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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Apr 16, 2007 1:33:29 GMT -5
In anticipation of the lauching in coming months of the main focus of this board, that is Sumerian and Mesopotamian Incantations, Id request that members post on this thread any relevant sources they feel would be helpful. Personally I believe this particular subject is an esoteric aspect of an esoteric field, composed of interdepent and progressive studies of what appears to be a small number of specialists i.e. Krebernik/Geller/Van Djik/Cunningham/Michalowski/Wiggermann/Veldhuis etc etc. This thread is meant to pool suggestions for books and electronic resources dealing with the subject at hand. Post what you have or what you want, what urls are availble or what sources you want but cannot currently obtain etc or take the ideas for such - they are hard to come by. To get things started: [Physical books Im currently reading] Deliever me from Evil: Mesopotamian Incantations 2500-1500 by Graham Cunningham Forerunners to Udug-hul M.J. Geller Early Incantations and Rituals by Van Djik and Hussey Mesopotamian Protective Spirits by F.A.M. Wiggermann [Electronic material I have of interest - I will email on request. As most of you know I will email without request too. ;] ] "When you perform the ritual of "rubbing" on medicine and magic in Ancient Mesopotamia" pdf by Barbara Bock "A Neo-Sumerian ritual tablet in Philadelphia" pdf By Michael Dick A brief examination of HI-la2 in incantations by N. Veldhuis [CDLI] "Another Early Dynastic Incantation" by N. Veldhuis [CDLI] "Ancient Near Eastern Gods Enki and Ea" by Peeter Espak
"Historical Fragments" by Leon Legrain [Aged though contains a few Incantations addressed by M.thingy]
"Aetiology of illness in ancient Mesopotamia: On Supernatural causes" by Erica Couto-Ferreira
Wanted: B. Alster A Sumerian Incantation Against Gall. Orientalia n.s. 41 (1972) 349-358.
B. Alster Incantation to Utu. In: Acta Sumerologica 13 (1991) 27-96.
T. Abusch, Mesopotamian Witchcraft
I. Finkel, Necromancy in Ancient Mesopotamia AfO 29-30 (1983-1984) 1-17
*****J. Scurlock, Magical Means of Dealing With Ghosts in Ancient Mesopotamia Update Apr.29 - Though Id previously read this as being only availble in and "unpublished dissertation, University of Chicago 1988)" After browseing dove books I noticed its now a printed book, printed 2005 (isbn 9789004123977) . It would defintely help the study of the gidim. And - its only $251.99
www.dovebook.com/new/product.asp?code=like'452'&pagecount=VAR "Very Different Utu Incantations" (ASJ 17 (1995), 101- 126 by Geller P. MICHALOWSKI, "The Early Mesopotamian Incantation Tradition."184 Rituals and Incantation [when I learn german] M. KREBERNIK, Die Beschwörungen aus Fara und Ebla: Untersuchungen zur ältesten keilschriftlichen Beschwörungsliteratur
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Apr 20, 2007 21:41:34 GMT -5
** Update As a brief illustration of why I think it necessary to a methodical approach to this particular subject, and why its necessary to formulate a sources list etc, Ill quote some opening lines of Binsbergen/Wiggermann paper: "One of the stumbling blocks in the study of religion in Ancient Mesopotamia is that of the theoretical approach to magic. The analyst has a choice of various theoretical positions, each with a venerable ancestry to recommend it. Without trying to be exhaustive, we shall review a number of typical approaches in this connexion" and later: " Fully aware that this is only a tentative first formulation of a new theoretical perspective, in the conclusion we review a few topics for further research." Even my preliminary look into Mesopotamian magic over the course of a few months, which attempted to be progressive in nature, found some inconsistency's or contradiction in scholarly understanding. (Ill post that here in time as a start point). Also I would want to mention here, a fantastic online Bibliography, composed by Lorenzo Verderame for a neo-Assyrian project. This bibliography references some 842 works, most relating to either magic or divination in Mesopotamia, amazing list..particularly for our multi-linguals. Logistically we would probably utilitize only a small percentage or some choice works at any given point however. cheers www.orientalisti.net/na_magic.htm
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Post by madness on Apr 21, 2007 3:02:32 GMT -5
Kohl, according to Piotr Michalowski's own resume www-personal.umich.edu/~piotrm/cv1.htmlThe article The Early Mesopotamian Incantation Tradition appears in Literature and Language at Eblawww.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~FROLITERA-- Well uh, here are some books that I have just ordered. The Storm-God in the Ancient Near East Alberto Green Deliver Me From Evil Graham Cunningham The Sumerian Sacred Marriage Pirjo Lapinkivi Trees, Kings, and Politics Barbara Porter The Image of the Netherworld in the Sumerian Sources Dina Katz Early Mesopotamian Incantations and Rituals Jan Van Dijk Babylonian Witchcraft Literature Tzvi Abusch
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Apr 22, 2007 22:19:01 GMT -5
Thanks for the link M, for the Michalowski book. Id been surfing around for quite a time for that. Excellent choices as well ;] - Ill email you feedback in order to keep this thread mainly functional. By the way, a list fo suggested reading for P. Michalowski's seminar "Sumerian Magic" [2001] can be found at www-personal.umich.edu/~piotrm/ACABS615.htmlSome of which we have accounted for on this thread. This will help to re-enforce the materials suggested thus far I hope.
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Post by belmurru on Apr 24, 2007 2:13:49 GMT -5
Wanted: B. Alster A Sumerian Incantation Against Gall. Orientalia n.s. 41 (1972) 349-358. B. Alster Incantation to Utu. In: Acta Sumerologica 13 (1991) 27-96. L. Finkel, Necromancy in Ancient Mesopotamia AfO 29-30 (1983-1984) 1-17 Hi Kohl, I have these three. Are there specific passages you need? Ross
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Apr 24, 2007 22:11:20 GMT -5
Ah excellent Ross, thank you ;] resourceful as always. Ill email you with specifics.
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Apr 28, 2007 21:37:13 GMT -5
This post is still a 'materials' post, just a detailed one. There are 2 purposes of this post. 1. To mention an ED compendium tablet 'MS 4549/1' Ive seen listed at the schoyen collection and 2. To outline the Early dynastic texts Cunningham [1997] catalogues, and to try and determine if the Schoyen tablet 'MS 4549/1' is included in this survey (which id assumed to be inclusive) www.schoyencollection.com/magical.htm#5085 Above are two tablets in the Schoyen collection. They deal with Early Dynastic incantations and are thus a matter of high interest to me, and should be impacting on coming discussions. These tablets are significant for many reasons, for reasons that may be clear to you on reading their descriptions at the above, or for reasons that may become clear when discussion on E.D incantation texts begin. Particularly I'm concerned with the second tablet 'MS 4549/1' for now. Using Cunningham's guide, I did want to outline for the resources list, the lists of E.D [or pre-Sargonic] incantations, and where their corresponding tablets are physically stored in modern times - for future reference. This is something that touches on where I want to go, but I think is appropriate as well for this particular thread in that it may add a resource or two in the process. For the below list Ive also made use of a document Cyn sent me that explains ANE abbreviations, which I believe she's given permission to distribute here, so email me if you havent got it yet. Its made me be able to interpret such lingo as "ARET 5 19" which Ive futilely been puzzling at for a good amount of time. [thx Cyn!] ..This is going to be difficult. ;] **Pertaining to Early Dynastic Sumerian incantation texts only** There are 31 E.D incantations Cunningham treats, he refers to them as Texts 1 sequentially through to Texts 31. A point which I will try to make, and which is a good one for the layman to note (but at first, a difficult one for the layman make) is that this does not mean there are 31 incantation tablets sitting around. Most of These texts are found on "compendium tablets" compendium as in "a collection of various items." Before we get in to that, here is a summation of the provenance, or locality the tablets were found in [skimmed from Cunninghams Pre-Sargonic chapter]: - Texts 1-16 were from Suruppak (excluding 8b and 8c which are Ebla duplicates of a Suruppak incantation) [pg.5] - Texts 17, 18 are from Lagash [pg.6] - Text 19 unknown provenance [pg.6] - Text 20-31 are from Ebla [pg.8] The question at hand becomes, where does the Schoyen tablet fit in with Cunninghams Survey, or is it included in that study at all? On pg.22 Cunningham outlines the 'Compendiumness' of the tablets (yes thats my word), that is how many incantations are on a given tablet. -Some of these compendium tablets contain in addition to Sumerian incantation's, Semitic incantations. For this article Im only noting the Sumerian- Compendium tablet 'SF 54'* contains 8 [ED] Sum. incantations [Texts 8a-15, Provenance = Suruppak] *Currently, I do not know what SF stands for, however this is an abbreviation for whatever modern facility posses the Tablet. Compendium tablet 'SF 46" contains 7 [ED] Sum. incantations [Texts 1-7, Provenance = Suruppak] Compendium tablet 'TSS 170' contains 5[ED]Sum. incantations [Texts 9b, 10b, 11b, 12b. 13b, duplicates, Provenance = Suruppak] *TSS stands for: "TSŠ = R. Jestin, Tablettes sumériennes de Šuruppak conservées au Musée de Stamboul (Paris 1937) Compendium tablet “CIRPL Urn 49” contains 1 [ED] Sum. Incantation (the rest are destroyed, but it once listed more) [Text 17 , Provenance = Lagash] *CIRPL stans for “ CIRPL = E. Sollberger, Corpus des inscriptions “Royales” présargoniques de Lagas” Compendium tablet 'ARET 5 19' contains 9 [ED] Sum. incantations [Texts 18b (dup. of Lagash inc.) and texts 20-17, Provenace=Ebla] *ARET stands for: "ARET = Archivi reali di Ebla - Testi (Rom)" Compendium tablet "ARET 5 8' contains 2 [ED] Sum. incantations [Texts 8b (dup. of Suruppak inc.) and text 28, Provenance=Ebla) Compendium tablet 'ARET 5 10' contains 2 [ED] Sum. incantations [Texts 8c (dup. of Suruppak Inc.) and text 23b Provenance=Ebla) Compendium tablet 'ARET 5 17' contains 1 [ED] Sum incantation (and 1 Semitic so it is a compendium tablet) (Text 28b Provenance=Ebla) Thus there are 3 Compendium tablets from Suruppak, they contain 20 incantations *I There is 1 Compendium Tablet from Lagash, containing 1 surviving incantation *II There are 5 Compendium tablets from Ebla, they contain 14 incantations. *III There are further, 8 tablets mentioned in the catalogue but not in the Compendium list, *IV thus they must be single incantation tablets. In specifice, these are: Text 16 SF 71 [Suruppak] , Text 18a : Bi Mes* [Lagash] Text 19 RIAA [Unknown] Texts 28 ARET 5 15 [Ebla] , Texts 29 ARET 5 11 [Ebla] Text 30 ARET 5 12 [Ebla] Text 31 ARET 5 13 31b: [Ebla] ARET 5 14 [Ebla] * BiMes = Bibliotheca Mesopotamica (Malibu) The tablet count is: Suruppak: 3 Compendium, 1 single = 4 Lagash: 1 Compendium, 1 single = 2 Ebla: 4 Compendium, 5 single = 9 The incantation count is, 20 + [II] 1 + [III] 14 + [IV] 8 – 12 [duplicates] = 31
Now, from the Schoyen website, is an explanation of how their tablet, 'MS 4549/1' , fits in to the ED incantation picture, the "context" of this particular tablet :
"Context: There are 4 similar tablets from Fara [Suruppak], 1 tablet from Lagash, and 12 tablets from Ebla, all except 1 are small and broken. None of these overlap the present tablet, which makes it the major tablet of the genre. It might be related to MS 4550 with a similar text; cf. MS 3280, Snake incantations, and MS 4549/2 by the same scribe."
In comparing this estimate to Cunninghams catalogue, Both attest 4 tablets from Suruppak, Schoyen states just one tablet from Lagash – Cunningham counts 2, but Im speculating this may be because Text 17 'CIRPL Urn 49' , is an "Ur-Nanse Diorite Plaque"; Perhaps this has caused them not to count it as a tablet. Because the provenance of MS 4549/1 is given as “Ebla?” on the collection page, Ive payed close attention to Cunningham’s Ebla tablet count and its interesting he seems to count 9 Ebla tablets on Sumerian ED incantations while Schoyen indicate 12 – those 12 are said to be ‘similar’ to the ‘present tablet’ [MS 4549/1 that is - so it is the 13th]. Do these 4 tablets represent unpublished ED Sum. Incantation tablets then?
I think that this is an example of an unpublished ED Compendium tablet, possibly from Ebla, which contains 9 un-accounted for incantations. If that isn’t already established, Id add in support: 1. In his introduction to the pre-Sargonic chapter, Cunningham states “the incantations may have been regarded as in some way distinct because they are the only group of texts which have no colophons, and thus no scribal names”. This in contradiction to uniqueness of MS 4549-1, and "Ur-Gibil", which Im sure Cunningham would have made a footnote of if he had been including this tablet in his survey. 2. Though Im new to Scholarly abbreviations, Im presuming that ARET - Archivi reali di Ebla - Testi (Rom) – does not equate to “Schoyen collection”. And every relevant Ebla text Cunningham references is from ARET. 3. Pg. one of the book states “This study analyzes five aspects of the approximately 450 published incantations dating to the period from 2500 to 1500 BC”. So Cunningham only catalogues published texts [with some reason Im sure]. 4. The author does make some mention explicitly, of some incantations that did not make it into the book:
a) One unpublished incantation tablet from Abu Salabikh [AbS 2714 (photograph of reverse Iraq 52 plate 15d] And also “further unpublished Sumerian Incantations come from Adab, and possibly Nippur (Michalowski 1992 pp315 and 322-23)". This remark made on pg.1 on E.D. section, so there assumed to be Early Dynastic
b) He also mentions some ‘references’ brought to his attention after the study was complete, that he was unable to include. In particular “Michalowski 1992 figure nos 9.1, 11.1.1 and 11.3.2.5 (three third millennium incantations)” Im not sure if these are the same as those mentioned in a), because if he wanted them in his study, they would have had to be published to meet criteria. Those in a) were not. Perhaps, but by no means necessarily, these represent the 3 unaccounted for Ebla tablets.
Corrections/additions welcome.
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Post by saharda on May 26, 2007 15:17:06 GMT -5
I was also looking through and noticed that you didn't mention Foster. His texts are Akkadian, but they are valuable in that the Akkadians and the Sumerians were particularly close in terms of religion.
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Post by madness on Jun 11, 2007 9:23:23 GMT -5
The The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project web site provides a communications directory, which is a large list of email addresses of ANE scholars. www.helsinki.fi/science/saa/www.helsinki.fi/science/saa/e-addr.htmlA stern warning comes with the list, so use it responsibly... or else. "This list is provided solely as a courtesy and a convenience for academic professionals. Any other use of the list, especially for commercial purposes, is considered unethical behavior and may result in the invasion of the offender’s country by a coalition of the willing."
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Jul 20, 2007 0:39:01 GMT -5
First Id like to mention an area of the ePSD Ive stumbled across recently, which potentially may be something to note. The area provide the transliteration only for a good number of incantations, for example YOS XI transliterations are found there, Udug-hul series transliterations, also of high interestm s Krebernik's Early Dynastic transliterations are also available. I will map every incantation there this summer, for now here is the url: psd.museum.upenn.edu/PSD/html/ascii/incantation/ To avoid redundancy, Ive refrained from listing relevant publications that are already named in the "Sumerian Incantation Catalogue" thread. Books: -I. Finkel and M.J Geller 2007: Disease in Babylonia (Cuneiform Monographs) (Hardcover) isbn: 9004124012Description: "'The present collection of articles on disease in Babylonia is the first such volume to appear providing detailed information derived from published and unpublished medical texts in cuneiform script from the second and first millennia BC." -Jan Van Dijk, M. J. Geller, and Joachim Oelsner 2003: Ur III Incantations from the Frau Professor Hilprecht-Collection isbn: 3447047070Description: "This volume contains all of the Sumerian incantations from the time of the Third Dynasty of Ur (ca. 2100 –2000 B.C.) housed in the Hilprecht Collection of Near Eastern Antiquities, Jena, along with some related texts from other collections. The edition of this important and difficult corpus of texts, which predominantly stem from the ancient city of Nippur, is based on a manuscript by the famous assyriologist J. J. van Dijk, who died in 1996. Van Dijk’s posthumous manuscript was revised by Joachim Oelsner and enlarged significantly by Markham J. Geller. For each cuneiform text the edition provides a transliteration, translation and philological commentary as well as hand copies and photographs. The vocabulary is fully documented in a comprehensive glossary." -Graham Cunningham 1999: Religion and Magic: Approaches and Theories isbn: 0814715877Description: (Not specifically ANE in focus) "This work offers a survey summarizing the approaches taken to religion and magic by the principal scholars in the preceding and present centuries. It should be a useful reference tool for students, introducing them to the main theories and debates." ( ?) van Djik: Nicht-Kanonische Beschworungen und sonstige literarische Texte = Vorderasiatiche Schrifidenkmaler, 17; Journals/Periodicals: -Gertrud Farber 1984: 'Another Old Babylonian Childbirth Incantation.' JNES 43, p311ff (I believe this touchs on some of the UrIII incantations related to childbirth.) -Walter Farber 1990b: 'Mannum Luspur ana Enkidu: some new thoughts about an old motif', JNES 49, p299ff -R. Frankena 1957-71: 'Gula', Reallexikon der Assyriologue 3, p695ff -Thorkild Jacobsen 1985: 'Ur-Nanshe's Diorite Plaque' Orientalia 54, p65ff. -Lambert W.G 1974: 'Dingir.šà.dib.ba Incantations, JNES 33, p57ff -Benno Landsberger and Thorkild Jacobsen 1955: 'An Old Babylonian Charm again Merhu', JNES 14m p14ff -Piotr Michalowski 1985: (http://www-personal.umich.edu/~piotrm/cv1.html) 'On some Early Magical Texts', Orientalia 52 p216ff and 1993: 'Torch and the Censor', Cohen et al 1993m p152ff. and 1991 "Incantation Incipits," N.A.B.U. 48. Also note Michalowski has a 'work in progress' entitled "Ur III Incantations from Nippur" -Erica Reiner 1958: 'šurpu: A Collection of Sumerian and Akkadian Incantations' (AfO Beih 11), Graz -Herbert Sauren 1968: 'Une conjuration sumerienne et ses rapports avec le culte', Geneva NS 16, p109ff. -Marcel Sigrist 1987: 'On the Bite of a Dog', MArks and Good 1987 p85ff. -Niek Veldhuis 1993b: 'The Fly, the Worm, and the Chain: Old Babylonian Chain Incantations' Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica 24, p41ff. and Review of "G. Cunningham, "Deliver Me from Evil" Mesopotamian Incantations 2500-1500 BC (Studia Pohl Series Maior 17). Rome 1997", in Bibliotheca Orientalis 55, 850-852. also Review of "G. Cunningham, Religion and Magic. Approaches and Theories. Edinburgh 1999" in Archiv für Orientforschung 48/49 (2001/2002), 226-228 -W . von Soden 1954: 'Eine albabylonische Beschworungen gegen die Damonin Lamastum', Orientalia 23, p337ff. and 1956: 'Eine altassyrische Beschworungen gegen die Damonin Lamastum', Orientalia 25, p141ff. -Claus Wilke 1985: 'Liebesbeschworungen aus Isin', Zeitschift fur Assyiorlogie 75, p188ff. -A. J. Ferrara 1995: “Topoi and stock-strophes in Sumerian Literary tradition: Some Observations, part I” JNES 54, 81-117 -M.J Geller (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/hebrew-jewish/aboutus/geller.php) More Magic Spells and Formulae, BSOAS 60.2 (1997), pp. 327-35 (with 4 plates) Freud, Magic and Mesopotamia: How the Magic Works, Folklore 108 (1997), pp. 1-7. 'Mesopotamian Love Magic: Discourse or Intercourse?', CRAAI 47/1 (2003), ed. S. Parpola and R. Whiting (Helsinki, 2002), 129-139 A New piece of Witchcraft, in Dumu Edubba, Studies in Honor of A Sjöberg, (Philadlephia, 1989), 193-205.
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Jul 23, 2007 23:10:10 GMT -5
-Viganò Lorenzo. "Rituals at Ebla." Journal of Near Eastern Studies 54 (1995) 215-22.
-Heinsohn, Gunnar. "The Rise of Blood Sacrifice and Priest-Kingship in Mesopotamia: A Cosmic Decree?" Religion 22 (1992) 109-34.
-Scurlock, J. A. "Magical Uses of Ancient Mesopotamian Festivals of the Dead." In Ancient Magic and Ritual Power. M. Meyer and P. Mirecki, 93-107. Religions in the Graeco-Roman World, 129. Leiden: Brill, 1995.
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Post by madness on Jul 24, 2007 1:44:58 GMT -5
Two books I received today, both edited by Michael Fishbane et al.
Death, Ecstasy, and Other Worldly Journeys
The first two articles of this book are: Wisdom's Place by Jonathan Z. Smith. Here he discusses the Gilgamesh Epic and other Gilgamesh texts. Ascent to the Stars in a Mesopotamian Ritual: Social Metaphor and Religious Experience by Tzvi Abusch. Here he discusses the Maqlu text. This article is a valuable addition for those of you who are trying to follow Abusch's work on Maqlu.
Unfortunately they are the only two articles in the book that discuss Mesopotamia. The rest of the book deals with late antiquity (Jewish and Christian) beliefs, the medieval period, and modern ideas.
The other book is: The Jewish Study Bible
The annotations in this book discuss ancient near eastern origins of biblical tales, so possibly this is of interest to some of you, though there are probably other books out there that deal with the subject in more depth. Other than that, this book is not of any other real interest to this group, I mainly got it because I wanted to keep a copy of the Tanakh around (it features the latest (1999) version of the JPS translation), and that it contains quite a few essays on Jewish belief and on the Bible.
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Post by madness on Jul 25, 2007 3:31:41 GMT -5
For a while I have been looking for a copy of the full translation of the Maqlu text. Looks like I found it. Readings from the Ancient Near East: Primary Sources for Old Testament Studyby Bill T. Arnold and Bryan E. Beyer This book happens to contain not only the Maqlu text but also the Shurpu text, plus various other Mesopotamian texts. ..and hopefully it does provide the full text, and not merely excerpts. Review: www.arts.ualberta.ca/JHS/reviews/review091.htmPurchase from: EisenbraunsAmazonEDIT: Nope, this book does not contain the full text of either, only excerpts.
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Post by madness on Aug 14, 2007 2:39:02 GMT -5
www.periodicals.com/The Periodicals Service Company stocks hard to find and out of print academic journals. Contains quite a few that we're looking for, but they don't come cheap.
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Post by madness on Sept 1, 2007 1:43:10 GMT -5
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Post by madness on Sept 22, 2007 1:40:21 GMT -5
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Post by madness on Oct 6, 2007 5:14:46 GMT -5
knp.prs.heacademy.ac.uk/Knowledge and Power in the Neo-Assyrian Empire, sponsored by the Higher Education Academy's Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies. This site itself looks like a useful source of information, it also happens to contain the full text of: Queries to the Sungod: divination and politics in Sargonid Assyria, SAA 4 Astrological reports to Assyrian kings, SAA 8 Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian scholars, SAA 10 Also check out their bibliography section, where several scholarly articles can be downloaded for free.
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Post by madness on Nov 16, 2007 1:06:15 GMT -5
www.abebooks.com/A few booksellers on this website are selling Tzvi Abusch's Mesopotamian Magic for a low price. Cheapest is going for US$70, this is almost $100 less than other stores have it for, certainly a bargain for this most necessary book. I've already ordered my copy. Not anymore, looks like all the cheap copies have been sold. www.eisenbrauns.com/Eisenbrauns stocks Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, 4 volume set in 2 bindings, edited by Jack M. Sasson, for US$116.97, a nice discount from the RRP of $179.95. Contains a total of 189 essays. Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, in 6 volumes. Volume 1 of this series is Biblical and Pagan Societies, the first essay in this being 'Witchcraft and Magic in Ancient Mesopotamia' by Marie-Louise Thomsen. This whole series, containing scholarly essays that trace witchcraft from ancient societies all the way through to the 20th century, would be a nice addition to anyone's bookshelf.
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Dec 11, 2007 23:30:57 GMT -5
I thought I would add here a book which Amarsin sent me notice of, which was a wonderful catch, looks very interesting indeed, and perhaps I will be able to make it one of the first German books I will be able to read - (Thanks very much for the tip!)
Barbara Böck Das Handbuch Mussu'u "Einreibung". Eine Serie sumerischer und akkadischer Beschwörungen aus dem 1. Jt. v.Chr. Biblioteca del Próximo Oriente Antiguo 3 Madrid: CSIC, 2007. ISBN: 978-84-00-08564-3
The description of this volume reads: "The monograph presents the editio princeps of one of the Ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform compendia of incantations, namely the Sumero-Akkadian handbook known in antiquity under the title Mushshu'u "rubbing, massage". Already the Akkadian title leads us to suspect that the incantations were recited during the therapy of rubbing. Indeed, almost one third of the incantations seem to have been drawn from the medical literature, namely from the collections of Akkadian cuneiform recipes that circulated in the ancient cities of Babylon, Ashur, Sippar, Uruk, and Nineveh. A number of incantations are also known from other - older - magical compendia such Sag.gig "Headache-demon", Udug.hul "Evil Udug.hul-demons", or Hul.ba.zi.zi "Evil will be expelled". This combination of sources allows us a unique insight into the ways the handbook was compiled and formed by the ancient experts. The study includes discussions that range from the relationship between incantations and diseases to curative ceremonies of rubbing to the possible function of the handbook in antiquity."
I believe the mention of the other -older- compendia may cause me to rethink my stance on rubbing or massage as a theraputic practice or ritual accompaniment to early incantation - previously I was doubtful. However maybe I should now pay more attention along these lines - there is the Ur III incantation from HS 1464 (Geller/van Dijk 2003) some of the lines read:
5. As the Asag-demon is tossed in the man's body like a wave, 6. the oil was rubbed on the patient's body and legs. 7. May that Asag-demon be deflected, like a cloudy storm, 8. may he be turned around like an angry flood, 9. may he be carried away by the water like soap, 10. may (the illness) in that man be (continually) dispersed like a cloudy storm.
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Post by madness on Feb 20, 2008 21:02:57 GMT -5
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Post by madness on Mar 5, 2008 3:34:20 GMT -5
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Post by madness on May 12, 2008 9:37:04 GMT -5
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Post by anebo on May 22, 2008 23:40:24 GMT -5
I just joined the board today. I'm a Classicist interested in the background of Graeco-Roman magic in the Near East (without any cuneiform languages unfortunately). First let me say that I when I read van Binsbergen and Wiggerman's "Magic in History" in Mesopotamian Magic I was mesmerized by it. However, Scurlock's review tears it to shreds, convincingly, I think. Since the review is somewhat hard to come by, here is a link to a pdf of it, together with Scurlock's Vita (i.e. her whole bibliography) as well: www.4shared.com/dir/7210981/191d1da7/Enenuru.html
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Aug 7, 2008 9:35:39 GMT -5
Wow - great discounts! I just ordered three books, thanks for the tip man ;]
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Aug 10, 2008 22:18:21 GMT -5
9 volumes of PBS available for free download
(Publications of the Babylonian Section, Pennsylvania)
Available: PBS 01, 03, 06, 07, 08, 09, 11, 12, and 13 This series, PBS, is a wonderful series which treats a huge number of items in the Pennsylvania museum. The Pennsylvania holdings are very important I believe as the excavations at Nippur, the tablet winner, were in many cases conducted by Pennsylvania lead expeditions; these PBS publications often publish them first and so many tablets have their "primary publication" in the PBS series. For the text and the Cuneiform line art many modern commentators refer us to the original PBS series instead of giving the material themselves in full, and so its important for the enthusiast and professional alike to have access to these books - DESPITE that they are very dated.. (caution should be used however for that same reason.) PBS 1Babylonian Hymns and Prayers David Myheman 1911 www.archive.org/details/publications01pennuoft PBS 3ARAMAIC INCANTATIONS TEXTS FROM NIPPUR James A. Montgomery 1913 www.archive.org/details/publications03pennuoft PBS 6HISTORICAL TEXTS Arno Poebel 1914 www.archive.org/details/publications06pennuoft PBS 7BABYLONIAN LETTERS OF THE HAMMURAPI PERIOD Arthur Ungnad 1915 www.archive.org/details/publications07pennuoft PBS 8LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE DOCUMENTS CHIEFLY FROM NIPPUR Edward Chiera 1914 www.archive.org/details/publications08pennuoft PBS 9SUMERIAN BUSINESS DOCUMENTS FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE DYNASTY OF AKKAD George A. Barton 1915 www.archive.org/details/publications09pennuoft PBS 11LIST OF PERSONNEL NAMES FROM THE TEMPLE SCHOOL AT NIPPUR Edward Chiera 1916 www.archive.org/details/publications11pennuoft PBS 12SUMERIAN GRAMMATICAL TEXTS Stephen Langdon 1917 www.archive.org/details/publications12pennuoft PBS 13HISTORICAL FRAGMENTS Leon Legrain 1922 www.archive.org/details/publications13pennuoft
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Post by shupuwhenip on Aug 13, 2008 19:45:55 GMT -5
Greetings all! This seems like a good thread to offer up some of the resources I've accumulated. I'll be done school (someday) and when that happens I'll lose my access to library stacks and electronic databases. I'll be forced to haunt academic boards and beg for articles from current students. I hate begging so I thought it might increase my karma if I took the initiative. It also really bothers me how inaccessible some of these materials are if you don't have access to an university library. Take the Surpu incantations. They were last published in 1970, the author is dead, the printing house is closed, and copies from used book sellers cost hundreds of dollars for what is more a pamphlet than a book. To the best of my knowledge, Reiner's "Surpu" is out of copyright and therefore public domain. So, in the interests of karma, I offer it to you all. It's not the prettiest scan but it's high resolution and the text is copyable and searchable (better than the paper version if you ask me). rapidshare.com/files/137155935/Surpu-Reiner.pdf.htmlJournal articles remain in copyright for the life of the journal series but it is perfectly legal for one scholar to provide articles to another upon request. You can't provide entire copies of journals, or resell or reprint anything, but I'd be willing to try and fulfill individual requests. I don't have access to every journal, especially the very old and the very new, but if you can find it on JSTOR I might be able to help out. And I can't promise I will be back here that frequently (if ever... I don't like to make false promises). Work, school, wife, kids, double-agent secret life, mistress, and an addiction to strippers all keeps me extremely busy. I thought though that if every ANE student in the world tried to make available one old book for posterity, there might be..... well, maybe there still wouldn't be many more books available (we're a small bunch) but it's a nice thought. Now for my own request: I'd like to find a good English version of KAR 44 ("An Assyrian Magician's Manual"). It's been published in German, there's an incomplete French work, but there's no English version. I once came across what was purported to be an English translation but without the accompanying transliteration they might as well have been making it up.
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Post by shupuwhenip on Aug 14, 2008 0:56:19 GMT -5
I noticed in another post mention Montgomery's "Aramaic Incantations from Nippur". It's a good source to Aramaic magic bowls that's still referenced today. If anyone else is also interested in Aramaic incantations they should check out Yamauchi's dissertation 'Mandaean Incantation Texts'. He uses some of Montgomery's bowls and looks at a bunch of others. It's loaded with primary sources and updated analysis. rapidshare.com/files/137195602/Mandaean_Incantation_Texts.pdf.htmlThe problem with Yamauchi's MIT is it doesn't deal with the Aramaic bowls, which are in far more abundance. He did publish an article that's kind of an updated primer on Aramaic bowls, taking over and correcting some of Montgomery's prologue in "Aramaic Incantations From Nippur". rapidshare.com/files/137196403/Aramaic_Magic_Bowls.pdf.htmlAlso, I've seen them referenced in different thread but I'll put in another plug for Thompson's "The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia Vols 1 & 2", also available at archive.org. But I'll go further and recommend Thompson's regretfully titled "Semitic Magic", available at the same place. He deals with a couple of exorcism series, including the Udug-hul (evil spirits) and Labartu (hag demon/succubus). Believe it or not but Thompson's work on these series still hasn't been superseded. Geller's Forerunner's to Udug-hul (dealing with the Old Babylonian predecessors of the Neo-Assyrian series of the same name) gives some good updates. I'm looking forward to his new book, "Evil Demons". It's supposed to replace Thompson's 100 years old "Devils".
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Aug 15, 2008 10:22:30 GMT -5
Shupuwhenip: These contributions are astounding: thanks very much! You've certainly exceeded any expectation for an entering member Many of us have been looking for Shurpu for ages, and the Incantation bowls are really hard to find detailed anywhere. Nice work! ;] > I'll be forced to haunt academic boards and beg for articles from > current students. Well, should it ever be the case that you lose some accesses, you've made one of the better precedents as far as enabling private research goes. Very impressed! Now I'll have to see about causing a good KAR 44 version to appear hm.
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Post by shupuwhenip on Aug 17, 2008 5:00:25 GMT -5
Here's some dissertations some might find interesting. "Natural illness in Babylonian medical incantations" analyses and provides a bunch of incantations for curing natural illnesses. They're pretty rare because the usual diagnosis was demons. www.zshare.net/download/17171628ad49bf21/"Sumerian letters: two collections from the Old Babylonian schools" is basically what the title says, but at the same time much more. It has illustrations of the tablets, transliterations and translation of the Sumerian texts. If you plan on learning Sumerian it might be more interesting to play with than the boring textbook exercises. And it would be fitting too because these are the same letters that were used to teach Sumerian in ancient Akkadian schools. www.zshare.net/download/171714572e856d34/"Sumerian numeration and metrology" might be the most complete look ever at Sumerian numbers and weights. www.zshare.net/download/17171535515a3271/These guys would be thrilled to know their dissertations are being read.
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Post by madness on Aug 19, 2008 4:55:18 GMT -5
Hi shupuwhenip, many thanks for these resources that you have shared with us. A transliteration with photographs and autographs of KAR 44 (and duplicates) can be found in Geller's "Incipits and Rubrics" in Wisdom, Gods and Literature. KAR 44 is a catalogue of rubrics to incantations. Geller conveniently provides an alphabetical listing of these rubrics with english identification, I guess you could reconstruct a crude translation based on his listing, but could also use it to verify the english translation you have already seen. His listing also, for most of the rubrics, refers the reader to other works that have dealt with the incantation, so you could follow it up and (hopefully) get a complete incantation set to go with the catalogue. Evil Demons by Geller was published last year, if your library does not have it yet tell them to hurry up Or can be purchased from Eisenbrauns for $75 if you want your own copy. Just note that, as with all books published in the SAACT series, the cuneiform text is computer generated based on the transliteration, not directly from the original tablets.
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