Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T05:52:38.186Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Entrusting the witches to Ḫumuṭ-tabal: The ušburruda ritual BM 47806 +

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Daniel Schwemer
Daniel Schwemer*
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, Department of the Languages and Cultures of the Near and Middle East, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG, dsll@soas.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The hitherto unpublished Late Babylonian fragment BM 47806 + adds another example to the group of rituals which counteract witchcraft by banning sorcerers to the netherworld. Šamaš is asked to hand them over, on his journey to the netherworld, to Ḫumuṭ-tabal, the ferryman of the dead. The edition of BM 47806 + is preceded by a brief overview of rituals of this type, including a discussion of the relationship between ritual burial of figurines – symbolising the dismissal of sorcerers to the netherworld – and their ritual burning, the other single most important technique of figurine magic deployed to kill warlock and witch.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 72 , 2010 , pp. 63 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abusch, T. 1986. Ishtar's Proposal and Gilgamesh's Refusal: An Interpretation of the Gilgamesh Epic Tablet 6, lines 1–79, History of Religions 26: 143–87.Google Scholar
Abusch, T. 1998. Ghost and God: Some Observations on a Babylonian Understanding of Human Nature, in: Self, Soul and Body in Religious Experience, Studies in the History of Religions 78, ed. Baumgarten, A. I., Assmann, J. and Stroumsa, G. G., Leiden et al. 363–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abusch, T. 2002. Mesopotamian Witchcraft. Toward a History and Understanding of Babylonian Witchcraft Beliefs and Literature (Ancient Magic and Divination 5), Leiden et al. Google Scholar
Abusch, T. and Schwemer, D.. 2008. Das Ritual Maqlû (“Verbrennung”), in: Texte aus der Umwelt des Alten Testaments. Neue Folge 4, ed. Janowski, B. and Wilhelm, G., Gütersloh, 128–86.Google Scholar
Abusch, T. and Schwemer, D., 2009. RIAA 312 (O 193) Revisited, Akkadica 130: 103–9.Google Scholar
Abusch, T. and Schwemer, D., forthcoming. Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals 1, Leiden and Boston.Google Scholar
Borger, R. 2004. Mesopotamisches Zeichenlexikon. AOAT 305. Münster.Google Scholar
Bottéro, J. 1987–1990. Magie. A. In Mesopotamien. Reallexikon der Assyriologie 7: 200–34.Google Scholar
Cavigneaux, A. and Al-Rawi, F. N. H.. 1995. Textes magiques de Teil Haddad (Textes de Tell Haddad II). Deuxième partie, ZA 85: 19–46.Google Scholar
Ebeling, E. 1931. Tod und Leben nach den Vorstellungen der Babylonier I. Texte, Berlin and Leipzig.Google Scholar
Farber, W. 1977. Beschwörungsrituale an Ištar und Dumuzi. Attī Ištar ša harmasa Dumuzi, Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Veröffentlichungen der orientalischen Kommission 30, Wiesbaden.Google Scholar
Farber, W. 1989. Schlaf, Kindchen, schlaf! Mesopotamische Baby-Beschwörungen und -Rituale, Mesopotamian Civilizations 2, Winona Lake.Google Scholar
Farber, W. 2008. Review of Schwemer 2007a, WdO 38 (2008) 254–6.Google Scholar
Geller, M. J. 1989. A New Piece of Witchcraft, in: dumu-e2-dub-ba-a. Studies in Honor of Åke W. Sjöberg, OPBF 11, ed. Behrens, H., Loding, D. and Roth, M. T., Philadelphia, 193–205.Google Scholar
Geller, M. J. 1995–1996. Review E. von Weiher, SpTU 4, AfO 42–3: 245–8.Google Scholar
George, A. R. 2003. The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic. Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts, Oxford.Google Scholar
George, A. R. 2009. Babylonian Literary Texts in the Schøyen Collection, Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection, Cuneiform Texts 4 = CUSAS 10, Bethesda.Google Scholar
Gurney, O. R. 1960. A Tablet of Incantations against Slander, Iraq 22: 221–7.Google Scholar
Heimpel, W. 1986. The Sun at Night and the Doors of Heaven in Babylonian Texts, JCS 38: 127–51.Google Scholar
Horowitz, W. 1998. Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography, Mesopotamian Civilizations 8, Winona Lake.Google Scholar
Katz, D. 2003. The Image of the Netherworld in the Sumerian Sources, Bethesda.Google Scholar
Læssøe, J. 1955. Studies on the Assyrian Ritual and Series bît rimki, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Lambert, W. G. 1957–1958. An Incantation of the Maqlû Type, AfO 18: 288–99, pls. XI–XVI.Google Scholar
Lambert, W. G. 1974. dingir.šà.dib.ba Incantations, JNES 33: 267–322.Google Scholar
Lambert, W. G. 1982. The Hymn to the Queen of Nippur, in: Zikir šumim. Assyriological Studies Presented to F. R. Kraus on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday, ed. van Driel, G. et al., Leiden, 173–218.Google Scholar
Lambert, W. G. 2002. A Rare Exorcistic Fragment, in: Riches Hidden in Secret Places. Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Memory of Thorkild Jacobsen, ed. Abusch, T., Winona Lake, 203–10.Google Scholar
Livingstone, A. 1989. Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea, SAA 3, Helsinki.Google Scholar
Maul, S. M. 1994. Zukunftsbewältigung. Eine Untersuchung altorientalischen Denkens anhand der babylonischassyrischen Löserituale (Namburbi), BaF 18, Mainz.Google Scholar
Mayer, W. R. 1976. Untersuchungen zur Formensprache der babylonischen “Gebetsbeschwörungen”, Studia Pohl Series Maior 5, Rome.Google Scholar
Meek, T. J. 1918–1919. Some Bilingual Religious Texts, AJSL 35: 134–44.Google Scholar
Myhrman, D. W. 1932. Die Labartu-Texte. Babylonische Beschwörungsformeln nebst Zauberverfahren gegen die Dämonin Labartu, ZA 16: 141–200.Google Scholar
Nasrabadi, B. M. 1999. Untersuchungen zu den Bestattungssitten in Mesopotamien in der ersten Hälfte des ersten Jahrtausends v. Chr., BaF 23, Mainz.Google Scholar
Reade, J. 1986. Introduction. Rassam's Babylonian Collection: the Excavations and the Archives, in: Leichty, E., Catalogue of the Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum VI, Tablets from Sippar 1, London, xii–xxxvi.Google Scholar
Reiner, E. 1956. Lipšur Litanies, JNES 15: 129–49.Google Scholar
Schwemer, D. 1998. Akkadische Rituale aus Ḫattuša. Die Sammeltafel KBo XXXVI 29 und verwandte Fragmente, THeth 23, Heidelberg.Google Scholar
Schwemer, D. 2006. Auf Reisen mit Lamastu. Zum “Ritualmemorandum” K 888 und seinen Parallelen aus Assur, BaM 37: 197–209, pls. I II.Google Scholar
Schwemer, D. 2007a. Rituale und Beschwörungen gegen Schadenzauber, Keilschrifttexte aus Assur literarischen Inhalts 2 = WVDOG 117, Wiesbaden (KAL 2).Google Scholar
Schwemer, D. 2007b. Abwehrzauber und Behexung: Studien zum Schadenzauberglauben im alten Mesopotamien. Unter Benutzung von Tzvi Abuschs Kritischem Katalog und Sammlungen im Rahmen des Kooperationsprojektes Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals, Wiesbaden.Google Scholar
Schwemer, D. 2009. Review of Scurlock 2006, BiOr 66, cols. 168–77.Google Scholar
Schwemer, D. forthcoming a. Empowering the Patient. The Opening Section of the Ritual Maqlû , in: Pax hethitica. Studies on the Hittites and their Neighbours in Honor of Itamar Singer, Studien zu den Boğazköy-Texten 51, ed. Cohen, Y., Gilan, A. and Miller, J., Wiesbaden.Google Scholar
Schwemer, D. forthcoming b. Washing, Defiling and Burning: Two Bilingual Anti-witchcraft Incantations, OrNS.Google Scholar
Scurlock, J. 1995. Magical Uses of Ancient Mesopotamian Festivals of the Dead, in: Ancient Magic and Ritual Power, ed. Meyer, M. and Mirecki, P., Leiden and Boston, 93–107.Google Scholar
Scurlock, J. 2002. Soul Implacements in Ancient Mesopotamian Funerary Rituals, in: Magic and Divination in the Ancient World, Ancient Magic and Divination 2, ed. Ciraolo, L. and Seidel, J., Leiden et al., 1–6.Google Scholar
Scurlock, J. 2006. Magico-medical Means of Treating Ghost-induced Illnesses in Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Magic and Divination 3, Leiden and Boston.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soden, W. von. 1939. Aus einem Ersatzopferritual für den assyrischen Hof, ZA 45: 42–61.Google Scholar
Stol, M. 1993. Epilepsy in Babylonia, CM 2, Groningen.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsukimoto, A. 1985. Untersuchungen zur Totenpflege (kispum) im alten Mesopotamien, AOAT 216, Kevelaer and Neukirchen-Vluyn.Google Scholar
Westenholz, J. G. 1997. Legends of the Kings of Akkade, Mesopotamian Civilizations 7, Winona Lake.Google Scholar
Wiggermann, F. A. M. 1992. Mesopotamian Protective Spirits. The Ritual Texts, CM 1, Groningen.Google Scholar
Wiggermann, F. A. M. 1996. Scenes from the Shadow Side, in: Mesopotamian Poetic Language: Sumerian and Akkadian, CM 6, ed. Vogelzang, M. E. and Vanstiphout, H. L. J., Groningen, 207–27.Google Scholar
Wilcke, C. 1973. Sumerische literarische Texte in Manchester und in Liverpool, AfO 24: 1–18, pls. I-III.Google Scholar