The Babylonian Summa Immeru Omens: Transmission, Reception and Text Production (Dubsar)

Description

The Babylonian summa immeru ('If the Sheep') omens are concerned with ominous signs drawn from the behaviour of the sacrificial sheep at the time of its sacrifice. They are part of the diviner's craft of divination and are related to the technique of extispicy (i.e., the examination of the entrails). The literary history and the transmission of the summa immeru omens is long and convoluted. The omens are attested from the Old Babylonian period to almost the very end of cuneiform civilization at Seleucid Uruk. Manuscripts of the omens and of their commentaries arrive from Babylonia, Assyria, Anatolia and Northern Syria. This book is the first comprehensive study of this omen genre. It offers complete text editions and commentaries of the omens, some previously unpublished. It places the summa immeru omens within the context of Babylonian divination, and investigates how texts reached a "canonical" status that had become immune from changes during millennia of textual production, transmission and reception. Cover Title Page Table of Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements Preface Abbreviations Abbreviations for the šumma immeru Omens The šumma immeru Omens Textual Sources Chapter 1: Introduction Part I: Research and Publication History of the šumma immeru Omens 1. The Standard Version (ca. 1880s–1940s; 1980) 2. The Assur Manuscripts (1930s; 2012) 3. The Old Babylonian Version (ca. 1940s–1950s) 4. The Late Bronze Age Version (1970s–Present) 5. The Sealand Dynasty Manuscript (2013) 6. General Discussions and Related Sources Part II: An Introduction to the šumma immeru Omens 1. Mesopotamia—Land of Sheep and Wool 2. Sheep Terminology and the Terms for the Sacrificial Animal
in Divination 3. How did Extispicy Omens Come About? 4. Divination Literature, Omen Compendia and the šumma immeru Omens 5. How to Read the šumma immeru Omens? 6. The Name of the šumma immeru Omen Compendium Part III: The Extispicy Ritual 1. The Ritual Purity of the Diviner 2. Finding the Right Sheep for the Extispicy Ritual 3. Placing the Oracle Question in Front of the Gods 4. The Slaughter of the Sacrificial Animal 5. “Reading” the Sheep 6. “Reading” the Liver Chapter 2:
The Old Babylonian šumma immeru Version 1. Edition and Translation 2. Commentary 3. Discussion Chapter 3: The Late Bronze Age šumma immeru Version 1. Edition and Translation 2. Commentary 3. Discussion Chapter 4: The Intermediate Versions of the šumma immeru Omens 1. Intermediate Version 1 (= IMV1) 1.1 Edition 1.2 Commentary 1.3 Discussion 2. Intermediate Version 2 (= IMV2) 2.1 Edition 2.2 Commentary 2.3 Discussion 3. Intermediate Version 3 (= IMV3) 3.1 Edition 3.2 Commentary 3.3 Discussion 4. An Extract of an Intermediate Version of the Series (= IMV4) 4.1 Edition 4.2 Discussion Chapter 5: The Standard Version of the šumma immeru Omens 1. Edition 2. Commentary 3. Discussion Chapter 6: The šumma immeru Commentariesof the Standard Version 1. The Uruk Commentary 1 1.1 Edition 1.2 Commentary 2. The Uruk Commentary 2 2.1 Edition 2.2 Commentary 3. The Late Babylonian Commentary 3.1 Edition 3.2 Commentary 4. Discussion Chapter 7: Sources Related to the šumma immeru Omens Part I: Divination Literature 1. The Sealand Dynasty Omen Compendium 1.1 Identifying the Compendium 1.2 The Structure and Content of the Sealand Dynasty Manuscript 1.3 Characteristic Features of the Sealand Dynasty Manuscript 1.4 The Sealand Dynasty Manuscript and Other Sealand Dynasty Omens 2. The Assur Bone Omen Compendia 2.1 KAL 5 2 2.2 KAL 5 3 (KAR 432) 2.3 KAL 5 4 3. The Emar Bone Omen Compendia 4. The Bārûtu Series and Related Sources 4.1 Bārûtu Ch. 1 and its Commentary 4.2 KAL 5 1 (KAR 423) 4.3 K 6788––A Nineveh Fragment Relating to the Lower Parts of the Sheep 4.4 Tablets Relating to the Sheep’s Stomach 5. Omen Reports and Queries 5.1 Old Babylonian and Kassite Omen Reports 5.2 Neo-Assyrian Oracular Queries and Extispicy Reports 6. Bird Divination 6.1 Bird Divination Compendia: Sources and Distribution 6.2 Bird Divination Omens and the šumma immeru Omens 7. An Omen Compendium of Severed Hooves and Fetlocks 8. Tablet 41 of the šumma ālu Omen Series 9. The šumma izbu Omen Series 10. Omens from a Ewe Confined Overnight 11. The Hittite šašta Oracles Part II: Manuals, Vocabularies and Lexical Lists 12. The Ritual of the Diviner 13. A Manual of Sacrificial Procedure 14. Vocabulary Lists and Lexical Lists 14.1 An Old Babylonian List of Sheep Body Parts (BM 29663) 14.2 An Akkadian-Hittite List of (Sheep) Body Parts (KBo 1.51) 14.3 The 15th Tablet of the ur5-ra=ḫubullu Lexical Lis 14.4 The Practical Vocabulary (The Assur Version) Chapter 8: The Sheep Body Parts 1. The Head Region 3. Areas of the Abdomen and Rib Cage 2. The Hind Area of the Animal Chapter 9: Discussion and Conclusion Part I: The Apodoses of the šumma immeru Omens—Past, Present and Future 1. The Past: The Presence of the God during the Extispicy Ritual 2. The Present: The šumma immeru Formula––Let Go of the
Sheep! Kill the Enemy! 3. The Future: What Will the Exta Look Like? Part II: The Structure, Content and Developmentof the šumma immeru Omens 1. The Old Babylonian Version and Related Texts 2. The Sealand Dynasty Manuscript 3. The Late Bronze Age Version and Related Texts 4. The Intermediate Versions 1–4 5. The Standard Version and the Bārûtu Series 6. The Commentaries of the Standard Version 7. A Crosscut Comparison between the šumma immeru Versions Part III: Text Production, Transmission and Reception 1. Text Standardization or Canonization? 2. Text Production of Omen Collections 3. From Old Babylonian Extispicy Collections to the Bārûtu 4. The Many Lives of the šumma immeru Omens Bibliography Indices Sources Gods, People, and Persons Select Akkadian/Sumerian Terms Subject Index