Urra=hubullu

{{Short description|Ancient Babylonian glossary or encyclopedia}}

{{More citations needed|date=January 2024}}

{{Italic title}}

File:Sumerian-akkadian lexicon Louvre AO7662.jpg]]

The Urra=hubullu ({{Cuneiform|𒄯𒊏 𒄷𒇧𒈝}} {{transliteration|Xsux|ur₅-ra — ḫu-bul-lu₄}}; or HAR-ra = ḫubullu,{{Cite journal |last=Meer |first=P. E. Van Der |date=1939 |title=Tablets of the HAR-ra = ḫubullu Series in the Ashmolean Museum |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4241653 |journal=Iraq |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=144–179 |doi=10.2307/4241653 |jstor=4241653 |issn=0021-0889|url-access=subscription }} or Gegenstandslisten ("lists of objects")) is a major Babylonian glossary or "encyclopedia".{{Cite journal |last1=Tarp |first1=Sven |last2=Gouws |first2=Rufus H. |date=2023 |title=A Necessary Redefinition of Lexicography in the Digital Age: Glossography, Dictionography and Implications for the Future |journal=Lexikos |volume=33 |doi=10.5788/33-1-1826 |issn=2224-0039|doi-access=free }} It consists of Sumerian and Akkadian lexical lists ordered by topic.{{Cite journal |last1=Azevedo |first1=Isabel Cristina Michelan de |last2=Piris |first2=Eduardo Lopes |date=June 2018 |title=Tradition of foreign language teaching and learning: focusing on the Brazilian Portuguese as a Foreign Language textbook |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1984-6398201812044 |journal=Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=417–443 |doi=10.1590/1984-6398201812044 |issn=1984-6398}}{{Citation |title=Chapter Seven. Further Thoughts: The Cognitive Function Of Writing In MUL.APIN |date=2011-01-01 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004202306.i-223.57 |work=Writing Science before the Greeks |pages=157–168 |access-date=2024-01-02 |publisher=BRILL|doi=10.1163/ej.9789004202306.i-223.57 |isbn=978-90-04-20231-3 |last1=Watson |first1=R. |last2=Horowitz |first2=W. |url-access=subscription }} The canonical version extends to 24 tablets, and contains almost 10,000 words.{{Cite journal |last=HOROWITZ |first=W |date=1988 |title=An Assur Source for Urra 21: KAV 80 90 137 ( ) 89 |url=https://pascal-francis.inist.fr/vibad/index.php?action=getRecordDetail&idt=11803278 |journal=An Assur Source for Urra 21: KAV 80 90 137 ( ) 89 |volume=35 |pages=64–72}} The conventional title is the first gloss, ur₅-ra and ḫubullu meaning "interest-bearing debt" in Sumerian and Akkadian, respectively. One bilingual version from Ugarit [RS2.(23)+] is Sumerian/Hurrian rather than Sumerian/Akkadian.

A partial table of contents:

• Tablets 1-2: juridicial forms thought to be possibly part of the ana ittišu series{{Cite journal |last=Goetze |first=Albrecht |date=1939 |title=Review of Die Serie ana ittišu |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/594069 |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=59 |issue=2 |pages=265–271 |doi=10.2307/594069 |jstor=594069 |issn=0003-0279|url-access=subscription }}
• Tablets 3-7: names of trees, parts of trees, products of trees, and wooden objects
• Tablet 4: naval vehicles
• Tablet 5: terrestrial vehicles
• Tablets 10-12: names of vessels, ovens, clay objects, hides, chemicals, and objects of bronze, copper, silver
• Tablets 12, 14 & 15: systematic enumeration of the names of domestic animals, terrestrial animals, birds (including bats){{Cite journal |last=Kroonen |first=Guus |date=2016-10-24 |title=Hittite kapart-/kapirt - 'small rodent' and Proto-Semitic *ˁkbr-t- 'mouse, jerboa' |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/if-2016-0003 |journal=Indogermanische Forschungen |volume=121 |issue=1 |pages=53–62 |doi=10.1515/if-2016-0003 |s2cid=171132035 |issn=1613-0405|url-access=subscription }} and parts of the body
• Tablet 16: stones
• Tablet 17: plants.{{Cite journal |last=Heeßel |first=Nils P. |date=2012-10-26 |title=Diagnosis, Mesopotamian |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah21106 |journal=The Encyclopedia of Ancient History |doi=10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah21106|isbn=978-1-4051-7935-5 |url-access=subscription }}
• Tablet 19: names of wool and vestments
• Tablets 21-22: names of towns, countries, mountains, a and rivers
• Tablets 22-23: provisions
• Tablet 24: list of men

The tablets form a series that had been arranged by time of the Sumarian Dynasty of Isin, with a bilingual tradition existing by the time the Kassites. The bulk of the collection was compiled in the Old Babylonian period (early 2nd millennium BC), with pre-canonical forerunner documents extending into the later 3rd millennium.{{Cite journal |last=Steele |first=Colin |date=October 2016 |title=You could look it up: the reference shelf from ancient Babylon to Wikipedia |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00049670.2016.1242103 |journal=The Australian Library Journal |volume=65 |issue=4 |pages=342–343 |doi=10.1080/00049670.2016.1242103 |issn=0004-9670}}

Like other canonical glossaries, the Urra=hubullu was often used for scribal practice. Other Babylonian glossaries include:

• Ea: a family of lists that give the simple signs of the cuneiform writing system with their pronunciation and Akkadian meanings. (MSL volume 14)
• "Table of Measures": conversion tables for grain, weights and surface measurements. Again, it is not clear how these tablets were used.
• Lú and Lú=ša, a list of professions (MSL volume 12)
• Izi, a list of compound words ordered by increasing complexity
• Diri "limited to compound logograms whose reading cannot be inferred from their individual components; it also includes marginal cases such as reduplications, presence or absence of determinatives, and the like." (MSL volume 14)
• Nigga, Erimhuš and other school texts
• Ana ittišu: a legal glossary.