A.L. Oppenheim, who wrote a masterful study of the Reports, also planned an edition of these texts. This was however prevented by his untimely death. In 1977 I was entrusted with his transliterations in order to produce such an Edition. S ince Oppenheim had not foreseen that his materials would have to be used by someone else, there were no notes explaining their organization. It turned out that his transliterations eere largely based on Campbell Thompson's RMA. Although Oppenheim had collated many passages it was not evident to what extent he had done this. When I saw that the transliterations contained quite a number of errors (for whatever reason), I realized that I would have to compare them sign by sign with the originals. This caused a delay in my work on the project; I only began to return to it in earnest when Simo Parpola asked me to contribute an edition of the Reports to the series SAA. During several stays in London I completely collated all the Reports kept there; the transliterations in this book are therefore my own, and any errors in them are my responsibility (and not Oppenheim's).
The unpublished texts in this book were mostly identified by Oppenheim. A few could be added from information of S. Parpola. V. Donbaz provided me with two Reports (Nv. 3 and Nv. 4) in the collections of the Istanbul Museum, which he will publish soon in the Annual of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. W.G. Lambert drew my attention to two texts from the as yet uncatalogued part of the Kuyunjik collection. The Academy of Finland subsidized several collation trips to the British Museum. At the British Museum I enjoyed the support of the staff of the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities, especially of C.B.F. Walker and I.L. Finkel. All new texts from the British Museum are edited here by kind permission of the Trustees of the British Museum. Several colleagues helped me in the preparation of this book. E. Reiner entrusted me with the materials of the late A.L. Oppenheim. M. Geller and I.L. Finkel collated quite a number of difficult passages on short notice. S. Parpola provided constant encouragement and numerous improvements in readings and translations.
This edition is dedicated to the memory of A.L. Oppenheim, whose inspiring approach to the study of Mesopotamia I shall never forget.
Vienna, May 1992
Hermann Hunger
Hermann Hunger
Hermann Hunger, 'Preface', Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings, SAA 8. Original publication: Helsinki, Helsinki University Press, 1992; online contents: SAAo/SAA08 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2020 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa08/saa8preface/]