The most striking aspect of the Middle Babylonian lexical corpus is its geographic spread, from Dilmun in the Persian Gulf to Hattuša in Anatolia and from Akhetaten (Amarna) in Egypt to Šibaniba in Northern Mesopotamia. Most of these lexical texts represent well-known Babylonian types in a multitude of versions and formats.
The Middle Babylonian period is known as the International period, because of the intense political interactions between the rulers of Babylonia (Kassites), Mitanni, Assyria, Hatti, and Egypt. International diplomatic correspondence was written in cuneiform Akkadian and the spread of traditional Babylonian lexical knowledge thus followed in the footsteps of diplomacy.
Each of the placemarkers on the map below represents a site where lexical tablets have been found; clicking on a marker will take you to more information about the lexical texts of that site.
View Larger Map. Map adapted from the ANE placemarks for Google Earth file by Olof Pedersén.
Niek Veldhuis
Niek Veldhuis, 'Middle Babylonian Lexical Texts', Digital Corpus of Cuneiform Lexical Texts, The DCCLT Project, 2019 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/dcclt/lexicallistsperiods/middlebabylonian/]