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German to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Archaeology / Ancient Middle East
German term or phrase:Streitkeule
Hi everyone: I am translation a description of an Assyrian stele found in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.
The text reads:
Die Stele, die einen fast lebensgrossen Sargon II zeigt, wurde auf der Insel Zypern gefunden. In der Linken haelt er eine **Streitkeule** und auf seinem Haupt traegt er die koenigliche Tiara.
I have no idea how to translate **Streitkeule**. Does anybody have an idea regarding these kind of ancient weapons? Thank you very much!
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 31 mins (2009-04-22 12:18:50 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
This from famous explorer, Gertrude Bell's diairies
Wed May 12. [12 May 1909] Up at 3.30 and off a little before 5 with Kas Mattai and his brother Shim'un to see the Assyrian (?) castle. We took just 11/2 hours to get up to it from the village. All the way up the crag are traces of a fine masonry embanked road. At the bottom of the steep slope there is a place prepared for a stele but nothing on it. Nothing left of the castle, but stones fallen down from the wall. At the head of the valley there is another crag with another castle on it, they say. Wild Rhubarb. I had worn the native shoes to climb up but as the soles are of felt they wore out long before I got down and I was on the rock before I rejoined my boots. Though I mended my shoes with a safety pin! In the gorge below the crag is an Assyrian stele of a king in a long fringed robe holding a small club in his hand. Cuneiform inscrip. all across him. http://www.gerty.ncl.ac.uk/diaries/d1692.htm
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 34 mins (2009-04-22 12:21:02 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Or battle-axe, as here:
The depiction of what appears to be Marduk on the Kassite boundary stone would agree with the Hurrian Kumarbi and the Greek Pythia - underworld serpent entities. The representation of the serpent around the base of the boundary stone alongside a scorpion shows two different traditions being represented: 1 is an ecliptic serpent; 2 is an ecliptic scorpion. In the Epic of Creation "scorpion men" are at the earth's boundaries and prevent the underworld from rising against the overworld. The ecliptic serpent the Hydra performs the function of boundary-guard for the Greeks. The serpent is a foreign introduction to mesopotamia, though it was common in Elam.
In the Epic of Creation Marduk has replaced the sky gods Anu and Enlil (Roux, p.367). The Greek god Zevs is a sky god.
In a neo-Assyrian stele (fig. 9) the horned serpent, Marduk, is portrayed as being killed by a warrior brandishing European battle-axe. The Assyrian god is adopted by Persians and Jews. http://www.vakras.com/contra-fuchs.html
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 37 mins (2009-04-22 12:24:34 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Here, mace is used:
Further elucidating the Gutic-Sumerian Renaissance, Sumerologist Kramer notes, "Ur-Bau [founder of the Lagash dynasty of ensis under the Gutians] had three sons-in-law: Gudea, Urgar and Namhani (also written Nammahin), each of whom became ensi of Lagash. Gudea's {p.67} rather immobile face and expressionless features have become familiar to the modern student from the numerous statues of him that have been recovered. Some of these carry long inscriptions recording his religious activities in connection with the building and rebuilding of Lagash's more important temples. From them we learn that, in spite of Gutian domination {?!}, Gudea had trade contacts with practically the entire 'civilized' world of those days ... Gudea's 2 clay-cylinders unearthed at Lagash more than 75 years ago are inscribed with the longest known Sumerian literary work, close to 1400 lines of a narrative composition, ritualistic and hymnal, commemorating his rebuilding of Lagash's main temple, the Eninna. Gudea even reports one important military victory - that over the state Anshan, Elam's neighbour to the South. He also speaks of fashioning a number of cultic and symbolic weapons such as the sharur and maces with 50 heads. This may indicate considerable military activity on his part, although perhaps only as a vassal of the Gutians. Gudea, like his father-in-law, Ur-bau, also controlled the city of Ur, where three of his inscriptions have been unearthed." (Kramer 1963, p.66-67) http://www.iranian.com/History/2005/March/Gutians/
I think you will need to ascertain what material this weapon was fashioned from. If metal, then mace would be ok, if wooden, then club or cudgel would be better. Do you have an image to let you see?
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 6 days (2009-04-28 16:48:58 GMT) Post-grading --------------------------------------------------
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +2
