BABYLONIAN DIVINATORY TEXTS CHIEFLY IN THE SCHO/ YEN COLLECTION

The publication of CORNELL UNIVERSITY STUDIES IN ASSYRIOLOGY AND SUMEROLOGY Volume 18 was made possible thanks to a generous subvention from an anonymous donor

Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology (CUSAS)

Volume 18

MANUSCRIPTS IN THE SCHO/YEN COLLECTION

CUNEIFORM TEXTS VII Babylonian Divinatory Texts Chiefly in the Schøyen Collection

by A. R. George with an appendix of material from the papers of W. G. Lambert†

CDL Press Bethesda, Maryland 2013

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication George, A. R. Babylonian divinatory texts chiefly in the Schøyen Collection : with an appendix of material from the papers of W.G. Lambert / by A.R. George. pages cm. – (Cornell University studies in Assyriology and Sumerology (CUSAS) ; Volume 18) ISBN 978-1-934309-47-6 (alk. paper) 1. Schøyen Collection. 2. —History—To 1500. 3.—History—To 1500. 4.Assyro-Baby- lonian religion. 5. Assyro-Babylonian literature. I. Lambert, W. G. (Wilfred G.) II. Title.

BF1762.G46 2013 133.30935—dc23

Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF * * * David I. Owen (Cornell University) ___

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE * * * Robert K. Englund (University of California, Los Angeles) Wolfgang Heimpel (University of California, Berkeley) Rudolf H. Mayr (Lawrenceville, New Jersey) Manuel Molina (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid) Francesco Pomponio (University of Messina) Walther Sallaberger (University of Munich) Marten Stol (Leiden) Karel Van Lerberghe (University of Leuven) Aage Westenholz (University of Copenhagen)

ISBN 9781934309476

Copyright 2013. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that copying permitted in Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publisher, CDL Press, P.O. Box 34454, Bethesda, Md. 20827.

Table of Contents

Statement of Provenance (Ownership History), by Martin Schøyen ...... vii Series Editor’s Preface, by David I. Owen ...... ix Acknowledgments ...... xi Abbreviations ...... xii Introduction ...... xv Catalogue ...... xxiii Concordances ...... xxvii I. Nos. 1–3. Old Babylonian Divination Prayers ...... 1 II. Nos. 4–6. Old Babylonian Extispicy Reports ...... 13 III. Nos. 7–11. Old Babylonian Extispicy Compendia...... 27 IV. Nos. 12–16. Other Old Babylonian Lists from Southern Mesopotamia ...... 49 V. Nos. 17–21. Late Old Babylonian Omen Lists from Tigun⁄num ...... 101 VI. Nos. 22–32. Divinatory Texts from the Sealand ...... 129 VII. Nos. 33–34. Middle Babylonian Omen Lists ...... 229 VIII. Nos. 35–36. Standard Babylonian Omen Lists ...... 259 IX. Nos. 37–42. Divinatory Models and Related Objects ...... 273 X. No. 43. An Unusual List of Sheep and Goats ...... 281 Appendix. Nos. I–XVII Further Divinatory Texts from Tigun⁄num, from the Papers of the Late W. G. Lambert ...... 285 References ...... 321 Indexes ...... 337 Cuneiform Texts ...... Plates I–CVIII

v

Statement of Provenance (OWNERSHIP HISTORY)

The holdings of pictographic and cuneiform 14. Henderson Collection, Boston, tablets, seals, and incantation bowls in the Massachusetts (1930s–50s) Schøyen Collection were collected in the late 15. Pottesman Collection, London (1904–78) 1980s and 1990s and derive from a great variety 16. Geuthner Collection, France (1960s–80s) of collections and sources. It would not have 17. Harding Smith Collection, UK (1893– been possible to collect so many items, of such 1922) major textual importance, if it had not been 18.Rev. Dr. W. F. Williams, Mosul ( 1850–60) based on the endeavor of some of the greatest ca. collectors in earlier times. Collections that once These collections are the source of almost held tablets, seals, or incantation bowls now in all the tablets, seals, and incantation bowls. Oth- the Schøyen Collection are: er items were acquired through the auction houses Christie’s and Sotheby’s, where in some 1. Institute of Antiquity and Christianity, cases the names of their former owners were not Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, California (1970–94) revealed. The sources of the oldest collections, such 2. Erlenmeyer Collection and Foundation, as Amherst, Harding Smith, and Cumberland Basel (ca 1935–88) Clark, were antiquities dealers who acquired 3. Cumberland Clark Collection, tablets in the Near East in the 1890s to 1930s. Bournemouth, UK (1920s–1941) During this period many tens of thousands of 4. Lord Amherst of Hackney, UK (1894– tablets came on the market, in the summers of 1909) 1893 and 1894 alone some 30,000 tablets. While 5. Crouse Collection, Hong Kong and New many of these were bought by museums, others England (1920s–80s) were acquired by private collectors. Some of 6. Dring Collection, Surrey, UK (1911–90) the older private collections were the source of 7. Rihani collection, Irbid (ca. 1935) and some of the later collections. For instance, a Amman, Jordan (before 1965–88) and large number of the tablets in the Crouse col- London (1988–) lection came from the Cumberland Clark, 8. Lindgren Collection, San Francisco, Kohanim, Amherst, and Simmonds collections, California (1965–85) among others. The Claremont tablets came 9. Rosenthal Collection, San Francisco, from the Schaeffer collection, and the Dring California (1953–88) tablets came from the Harding Smith collec- 10. Kevorkian Collection, New York (ca 1930– tion. 59) and Fund (1960–77) In most cases the original findspots of tablets 11. Kohanim Collection, Tehran, Paris and that came on the market in the 1890s to 1930s London (1959–85) are unknown, like great parts of the holdings of 12. Simmonds Collection, UK (1944–87) most major museums in Europe and the United States. The general original archaeological con- 13. Schaeffer Collection, Collège de France, Zürich (1950s) text of the tablets and seals is the libraries and

vii

viii Babylonian Divinatory Texts archives of numerous temples, palaces, schools, until all texts in both private and public collec- houses and administrative centers in Sumer, tions have been published and compared with Elam, Babylonia, Assyria, and various city states each other. in present-day Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. Martin Schøyen Many details of this context will not be known

MANUSCRIPTS IN THE SCHØYEN COLLECTION

CUNEIFORM TEXTS

Vol. I. Jöran Friberg, A Remarkable Collection of Babylonian Mathematical Texts Sources and Studies in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences New York: Springer, 2007 Vol. II. Bendt Alster, Sumerian Proverbs in the Schøyen Collection Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology 2 Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 2007 Vol. III. Stephanie Dalley, Babylonian Tablets from the First Sealand Dynasty in the Schøyen Collection Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology 9 Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 2009 Vol. IV. A. R. George, Babylonian Literary Texts in the Schøyen Collection Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology 10 Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 2009 Vol. V. Miguel Civil, The Lexical Texts in the Schøyen Collection Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology 12 Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 2010 Vol. VI. A. R. George, Cuneiform Royal Inscriptions and Related Texts in the Schøyen Collection with contributions by M. Civil, G. Frame, P. Steinkeller, F. Vallat, K. Volk, M. Weeden, and C. Wilcke Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology 17 Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 2011 Vol. VII. A. R. George, Babylonian Divinatory Texts Chiefly in the Schøyen Collection Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology 18 Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 2013

Other volumes in preparation

Series Editor’s Preface

The cultural legacy of Mesopotamia continues stream, southern Babylonia, from where most to be more broadly illuminated with the sev- of our sources have emerged until now. enth volume from the Schøyen Collection George’s publication includes selections from (MSCT 7 = CUSAS 18), once again from the the lamented Wilfred Lambert’s Nachlass. pen of Andrew George. With its publication These particularly welcome additions preserve the CUSAS and Schøyen series continue to for posterity Lambert’s meticulous work, along function as the major vehicles for the preserva- with those texts he carefully recorded and on tion and dissemination of an astonishing variety which he had begun an extended commentary. of new sources written in Sumerian and Akka- In keeping with the general format of this series, dian/Babylonian. These new sources enhance all texts are provided with accompanying full greatly our understanding of Mesopotamian apparati, which include transliterations, transla- history, economics, religion, law, culture, and tions, commentaries, copies, and photos so that language from the Archaic and eventually scholars and students may continue to reliably through the Neo-Babylonian periods, thereby study and elaborate these new sources for covering most of Mesopotamia’s historical peri- Mesopotamian civilization. In addition, photos ods. No series in recent history can compare of most tablets also may be accessed and with the speed and scope of publication that the enlarged for more detailed study at http:// CUSAS series is providing. cuneiform.library.cornell.edu/collections and The recent publication of the first Sealand the CDLI. Dynasty economic records by Stephanie Dalley Much continues to be written publicly and (CUSAS 9 = MSCT 3) placed the Sealand spoken privately against the publication of texts dynasty and two of its rulers on firm historical without excavated context. In spite of the footings for the first time. The current volume, incontrovertible importance of the thousands containing fifty-five previously unpublished of texts that have been published so far in this divination texts, some entirely new to the series and the many studies that have been genre, opens a window on what must have appearing, and will continue to appear, based been a rich and varied literary tradition that on their availability, there still are those indi- flourished during that dynasty. Divination texts viduals and organizations that simply refuse to represent one of the more difficult and intrigu- admit that their views and imposed regulations ing literary genres from Mesopotamia and have done more harm than good. Rather than George’s masterful editions and analyses of the encouraging the recording, preservation, dis- astonishing variety of new divination sources semination, and publication of unprovenanced from the Sealand dynasty and from the other- texts, they choose rather to ignore or suppress wise unidentified locations of the northern them. Those who retain the baseless position Babylonian city of Tigun⁄num and the southern that texts without excavated context have little Babylonian city of D›r-AbieÍuÓ add much to value hardly warrant even a brief response. The this genre. They reveal the existence of differ- input and international cooperation of scholars ent, non-canonical, traditions outside main- for this and other volumes are sufficient indica-

ix

x Babylonian Divinatory Texts

tions of the widespread support of the CUSAS Andrew George for the astonishing effort that and MSCT publications and a rejection of the has gone into the preparation of this and previ- policies of those journal and book editors who ous CUSAS and MSCT volumes, to Renee prefer to impose censorship and otherwise Gallery Kovacs for her continuous help and choose to suppress knowledge. advice, and to the anonymous donor, who pro- Special thanks are due to Martin Schøyen, vided the generous subsidy that made this large who continues to open his remarkable collec- and handsome volume available at a moderate tion to scholars for study and publication, to price.

David I. Owen Curator of Tablet Collections Jonathan and Jeannette Rosen Ancient Near Eastern Studies Seminar Department of Near Eastern Studies Cornell University, Ithaca, New York March 17, 2013

Acknowledgments

This book presents the results of a study of for- Many of the texts presented here were read ty-three cuneiform tablets undertaken in Nor- in seminar with colleagues and students, espe- way, England and America during the years cially at the London Cuneiforum in SOAS but 2005–2012. The research was underpinned by a also at the Department of Culture Studies and grant from the British Academy and a research Oriental Languages, University of Oslo. The allowance provided by the Faculty of Languag- contribution of these seminars to my under- es and Cultures at the School of Oriental and standing of the texts has been substantial and I African Studies, University of London. In Nor- express my gratitude to those who accompa- way I enjoyed as ever the generous hospitality nied me in these readings. My work on the and friendship of Elizabeth Sørenssen, Martin Tigun⁄num tablets treated in Chapter V has Schøyen and Jens Braarvig. In America I was benefited substantially from reading fifteen tab- twice a visitor to the Jonathan and Jeannette lets in Japan from transliterations prepared by Rosen Ancient Near Eastern Studies Seminar of Professor Akio Tsukimoto of Rikkyo Univer- Cornell University, and the pampered guest of sity, Tokyo, with whom Dr. Daisuke Shibata of David and Susan Owen in Ithaca and of Frank Tsukuba University kindly put me in touch. I and Renee Kovacs in California. Renee Kovacs record here my appreciation of Tsukimoto’s initiated my interest in the Schøyen Collection’s generosity in sharing his work with me, and my omen texts and was also of enormous help in thanks for his own comments on my editions of facilitating my study of the other tablets pub- texts Nos. 18–21. Dr. Abraham Winitzer of lished here. To all these institutions and individ- Notre Dame University very kindly read uals, and to the anonymous collector who through the editions of the Old Babylonian allowed me access to those other tablets and sup- omen lists in Chapter III and made some very ported my work on them, I am deeply grateful. helpful observations. Faults that remain rest Photographs of tablets in the Schøyen Col- with the author alone. lection were prepared by agents of the Schøyen I am also grateful to Professor Stefan Maul Collection and the Norwegian Institute for of the University of Heidelberg for sending me Palaeography and Historical Philology, by a draft of his unpublished chapter, Die Inspek- Klaus Wagensonner of the University of tion der Opfervögeln, and to Dr. Erle Leichty Oxford and by the author, and are reproduced of the University of Pennsylvania for sharing by kind permission of Martin Schøyen and Jens with me his work on two Cornell tablets. Lastly Braarvig. Images of most of the tablets in the I record my indebtedness to David Owen, and anonymous collection were made at the Rosen not only because he has accepted into his beau- Seminar, Cornell University, and are published tifully produced CUSAS series this latest install- here by generous leave of David I. Owen, ment of cuneiform texts from the Schøyen Curator of the Tablet Collections. I am indebt- Collection. His persistence and leadership in ed to Robert Englund of the University of Cal- effecting the publication of the dispersed intel- ifornia, Los Angeles, for giving these images a lectual and historical legacy of ancient Meso- home online at the website of the Cuneiform potamia earn the admiration of all those who Digital Library Initiative. value knowledge. A.R.G. Buckhurst Hill March 2013 xi

Abbreviations

AbB Altbabylonische Briefe BAM F. Köcher, Die babylonisch-assyrische III = R. Frankena, Briefe aus der Medizin in Texten und Untersuchun- Leidener Sammlung. Leiden, 1968 gen. 6 vols. Berlin, 1963–80 VII = F. R. Kraus, Briefe aus dem BBR = Zimmern 1901 British Museum. Leiden, 1977 BE The Babylonian Expedition of the IX = M. Stol, Letters from Yale. University of Pennsylvania, Series Leiden, 1981 A: Cuneiform Texts X = F. R. Kraus, Briefe aus kleineren VI/1 = H. Ranke, Babylonian Legal westeuropäischen Sammlungen. and Business Documents from the Leiden, 1985 Time of the First Dynasty of XI = Stol 1986 Babylon. Philadelphia, 1906 XIV = K. R. Veenhof, Letters in the BM Tablet signature, British Museum, Louvre. Leiden, 2005 London ABRT J. A. Craig, Assyrian and Babylonian BRM Babylonian Records in the Library Religious Texts. Assyriologische of J. Pierpont Morgan Bibliothek 13. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1895– IV = Clay, 1923 97 CAD The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental ACh C. Virolleaud, L’astrologie chaldéenne, Institute of the University of Chicago. le livre intitulé “enuma (Anu) iliBêl,” Chicago, 1956–2010 publié, transcrit et traduit CBS Catalogue of the Babylonian IÍtar = ACh fasc. 3 and 7, Paris, 1908 Section, tablet signature, University and 1909 Museum, Philadelphia Sîn = ACh fasc. 1 and 5. Paris, 1908 CCT Cuneiform Texts from and 1909 Cappadocian Tablets in the British Supp. = ACh fasc. 9 and 10. Paris, Museum 1910 4 = S. Smith, CCT 4. London, 1927 AHw W. von Soden, Akkadisches CDLI Cuneiform Digital Library Handwörterbuch. 3 vols. Wiesbaden, Initiative, http://cdli.ucla.edu/ 1965–81 CT Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian AO Antiquités orientales, tablet Tablets, &c, in the British Museum signature, Musée du Louvre 3 = L. W. King, CT 3. London, 1898 ARM Archives royales de Mari 4 = T. G. Pinches, CT 4. London, V = G. Dossin, Lettres. TCL 26. 1898 Paris, 1951 8 = T. G. Pinches, CT 8. London, VI = J.-R. Kupper, Lettres. TCL 27. 1899 Paris, 1953 18 = R. C. Thompson, CT 18. 26/I = Durand 1988 London, 1904 Bab Field number, excavations at 20 = R. C. Thompson, CT 20. Babylon on behalf of the Deutsche London, 1904 Orient-Gesellschaft, 1899–1917 28 = P. S. P. Handcock, CT 28.

xii Abbreviations xiii

London, 1910 K Kuyunjik, tablet signature, British 30 = P. S. P. Handcock, CT 30. Museum, London London, 1911 KAR E. Ebeling, Keilschrifttexte aus Assur 31 = P. S. P. Handcock, CT 31. religiösen Inhalts. 2 vols. Wissenschaft- London, 1911 liche Veröffentlichungen der 38 = C. J. Gadd, CT 38. London, Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 28, 1925 34. Leipzig, 1915–23 39 = C. J. Gadd, CT 39. London, KBo Keilschrifttexte aus Boghazköi 1926 I = H. Figulla and E. Weidner, KBo 40 = C. J. Gadd, CT 40. London, I. Wissenschaftliche Veröffent- 1927 lichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 30, 1. 41 = C. J. Gadd, CT 41. London, 1931 Leipzig, 1916 Keilschrifturkunden aus Boghazköi 44 = T. G. Pinches, Miscellaneous KUB Texts. London, 1963 IV = E. Weidner, KUB 4. Berlin, 1922 51 = C. B. F. Walker, Miscellaneous Texts. London, 1972 37 = F. Köcher, Literarische Texte in . Berlin, 1953 CTN Cuneiform Texts from Nimrud akkadischer Sprache IV = D. J. Wiseman and J. A. Black, LB Tablet signature, de Liagre Böhl Collection, Leiden Literary Texts from the Temple of Nabû. London, 1996 LKA E. Ebeling, Literarische Keilschrifttexte . Berlin, 1953 DN Divine Name aus Assur MAH Tablet signature, Musée d’Art et EA J. A. Knudtzon, O. Weber and E. d’Histoire, Geneva Ebeling, Die El-Amarna-Tafeln. Vorderasiatische Bibliothek 2. MB Middle Babylonian Leipzig, 1915 MDP Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse, EAE En›ma Anu Ellil, astrological-omen etc. series 57 = Labat 1974 Emar VI D. Arnaud, Recherches au pays d’AÍtata MLC Tablet signature, J. Pierpont Morgan 4 = Arnaud 1987 Library collection, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. Erm. Tablet signature, State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg MS Manuscript Schøyen, object signature, Schøyen Collection, Oslo GAG W. von Soden, Grundriss der and London akkadischen Grammatik. 2nd edn. Analecta Orientalia 33/47. Rome, MSCT Manuscripts in the Schøyen 1969, 3rd edn 1995 Collection GEN GilgameÍ, Enkidu and the 6 = A. R. George et al., Cuneiform Royal Netherworld, Sumerian literary Inscriptions and Related Texts in the composition Sch¶yen Collection. Cornell Univer- sity Studies in Assyriology and Gilg. Epic of GilgameÍ, Babylonian Sumerology 17. Bethesda, Md. narrative poem Msk Field number, excavations at Mes- HISM Object signature, Hirayama Ikuo keneh, Syria Silkroad Museum, Yamanashi, Japan Materials for the Sumerian Lexicon HSM Tablet signature, Harvard Semitic MSL Museum, Cambridge, Mass. IX = B. Landsberger, The Series °AR-ra = Óubullu Tablet XV and HY Field number, excavations at Tell . Rome, 1967 Yelkhi (Hamrin), Iraq Related Texts X = B. Landsberger and E. Reiner, IM Tablet signature, Iraq Museum, Baghdad The Series °AR-ra = Óubullu xiv Babylonian Divinatory Texts

Tablets XVI, XVII, XIX and VI = F. Thureau-Dangin, Tablettes Related Texts. Rome, 1970 d’Uruk à l’usage des prêtres d’Anu XI = E. Reiner (ed.), The Series au temps des Séleucides. Paris, 1922 °AR-ra = Óubullu, Tablets XX– XVII = G. Dossin, Lettres de la XXIV. Rome, 1974 première dynastie babylonienne 1. XIV = Civil et al. 1979 Paris, 1933 Ni Nippur, tablet signature, TIM Texts in the Iraq Museum Archaeological Museum, Istanbul IX = J. J. A. van Dijk, Cuneiform PBS Publications of the Babylonian Texts: Texts of Varying Content. Section, the Museum of the Leiden, 1976 University of Pennsylvania TLB Tabulae cuneiformes a F. M. Th. de II/2 = A. T. Clay, Documents from the Liagre Böhl collectae, Leidae Temple Archives of Nippur Dated in conservatae the Reigns of the Cassite Rulers. II = J. J. A. van Dijk, Textes divers. Philadelphia, 1912 Leiden, 1957 VII = A. Ungnad, Babylonian Letters IV = R. Frankena, Altbabylonische of the °ammurapi Period. Briefe. Leiden, 1965 Philadelphia, 1915 TMB F. Thureau-Dangin, Textes mathé- VIII/1 = E. Chiera, Legal and matiques babyloniens. Leiden, 1938 Administrative Documents from UCLM Tablet signature, R. H. Lowie Nippur, Chiefly from the Dynasties Museum of Anthropology, of Isin and Larsa. Philadelphia, University of California, Berkeley, 1914 Calif. OB Old Babylonian UMM Tablet signature, University R H. C. Rawlinson et al., The Cuneif- Museum of Manchester orm Inscriptions of Western Asia Uruk Spätbabylonische Texte aus Uruk V = T. G. Pinches, A Selection from I = Hunger 1976 the Miscellaneous Inscriptions of II = von Weiher 1983 Assyria and Babylonia. 2nd III = von Weiher 1988 impression. London, 1909 IV = von Weiher 1993 RA Revue d’Assyriologie VAS Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmäler Rm Rassam, tablet signature, British der Königlichen [Staatlichen] Museum, London Museen zu Berlin RN Royal name XXII = H. Klengel, Altbabylonische SAA State Archives of Assyria Texte aus Babylon. Berlin, 1983 II = S. Parpola and K. Watanabe, XXIV = J. J. A. van Dijk, Literarische Neo-Assyrian Treaties and Loyalty Texte aus Babylon. Berlin, 1987 Oaths. Helsinki, 1988 VAT Vorderasiatische Abteilung IV = Starr 1990 Tontafeln, tablet signature, VIII = Hunger 1992 Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin X = S. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Voc. Vocabulary and Babylonian Scholars. Helsinki, YBC Tablet signature, Yale Babylonian 1993 Collection, New Haven, Conn. SB Standard Babylonian YOS Yale Oriental Series, Babylonian Sm Smith, tablet signature, British Texts Museum, London X = Goetze 1947a STT O. R. Gurney, J. J. Finkelstein and XI = J. van Dijk et al. 1985 P. Hulin, The Sultantepe Tablets. 2 vols. London, 1957, 1964 ZA Zeitschrift für Assyriologie TCL Textes cunéiformes du Louvre Introduction

Ancient Mesopotamian divinatory texts fall the perceived movement of cult statues and into several genres. The most important and vehicles, etc. (collected in the first-millennium numerous are the scholarly and pedagogical series fiumma ⁄lu); in sleep and dreams (oneiro- texts: omen lists, which are overwhelmingly the mancy); in the human face and body (physiog- most common kind of divinatory text, model nomy, series Alamdimmû etc.); and in symptoms tablets, commentaries and other scholia. These of sickness (diagnosis and prognosis, series intellectual forms are academic, and served to Sagig).1 elaborate, illustrate and comment on the theo- These various disciplines all fall into one of retical principles of Babylonian divination. The two distinct categories of divination that are academic texts bear witness to many different characterized by different approaches to the disciplines. Without attempting a comprehen- observation of portents and the response that sive list of divinatory media, it is enough to list follows. The first category involves the inter- the principal disciplines: portents were observed pretation of unprovoked portents (omina oblati- in the inspection of the body of sacrificial sheep va). The disciplines here are , terato- and, less commonly, birds, particularly their mancy, and other techniques that com- internal organs (extispicy, Babylonian b⁄rûtu, prise the passive observation of the natural and from b⁄rû “”); in the appearance of oil built environment and its populations, animal poured on water (lecanomancy), of smoke ris- and human. These divinatory techniques seek ing from burning incense (libanomancy), and of to decode signs that occur without any human flour dropped on to a surface (aleuromancy); in intervention. eclipses and planetary movements (astrology) Divination is often described as a means of and in natural phenomena such as thunder and predicting the future. In ancient Mesopotamia earthquakes (collected in the late series En›ma it was not so simple as that, except in its medical Anu Ellil); in multiple births, human and ani- application. Outside the diagnostic and prog- mal, and malformations of stillborn foetuses nostic omens, divination was a type of sooth- (teratomancy, series fiumma izbu); in the local saying only in that observed signs were con- environment, where portents were observed in sidered to correlate with events that usually had a wide variety of contexts, including topogra- not happened yet. The characteristic formal lists phy and the built and natural environments, of omens paired off portents and predictions, agriculture and animal husbandry, the move- the former as a conditional clause (“If such and ment of animals and birds (augury), the behav- such is seen,” called the protasis), the latter as its ior of humans, the flames of lamps and torches, outcome (“then such and such will happen,” and in isolated events such as chariot accidents, the apodosis). A lunar eclipse on the fifteenth

1 A careful description and comprehensive bibliogra- phy of the various categories of omen text is given by Maul 2003. For fiumma ⁄lu see in addition Freedman 2006; for En›ma Anu Ellil also Reiner and Pingree 2005, Gehlken 2012.

xv xvi Babylonian Divinatory Texts

day of the third month, for example, was paired portent. They typically involve the ritual use of with a statement predicting the death of a king a divinatory medium especially chosen and pre- in a palace revolt (text No. 13: 21). It can already pared for the purpose. The ritual’s purpose was be seen that an analogy is operating in this omen: to invite the divine authorities, explicitly or tac- the eclipse of one of the major celestial bodies itly, to encode ominous signs in the medium for leads to a prediction of the demise of an earthly the diviner to decipher. In ancient Mesopota- ruler. From that obvious beginning arose the mia the most prominent discipline here was discipline of astrology. The theoretical under- extispicy, in which the divinatory medium was pinnings of Babylonian divination will be con- the body and insides of a sacrificial victim, usu- sidered later. For the moment one may remark ally a male lamb. Other media were oil, smoke that the equation of sun and moon with heads of and flour, which are mostly attested in a very state meant that astrology was a divinatory dis- few texts of the early second millennium but cipline of especial importance in government suspected of being commonly practised none- and diplomacy. theless. The expensive technique of extispicy, In studying Babylonian omen texts it is patronized by the royal court and the wealthy, important to reject the pairing of portent and naturally attracted more scholastic attention prediction as evidence of fatalism, in the sense of than divination by cheaper media. an inevitable, pre-determined future. The king Divination by induced portent is often whom we met in the previous paragraph did not referred to as provoked or impetrated (omina have to die. The Babylonians and Assyrians un- impetrativa). This kind of divination worked as a derstood naturally occurring, unprovoked por- warning system in the same way as the first but, tents not as statements of a fixed future but as in addition, lent itself early to the development communications from the gods that invited a of a question-and-answer dialogue, in which, response from those who could decode them. If after due ritual, the diviner first posed a question the signs were unfavorable, they were taken as to the gods (the oracular query) and then sought warnings, and it was then imperative to elimi- their answer in the divinatory medium. The ques- nate their threat by magic means. The ancient tion was phrased so as to elicit a simple response, text known today as the Diviner’s Manual in- positive or negative. Questions could be asked structs that an evil prognostication would only on all manner of topics, private and public: the occur if it was not eliminated by the correct safety and health of an individual, the prospects magical response (Oppenheim 1974: 200 l. 46). of success in trade, marriage and war, the right This elimination was achieved through apotro- time to embark on a journey or military manoeu- paic rituals accompanied by incantations, by lit- vre, the correct moment to conduct a religious anies chanted to appease the gods, or by both. ritual or dedicate an image, appointments of These two activities were known respectively in officials and priests, etc. Babylonian as ⁄Íip›tu (from ⁄Íipu “exorcist, In extispicy the answer to the client’s ques- medicine-man”) and kalûtu (from kalû “lamen- tion was acquired by cross-referencing ominous tation-singer”). The response to ill-boding signs signs with their predictions, as set out in lists of was articulated in ancient Mesopotamia as the omens. Their form is the same combination of dispelling of evil (Babylonian namburbû, Maul protasis and apodosis as in unprovoked omens. 1994). Averting the consequences of bad por- In provoked omens the apodosis carried herme- tents was not a matter of small-time superstition; neutic value, identifying the portent as favorable it was a central concern of ancient Mesopota- or unfavorable. A majority of favorable portents mian religion. observed in the extispicy indicated a positive The second category of divination compris- answer to the oracular query, a majority of unfa- es techniques that were perceived to induce a vorable portents communicated the reverse.2

2 On the theory and practice of Babylonian extispicy see, e.g., Jeyes 1980, Maul 2003: 77–83, Veldhuis 2006. Introduction xvii

This procedure of question and answer prophecy of a fixed outcome but a warning. probably first emerged as a method of corrobo- Alongside this must be considered another rating the value of unprovoked portents. essential point, that the combination of portent Uncertainty in their interpretation could be and prediction is an intellectual construct. This resolved through extispicy, by asking the appro- becomes clear if the two elements of the omen priate question. Historical instances of the cor- are studied separately. roborative function of extispicy in responding Portents were usually naturally occurring to unprovoked omens are documented in the signs that were ostensibly rooted in observation. correspondence of diviners. At the court of Mari This led to the view, once widely current in on the middle Euphrates in the eighteenth cen- Assyriology, that ancient Mesopotamian divina- tury, extispicies were reported to have been tion was based on real experience. However, done to determine whether an ill-boding lunar recent studies of the omen corpora have discred- eclipse compromised the king’s safety (it did ited that view (e.g. Koch-Westenholz 1995: 13– not), to clarify the significance of dreams, and to 19, Brown 2000: 108–13, Rochberg 2009, Win- identify the causes of illness (ARM 26/I nos. 81– itzer 2011). There are several reasons for reject- 83, 136, 142). At the Assyrian court in the sev- ing the old position. A telling one is provided by enth century, documents report extispicies per- a small number of portents that describe impos- formed to assess the import of a bird of ill omen sible events that could never have been and the implications of symptoms of sickness observed. Already in the Old Babylonian peri- (SAA X nos. 183 and 315). od, lists of omens incorporated such events as By virtue of its perceived capacity for check- portents. Such portents have not yet been col- ing the intentions of the gods, extispicy was an lected systematically. Good examples in Old important tool in good government. It became Babylonian tablets occur in lunar-eclipse lists, as the preferred divinatory technique in determin- demonstrated in the introduction to texts Nos. ing that decisions in matters of strategic impor- 13 and 14 in Chapter V, but the most conspic- tance to the state –– royal, military, political, uously absurd example known to me is the sun economic and religious –– were made in accor- sighted at midnight.3 The existence of impossi- dance with divine approval. The correspon- ble portents does not mean that the compilers of dence from Mari shows that extispicy was omens were stupid. These men lived in a world already much employed by the state and its ser- where, as now, a lifetime of experience taught vants in the eighteenth century BCE (Durand each and every one of them that the sun sets at 1988: 3–373, Heimpel 2003: 173–248). The dusk and rises at dawn. Just as today, their ances- response to portents called for the co-operation of tors had conceived a model of the universe to men trained in different academic disciplines. account for this. Though their model was one in The collaboration of astrologer (En›ma Anu Ellil which the sun passed around the earth, there was expert), lamentation-singer (kalû), exorcist- no more room in it for a sighting of the sun at cum-medicine man (⁄Íipu) and haruspex (b⁄rû), midnight than there is in today’s scientifically is well attested at the Assyrian court (Parpola proved model, in which the earth orbits the sun. 1993), and was assuredly necessary in earlier And on the basis of experience and model, periods too. Babylonians generally were surely inclined, just It has been noted that the prediction in the as we are today, to infer this about the future, apodosis of a typical Babylonian omen is not a that the sun would never be seen at midnight.

3 d BM 97210: 3–4: DIfi ÍamaÍ(utu) ina qabl‹tim 5, Rochberg 2006: 340) and Matthew Rutz (2006: 72 tim (murub4) innamir(igi.duÓ) ba-ar-tum a-na Íarrim n. 42). Its text, in late Old Babylonian script, is (lugal) “¶ (If) the sun is sighted in the middle watch known to me from photographs posted online at ht- (of the night): revolt against the king.” The existence tp://www.britishmuseum.org/research.aspx and a of this tablet has been reported by Francesca Roch- transliteration by C. B. F. Walker. I am grateful to all berg (Rochberg-Halton 1984: 132 n. 21, 1988: 9 n. three scholars for permission to quote it here. xviii Babylonian Divinatory Texts

What happened in divination, it seems, was that of the two gall-bladders was wrapped around the compilers of omens consciously rejected the right, it signified usurpation of the throne that inference. They thought not only in terms (text No. 9 §5), a prediction that maps by anal- of their own experience and the received wis- ogy the portent’s dominance of good (right) by dom of their models, but they deliberately bad (left) on to the field of the two rulers. From imagined phenomena which they had not expe- the point of view of the diviner’s client, often rienced, even though such phenomena contra- the king, the prediction of a usurper is naturally dicted the model and were against all expec- unfavorable, and would be reckoned with the tations. They can only have done this by rea- negative omens. soning that they were without empirical evidence The hermeneutic tools operating in the case that such phenomena could not occur. If so, it of the two gall-bladders are clear. The con- can be said that they adopted a strictly empiricist structed nature of the typical omen finds further response to the natural world, resisting the expression in the elaboration of systematic pat- temptation of jumping to conclusions on the terns in both portent and prediction. So in text basis of their own limited experience and inher- No. 10 §§8'–10' portentous smears of blood on ited expectations. In this suspicion of inductive different parts of the gall-bladder attract predic- inference they anticipated the position taken by tions of wounds to different members of the the eighteenth-century Scottish empiricist phi- royal entourage –– minister, diviner and cup- losopher David Hume. Events that conflict with bearer. Other patterns associate different parts of natural laws can be reasoned not to be possible, an observed feature with such variables as sec- but they cannot be experienced not to be possible. tions of the army (e.g. No. 25 §§1–3 and paral- So much for portents. The predictions were lels) and times of day and night (e.g. No. 25 §§4– any one (sometimes two) of a large repertoire of 9 and parallels). many hundreds of standard sentences. The very While it remains the case that in many fact that they are so standardized speaks for their omens the connection between portent and origin in reason rather than experience. It has prediction is obscure to us, the combination of become ever more apparent that Babylonian portent and prediction was probably always scholars employed several methods in attaching without empirical basis, that is, without foun- a prediction to a portent: the common tools dation in historical precedent. It is true that in were symbolism, analogy, paranomasia, etymo- later lists of astrological omens some lunar- logical speculation and folkloric allusion (e.g. eclipse portents were matched not with predic- Starr 1983a: 8–12, Glassner 1984, Rochberg tions but with a limited number of past historical 2004: 55–58, 2009: 20–22, George 2010). In events –– notably the downfall of Akkade and astrology it has already been noted that the the sack of Ur in the reign of king Ibbi-Suen – major celestial bodies, sun and moon, were – but there are good grounds for rejecting these interpreted as symbolic counterparts of earthly as arising from an actual coincidence of the por- rulers, and the eclipse of such a body signified tents and these events in history (Al-Rawi and the analogous demise of a king. In extispicy too George 2006: 24). Similarly the omens often the same devices were at work. For example, the called “historical,” in which a portent is associ- gall-bladder, the major feature of the visceral ated with a legendary or historical ruler, such as surface of the sheep’s liver, was often under- GilgameÍ or Sargon of Akkade, are also of dubi- stood to stand for the king, a symbolic equation. ous historical worth, even if some of them were Thus the presence underneath the liver of two composed as late as the reign of Ashurbanipal gall-bladders –– one more than usual –– usually (Starr 1985). In making the connection between signified rivalry between two rulers (or would- a portent and a supposed historical context, sev- be rulers). Right was the side identified with the eral of them employ such hermeneutic tech- client’s interests (equivalent in Cicero’s termi- niques as analogy and paranomasia, and they are nology to pars familiaris), left with those of his of value for neither the history of events nor the opponent (pars hostilis or inimica). If the left-hand history of divination (Cooper 1980, Starr 1986). Introduction xix

It is clear from the two tell-tale features of the meaning of things” (Veldhuis 2006: 493). impossible portents and artificially generated Babylonian scholars speculated relentlessly on predictions that in the periods from which we meaningful interconnections in the observed have evidence, ancient Mesopotamian divina- universe, for example between constellations, tion was no longer dependent on empirical cities, plants and minerals (Weidner 1967) and, observation, if it ever had been. Diviners were more pertinently, between ominous parts of the using sets of theoretical rules to generate and liver, deities, months and constellations (von encode new omens, and were able to elaborate Weiher 1993 no. 159). Divination took part in the existing corpus almost limitlessly (Winitzer this “cosmic network of interrelations” (Koch- 2006). In the first millennium BCE a considerable Westenholz 2000: 12). Speculation about hid- scholarship grew up that was concerned with den meaning was the hallmark of Babylonian the theoretical basis of extispicy, reflecting espe- scholars’ theoretical exploration of the world cially on the hermeneutic links between portent and its contents. The list was their equally char- and prediction, and the positive or negative val- acteristic format for conveying knowledge. The ue of that prediction. A problem for modern omen lists, which represent a large proportion of scholars is that while we can identify some of the the achievement of Babylonian scholarship, rules in play, we do not fully understand this constitute as a whole an important statement Babylonian language of signs (George 2010, about the Babylonians’ understanding of the Frahm 2010). world. In elaborating thousands of examples of One corollary of the breaking of the con- hidden interrelations between realities and nection between the matter of the prediction ideas, the manifold lists of omens are the out- and the prospective repetition of historical come of cumulative attempts to embrace the events is that the predictions can be studied from entire universe in a system of reciprocal infer- non-historical perspectives. They have already ences. As an intellectual concept this can per- been presented as evidence for daily life, public haps be seen as a Babylonian counterpart to the and private (Oppenheim 1936, Nougayrol more modern idea of a universal “theory of 1971b, Koch-Westenholz 2002b). They are everything.” more interesting still as sources for Babylonian Not all ancient Mesopotamian divinatory psychology. In characterizing omen apodoses as texts are academic and theoretically based. “didactic rather than functional,” Ivan Starr has Alongside the omen lists and other scholarly and rightly observed that they “serve as a reflection pedagogical texts are compositions of more of the fears and aspirations of the people of practical application, deriving from the profes- Mesopotamia, rather than as statements of real- sional practice of divination. Some of these texts ity” (Starr 1986: 630). The topics do indeed are prescriptive, serving to maintain correct pro- illustrate many universal human anxieties. cedures, especially the ritual acts that preceded Prominent subjects in the private realm are the an act of extispicy and the various prayers that faithfulness of wives, the profligacy of heirs, the accompanied those acts (Starr 1983a, Zimmern success of the harvest and business, the loss of 1901: nos. 1–20, 71–101). Others are more ephe- property and livestock, the threats of drought meral, arising from particular instances of prac- and famine, lions and rabid dogs, sickness and tice: reports on the outcome of individual acts of plague, etc. In the public domain the anxieties extispicy (Kraus 1985, Koch-Westenholz 2002a), expressed relate chiefly to the king: usurpation and documents that report or record other omi- of the throne, loyalty of ministers and sons, suc- nous portents, on earth and in the sky; particu- cess of the army, social unrest and rebellion, loss larly numerous are astrological reports sent to of territory and wealth, etc. the Assyrian court in the seventh century BCE A further corollary lies in the history of (Hunger 1992). The oracular queries that were ideas. The newly clarified intellectual context of put to the deity in the course of the ritual of acts omen lists has led them recently to be charac- of extispicy were originally ephemeral, but pro- terized as texts “where one may speculate about fessional pride ensured that many queries of reli- xx Babylonian Divinatory Texts gious and historical importance were retained in presents Neo-Babylonian manuscripts of sec- academic libraries and became part of the tradi- tions of two of the great canonical omen series tional scholia in Babylonia and Assyria (Lambert of the first millennium, Tablet I of fiumma izbu 2007, Starr 1990). (human pregnancy and birth, No. 35) and Tab- The purpose of this volume is to make pub- let LXXIX of fiumma ⁄lu (augury, No. 36). lic those cuneiform texts in the Schøyen Col- Chapter IX is given over to model tablets and lection that fall into the category of ancient related objects: two depict different arrange- Mesopotamian divinatory texts. The Schøyen ments of the sheep’s colon, one perhaps is an Collection does not hold examples of all the atypical example of a model sheep’s liver (Nos. genres noted above, for products of the later 37–42). In Chapter X is edited an unusual text periods in the history of cuneiform writing are that has some of the formal characteristics of an very rare in the collection. Not surprisingly, it omen list but is not a succession of decoded por- has very few exemplars of the canonical omen tents (No. 43). series and lacks completely omen commentaries Not all the tablets in this volume are held by and astrological reports. No Assyrian documents the Schøyen Collection. Ten members of the are present: as the volume’s title suggests, the Sealand archive treated in Chapter VI are cur- texts are all composed in varieties of Babylonian. rently in a private collection whose owner wish- The volume is divided into chapters, partly es to remain anonymous. The same collection by genre, partly by period and partly by prove- provided one example each of the genres divi- nance. Chapter I contains two divination nation prayer and extispicy report. The appen- prayers, one highly literary and unusual, and an dix makes available seventeen tablets whose oracular query, all written in the Old Babylo- whereabouts are unknown at the time of writ- nian period, i.e. the third and fourth centuries of ing: a selection of the divinatory texts from the second millennium BCE (texts Nos. 1–3). Tigun⁄num recorded in the scholarly papers of Three Old Babylonian extispicy reports popu- the late W. G. Lambert (Nos. I–XVII). late Chapter II, one deriving from the archive of This book adds to current knowledge fifty- D›r-AbieÍuÓ and reflecting a precise moment five previously unpublished divinatory tablets. in history, the others probably academic model Some of them are important for the rareness of texts (Nos. 4–6). Chapter III gives editions of the texts they contain –– especially an excep- five Old Babylonian lists of extispicy omens, all tionally well-preserved Old Babylonian tablet treating ominous features of the sheep’s liver of teratomancy (No. 12), two early lunar-eclipse and gall-bladder (Nos. 7–11). Five Old Babylo- omen tablets (Nos. 13–14), a huge tablet of nian omen lists pertaining to other divinatory household omens, written in eighteen columns disciplines (teratomancy, lunar eclipses, medical but sadly not fully legible (No. 16), and a tablet diagnosis and prognosis, and household por- of prognostic omens (No. 15). Other tablets tents) are collected in Chapter IV (Nos. 12–16). report the presence of Babylonian divination in Two chapters are devoted to the presentation of places from which little evidence for it has so far divinatory texts, mostly omen lists, from the been available: eastern Babylonia in the period decades either side of the end of the Old Baby- of the first Sealand dynasty, which emerges as a lonian period: five late Old Babylonian omen link between Old Babylonian divinatory schol- lists from Tigun⁄num in northern Mesopotamia arship and the omen texts written at Susa later in in Chapter V (extispicy and teratomancy, Nos. the second millennium (Nos. 22–32); and the 17–21), and eleven texts from a scholarly archive palace of king Tunip-TeÍÍub at Tigun⁄num in dating back to the first Sealand dynasty in Chap- north Mesopotamia, where a tradition of divi- ter VI (extispicy, teratomancy, Nos. 22–32). nation associated with the temple of Adad in Two Middle Babylonian omen lists from the Aleppo was studied alongside texts originally late second millennium occupy Chapter VII; imported from Babylonia (Nos. 17–21, appen- one treats extispicy, the other lunar eclipses in dix Nos. I–XVII). the third month (Nos. 33–34). Chapter VIII Introduction xxi

In addition to the gain in primary sources ed on the northern fringes of Mesopotamia: a and in understanding of the transmission of bird’s heart dropped in water (texts Nos. 18 and Babylonian divination to the periphery and its appendix No. XV), which is a technique that evolution there, this book also adds to the pic- combines extispicy with lecanomancy; and a ture, already painted above, of the huge variety ewe confined in a building overnight (appendix of divinatory techniques developed in ancient No. II), which is a practice that seeks to induce Mesopotamia. Three texts report two divinato- by artificial means a portent similar to those that ry media that are new to us, both belonging to occur without human provocation in the ani- the category of provoked omens and both attest- mal-behavior omens of fiumma ⁄lu.

Catalogue

Measurements Collection Text Description in mm (W™H™D) number

1 Clay tablet, portrait format, near complete 47™65™22 MS 3363 Divination prayer, Old Babylonian, 13+13 ll.

2 Clay tablet, portrait format, top half 44™68™19 – Divination prayer, Old Babylonian, 13+14+2+3 ll.

3 Clay tablet, square, complete 51™53™20 MS 3057 Oracular petition, Old Babylonian, 10+1+10 ll.

4 Clay tablet, portrait format, near complete 53™114™29 MS 3218/6 Extispicy report, Late Old Babylonian, AbieÍuÓ, 19+[x]+21+4 ll.

5 Clay tablet, landscape format, near complete 88™53™25 MS 3058 Extispicy report, Old Babylonian, undated, 12+4 ll.

6 Clay tablet, portrait format, complete 44™54™15 – Extispicy report, Old Babylonian, undated, 11+11+2 ll.

7 Clay tablet, near square format, complete 77™90™22 MS 2225 Liver omens (naplaÍtum), Old Babylonian, 12+13 ll.

8 Clay tablet, landscape format, complete 77™57™25 MS 3066 Liver omens (na‰raptum), Old Babylonian, 9+9 ll.

9 Clay tablet, landscape format, complete 73™58™24 MS 3078 Liver omens (gall-bladder), Old Babylonian, 12+9 ll.

10 Clay tablet, portrait format, near complete 64™109™33 MS 3295 Liver omens (gall-bladder, naplaÍtum), Old Babylonian, 2+2 cols., 26+19+26+25 ll.

11 Clay tablet, portrait format, major portion 100™117™30 MS 2813 Liver omens (ub⁄num), Old Babylonian, 2+2 cols., 23+24+11+8 ll.

xxiii xxiv Babylonian Divinatory Texts

Measurements Collection Text Description in mm (W™H™D) number

12 Clay tablet, portrait format, complete 118™171™30 MS 3000 Malformed-birth omens, Old Babylonian, 60+45 ll.

13 Clay tablet, portrait format, near complete 110™180™40 MS 3118 Lunar-eclipse omens, Late Old Babylonian, 26+3+31 ll.

14 Clay tablet, portrait format, near complete 130™220™40 MS 3117 Lunar-eclipse omens, Late Old Babylonian, 46+40 ll.

15 Clay tablet, portrait format, lower three-quarters 78™104™32 MS 2670 Diagnostic and prognostic omens, Old Babylonian, 22+2+26 ll.

16 Clay tablet, portrait format, near complete 240™210™50 MS 3104 Domestic omens, Old Babylonian, 8+1+9 cols., obv.: 23+34+29+35+37+35+34+28 ll.; right edge: 20 ll.; rev.: 19+27+30+31+29+31+35+35+27 ll.; top edge: 8 ll.; left edge: 4 ll.

17 Clay tablet, fragment 37™70™28 MS 2796 Liver omens (gall-bladder), Late Old Babylonian, Tigun⁄num, 12 ll.

18 Clay tablet, portrait format, top two-thirds 97™103™23 MS 1807 Bird’s-heart omens, Late Old Babylonian, Tigun⁄num, 17+18+2+1 ll.

19 Clay tablet, portrait format, lower two-fifths 110™109™28 MS 1805 Malformed-birth omens, Late Old Babylonian, Tigun⁄num, 25+25+2 ll.

20 Clay tablet, portrait format, top portion 79™89™37 MS 1806 Malformed-birth omens, Late Old Babylonian, Tigun⁄num, 17+9 ll.

21 Clay tablet, portrait format, lower two-fifths 70™72™34 MS 2797 Malformed-birth omens, Late Old Babylonian, Tigun⁄num, 7+4+16 ll.

22 Clay tablet, landscape format, major portion 127™114™26 – Omens, carcass of sacrificial animal, 1st Sealand dynasty, 36+30 ll.

23 Clay tablet, portrait format, major portion 130™163™34 – Liver omens (pû ˇ⁄bu), 1st Sealand dynasty, 40+3+13 ll. Catalogue xxv

Measurements Collection Text Description in mm (W™H™D) number ————––———————————————————————————————————————————— 24 Clay tablet, upper right portion 105™88™32 – Liver omens (b⁄b ekalli, Íulmu), 1st Sealand dynasty, 26+28+4 ll.

25 Clay tablet, top portion 115™78™20 – Liver omens (kak imitti), 1st Sealand dynasty, 21+15 ll.

26 Clay tablet, portrait format, major portion 94™130™23 – Liver omens (kak Íum¤li), 1st Sealand dynasty, 41+24 ll.

27 Clay tablet, lower right fragment 85™136™32 – Liver omens (gall-bladder), 1st Sealand dynasty, 39+42 ll.

28 Clay tablet, portrait format, top half 101™96™22 – Lung omens, 1st Sealand dynasty, 28+15 ll.

29 Clay tablet, portrait format, lower half 112™100™23 – Malformed-birth omens, 1st Sealand dynasty, 28+3+32 ll.

30 Clay tablet, landscape format, right-hand portion 73™64™23 MS 2420 Omen apodoses, 1st Sealand dynasty, 19+7 ll.

31 Clay tablet, portrait format, lower half 115™126™32 – Gut omens, Middle Babylonian, Sealand, 40+4+39 ll.

32 Clay tablet, upper left fragment 47™95™28 – Diagrams of gut, 1st Sealand dynasty, 3+6 ll.

33 Clay tablet, square, near complete 75™70™24 MS 3176/2 Liver (manz⁄zu etc.) and lung omens, Middle Babylonian, 30+19 ll.

34 Clay tablet, landscape format, left portion + patch 82™55™23 MS 3119 Lunar-eclipse omens, Middle Babylonian, 10+8 ll.

35 Clay tablet, portrait format, top portion 94™70™28 MS 1808 Human-birth omens, fiumma izbu I, Neo-/Late Babylonian, 21+12 ll.

36 Clay tablet, portrait format, lower portion 105™126™33 MS 1687 Augury, fiumma ⁄lu LXXIX, Neo-Babylonian, 2+2 cols., 30+34+33+28 ll.

37 Clay tablet, square, near complete + patch 57™55™18 MS 3080 Diagrams of gut, Old Babylonian, uninscribed xxvi Babylonian Divinatory Texts

Measurements Collection Text Description in mm (W™H™D) number —————————————————————————————————————————–———————

38 Clay cone, complete 35™35 MS 3195 Diagram and model of gut, Old Babylonian, uninscribed

39 Clay tablet, square, complete 93™93™20 MS 4515 Drawing of spiral labyrinth, Old Babylonian(?), uninscribed

40 Clay tablet, portrait format, complete 103™117™20 MS 3194 Drawing of spiral labyrinth, Old Babylonian(?), uninscribed

41 Clay tablet, portrait format, near complete 83™116™20 MS 4516 8 drawings of labyrinths, Old Babylonian(?), uninscribed

42 Clay model, cut down 42™66™9 MS 3034 Model of liver(?), Middle Babylonian, 6+5+1 ll.

43 Clay tablet, landscape format, near complete 90™62™23 MS 3331 List of deformed(?) sheep, Old Babylonian, 16+1+17+1 ll. Concordances

1. Concordance of tablet numbers in the Schøyen Collection (MS) and text numbers in this volume.

MS No. Text No. MS No. Text No. MS No. Text No.

1687 35 3000 12 3176/2 33 1805 19 3034 42 3194 40 1806 20 3057 3 3195 38 1807 18 3058 5 3218/6 4 1808 36 3066 8 3295 10 2225 7 3078 9 3331 43 2420 30 3080 37 3363 1 2670 15 3104 16 4515 39 2796 17 3117 14 4516 41 2797 21 3118 13 2813 11 3119 34

2. Concordance of text numbers in this volume and entry numbers in the database of the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI), which offers high-resolution images of all the objects published in this book, sometimes in a fuller photographic record. The URL of an individual tablet at CDLI is the domain address http://cdli.ucla.edu/ followed by the CDLI entry number, e.g. text No. 1 has the URL http://cdli.ucla.edu/P252304.

Text No. CDLI No. Text No. CDLI No. Text No. CDLI No.

1 P252304 16 P252113 31 P431308 2 P431298 17 P251842 32 P431309 3 P252066 18 P250501 33 P342641 4 P342689 19 P250499 34 P252128 5 P252067 20 P250500 35 P250502 6 P431299 21 P251843 36 P250457 7 P251421 22 P431300 37 P252089 8 P252075 23 P431301 38 P274588 9 P252087 24 P431302 39 P253616 10 P252236 25 P431303 40 P274587 11 P251860 26 P431304 41 P253617 12 P252027 27 P431305 42 P252040 13 P252127 28 P431306 43 P252272 14 P252126 29 P431307 15 P251708 30 P251603

xxvii xxviii Babylonian Divinatory Texts

3. Concordance of previous publication with text numbers in this volume

Publication Text No.

Friberg 2007: 219, 489 39 Friberg 2007: 223 38 Friberg 2007: 224, 490 40 Friberg 2007: 228, 489 41 Leichty and Kienast 2003 36

4. Published duplicates and parallel texts

Publication Text No.

AO 7539 (Nougayrol 1971a) 31 BM 13915 (Aro and Nougayrol 1973 no. 3) 9 EAE XVII/2 34 fiumma ⁄lu LXXIX 36 fiumma izbu I35 YOS X 31 10 YOS X 56 12