DOCSLIB.ORG

Ancient Magic and Divination

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Ancient Magic and Divination Medicine in Ancient Assur Ancient Magic and Divination Editors Tzvi Abusch Ann K. Guinan Nils P. Heeßel Francesca Rochberg Frans A. M. Wiggermann volume 18 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/amd Medicine in Ancient Assur A Microhistorical Study of the Neo-Assyrian Healer Kiṣir-Aššur By Troels Pank Arbøll LEIDEN | BOSTON This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. Further information and the complete license text can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-nd/4.0/ The terms of the CC license apply only to the original material. The use of material from other sources (indicated by a reference) such as diagrams, illustrations, photos and text samples may require further permission from the respective copyright holder. Cover image by Troels Pank Arbøll, 2019. The publication of this book was supported by The Edubba Foundation, The Elisabeth Munksgaard Foundation and The Augustinus Foundation. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Arbøll, Troels Pank, author. Title: Medicine in ancient Assur : a microhistorical study of the Neo-Assyrian healer Kiṣir-Aššur / Troels Pank Arbøll. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2021] | Series: Ancient magic and divination, 15667952 ; vol. 18 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020029398 (print) | LCCN 2020029399 (ebook) | ISBN 9789004436077 (hardback) | ISBN 9789004436084 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Medicine, Assyro-Babylonian. | Medicine, Ancient. Classification: LCC R135.3 .A73 2021 (print) | LCC R135.3 (ebook) | DDC 610.938—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020029398 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020029399 Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 1566-7952 ISBN 978-90-04-43607-7 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-43608-4 (e-book) Copyright 2021 by Troels Pank Arbøll. Published by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag. Koninklijke Brill NV reserves the right to protect this publication against unauthorized use. Requests for re-use and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV via brill.com or copyright.com. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. Contents Acknowledgements ix List of Figures and Tables xii Abbreviations and Symbols xiii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Colophons 2 1.2 Mesopotamian Medicine 2 1.2.1 Magico-medical Healing 4 1.2.2 The āšipu-/mašmaššu-exorcist 7 1.2.3 Genres of Texts 8 1.3 Authorship 9 1.4 Proof and Possibility 10 1.5 Scope and Structure 11 2 Framework and Background 14 2.1 Microhistory 15 2.2 Framework 16 2.3 Background for Studying Kiṣir-Aššur 18 2.3.1 The N4 Tablet Collection 20 2.3.2 Excursus: Discussion of the Term “Library” 22 2.3.3 The Bāba-šuma-ibni Family 23 2.3.4 The Attested Training and Career Phases 25 2.3.5 Other References to Members of the Bāba-šuma-ibni Family 29 2.4 Quantifying and Contextualizing Kiṣir-Aššur’s Texts 30 3 Kiṣir-Aššur’s Magico-Medical Education as šamallû ṣeḫru 34 3.1 Complex Diagnoses in Kiṣir-Aššur’s šamallû ṣeḫru Texts 40 3.1.1 Earlier Diagnostic Training 43 3.2 Principles Understood through Examples 44 3.3 The Head: BAM 9 45 3.3.1 Treating Ghostly Afflictions 48 3.4 The “Strings” and “Inner” Body 51 3.4.1 BAM 129 52 3.4.2 BAM 201 54 3.4.3 RA 40 pl. 116 55 3.5 Snakes, Scorpions and Horses: A Discussion of RA 15 pl. 76 56 vi Contents 3.5.1 Snakes and Scorpions: The Obverse 56 3.5.2 Horse Colic: The Reverse 58 3.6 Gaining an Understanding of Anatomy and Physiology 60 3.6.1 Kiṣir-Aššur’s Diagnostic Training and Sa-gig 62 3.7 Preparation for Other Duties as šamallû ṣeḫru 66 3.7.1 Kiṣir-Aššur’s šuʾilla-prayers 67 3.7.2 N4 no. 289: A Substitute for Ereškigal 68 3.7.3 Activities Unrelated to Healing 70 3.8 Summary 72 4 Training in Anatomy and Physiology as šamallû ṣeḫru 73 4.1 The Role of Venom in Kiṣir-Aššur’s Anatomical Understanding 74 4.1.1 Snakes and Scorpions in Mesopotamia 74 4.1.2 Venom and Physiology 76 4.1.3 The Physiological Conception of Venom, Bile, and Saliva 79 4.2 Veterinarian Knowledge in Kiṣir-Aššur’s Education 83 4.2.1 Horses and Specialists 84 4.2.2 Kiṣir-Aššur and Veterinarian Knowledge 86 4.3 Excursus: Animal Variants of Human Illnesses 87 4.4 Animal and Human Physiology: The Reverse of RA 15 pl. 76 90 4.4.1 Animal Anatomical Terminology 90 4.4.2 Human and Equine Physiological Aspects of the Nose 92 4.4.3 Discussion of the Veterinarian Prescriptions on RA 15 pl. 76 95 4.5 Summary 97 5 Further Apprenticeship: šamallû to mašmaššu ṣeḫru 99 5.1 The šamallû-phase 99 5.2 The šamallû mašmaššu ṣeḫru-phase 102 5.2.1 The Child Calming Incantation N4 no. 24 and Duplicates 105 5.2.2 Excursus: Paediatricians and Treatments 107 5.2.3 An Interpretation: Kiṣir-Aššur as Paediatrician? 110 5.3 The mašmaššu ṣeḫru-phase 113 5.3.1 Discussion of the mašmašsu ṣeḫru-phase 114 5.3.2 Excursus: Kiṣir-Aššur’s uʾiltu-tablets 115 5.4 Excursus: The ša Nabû tuklassu-phrase 117 5.4.1 Kiṣir-Aššur’s Use of the ša Nabû tuklassu-phrase 119 5.5 Summary 121 Contents vii 6 Kiṣir-Aššur’s mašmaššu-phase 124 6.1 Texts with Colophons including the Title mašmaššu 124 6.2 Making House Calls: Discussion of KAR 230 129 6.2.1 The Incantation of KAR 230 130 6.2.2 The Ritual and Purpose of KAR 230 132 6.2.3 The Secrecy Statement of KAR 230 134 6.2.4 Interpretation of KAR 230 135 6.2.5 Nabû-bēssunu’s Ritual for Approaching a Patient: KAR 31 136 6.3 Ritually Protecting the Houses of Clients: Discussion of KAR 298 138 6.3.1 The Purpose and Content of KAR 298 138 6.3.2 KAR 298 in the Context of Associated Rituals 140 6.4 Namburbi-rituals and House Calls: KAL 4 no. 7 and LKA 115 143 6.4.1 Namburbi-rituals and Ceremonial Supervisors 144 6.4.2 Namburbi-rituals and House Calls 145 6.5 Other Technical Literature: CT 37 pl. 24f. 150 6.6 Summary 151 7 Additional Texts that May Belong to the mašmaššu-phase 153 7.1 Omission and Inclusion of Titles 153 7.2 Tablets without Kiṣir-Aššur’s Professional Title 156 7.2.1 Text-internal Features Useful as Allocating Criteria 160 7.3 Tablets with Broken Colophons 161 7.3.1 Text-internal Features Useful as Allocating Criteria 166 7.3.2 Excursus: Inventory Texts from the N4 Collection 167 7.4 The mašmaššu-phase and Purpose Statements 169 7.4.1 Kiṣir-Aššur’s Tablets with Purpose Statements 170 7.4.2 Tablets Copied on Behalf of Kiṣir-Aššur 172 7.4.3 Purpose Statements and Notes on Breaks 173 7.5 A Discussion of the Dated Tablet KAR 267 175 7.6 Other Technical Literature: BAM 307 and ACh Supp. 2 24 177 7.7 Summary 179 8 Kiṣir-Aššur’s mašmaš bīt Aššur-phase 180 8.1 The Title mašmaš bīt Aššur 186 8.2 Medical Texts from Kiṣir-Aššur’s mašmaš bīt Aššur-phase 188 8.3 Tested Prescriptions among the Medical Texts 192 8.3.1 Meaning of the Phrase “Tested Prescription” 194 8.3.2 An Example of Kiṣir-Aššur as Investigator of Efficacy? 195 viii Contents 8.4 Panaceas among the Medical Texts 199 8.4.1 Excursus: Kiṣir-Aššur’s Possible Multipurpose Medical Incantations 201 8.5 Ritual Texts from Kiṣir-Aššur’s mašmaš bīt Aššur-phase 203 8.6 Texts Connected to the Aššur Temple 208 8.7 Summary 212 9 Situating Kiṣir-Aššur’s Knowledge Production 214 9.1 Kiṣir-Aššur’s Overall Medical Focus 214 9.2 Numbered Nisḫu-extracts 220 9.2.1 Extracts and Writing-boards 221 9.2.2 Extract Series 225 9.2.3 Numbered and Organized Extracts 227 9.3 Catch-lines and Duplicate Passages in Kiṣir-Aššur’s Texts in Relation to the Therapeutic Series Ugu 234 9.3.1 The Therapeutic Series Ugu 235 9.3.2 The Assur Medical Catalogue (AMC) 237 9.3.3 The AMC and Kiṣir-Aššur’s Incipits and Catch-lines 238 9.3.4 Kiṣir-Aššur’s Texts and Nineveh Ugu 240 9.4 The Exorcist’s Manual (EM) 245 9.4.1 Kiṣir-Aššur’s Texts in Light of the Exorcist’s Manual 249 9.5 Kiṣir-Aššur and the Scholarly Traditions in Assur 253 9.5.1 Texts Derived from Geographical Locations 253 9.5.2 The Gula Temple Library in Assur 255 9.5.3 Textual Traditions in Assur 256 9.5.4 Exchange of Knowledge between Assur and the Nineveh Text Collections 259 9.6 Summary 262 10 Synthesis and Conclusion 264 Appendix 1: Catalogue of Texts 269 Appendix 2: Edition of RA 15 pl. 76 325 Bibliography 346 Indices 405 Acknowledgements This book is based on my PhD dissertation, which was successfully defended in December 2017.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Plants, Animals, and Bodies of Water the Significance of Color Terminology in the Nature Omens of the Omen Series Šumma Ālu Ina Mēlê Šakin
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO Plants, Animals, and Bodies of Water The significance of color terminology in the nature omens of the omen series Šumma ālu ina mēlê šakin Joonas Hirvonen Pro gradu -tutkielma Helsingin yliopisto Maailman kulttuurien laitos Assyriologia 1.9.2014 Tiivistelmä Pro gradu -tutkielmani käsittelee väriterminologian käyttöä ennesarjassa Šumma ālu ina mēlê šakin (”Jos kaupunki on asetettu korkealle”). Työ on tekstitutkimus ja se keskittyy ennesarjan hermeneuttisiin pääpiirteisiin. Ennesarja on kirjoitettu akkadin kielellä ja se on koottu kuningas Assurbanipalin hallintoaikana (669–627 eaa.), mutta sen vanhimmat osat ajoittuvat jo toiselle vuosituhannelle ennen ajan laskun alkua. Tutkielma sisältää analyysin taulujen 1-40 eläin-, kasvi, ja vesienteistä ja työ pohjautuu Sally Freedmanin vuosina 1998 ja 2006 julkaisemiin käännöksiin ja translitteraatioihin. Tutkimukseni osoittaa, että Mesopotamian oppineilla oli systemaattinen tapa yhdistää tietty väritermi joko negatiiviseen tai positiiviseen enteeseen. Luonnon värimuutoksia tarkkailemalla he kykenivät nopeasti tulkitsemaan, oliko kyseinen enne luonteeltaan positiivinen vai negatiivinen ja tarvitsiko tämän pohjalta suorittaa rituaali (namburbû), joka kumoaisi mahdollisen negatiivisen enteen. Mesopotamialaiset uskoivat jumalten kommunikoivan ihmisille asettamalla enteitä kaikkialle kosmokseen. Oppineet ymmärsivät tämän kommunikaation toimivan nuolenpääkirjoituksen tavoin
    [Show full text]
  • Burn Your Way to Success Studies in the Mesopotamian Ritual And
    Burn your way to success Studies in the Mesopotamian Ritual and Incantation Series Šurpu by Francis James Michael Simons A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology School of History and Cultures College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham March 2017 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract The ritual and incantation series Šurpu ‘Burning’ is one of the most important sources for understanding religious and magical practice in the ancient Near East. The purpose of the ritual was to rid a sufferer of a divine curse which had been inflicted due to personal misconduct. The series is composed chiefly of the text of the incantations recited during the ceremony. These are supplemented by brief ritual instructions as well as a ritual tablet which details the ceremony in full. This thesis offers a comprehensive and radical reconstruction of the entire text, demonstrating the existence of a large, and previously unsuspected, lacuna in the published version. In addition, a single tablet, tablet IX, from the ten which comprise the series is fully edited, with partitur transliteration, eclectic and normalised text, translation, and a detailed line by line commentary.
    [Show full text]
  • MESOPOTAMIAN MAGIC in TEXT and PERFORMANCE Sam Mirelman
    ACCEPTED PRE-PROOF: BOOK CHAPTER IN: S. PANAYOTOV, U. STEINERT AND L. VACÍN (EDS.), MAGIC AND MEDICINE IN MESOPOTAMIA. FESTSCHRIFT FOR M. J. GELLER. ANCIENT MAGIC AND DIVINATION SERIES. BRILL (2018). - HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.1163/9789004368088_018 DOWNLOADED FROM SOAS RESEARCH ONLINE - HTTPS://EPRINTS.SOAS.AC.UK/30220 MESOPOTAMIAN MAGIC IN TEXT AND PERFORMANCE Sam Mirelman Any representation of an action or utterance in written form is, by definition, never a full reflection of its actual performance.1 Indeed, our knowledge of Mesopotamian magic, as it existed in performance, will always be partial and incomplete. This is a result of the simple fact that our knowledge of the practice of Mesopotamian magic is channeled mainly through the medium of text. 2 Assuming a written representation serves as a record of an existing ritual practice, it must be approached as a selective account of specific aspects of a ritual, which were deemed necessary to be written down, in a specific time, place and context.3 In addition, we cannot assume that a ritual text4 or written recitation merely records a practice which existed before it was written down; the action or recitation may have been composed initially in writing, by means of a combination of observation and writing, or with reference to an oral tradition. Following the initial writing of an incantation or ritual text, the composition represented by the text may have been transmitted in writing and/or orally. Similarly, the composition may have been performed with a full or partial reference to a text, a version of it, or as a purely or partially oral tradition.
    [Show full text]
  • Akkadian Healing Therapies in the Babylonian Talmud
    MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE Max Planck Institute for the History of Science 2004 PREPRINT 259 M. J. Geller Akkadian Healing Therapies in the Babylonian Talmud Part II of the article will appear in a conference volume entitled, Magic and the Classical Tradition, edited by W. Ryan and C. Burnett (Warburg Institute, London) AKKADIAN HEALING THERAPIES IN THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD M. J. Geller Abstttracttt The Babylonian Talmud preserves some of the very latest traditions from Babylonia from the period when cuneiform script was still legible, and one of the last uses of cuneiform tablets was to consult the ancient 'sciences' of astronomy (including astrology), mathematics, omens, and healing (medicine including magic). The present study will argue that throughout the third century CE rabbis in Babylonia continued to acquire technical information from Babylonian scholars who could read cuneiform, and some of this information was translated into Aramaic and was recorded haphazardly in the academic discussions of the Talmud. The nature of the Talmudic sources and the final redaction of the complex work meant that traditions from Graeco-Roman Palestine were mixed in with local traditions from Babylonia, and the dichotomy is particularly evident in fields of medicine and magic, in which clear distinctions can be made between Greek and Akkadian approaches to healing. The present work, in two parts, is an attempt to sort out the source material according to whether it originates from Babylonia or not, and to focus on Akkadian parallels
    [Show full text]
  • Copyright by Ryan Conrad Davis 2016
    Copyright By Ryan Conrad Davis 2016 The Dissertation Committee for Ryan Conrad Davis certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Relating with Gods: Investigating Human-Divine Relationships in the Prayers of Israel and Mesopotamia Using a Performance Approach to Ritual Committee: ____________________________________ John Huehnergard, Supervisor ____________________________________ Jo Ann Hackett ____________________________________ Jonathan Kaplan ____________________________________ Christopher Frechette ____________________________________ Alan Lenzi Relating with Gods: Investigating Human-Divine Relationships in the Prayers of Israel and Mesopotamia Using a Performance Approach to Ritual by Ryan Conrad Davis, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2016 To Mary, Maggie, and Camille ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation is a culminating effort to my formal education that has extended far longer and been far more enriching than I had anticipated. I wish to acknowledge the influence of each of the faculty members of the Hebrew Bible / Ancient Near East program at The University of Texas at Austin. Jo Ann, John, Na'ama, and Jonathan have all spent enormous amounts of time and energy to help me put my research endeavors on firmer footing. I am very grateful to John for taking time to meet with me over Skype while I worked on my dissertation hundreds of miles away. His patience on a subject that was not his specialty was greatly appreciated. I also owe much to my outside reviewers, Alan Lenzi and Christopher Frechette; both of these scholars were asked to sign a awkward document explaining to them that they would not be reimbursed for their efforts.
    [Show full text]
  • Catalogue of Texts
    Appendix 1 Catalogue of Texts The following catalogue lists the texts in which the colophon includes Kiṣir-Aššur’s name, the remains of his name (Kiṣir-[…]), or texts that are discussed in relation to Kiṣir-Aššur throughout this monograph. All the N4 numbers refer to the numbers in Pedersén’s catalogue of the N4 text collection (Pedersén 1986: 59–76). Additional transliterations of the majority of BAM texts can be found on the BabMed and CDLI websites. The following overview presents information on the tablet format, how the tablet was investigated by the present author, the CDLI numbers where applicable, relevant bibliographical entries, and the content of the individual texts listed according to the entries on each tablet in more or less detail. The manuscripts are listed alphabetically according to the first letter in the acronym: ACh Supp. 2 24 (K. 3145; Nineveh) Tablet: Single-column tablet in portrait format; collated via the CDLI photograph Content: Commentary on tablet 20 of Enūma Anu Enlil CDLI no.: P394833 (photograph) Bibliography: Rochberg 1988: 225–227 (transliteration and commentary) Virolleaud 1912: 42–43 no. 24 (copy) Discussion: Frahm et al. 2013b with additional bibliography Frahm 2011a: 144–145 Frahm 2004: 47 note 18 Obv. 1–20 Commentary on individual lines of at least the 20th tablet of Enūma Anu Enlil (Breaks off ) Rev. 1’–13’ (Same as above) Rev. 14’–17’ Colophon: DIŠ ⸢MUL.ŠUDUN⸣ A.AB.B[A] a-dir ⸢x⸣[(x x x x x x?)] 15’ ⸢ana? mal-su⸣-ut pKi-ṣi[r-(x x x x x x?)] 16’ [(x x x x?)] :? su-bar-tú 17’ [(x x x x x?)] su-bar-tú ana ma-šu-šú-nu BAM 9 (VAT 13785; Assur N4 no.
    [Show full text]
  • Assyrian and Babylonian Scholarly Text Catalogues Die Babylonisch-Assyrische Medizin in Texten Und Untersuchungen
    Assyrian and Babylonian Scholarly Text Catalogues Die babylonisch-assyrische Medizin in Texten und Untersuchungen Begründet von Franz Köcher Herausgegeben von Robert D. Biggs und Marten Stol Band 9 Assyrian and Babylonian Scholarly Text Catalogues Medicine, Magic and Divination Edited by Ulrike Steinert The work on this volume as part of the project BabMed – Babylonian Medicine has been funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013; Project No. 323596). ISBN 978-1-5015-1363-3 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-1-5015-0491-4 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-1-5015-0487-7 Library of Congress Control Number 2018935702 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2018 Walter de Gruyter Inc., Boston/Berlin Cover image: Florentina Badalanova Geller Typesetting: Michael Peschke, Berlin Printing: CPI books GmbH, Leck www.degruyter.com Table of Contents Acknowledgements 1 Abbreviations 3 Ulrike Steinert Introduction: Catalogues, Corpora and Canons in Mesopotamian Scholarship 7 Part 1: Studies on Mesopotamian Text Catalogues Irving L. Finkel On Three Tablet Inventories 25 Markham J. Geller A Babylonian Hippocrates 42 J. Cale Johnson Towards a New Perspective on Babylonian Medicine: The Continuum of Allegoresis and the Emergence of Secular Models in Mesopotamian Scientific Thought 55 Strahil V. Panayotov Notes on the Assur Medical Catalogue with Comparison to the Nineveh Medical Encyclopaedia 89 Francesca Rochberg The Catalogues of Enūma Anu Enlil 121 Eric Schmidtchen Esagil-kīn-apli’s Catalogue of Sakikkû and Alamdimmû 137 Ulrike Steinert Catalogues, Texts and Specialists: Some Thoughts on the Assur Medical Catalogue, Mesopotamian Medical Texts and Healing Professions 158 vi Table of Contents Part 2: Text Sources U.
    [Show full text]
  • Perceptions of the Serpent in the Ancient Near East: Its Bronze Age Role in Apotropaic Magic, Healing and Protection
    PERCEPTIONS OF THE SERPENT IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST: ITS BRONZE AGE ROLE IN APOTROPAIC MAGIC, HEALING AND PROTECTION by WENDY REBECCA JENNIFER GOLDING submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the subject ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN STUDIES at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA SUPERVISOR: PROFESSOR M LE ROUX November 2013 Snake I am The Beginning and the End, The Protector and the Healer, The Primordial Creator, Wisdom, all-knowing, Duality, Life, yet the terror in the darkness. I am Creation and Chaos, The water and the fire. I am all of this, I am Snake. I rise with the lotus From muddy concepts of Nun. I am the protector of kings And the fiery eye of Ra. I am the fiery one, The dark one, Leviathan Above and below, The all-encompassing ouroboros, I am Snake. (Wendy Golding 2012) ii SUMMARY In this dissertation I examine the role played by the ancient Near Eastern serpent in apotropaic and prophylactic magic. Within this realm the serpent appears in roles in healing and protection where magic is often employed. The possibility of positive and negative roles is investigated. The study is confined to the Bronze Age in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Syria-Palestine. The serpents, serpent deities and deities with ophidian aspects and associations are described. By examining these serpents and deities and their roles it is possible to incorporate a comparative element into his study on an intra- and inter- regional basis. In order to accumulate information for this study I have utilised textual and pictorial evidence, as well as artefacts (such as jewellery, pottery and other amulets) bearing serpent motifs.
    [Show full text]
  • Dissertation
    DISSERTATION Titel der Dissertation „Elemente ritueller Handlungen in den Elija-Elischa-Erzählungen“ Untersuchungen zur literarischen Umsetzung ritueller Handlungselemente im Vergleich zur mesopotamischen keilschriftlichen Tradition. Verfasser Mag. theol. Gerhard Karner angestrebter akademischer Grad Doktor der Theologie (Dr. theol.) Wien, Dezember 2009 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt: A 082 041 Dissertationsgebiet lt. Studienblatt: Evangelische Fachtheologie Betreuerin / Betreuer: O. Univ. Prof. Dr. DDr. Dr. h.c. James Alfred Loader Meiner Familie in Dankbarkeit zugeeignet VORWORT Viele Personen hatten direkt oder indirekt Anteil an der Entstehung dieser Studie. An erster Stelle möchte ich meinem Betreuer O. Univ. Prof. Dr.DDr. Dr. h.c. James Afred Loader für seine unermüdliche Gesprächsbereitschaft von Herzen Dank sagen. Der wissenschafltiche Austausch mit ihm und seine immer konstruktive Kritik waren stets Anregung und Ermutigung zugleich. Zu Dank verpflichtet bin ich der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, die das Dissertationsprojekt vom Juni 2006 bis November 2007 durch ein DOC-Stipendium finanziell unterstützt hat und damit die Rahmenbedingungen geschaffen hat, dass dieser Zeitraum zu einer Periode produktiven Schaffens werden konnte. Mein Dank gilt weiters Prof. Dr. Jürgen van Oorschot (Erlangen), an dessen Lehrstuhl ich von Dezember 2007 bis September 2009 als wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter tätig sein durfte und Gelegenheit hatte, neben meiner Arbeit an der Dissertation wichtige Er- fahrungen in der akademischen Lehre zu sammeln. Bedanken will ich mich zudem bei meinen Kolleginnen und Kollegen der beiden alttestamentlichen Lehrstühle am Fachbereich Theologie der Friedrich-Alexander- Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Delia Klingler, Jonathan M. Robker, Sarah Schulz und Dr. Lars Allolio-Näcke für ihre kollegiale Unterstützung, die stets anregenden fach- lichen Diskussionen und so manchen Zuspruch. Nicht zuletzt gebührt mein Dank Herrn Pfarrer Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Démons Et Exorcismes En Mésopotamie Et En Judée
    DANIEL BARBU ET ANNE-CAROLINE RENDU LOISEL DÉMONS ET EXORCISMES EN MÉSOPOTAMIE ET EN JUDÉE Le présent article résulte de la collaboration entre deux chercheurs et d’une enquête plurielle sur les ‘ démons ’ en Mésopotamie (Anne-Caroline Rendu Loisel) et en Judée (Daniel Barbu), et présente avant tout un état des lieux. Depuis le volume des « Sources Orientales » sur les démons1, de nouvelles découvertes textuelles et de nouvelles approches ont permis une meilleure compréhension du phénomène en question dans les sources anciennes. De la Mésopotamie à la Judée, bien-sûr, les types de documents sont très différents. Les sols de Mésopotamie ont livré aux chercheurs des documents de première main comme les recueils d’incantations contre les démons qui seront présentés ici : foisonnant de détails relatifs à l’aspect des ‘ démons ’ ou aux rituels qu’il convient d’observer pour les chasser, ces textes ont été transmis et recopiés pendant près de deux millénaires, transcendant les frontières éphémères des royaumes de l’ancien Proche-Orient. A ce très vaste domaine, la petite Judée d’époque hellénistique et romaine ne saurait être comparée sans humilité. La littérature judéenne, la Bible bien sûr mais aussi d’autres corpus de textes, n’ont pas été exhumés tels quels, mais nous sont parvenus par le biais d’une tradition complexe, marquée par un long et sélectif processus de transmission, à travers plusieurs langues. La découverte des manuscrits de la Mer morte a bouleversé cet état de fait, livrant soudain des documents de première main au regard des chercheurs. Il ne faudra toutefois pas s’étonner de la relative « pauvreté » des donnés judéennes en regard de la civilisation mésopotamienne.
    [Show full text]
  • Downloaded from Brill.Com09/30/2021 12:35:17AM Via Free Access 100 Chapter 5
    Chapter 5 Further Apprenticeship: šamallû to mašmaššu ṣeḫru This chapter discusses the limited material that exists from Kiṣir-Aššur’s “apprentice” šamallû, “junior apprentice exorcist” šamallû mašmaššu ṣeḫru and “junior exorcist” mašmaššu ṣehru phases to provide an overview of what is currently known about these intermediate phases of his training. Furthermore, a text related to calming an infant or a child from Kiṣir-Aššur’s šamallû mašmaššu ṣeḫru-phase is used to suggest that he acquired healing competences related to children. This chapter therefore discusses Kiṣir- Aššur’s possible involvement in healing infants and considers the general theories on infant and child healing in relation to Kiṣir-Aššur’s previous tab- lets. Texts from Kiṣir-Aššur’s nephew, Kiṣir-Nabû, are used to contextualize and discuss Kiṣir-Aššur’s manuscripts from his šamallû mašmaššu ṣeḫru- and mašmaššu ṣeḫru-phases. Furthermore, Kiṣir-Aššur’s tablets labelled as uʾiltus are also discussed in general. Additionally, this chapter examines Kiṣir-Aššur’s use of the phrase “(he) whose trust is Nabû” (ša Nabû tuklasssu) in colophons from his šamallû ṣeḫru and šamallû mašmaššu ṣeḫru phases, as well as on tablets without titles. This facilitates the distribution of a few tablets without titles onto Kiṣir-Aššur’s apprentice career phases. 5.1 The šamallû-phase After Kiṣir-Aššur’s relatively well-attested šamallû ṣeḫru-phase, Kiṣir-Aššur became a šamallû “apprentice” (Maul 2010: 208 and note 67). The phase is unfortunately only attested by two texts, of which one is unpublished. What follows presents the relevant tablets and their content in order to facilitate a cautious discussion of the manuscripts in relation to Kiṣir-Aššur’s career.
    [Show full text]
  • Kiṣir-Aššur's Mašmaššu-Phase
    Chapter 6 Kiṣir-Aššur’s mašmaššu-phase In this and the following chapter, I examine the mašmaššu-phase of Kiṣir- Aššur’s training, alongside associated material from the mašmaššu- and mašmaš bīt Aššur-phases. Chapter 6 consists of a close examination of the texts that can be securely assigned to this phase by means of the colophons, in which Kiṣir-Aššur is identified as a mašmaššu, and it provides an in-depth discussion of the significance of some of these texts for Kiṣir-Aššur’s career. In chapter 7, the tablets that can be assigned to the mašmaššu-phase on the basis of text-internal criteria are discussed, even though they do not explicitly iden- tify Kiṣir-Aššur as mašmaššu. The medical texts from Kiṣir-Aššur’s mašmaššu- phase are discussed in relation to his entire production of magico-medical texts in Section 9.1. The texts written during the mašmaššu-phase indicate that Kiṣir-Aššur’s education was not completed until sometime during this phase, yet the pre- cise date on which he would have “graduated” is unclear. It is possible that we have to assume an on-the-job transition from student or trainee to indepen- dent practitioner, but this has to remain hypothetical. If my reconstruction is correct, it is possible that some time after he was qualified as an exorcist he was able to begin treating patients on his own, i.e., without supervision, and he was also allowed to conduct house calls. 6.1 Texts with Colophons including the Title mašmaššu Table 9 shows that only eight tablets can be securely assigned to Kiṣir-Aššur’s mašmaššu-phase of training, as well as one text that may have been copied by either Kiṣir-Aššur or Kiṣir-Nabû.
    [Show full text]