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An Incantation Tablet from Nimrud

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Extract

The Nimrud tablet ND.5577 was discovered by the British School of Archaeology in Iraq Expedition in the 1956 campaign. It was found in the ruins of the Ezida Temple, in a pit in N.T. 12. The tablet measures 25 × 10.5 cms. When found it was unburnt. The obverse is much defaced and its upper part almost destroyed by fire. No traces of a colophon are preserved.

The text of N.D.5577 consists of three bilingual incantations of which the first and the second according to their subscriptions are incantations of the type n a m. e r í m b ú r. r u. d a. No. 1 (obv. 1–26) was composed for a ritual against cattle-disease. The greater part of the text is destroyed. No. 2 (obv. 27–43) and No. 3 (obv. 44–rev. 48) are incantations against human diseases. In their style and phraseology they offer strong resemblance to the texts of the series Utukkē limnūti of which No. 3, at least, may be an excerpt.

Copies of the text are given on Plates XVI-XIX.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1959

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References

page 54 note 1 I am indebted to Professors M. E. L. Mallowan and J. Læssøe for permission to publish N.D.5577 and to the authorities of the Iraq Museum for cleaning the tablet and providing me with additional photographs. I also wish to thank Dr. J. J. A. van Dijk for collating part of the obverse in Baghdad. Professor von Soden made some valuable suggestions which I gratefully acknowledge.

page 54 note 2 See the plan Iraq XIX Pt. 1 Pl. II (facing p. 2).

page 54 note 3 Erasures are indicated by a double set of square brackets.

page 56 note 1 Erasure of nam.tar?

page 56 note 2 I.e. the last element of the sign repeated. Sign PI.

page 56 note 4 LÚ.GÁN.KU, see Commentary.

page 56 note 5 Or gu gx (KA).

page 57 note 1 Sign ŠU + TAB for qát.

page 58 note 1 For this abbreviated formula, see Commentary

page 60 note 1 E. Reiner, A.f.O. Beiheft 11.

page 61 note 1 The different writings were collected by Poebel, , A.f.O. 9, 267–70Google Scholar.