CCP 7.2.u44 - Uncertain

Catalogue information
British Museum
BM 40978
81-4-28,525
Babylon(Babylon)
CDLI: 
P461196
Publication
Editions: 

Oshima, 2014T. Oshima, Babylonian Poems of Pious Sufferers. Ludlul Bēl Nēmeqi and the Babylonian Theodicy. Mohr Siebeck, 2014.: 168 [BM 40978!]

Commentary
MiscellaneaUnknown

Broken

Base text: 
Uncertain
Tablet information
Babylonian
Fragment
Columns: 
2
Lines: 
i 6, ii 6
Size: 
2,4 × 3,5 cm
Neo/Late Babylonian, specifics unknown
Bibliography

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]
: 336

Record
Jiménez, 02/2016 (Transliteration)
Jiménez, 02/2016 (Translation)
Jiménez, 02/2016 (Introduction)
Frazer, 02/2016 (Proofreading [introduction])
Stadhouders, 05/2016 (Reading suggestions)
Jiménez, 08/2016 (Commentary markup)
By Enrique Jiménez | Make a correction or suggestion
How to cite
Jiménez, E., 2016, “Commentary on Uncertain (CCP 7.2.u44),” Cuneiform Commentaries Project (E. Frahm, E. Jiménez, M. Frazer, and K. Wagensonner), 2013–2024; accessed November 13, 2024, at https://ccp.yale.edu/P461196. DOI: 10079/wh70s9w
© Cuneiform Commentaries Project (Citation Guidelines)
Introduction

This tiny fragment from the British Museum’s “Babylon Collection” preserves meager remains of a lexical list or tabular commentary dealing with field pests. Other fragments from the same collection dealing with the same topics are known, such as BM 38684 (CCP 7.2.u109) and BM 40739 (CCP 3.5.34, a previously unpublished commentary on Šumma Ālu 34), but no parallels with the present text can be found.1 It is possible that the first line represents the incipit of the base text. Two columns are currently visible, but it is likely that the original tablet contained several more.

An rough edition of this tablet is given, under the museum number “BM 40987,” by T. Oshima.2 It is suggested there that the tablet may represent a second commentary on the Theodicy, but no evidence is adduced to support this claim.

  • 1. H. Stadhouders (private communication) suggests that the present tablet might represent “a list of animals portending bad omens, belonging to the domain of terrestrial omen literature, quite possibly representing part of a namburbi. If this supposition is correct, the two columns do not reflect equations but enumerations of ominous animals one by one.”
  • 2. T. Oshima, Babylonian Poems of Pious Sufferers. Ludlul Bēl Nēmeqi and the Babylonian Theodicy. Mohr Siebeck, 2014. P. 168
Edition

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(Base textCommentaryQuotations from other texts)

ccpo

BM 040978[via ccpo]

Obverse
11

[*] al-lu-ut-tu₄

x-[x x

...]

“Crab” means ... [...].

22

kul-ba-bu

ak?-[x x

...]1

“Ant” means ... [...].

33

ak-ba-ri

ar-ra-[bu

...]2

“Jerboa” means “dormou[se,” ...].

44

ḫu-lu-ú

MIN<(ar-ra-bu)> za-x-x

[...]3

“Shrew” means ditto ... [...].

55

pe-ru-ru-tu₄

ḫu-si-ri

x [...]

pērūrūtu-mouse” means “mouse,” ... [...].

66

[x x x]-tu₄

a-me-lu

[...]

.... means “man,” [...].

1The reading of the first word is courtesy of H. Stadhouders.

2According to Henry Stadhouders (private communication), “the identification of the arrabu as (edible) dormouse (Glis glis), German “Siebenschlafer” (entirely Landsberger’s: Fauna des alten Mesopotamiens, p. 107) should be critically re-evaluated, since the mere two species in the subfamily of Glirinae have their arboreal habitat in the temperate regions of the Paleo-arctic zone, with its cold winters, which is why it hibernates for its eponymous seven months. So if it indeed is a kind of dormice, it might rather have to be sought in another genus of the Gliridae family of rodents. The Asian garden dormouse (Eliomys melanurus) could be a candidate; a species in yet another family of dormice endemic to Anatolia is the Woolley dormouse (Dryomys laniger).” According to Stadhouders, statistically the most likely candidate for the identification of the arrabu would be the Euphrates jerboa (Allactaga euphratica).

3Perhaps ṣa-al-mu?. H. Stadhouders (private communication) suggests reading ṣa-aḫ-.

Photos by Enrique Jiménez

Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum