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Аккадское выражение ubānum ištēt ‘один палец’: проблемы изучения
The Akkadian expression ubānum ištēt ‘one finger’ is attested in Old Babylonian letters of the 18thcentury BCE as an allegoric description of a close alliance between rulers. Two hypotheses were advanced in the literature to explain the origin of this expression. According to the first one, the allegory of ‘one finger’ was based on a symbolic gesture performed by the kings while concluding a treaty. This gesture consisted of joining or locking thumbs or index fingers. The second hypothesis presumed that the expression ‘one finger’ referred to a phenomenon of syndactyly, an inborn defect of fusing together of two or more fingers. The imagination of ancient Mesopotamians could turn such fused fingers into the symbol of inviolable alliance. The author of both hypotheses, W.L. Moran, preferred the first one. Subsequently other scholars supported this solution. Thus, in 2019 D. Charpin compared the Akkadian expression with a scene of concluding alliance between two Asian rulers of the 1st century AD, as described in the “Annals” of Tacitus. According to the Roman historian, the ceremony included binding of the right thumbs of the two contracting rulers. However, no direct proofs from written or iconographic sources of the 2nd millennium BCE were adduced in favor of any of the hypotheses mentioned above. The current paper suggests that a Ugarit stele, RS 7.116, can be drawn into the discussion. The stele dates back to the 14th century BCE and probably depicts a scene of concluding of an alliance: two rulers are standing in front of each other with a high table between them, on which the tablets with treaty are placed, the rulers lean the elbows of one of their hands against the tablets and join or are about to join the fingers of those hands at the height of their heads. That may be a gesture envisaged by W.L. Moran. If it is really so, and the Old Babylonian and Ugarit sources refer to one and the same gesture, then, based on its example, one could speak of a continuity of symbolic and legal practices in Syria and Mesopotamia of the 2nd millennium BCE.