397. From this it appears
that it must designate a part of the body which could acquire a wider
significance so as to be used as a synonym for "totality," since it
appears in a list of equivalent for Dur = _nap-ha-ru_, "totality,"
_ka-lu-ma_, "all," _a-bu-un-na-tum e-si-im-tum_, "bony structure," and
_kul-la-tum_, "totality" (_CT_ XII, 10, 7-10). Christian shows that
it may be the "navel," which could well acquire a wider significance
for the body in general; but we may go a step further and specify
the "umbilical cord" (tentatively suggested also by Christian) as
the primary meaning, then the "navel," and from this the "body" in
general. The structure of the umbilical cord as a series of strands
would account for designating it by a plural form _abunn?ti_, as
also for the fact that one could speak of a right and left side of
the _appunn?ti_. To distinguish between the "umbilical cord" and the
"navel," the ideograph Dur (the common meaning of which is _riksu_,
"bond" [Delitzsch, _Sumer. Glossar._, p. 150]), was used for the
former, while for the latter Li Dur was employed, though the reading
in Akkadian in both cases was the same. The expression "with (or at)
the cutting of his umbilical cord" would mean, therefore, "from
his birth"--since the cutting of the cord which united the child
with the mother marks the beginning of the separate life.
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