Title: The Ubānu Chapter of the Extispicy Series Bārûtu: Edition, Commentary, and Evaluation
University: Philipps-Universität Marburg
Supervisor: Nils P. Heeßel
Abstract: The Ancient Near East is characterized by the conviction that the world is full of signs. In the things that can be observed by humans – whether on earth or in the sky – the counsels and orders of the gods can be seen. This “bond between all things” enabled Mesopotamian scholars to fathom the will of the gods by means of divination, the art of which was given to humans by the gods at the beginning of the world, and to react to it with appropriate rituals. Already since the 3rd millennium B. C. there are the first indirect indications of divinatory practices. However, these become tangible in technical texts only from the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C. Since this time, the art of extispicy in particular already played an important role. In the course of time, around the turn from the 2nd to the 1st millennium B. C., the standardized extispicy series bārûtu emerged, which formed a collection of extispicy omens in 10 chapters on 100 tablets. The arrangement of the chapters is based on the sequence of examination in the course of the extispicy ritual. It begins with the skeleton (chapter 1) followed by the examination of the colon (chapter 2). Chapters 3-7 deal with particular characteristics of the most important organ for extispicy: the liver. Thus, the “presence,” the “path”, the gallbladder, the “finger” and various other signs are examined. Chapter 8 then deals with the “weapon mark”, a characteristic that appears only occasionally on the liver or lungs and is treated separately here in a chapter of its own. The 9th chapter deals with the lung, and the 10th with divinatory principles of interpretation. So far, only about one third of the entire text can be reconstructed. Most of the documents come from Assurbanipal’s universal library in Nineveh. Other textual witnesses come from the Assyrian cities of Kalḫu, Dūr-Šarrukīn, and Ḫuzirīna, as well as Uruk, Borsippa, Babylon, Sippar, Nippur, and Kiš in Babylonia. So far, only chapters 3, 4, 5, and 10 have been edited. The other chapters are therefore still unpublished. This includes the 7th chapter šumma ubānu “When the finger”. The “finger” is anatomically the processus caudatus, which is formed by the lobus caudatus and forms a particularly conspicuous feature on the sheep’s liver. It has three edges, three surfaces, and tapers to a point. The ubānu chapter consists of 11 tablets, of which only the 6th is preserved complete in a copy from the Seleucid period. All other tablets are either fragmentary or not preserved at all. Of the non-preserved tablets, however, the incipits are known in some cases.
In addition to its detailed treatment in the seventh chapter of the extispicy series bārûtu, the finger is also frequently mentioned in Neo-Assyrian extispicy reports. Another text genre, the “dub ḫa.la” texts, deals with the adannu, the stipulated term of the omens. This term can range from 7 to about 100 days and was already calculated in ancient Babylonian times in Mari, although at that time the term adannu was not yet in use. The calculation of this period is also based on markings on the finger. For this purpose, the three most significant markings on the top, middle, or base of the right or left surface of the finger are evaluated: the notch (piṭru), the hole (šīlu), and the “weapon mark” (kakku). The calculation is done in two steps: first, the base of the validity period rēš adanni is calculated by multiplying the period for which the extispicy is performed by the constant coefficient uddazallû, “correction” as well as another number. In the second step, the markings on the finger are examined in more detail. From the number and position of these marks on the right or left side of the finger, another coefficient is calculated and thus the validity period of the extispicy is determined. Within this period, the prediction resulting from the extispicy is then also fulfilled. Thus, the extispicy is made only for limited periods of time. Its purpose is not to predict the future in general, but to make predictions about the outcome of current events. Whether the calculations in the “dub ḫa-la” texts were actually applied in practice, however, cannot yet be said with certainty.
Within the framework of the planned dissertation, chapter 7 ubānu of the extispicy series bārûtu is now to be edited for the first time. For this purpose, first, the already known texts will be collected, copied, transliterated, and collated where necessary and possible. Next, an attempt will be made to locate further hitherto unidentified texts and also to edit them in the manner described above. After the available text inventory has been recorded and processed, it will be edited in the form of a score, translated, and provided with a philological commentary. The completion of the text edition will be followed by the evaluation of the content. The structure of the arrangement of the omens will be examined, which principles of interpretation can be derived from the statements of the omens, and which meaning was attributed to the finger in particular. The evaluation of the content is followed by the contextualization of the text on synchronic and diachronic levels. On the synchronic level the question arises, what meaning the finger had in other text genres and what practical relevance this might have had. Concerning the practical application, the extispicy reports are of interest. In addition, the calculation of the validity period adannu in “dub ḫa.la” texts will play a special role. On the diachronic level, on the other hand, the focus will be on the genesis of the serialization of omens involving the finger against the background of the process of serialization in Mesopotamia in general. For these purposes, precursors from the second half of the 2nd century B. C. are compared in order to look for clues to the serialization process.
Keywords: divination, extispicy, ubānu, bārûtu, omina, liver
Contact: dams@students.uni-marburg.de
