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New Sumerian literary texts from Tell Haddad (ancient Meturan): a first survey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Antoine Cavigneaux  and
Farouk Al-Rawi
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Extract

The excavations of the State Organization in Tell Haddad-Meturan were part of the great salvage project in the Hamrin area. Though they were conducted under difficult circumstances they were amongst the most fruitful enterprises of the project, especially from the epigraphic point of view. Among other things a relatively large number of tablets from the OB period was excavated. Most of them are Akkadian and of economic content, and will be published in due course by several of our colleagues. A fragment of the “Laws of Ešnunna” has already been published by one of us (F. Al-Rawi, Sumer 38 [1983], 117–120). There is also a certain number of lexical texts, but the greatest surprise was caused by the discovery of a relatively large number of Sumerian “literary” texts (in the broad sense of the term literary, including magic etc.), the first important find of this kind since the Ur excavations (cf. Gadd and Kramer, UET VI/I and VI/2), and the first made by an Iraqi excavation. We have had the great privilege to be entrusted with the publication of these tablets. They will soon be published in a TIM (Texts from the Iraq Museum) volume under the authority of the State Organization, some particularly important pieces being also edited independently in separate articles. We will undertake here a survey specifically of the Sumerian corpus; to clarify the exposition we shall also use a small part of the information kindly communicated to us by the excavators and by the colleagues who are studying the rest of the tablets, though this is not an anticipation of the final publication, either archaeological or philological. Once all the texts are published there will remain an interesting study to be done about their precise dating, and their grouping into coherent archives, also no doubt interesting conclusions on the function of the texts and of the buildings. Such study will be made possible by the exact documenting of the find-spots of each individual text, even of small fragments, which has been made by the excavators.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 55 , October 1993 , pp. 91 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1993

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References

1 This tell lies very close to T. Sīb, cf. Hannoun, N., Sumer 35 (1979), 433–439 Google Scholar. The identification of Tell Haddad with Meturan-Sirara is proved since the publication of the Aššur-banipal Ešahula-inscription by Rashid, F., Sumer 37 (1981)Google Scholar, Arabic section 72–80. Note F. Rashid's suggestion (p. 77) that the two ancient names for the site may be explained by the presence of several ancient sites near the confluence of Narin Su and Diyala.

2 No excavation report has appeared yet. See for now the summary Iraq 45 (1983), 210 sqGoogle Scholar.

3 We would like to thank the Director of the State Organization for Antiquities and Heritage, Dr. Muayyad Sa'id, and the Director of the Iraq Museum, Dr. Bahija Khalil, for permission to work on this material and for the help granted; our warmest thanks go as well to Dr. Na'il Hannoun, Mr. Burhan Shakir, who successively directed the excavations at Tell Haddad, and to all the members of the excavations who favoured our work in many ways; we would like to recall especially Mrs. R. Rashid of the Iraq Museum.

4 We use here (e.g. for room numbers) the designations of the provisional map kindly communicated to us by B. Shakir.

5 Our text, poorly preserved as a whole, is partly paralleled by SLTNi 38 and Ni 9898 = ISET I, 200 Google Scholar; for the Lisin texts in general, only part of which is published, cf. Civil, M., AfO 25, 67 Google Scholar, and OrNS 41, 87 Google Scholar.

6 Cf. Michalowski, P., Mél. Ranoszek: Rocznik Orientalistyczny 41 (1980), 77–82 Google Scholar.

7 For the Hemerologies in general, see the article of an expert of that genre, Labat, R. in RIA 4 (1972–1975), 317–323 Google Scholar; for the prohibitions and prescriptions of the seventh of Tašrīt, e.g. Hulin, P., Iraq 21 (1959), 42–53 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Labat, R., Iraq 23 (1961), 88–93 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Labat, R., Hémérologies et Ménologies d'Assur, 112–117 Google Scholar [KAR, 178] and 176–181 [KAR, 177].

8 cf. Landsberger, B., Der Kultische Kalender, 101 ff.Google Scholar, Labat, R., RIA 4 (1972–1975), 319 f.Google Scholar

9 UET VI/2, 184 rev. 7′f.Google Scholar, Ni 13204 30′, 32′: in both cases the context is unclear; perhaps some general considerations on the twelfth month are involved, instead of the twelve months, but it is highly unlikely in view of the following, see n. 11 below. If the reading è š - è š proposed by Green, M. (BiOr 35 (1978), 181)Google Scholar for Ni 13204: 35′ is correct, this text may have contained some instructions for the eighth day too.

10 cf. Green, M., BiOr 35 (1978), 180 Google Scholar. It seems from the copy that the text had at least three columns. If the left part of the column is indeed preserved, we would have a list of several prescriptions for one and the same day. Note col. iii?: lag7 an-ta DU za-e x[ … ], “[don't throw] a clod at the man walking up (the street?)”, with the second person, whereas the Hemerologies usually have an impersonal style or use the third person. This suggests that we might have to do at least in part with another kind of instructions, not all of them necessarily related to Hemerologies.

11 The text is obscure and difficult. Parts of it have long Akkadian glosses, mostly written at the end of the lines, which must have given a hard time to the copyists H.H. Figulla (CT 42) and M.J. Geller (for CT 58). For some signs, it is not clear whether they belong to the main text or to the translation. In the following we briefly note the readings on which we base our interpretation of this text without entering upon the numerous strange and often incorrect Sumerian writings:

1. [… i-nu]-ma se-bu-um se-[bi-im…]

[… ]the seventh (month), seventh (day) [… ]

2. […] ⌜x⌝KI.NE i-nu-ma u4-mu-ú LU2-BI x x

[…] stove?, when the days … this man …

3. […] ⌜x⌝ i-nu-ma se-bu-um se-bi-im ṣa-al-ma-at SAG.D[U] i-te-el-li-la

[… ] the seventh (month), seventh (day), the black of head clean themselves

4. ⌜x⌝ [… ]dlama nú-a-še3 im-sig7-sig7-ge-na

[… ] the protective deity are near7 the lying (man) (??)

5. níg-gig níg ⌜x x x⌝ [x x]-ra-àm si-ma ṣé-nam di-a mu-ur-ṣa-am

6. kuš nam-lú-ùlu nu-te-ge26(GA2)-dam ⌜ni⌝ kár-kár-dam

a-na zu-um-ri a-wi-lu-tim la ṭe4-hi-a-am ra-ma-an-ši-na ú-⌜x⌝ [x] (ubbubaml?)

that the ugly simmu affliction, the di'u affliction, (and) disease do not come near to man, that they (the black of head) … themselves (Sum.: “to make oneself shiny?”).

7. den-líl-lá sag-kal an-ki-bi-da NIN sipa sag-gi6-ga

den-líl! a-ša-re-ed AN KI re ?-i ?

8. nam-me-imin-imin sar-ra itu! 12-še gál-bi tar-re-dam

ši-ma-at IMIN IMIN ša x x x x ra-bi-iš iš-ši-⌜ma ?⌝

Enlil the foremost on heaven and earth, the lord (nun!), the shepherd of the black of head, to determine in a great manner the written destinies (is me just phonetic indicator or “divine ordinances, platonic eidē”?) of the VII.7 for the 12 months, (Akk. different: “destinies were determined”)

9. en nu-dím-mu-ud-ra ša ma-an-kúš-ù á-bi mu-da-na-ág it-ti be-li nu-dim-mu-ud im-ta-li-ik te-er-tam ša-a-ti ú-wa-ir conferred with lord Nudimmud and gave him following instruction:

10. den-ki en nam tar-tar-re-dè i-ni-bi a-ga-aš nu-gig

aia be-lu mu-ši-im ši-ma-tim im x x [… ]

“Ea who determines the destinies, whose word is irrevocable…”

Enlil then asks Ea to summon Nisaba who obviously will have to write down the instructions, but may also have played a more important role. Enki, in a procedure recalling the Marduk-Ea exchange so common in exorcism, sends a messenger to Nisaba; CT 42, 36: 3 f. […] dub-za-gìn-na-ra sag-še mu-ša-ra-ke4, […inim] zi du11 -ga lú mu-ši-in-gig-gig, “to the [lady of] thelapis-lazuli tablet, who takes care of writing (*sag-sì mu-sar-ra?), [… ] of the right word sent a messenger”. After an obscure passage come the hemerological instructions, which are strikingly similar to those of UET VI/2, 184, Ni 13204 and IM 50964. Then after another difficult passage, we have the mention of an oral rite: a prayer to Utu to be recited daily (CT 58: 45 rev. 26′: u4-šú-šú-uš ka-ga-na gái {GA2} nu-me-en-da-ge); a ritual act is also suggested in CT 58, 45 rev. 27′: mun gi-zi uzu tu ú (uzu udu?) su11-l um gišhašhur giš-pèš gišgeštin.

Our interpretation of this text depends mainly on our understanding of sebûm-sebîm which, admittedly, may sound bizarre. It is treated as one word in Akkadian and only the second part is declined; the genitive sebûm-sebîm in 11. 1 and 3 is dependent on inūma used here prepositionally. The science of Hemerology had its own jargon. As we remark below, the hemerological texts have a special way of indicating the date, very close in fact to the English one. The other important point is the reading of 1.8, which seems fairly sure for the Sumerian, to judge from the copy; a collation might improve our reading of the hardly decipherable Akkadian gloss.

Our interpretation provides a plausible explanation for the mention of the twelve months in UET VI/2, 184, and Ni 13204, see n. 9 supra: they are in broken context and will not be quoted here. They do not necessarily contain an direct allusion to the decreeing of fate on the VII.7 but may simply contrast its exceptional nature with the other days of the year.

12 After all it would not be so astonishing if the exiled Jews had borrowed, along with the calendar, some of the beliefs intimately attached to it. Without entering a detailed discussion of one more “Babylonian origin”, I should like to stress that the aetiological myth, as it already appears from the introduction of the text translated in n. 11, betrays a strong exorcistic bias, its main concern being to avoid disease. It is thus also reminiscent of the aetiological myth of the twenty-one poultices published by Lambert, W.G., AnSt 30 (1980), 77–83 Google Scholar. It is worth remembering in this context too, that a ritual for the 1st day of Nisan, whose more salient action was the setting free of two doves, also comprehended the recitation of a mysterious formula aiming at averting illness during the whole coming year (KA.INIM.MA LU2 MU.1.KAM NU GIG); see Borger, R., OrNS 54 (1985), 22–25 Google Scholar. If we allow ourselves a jump over centuries, the setting free of birds reminds also of the long survival of a similar, allegedly Byzantine custom, described by the Turkish writer Y. Kemal in his novel Kuşlar da gitti.