CCP 4.3.u3 - Materia medica

Catalogue information
British Museum
BM 42598
81-7-1,359
Babylon(Babylon)
CDLI: 
P461212
Commentary
MedicalMedical Other / Uncertain

Broken

Base text: 
Materia medica
Tablet information
Babylonian
Fragment
Lines: 
10
Size: 
3,5 × 4 cm
Neo/Late Babylonian, specifics unknown
Bibliography

Gabbay, 2016U. Gabbay, The Exegetical Terminology of Akkadian Commentaries. Brill, 2016.: 75 (6′), 144 (4′)

Record
Jiménez, 07/2015 (Transliteration)
Jiménez, 07/2015 (Translation)
Jiménez, 07/2015 (Introduction)
Jiménez, 08/2016 (Commentary markup)
By Enrique Jiménez | Make a correction or suggestion
How to cite
Jiménez, E., 2015, “Commentary on Materia medica (CCP 4.3.u3),” Cuneiform Commentaries Project (E. Frahm, E. Jiménez, M. Frazer, and K. Wagensonner), 2013–2024; accessed April 25, 2024, at https://ccp.yale.edu/P461212. DOI: 10079/vhhmh3n
© Cuneiform Commentaries Project (Citation Guidelines)
Introduction

This small fragment belongs to a commentary on materia medica, whose main concern seems to be to provide equivalents for plant and stone names. Some of its entries are reminiscent of the medical commentary CCP 4.2.W (see especially ll. 8′-9′). Lines 2′ and 3′ explain na₄ du₁₄ as aban ṣālti, “combat stone,” an equation also attested in the lexical list Ḫarra = ḫubullu XVI 210. The most intriguing line of the fragment is l. 7′, which apparently states that the plant tullal (whose name means literally “you purify”) should be used to treat jaundice.

Some twenty commentary tablets and fragments from the 81-7-1 consignment are known (see a list here), but none of them seems to belong to the same tablet as the present fragment.

Edition

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ccpo

BM 042598

Obverse
1'1'

[...] ši-mi-[...]

...

2'2'

[...] x NA₄ DU₁₄ : NA₄ ṣa-[al- ...]1

[...] na₄.DU₁₄ means "c[ombat] stone" [...].

3'3'

[...] NA₄ DU₁₄ : NA₄ ṣa-al- [...]

[...] na₄.DU₁₄ means "combat stone" [...].

4'4'

[...]sar : áš-šú na₄ù-uḫ-ri? [...]2

[...] the ... plant; on account of

5'5'

[...] qut-ri : na₄AN.BIR₉ GE₆ [...]

[...] smoke. The black saltpetre [...].

6'6'

[... úKI].dUTU šá-niš GIM úam-ḫa-[ra ...]

[... ša]kirû-plant; alternatively, it is like the amḫa[ra-plant ...]]

7'7'

[... ú]tu-ul-lal : ana aḫ-ḫa-zi [...]

[...] the tullal-plant is for jaundice [...]

8'8'

[...] gišMES.AN.NA : gišdul-bi : ú[...]3

[...] giš.MES.AN.NA is the plane tree [...]

9'9'

[...] úa-za-lu-ub : [...]4

[...] the azalub-plant [...]

10'10'

[...] x [...]

...

1na₄DU₁₁ = aban ṣālti appears in Ḫḫ XVI 210 (MSL 10 p. 10).

2The reading of the last stone name is uncertain, cp. perhaps na₄.ur₅.bu.uḫ.ri = aban buḫri in Ḫḫ XVI 247 (MSL 10 p. 11).

3The equation gišMES.AN = gišdul-bi is also attested in CCP 4.2.W o 2-3.

4On the azalub-plant see CCP 4.2.W o 8-9.

Photos by Enrique Jiménez

Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum