Resumen de Tablet Terminology at Emar: "Conventional" and "Free Format"

Daniel E. Fleming, Sophie Démare-Lafont

• Since 1975, soon after the discovery of cuneiform tablets at Late Bronze Emar, Daniel Arnaud's provisional division of the numerous legal documents into Syrian and Syro-Hittite types has become universal. Recognition of this contrast is essential to any use of this evidence, but the names themselves are a barrier to understand the nature of the distinction. Neither group is broadly Syrian, and no particular Hittite influence informs the Syro-Hittite texts. The so-called Syrian documents are better regarded as a Conventional Middle Euphrates style, aold-fashioned and traditional to a small region near Emar. The others constitute no proper "style" and may be called a Free Format with this range of expression only at Emar.