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Pukku and Mekkû

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Marcelle Duchesne-Guillemin
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Extract

Anyone reading the Gilgameš Epic cannot help being puzzled by the words pukku and mekkû which have been very much discussed by specialists and are still so enigmatic that some translators no longer attempt to render them.

The state of the question is as follows.

The von Soden dictionary translates pukku by “Trommel” (drum). Such was also Landsberger's first interpretation, but he later changed his mind: since the pukku occurs once with some playthings such as a skipping rope, he suggested a hoop, but finally, one year later, owing to a passage, “Ich lasse die Schädel rollen wie pukku”, which seems to imply “eine massivere Struktur”, he plumped for “eine Art Polo oder Croquet mit Holzkugeln”, i.e. wooden balls.

As for mekkū, von Soden gives several meanings: first, a pestle used with a sieve; second, “Trommelstock” (drumstick). This we must stop to consider for a while, since this implement, the drumstick, is not attested in ancient Mesopotamia. Drums are very often represented in Mesopotamian reliefs. There are several kinds of them, either shallow and small, like our timbrel or tambourine; or barrel-shaped or conical and hanging from the belt; or again larger ones set on the ground; none of these is ever played with a stick. Even the gigantic Gudea drum is played with bare hands.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , Spring 1983 , pp. 151 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1983

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References

1 Akkadisches Handwörterbuch (Wiesbaden 1965–1981), s.vGoogle Scholar.

2 WZKM 56 (1960), 124 fGoogle Scholar.

3 Ibid., 57 (1961), 23.

4 RA 17 (1920), 70 f.Google Scholar, Rituel du Kalû, 53 f.: reproduced in Rituels accadiens, 103 f.

5 Latomus 114 (1970), 31 f.Google Scholar: JNES 29 (1970), 200 fGoogle Scholar.

6 The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute (Chicago, 1956–), s.vGoogle Scholar.

7 G. P. F. van den Boom, An ancient musical Instrument from Iran (Oudheidskundige Mededelinge uit het Rijksmuseum van Oudheiden te Leiden 62 (1981) 27 f.)Google Scholar. Moreover, Mrs. Ippolitani-Strika told me at the 29th Rencontre that yet another specimen was found at Yarim Tepe, dating back to the fifth millennium; cf. N. Merpert and R. Munchaev, Excavations at Yarim Tepe 1970 (Sumer 27 (1971), 16–17 and Fig. 5b)Google Scholar where the instrument is interpreted as a whistle, and of phallic character. Since no notches are to be seen on the bad photo, I am not sure this is really a scraper. However, the object already shows the general shape of the Tehran scraper.

8 Akten des VII. Internationalen Kongresses für Iranische Kunst und Archäologie, München 1976Google Scholar = Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran, Ergänzungsband 6 (1979), 102 fGoogle Scholar.

9 Dunand, M., Fouilles de Byblos, V (Paris 1973)Google Scholar, Pl. XCIX etc. (cf. preceding note, note 4 of the article). Scrapers from shoulder-blades have also been found at Yarim Tepe, cf. Merpert, and Munchaev, , Excavations at Yarim Tepe 1970, Sumer 27 (1971), fig. 6cGoogle Scholar; and Excavations at Yarim Tepe 1972, Sumer 29 (1973), Pls. VI and VII.

10 Africa-Tervuren 8 (1962), 105 fGoogle Scholar. A similar instrument from Cuba, made from a gourd, is in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, under No. 129 D 1 4889.

11 Simkha Aron and Geneviève Taurelle in Encyclopédie des Musiques sacrées (Paris, 1968), 93Google Scholar.

12 Statuette, Louvre AO.17568; cf. Syria 49 (1972), 497 fGoogle Scholar.

13 DAFI 1 (1971), Fig. 59, no. 16.

14 CAD M, S.V. mekkû.

15 Cf. above, note 3.

16 JCS 12 (1958), 62Google Scholar, no. 5.93, cited by Shaffer, A., Sumerian Sources of Tablet XII (1963), 32, note 3Google Scholar.

17 In Pritchard, , ANET (Princeton, 1950), 73Google Scholar.

18 Ibid., 78.

19 Sumerian Sources …, cf. above note 16.

20 La musique et la Transe (Paris, 1980)Google Scholar. The practice of sacred dances is attested on Mesopotamian seals; cf. Homès-Frédéricq, Denise, Les Cachets mésopotamiens proto-historiques (Leyden, 1970), 92Google Scholar, Fig. 73–74.

21 Strangways, A. H. Fox, The Music of Hindustan (Oxford, 1914), 44Google Scholar, shows how the kokkara, a metal scraper, was used, in his presence, by the Kānikas, a very primitive tribe, to induce trance.