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Divination in Third Millennium BCE (?)
Sumer
Omen tradition: ubiquitous
Babylon
Assyria
Franco D’Agostino
Sapienza – Università di Roma
Armando Bramanti
CCHS – CSIC, Madrid
Somehow spanning through three millennia
Maul 2013, Die Wahrsagekunst im alten Orient. Zeichen des Himmels und der Erde
A definition
Once upon a time...
Lu2-diĝir-ra
The art or practice that seeks to foresee or foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge usually by the interpretation of omens or by the aid of supernatural powers.
Merriam-Webster English Dictionary
Rome, September 23rd - 24th 2020, Istituto Svizzero
Back to the hepatoscopy
Divination & medicine
Hepatoscopy in Sumerian III millennium?
Divination & law
more generally extispicy: among the most attested divinatory methods in later times
maš2-šu-gid2-gid2 dadag-ga-me-en
giri3-gen-na inim uzu-ga-ka {d}nin-tud-bi ga2-e-me-en
To find omen series...
...let's look for tukum-bi/šumma clauses
a-zu(5) / asû
maš-šu-gid2-gid2 / āšipu
The sources
ILLNESS
I am a ritually pure diviner,
I am Nintu of the written lists of omens!
Šulgi B, ll. 131-132
In third millennium:
legal texts
(starting from late 3rd millennium)
literary texts
lexical lists
administrative texts
repeatedly denied
(e.g. P. Michalowski, S. Richardson)
OMEN
Laws of Ur-Namma
Administrative texts
Literary texts
Lexical lists
Letter of Ibbi-Sin to Puzur-Numušda
In Ur III
lu2-maš2-šu-gid2
attempt to create a whole new vocabulary in Sumerian (Michalowski 2011)
(lu2-)maš-šu-gid2-gid2 ≠ later barû
the "diviner" is often connected with deliveries of goods
"the one who reaches (lit. stretches out) the hand (in)to the goat"
these deliveries often imply other ovines
not a third millennium text!
cf. Crisostomo 2018, Sumerian Divination
(11 texts from Kassite through Hellenistic times)
possibly the base for the textual structure of later Babylonian divination series
Lu2 E (Ebla)
Lu2 C (Fara and Abu Ṣalabikh)
in Drehem it often occurs in the same contexts of the e2-muhaldim (the kitchen)
Šulgi B
maš2-šu-gid2-gid2 dadag-ga-me-en
giri3-gen-na inim uzu-ga-ka {d}nin-tud-bi ga2-e-me-en
giri3-gen-na = "procedures" ≠ omen collections
Before Ur III
I am a ritually pure diviner,
I am Nintu of the written lists of omens!
maybe performed extispicy, but no mention of texts / compendia (Richardson 2006 and 2010)
lu2-maš2-šu-gid2 together with sipa udu, gu2-šu-du8, muhaldim etc.
the expression maš2 šu-gid2-da is attested a few times in ED IIIb Umma, often in connection with other animals deliveries
ED IIIa Fara and Abu Ṣalabikh
is the lu2-maš2-šu-gid2 actually a barû?
few lines mentioning maš2-šu-gid2 (e.g. OIP 99, 144)
CURE (+ EXORCISM)
what does the compound verb šu--gid2 mean?
poorly understood texts
how was a liver omen interpreted without a series?
šu--gid2 as a synonym of šu--ti = mahāru, "to receive" as opposed to ba, "to offer" (cf. Karahashi 2000)
SF 47 (Lu2 C)
...and not only omens!
Not only livers...
Abundance of incantations in the early Mesopotamian literature
Extispicy is only one of multiple divination methods and most probably not the oldest!
a-zu(5) / asû
maš-šu-gid2-gid2 / āšipu
ILLNESS
Animal behavior
OMEN
Last step in the operative chain of the divinatory practice
Gudea Cyl A: goats (and other animals) interact with the environment and provide omens
CURE (+ EXORCISM)
+ herbs, resin, and smoke
Conclusions (?)
udu-i3 gukkal maš2 niga ensi2-ke4
{munus}ešgar ĝiš nu-zu kuš-ba mi-ni-durunx
the ruler made a fattened sheep, a fat-tail sheep, and a grain-fed kid
rest on hides of a virgin she-goat
Divination as an important aspect of the early Mesopotamian Weltanschauung, too
Our sources only highlight bits of the operative chain of the divinatory practice
Incubation
Some form of extispicy was probably already practiced in the third millennium
as a non-established practice
Gudea Cyl A: Gudea receives instructions to build the Eninnu
+ prayers, rites, and positioning
three dreams (ma-mu/maš-ĝi6)
More in-depth lexical studies bear the potential to shed new light on early Mesopotamian divination
presence of an interpreter (ensi/ensi3) who explains the dreams (Nanshe)