- Assyriology, Ancient Near East, History of Science, History of Astronomy, Ancient Astronomy, History of Medicine, and 15 moreDivination, History of Astrology, Akkadian, Akkadian Literature, Knowledge Transfer, Ashurbanipal Library, Nuzi, Hurrian, The archaeology of Mitanni, Hurrian, Mittanni, Indo-Aryan, Hittites, Ancient Medicine, Sumerian & Akkadian literature, Akkadian and Sumerian literature, and Akkadian Languageedit
E. Leichty – I.L. Finkel – C.B.F. Walker with contributions by T.G. Pinches, A.J. Sachs, D.J. Wiseman, W.G. Lambert, M. Jursa, M.J. Geller, J.C. Fincke, J.J. Taylor, Catalogue of the Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum. Volumes IV-V (dubsar 10; Münster: Zaphon, 2019) [ISBN 978-3-96327-056-7]more
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There is no doubt that Ancient Near Eastern divination is firmly rooted in religion, since all ominous signs were thought to have been sent by gods, and the invocation of omens was embedded in rituals. Yet, the omen compendia display many... more
There is no doubt that Ancient Near Eastern divination is firmly rooted in religion, since all ominous signs were thought to have been sent by gods, and the invocation of omens was embedded in rituals. Yet, the omen compendia display many aspects of a generally scientific nature. In their attempt to note all possible changes to the affected objects and to arrange their observations systematically for reference purposes, the scholars produced texts that resulted in a rather detailed description of the world, be it with respect to geography (the urban or rural environment on earth, or celestial and meteorological phenomena observed in the sky), biology (the outer appearance of the bodies of humans or animals, or the entrails of sheep), sociology (behaviour of people) or others. Based on different divination methods and omen compendia, the question to be discussed during this workshop was whether the scholars had a scientific approach, presented as religion, or whether the Ancient Near Eastern divination should be considered purely religious, and that the term ‘science’ is inappropriate in this context. An additional area to be explored was the cultural system in which divination and religion as well as other cultural conceptions have developed and used to function together. The workshop attracted a large audience, and lively discussions emerged.
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BM 39617* (1880-11-12, 1504) is a fragment from the left part of the obverse of a tablet with all the edges missing that I publish here by courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum. It is written in Late Babylonian ductus. The... more
BM 39617* (1880-11-12, 1504) is a fragment from the left part of the obverse of a tablet with all the edges missing that I publish here by courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum. It is written in Late Babylonian ductus. The catalogue of the British Museum tablet collection, CBTBM 4-5 p. 381, describes the tablets of the 1880-11-12 collection as coming from the excavations of Hormuzd Rassam according to the register; tablet number 1504 is among the numbers said to come from Babylon. CBTBM 4-5 p. 422 lists this tablet wrongly as astronomical. Each line of the preserved text seems to begin with the name of a city followed by an epithet. The text is the duplicate of a text published by Scheil twice in 1897
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I have recently had an opportunity (afforded by a Corona Virus lockdown) to look again at my set of photographs of the Late Babylonian tablets of the British Museum. They have been classified as “astronomical” in the recently published... more
I have recently had an opportunity (afforded by a
Corona Virus lockdown) to look again at my set of photographs of the Late Babylonian tablets of the British
Museum. They have been classified as “astronomical” in the recently published catalogue CBTBM IV-V
(E. Leichty, I. L. Finkel, C. B. F. Walker et al., DUBSAR 10, Münster, 2019). Within those photographs
were two small fragments from Babylon which are part of the same tablet: BM 37675+37868 (+) BM
37859; 1880-6-17, 1432+1625 (+) 1880-6-17, 1616.
Both have a Late Babylonian ductus with text on both sides (BM 37675+37868: 11 and 10 lines,
respectively; BM 37859: 6 and 5 lines, respectively). The tablet itself duplicates the Neo-Babylonian tablet
CBS 16 from Borsippa (see CDLI: P257581), partly duplicated by the Late Babylonian fragment LKU 45
(VAT 14518) from Uruk. All the sources identify various animals with various gods through various mythological
connections. According to its colophon, CBS 16 is the first tablet of the composition SA.A NÍG.GIG
AN.ŠÁR, “The Cat is Taboo to Anšar”, a text Babylonian scholars treated as secret knowledge (mūdû mūdâ
likallim lā mūdû āi īmur). The colophon of BM 37675+37868 (+) BM 37859 identifies it as […pi]r-su
maḫrû(IGI-)ú šá SA.[A NÍG.GIG AN.ŠÁR], “[…] first [se]ction of (the composition) ‘The C[at is taboo to Anšar].”
Corona Virus lockdown) to look again at my set of photographs of the Late Babylonian tablets of the British
Museum. They have been classified as “astronomical” in the recently published catalogue CBTBM IV-V
(E. Leichty, I. L. Finkel, C. B. F. Walker et al., DUBSAR 10, Münster, 2019). Within those photographs
were two small fragments from Babylon which are part of the same tablet: BM 37675+37868 (+) BM
37859; 1880-6-17, 1432+1625 (+) 1880-6-17, 1616.
Both have a Late Babylonian ductus with text on both sides (BM 37675+37868: 11 and 10 lines,
respectively; BM 37859: 6 and 5 lines, respectively). The tablet itself duplicates the Neo-Babylonian tablet
CBS 16 from Borsippa (see CDLI: P257581), partly duplicated by the Late Babylonian fragment LKU 45
(VAT 14518) from Uruk. All the sources identify various animals with various gods through various mythological
connections. According to its colophon, CBS 16 is the first tablet of the composition SA.A NÍG.GIG
AN.ŠÁR, “The Cat is Taboo to Anšar”, a text Babylonian scholars treated as secret knowledge (mūdû mūdâ
likallim lā mūdû āi īmur). The colophon of BM 37675+37868 (+) BM 37859 identifies it as […pi]r-su
maḫrû(IGI-)ú šá SA.[A NÍG.GIG AN.ŠÁR], “[…] first [se]ction of (the composition) ‘The C[at is taboo to Anšar].”
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The collection of Babylonian tablets from the British Museum’s Middle East Department holds many tablets and fragments of astrological and astronomical contents from the Late Babylonian period, see the catalogue CBTBM IV-V (DUBSAR 10,... more
The collection of Babylonian tablets from the British Museum’s Middle East Department holds many tablets and fragments of astrological and astronomical contents from the Late Babylonian period, see the catalogue CBTBM IV-V (DUBSAR 10, 2019). Many of those fragments still await identification. One of these pieces can now be added to the series MUL.APIN: BM 35654 (Sp. III 167) is a fragment from the obverse of a Late Babylonian tablet from Babylon with text of lines 17-32 of the first tablet’s first column.
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EAE 20, edited by Rochberg-Halton 1988: 174-229, is the tablet with the most detailed description of lunar eclipse omens of the series and unlike other omen tablets it is thoroughly recorded in two Recensions. The omens most probably drew... more
EAE 20, edited by Rochberg-Halton 1988: 174-229, is the tablet with the most detailed description of lunar eclipse omens of the series and unlike other omen tablets it is thoroughly recorded in two Recensions. The omens most probably drew on sources from the second millennium BCE with only minor revision, since it comprises some peculiarities that are not common in the first millennium BCE. First, it has the intercalary month nisannu (I.a) instead of the intercalary addaru (XII.a). Second, it has the term šurinnu that refers to the appearance of the moon during both one of his phases and his eclipse (see 4. Excursus: The šurinnu (ŠU.NIR) of the moon). The explanations for šurinnu provided by a Late Babylonian commentary from Uruk for the phenomenon that Venus entered “in his šurinnu” inside the moon (horn; the black in the middle of the moon; the ominous radiation of the eclipse) are too vague to define its exact meaning. Since šurinnu is also used as general term for a divine emblem, it most likely refers to a distinctively observable characteristic for the moon, which would be his crescent. The three terms for phases of the waxing moon (crescent, kidney and crown of glory) have no parallel for the waning one. Therefore šurinnu more likely refers to the waning moon, and most likely to the last phase of the cycle, shortly before the moon disappears and before new moon appears, or shortly before the eclipse was completed. The completion of the cycle of lunar phases or the progress of eclipsing might even have symbolised the time when the moon was most powerful as an ominous sign (see the commentary: ominous radiation of the eclipse).
In this article three new fragments of EAE 20 are published, two from Nineveh and one from Late Babylonian Babylonia.
In this article three new fragments of EAE 20 are published, two from Nineveh and one from Late Babylonian Babylonia.
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The ziqpu-star lists give intervals for time and distance between stars that culminate one after the other over the course of the night above the head of an observer in the northern part of the sky (the Path of Enlil). These lists are... more
The ziqpu-star lists give intervals for time and distance between stars that culminate one after the other over the course of the night above the head of an observer in the northern part of the sky (the Path of Enlil). These lists are well known from the Late Babylonian period. To date, only one fragmentary exemplar from Nineveh dating to
the Neo-Assyrian period is known (K. 9794 [CT 26 pl. 50], parallel AO 6478 [TCL 6 21] from Late Babylonian Uruk). Nevertheless the series MUL.APIN and other Neo-Assyrian period sources show that the ziqpu-stars were used in this period to tell time at night (see STEELE 2015: 127–28). While searching for material for our project on The Great Star List and Related Texts, we identified yet another Neo-Assyrian fragment from Nineveh with the text of a ziqpu-star list (81-2-4, 413). This can now be added to the sources studied in STEELE 2015.
the Neo-Assyrian period is known (K. 9794 [CT 26 pl. 50], parallel AO 6478 [TCL 6 21] from Late Babylonian Uruk). Nevertheless the series MUL.APIN and other Neo-Assyrian period sources show that the ziqpu-stars were used in this period to tell time at night (see STEELE 2015: 127–28). While searching for material for our project on The Great Star List and Related Texts, we identified yet another Neo-Assyrian fragment from Nineveh with the text of a ziqpu-star list (81-2-4, 413). This can now be added to the sources studied in STEELE 2015.
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The most spectacular celestial event to be observed during the night is the lunar eclipse. Slowly, a dark shadow slides over the full moon, and the nightly source for light gradually ceases. When the moon is completely covered, no more... more
The most spectacular celestial event to be observed during the night is the lunar eclipse. Slowly, a dark shadow slides over the full moon, and the nightly source for light gradually ceases. When the moon is completely covered, no more moonlight lightens the night. The moon god has disappeared. All of a sudden, the shadow moves on and eventually leaves the moon uncovered and shining as usual. Because of the impression a lunar eclipse made on people, distinct rituals were performed to make the moon reappear so that the world order would be re-established (e.g. BRM 4, 6, see BRM 4 pp. 12-17). In order to be prepared well ahead for such events, lunar eclipses have also been the subject of predictions in various other divination methods from the Old Babylonian period onwards (Khait 2014, 79-82). And since lunar eclipses can generally be watched twice or thrice during a lifetime, people and especially astronomers began to observe the exact movement of the shadow progressing over the moon's disk as well as the time the eclipse begins and ends. Naturally, just as with every other celestial event, lunar eclipses were considered ominous signs and individual occurrences were connected with specific predictions. Because of the frequency of lunar eclipses omens referred to them are found on the earliest omen texts from the Old Babylonian period (Rochberg 2006; Fincke 2016, 114-115). The omen series enūma ānu enlil (EAE) devoted eight tablets, EAE 15-22, to lunar eclipses. Francesca Rochberg-Halton edited these tablets in 1988. On the basis of this edition more fragments can be identified in the various collections of cuneiform tablets. In this article, more duplicates of EAE lunar eclipse tablets from both the Koujunjik collection and the so-called collection of Babylonian Tablet from the British Museum for the tablets EAE 15-19 will be presented
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Copy of the text edited in NABU 2014/1, 55 no. 34 "Another Fragment of MUL.APIN from Babylonia (BM 43871)"
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This article reconsiders the different numbering systems attested for the series of celestial and meteorological omens called enūma anu enlil (EAE) and suggests possible reasons for these differences. The section of this series with the... more
This article reconsiders the different numbering systems attested for the series of celestial and meteorological omens called enūma anu enlil (EAE) and suggests possible reasons for these differences. The section of this series with the most divergent tablet numbers concerns the solar eclipse omens. An overview on the structure of this section, which generally covers five tablets, is given. In addition evidence is given for correcting the reading of the incipit of the fifth EAE solar eclipse tablet, which has been previously wrongly reconstructed. The solar eclipse section of EAE tablets can then be seen as the basis for distinguishing five different recensions of the series. Three of them are explicitly said to come from Babylon, and they all exhibit a different numbering of the tablets concerned.
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A sequence of omens has puzzled Assyriologists since 1866, when Henry C. Rawlinson published the first copy of these peculiar divinatory texts. The omens have the structure DIŠ MUL ana . . . GUR, “If a star turns into . . .”, where the... more
A sequence of omens has puzzled Assyriologists since 1866, when Henry C. Rawlinson published the first copy of these peculiar divinatory texts. The omens have the structure DIŠ MUL ana . . . GUR, “If a star turns into . . .”, where the object into which the star changes can be an animal, metal, stone or some other item. Such a change has been held to belong to the field of dreams or, more generally, to terrestrial events rather than to astronomy. In fact, however, these omens refer to a specific celestial phenomenon, the transformation of a “star” into a meteorite that can be picked up from the ground, as can also be seen in the phrasing of the corresponding namburbi-ritual, which some scribes appended to their recension of this omen sequence.
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76) BM 33406 (Rm. 3, 83), a duplicate of text Funck 3 (Köcher, AfO 18, 72, 76 text B), šumma ālu tablet 85-When studying the Late Babylonian omen tablet BM 33406 I noticed that it duplicates the tablet Funck 3 published by Franz Köcher in... more
76) BM 33406 (Rm. 3, 83), a duplicate of text Funck 3 (Köcher, AfO 18, 72, 76 text B), šumma ālu tablet 85-When studying the Late Babylonian omen tablet BM 33406 I noticed that it duplicates the tablet Funck 3 published by Franz Köcher in AfO 18 (1957). Funck 3 is a Neo-Babylonian tablet (CAD M II 239b, P 239a and T 257b understands it as Old Babylonian while CAD P 155a; K 248a; S 34b, 56a and 404a as Standard Babylonian) from the private collection of Pastor Adolphe Funck from Roubaix near Lille. Its location was unknown already in 1957 (see AfO 18: 62 note 2, and Ernst F. Weidner, AfO 21 (1966) 46b). Köcher knew of it from a copy made by Friedrich Delitzsch in 1874 (published AfO 18: 72) when he was making his first original copies of cuneiform tablets that were later considered "verständlicherweise nicht ganz einwandfrei" (Weidner, AfO 21: 46b). Still, both Funck 3 and the duplicate BM 33406 "missed" the same signs in one word in omens 31 and 32, which means that either both go back to the same defective exemplar, or the exemplar of BM 33406 goes back to Funck 3, and Delitzsch's copy was better than previously thought.
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A search of the Nuzi texts for tablets referring to apprenticeships has produced five tablets. The professions concerned are the “profession of a weaver” (išparūtu, JEN 572, HSS XIX 44), the “trade of a barber” (gallābūtu, EN 9/3, 87),... more
A search of the Nuzi texts for tablets referring to apprenticeships has produced five tablets. The professions concerned are the “profession of a weaver” (išparūtu, JEN 572, HSS XIX 44), the “trade of a barber” (gallābūtu, EN 9/3, 87), the “trade of a smith” (nappāḫūtu, HSS XIX 59), and the trade about which a “silver smith” (nappāḫu ša KÙ.BABBAR, EN 9/1, 257) would have instructed his apprentice. These four contracts will be examined and compared with the Neo- and Late Babylonian apprenticeship contracts.
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At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century tablets from chance finds at Yorġān Tepe (Nuzi) and Kirkūk (Arrapḫa) prior to the first excavations at Nuzi in 1925 entered the tablet collections of various museums all over... more
At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century tablets from chance finds at Yorġān
Tepe (Nuzi) and Kirkūk (Arrapḫa) prior to the first excavations at Nuzi in 1925 entered the tablet collections of
various museums all over the world. More than 360 of such Nuzi tablets, dating roughly from the mid 15th to
the mid 14th century BCE, have been acquired by the British Museum (henceforth BM) in several individual
purchases. Three more Nuzi tablets have now been identified at the Museum and are presented here. One is a
list of household personnel (BM 86005), mostly female, receiving wool allotments, and includes some
previously unattested Hurrian female personal names. Two are fragments of legal documents, one from the
lower right (BM 95280) and the other from the reverse (BM 95463) of their respective tablets. They bear seal
impressions and the names of the witnesses sealing the contracts. A letter (BM 103203) is also presented here.
It shows both typical Nuzi features (the addressee has a Hurrian name) and Middle Assyrian characteristics.
Most importantly, it is dated according to Assyrian custom with a līmu, but one that could be either an
unusual writing (the scribe may have had a Hurrian background) of a known līmu from the reign of Aššuruballiṭ
I (Kidin-kūbe), or a new līmu dating to the 14th century BCE (Kitte-kūbe or Qītī-kūbe).
Tepe (Nuzi) and Kirkūk (Arrapḫa) prior to the first excavations at Nuzi in 1925 entered the tablet collections of
various museums all over the world. More than 360 of such Nuzi tablets, dating roughly from the mid 15th to
the mid 14th century BCE, have been acquired by the British Museum (henceforth BM) in several individual
purchases. Three more Nuzi tablets have now been identified at the Museum and are presented here. One is a
list of household personnel (BM 86005), mostly female, receiving wool allotments, and includes some
previously unattested Hurrian female personal names. Two are fragments of legal documents, one from the
lower right (BM 95280) and the other from the reverse (BM 95463) of their respective tablets. They bear seal
impressions and the names of the witnesses sealing the contracts. A letter (BM 103203) is also presented here.
It shows both typical Nuzi features (the addressee has a Hurrian name) and Middle Assyrian characteristics.
Most importantly, it is dated according to Assyrian custom with a līmu, but one that could be either an
unusual writing (the scribe may have had a Hurrian background) of a known līmu from the reign of Aššuruballiṭ
I (Kidin-kūbe), or a new līmu dating to the 14th century BCE (Kitte-kūbe or Qītī-kūbe).
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BM 76829, a fragment from the mid-section of a small tablet from Sippar in Late Babylonian script, preserves what remains of two new unparalleled pieces from the cuneiform astronomical repertoire relating to the zodiac. The text on the... more
BM 76829, a fragment from the mid-section of a small tablet from Sippar in Late Babylonian script, preserves what remains of two new unparalleled pieces from the cuneiform astronomical repertoire relating to the zodiac. The text on the obverse assigns numerical values to sectors assigned to zodiacal signs, while the text on the reverse seems to relate zodiacal signs with specific days or intervals of days. The system used on the obverse also presents a new way of representing the concept of numerical 'zero' in cuneiform, and for the first time in cuneiform, a system for dividing the horizon into six arcs in the east and six arcs in the west akin to that used in the Astronomical Book of Enoch. Both the obverse and the reverse may describe the periodical courses of the sun and moon, in a similar way to what is found in astronomical texts from Qumran, thus adding to our knowledge of the scientific relationship between the two cultures.
Publication of two Middle Assyrian tablets (BM 103200, BM 103207).
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INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP PISA, 11th December 2017 Workshop locations: Chiesa di Sant’Eufrasia and Seminar Room Sal-1 (first floor), Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere, via dei Mille 19, Pisa (Italy). Ancient texts on a... more
INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP
PISA, 11th December 2017
Workshop locations: Chiesa di Sant’Eufrasia and Seminar Room Sal-1 (first floor),
Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere, via dei Mille 19, Pisa (Italy).
Ancient texts on a variety of media from Ancient Egypt, the Near East, and the Eastern Mediterranean constitute the oldest written record available, and provide unique insight into the social, religious, economic and private life of people at the dawn of history. In spite of the fact that the various text media are inscribed artefacts, they have often been treated as mere texts, and the inscription studied with usually slight regard for its artefactual context.
The last decade has fortunately witnessed a growing interest in the materiality and other aspects of ancient text media beyond the basic text message – concurrent with the appearance of new scientific analytical tools and digital recording systems.
In this workshop we want to explore further the insights to be gained from these new research approaches and to promote a holistic view of inscribed media, crossing the data coming from both archaeological and textual approaches, in an interdisciplinary context.
The workshop aims to gather a small number of experts on Ancient Egyptian, Near Eastern, and Eastern Mediterranean, under a comparative lens (Mesoamerica and anthropology), to present and discuss some recent trends and developments in study of the "materiality" of these scripts. It will be preparatory to a larger conference on the same subject which is planned for early 2019.
PISA, 11th December 2017
Workshop locations: Chiesa di Sant’Eufrasia and Seminar Room Sal-1 (first floor),
Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere, via dei Mille 19, Pisa (Italy).
Ancient texts on a variety of media from Ancient Egypt, the Near East, and the Eastern Mediterranean constitute the oldest written record available, and provide unique insight into the social, religious, economic and private life of people at the dawn of history. In spite of the fact that the various text media are inscribed artefacts, they have often been treated as mere texts, and the inscription studied with usually slight regard for its artefactual context.
The last decade has fortunately witnessed a growing interest in the materiality and other aspects of ancient text media beyond the basic text message – concurrent with the appearance of new scientific analytical tools and digital recording systems.
In this workshop we want to explore further the insights to be gained from these new research approaches and to promote a holistic view of inscribed media, crossing the data coming from both archaeological and textual approaches, in an interdisciplinary context.
The workshop aims to gather a small number of experts on Ancient Egyptian, Near Eastern, and Eastern Mediterranean, under a comparative lens (Mesoamerica and anthropology), to present and discuss some recent trends and developments in study of the "materiality" of these scripts. It will be preparatory to a larger conference on the same subject which is planned for early 2019.