Une brique inscrite d'Adad-apla-iddina provenant de Larsa

International audienceThis paper addresses a hitherto unpublished exemplar of a short and well-known inscription of Adad-apla-iddina (Frame 1995 : 59-60, B.2.8.9), one of the kings of Babylon and of the 2nd Dynasty of Isin. The aforementioned inscription refers to the construction of walls of the Šamaš’ temple in Larsa, the e-babbar and was found in the latter city during the excavations led by A. Parrot and J.-L. Huot. The new exemplar is a brick belonging to a private collection, also originating from Larsa and brought to France by its owner during the seventies. Its shape, format and layout are consistent with the numerous bricks bearing the same inscription: it is a square of 28.5cm of length and thick with 6cm which displays the typical colour of backed clay artefacts from Larsa and its surroundings. It is a roughly shaped and clumsily made artefact, which contains lumps of mineral probably used to compensate a lack of clay. It might therefore have been discarded as unusable early in production. This may explain why the brick was found far from the e-babbar. The inscription of this exemplar is published here for the first time with recent photographs, copy, transliteration and translation, which enhance its documentary value (only one photograph has been published so far). Despite its terseness, the inscription reveals the use of some rare Sumerian terms which deserve comments. It is seemingly the only inscription referring to a king of the 2nd Isin Dnyasty with the epithet saĝ-gal, the etymology of which can be compared with saĝ-kal, Akkadian ašarēdu, ‘first in rank’. Although the inscription seems to refer to the construction of some walls, Sumerian iz-zi, of the e-babbar, the archaeological excavations show only the reshaping by Adad-apla-iddina of thetile floor, mostly in the ‘Cour I’. This apparent discrepancy might either show that the meaning of iz-zi has still to be scrutinized or that the aforementioned king overvalued the scope of his construction. Another interesting feature is the mention of the Sumerian term dur2 šu-il2 which has tentatively been compared with the well-known šu’ila rituals, documented notably during the first millennium and written in Akkadian as well as its ‘eme-sal’ register of Sumerian. However, on light of the content and grammatical features of the inscription as well as its context, this interpretation seems unlikely, šu-il2 may rather refer to the gesture of raising the hand, although real understanding of its meaning eludes us