Campbell-Thompson and Assyrian Botany
Jan 2, 2009 8:37:23 GMT -5
Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Jan 2, 2009 8:37:23 GMT -5
Thread Orientation: This thread is an attempt to bring to the fore an unusual supplement to the study Mesopotamia, but which may nevertheless add to understanding of it's material culture and some ritual proceedings: Intense Botanical Scrutiny 0_0 oh boy
I have finally received this book in from Toronto, where I ordered it from some weeks ago, and unfortunately time runs short to extract what information I can from it. Campbell-Thompson's work on Botany is exciting in many respects - it is a large 404 page book which endeavors to examine the plant world as the Assyrians knew it, so it is no botany of modern day Iraq or anything like this. The author labored intently using the plant-lists (belonging to the lexical type of Mesopotamian text) as a guide and as he had long been intimately familiar with the Mesopotamian Incantation texts and was aware of their frequent mentioning of plants for ritual purposes, he considered them extensively in his study as well. His strong use of the Medical texts is also evident in this book. He combined this expertise with scholarship in Hebrew and Greek worldviews and with contemporary Botanical knowledge.
Some caution must be used in perusing this book as Campbell-Thompson was an earlier scholar and unfortunately passed on in 1941 before fully completely his work, and so despite the fact it now appears as a thick volume, according to the book's introduction it didn't fully realize the scope and execution the author had originally intended, but nevertheless was completed to a sufficient degree by his friends and colleagues in 1949. I won't consider it the end-all of what we would need here at enenuru for this subject, but will below do my best to extract all that may be useful and that may get us started on this effort.
Re-examining the Marduk/Ea Ritual Instructions/
When we examined the Ur III incantations available and specifically the Marduk/Ea typ and the ritual instructions present on these (see the Ur III Ritual and Ceremony thread, Reply # 3) it was seen that a significant number of plants were called for - this is in keeping with the observation that magic rites used those items which were typically available and on hand in southern Mesopotamia: pure water, animal products (from livestock), specialized vessels and the plants, for the most part. Some of the latter may have been imported. Below, I have pasted the summary of ritual ingredients found at the thread I've just mentioned, the items called for in the different Ur III Marduk/Ea incantations:
___________________________________
a) against birthing problems: Fat, Cream, ritual structure, incantation of Eridu
b) against birthing problems: ? plant, juices/cypress juices, rushes (remedy possibly concocted from these materials)
c) against fever: Blade of reed plant, and its water
d) against venom: Water from ala-vessel, spell to augment/purify water
e) against headache: purifying water/ cow fat(oil)
f) against headache: (instructions unclear) lamb, black goat
g) against Samana disease: cow fat, cream, lustration water (entrails?)
h) against Namtar: Water, silagar-vessel, ? reed
i) against injury from snare of demon: extract of the zah-hu leaf, numun plant
______________________
In the section of the dictionary dealing with fruits and trees, p. 286, Campbell-Thompson notes two different types of cypress recognized by the Mesopotamians:
1. iṣŠUR-MAN = Cupressus Sempervirens Horizontalis
2. iṣImdu (endu) = Cupressus Sempevirens Pyramidalis
So bear with me as this is some confusing stuff!! What is important to understand here is that the species of tree we now call today Cupressus Sempervirens comes in TWO varieties and the Mesopotamians also knew about them both and separately: they called them by different names, and used them in distinct though possibly similar manners. So I will treat the two varieties of this same species separately below. Most important, first we have:
1. iṣŠUR-MAN = Cupressus Sempervirens Horizontalis
This tree is the rounder more full variety of Cupressus Sempervirens, and though it has less reknown in the ancient world in general than the variety to be dealt with below - it may have the more important to the Mesopotamians as the more applicable for medical and ritual purposes. It was known to both the Sumerians (as ŠUR-MAN or šu-úr-me) and the Assyrians (šurmênu).
In Sumerian texts the cypress forests are mentioned many times mostly in relation to persons traveling abroad (Lugalbanda, or persons sent to retrieve tree's at the behest of Nanna) or another text mentions the Sun god rising above the horizon and resting "among the cypresses" - and other texts again refer to cypress of the mountains. In other words these tree's did not grow in Sumer proper but were among the lumbers imported from surrounding regions. This is further made explicit in a line from the building of Ningiru's temple: "I will bring ḫalub and neḫan trees up from the south, and cedar, cypress and zabalumwood together will be brought for you from the uplands". From the same text we see it was used in for ritual purposes: "He shook the brick mould and left the brick to dry. He looked at the …… with satisfaction. He anointed it with cypress essence and balsam (?)."
Campbell-Thompson notes from Pliny that "The tree produces a resin but no turpentine...its leaves an essential oil and tannin." He states that Pliny's prescriptions agree (correspond) to the Mesopotamian medical texts: "the leaves are drunk in infusion, they stain the hair black with vinegar, and are used as poultices for pains in the feet, etc ; the "excrescences" are applied to gatherings, and drunk for hernia ; the roots and leaves are drunk in infusion for stranguay. The oil is also used."
So when cypress juice is named in the ritual instructions of this particular incantation, I believe it is the resin of this tree for the reason this variety was called by its Sumerian name (šu-úr-me) which is that used in this text. (note cypress juice does not appear to be so much called for to be used in this particular incantation, but is used metaphorically or analogically in explaining what to anticipate from the womb while treating the pregnant mother (it is incantation dealing with child-birth)).
2. iṣImdu (endu) = Cupressus Sempevirens Pyramidalis
This variety of Cupressus Sempervirens Sempervirens (or known as well as Cupressus Sempervirens Pyramidalis) is much more well known in the ancient world at large, and indeed today as well - it is perhaps even famous or notorious in some places. It is a very tall, narrow, conical shaped tree which one might even say looks mournful and the ancients were apparently unanimous in this feeling. Alluding to a wiki article for a moment, we see at the entry for this tree states: "C. sempervirens was known by the ancient Greeks and Romans as "the mournful tree", sacred to the rulers of the underworld and to their associates, the Fates and the Furies. It was customary to plant it by a grave, and, at the time of a death, to place it either before the house of the decedent or in the vestibule, to warn those about to perform a sacred rite against entering a place polluted by a dead body. No Roman funeral was complete without cypress.. The cypress is the principal cemetery tree in the Muslim world as well as in ancient and modern European cultures."
In Turkey, Campbell-Thompson says, it was the cypress of the cemetery, and after each burial a Sempervirens Pyramidalis was planted (as with the Romans etc.). In Mesopotamia it was known only by this Semitic name iṣImdu and was characterized in the same way - "imdu of the grave" ... for whatever reason.. and thus from Mesopotamia to Europeans today there seems to be a continuous impression of this effect and stature of this tree! Very fascinating though sources of the Mesopotamian view of Sempervirens Pyramidalis as slim at the moment. Lastly, Campbell-Thompson alludes to a scattering of medical texts which indicate this variety was used in similar way to the above Sempervirens Horzontalis, for medicinal or magical purposes. (apparently despite it's rather foreboding nature..)
[/li][li] Rushes: The dictionary here contains no less then 18 entries corresponding to Mesopotamian words which may be interpreted to be rushes, long grass. Because our Sumerian incantation using the Sumerian GUG4 I will look only at Campbell-Thompson's entries which contain this word, and only two of those are substantial. Additionally, these to entries may infact refer to the same plant as is seen below. So we have:
1. GUG4, šamA-GUG4, elipitu, a rush. [and] Cyperus esculentus (?)
2. GUG4, urbatu, rushes generally, but particularly Cyperus esculentus L., the edible rush.
1. GUG4, elipitu: As for 1. the author describes this as a pliant rush, and it is given sometimes as "the couch of Ishtar" and so was possibly used for furniture. It was sturdy enough to be used to stir water in flour prior to the concoction being poured onto the ground in order to thwart haunting ghosts. Another equivalent of GUG4 is given as šamA-GUG4, suggesting that this was a water plant (a rush or reed) and it occurs in one text as an edible plant , causing Campbell-Thompson to suggest this plant may be the same as 2. (Cyperus esculentus.) Medical texts mention the name šamA-GUG4 as follows:
________________________
"In [medical texts] šamA-GUG4is prescribed ext. on a swelling with Acorus calamus, dried, pounded, with powder of supuhru cedar in fine-ground flour, steeped in rose-water and bound on."
2. GUG4, urbatu = Cyperus esculentus
The entry for this reed makes it clear is has the equivalence of the Arabic asal, the bardi-rush of Southern Babylonia with the edible root - that is Cyperus esculentus. These are plants that generally grow in moist area's such as the marshes. It medical use's are briefly recounted: it is used as a bandage, it's root peeled and eaten for snake bite, it's seed used with PA (tops) of gipari for heartburn and lastly (interestingly) KAR 194 mentions it in connection with childbirth problems (such as our Sumerian incantation is addressing.) KAR 194 mentions: "Thou shalt reduce vinegar (of) Cyperus (and) bones, and ..., put into her uterus on (in) a cloth." A vinegar made from this plant was used as part of a styptic than, to stop the bleeding, and this must relate to b), the Incantation under consideration.
[/li][li]Blade of reed plant: In turning to the plant used in c), unfortunately my source (Kramer 1989) does not provide a transliteration, and as I cannot find the Mesopotamian word behind the English term, and there is no entry for 'reed plant' in the dictionary, I am unable to reference this item accurately.
[/li][li]Reed
Reed: GI and GI-DUG3 = Acorus Calamus ?
Moving on to h) , we find an incantation calling for the use of the reed, a very common item throughout Mesopotamian and Mesopotamian literature. The dictionary here gives little information for GI , the basic Sumerian word for reed, and no suggestion for it's latin name. I therefore defer to the next entry GI-DUG3 (Akk. qanû tābu). This term appears to feature extensively in medical literature: it is used to rub on sore arms and legs, as a fumigation, enema and in oil. Campbell-Thompson states "A great many characteristics of the drug [made from GI-DUG3] would lead us to identify it with Acorus calamus L., in spite of certain difficulties."
At present I am not certain this is the reed called for in the Sumerian incantation but it is a possibility.
[/li][li]Zah-hu leaf
Lastly, there is i) ARRGGG I can`t find out more about the Zah-hu tree! this is from a Sumerian incantation that Geller treats - regrettably it is not bi-lingual and there is no footnote accompanying this item, and so there is only the term Zah-hu to go by, it is marked by the determinative for tree - gišzah-hu. I am unable to get further leverage after consulting CDLI, ePSD, ETCSL and even the thick Dictionary on Assyrian Botany seems to have nothing on this, though a possibility remains that Campbell-Thompson has misread the word, or that this item is found only on the tablet that Geller examined (after Campbell-Thompson`s death).
In any case I am very frustrated on this one and must find something - this is a real challenge!
[/li][li]Numun plant
This is yet another one the dictionary seems to fail me on, and given the treatment at ePSD and ETCSL I can only wonder over two possible interpretations. This item appears in the incantations as u2Numun2 (written ZI+ZI.A), and this is present in two different ePSD entries where it is translated variously as "alfalfa grass" or "esparto grass"; the same ambiguity occurs at ETCSL. Until we obtain a more up to date botany, or other authoritative source (which ideally would even supply the modern scientific name of the item) we can only assume one of these two grasses is called for in the incantation.
[/li][/ul]
____________________________________
Reviewing:
A Dictionary of Assyrian Botany
by: R. Campbell Thompson (1949)
__________________________
Reviewing:
A Dictionary of Assyrian Botany
by: R. Campbell Thompson (1949)
__________________________
I have finally received this book in from Toronto, where I ordered it from some weeks ago, and unfortunately time runs short to extract what information I can from it. Campbell-Thompson's work on Botany is exciting in many respects - it is a large 404 page book which endeavors to examine the plant world as the Assyrians knew it, so it is no botany of modern day Iraq or anything like this. The author labored intently using the plant-lists (belonging to the lexical type of Mesopotamian text) as a guide and as he had long been intimately familiar with the Mesopotamian Incantation texts and was aware of their frequent mentioning of plants for ritual purposes, he considered them extensively in his study as well. His strong use of the Medical texts is also evident in this book. He combined this expertise with scholarship in Hebrew and Greek worldviews and with contemporary Botanical knowledge.
Some caution must be used in perusing this book as Campbell-Thompson was an earlier scholar and unfortunately passed on in 1941 before fully completely his work, and so despite the fact it now appears as a thick volume, according to the book's introduction it didn't fully realize the scope and execution the author had originally intended, but nevertheless was completed to a sufficient degree by his friends and colleagues in 1949. I won't consider it the end-all of what we would need here at enenuru for this subject, but will below do my best to extract all that may be useful and that may get us started on this effort.
Re-examining the Marduk/Ea Ritual Instructions/
When we examined the Ur III incantations available and specifically the Marduk/Ea typ and the ritual instructions present on these (see the Ur III Ritual and Ceremony thread, Reply # 3) it was seen that a significant number of plants were called for - this is in keeping with the observation that magic rites used those items which were typically available and on hand in southern Mesopotamia: pure water, animal products (from livestock), specialized vessels and the plants, for the most part. Some of the latter may have been imported. Below, I have pasted the summary of ritual ingredients found at the thread I've just mentioned, the items called for in the different Ur III Marduk/Ea incantations:
___________________________________
a) against birthing problems: Fat, Cream, ritual structure, incantation of Eridu
b) against birthing problems: ? plant, juices/cypress juices, rushes (remedy possibly concocted from these materials)
c) against fever: Blade of reed plant, and its water
d) against venom: Water from ala-vessel, spell to augment/purify water
e) against headache: purifying water/ cow fat(oil)
f) against headache: (instructions unclear) lamb, black goat
g) against Samana disease: cow fat, cream, lustration water (entrails?)
h) against Namtar: Water, silagar-vessel, ? reed
i) against injury from snare of demon: extract of the zah-hu leaf, numun plant
______________________
- Cypress Juices
In the section of the dictionary dealing with fruits and trees, p. 286, Campbell-Thompson notes two different types of cypress recognized by the Mesopotamians:
1. iṣŠUR-MAN = Cupressus Sempervirens Horizontalis
2. iṣImdu (endu) = Cupressus Sempevirens Pyramidalis
So bear with me as this is some confusing stuff!! What is important to understand here is that the species of tree we now call today Cupressus Sempervirens comes in TWO varieties and the Mesopotamians also knew about them both and separately: they called them by different names, and used them in distinct though possibly similar manners. So I will treat the two varieties of this same species separately below. Most important, first we have:
1. iṣŠUR-MAN = Cupressus Sempervirens Horizontalis
This tree is the rounder more full variety of Cupressus Sempervirens, and though it has less reknown in the ancient world in general than the variety to be dealt with below - it may have the more important to the Mesopotamians as the more applicable for medical and ritual purposes. It was known to both the Sumerians (as ŠUR-MAN or šu-úr-me) and the Assyrians (šurmênu).
In Sumerian texts the cypress forests are mentioned many times mostly in relation to persons traveling abroad (Lugalbanda, or persons sent to retrieve tree's at the behest of Nanna) or another text mentions the Sun god rising above the horizon and resting "among the cypresses" - and other texts again refer to cypress of the mountains. In other words these tree's did not grow in Sumer proper but were among the lumbers imported from surrounding regions. This is further made explicit in a line from the building of Ningiru's temple: "I will bring ḫalub and neḫan trees up from the south, and cedar, cypress and zabalumwood together will be brought for you from the uplands". From the same text we see it was used in for ritual purposes: "He shook the brick mould and left the brick to dry. He looked at the …… with satisfaction. He anointed it with cypress essence and balsam (?)."
Campbell-Thompson notes from Pliny that "The tree produces a resin but no turpentine...its leaves an essential oil and tannin." He states that Pliny's prescriptions agree (correspond) to the Mesopotamian medical texts: "the leaves are drunk in infusion, they stain the hair black with vinegar, and are used as poultices for pains in the feet, etc ; the "excrescences" are applied to gatherings, and drunk for hernia ; the roots and leaves are drunk in infusion for stranguay. The oil is also used."
So when cypress juice is named in the ritual instructions of this particular incantation, I believe it is the resin of this tree for the reason this variety was called by its Sumerian name (šu-úr-me) which is that used in this text. (note cypress juice does not appear to be so much called for to be used in this particular incantation, but is used metaphorically or analogically in explaining what to anticipate from the womb while treating the pregnant mother (it is incantation dealing with child-birth)).
2. iṣImdu (endu) = Cupressus Sempevirens Pyramidalis
This variety of Cupressus Sempervirens Sempervirens (or known as well as Cupressus Sempervirens Pyramidalis) is much more well known in the ancient world at large, and indeed today as well - it is perhaps even famous or notorious in some places. It is a very tall, narrow, conical shaped tree which one might even say looks mournful and the ancients were apparently unanimous in this feeling. Alluding to a wiki article for a moment, we see at the entry for this tree states: "C. sempervirens was known by the ancient Greeks and Romans as "the mournful tree", sacred to the rulers of the underworld and to their associates, the Fates and the Furies. It was customary to plant it by a grave, and, at the time of a death, to place it either before the house of the decedent or in the vestibule, to warn those about to perform a sacred rite against entering a place polluted by a dead body. No Roman funeral was complete without cypress.. The cypress is the principal cemetery tree in the Muslim world as well as in ancient and modern European cultures."
In Turkey, Campbell-Thompson says, it was the cypress of the cemetery, and after each burial a Sempervirens Pyramidalis was planted (as with the Romans etc.). In Mesopotamia it was known only by this Semitic name iṣImdu and was characterized in the same way - "imdu of the grave" ... for whatever reason.. and thus from Mesopotamia to Europeans today there seems to be a continuous impression of this effect and stature of this tree! Very fascinating though sources of the Mesopotamian view of Sempervirens Pyramidalis as slim at the moment. Lastly, Campbell-Thompson alludes to a scattering of medical texts which indicate this variety was used in similar way to the above Sempervirens Horzontalis, for medicinal or magical purposes. (apparently despite it's rather foreboding nature..)
[/li][li] Rushes: The dictionary here contains no less then 18 entries corresponding to Mesopotamian words which may be interpreted to be rushes, long grass. Because our Sumerian incantation using the Sumerian GUG4 I will look only at Campbell-Thompson's entries which contain this word, and only two of those are substantial. Additionally, these to entries may infact refer to the same plant as is seen below. So we have:
1. GUG4, šamA-GUG4, elipitu, a rush. [and] Cyperus esculentus (?)
2. GUG4, urbatu, rushes generally, but particularly Cyperus esculentus L., the edible rush.
Cyperus esculentus
1. GUG4, elipitu: As for 1. the author describes this as a pliant rush, and it is given sometimes as "the couch of Ishtar" and so was possibly used for furniture. It was sturdy enough to be used to stir water in flour prior to the concoction being poured onto the ground in order to thwart haunting ghosts. Another equivalent of GUG4 is given as šamA-GUG4, suggesting that this was a water plant (a rush or reed) and it occurs in one text as an edible plant , causing Campbell-Thompson to suggest this plant may be the same as 2. (Cyperus esculentus.) Medical texts mention the name šamA-GUG4 as follows:
________________________
"In [medical texts] šamA-GUG4is prescribed ext. on a swelling with Acorus calamus, dried, pounded, with powder of supuhru cedar in fine-ground flour, steeped in rose-water and bound on."
2. GUG4, urbatu = Cyperus esculentus
The entry for this reed makes it clear is has the equivalence of the Arabic asal, the bardi-rush of Southern Babylonia with the edible root - that is Cyperus esculentus. These are plants that generally grow in moist area's such as the marshes. It medical use's are briefly recounted: it is used as a bandage, it's root peeled and eaten for snake bite, it's seed used with PA (tops) of gipari for heartburn and lastly (interestingly) KAR 194 mentions it in connection with childbirth problems (such as our Sumerian incantation is addressing.) KAR 194 mentions: "Thou shalt reduce vinegar (of) Cyperus (and) bones, and ..., put into her uterus on (in) a cloth." A vinegar made from this plant was used as part of a styptic than, to stop the bleeding, and this must relate to b), the Incantation under consideration.
[/li][li]Blade of reed plant: In turning to the plant used in c), unfortunately my source (Kramer 1989) does not provide a transliteration, and as I cannot find the Mesopotamian word behind the English term, and there is no entry for 'reed plant' in the dictionary, I am unable to reference this item accurately.
[/li][li]Reed
Acorus Calamus
Reed: GI and GI-DUG3 = Acorus Calamus ?
Moving on to h) , we find an incantation calling for the use of the reed, a very common item throughout Mesopotamian and Mesopotamian literature. The dictionary here gives little information for GI , the basic Sumerian word for reed, and no suggestion for it's latin name. I therefore defer to the next entry GI-DUG3 (Akk. qanû tābu). This term appears to feature extensively in medical literature: it is used to rub on sore arms and legs, as a fumigation, enema and in oil. Campbell-Thompson states "A great many characteristics of the drug [made from GI-DUG3] would lead us to identify it with Acorus calamus L., in spite of certain difficulties."
At present I am not certain this is the reed called for in the Sumerian incantation but it is a possibility.
[/li][li]Zah-hu leaf
Lastly, there is i) ARRGGG I can`t find out more about the Zah-hu tree! this is from a Sumerian incantation that Geller treats - regrettably it is not bi-lingual and there is no footnote accompanying this item, and so there is only the term Zah-hu to go by, it is marked by the determinative for tree - gišzah-hu. I am unable to get further leverage after consulting CDLI, ePSD, ETCSL and even the thick Dictionary on Assyrian Botany seems to have nothing on this, though a possibility remains that Campbell-Thompson has misread the word, or that this item is found only on the tablet that Geller examined (after Campbell-Thompson`s death).
In any case I am very frustrated on this one and must find something - this is a real challenge!
[/li][li]Numun plant
This is yet another one the dictionary seems to fail me on, and given the treatment at ePSD and ETCSL I can only wonder over two possible interpretations. This item appears in the incantations as u2Numun2 (written ZI+ZI.A), and this is present in two different ePSD entries where it is translated variously as "alfalfa grass" or "esparto grass"; the same ambiguity occurs at ETCSL. Until we obtain a more up to date botany, or other authoritative source (which ideally would even supply the modern scientific name of the item) we can only assume one of these two grasses is called for in the incantation.
[/li][/ul]
