Abstract
This volume offers a data-driven approach to translation practices in the Iron Age, building on and reinforcing conclusions drawn in Israel and the Assyrians about Deuteronomy and the Akkadian treaty tradition. Translating Empire employs “optimal translation” theory to analyze the Akkadian-Aramaic bilingual inscription from Tell Fekheriyeh, arguing that it exhibits an isomorphic style of translation and only occasional use of dynamic replacement sets. It applies these findings to other proposed instances of Iron Age translation from Akkadian to dialects of Northwest Semitic, including the relationship between Deuteronomy and the Succession Treaty of Esarhaddon and the relationship between the treaty of Aššur-nerari V with Matiʾilu and the Sefire treaties. It argues that the lexical and syntactic changes in these cases diverge so significantly from the model established by Tell Fekheriyeh as to exclude the possibility that they constitute translational relationships.
