The present volume is the fruit of a lengthy collaboration between the two editors going back in part to spring 1976, when Kwasman spent several months in Helsinki working on the ADD texts with Parpola. At that time, we computerized practically all the texts published in ADD I on the basis of new transliterations based principally on the Johns copies but systematically taking into consideration also the collations by Ungnad published in AR. A printout of the transliterations and complete word and reverse word indices were generated from this material and made available to Kwasman in summer 1976, while the text files themselves were incorporated in what was gradually to evolve into the present SAA database.
In summer 1978, Parpola thoroughly collated a sizeable portion (about 300) of the texts at the British Museum. The results of this collation were published in a condensed form, omitting many drawings of collated passages, in Assur 2/5 (1979), pp. 109-197, and incorporated in the database by Parpola in spring 1984. Portions of the corpus not yet included in the database were computerized by Raija Mattila in 1986.
In the meantime, Kwasman continued working on the texts on his own, collating the texts and making a number of important joins in the course of several study trips to the British Museum. His Ph.D. dissertation on the corpus (NALK) was completed in early 1988, making it possible for him to accept, in November 1987, an invitation from Parpola to act as a co-editor of the present volume.
Since about 2/3 of the texts (with the exception of the dates and the witness lists) had just been translated in NALK, it was agreed that the translations in the volume would be based, as far as possible, on NALK, while the transliterations would, as usual, be based on the Project database. Accordingly, the translations in NALK were scanned and computerized by Laura Kataja in the fall of 1989, and the witness lists left untranslated in NALK were machine-translated by a computer programme written by Parpola in spring 1990. The two sets of translations were subsequently combined and sent for editing to Kwasman, who had earlier (in summer 1988) received a revised printout of the whole corpus as well as improved indices generated from it.
In early December 1990, Kwasman briefly visited Helsinki to discuss the order and selection of texts included in the volume and other editorial matters. Following Kwasman's departure, Parpola paid a one-week visit to the British Museum collating close to 200 texts included in the volume.
In detail, the editorial work on this volume and the responsibility for its individual parts was distributed as follows between the two editors:
The Introduction in its entirety is by Parpola.
The transliterations essentially are the result of joint work. The readings in NALK have been carefully checked against the database and all new readings based on collation have been included insofar as possible. Doubtful readings have been recollated, and cases where readings in NALK could not be accepted are briefly justified in the critical apparatus.
The translations are, as explained above, largely based on Kwasman's work in NALK but have been thorougly scrutinized and edited by Parpola. The translations of all witness lists and dates, as well as the normalization of personal names throughout the volume, are based on Parpola's work and have been scrutinized and edited by Kwasman. Texts not included in NALK were largely translated by Parpola.
The headings to the texts were supplied jointly by the two editors.
The bibliographical data in the critical apparatus were largely provided by Kwasman; the other parts of this section are largely the work of Parpola.
The order of texts in the volume and the selection of texts to be included is basically the work of Parpola.
The meanings of the words included in the glossary were basically supplied by Kwasman during his visit to Helsinki. Otherwise the glossary and all the indices included in the book are the work of Parpola.
Most of the drawings of seal and fingernail impressions published in the present volume were made by Parpola in the course of his work at the British Museum in July-August 1978 and December 1990. Twenty-two impressions not drawn by Parpola (those of nos. 5, 7, 17, 19, 45, 56, 60, 69, 74, 76, 77, 118, 126, 132, 136, 141, 154, 203, 218, 256, 305, and 625) were drawn for the volume by Dominique Collon of the British Museum; seven further impressions (those of nos. 63, 73, 75, 181, 204, 286 and 292) could be reproduced from the unpublished University of Munich dissertation of Suzanne Herbordt by the kind permission of the author. I.L. Finkel of the British Museum collated 34 tablets and contributed a drawing of one seal impression (no. 181). We wish to extend our thanks to these colleagues and the entire staff of the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities for assistance rendered to us during the study of the texts.
The previously unpublished fragment K 16094 included in the volume was identified by Parpola and is published here by the kind permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.
The checking of the transliterations against the readings in NALK was chiefly done by Jukka Hartikainen and Katalin Miklóssy of the Project staff. Corrections to the database were entered by Laura Kataja and Jukka Hartikainen. Katalin Miklóssy inked drawings of seal and fingernail impressions for optical scanning.
Galley proofs were read by members of the Editorial Committee, J. N. Postgate, F. M. Fales and R. M. Whiting, who contributed several improvements and eliminated a number of mistakes.
June 1991
Theodore Kwasman
Simo Parpola
Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola
Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola, 'Preface', Legal Transactions of the Royal Court of Nineveh, Part I: Tiglath-Pileser III through Esarhaddon, SAA 6. Original publication: Helsinki, Helsinki University Press, 1991; online contents: SAAo/SAA06 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2020 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa06/saa6preface/]