Among the tablets excavated by Sir Leonard Woolley at Ur there is a text containing incantations and rituals against slander and witchcraft. A hand copy of this tablet has been prepared by the present writer for inclusion in a forthcoming volume of texts from Ur; its publication may, however, be anticipated by the following edition, which is offered as a tribute of respect and esteem to the eminent excavator.

Incantations against witchcraft have been known since the early days of Assyriology from the large compilation known to the Assyrians as Maqlû “Burning”. These incantations are for the most part addressed to the Fire God; the usual practice was to make figurines of wood or wax representing the sorcerer and then to destroy them by fire, while invoking the assistance of the Fire God. An alternative was to place the figurines in a small boat and launch this on the water, where it would either float away downstream or capsize in a storm, and it is this procedure to which the present tablet is devoted. The interest attaching to this procedure with the boat is shown by the fact that the two incantations from Maqlû which refer to it have been quoted in extenso by such authorities on Babylonian magic as Morris Jastrow and R. Campbell Thompson; further examples of it will therefore not be unwelcome.