V. S. Golenishchev.

THE CUNEIFORM COLLECTION OF THE PUSHKIN FINE ARTS MUSEUM В./. Perlov

The State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin possesses more than 1700 cuneiform texts coming from Sumer, Babylonia, Assyria, Iran, Cappadocia, Elam and Egypt.

1319 tablets from the collection of N.P. Likhachev (1862-1930) constitute the basis of the Museum collection. In 1918 a part of Likhachev's collection was bought by the Museum-Institute of Classical East; in 1924, after this Museum was reformed, the collection moved to the Fine Arts Museum. V.K. Shileiko (1891- 1930), an outstanding assyrologist, contributed to the study and systematization of the collection.

A big part of the Fine Arts Museum cuneiform collection consists of administrative and economic reports from the periods of the 3rd Dynasty of Ur (21127-2003). These documents come from Lagash (Tello), Umma (Joha) and Puzrish-Dagan. Most texts of this period (except those from Tello) were edited by the "father of Russian assyrology" M.V. Nikolsky.

The oldest tablets of the collection are economic documents from Lagash (Tello) of the 2nd half of the 24th с. ВС, the latest Persian texts are dated back to the Hellenistic period (4th с. ВС).

Some important Sumerian texts of the Ensial period (22nd с. ВС) were excellently edited by V.K. Shileiko.

The Old Babylonian part of the collection includes more than 80 tablets. These are, for the greatest part, documents of civil law and economic administration. Some of them were edited by A.P. Riftin. Of particular interest among them is Hammurapi's letter.

Religious texts, mainly divinatory records, constitute a special group of the collection.

Only one tablet with Sumerian literary text is to be found in the collection, a tablet with two funeral songs. This literary monument became world-known after the publication by an outstanding American sumerologist S.-N. Kramer who discovered the genre of funeral song ("elegy") unknown before in Sumerian literature.

The texts of New Assyrian period are represented by a few fragments of kings' inscription of the 9th -the first half of the 7th с. ВС. 30 fragments from the New Babylonian and Persian periods of Babylonian history (7-4th с. ВС) are mostly private legal documents. Kings' inscriptions are represented by texts of Nebuchadnezzar I (606-562 ВС) stamped upon bricks.

The collection includes some cuneiform texts found in Mesopotamia's periphery and beyond its limits. A significant part of the Old Assyrian texts from Kul-Tepe was published by N.B. Yankovskaya.

There are also three documents from the Amarn Archive, reflecting the complicated situation in Eastern Mediterranean in 15th-14th с. ВС. The fragments ofElanite texts of the Und mill. ВС from Susa testify to the fact that cuneiform characters were used beyond the limits of Mesopotamia.

The texts of Urartu are not numerous in the collection, these are 7th с. ВС brick and tile inscriptions (kings' names).

The cuneiform collection of the Museum possesses cuneiform monuments representing almost all the periods and coming from different areas of Near Asia. Such completeness results from considered and thoughtful collecting by N.P. Likhachev and V.S. Golenishchev.

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