Akkadian Archive
February 6, 2012
The Origin Of Divination – Part 2
The other day I wrote about a text that sheds some light on how the ancient Mesopotamians understood the origin of lecanomancy and extispicy. In this post I’ll present another text that speaks to the origins of astromancy, physiognomy and...Read all of "The Origin Of Divination – Part 2"
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:52 PM
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February 4, 2012
The Origin Of Divination – Part 1
One of the abnormally interesting questions is the origin of Mesopotamian divination. By this I don’t mean its anthropological or historical origin but rather what did the ancient Mesopotamians think of its origin? Like many such things, the ancient sources...Read all of "The Origin Of Divination – Part 1"
Posted by Duane Smith at 11:04 AM
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February 2, 2012
Columbia University Tablets Online
Just the other day I posted news of the online availability of digitized images of the tablets and inscriptions from the Musées d’Art et d’Histoire of Geneva. Now comes news that images of the Columbia University Libraries cuneiform collection are...Read all of "Columbia University Tablets Online"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:19 AM
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January 29, 2012
New Images of Cuneiform Tablets
One of the most welcome trends of the last decade or two has been the acceleration in the availability of good quality photographs of tablets and inscriptions. With an increasing number of orthographically useful photographs online those of us with...Read all of "New Images of Cuneiform Tablets"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:10 PM
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January 28, 2012
Who? Me?
I need to return Koch-Westenholz’ Babylonian Liver Omens to the library on Monday, so I thought I’d take another quick look at a couple of things that interested me in passing but to which I hadn’t paid careful attention. Well,...Posted by Duane Smith at 4:03 PM
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January 27, 2012
In Your Mouth And In Your ????
Claude Mariottini reminded me of an abnormally interesting paper by Nathan Wasserman and Michael Streck, "Dialogues and Riddles: Three Old Babylonian Wisdom Texts,” Iraq 73, 2011, 117-26. There are a lot of fun and colorful things on these tablets and...Read all of "In Your Mouth And In Your ????"
Posted by Duane Smith at 4:08 PM
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January 25, 2012
The Semantics of Good (And Evil)
One of the many temptations in the high science fine art guess work of identifying intertextuality between ancient literatures involves cognate words. But cognate words seldom have the exact semantic range and occasionally they don’t even have obvious overlapping semantic...Read all of "The Semantics of Good (And Evil)"
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:13 PM
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January 13, 2012
Late Babylonian – Yuck!
I’m working my way through a Late Babylonian omen tablet and I spent the better part of four hours today trying to figure out how to read a single sign. Or is it two signs? I’m still not sure. Yes,...Read all of "Late Babylonian – Yuck!"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:08 PM
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January 11, 2012
“Snakes, Why Did It Have To Be Snakes”
(With apologies to Indiana Jones) This guy is a Pseudocerastes persicus, a Persian Horned Viper. While it may appear that this individual lives on a mattress, his species normally lives over a rather large range from the Sinai to Pakistan...Read all of "“Snakes, Why Did It Have To Be Snakes”"
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:58 PM
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January 8, 2012
Remembering Their Lessons
For the last couple of years I’ve been worrying about exactly what was forbidden in places like Leviticus 19:26, “. . .You shall not practice divination. . .,” . . . לֹא תְנַחֲשׁוּ . . ., and Deuteronomy 18:10, “Let...Read all of "Remembering Their Lessons"
Posted by Duane Smith at 1:13 PM
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January 4, 2012
If Your Teacher Asks You
Since I have it at hand, I thought I’d better take a little time and browse the whole of Koch-Westenholz’s compilation of Mesopotamian extispicy texts. Even among the ancient commentaries, there is a somewhat boring repetitiveness. This is true of...Read all of "If Your Teacher Asks You"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:30 PM
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January 3, 2012
And Now For Something Completely Different – Extispicy
The follow is from the Bārûtu: Manzāzu Commentary 1, tablet 2 according to the colophon on Rm 2, 103 i:17. BE SILIM MÁŠ ina UGU MÁŠ e.ṣir šá ana SIG5 u ḪUL DUG4-ú IGI.MEŠ-šá ana 15 šá GAR.MEŠ-ma SIG5 ana...Read all of "And Now For Something Completely Different – Extispicy"
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:18 PM
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January 1, 2012
Mating Snakes
Far into her life, Shirley has decided to become a Late Medievalist. And apparently I must join in this advanced pursuit. So we are both reading Dante’s Divine Comedy and listening to a lecture series on it. This is not...Posted by Duane Smith at 11:06 AM
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December 27, 2011
When A Snake Is A Harbinger of Peace Or A Son
I’m making what I hope is my final pass (for now) through the omens in Šumma ālu having protases that refer to a man, a woman, and a snake. Almost all of these omens have negative outcomes – “they will...Read all of "When A Snake Is A Harbinger of Peace Or A Son"
Posted by Duane Smith at 10:47 AM
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December 20, 2011
A Yowling Cat
The cat we live with seldom vocalizes and when he does he makes but a weak, pathetic, sound. But not all cats are so quiet. Even in antiquity some could yowl. Here is the first omen on tablet 45 of...Posted by Duane Smith at 9:38 AM
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December 19, 2011
When A Written Work Was Written
We often think of a handwritten work as a thing of the distance past. But I was filing some papers that I had gathered for previous projects when I ran across a copy of a rather massive paper in four...Read all of "When A Written Work Was Written"
Posted by Duane Smith at 11:52 AM
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December 13, 2011
The Problem With Snakes
I’m back reading snake omens. I found these two of particularly abnormal interest. Both are from Šumma ālu ina mēlê šakin. 23:111. DIŠ MUŠ ina UGU GIŠ.NÁ NITA u MUSUS ŠUB-ut ZI-ib ḪUL-tì ZI-šú :: KI.DÚR-su KÚR-ir While this is...Read all of "The Problem With Snakes"
Posted by Duane Smith at 1:43 PM
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November 25, 2011
Latest ZA Is Out
The latest Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie (Dec. 2011, 101:2) is available to those with a subscription or a good library. The first two pieces are homage to Rykle Borker by Stefan Maul. In addition to these pieces there...Read all of "Latest ZA Is Out"
Posted by Duane Smith at 2:14 PM
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November 14, 2011
Akkadian Cognate List
The third edition of John Huehnergard’s A Grammar of Akkadian is out at Eisenbrauns. This edition has a Semitic cognates appendix. Such tools are always welcome additions but this list, while I think beneficial for students, has significant limitations. As...Read all of "Akkadian Cognate List"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:35 AM
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November 9, 2011
Wilfred Lambert Dead
Sad news: Jack Sasson is reporting that Wilfred Lambert died today. It is almost impossible to read a paper or book on any aspect of Assyriology that does not reference something by Wilfred Lambert. I doubt that there is a...Read all of "Wilfred Lambert Dead"
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:16 PM
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November 7, 2011
The Alphabet And Literacy
Is there an enabling relationship between the adoption of an alphabet and literacy? Over at BLT, Suzanne McCarty has an interesting post on the question in which she points to some work by M. A. Powell on the history of...Read all of "The Alphabet And Literacy"
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:35 PM
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November 6, 2011
Why Bother Tracking Down References?
The other day I listed several Akkadian personal names that begin with mut(u). One of those was Mu-ut-ša-DINGIR. At the time I couldn't find a good reference for the supposed name. But I decided, if I was going to use...Read all of "Why Bother Tracking Down References?"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:48 AM
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November 3, 2011
On Name Calling
For reasons that some abnormal readers may remember, I’ve been collecting names that begin with mutu. Names like mMu-ut-dIM (Mutba’li - Man of Ba’al) mMu-ut-DINGIR (Mut-ili - Man of God) mMu-ut-ša-DINGIR (Mut-ša-ili - Man of god) mMu-ut-ša6-lim (Mut-šalim[?] – Man...Posted by Duane Smith at 9:29 AM
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October 24, 2011
Gezer Preliminary Report
The preliminary report of the first four seasons of renewed excavations at Tel Gezer is available at Hadahot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel. While it isn’t all that long, I haven’t read it in detail as yet. When...Read all of "Gezer Preliminary Report"
Posted by Duane Smith at 6:58 AM
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October 17, 2011
Yield Not To Temptation
I continue to work on polishing up my snake in Genesis 3 paper. One of the things I’ve been doing is looking very closely at a couple of the omens from Šumma Ālu I plan to use in the paper...Read all of "Yield Not To Temptation"
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:33 PM
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October 10, 2011
Aḥiqar: The Wolf And The Snake
Among the fables I’m looking at is the fable of the wolf and the snake in the story of Aḥiqar. Aḥiqar was one of the most widely known stories in antiquity. Before modern times it was translated and paraphrased into...Read all of "Aḥiqar: The Wolf And The Snake"
Posted by Duane Smith at 11:25 AM
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October 9, 2011
The Wren/Mosquito And The Elephant
Another saying on the tablet I cited yesterday turns up (with variants) in Greek fables. First, here’s the Akkadian fable: (KAR 174 rev iii 50-54, Lambert 216, 218) diq-diq-qu (dig-dig-qu?) ina m[u]ḫḫi pēri ki-i ú-š[i-bu] um-ma ta-lim id-[k]a an-a-a-ma ina...Read all of "The Wren/Mosquito And The Elephant"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:38 AM
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October 8, 2011
Quick Thinking
KAR 174 is a large Assyrian tablet containing a rather strange assortment of sayings and anecdotes. Here’s one that makes me smile: (KAR 174: rev. iii 19-20 [VAT 8807]) PEŠ (pi’āzu) la-pa-an šik-ke-e ina ḫur-ri MUŠ (ṣēri) e-ru-ba um-ma MUŠ.LAḪ4...Posted by Duane Smith at 8:35 AM
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October 7, 2011
SB Gilgamesh Score Online
Everybody may already know this and I may have once even known it myself but I just discovered (or rediscovered) Andrew George’s 2007 score of the Standard Babylonian version of the Gilgamesh epic online. A number of other things Gilgamesh...Read all of "SB Gilgamesh Score Online"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:06 AM
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October 4, 2011
Did Akkadian Omens “Speak”?
I’m still playing around with talking snakes and such. I just can’t quite bring the whole issue to closure. In the Hebrew Bible the snake in Genesis 3 speaks and Balaam’s ass speaks in Numbers 22:21-30. In the latter case...Read all of "Did Akkadian Omens “Speak”?"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:11 PM
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Titles Only From Here On
September 23, 2011
The Melammu Project
September 22, 2011
The Divine Mind Is Remote
September 15, 2011
Beyond A Merely Antiquarian Interest
August 5, 2011
I Almost Made A Giant Error
July 26, 2011
Online Collaborative Research: A Chronographic Document
July 25, 2011
Finally: Reading Akkadian Prayers and Hymns: An Introduction
July 21, 2011
On Reading Akkadian Prayers and Actually Reading Texts
July 16, 2011
Esarhaddon Royal Inscriptions Online
July 10, 2011
Just How Often Did This Come Up?
July 1, 2011
Akkadian Prayers and Hymns Now Almost Available
June 22, 2011
Jerusalem / Salem: One more Time
June 9, 2011
June ZA Now Available
May 27, 2011
3D Printable Tablet Replications Ready For Download
May 19, 2011
So You Think Our Political Rhetoric Is Over The Top
May 18, 2011
It’s Not Just About The Future
May 11, 2011
Dreaming Of A Flood
April 19, 2011
An Uneventful Day
April 13, 2011
CAD U/W Is Available
April 6, 2011
Theodor Gaster Beat Me To It
April 2, 2011
Which Way Are They Facing?
March 23, 2011
The Sea People As Cultural Vectors
March 17, 2011
A Week Away For Two Months Now
March 5, 2011
On Dating Mesopotamian Influence
March 2, 2011
Ebla Archives Online
February 28, 2011
Anti-Witchcraft in Ancient Mesopotamia
February 26, 2011
Quotation From The 6th Century BCE
February 21, 2011
On Openness To Foreign Influence
February 10, 2011
It’s Not Greek To Me
February 9, 2011
A Dream As Understood By Birds
February 7, 2011
A Not So Simple Request
February 3, 2011
Send Me One Eagle Auger
January 28, 2011
The Latest ZA
January 21, 2011
A Bird Dropping A Snake – Not A Good Sign
January 3, 2011
Sad News - Riekele Borger Died A Few Days Ago
December 31, 2010
Gonzalo Rubio On Assyriology
December 28, 2010
Proofreading Akkadian Prayers
November 23, 2010
A Sumerian Descriptive Grammar
November 7, 2010
A New Scholarly Society and A Few Iconic Thoughts
November 5, 2010
A Man, His Wife And A Snake
October 28, 2010
When A Snake Doesn’t Bite
October 19, 2010
An Akkadian Fragment From Egypt
August 25, 2010
My Heroic Days
August 16, 2010
The University of Sciences: One More Time
July 27, 2010
Kanaano-Akkadische
July 19, 2010
Fragments Of A Law Code from Hazor?
July 17, 2010
The Genre Of Jerusalem 1: One More Time
July 15, 2010
Jerusalem1 Again: A Discussion Of Genre
July 14, 2010
Filling Holes Lacunae And Time
July 11, 2010
The Scribes Of Late Bronze Age Jerusalem
July 10, 2010
Jerusalem 1: The First Cuneiform Tablet Found In Jerusalem
June 20, 2010
Latest Journal of Cuneiform Studies Now Available
June 18, 2010
The Latest ZA
May 12, 2010
What Did Ancient Akkadian Sound Like?
April 25, 2010
I’ve Gone Too Far This Time
April 17, 2010
Who Could Read Or Write This Text?
April 8, 2010
New Esarhaddon Vassal Treaty Found In Turkey
April 3, 2010
Snakes That Cannot Be Conjured
March 29, 2010
Making, Creating, Drawing A Diversion
March 16, 2010
Blood and Dust In Tempe
March 13, 2010
A Snake (Text) Stew
March 10, 2010
A Disconnected Ramble On God And King
March 8, 2010
Specialized Interests Indeed
March 2, 2010
Lambert On A Divine Ambiguity
March 1, 2010
Deuteronomy 32:43a In Context
February 6, 2010
Crazy Thoughts On Blindness And Reading Clay Tablets
February 2, 2010
The Latest ZA
January 23, 2010
Akkadian And Being Wrong About Making A Mistake
January 7, 2010
Two New Books On Abnormal Interests
January 4, 2010
On Ghosts, Demons, Gods And Contagious Diseases
December 22, 2009
A New Idiot's Guide to KAL DILI
December 19, 2009
A Somewhat Different Light On The Sun
December 18, 2009
It Seems Simple Enough
December 15, 2009
When Gods And Ghosts Were Not Supernatural
December 8, 2009
One Elephant Got Up
November 27, 2009
Plural Verbs