Catalogue information

British Museum

BM 38788

80-11-12,672

Babylon›(Babylon)

CDLI:

P461178

Publication

Photo:

JANEH 5 p. 110

Commentary

Divination›Physiognomic›Alamdimmû

ṣâtu 3b

Base text:

Alamdimmû 9-12

Commentary no:

Tablet information

Babylonian

Complete tablet

Columns:

Lines:

Size:

5,2 × 3,3 × 0,9 cm

Neo/Late Babylonian, specifics unknown

Bibliography

CAD Š/1 109b[On line r 13: úr.gìr = [š]u-⸢ḫar⸣ še-e-pi BM 38788 r. 13 (courtesy I. L. Finkel).]

CAD Š/2 61b[sag.ḫa.ma.al = šar-ḫu BM 38788:2 (comm., courtesy I. L. Finkel).]

Finkel, 2014bI. Finkel, “Remarks on Cuneiform Scholarship and the Babylonian Talmud”, in Encounters by the Rivers of Babylon: Scholarly Conversations between Jews, Iranians, and Babylonians, U. Gabbay and Secunda, S. , Eds. Mohr Siebeck, 2014, pp. 307-316.: 313 fn. 13

Jiménez, 2017E. Jiménez, The Babylonian Disputation Poems. With Editions of the Series of the Poplar, Palm and Vine, the Series of the Spider, and the Story of the Poor, Forlorn Wren. Brill, 2017.
[On line 15′]: 181 fn. 476

Record

Jiménez, 01/2015 (Unpublised Transliteration)

Jiménez, 01/2015 (Translation)

Jiménez, 01/2015 (Introduction)

Jiménez, 08/2016 (Commentary markup)

By Enrique Jiménez |

How to cite

Jiménez, E., 2015, “Commentary on Alamdimmû 9-12 (CCP 3.7.2.J),” Cuneiform Commentaries Project (E. Frahm, E. Jiménez, M. Frazer, and K. Wagensonner), 2013–2024; accessed April 23, 2024, at https://ccp.yale.edu/P461178. DOI: 10079/9p8cznr

BibTex XML RIS

Introduction

This hitherto unpublished tablet from Babylon contains a short but complete commentary on the last four chapters of the physiognomic divinatory series Alamdimmû. Only a few words from each chapter are commented upon: five words from Alamdimmû IX, three from Alamdimmû X, eleven from Alamdimmû XI, and six from Alamdimmû XII. Each of these sections is followed by a rubric classifying the text above as a ṣâtu 3b commentary, and providing the incipit of the tablet in question.

The text of the chapters dealt with in the commentary (Alamdimmû X-XII) is poorly known: not a single manuscript of Alamdimmû IX and XI-XII can be identified at present, and Alamdimmû X is attested only fragmentarily.1 In consequence only one entry can be related to the base text the commentary refers to: l. 9, which glosses the logogram šà.maḫ of Alamdimmû X 45-46 as karšu, “stomach.”

The writings explained in this text are in many cases unique. For instance, the apparently logographic writing sag.ḫa.ma.al is said in l. 2 to mean šarḫu, “proud”; whereas line 27 explains the logogram maš.šu.gál as sikiltu, “property.” In the former case, the writing is elsewhere unattested; in the latter, it is known only from the lexical list Nabnītu. In l. 26, both explanandum and explanans seem to be hapax legomena.

Besides explaining obscure writings, this commentary allows now for the first time reading correctly the incipit of Alamdimmû XI (line 23), which was damaged in the ancient catalogs that listed it (see note ad loc.).

1. See B. Böck, Die babylonisch-assyrische Morphoskopie. Berger & Söhne, 2000. Pp. 26-27

Edition

ccpo

BM 038788 (unpublished unassigned ?) [commentaries]


Obverse
x93	obverse
11	⸢LÚ⸣ SAG.⸢DU⸣ [x]	⸢x-x-x⸣	LÚ SAG.DU-[x] means ...
22	SAG.ḪA.MA.AL	šar-ḫu	SAG.̆ḪA.MA.AL means “proud.”
33	ku-um-mu-su	ra-áš-bi1	“Fearsome” means “terrifying.”
44	UMBIN BABBAR	na-ba-li2	“White toe” means namālu-disease.
55	UMBIN GE₆	ku-ra-ru	“Black toe” means kurāru-disease.

66	ṣa-a-tú u šu-ut pi-i šá * GÚ GÍD.DA3		Lemmata and oral explanations relating to “If (his) neck is long.” (= Alamdimmû IX).

77	ḪÁŠ	em-šu	ḪÁŠ means “abdomen.”
88	ḪÁŠ	šap-ri	ḪÁŠ means “thigh.”
99	ŠÀ.⸢MAḪ⸣	kar-šú	ŠÀ.MAḪ (= Alamdimmû X 45-46) means “stomach.”

1010	ṣa-a-tú u ⸢šu⸣-ut pi-i šá * GABA DAGAL.AŠ4		Lemmata and oral explanations relating to “If (his) chest is wide.” (= Alamdimmû X).

1111	⸢x⸣	⸢x⸣-ba-tu₄	... means ...
1212	ZAG GU.⸢DU⸣	tu-kul-ti ⸢qin^?-na^?-ti^?⸣	SAG GU.DU means “part of the buttocks.”
1313	GIG.GIR	⸢ku⸣-ra-ru	GIG.GIR means kurāru-disease.
	bottom
1414	⸢x⸣	⸢pa⸣-qa-du	... means “to entrust.”
1515	DÙL	GISSU	DÙL means “shade.”
	reverse
1616	i-te-en-ṣu-u	[x (x)] ⸢x⸣	itenṣû means ...
1717	BAR	[x]-⸢x⸣-tu₄	BAR means ...
1818	ÚR GÌR	[šu]-⸢ḫar⸣ še-e-pi5	ÚR GÌR means “Achiles' tendom.”
1919		⸢ši^?⸣-si-it ⸢x⸣	“ankle” [...].
2020	^du-^u⸢DU₁₁⸣	tu-kul-⸢ti⸣	KA, when read /du/, means “support” (of the buttocks).
2121	[x]	e-⸢de⸣-[x]	...
2222	⸢x⸣	ṣa-pa-pa6	[...] means “to flutter.”

2323	[ṣa-a-tú] u šu-ut pi-i šá * is-qu-bit GU₄ GAR7		Lemmata and oral explanations relating to “If he has a cow’s hump.” (= Alamdimmû XI).

2424	GUR₄	ba-a-lu	GUR₄ means “to be dominant.”
2525	ALAN	la-a-nu	ALAN means “figure.”
2626	ti-mi-ra-áš	mi-ra-šu-u8	timirāš means mirāšû.
2727	MAŠ.ŠU.GÁL	si-kil-tu₄9	MAŠ.ŠU.GÁL means “property.”
2828	ḪÁŠ TE.GÙN.A	e-ri-mu10	ḪÁŠ TE.GÙN.A means “mole.”
2929	⸢x⸣-ḫa-šu-šu	i-mi-ṣi11	... means “it is sour.”
3030	[UŠ^?]^di	um-mi-di	[ÚŠ]-di (?) means “it is leaning.”

	top
3131	[ṣa-a-tú u šu-ut pi-i šá * alam-dím-ma-a ...] ⸢x di⸣12		Lemmata and oral explanations relating to “If the form [...]” (= Alamdimmû XII).

1Compare rašbu = kummusu in An IX 18.

2Compare perhaps Böck AfO Beih 27 (2000) p. 272 l. 102: ¶ ṣu-up-ra-šu na-ma-li ma-la-a.

3The incipit of Alamdimmû IX is elsewhere attested as ¶ GÚ-su GÍD.DA.

4The incipit of Alamdimmû X is elsewhere attested as ¶ GABA-su GÍD.DA, “If his chest is long.”

5On ÚR GÌR as “Achiles’ tendom,” see Mirelman NABU 2008/65. The equation ÚR GÌR : šuḫār šēpi is also attested in Nabnītu X 224.

6No Sumerian equivalent of ṣabābu is known (CT 20 49 25, read BAR ú-ṣab-bab in AHw 1065a, is read differently in Koch AOAT 326 p. 167 l. 26).

7The reading of the incipit of Alamdimmû XI as proposed in Finkel Gs Sachs (1988) p. 151 has to be corrected accordingly (ND 4358+: ¶ is^!-qu^!-bit^! GU₄ GARⁱⁿ // BM 41237+ ¶ is^!-qu^!-bit^! GU₄ [GARⁱⁿ]).

8Both explanandum and explanans appear to be hapax legomena. The former perhaps represents the same word of Kassite origin that is attested in some Middle Babylonian texts as a color of horses and cattle (CAD T 418b and Brinkman NABU 1996/40). The word mirāšû is entirely unattested: it represents perhaps an attempt to provide an artificial Akkadian etymology to a foreign word.

9The equation is atested in Nabnītu XXI (= XXII) 154.

10Compare TE.GÙN^gu.A : erimu in SB List of Diseases i 32 (MSL 9 p. 93).

11No obvious restoration suggests itself for the left column. The word in the right column is probably a form of emēṣu I, “to be sour,” or else of emēṣu II, “to be hungry.”

12This line should contain the incipit of Alamdimmû XII, which is only partially known from catalogs (see Finkel Gs Sachs [1988] p. 151 A 76 // B 44′ and Böck AfO Beih 27 p. 27a).