The Scaffolding of Our Thoughts <UN> Ancient Magic and Divination Editors Tzvi Abusch Ann K. Guinan Nils P. Heeßel Francesca Rochberg Frans A.M. Wiggermann volume 13 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/amd <UN> The Scaffolding of Our Thoughts Essays on Assyriology and the History of Science in Honor of Francesca Rochberg Edited by C. Jay Crisostomo Eduardo A. Escobar Terri Tanaka Niek Veldhuis leiden | boston <UN> Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Crisostomo, C. Jay, editor. | Escobar, Eduardo A., editor. | Tanaka, Terri, editor. | Veldhuis, Niek, editor. | Rochberg, Francesca, 1952- honouree. Title: The scaffolding of our thoughts : essays on Assyriology and the history of science in honor of Francesca Rochberg / edited by C. Jay Crisostomo, Eduardo A. Escobar, Terri Tanaka, Niek Veldhuis. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2018. | Series: Ancient magic and divination ; volume 13 | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018001101 (print) | LCCN 2018008028 (ebook) | ISBN 9789004363380 (E-book) | ISBN 9789004363373 (hardback : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Science, Ancient. | Assyriology. | Civilization, Assyro-Babylonian. Classification: LCC Q124.95 (ebook) | LCC Q124.95 .S33 2018 (print) | DDC 509.35--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018001101 Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1566-7952 isbn 978-90-04-36337-3 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-36338-0 (e-book) Copyright 2018 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. <UN> Contents Preface vii Abbreviations x Publications of Francesca Rochberg xiii 1 Where Next for “Ancient Science”? 1 G.E.R. Lloyd 2 Crow Omens in Mesopotamia 15 Ann Kessler Guinan 3 Old Signs in New Dress? On the Meaning of Inanna’s Symbol as Sign and “Presence” in Early Babylonian Divination 26 Abraham Winitzer 4 Material, Constellation, Image, God: The Fate of the Chosen Bull according to kar 50 and Duplicates 58 Alan Lenzi 5 A Late Babylonian Compilation Concerning Ritual Timing and Materia Medica 97 Matthew Rutz 6 bm 40187: A Birthnote for Two Named Individuals 113 M. Willis Monroe 7 Converging Fortunes—Links between Celestial and Intestinal Divination 120 Ulla Koch 8 Sumerian Divination 148 C. Jay Crisostomo 9 The Form and History of a Babylonian Prayer to Nabû 169 Tzvi Abusch 10 Translation in the Elevation of Ištar 183 Niek Veldhuis <UN> vi Contents 11 Judean Scribalism, Documentary Epistemology, and the Name a 207יׂשראל Jeffrey L. Cooley 12 Dating eae. When was the Astrological Series Enūma Anu Ellil Created? 253 Nils P. Heeßel 13 Bricoleurs in Babylonia: The Scribes of Enūma Anu Enlil 264 Eduardo A. Escobar and Laurie E. Pearce 14 The Date of the Accession of Nabonidus to the Throne of Babylon: A Reappraisal of the Evidence 287 Grant Frame 15 Intercalary Months in Achaemenid Elamite Administrative Documents from Persepolis 296 Matthew W. Stolper 16 The Importance of Experts: Agents in the Transfer of Astral Knowledge between Hellenistic Mesopotamia and the Greek- speaking World 317 Zoë Misiewicz 17 Diodorus on the Chaldeans 333 Alexander Jones and John Steele 18 Observing Eclipses: An Optical Question in Problemata 15.11 353 Alan C. Bowen 19 Chaldeans on the Nile: Two Egyptian Astronomical Procedure Texts with Babylonian Systems A₁ and A₂ for Mercury 382 Mathieu Ossendrijver and Andreas Winkler 20 Clever Machines and the Gods Who Make Them: The Antikythera Mechanism and the Ancient Imagination 420 Daryn Lehoux Index of Subjects 447 Index of Ancient Texts and words 449 <UN> Preface Now it gives our way of looking at things, and our researches, their form. Perhaps it was once disputed. But perhaps, for unthinkable ages, it has belonged to the scaffolding of our thoughts. l. wittgenstein, On Certainty ⸪ How did historical cultures engage with what we call science? What makes an explanation valid within a given culture? How do texts reflect the world (or worlds)? These questions would seem more appropriate for anthropology or philosophy than Assyriology. Yet they frame and characterize the work of Francesca Rochberg. Francesca Rochberg—Chessie to her friends, students, and colleagues—is an anthropologist of dead civilizations. Her research has focused on celestial divination in cuneiform cultures and what effect those cultures can have on challenging our own conceptions of scientific knowledge. In the 1980s and 1990s, this work took a comparative form and examined how Babylonian astral sciences could be juxtaposed alongside the Greek astronom- ical sources. Underlying these textual analyses were perennial questions of demarcation. What makes knowledge “science”? And what does science look like in pre-modern cultures wherein the “natural world” was not the object of inquiry? Especially in her latest monograph, Before Nature, one can find the anthropological inclination to understand different ways of thinking about the world, to engage with the unfamiliar through cuneiform texts. We found it fitting, therefore, to title this Festschrift dedicated to Chessie Rochberg “The Scaffolding of our Thoughts”—a Wittgenstein quote that she is most fond of citing—for there are few about whom we can say have done more to examine, question, and uphold the scaffolding of Assyriological and ancient scientific inquiry. She improves us all by example, as scholars and in- dividuals. And anyone who has had the good fortune to interact with Chessie would agree that she is in every way approachable. Until, of course, things get technical. In those instances, one should prepare to wrestle with an incisive mind, capable of challenging all pre-conceptions, even within itself. <UN> viii Preface Intellectual openness ranks among her most contagious qualities. And as it usually follows for great thinkers, her openness and curiosity for new inqui- ries couples with her unburdened ability to change her mind. “Canonicity” and “science,” major thema tested in the waters of her research, have undergone significant revision in the last few decades. Indeed, any day now, we should ex- pect a new take on the problem of demarcation (i.e., the problem of where we draw the boundary of “science”). Perhaps more than she realizes, Chessie is an influence on those around her. Before Before Nature, and even before The Heav- enly Writing, Francesca Rochberg was already entrenched in discussions and disciplines well outside of Assyriology. A MacArthur fellow, a former member of the Institute for Advanced Study, a Guggenheim fellow, and an honoree of the American Philosophical Society, Chessie is considered a model humanist and intellectual among her peers. Her achievements, intellectual goals, and her effect on diverse scholarly communities are in themselves a lesson on the limits of disciplinary think- ing in the modern humanities. Her disciplinary breadth is reflected in in her scholarship, particularly in her engagement with the history and philosophy of science, which we honor in the contributions to this volume. The contribu- tions span the diachronic and geographic sphere of the ancient Mediterranean world, from Italy to Egypt to, of course, Babylonia and Assyria. But perhaps more significantly, the contributions reflect Chessie’s interests in matters of ancient knowledge. Following an initial appraisal of ancient “science” by Sir Geoffrey Lloyd, the contributions in the first half explore practices of knowl- edge in Assyriological sources. The second half of the volume focuses specifi- cally on astronomical and astrological spheres of knowledge in the ancient Mediterranean. Finally, to and for her students, Chessie is an exemplary mentor—she guides by example. She inspires her students to increase their intellectual horizons and to read widely. How else is one to broaden one’s wisdom? Or “enlarge his ears” (urappīšu uzunšu), as scribes used to say. In all of this thinking and imita- tion, one ends up becoming a historiographer, writing, as she does, genealogies of ideas, and in the process, ever testing one’s inherited categories and assump- tions. She tends to do all of this, of course, with a light smile and the occasional “if I can do it you can do it.” We remain uncertain as to whether that phrase is a devastating fib or a comically tragic challenge. But of this we are certain: she guides with a “strong hand” (and occasionally, a broken foot). Chessie is a tireless a scholar, an ummânu mudû, and the most generous of mentors. Nevertheless, an attentive warning label should accompany her work—one that needn’t be as mean-spirited as the Assyrian curses which cau- tion that Šamaš will carry off the eyes of a negligent scribe (Šamaš igīšu litbal). <UN> Preface ix Warning labels and ancient curses, after all, can also be thought of as oaths in reverse. Seen in this light, what this volume calls for is a firm acknowledge- ment that we listened to and honor Chessie Rochberg, and that, in the style of an oath, we, the editors and contributors, promise to tread with care in matters of ancient knowledge. Ann Arbor, Michigan Berkeley, California Chicago, Illinois <UN> Abbreviations The abbreviations employed in this volume follow The Assyrian Diction- ary of the University of Chicago (cad U and W 2010) and the Oxford Classical Dictionary 4th edition (2012).