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November 27, 2007

It Takes Guts to Write Like That

Well, the pattern of intestines may have motivated writing in spirals and in boustrophedon.

Over the last week or so, I've exchanged emails with Rochelle Altman on scribal schools, literacy and related subjects. In one email, she said the following abnormally interesting thing, which I quote with her permission.

Boustrophedon is the Greek version of the incantation format -- that is, a format that follows the circling that can be seen in the removed and flattened intestines of, for instance, a sheep. Do note that all (and I mean all) examples of boustrophedon are in a religious context of some sort or another. You can see the circling effect on, for instance, incantation bowls.

The incantation format was used in BCE Etruscan and Latin, as well as Greek. It still was used in Hebrew of the ca. 12th-13th century CE.

It is a rather amusing thought that the format arose from examining intestines for omens.

In follow-up she continued,

I knew about the circling, or rather spiral, incantation format for some time, but did not know where it came from. Then I saw photographs of the way sheep intestines appear when laid out for a haruspex to examine and suddenly realized that, of, course, that's what the format is all about. It makes sense, too.

Most cultures used a circling spiral format (e.g. incantation bowls) or rolled the item into a tight scroll, which is another form of spiral (e.g. the Ketef Hinnom), but the Greeks used boustrophedon. .. which, of course, is a back and forth spiral motion that imitates the intestines quite closely. Actually, the earliest appearance of the term boustrophedon to describe the format seems to be in Pausianus. As he was ca. 2nd CE, we will never know what the Archaic and Classical Greek term for it was. . .

I can't help but wonder if the abecedary from Beth Shemesh, KTU 5.24, reflects the same incantation tradition. The problem with associating KTU 5.24 directly with extispicy is that the clay object on which the abecedary is written seems to be in the form of an axe head. Of course, this does not exclude an incantation setting. In fact, I think this object is some kind of votive thing. Here is my tracing of KTU 5.24:

KTU 5.24 Tracing

If you are interested, I devoted a post to KTU 5.24 and another cuneiform abecedary, RS 88.2215, both of which reflect the south Semitic alphabet.

Altman also told me that she will be publishing "Some Notes on Inscriptional Genres and the Siloam Tunnel Inscription" that will be out next month. I am looking forward to it.

Posted by Duane Smith at November 27, 2007 10:38 AM | Read more on Scribal Schools |

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Comments

Yes, I realized that already but thanks for writing about it because reading omens from internal organs from animals is very abnormally interesting indeed! :)

We can, however, expand this idea further to make better sense of things, I think. The natural modern reaction to this practice is usually superficial: "Gross!! Why the hell did they do that? Were they crazy?". And the superficial answer to that is "Yes, they were crazy" but ancient people had a particular belief system that underlied it all. We need to get to the heart (or liver perhaps) of this symbolism. Connecting the boustrophedon pattern to internal organs is only half of the story.

The entrails were part of a cosmological model of the universe. The sun setting into the earth might be likened to the sun being "devoured by Earth incarnate", and hence the sun follows the entrails of the earth (i.e. underworld) to be passed out the other end. Gross? Yes! But stick with me here. On the other end, the sun emerges as dawn which in Egyptian beliefs was represented as a god shown with a dungbeetle for a head known as Khepri, the god of becoming (n.b. xpr "to become" in Egyptian). I know, it's still gross, but hold on...

So back to the intestinal boustrophedon script and your queries into KTU 5.24, while I know nothing about this artifact, I'm certain from just glancing at it that it has a strong religious significance. One reason is the cosmological connotations of the boustrophedon pattern, animal intestines and the cosmos. Another reason is that axe-heads _also_ seem to have a strong religious significance to the worldview of this period. Axes and axe-heads are prominent in Minoan Crete as well.

But then... I could be all wrong.

Posted by: Glen Gordon at November 27, 2007 1:10 PM

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