CCP 3.1.u83 - Enūma Anu Enlil (?)

Catalogue information
British Museum
K.872
NinevehNineveh (Kuyunjik), perhaps from Aššur
CDLI: 
P393842
Publication
Copy: 
AAT 58
ACh Adad 25
Commentary
DivinationAstrological. Enūma Anu Enlil

mukallimtu 2a

Base text: 
Enūma Anu Enlil (?)
Tablet information
Assyrian
Fragment
Columns: 
1
Lines: 
obv 17, rev 14
Size: 
6,3+ × 4,6 × 1,8 cm
7th cent (Assurbanipal libraries and other Assyrian cities)
Colophon
Aššur-mudammiq s. Nabû-mušēṣi d. Bēl-kundi-ilāʾi
Babylon
Bibliography

Borger, 1967R. Borger, Handbuch der Keilschriftliteratur. Band I. Repertorium der sumerischen und akkadischen Texte. de Gruyter, 1967.
[XXV) Auch Craig AAT 58. Kommentar.]
: 596

Borger, 1975R. Borger, Handbuch der Keilschriftliteratur. Band II. Supplement zu Band I. de Gruyter, 1975.
[58 K 872) Cf Borger WO 5 166.]
: 38

Frahm, 2011E. Frahm, Babylonian and Assyrian Text Commentaries. Origins of Interpretation. Ugarit-Verlag, 2011.
[From Assur?]
: 29, 42-43, 46, 133, 148 161, 270, 278

Hunger, 1968H. Hunger, Babylonische und assyrische Kolophone. Neukirchener Verlag, 1968.
[Colophon]
: 140 no. 504

Reiner, 1998aE. Reiner, Celestial Omen Tablets and Fragments in the British Museum, in tikip santakki mala bašmu.. Festschrift für Rykle Borger zu seinem 65. Geburtstag am 24. Mai 1994, S. M. Maul, Ed. Styx, 1998, pp. 215-302.: 217

Record
Frazer, 04/2016 (Transliteration)
Frazer, 04/2016 (Translation)
Frazer, 04/2016 (Introduction)
Jiménez, 08/2016 (Commentary markup)
By Mary Frazer | Make a correction or suggestion
How to cite
Frazer, M., 2016, “Commentary on Enūma Anu Enlil (?) (CCP 3.1.u83),” Cuneiform Commentaries Project (E. Frahm, E. Jiménez, M. Frazer, and K. Wagensonner), 2013–2024; accessed April 19, 2024, at https://ccp.yale.edu/P393842. DOI: 10079/zpc86ks
© Cuneiform Commentaries Project (Citation Guidelines)
Introduction

This commentary is written on a small, landscape-oriented tablet, which is described as an u’iltu-tablet in its colophon. According to Gehlken,1 this tablet and another one (K.68 = CCP 3.1.u80) are extracts from a tablet of the commentary series Sîn ina tāmartīšu (SIT), and they discuss omens from Enūma Anu Enlil (EAE) 46. Nevertheless, the first two entries in the commentary under discussion seem to be drawn from EAE 45 (see the notes ad ll. 1 and 3). Like several other manuscripts of SIT – all of which were found at Nineveh – the present commentary was copied from a tablet from Babylon.

Only the first three entries are sufficiently well preserved for the relationship between explanandum and explanans to be clear. The first two explanations specify the time period, which the base text refers to vaguely as “an unusual time” and “an unexpected time,” as the summer months, Tammuz, Ab and Elul (months 4-6). The third entry provides a philological explanation, equating the phrase “morning, midday and evening” with the expression “day and night.”

 

The rubric is of the type mukallimtu 2a. It is unusual in that it begins with the word šūmāti, “lines,” and contains the spelling of mukallimtu as mu-kal-lim-da, a probably playful writing which is otherwise attested only in the astrological commentary K.886 (CCP 3.1.3.A).2

The colophon indicates that the tablet was produced by one Aššur-mudammiq, son of Nabû-mušēṣi, of the Bēl-kundi-ilāʾī family, whose members are otherwise attested as living in Assur. Aššur-mudammiq’s father may be the same Nabû-mušēṣi who authored 17 astrological reports found at Nineveh, and which date from 669 to 663/2 BCE.3 The circumstances in which the present tablet was transferred to Nineveh are unclear.

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ACh Adad 25

Obverse
o 1o 1

* dIŠKUR ina la a-dan-ni-šú -šú [ŠUB-ma]1

"If Adad thu[nders] at an unusual time"

o 22

    ina itiŠU itiNE u itiKIN -šú [ŠUB-ma]

(means) "he thu[nders] in the months of Tammuz, Ab or Elul (months 4-6)."

o 33

* dIŠKUR ina la si-ma-ni-šú -šú [ŠUB-ma]2

"If Adad thu[nders] at an unexpected time"

o 44

    ŠU.BI..[ÀM]

(means) ditto (i.e., that he thunders in months 4-6).

o 55

* dIŠKUR TA UD.1.KAM EN UD.30.KAM -[šú ŠUB-ma]

"If Adad th[unders] from the first day until the thirtieth day (of the month)."

o 66

    še-ra AN.BAR₇ u AN.ÚSAN : ur-ra [u mu-ša]

"Morning, midday and evening" means "day [and night."]

o 77

* dIŠKUR ŠUB-ma [x x (x x)]

"If Adad thunders" [...]

o 88

    ana U₄mi [x x (x x)]

"for the day" [...]

o 99

* ina U₄ NU ŠÚ x [x x (x x)]

"If the day does not cloud over" [...]

o 1010

    šá itiŠU iti!?NE? [x x x (x x)]

of "Tammuz, A[b ...]

o 1111

* U₄ SI-šú ŠUB-ma [x x x (x x)]3

"If the day dims its brightness" [...]

o 1212

    U₄ dUTU SI [qar?-nu? SI ša?-ru?-ru? ŠUB]4

UD (means) "Šamaš"; SI (means) ["horn, brightness"; ŠUB (means)]

o 1313

    na-du-ú [(x x x x)]

"to throw" [...]

o 1414

    ina MAN-šú ú-[x x (x x)]

... [...]

o 1515

* dIŠKUR ina [x x (x x)]

"If Adad ..." [...]

o 1616

    ti-bi še-e- [(x x x x)]

"dawn" [...]

o 1717

[(x)] x SI DIŠ ŠÚ [(x x x x)]

... [...]

Reverse
r 18r 18

[* x x] x DABbat [(x x x x x x x)]

["If ...] ... he/it seizes [(...)"]

r 1919

[x x x] TE NI iṣ-bat [(x x x x x x x)]

[...] ... he seized [(...)]

r 2020

[* d]IŠKUR ina imKUR.RA [x x (x x x x x)]

["If Ad]ad in the east wind [..."]

r 2121

    TA imKUR.RA [(x x x x x x x)]

["fr]om the east wind [..."]

r 2222

* dIŠKUR ig-da-za-az [(x x x x x x x)]5

"If Adad persistently grinds (his teeth)" [...]

r 2323

* dIŠKUR ina ID-x [x x (x x x x)]

"If Adad ... [..."]

r 2424

    imLÍMMU.BA [(x x x x x x)]

"the west wind" [...]

r 2525

* dIŠKUR x [x (x x x x x)]

"If Adad [..."]

r 2626

ú-tam-mu-ru x [x (x x x x x)]6

"they buried" [...]


r 2727

MU-MEŠ mu-kal-lim-da u šu-ut pi-[i ša pi um-man-ni]

Lines from a mukallimtu-commentary and oral expl[anations following the sayings of a (master-)scholar].


r 2828

GABA.RI TIN.TIRki GIM LIBIR-šu? [SAR-ma ba-ri?]

Copy (of an original from) Babylon. [Written and checked] according to its original.

r 2929

ú-ìl-ti m-šur-muSIG₅iq DUMU x [(x x x x)]

uʾiltu-tablet of Aššur-mudammiq, son [...,]

r 3030

ša d tuk-lat-su DUMU md-mu-še-ṣi7

whose mainstay is Nabû, son of Nabû-mušēṣi,

r 3131

DUMU mEN-ku-un-di-DINGIR-a-a GAL* [DUB.SAR]8

descendant of Bēl-kundi-ilā'ī, ch[ief scribe.]

1A protasis that begins the same way is attested in K.7941 o 14’, part of Tablet 45 of Enūma Anu Enlil (Gehlken, p. 68).

2Protases with similar beginnings are attested in r 6’-8’ of Tablet 45 of Enūma Anu Enlil (Gehlken, pp. 47-48). The same phrase together with the same explanation is attested in K.68.

3This interpretation of the passage assumes that the commentator’s equation in ll. 12-13 of šub with nadû is incorrect in this context. The dimming of the sun’s brightness, šarūra maqātu is a well attested meteorological phenomenon in cuneiform texts (CAD Š 2 141b and M 1 245a).

4The tentative restoration of [qarnu SI šarūru] is based on a possible parallel in a commentary on SIT 6 (ACh Adad 33, l 21 = K. 50) in which the base text begins similarly (¶ U₄ SI-šú ŠUB-ma), and in which SI is equated first with qarnu and then with šarūru.

5In a section dealing with omens in Tablet 45 of Enūma Anu Enlil, K.4777 (a ṣâtu-type commentary on several Enūma Anu Enlil tablets) cites a protasis with a similar beginning, šumma Adad iktanaṣṣaṣ (Gehlken, p. 50 l. 17).

6This verb seems to be the Assyrian preterite form (3 mp) of temēru D, “to bury.” The Assyrianism may indicate that this particular entry was composed by an Assyrian scholar; however, an Assyrian origin for the text seems less likely in view of the colophon’s statement that the present tablet is a copy of a tablet from Babylon. Alternatively, the Assyrian background of the scribe who produced the present tablet could have caused him to Assyrianize a verb that was written with a Babylonian form in the Vorlage. For linguistic Assyrianisms in other text commentaries from Assur and Nineveh see Frahm (2011: 84 n. 420, 122-123, 144, 149 n. 719, 174 n. 816, 223 n. 1044, 256 n. 1215, 269-270 with n. 1218).

7To date, this is the only attestation of the word šumātu, “lines/ explanations,” in the colophon of a text commentary. Since it is written here logographically, it is unclear whether it should be understood as status rectus or status constructus, i.e., whether the line should be understood as “Lines, mukallimtu-commentary and oral expl[anations]” or as “Lines from a mukallimtu-commentary and oral expl[anations].” At Nineveh are attested three so-called excerpt commentaries, all of which are concerned with Enūma Anu Enlil and which seeming to belong to a series (Frahm 2011: 133). However, their colophons identify them as nisḫu mukallimtu rather than šumātu mukallimtu.

8Hunger (BAK no. 504) restores the title of Bēl-kundi-ilā’ī as DUB.[SAR], however the traces of the sign following LU₂ fit GAL rather than DUB. Bēl-kundi-ilā’ī also bears the title rab ṭupšarri in the colophons on two Assur tablets, KAR 168 (= BAK no. 252) and LKA 11 (= BAK no. 253).

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