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A Lipšur Litany from Nimrud

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

D. J. Wiseman
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Extract

The interest shown by Professor Gadd in all aspects of Babylonian literature is sufficiently well-known to justify the publication in his honour of two pieces from a Šurpu-type litany which now completes one of a series of texts hitherto known only from other fragments (Plates XXXVIII–XL).

Among the tablets found in the Nabû temple at Nimrud in 1958 were two fragments (ND4389; 4405/77 = A) which, though physically touching are regrettably too broken at the juncture to provide a continuous text. This loss is, however, not serious since the intervening text (ll. 11′–30′; 80′–93′) is provided by a Šurpu-type text (AO 6775 = B) already published by Nougayrol. A further small fragment giving the left side of ten lines (K. 7164 = C), published by Reiner, was classified as Type I.2 and identified with that published by Nougayrol. To the 3 8 lines thus previously known can be added a further 56 lines from which it is clear that the deities with their entourages and shrines were first invoked to remove any curse (lipšur). These were followed by the months of the year and by the days of the month. The catchline on the reverse of ND 4405/77 (KUREnlil) indicates that at Kalḫu this text preceded that on which the mountains and rivers were invoked for the same purpose. Since ‘Mt. Sābu, the home of Enlil’ begins the latter tablet (Reiner Type I.1) it is probable that our present text (Reiner Type I.2) should be placed before it and that the Litany type numbers be re-arranged accordingly.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , Autumn 1969 , pp. 175 - 183
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1969

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References

1 JNES 27 (1968), 249.Google Scholar The texts, ND 4389, 30 + 26 ll., measures 70 × 120 mm. and ND 4405/77, parts 11 + 1 ll., 70 × 48 mm., are now in the Iraq Museum (IM 67638). They are written in a fine small script which is partly illegible. These tablets were originally among those stored in rooms NT. 10–16 in the south-east wing of Ezida, from which they were scattered after the sack of Calah. They were found in a pit sunk between NT. 14 and 16 (see Mallowan, M. E. L., Nimrud and its Remains 1, 271–277Google Scholar). I am grateful to Mr. W. G. Lambert for reading the article in manuscript and for a number of helpful suggestions.

2 Nougayrol, J., “Un texte inédit du genre Šurpu”, JCS 1 (1947), 329–336.Google Scholar

3 JNES 15 (1956), 131, 138–139.Google Scholar

4 The fragmentary ll. 0–0′ will then be identical with ll. 89′–91′ of our composite text. K 4557, 2′ (collated) reads li]p-šu-r[u. Reiner I.1, 122a (= LKA 147, Rs i, 6) is not a catchline but a title which may well refer to the first line of the ‘series’ as in our text. It should, therefore, be deleted from type I.1.

5 J. Nougayrol, loc. cit. 329, n. 4.

6 The same scribe wrote a copy of Ludlul I (ND 5485), šumma ālu (4361), a commentary on iqqur īpuš (5497–1), incantations (5589) and lexical texts (5483— uru.an.na). There are similarities in the hand to ND 1120 (Iraq 14 (1952), Pl. XXIIIGoogle Scholar) dated to the ninth year of Sargon II. A later date is possible since the Nabû Temple texts include at least one (ND. 4324; to be published by Jerrold S. Cooper) composed in the reign of Sin-šar-iškun.

7 Loc. cit., 130.

8 Nougayrol, loc. cit., 329, n. 2, correctly restored the order of the missing deities in the opening lines on the basis of that followed in kudurru-inscriptions. To these must now be added those gods listed after dUraš. The order does not appear to follow any of the variant forms of AN = anum (on these see now Lambert, W. G., “Götterlisten” in RIA III, 475–6Google Scholar). See also n. 10.

9 B. Landsberger, Der kultische Kalender der Babylonier und Assyrer (abbrev. KK). Similarly the mountains listed in I.1 follow the sequence of ḪAR.ra = hubullu XXII (Reiner, loc. cit., 131).

10 Note the variety in order of deities (and their epithets) in Šurpu II, 142–160Google Scholar; III, 104–110, 151–163.

11 A similar freedom of composition from existing literary elements is seen in another unpublished lipšur-litany (ND 4380). Cf. Oppenheim, A. L., An Bi 12 (1959), 282.Google Scholar