Ritualbeschreibungen und Gebete I.

AuthorScurlock, JoAnn
PositionBook review

Ritualbeschreibungen und Gebete I. By STEFAN M. MAUL and Rita Strauss. Keilschrifttexte aus Assur literarischen Inhalts, vol. 4. Wissenschaftliche Veroffentlichungen der Deutschen OrientGesellschaft, vol. 133. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2011. Pp. xi + 240, plates. 48 [euro].

In this volume, which represents volume 4 in the KAL series, Stefan Maul and Rita StrauG have reached the unpromising fragments in the Berlin Museum collection. The exact provenience of many of the texts is uncertain due to irregularities in recording during the early seasons of excavation, most notably to the practice of giving a single Fundnummer to an entire group of texts and using impermanent ink on the tablets themselves. The texts are probably from the Assur-temple, with the exception of nos. 22 and 61, which are from a palace in the SE of the city or from the asipu's house (pp. 2-3).

The current volume edits 73 texts (pp. 25-128), of which nos. 1-53 are rituals and nos. 54-73 prayers. It is also provided with an introduction (pp. 1-8), a catalogue (pp. 9-23), concordances (pp. 129-34), indices of "Sumerian" and Akkadian divine names, temples, and places and persons (pp. 135-61), a bibliography (pp. 163-66), a set of elegant text copies by Rita Strauss (pp. 169-232), and selected photographs (pp. 233-40).

Of the rituals, nos. 1-23 are NAM.BUR.BIs, nos. 22-23 are stone charm amulets, nos. 24-33 are directed against witchcraft, and nos. 34-53 are for miscellaneous problems including leprosy (no. 41), ghost stomach, unspecified eye problems, and ["sick kidneys"] (no. 52), which joins BAM 165 to BAM 219, the latter having been previously considered a hopeless fragment.

Prayers are addressed to Enlil (no. 54), Istar (nos. 55-57), Madanu (nos. 58-59), Marduk (nos. 60-63), Nairn (no. 64), Nergal (no. 65), Sin (no. 66), and the stars (no. 67).

The NAM.BUR.BIs are mostly designed to avert ill-omened behavior by snakes and birds, but there is one, unfortunately very fragmentary, ritual (no. 9) that involves an earthquake. The amulets are particularly interesting in including a text consisting of magical names arranged in a magic circle around the client's name. This sort of charm had a long future: numerous examples are to be found in Greek magical papyri from Hellenistic Egypt.

Also of interest from this perspective is no. 53, which gives instructions for rituals to set up oracles. The first, daytime, ritual involves the baking of a kamanu-cake, which is taken out...

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