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August 12, 2007

Putting It All Together, The Ugaritic Veterinary Text That Is

I thank those daring few of you who subjected yourselves to the many gory details of the Ugaritic veterinary text KTU 1.85 over the last couple of weeks. I understand those more timid souls who politely skipped the detailed posts. On any other subject, I too would have likely skipped them. With this post, I begin the process of looking at this text at the next higher levels of interpretation.

I realized that I had been a little careless in how I used text designations in some of my previous posts. When I make a citation like "KTU 1.85:1" I mean line 1 of the composite text derived from the tablets that support it. KTU 1.85 (the most complete), KTU 1.71, KTU 1.72 and KTU 1.97 are texts on the four tablets that make up this series although not everyone of them has ever line of text but in some cases I use these same designations to refer to the tablets themselves. I indicate that I am referring to a given tablet or the specific text on a give tablet in two ways: 1) I specifically say that I am talking about this or that tablet, i.e. "the KTU 1.71 tablet;" 2) I compare the text on a given tablet with that of another tablet. It would perhaps be more rigorous to use a unique designation for the composite text, the KTU numbers for the text on each tablet and the excavation find number (RS 17.120. RS 5.300, RS 5.285+ and RS 23.484) for the tablets themselves but, not only is this a nuisance, it provides some clarity only for the price of considerable complexity.

This post will also serve as a kind of focal point and index for both my previous posts on this the Ugaritic veterinary text and those I will be writing in the future.

In future posts, I plan to discuss the following topics:

I may not post on these topics in this exact order. If there is a link associated with any of the topics, you will know that I have published a posted on it. I will likely post on these topics at a somewhat reduced frequency from that of the individual section translations, no more than one or two a week. In this post, I provide a summary translation and a quick look at the structure of the text.

Since most, but unfortunately not all, of the above topics can be studied from a translation, I decided to bring the bits and pieces of my translation together in this post. Links from the section designations in the translation point to posts where that section was first discussed.

Translation of the composite text from the four Ugaritic Veterinary Tablets

[If you see squares, rectangles or something else that doesn't look right, please install the Charis SIL font.]

Heading (KTU 1.85:1) Document for the Health of Horses

Section 1 (KTU 1.85: 2-4) When a horse cries out (coughs?), one crushes(?) a bunch(?) of scorpion plant and liquefies it into a fresh mixture and/or into a MNDĠ (sprinkle?) and pours it into its nose.

Section 2 (KTU 1.85:5-6) When a horse convulses (?), one crushes MĠMĠ (likely some kind of plant) and BṢQL ʿRGZ (a BṢQL measure of some kind of nut[?]) together and pours it into its nose.

Section 3 (KTU 1.85:7-8) Alternatively, (when) a horse convulses (?), one crushes ḪMDRṮ (again, some kind of plant, grain?) and bitter almond together and pours it into its nose.

Section 4 (KTU 1.85:9-11) And when a house does not defecate or urinate, one crushes together the extract (sap) of a measure of Cassia and a measure of ʿRGZ nut, and pours it into its nose.

Section 5 (KTU 1.85:12-14) When pain (or ravishing hunger?) grips a horse, one crushes a measure of average quality (?) leak(?), a measure of AŠKRR (henbane ?) and lettuce seeds together, and pours it into its nose.

Section 6 (KTU 1.85:15-17) Alternatively, when pain (or ravishing hunger?) grips a horse, one crushes a measure NNI plant, a measure of average quality (?) leak (?) together and a measure of donkey (?) IRĠN plant, and pours it into its nose.

Section 7 (KTU 1.85:18-19) And when a horse gets mange (?), one crushes a measure of cut (?) mandrgora (?), and pours it into its nose.

Section 8 (KTU 1.85:20-22) [      ]

Section 9 (KTU 1.85:23-29) When a horse cries out (coughs?), one crushes together a measure of juniper (oil?) and the fruit of ʿṮRB seed and bitter almond,
      (which is) like GD,
     (which is) like ṮMRG (some kind of plant) and MǴMǴ
          (some kind of plant)
and a measure of NNI and abukkatu-plant resin and a measure of heliotrope (?) and MǴMǴ and lettuce seed
      (which is) like donkey (?)IRĠN plant,
and pours it into its nose.

Section 10 (KTU 1.85:30-32) When (a horse) gets mange (?) and scratches (??) incessantly, old fig-cakes and old raisins and groat flour must be crushed together and one should pour it into its nose.

The Structure of the Text

The structure of the text is quite simple, a heading followed by 10 individual sections, sometimes introduced with "and," each containing a symptom in its protasis and a two-part proscribed treatment in its apodosis. It is arguable that Section 9 has a somewhat more complex structure or is the remains of what were once two independent sections. But even there, the dominate structure of the nine smaller sections is seen. I will have more to say about Section 9 when I consider the possible textual history of the individual texts on the four tablets and their relationship each to the other. In my post on Section 2, I outlined the structure of the individual sections as follows:

1) Symptom (the protasis)
2) Treatment (the apodosis)
      2a) Components and preparation
      2b) Administration of medication

While this structure is very simple, and perhaps because it is so simple, it has a long history in ancient literature that predates the Late Bronze Age context of our veterinary text and continues to the present. As I will explain in more detail in a later post, one sees this basic structure in wisdom literature, law codes, omens, professional instruction manuals and a host of other literary genres.

Posted by Duane Smith at August 12, 2007 12:53 PM | Read more on Ugarit |

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