two medical texts from nimrud

Two Medical Texts from NimrudAuthor(s): J. V. Kinnier WilsonSource: Iraq, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Autumn, 1956), pp. 130-146Published by: British Institute for the Study of IraqStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4199607 .

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I30

TWO MEDICAL TEXTS FROM NIMRUD

By j. V. KINNIER WILSON

rHE texts presented in this study are two which were discovered by the British F.L School of Archaeology in Iraq during the 195 5 season at Nimrud. The

field records of the Expedition show that both tablets came from a rubbish pit H 2 within the precincts of the Nabu Temple. They formed part of a large collection which was disturbed and partly destroyed by persons searching for loot and burnt-bricks after the destruction of Calah in 6I2 B.C. Some time in the sixth century there was an attempt to repair and renovate the city by the impoverished inhabitants of the district, who found in the old Assyrian pave- ments invaluable building material. Much excavation of the Temple area was then undertaken, and the site was studded with pits which were subsequently refilled with unwanted debris including the remains of the Temple library.'

Both are fragments. The one, ND 4358, measuring IO.5 X 9.3 cm., is the lower half of a single-column tablet, obverse and reverse thus providing a continuous text which must represent about half of the original. The other, ND 4368 (iO X 8.2 cm.), is a lower left fragment from an originally three-column tablet, providing a text from col. i and col. vi, with some half-lines of col. ii and a few signs of col. v also preserved. This represents approximately one- eighth of the original. Copies of both texts are given on Plates XXIV-XXV, whence their other imperfections will be sufficiently clear.

The two pieces are different in character but, as will appear, have an interesting connection-apart from the fact that both belong to the literature of aJiputu in its medical aspects-so that they are not unhappily taken together in this study. Their content is new, and although they stand alone in their class amongst the tablets excavated during the I955 season, there can be no question but that behind them at Nimrud lies a much larger body of the like material yet to be revealed.

1. ND4358

This text is a catalogue, perhaps sufficiently important to be called the 'Nimrud Catalogue', of a series 'sa-gig'. The series in question we have not yet learnt to call by this name, but it is otherwise well known as enz7ma ana bit marsi aJipu illaku.2 Our text does not in fact mention the latter name, but the identity of the two is made quite certain by comparing the first lines of numbered tablets as given in Labat's edition of the work, Traii akkadien de Diagnostics et

1 See also Iraq, XVIII, Pt. I, p. 7. Additions to the collection were also made in 1956 in a similar context which will be described in a subsequent number of this Joumal.

2 Following Geers, A.J.S.L. XLIII, 24, I. The reading iliky, Labat, T.D.P. I, 2, I (and colophons) hardly seems appropriate.



TWO MEDICAL TEXTS FROM NIMRUD I31

Pronostics m cdicaux (Paris, I95 I; abbreviated T.D.P.) with their equivalents as provided by the catalogue. Moreover, if the colophons as preserved on the extant tablets be consulted, it is found that in the case of four of them(tablets I2,

I7, 35 and 40) the words SA.GIG or SA.GIG.MES are entered after the enz7ma-title, so that the identification is complete. The point is also of importance in another connection. In the well-known text K.A.R. 44 on the text-books of aliputul one must certainly expect to find a reference to the series under discussion, but since this tablet provides only general description titles and not first-line titles of the works it catalogues, those who may have failed to appreciate the significance of the SA.GIG. (MES) recorded on the colophons have not hitherto known what to look for. ND 435 8 now provides certain evidence, and the entry is duly found, written SA.GIG-4 and so Akkd. sakikkA' according to rule, high up on the list at K.A.R. 44 obv. 6.2

The new catalogue is divided into two parts. The first of these, following a pattern already familiar from the Uruk catalogue of enoima Ann Enlil3 to which it has close affinity, lists the first-lines of the individual tablets of the series within their sections, records the number of entries per tablet, totals the number of entries in each section and indicates the section title, and finally summarises the whole both as to the number of entries and the number of tablets. The second part provides a short account of the part played by a redactor, who is named, in the bringing out of a new edition of the series, and in this respect gives the document an interest and individuality of its own although the text here is unfortunately incomplete and rather damaged. From both parts it is learnt that the catalogue does not belong to the final edition of the series. Indeed, it introduces a recension of which we have not otherwise been aware, but this and other features will become clearer from an examination of the transliterated text.

The first part is given below. For reference purposes tablet numbers have been included in brackets in the left-hand column; it will be seen that the first two lines belong to the section summary at the end of Tablet XIV.

Obverse (beginning lost) [(SU).NtGIN ana LU.GIG] ina TE-[ka] [ ] X SUR.GIBIL sab-[tum]

(XV) [ DIS U]D i KAM GIG-ma GAR TAG-t[i]( sikin lipti)

1 Originally edited by Zimmern, Z.A. XXX, 204 ff. and referred to in numerous places since, most recently by Oppenheim, A.f.O. XVII, 50.

2 On the readings sa-gig, sakikk4 and (edge-gloss)

sa-kik-ke4 see the discussion in the end-notes under rev. 7.

3 See Weidner, A.f.O. XIV, I86-7 and plates I-II.



PLATE XXIV

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~NF~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~k xllV ~ T~

1- N7&A + A \ I

Lf~~~~~~~ 0~~U

~~~~f.~~~k

w N~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~N

Ii, 0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~i

*'-VhQl"v ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ U



PLATE XXV

b-V b- s

-.14 "Nf

IV N"K

IO IF

tn

0 > ul

0,00, I 11". > lw

10,

ix 4 tn

Cq

W

Cy ILJ

>

pq

0

00

z



3 3 J. V. KINNIER WILSON

(XVI) [ DI U]D I KAMAl GIG-ma SAG-su KU-suzi(= qaqqadsu ikkaltu)

(XVII) [ ] DIS ina SAG GIG-sti(-ta&rit' mursi-stu) IR(- u'ta) bu-bu- 'u-ta ir-ta-[si]

(XVIII) [ ] DIS GIG SU-[szu] (XIX) [ ] DIS i-mem i SED (XX) [ ] DIS GIG IR fi-ka[l

(XXI) II0 DIS NIGIN SA.ME?-st SILIM.MES-ma( napbar ser are-lu's-al-mu)

(XXII) 88 DIS GIG X X ti 3 ? GIG inarse-re1-e-ti2il-te-ni-ib- b[u]

(XXIII) I03 DIS ZE (=martam) ep-ru (XXIV) 137 DIS G[I]G GIS.HASHUR URU4-est( erresd) (XXV) 85 DIS rNE]? GAR GAR ina SAG LU.GIG kun-nn

rSU.NtGINI I4 US 20 DIS UD I KAM GIG-ma SA.rGIGl X [X] SUR.GIBIL sab-tum

(XXVI) 6o DIS SUB-tu( miqtu) SUB-sn-ma (XXVII) 6o DIS NA mi-sit-ti pa-ni ma-fid-ma

(XXVIII) 6o? snmma(ma) SU.GEDIM.MA ana AN.TA.SUB.BA GUR-sz

(XXIX) I44 DIS (d)LUGAL.UR.RA rKI1 BI3 I3.TU (XXX) 84 DIS GIG-ma KA-sti BAD.BAD-te(=iptenete)

NIGIN 4+2 US 4[o+8?DIS 9]U[B-tu S]UB-su-ma SA.GIG AN.[T]A.[SUBI.BA (sn) SUKUD.GIM

(XXXI) 8i DIS UD.DA(=sjtu) TAB-su-ma (=? tahammatsn) (XXXII) [ ] DIS IM(= sar) is-bit-sn-ma

(XXXIII) [ ] DIS GIG GAR-sti EN? sa-ma-nn SU. (d)ME.ME (XXXIV) [ ] DIS NA ana SAL-st SA-ffi rILl-s-ma (XXXV) [ ] DIS NA IGI.MES-s- NIGIN.MES-du(=issanundu)

[NIGIN X(X) U] X DIS UD.DA TAB-sn-ma SUKUD.GIM

1 Although the equation SAG = tafritu is not elsewhere established, the reading tasrit (so, rather than res) is very probable because on the relevant tablet of the series itself (see T.D.P. I, p. 156) ina SAG GIG (1. I) is followed consistently thereafter by ina ta-rit GIG (1i. 4, 8 and io) and such two-fold writing follows a well-known principle (cf. especially Nougayrol, R.A. XLI, 38). For another example note that MI.ME9 is wrongly transliterated ialm4(mes)

(T.D.P. 52, I4-I6); the verb must be taraku (cf. S.L. 427/8) as indicated by the following tar-ku (11. I7-I8). For an example of 'three-fold wirings' cp. A.M.T. 90, i, rev. iii, BQR-pa-se-er-pa-ser in three succes- sive prescriptions (11. I2, I9 and 23).

2 Restored after T.D.P. I, I76, i.

Reading and first sign uncertain. Cf. T.D.P. II, LI, 26, and also XLIX, 8o, which appears to have an additional sign initially.



TWVO MEDICAL TEXTS FROM NIMRUD 134

Reverse I-7

(XXXVI) 147 summa(ma) TU(=alittu) [PES4-ma UGU SAG.]KI-siU [SIG7]1

(XXXVII) ii8 DIS SAL.[PES4(- eritu) ] GIG-ma2 (XXXVIII) I4I DIS SAL [ ] TAB?-i-4

(XXXIX) I52 DIS SAL [ ] X- (XL) 62(+)24 DIS LU.[TUR ] la-'a-ti

NIGIN 4 + 6 US 42 SAL [ ] GIS.GIl.A?

SU.NIGIN 40 DUB.MES 30004 + M]U.MES sa SA.GIG ZAG.TIL.LA.BIM.S

Attempted translation

'Total of X entries, (sub-series): "When you ' approach' (=examine) a sick man " (or) "."-new edition '.

(XV) X entries ' If, after a day's illness, the nature of the affliction'. (XVI) X ,, ' If, after a day's illness, he begins to suffer from

headache'. (XVII) X ,, ' If, at the onset of his illness, he had prickly

heat '.3

(XVIII) X ,, ' If the patient's skin'. (XIX) X ,, ' If he is hot (in one place) and cold (in another)'. (XX) X ,, 'If the affected area is clammy with sweat'.

(XXI) iio ,, 'If, though all his sa's are in healthy condition '.' (XXII) 88 ,, 'If (and) every morning.

(XXIII) 103 ,, 'If he has vomited up bile'. (XXIV) I37 ,, ' If he expresses a desire for apple(s)'. (XXV) 85 , ' If .stands at the head of the sick man's

bed'.

Total of 86o entries, (sub-series): ' If, after a day's illness ' (or) 'Symptoms of '-new edition.

(XXVI) 6o entries ' If a miqtu-attack has fallen upon him'. (XXVII) 6o ,, ' If he is "muscle-contracted " with spasm of the

face'.

1 Restored after T.D.P. II, LII, obv. I. 2 Restored after T.D.P. II, LVII, obv. I. 3 Literally 'sweat (and) spots/pimples', unless we

have to do with a true compound ' sweat-pimples ' in

(5901)

which case the translation follows at once. 4 Unless the concept is rather different, namely,

' If all his sa's " are safe " ', that is, ' have been saved, spared ' from the disease-demon's assault.

c 2



135 J. V. KINNIER WILSON

(XXVIII) 6 o? ,, ' If in his case Su-edimma develops into Antasubba'. (XXIX) I44 ,, ' If Lugal-urra. (XXX) 84 ,, ' If, although he is ill, he has an insatiable appetite

for food'.

Total of 408 ? entries, (sub-series): ' If a miqtu-attack1 has fallen upon him ' (or) ' Symptoms of the Antasubba-(group)'.

(XXXI) 8i entries ' If he is ill with himit seti. (XXXII) X ,, ' If he has become infected with sibit sari'.

(XXXIII) X ,, ' If the nature of the illness .samanu, Su-Meme'.

(XXXIV) X ,, 'If a man, having a desire for intercourse with his wife '.

(XXXV) X ,, 'If his face.

Total of X entries, (sub-series): 'If he is ill with himit sjti'-

(XXXVI) I47 entries 'If a mother conceives again, her scalp and forehead becoming yellowish in colour '.2

(XXXVII) I I8 ,, 'If a woman who is pregnant becomes ill'. (XXXVIII) 141 ,, 'If a 'oman .

(XXXIX) 152 ,, 'If agirl . (XL) 62+24 entries ' If a baby.'

Total of 6423 entries, (sub-series): '.'4

Inclusive total of 40 tablets and 3000 -+ X entries, (series) Sa-gig.

The above translation has attempted, perhaps not altogether successfully, to give some indication of the contents of the catalogue in its first part. The many uncertainties have, according to convention, been placed in italics. Such notes as are considered relevant will be found in the end commentary.

A few of the broader issues, however, may be discussed here and some interesting points emerge. As has been already indicated, the first-line titles

I One which involves a fall, including, but probably not confined to, the major epileptic fit. Cf. Goetze, J.C.S. IX, I z.

2 According to the extant tablet the sentence continues, 'her child will be a boy '-a most illogical conclusion! In point of fact the probability is simply that some aspect of anaemia was involved.

3The figure should, however, be 644; but since in the line above two entry totals for the tablet are

given (as a partial eskplanation of this note the rule-line after T.D.P. 228, I02 in Labat's edition) it seems possible that it is the ' 2 ' of ' 62 ' which has been accidentally overlooked.

4 It will be seen that this sub-series is named by description only, and not from the first line of Tablet XXXVI. The meaning of the title given is not, however, vcry apparent.



TWO MEDICAL TEXTS FROM NIMRUD I36

(from other sources we know these as the DUB.SAG.MER or the SAG.DUB. MES' of the series) are preserved, either wholly or in part, from Tablet XV to Tablet XL. Several new lines of text are thus provided, and these come as an especially welcome contribution to knowledge for the end chapters of the series where information is most needed. In the section summaries note the double naming of two of the sections (in each case the second name given being new), and the probability that Obv. 2 is to be restored in pattern [SA.GIG .... ] to provide an additional title also for Section Two. As to the sections themselves, the witness of the catalogue is especially important. The previous statement that these were five in number (cf. T.D.P. I, pp. xiv and xviii-xix) was the only one possible so long as there was no evidence from the missing tablets XXXI-XXXV. It is now clear that there were six.

One further point may be indicated here. Comparison between the first-lines as given by the catalogue and those of the tablets given in Labat's edition shows that once again we must be prepared for divergencies in tablet numbering. Thus, to quote the chief examples, it is found that the Catalogue Tablet XXI =

T.D.P. Tablet XX; its XXVI = T.D.P. XXV; its XXVII and XXVIII combined == T.D.P. XXVI; and in the dispute between B.M. 92694 and A.3438 (since we shall not now emend the text), both being numbered tablet XXXVI although different as to subject-matter, the catalogue is in agreement with the first, and so against the second, of the two sources. There is nothing new in this pattern of discrepancy for it is already familiar from such series as swumma dlu and enflrna Anu Enlil, and is perhaps but to be expected of long works which pass down the centuries through several editions and schools. But the problems of such conflicting traditions are not always easy to solve; and in this respect the blessings of the catalogue may come not unmixed.

The second part of the catalogue now requires our attention. This part, following immediately after the final summary of the DUB.SAG.MES, has suffered across the years and, when I first looked at it, was virtually unreadable. Hours of patient cleaning have, however, produced a good first sentence:

(Rev. 8) sa ul-tu u/-la SUR GI[BIL] la sab-tum (g) X kima SUMUN.MES FGILMESI-ma LU.[GABA].RI NU.TUK (io) i-na BALA-e [!d (m)](d) Fmardukl-apla-iddin(na)2 LUGAL [KAl.DINGIR.RA.[KI] (iI) GIBIL. BL.SF,(-ana uddusisu) [IGI-Ifi G]AR-an (m)aI- Siis AA ()d FKA.IDI ?-s"ef-iva-an-Istiml

This is thought to mean: ' Since in the past no revised edition (of the series) had been undertaken, and, to judge at least from the labiruti and commentaries, it had no LII.GABA.RI, during the reign of Marduk-apla-iddina, king of Babylon, ESguzis, son of Satran(?)-ses-ma-an-sum, made it his ambition to

1 Cf. respectively A.f.O XIV, Tf. III, ii, 6, and C.T. XIV, 9 (K. 4373),, rev.. 9.

2 Apparently written (d)GUDIBIR-TUR.US-SUM (na).

c 3 (5901)



I37 J. V. KINNIER WILSON

bring out the series anew'. Because of breaks we cannot proceed in connected translation, but from the copy it will be seen that the following line (rev. 12)

contains a reference to (mt)Ha-a[m]-mu-ra-bi LUGAL-um',-the familiar name comes as something of a surprise in a document of this kind-but thereafter there are allusions to the city of Borsippa (rev. I 3) and its famous temple Ezida (rev. 14), which come as no surprise. After iI-Zi-da there follows a Sumerian phrase pa-URU-hal i-zu-zu (all signs clear). This has something to do with the basic 'learning' of Esguzis (see below), and something of his wide researches (?) would appear indicated from rev. 1 7: [ina URU.MES Id] EME.KU u URI.KI ina tarn-ir NJGIN-ti(=sihirti) s'a KUR u m[a-a-tiM]2 'from the cities of Sumer and Akkad, from the highways and byways3 of mountain and plain '- with ina ka-bit-ti-sri zls-ta-bil-ma of the next line probably belonging to the same sentence. That the series is, in fact, still being discussed is clear from SA.GIG.MES (rev. i8 and 2I) and the numeral 40 (supply ' tablets ') of rev. 24.

Note also that ul i-nam-bi (rev. 2z) probably indicates some aspect of method connected with the compilation of the new edition4. Finally, and almost as if the reverse were not already sufficiently full of tantalising half-lines, rev. 23 has the word alan-dim-mu-il, that is to say it mentions the series, familiar to Assyriology since its edition by F. R. Kraus, on the making and use of figurines. To be sure, reference again to K.A.R. 44, obv. 6, shows that alandimmil actually follows sakikki in the list of textbooks and this may be thought to uphold the point of there being a connection; but there would still be everything to explain.

All this is quite important and may be examined here at appropriate length. It is good firstly that we may now honour the name of Esguzis as one of the main architects of the series we discuss. His was a good Sumerian name like that of his father, and it stands analysis as ' towards Esguzi ', this being a by-name of the temple Esangila in Babylon5, whatever the full significance of the name may be. As to the technical terms of the first sentence, one hopes that further light may be thrown on them from Landsberger's study on scribal terminology of which advanced notice has been given6. A few observations,

1 If-um is indeed the complement to LUGAL and not the beginning of the next word.

2 For the second restoration see the end note; the first is supplied ad sensum.

3Analysing as ina tam-ir-ti sibirti, the text being defended in the end note. The translation' highways and byways' attempts to render the spirit of the phrase; but that we thus also avoid the necd.to determine with exactitude the meaning of the much discussed tamtirlu (whether it be 'meadows', 'com- mons ', ' land liable to inundation' or something else) will also be apparent and is not disguised.

4 Cf. ina sa-di-ri lum-hi-nu ul am(var. im)-bi-ma (Campbell Thompson, D.A.B., viii), ' I did not call

out their names ina sadiri', in connection with Ashurbanipal's revision of URU-an-na.

5 See Deimel, S.L. 128/3i. Note also that in the text edited by Kocher, ' Eine spatbabylonische Ausdeutung des Tempelnamens Esangila', A.f.O. XVII, 131 ff., lines 32-4 of the reverse are to be restored in terms of (* ?) -gCi-zi. In connection with the father's name, if (d)tKAI.DI? is indeed rightly restored then cf. for the reading R.L.A. (s.v. Dalen/isten), 137a, n. z; Z.A. 41, 304; Dossin, R.A. 35, I17, n. I. On the problem of these names in general, cf. note 33 below.

" J.C.S. IX, 125, n. 22.



TWO MEDICAL TEXTS FROM NIMRUD 138

however, are in order here. That SUR.GIBIL (restored from obv. 2 and i4) may mean' new edition' or the like, is largely inferred from the context; 'new' (GIBIL) is, of course, so far correct. The Akkadian of the term is, with all probability, known: it obtains from the colophon of Ashurbanipal's nisbu- edition of URU-an-nal in the line sa uI-tu uI-la ZA-ra-a la sab-tu, and the parallelism is such to make the equation SUR.GIBIL - !/Zlrd virtually certain. Note particularly that ZA-ra-a in its clause is syntactically nominative, so that the word is indeed Z/sard, not Z/par. The observation suggests that an Aramaic loan-word is in question, but I have not myself found anything attractive in the dictionaries2. GIL.MES (rev. 9) would appear new, but the suitable translation ' commentaries ' (Akkd. egirtu, egirdtf) has been thought admissible on the basis of GIL _ egeru (SL 67/3). References to egirtu may be found in Driver, Semitic Writing, 67; one commentary on Sa-gig is known, A.O. 1766i, not yet published3. The meaning of LU.[GABA.]RI NU.TUK

-for the restoration see below-is uncertain. Attention, however, may be drawn to a small overlooked fragment, K. I905-5-10, I9, of which a copy was given by Meek in A.J.S.L. XXXV, 136. We here communicate the larger part of it (11.3-8):

]x-a-gi SES.GAL DUB.SI.[SA] ma-]hi-ra la i-su-ti MIN(-DUB) mah-ru[-fi]

NAM.]TI.LA LIJ.GABA.RI X [] ] ba-la-ta id (m)mi-x[-x]

A]N.DUL(=:sulul(li)?) NAM.TI.LA LU.GABA.[RI] ina pu-lu]h( ?)-ti be-el su-lul-l[i?]

Although originally published under the title " Some Bilingual Religious Texts ", the fragment belongs to neither category. Rather is it part of some colophon; and from it it seems legitimate to infer that here are the words of a scribe whose name ended in -agi, who was by scribal rank a ' ses-gal', and whose position at the time was that of an " Arranger (or sorter) of tablets ".4

These points and the LU.GABA.RI of 11.5 and 7 will be noted; for our present purpose, however, the chief interest falls on the [ma-]hi-ra la i-su-ti of 1.4, for it is not difficult to suppose that this is simply the Akkadian of LUI.GABA.RI NU.TUK in the catalogue. The equation gaba-ri = m4'iru is, of course,

1 C.T. XIV 9 (K.4373) rev. 2, and ibid. 22, rev. iv, 55.

2 It is perhaps worth adding that both contexts seem to indicate that SUR.GIBIL, :/jard was a fully revised edition, one which could if neccssary begin a new tradition of its own, and not merely an edition which might differ from the one before it only by having additional items.

3 Cf. T.D.P. n. I and perhaps n. 2z9. My feeling is, however, that ' commentaries ' is probably too big a word for egirdte, and although it has been keptin

translation largely because traditional, the rendering ' notes ' is almost certainly nearer. For interest cf. Ciccro, Ad Familiares v. I2, 140: 'conficiam com- mentarios ', translatcd Jeans, Select Letters, 78, ' I will put together my notes'.

4 On the ' big/elder brother' of the scribal school, sce Kramer J.A.O.S. 69, 209, n. 187. The fragment is perhaps the latest evidence so far to hand for the keg-gal, and is of interest because of its witness to the continuity of tradition.

(5901) c 4




known (cp. ;.L i67/57b), so that on this basis LUJ will be no more than the determinative, while we would dismiss the possibility of there being any connection between the term under discussion and gaba-ri =gabarh, ' copy, duplicate, exemplar ". The problem thus becomes: what is the meaning of a " rival " ((lu)gaba-ri- mdhiru) when used as a scribal technical term? Since it is not even clear whether it was a good or a bad thing that a series should ' not have ' such a person, our resources seem hardly sufficient to arrive at any definite conclusion at the present time.

To complete our thoughts on this important sentence, note firstly that 'at least ' translates the ' emphatic ' particle -ma (cf. Gk. yE) but that this is not otherwise defended; and secondly that the transliteration sab-tuim (sub- junctive, in the parallel phrase sab-tu) does not, of course, represent the pronunciation. Recently Aro, ' Studien zur mittelbabylonischen Grammatik', Stuidia Orientalia XX, 22-4, has provided a very complete list of forms, including subjunctives, from middle-Babylonian texts where the readings tu4, rn, etc., are suggested for turn, rum, etc. That we have here preferred to keep the simple values is merely a personal choice. Other Neo-Assyrian examples can include ma-la lib-ba-zii DIB-tum(=sabtum) (A.M.T. 72, I, 25)2; ik-kib a-ku-lum, 'the forbidden (food) which I have eaten '3; ri-e6um-vi-na, ' their shepherd '4.

For the rest of the reverse one other point has been thought worthy of attention, namely the pa-URU-hal i-zu-zu of rev. 14 to which allusion has already been made. We leave open the question of precisely what function a Sumerian phrase is serving in an Akkadian context5. But this apart, we may proceed as follows. pa-JRU-hal is presumed to be the object of i-zu-zu, 'he learnt'. For Assyriology it represents a new sign-group; but interpreted as pa-hal with inscribed UIRU, we propose that its raison d'etre is to confine pa-hal, which has several meanings, to the particular sense ' uru'. The selection pap-hal6 - nisirtum (S.L. 60/29) and iuru nasaru (S.L. 33I/9) is the only one where the two elements can be so combined-and nisirtum, usually translated " Geheimwissen ", " Geheimwissenschaft ", will suit very well as an object to the verb zu, especially with an azipu as subject. Thus amongst other examples, kul-lat naq-bi ni-me-qi ni-sir-ti KA.KUG.GA(=asii) (K.A.R. 44, rev. 7) and ni-Usir-ti LU.MAS.MAS(Eilers, Archiv fur Geschichte der Medizin, XXVI, 324 and 3I9, 1.I4) show the relevance, and for the use of the term in

1 In point of fact the only means whereby one could see such an element in the term is to suppose that LU.GABA.RI reflects Sum. *lu-gaba-ri(-ak), Akkd. *amtl gabari, 'the man of the gaba-ri ', which is both unconvincing and without support.

2 See for the context Ebeling, Z.A. (N.F.) I7, 174.

3 IV R. io, obv. 46. 4 Etana, K.26o6, obv. 6. 5 The point can hardly be connected in any way

with the fact that both Esguzis and Satran?-ses-ma-

an-sum are thorough-going Sumerian names (8th cent. B.C., see below). One presumes that such names were sometimes employed in scribal families who were otherwise ' Akkadian' in every proper sense of the term. Cf. also Thureau-Dangin, R.A. XXXII, I I4,

and Nougayrol, R.A. XLI, 37, n. 8. 6 The same word, of course, as pa-hal, cp. the

references to pa-bal-la and pap-hal-la cited by Falkcenstein, L.S.S. (N.F.) I, I6, n. 4.




other sciences cf. Bez., zo4a, also now for astronomy, Neugebauer, Astronomical Cuneiform Texts, I, x z (colophon). Whether one can say that nisirtu was learnt not from tablets but from the oral teachings and traditions of the inner circle of scientists, is perhaps not finally certain; but at least, on the explanation offered, the phrase is suitable in its context. We are asked to believe that Esguzis was well qualified for the task he set himself.

A consideration of three other points will conclude our remarks on this interesting postscript to the catalogue. Firstly, if it be asked who wrote the words which speak of Esguzis in connection with the series, the answeris undoubtedly very simple: Esguzis himself. It should be made clear, of course, that we speak strictly for the original (that is to say, some lost Babylonian original: our tablet is an Assyrian copy), but the statement requires little daring to make. Not only is a personal narrative written in the 'third person', a device well known to Assyriology (as also other language disciplines of the Near East) but there was no personal biographer in ancient Iraq. That it should be Esguziw who tells us about Esguzis is quite to be expected. Secondly, it has been seen that Esguzis did his work during the reign of' Marduk-apla- iddina, king of Babylon'. This is the second allusion to the name mentioned on the extant material. The first occurs in the writing of the date on the colophon of A 3442 (T.D.P. II, XXXI, iv, 3a5; f. T.D.P. I 110, 3 5 nd p. xiv) and at least the probability is, therefore, that the latter text represents a definite example of the Esguzis redaction. Finally, several lines of argument lead to the conclusion that by ' Marduk-apla-iddina, king of Babylon' the king of 72 I-7I0 B.C. is intended, so that in the first of these dates we have a terminus a quo for the dating of the tablet. Any accurate pronouncement as to its date could hardly have been made on the criterion of script alone; indeed, it is rather in the light of this terminal date that certain features of it, for example several ' four-stroke ' writings especially in connection with the sign ma, are seen merely as scribal idiosyncrasies and of no bearing. But if accurate dating is impossible, there would, I believe, be nothing incongruous in supposing the table to be contemporaneous with, or to date from only shortly after, the Babylonian publishing as one might reasonably expect. That the tablet was found in association with the Nabu-temple at Nimrud, and presupposes an original produced at Ezida, the Nabu-temple in Borsippa, has not been thought to be of any special significance.

There remains the burning question: what is the meaning of sa-gig? The reader will have observed that thus far there has been no presumption

that the meaning of this term is known, and if Assyriology is now to find a whole series so named the problem can hardly be left unattended. But it has been thought that the task is too big for the present study, and that we are too tar away even from the base-line of attack. To understand it, in our opinion, the common translation of sa (=- fer'dnu) as ' muscle' must first be refuted




and a new concept, based on Goetze's lead with ' tissue ' (J.C.S. IX, I2) put in its place; we shall have to know better the significance of tardku, ' to throb' and the I 3 of aldku when associated with the sa's, what is involved when they are reported as being ne-e-bu or s-aknu, and what is the significance of the fact that at least 38 entries in Sa-gig are devoted to SA SAG.KI", ' the sa's of the temples '1; in fact we must know what is meant by an ai'pu ' learning the sa's' of a sick man (Sum. sa(-a-su-glr)-bi zu-zu, Akk. ser'dne-!4 lamddu)2 and why he needed divine protection for this. Not before these matters are examined, I think, will sa-gig begin to yield up its secrets so that the whole subject, in so far as any penetration of it may be claimed, is thus left to another place and time. It may, however, have been noticed that in the fourth section summary of the catalogue (obv. 20) the phrase SA.GIG AN.TA.SUB.BA has been translated ' symptoms of the Antasubba-(group) '. It may therefore be said that ' symptoms ' is seen as a useful, but not a truly accurate, translation of the term -an approximation which does not bring out its underlying significance. But two examples may be cited in support of the rendering. In the new edition of ludlul be nimeqi3 11.io8-9 of the second tablet read:

sa-kik-ki-ia ii-hu-tu mas'-masM-s X te-ri-ti-ia (ld)bdru -tes-si

The new evidence suggests now a rendering: My symptoms worried the mas3maiu-priest And my omens perplexed the baru 4.

Secondly, in the letter H.A.B.L. 39I (a reference duly cited by Zimmern, Z.A. 30, 215) there are the lines: (obv. i i) ina-pa-ni-ti ina pa-an farri aq-li-bi (i z) sa-kik-ki-e-ld la z-fd-ah-ki-me (I 3) -na-a an-nl-rig e-gir-tz (14) ak-ta-nak us-si-bi-la, which we may translate: ' When I was last in the king's presence I said, " Just as soon as5 I have explained the symptoms of the condition, (I will recommend a treatment)". Well, I am now sending a sealed letter . . . (the treatment follows). In the light of these examples the word may perhaps be allowed to serve m the meantime.

1 Note that in T.D.P. I, the entries from 40, 11

to 42, 29 are to be restored throughout with SA = Jer'dn after the conditional J'umma, in line with 4o, 8 and 42, 30, and because the verbs found in this section are those which are regularly used in connection with the sa's.

2 See u/uk. lim. III (C.T. XVI, S), I 8o-l 82 (Camp- bell Thompson, Devils, I, i8) and Falkenstein, Die Haupilypen der sumerischen Bescbvwirung, L.S.S. (N.F.) I, 29.

8 Lambert and Gurney, A.S., Vol. IV, 65 ff. 4Note particularly i-u-/u, plural: and see further

end-note, under reverse 7.

S Assuming the la of I.I2 to be the 'pleonastic negative' (see Albright and Moran, J.C.S. II, 240) which appears to give the best sense. As a small offering to the Hebrew examples of this idiom quoted in the article referred to, note the new sense which may be given to Job, iii, 26 (thus chiefly against Stevenson, Critical No/es . . . , p. 8): l/' Idlawti wld' Idqa/ti wl' nd/hi waydbd' rdgeZ, ' No sooner am I at ease, no sooner am I quiet, no sooner at rest-but always some torment cometh'. The tenses do not describe ' events in the past '; they are ' gnomic aorists ', a theme which will be developed elsewhere.




NOTES Obverse

3. (Tablet XV): This line agrees with the section title as given on the colophon to Tablet XVII (cp. T.D.P. I68, io8), but not with the first line of XV as provided by the catch-line of XIV (T.D.P. I46,.66'). The disagreement provides further evidence of recensional changes.

5. (Tablet XVII): The new evidence indicates that a collation of T.D.P. II, XXXVII, I, is needed.

7. (Tablet XIX): The translation 'If he is hot (in one place) and cold (in another)' is based firstly on the consideration that the states represented by the two verbs must be seen as contemporaneous since they are joined by i', and secondly on the model for this type of sentence provided e.g. by T.D.P. 38, 52, ' forehead hot, ears cold'; ibid. 53, 'forehead cold, ears hot'; T.D.P. I64, 65, 'mouth, right side cold, left hot', and similar examples. Note that if it be argued that i-mem means ' (if) he has become hot' not ' (if) he is hot' (which would be eim), it is hoped that our preference for translating the tenses gnomically in many instances will sufficiently answer the point.

8. (Tablet XX): DIS GIG IR u-kal. The rendering of GIG (=murfu) in this phrase as 'sick place ', 'infected area' seems definitely required by the parallelism of such lines as DIS IGI.MES-iw IR z'-kal-lu, T.D.P. 74, 33. u-kal, basically 'it holds, contains', is more difficult. The word has proved notoriously troublesome both in and out of medical texts. There is, however, a good way of translating it which seems worth communicating here. The ' trick' (and it is no more than this) is to take the object of ukal, turn this into the corresponding adjective, and then add the verb 'to be'. Thus a month which 'contains rain' is rainy; an eye which ' contains tears ' is tearful; a part which 'contains blood' is bloody; the cheeks which 'contain sweat' are sweaty; the parts which 'contain heat' are heated; the head which 'contains water' is watery (whatever this means)i; and the body which 'contains paralysis' is 'paralytic'. Two things would seem to follow from these examples. Firstly, the use of ukal plus noun is seen as one of the means employed by Akkadian to overcome its comparative shortage of adjectives. Secondly, the resulting adjective is always only nroderate in degree. The month which was 'rainy' was not abnormally so: the eye which was 'tearful' was not unduly distressed: and in the example which heads this note we see the sweating as of quite a mild variety. 'Clammy' may indeed be a good word2.

9. (Tablet XXI): DIS NIGIN SA.MES-siV SlLIM.MES-ma. This line is thought to be more pregnant with meaning than can be indicated here, since SA.SILIM is, of course, the opposite of SA.GIG. Note that SILIM.MES is written out in the parallel text, K.I1780 (T.D.P. II, XXXVI) s'al-mu. The point that, in the series, the MES of Sumeriograms can, on occasion, serve merely to express the plural of the I I form (stative and intransitive verbs only?) seems quite secure.

Io. (Tablet XXII): il-te-ni-ib-bu. No translation is offered. Labat's rendering, ' il ne cesse de chevrotter' is not suitable ('Das Verbum lab/llebd, das die Laute verschiedener Tiere bezeichnet, wird nie von menschlichen Lauten ausgesagt . . . "-von Soden, Z.A. (N.E.) 17, I52), nor are we able to condone the use placed on the tan-form. This is preferably taken simply as ' distributive', attendant on ina se-ri-e-ti, 'every morning'. Note that the Louvre text T.D.P. II, XLV omits the difficult opening phrase presented by the catalogue.

I Text A.M.T. 2, I, 4. 2 It should also be considered whether we ought

not to insert the English 'some' (French 'du', ' de la', no corresponding Akkadian) before the nouns given in the above examples-thus 'contains some rain', ',contains some sweat', etc.-in order to explain more precisely how it comes that the idiom

merely expresses a condition ' moderate in degree'. As to the example on ' paralysis ' (Akkd. simmatu, Ebeling, M.A.O.G. X/z z2, n. 3z; Symb. Hrotnj, I93) the text is T.D.P. 34, I9, and I would presume that the condition actually being referred to was no more than paresis, ' a slight, or partial, paralysis '.




i I. (Tablet XXIII): Restore the first-line of the tablet given by Labat as XXI accordingly, i.e., reading [martam] for [marru]. This tablet is now seen to be misnumbered.

I2. (Tablet XXIV): Cp. catch-line, T.D.P. I76, 54.

13. (Tablet XXV): ina SAG L,.GIG kun-nu. For the translation 'at the head of the sick man's bed', cf. bit meseri II, 149-9 (Meier, A.f0. XIV I48) where sa ina ri-li-Si:i is-7a-zu is attractively rendered 'die an seinem Kopf(ende) steht'; also K.254, rev. z5, (d)Ma-mu DINGIR sa MA.sGE6.MES ia SAG.MU/ias lu GIN-an, 'May Mamu, god of dreams, stand at the head of my bed'. Again, in Ashurbanipal's well-known letter C.T. XXII, I, obv. 14,

he asks for amulets sa SAG GIS.NA LUGAL u se-pit LUGAL, 'for the head of the king's bed and the foot of the king('s bed)' where the ellipse of erlu the second time will be noticed. Contrast, however, kun-nu ina ri-1i-ki tal-mu-u ma-ga-ru sa-li-mu (Su-ila Inanna-kam, i 8: Ebeling, Das akkadiscbe Gebetsserie ' Handerhebung', 6o) which perhaps indicates no more than 'standing above thee' (are T, M and S).

i6. (Tablet XXVII): misittu, and malddu are difficult and both words still variously translated. 'Blow' (Campbell Thompson) and 'bruising', 'contusion' (Lambert, Labat) are contra-indicated by the fact that in late Neo-Assyrian times the king of Elam dies of this condition as we know from more than one source. On the other hand' apoplexy' (Langdon, Oppenheim) which I would think is nearer, must contend firstly with the medical finding that apoplexy is more rare in the East than the West (Rogers and Megaw, Tropical Medicine, 5 th ed., 485) although it does exist, and secondly with the argument which suggests that, at this early time, no-one had the pathological knowledge to make a diagnosis sufficiently approaching the modern conception of the disease to justify its use in translation. It would be at least safer to think that malid said of the king of Elam means simply that ' he had a stroke ' (without defining this further), and tentatively one might offer ' to contract the muscles' as a suitable base meaning, with the ' resultant-noun ' militt/i theoretically ' spasm '. Good sense is made of the line discussed by using this scheme, and note that enxma elil IV, 137: ih-pi-hi-ma// ki-ma nu-nu mas-di-e/la-na lend-s, ' he split her in two like a giant oyster' may also fairly be taken on the side of the argument, analysing nunu-mlaldu (so, not nunu-maldu) as the 'muscle(-contracted) fish'l. On the different verb maladu (Sum. u'r), ' to smooth', ' rub', see Falkenstein, Z.A. 44, 23.

17. (Tablet XXVll): = Tablet XXVI, 1. 37 (T.D.P. p. I92) in Labat's edition.

I8. (Tablet XXIX): (d)LUGAL.UR.RA. This demon, Akkd. bel uri, apparently the 'Slave-master(?) of the roof ', but in any case no ' king ' of any kind, has nothing to do with somnambulism (Ungnad, A.f.0. X1V, 268, 32 cf. Labat, T.D.P. n. 347). The latter meaning is surely precluded firstly by the strong connection with Antasubba (for references, see Langdon R.A. XXVIII, I27), and secondly, by the definition, Clay, B.R.M. IV, pl. 37, Z,

edited Campbell Thompson, J.R.A.S. I924, 452 (where noxv read i-kap-pi-is for i-qap-Pi-iF in the light of Geers' law on emphatics). For the moment it is best left unidentified.

1 nu-nu mal-di-e is plural, a point hitherto overlooked, so indicated clearly by the commentary, K.A.R. 307, rev. 2, which substitutes HA.MES mal-di-e. Since, however, both sense and syntax demand a singular, to suppose some such (supcrlative) meaning as that given appears to be the only way one can justify the form. As to the specific translation ' oyster', cf. the Phoenician Tabnith inscription (editions by Cooke, North Semitic Inscriptions, No. 4, and S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books

of Samuel, and. ed., xxiv f.) 1. 4-5: (4) . . . w'i trgzn k'i 'dln ksp 'i 'dln (5)hr wkl

mmmmid blt 'nk Akb b'rn z ' . and disturb me not, for here is neither image

of silver nor image of gold nor yet aught from the oyster: (but) I myself only do lie in this coffin'. To suppose now that nmmld (analysing m(n)-nmmid) is a loan-word from Akkd. nun(u)-maldu would solve an old crux very suitably and to good profit in both passages.




I9. (Tablet XXX): DIS GIG-mva KA-14 BAD.BAD-te. The translation offered will require to be supported. The phrase KA-1`1 BAD.BAD-te (=iptenete) must basically mean ' he keeps opening and shutting his mouth'. As evidence for the literal meaning cp. K.A.R. 17 (Lugal-e, III) obv. 7-8:

ku6-bi engur-ra u& mi-ni-ib-ra-ah ka mu-un-ba-ba-[du] KU6 (=nunu) s ina ab-si-i (d)IM ir-bi-is-ma pi-[i-I`l i -te-ni-t[e-ma]

for the image it recalls of a fish 'opening and shutting its mouth' (our present purpose requires only a consideration of the final verbs) will surely inspire every confidence. But must one then find a disease where a patient performs such an operation, and apparently without attendant speech? This would be too embarrassing a task. Consequently, it is proposed to interpret the phrase as ' he keeps opening and shutting his mouth (for food) ', that is, 'he is for ever hungry'. And such an explanation does indeed seem to be supported by Sa-gig XL 50 (T.D.P. I, 2zz): DIS LIJ.TUR. . . . KA-S1 BAD.BAD-te ma-la KOJ ut-ta- nar-ru, ' If the baby . . is always hungry, but consistently rejects the food he has taken '. Note that although no copies of Tablet XXX have so far been discovered, this first sentence can be fully restored from the second tablet discussed in this study (ND 4368 rev. vi. 1-3).

20. SU SUKUD.GIM: This phrase, when compared with SUKUD.GIM (1.26) suggests that the first sign is a ' sign-reader ', but I have no information as to the meaning or Akkadian reading of the term.

zi. (Tablet XXXI): DIS UD.DA TAB-su-ma. Sterling work on UD.DA = sFtu has been done by Landsberger, see most recently J.N.E.S. VIII, 252, n. 30, where the word is defined as ' das Draussen, die Atmosphare, frische Luft, okkasionell auch schlechtes Wetter und Wetterunbill ', with references also to 'rsitu of the Moon', '.situ of the Sun', and other types. Whether, however, the definition (ibid.) 'situ als Krankheit etwa " Erkaltung "; himit siti "fiebrige Erkaltung"' is also good, is perhaps open to question. Eye involvement, as indicated by summa mubba-l, I, ii, i9 and aI (A.J.S.L. LIII, z25) would seem to be against this. I would myself prefer to think that it could well be a 'climatic disease' caused by the ' blaze, dazzle or glare of (strong sun)light' or something of the kind, and perhaps we should not too quickly lose sight of Campbell Thompson's suggestion (despite the false etymology) 'It is probably sunstroke' (A.J.S.L., LIII, 225, n. 49). But our evidence hardly admits of certainty one way or the other at the present time. As to the reading of TAB-su, I would suggest tahamma.tsu-partly based on i-ha-am-mat-su, T.D.P. I I0, 9',-so that the literal meaning will be 'If the situ has been blazing (etc.) for him'. The tense so offered is what English grammarians (Onions, Sonnenschein, et al.) now call the 'present perfect continuous'. Note that, since there is no evidence to show that hamdtu can be anything but intransitive in the I I, the suffic -sm must be taken as dative.

aa. (Tablet XXXII): DIS IM (=Idru) is-bit-su-mna. On the equation IM.RI.A = si-bit lAri see Campbell Thompson, A.J.S.L. LIII, a25, n. 49, and S.L. 86/47. Treated as Sumerian, IM-ri-a, preferably em-ri-a after Landsberger, J.N.E.S. VIII, 286, n. I2I, shows the -a of the nomen actionis; on ri, 'to blow', see Jacobsen, J.N.E.S. V, I48, n. 32, Kramer, Enki and Ninhursag 97 and I17, and elsewhere. So much then is clear: a disease 'wind-blow(ing)' is under discussion. But this has nothing to do with exposure. The clue seems to be provided by A.M.T. iI, I (series lumma inasu, I, iv) II-I2:

an-na em-ri-a igi-lu-ka gig-ga ba-an-gar ina sad-me-e da-a-ru i-Ti-qam-ma ina i-in LU si-im-me il-ta-kan 'In heaven em-ri-a (Akkd. 'the wind blew and') brought simme into the man's eye'.

Note that sd-a-ru i-!Ci-qam-ma mistranslates the Sum. since em-ri-a (analytically em-ri-a(-e)) is preferably the subject of gar. But for that matter Iibit Idri (above) does not translate



145 J. V. KINNIER WILSON

em-ri-a either; for sibit is the construct of s.ib/u, ' the divine or royal corrective', 'sceptre', ' (beating)-stick', 'scourge', 'epidemic', and the sabatu behind Mmru iibitsu does not mean ' to blow'. All this poses a neat problem; but if the solution is not more difficult we suppose that em-ri-a - libit sari (' wind-blow '-' wind-epidemic ') was an eye-disease, thought to be caused by the wind blowing infection into the eyes. Furthermore, although there can of course be no certainty, there is an excellent claimant in trachoma (see Elliot,Tropical Ophthalmology and all text-books on ophthalmology), the ' scourge of the East' so far as eye diseases are concerned, and one which can certainly assume epidemic proportions. Compare especially Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 1 37 (1948), p. i 6I 7:

' Trachoma was endemic in the Eastern and Southeastern provinces of Turkey before the first World War and it became epidemic as the result of troop movements through Iraq, Transjordan, Syria and Palestine. . . . In the trachoma campaign zone 1,910,632

persons, or 47.5 per cent [of a population of 3,623,9861 are trachomatous'.

With regard to ibi.tsu, note that this is almost certainly denominative from libtu as it occurs in .ibit Iari and does not belong in the straight semantic tradition of sabdtu; the 'wind' which 'beat, chastised him' undoubtedly never blew.

23. (Tablet XXXIII): On samanu (Sum. samana) see Nougayrol, A.Or. XVII 3/4, 2.13ff; Falkenstein, Sumerische . . . Hymnen und Gebete, 377; Goetz, J.C.S. IX, I2. The construction of the line is at present not clear to me.

24. (Tablet XXXIV): For the phrase cf. K.A.R. z6, obv. io; A.M.T. 65, 7, 3.

Reverse i. (Tablet XXXVI): UGU SAG.KI-1h (var. -la). At first sight the transliteration

muhpdti-ld (T.D.P. zoo, i), S0 much being apparently assured from the mu-41 of the following line, seems perfectly correct and the translation 'le haut de son front' unassailable. Yet as one thinks about the matter doubts may arise, for muhhu, 'scalp', and pitu, 'forehead', are adjacent parts. Did the writer then really mean muhhu to be used in a different sense? In any case is not elitu the word we should have cxpected for the 'upper part' of a part of the body? These considerations lead to the suggestion that mu-z"h in the second line of the tablet is preferably to be read mu-uhu, so that in the title-line we may read muhhu pfta-Su (nominative), ' her scalp and forehead'. For the partial dropping of suffixes with parts of the body cp., for example, Ebeling, ' Beschworungsserie Namburbi ', R.A. XLVIII, 140, I I:

libbu qaqqadu kur-sin-na-ti-su.

7. (Final summary): MU.MES. These are indeed 'entries' or 'items' or with Geers, A.J.S.L. XLIII, 23 and 29 1.44, ' sentences', but ' lines ' (Labat), while correct enough elsewhere-especially in poetical works-makes the mathematics of the series everywhere wrong. Such entries (as a working definition, 'everything which follows Jumma') are often several lines long; on the other hand they may involve only half a line. In Tablet XL, for example, the given total of II2 entries is only seen to be correct when 11.59, 7I, and 72 are counted twice, since each contains two lumma items.

SA.GIG. The problems of how to read the title of our series in both Sumerian and Akkadian are not altogether easy to solve, but the following represents my attempt to do so. Note firstly SA.GIG-U', K.A.R. 44, obv. 6. This cannot represent Akkd. sakikku since for such a word the complement would have been -ku. The complement -u must undoubtedly represent an Akkd. syllabic spelling sa-kik-k-u-. Are we then to read SA.GIG, the series-title, as Sum. sa-giga? I would think not, because, apart from the fact that sa-gig-ga nowhere occurs, the writing SA.GIG.MES on the colophons (and it may be worth observing that the simpler parallel form SA.GIG contra-indicates a reading sa-giga-meg), together with the




indirect evidence of if-bu-tu, Ludlul, II, I08 (cf. p. 141), shows that the Akkd. word is plural. Thus simple sa-gig can still be the correct corresponding Sumerian. But what then are we to do with the gloss to K.A.R. 44, obv. 6, read by Zimmern as sa-gig-ge ? Will this represent Sumerian sa-giga-ke4? No, because sa-gig-ga-ke4 would have been written to express such a word. Consequently we read sa-kik-ke4 (Akkadian), explaining this as the Assyrian plural glossing sakikk4, the Babylonian plural. Along such lines of reasoning all can be satisfied -while the services of *giga, which has been used as a kind of ' catalytic agent' in the argument, can now finally be dispensed with altogether.

I 7. ina tam-ir sibirti. This is not considered to be an error for ina tam-ir<-ti> sihirti. Rather we should like to suggest that the first -ti has fallen by ' desonance '-this being a new coinage and defined as 'the purposeful avoidance of assonance'. Similar would be K.A.R. 44, rev. 9: si-pir .iti-mat ri-mu-ti, standing for 'i-pir sim-ma(t)-ti ri-mu-ti. An even more telling example is provided by Reisner, S.B.H. No. i9, obv. 1-4 (cf. also Witzel, TammuZ-Lit., 140) in the lines (tabulating for clarity):

ana a-ma-ti Ja-a-ti qar-rad ana a-mat s'a-a-ti qar-rad ana a-ma-ti .a-a-at

This note seeks only to defend briefly the point at issue by reference to the ending -ti; it is, however, hoped to present a fuller treatment on 'desonance' together with an analysis of other types, and with the support of some other languages, at another (not very immediate) time.

For the restoration KUR u m[a-a-tim] in the same line, cp. Gilg. XI, Ioo. The required antithesis 'hill and lowland' or ' mountain and plain' seems to show matum in the sense of 'level, flat (areas of) land', recalling Jacobsen's note, J.C.S. VII, 40, n. 47.

To be continued



two medical texts from nimrud

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