State of Research (the field's) (Sticky)

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State of Research

From Maria-Louise Thomsen's 1992 discussion "Witchcraft and Magic in Ancient Mesopotamia" she makes a note on the state of Research in the field of Assyriology, particularly on Mesopotamian magic as a whole. While this statement is dated, it nonetheless remains a fairly accurate assessment, baring perhaps some of the theoretical attempts made in the 1999 volume "Mesopotamian Magic." In addition Wiggerman's 1992 work "Mesopotamian Protective Spirits" provides editions of some rituals such as Bit Meseri which weren't available to Thomsen at the time of her writing. Additionally, she mentions a lack of a "comprehensive study" of incantation material, to which G. Cunningham's 1996 overview may now suffice. Other of her comments and complaints remain reflective of the state of research today:





"Numerous tablets containing incantations against witchcraft and evil demons, excavated at Nineveh in the nineteenth century, were quoted, in part, as early as 1874 by Francois Lenormant in La magie chex les chaldeens et les origines accadiennes. Scholarly editions of these important texts were already published at the turn of the century, for instance, Maqlu by Tallqvist ub 1895, and collections of bilingual incantations against demons by Thompson in 1903-4. Since then a large number of similar texts has been excavated in other Mesopotamian sites as well as in neighbouring countries, and new and revised editions of these sources have continuously been made. However, editing a cuneiform text is complicated and time-consuming, since the text has to be reconstructed from numerous fragments, often dispersed in museums all over the world. Therefore, many texts have still not been translated or published with a copy of the cuneiform tablet, and no modern edition of even important rituals like Bit mesiri exists.

In spite of the many highly competent publications of the Mesopotamian magical texts, theoretical studies have been neglected and there is no modern, comprehensive study of this material. In the Assyriological literature about incantations and their rituals authors usually confine themselves to commentaries on grammatical and lexical problems, and little room is left for discussion of the content and background. There has been little or no consideration of the techniques of Mesopotamian magic or theorizing about its nature and history, and studies of themes such as its relationship to magic in other cultures, both contemporary and later (e.g. Hittite, Persian, European) are stil to be done."