Catalogue information

British Museum

BM 40749

81-4-28,294

Babylon›(Babylon)

CDLI:

P461192

Publication

Copy:

Lambert Folio 9292 [tr]

Commentary

Divination›Terrestrial omens (Šumma Ālu)

None

Base text:

Ālu 34

Tablet information

Babylonian

Fragment (upper portion of a small tablet)

Columns:

Lines:

obv. 9, rev. 6

Neo/Late Babylonian, specifics unknown

Bibliography

CAD T 240a[d.nin.kilim.bar.bar : ta-ar-pa-šu BM 40749:4 (comm., courtesy W. G. Lambert).]

Jiménez, 2018E. Jiménez, “Highway to Hell: The Winds as Cosmic Conveyors in Mesopotamian Incantation Texts”, in Sources of Evil. Studies in Mesopotamian Exorcistic Lore, G. Van Buylaere, Luukko, M. , Schwemer, D. , and Mertens-Wagschal, A. , Eds. Brill, 2018, pp. 316-350.
[Ninkilim (wrongly cited as BM “40739”!)]: 336 fn. 48

Record

Jiménez, 02/2016 (Identification)

Jiménez, 02/2016 (Transliteration)

Jiménez, 02/2016 (Translation)

Jiménez, 02/2016 (Introduction)

Jiménez, 08/2016 (Commentary markup)

By Enrique Jiménez |

How to cite

Jiménez, E., 2016, “Commentary on Ālu 34 (CCP 3.5.34),” Cuneiform Commentaries Project (E. Frahm, E. Jiménez, M. Frazer, and K. Wagensonner), 2013–2024; accessed December 22, 2024, at https://ccp.yale.edu/P461192. DOI: 10079/51c5bbs

BibTex XML RIS

Introduction

This fragment belongs to the British Museum’s “Babylon Collection” (its accession number is 81-4-28,294). It contains a previously unidentified commentary on the 34th chapter of the series of terrestrial omens Šumma Ālu, whose incipit is “If a mongoose.” The poor state of preservation of both the chapter of the base text and the present tablet makes the edition offered below very provisional.

Only the upper half of the present text is preserved. The tablet was originally of small format: it can be compared e.g. with the commentary on physiognomic omens BM 38788 (CCP 3.7.2.J), or with the commentary tablet BM 38684 (CCP 7.2.u109, which incidentally also deals with mongooses).

The main goal of the commentary is to provide glosses for difficult words or writings. For instance, the rare logogram dnin.kilim.bar.bar is explained as tarpašu, “otter.” The commentary uses the technical terms šanîš (o 2 and 6?), used to adduce alternative explanations, and ša (o 8), used to introduce periphrastic definitions.

Edition

ccpo

BM 040749[via ccpo]


Obverse
o 1o 1	^dNIN.KILIM : ner-tu₄ : ḫi-ṭu	(o 1) (From the tablet) “If a mongoose” (= Šumma Ālu 34 1) “Murder” (= Šumma Ālu 34 2) means “crime”; alternatively, it means “to kill.”
o 22	šá-niš da-a-ku
o 33	iḫ-ta-na-ru-ur : ir-ta-na-kab	(o 3) “He continually trembles” (= Šumma Ālu 34 unknown) means “he continually pushes forward.”
o 44	^dNIN.KILIM.BAR.BAR : ta-ar-pa-šú	(o 4) NIN.KILIM.BAR.BAR (= Šumma Ālu 34 29-32) means “otter.”
o 55	ra-pa-gu : mut-tap-ri-šú1	(o 5) The word rapāgu (= Šumma Ālu 34 unknown) means “winged.”
o 66	NA BI EZEN šá-niš : UG₅ lu-u	(o 6) “That man will EZEN, alternatively, UG₅ or UG₅.GA” (= Šumma Ālu 34 unknown) means “dead.”
o 77	UG₅.GA : mi-i-tú
o 88	iḫ-ta-⸢na-ru-ur⸣ : šá ta-EZEN^? ib-bu-⸢ú⸣	(o 8) “He continually trembles” (= Šumma Ālu 34 unknown) refers to (the man) who is called ...
	(rest of obverse missing)
Reverse
rr NaN	(beginning reverse missing)
r 1'r 1'	[x x (x)] x x [x x (x)]	(r 1') ...
r 2'2'	⸢x-šu⸣-ku : maš-x^? : ⸢x⸣ [x x (x)]	(r 1') ...
r 3'3'	ú-ta-⸢áš-šá⸣-ab : ut-tan-na-⸢aḫ^?⸣2	(r 3') “utaššab” means “uttannaḫ.”
r 4'4'	ú-ta-sa-ab : sa-a-[x x x] x	(r 4') “ú-ta-sa-ab” means ... [...].
r 5'5'	KU₁₀.KU₁₀ <:> la-ra-a ir-ši	(r 5') KU₁₀.KU₁₀ <means> “it has twigs”; KU₁₀.KU₁₀ means “Nissaba ...”
r 6'6'	KU₁₀.KU₁₀ : ^dŠE.NAGA x x UD
	(rest of reverse blank)