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Papers by Frank Simons

Research paper thumbnail of A new manuscript of Namerimburruda recitation IV
Die Welt des Orients, 2023
The present paper offers an edition of a previously unpublished fragment (1889-4-26, 134) belongi... moreThe present paper offers an edition of a previously unpublished fragment (1889-4-26, 134) belonging to Nam-érim-búr-ru-da recitation IV, incorporating partitur, normalisation, translation, and a philological commentary. The new fragment fills several lacunae in the published text, and also demonstrates that the previously published manuscripts overlap slightly, meaning that the text of the incantation is continuous rather than broken. 1 This paper results from work carried out under the auspices of the project Mesopotamian Psychiatry, funded by the Irish Research Council under grant number 21/PATH-A/9412. My thanks to Marie Barkowsky, Stefan Maul, Martin Worthington, Shana Zaia, and Elyze Zomer for their generous and helpful comments. Any remaining mistakes are mine alone. 2 Maul 2019 (KAL 10). 3 Geers Folio O10. Viewable athttps://www.ebl.lmu.de/fragmentarium/1889%2C0426.134 (accessed 10/2/2023). 4 In particular Šurpu II 46 ú-sa mi-iṣ-ra ù ku-dúr-ru ˹uš˺-te-li 'He removed marker, border and boundary stone' , which appears verbatim as line 9' , see below, l. 42.
Research paper thumbnail of Unity Through Poetry The Development of Šurpu IV
Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 2022
The ritual and incantation series Šurpu ‘Burning’ is one of the longest and most complex magical ... moreThe ritual and incantation series Šurpu ‘Burning’ is one of the longest and most complex magical texts to survive from the ancient world. The present paper offers a close analysis of repetition and parallelism used in Tablet IV of the text, revealing an intricate web of interconnections, both within Tablet IV, and between Tablet IV and the rest of Šurpu. Through this sophisticated use of poetic techniques, Tablet IV plays a major role in completely reshaping Šurpu, turning it from a plea for help addressed to a wide range of important gods into a ritual focussed almost exclusively on the power of Marduk to help the sufferer.
Beyond this connection to the rest of the series, however, the bu refrain is used artfully to bring a sense of poetic unity to the whole of §A. A brief excerpt from the text demonstrates the thoroughness and poetic flair with which the composer of the text went about the task:
The characteristics highlighted above are not limited to, or even particularly heavily clustered within, this excerpt. They are found throughout §A. A second excerpt shows more or less the same quantity and quality of structural, phonetic, and graphic parallelism, used to draw the text together:
The poetic unity of §A is all the more striking when compared with the rest of Tablet IV. Similar techniques of poetic unity are used within §§B and C, but as a brief excerpt from §B shows, there are differences in emphasis:
Disregarding, for the moment, the first phrase of line 70, these two excerpts are identical — the same ailments are listed in the same order, with the same verbs attached.°! The only differences are the case — the lines from §A are mostly, though not entirely, S-stem infinitives, while those of §B are precatives — and the bu refrain.~ This can be seen repeatedly throughout the text. If we return to the excerpts already examined, we find a very clear example:
Several now familiar characteristics can be discerned straight away. The prolifer- ation of /8/ (marked with a single border), though not quite so marked as in the other excerpts from §A so far discussed, is still clear, and in Surbiiti we find an- other word that chimes with both bul/utu and sullumu.** The list of ailments is present again (marked with a double border), including mu dingir-mes, which is also found, without the me8, in line 70 (see above). The bu refrain (marked with a dotted border) is also present, though this stops after line 57. Two other elements are worthy of note. In line 56, two ailments are included which are not commonly found in the list of ailments: mihirti ili “encounter with a god’ and tazzimtu ‘com- plaint’ (marked with a triple border). This should be compared with an earlier line in §A: This is the most extensive use of direct repetition in the text. A subtler, but significantly more intricate, type of repetition is found leading up to line 58, the final line of §A and boundary between §§A and B:
Research paper thumbnail of Bang a Gong (Demons Gone)
Legitimising Magic (AMD 21), 2024
The legitimacy and efficacy of Mesopotamian magic was rooted exclusively in the power of the gods... moreThe legitimacy and efficacy of Mesopotamian magic was rooted exclusively in the power of the gods.1 Should they consent to act on behalf of those who enlisted their help through ritual and incantation, the magic, whatever its purpose, would be successful, otherwise it would not. This paper is an attempt to make sense of a particular type of magic, exemplified in the use of the musical, and more especially magical, instrument known as nigkalagû ‘Mighty Copper,’ which seems, subtly, to subvert this rule.
Research paper thumbnail of kurāru 'lumpy lesions'
Le Journal des Médecins Cunéiformes, 2022
The nature of the kurāru-disease has long been the subject of discussion and uncertainty. While ... moreThe nature of the kurāru-disease has long been the subject of discussion and uncertainty. While
it is clearly some sort of contagious skin lesion, modern editors are more or less evenly split
between two different translations: ringworm (Dermatophytosis)2 or a kind of lump.3
The
present paper will offer a few observations which favour the latter understanding.
Figure 1- Photograph of a ringworm infection on the leg By James Heilman, MD - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons. wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19051050
Research paper thumbnail of The Donkey of Anšan: A Rhino in Mesopotamia? Notes on the Construction of Meaning in a Bilingual Proverb
Journal of Ancient Civilizations, 2022
This paper is a detailed study of a short bilingual proverb about exotic animals. It is suggeste... moreThis paper is a detailed study of a short bilingual proverb about exotic animals.  It is suggested that one of these animals is an Indian rhinoceros, and that the proverb is the earliest textual reference to this animal in world history. In support of this suggestion a comprehensive investigation of the evidence for rhinoceroses in Mesopotamia is presented, and a wide array of comparative material from ancient Greece, Rome, India, China, Persia, and Arabia is adduced. Alongside the discussion of the animals involved, the form and structure of the proverb is investigated, with consideration of the ways in which its poetic quality influenced its construction, and of the nuances behind the concluding simile.
Fig. 1: Manuela the rhinoceros and one of the donkeys with which she shares an enclosure in Tblisi zoo, Georgia. Photo credit: Khatia Basilashvili. To be clear, it is not my position that a rhino was ever mistaken for a donkey. Rather, it seems possible that if forced to describe a rhino to someone who had never seen one “massive, grey donkeyish thing with a horn, lives in the east somewhere” would not be an unreasonable attempt. That such a description could be shortened to simply “donkey of AnSan” is not unlikely.
Fig. 2: Oriental Institute Chicago, N.11517a. Akkadian period cylinder seal found at . 51 Esnunna. 149) before being finally disproven in print by Meissner (1932, 40). In fact, the correct reading was established slightly earlier, possibly by Thureau-Dangin (Benveniste 1929, 375, n. 1). The suggested etymological connection between kurkizannu and karkadann/khadga has not been completely forgotten, however. Benveniste (1929, 375) suggests that the words are linked by the physical resemblance of a pig and a rhinoceros (cf. Strabo’s description), and this was noted without comment by Panaino (2001, 161, n. 75). A similar argument was made, prior to the refutation of the translation, in Delitzsch’s Assyrisches Handworterbuch (1896, 649, s.v. Sahti) in an attempt to explain the equation of Sumerian Sah.tur “piglet” to kurkizannu in lexical texts. Delitzsch argued that Sah was a determinative for “aller im Schlamm wiihlenden Thiere wie Eber, Rhinoceros u.a.m.” Nonetheless, despite the phonetic similarity of kurkizannu and karkadann, there is no good reason to connect the two, and there is no longer any suggestion that the Akkadian word means rhinoceros. The second suggestion, that of Barton (1926, 92-94), was that the Sumerian word am, Akkadian rimu, “wild bull,” originated as a word for rhinoceros, and acquired its common reading only
Fig. 3: de Clercq I 26. Cylinder seal of unknown date and provenience. Courtesy of Omar Khan. Photo credit: M. Chuzeville. The animal in the centre of the bottom register of this impression, beneath the large bird, has been identified as both a rhinoceros” and an elephant.” The seal was first published in 1888, in the catalogue of the de Clercq” collection, and all subsequent studies seem to be based on the image in this publication, or the republication of the same image by Weber.” The current location of the seal is unknown, but the rolling in Fig. 3 was published online” and offers a far clearer
Fig. 4: Detail of the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser HI. Taken from: Layard 1853, pl. 54. Later still, in the Hellenistic period tomb of Apollophanes at Tell Maresha in modern Israel, a very un-lifelike rhinoceros is depicted. This animal, which is clearly labelled in Greek pinoxepwe “rhinoceros,” is part of a procession of animals which seems to have been connected to the cult of Dionysus. It is evident from the faint second horn on the animal labelled rhinoceros that an African rather than an Indian animal is what the artist had in mind,” but it is equally clear that he had never seen one:
Fig. 5: Detail of the animal procession frieze in Tomb I at Marisa. Taken from: Peters and Thiersch 1905, pl. 10.
Fig. 6: Detail of the animal procession frieze in Tomb I at Marisa. Taken from: Peters and Thiersch 1905, pl. 14.
Research paper thumbnail of Ninurta bēl nignakki no more
NABU, 2020
NABU 2020, 1, 26 (58-59)
Research paper thumbnail of The Goddess Kusu
Revue d'assyriologie, 2018
This article examines the identity and character of the deity dkù-sù. Kusu has been variously und... moreThis article examines the identity and character of the deity dkù-sù. Kusu has been variously understood in the scholarly literature as the name of two deities, a god and a goddess, and as either a single god or goddess. It is argued here that, in almost every case, Kusu is a single figure –a grain and purification goddess. It is further argued that her association with the nignakku-censer only very rarely identifies her as the censer. In the vast majority of cases, the censer should be understood simply as one of several objects which Kusu uses in her role as purifier.
Lines 313, 314 and 317 once again demonstrate the same form as line 309. In each case, the alternative name sign describes the deity: muhaldim “cook,” gir “knife,” Sul “hero.” Unududu can be translated “Preparer of good food,” and so is also relevant to Ninnisig as butcher, but, as it was not written with a single sign, it was presumably not possible to treat it in the same way. The key point to note here is that Ninnisig is unquestionably a feminine deity, as she is married to Erragal, a god who is often, as here, a form of the underworld god Nergal 1° Her role in line 312, gir.la, being Sumerian, does not have a grammatical gender. When translated into Akkadian, however, gir.la becomes either fabifu “butcher,” as in the gloss to line 312, or the more literal nas patri “knife carrier,” as in Gattung II iv 78, discussed below. Both of these are masculine. Lambert offers the solution to this contradiction: “The term nds patri may have been unchangeably masculine in Akkadian because among humans the profession was exclusively male.”!” If this reasoning is accepted, there is no reason not to expand it to cover the chief purification priest as well, thereby removing the difficulty of a female Sangamahhu. Evidence from elsewhere, however, does present a problem with this argument. Sangamahhu is the Akkadianised form of Sumerian sanga.mah. In Sumerian, which does not distinguish grammatically between feminine and masculine, there is no difficulty in understanding the role to have been held by a female. In Akkadian, however, Sangamahhu is evidently masculine, and for a female holder of the role we should expect to read *sangamahhatu. That the feminine form is not known in any of the many occurrences of the title!? gives some cause for concern. Likewise, in an Egalkura spell, we read “kii-st mul-li-lu ti-bi K1-ia = Kusu mullilu tibi ittiya “Kusu, the purification priest, stands ready with me;”!* mullilu “purification priest” is masculine. It is instructive to consider the analogous case of Ninnisig.'> An = Anum I:
Table 1. Feast gods The final text in the group makes this organisation explicit. The incantation enuma “anu ibnii Samé “When Anu had created the heavens,” was recited as part of the rites for renovating a temple. It provides a creation myth for the first brick, describing the various divine and natural forces made by the god Ea to fashion and serve the brick:”° Although the names are different, therefore, the deities in Gattung II are plainly based on very similar organisational principles: myth, it seems unlikely. Wiggermann has argued persuasively that there is just one Ninmada.“ NingiSzida occurs earlier in Gattung II,°° and presumably the compiler did not wish to repeat him. This seems, however, to undermine the point of the text. NingiSzida, as Lambert has demonstrated,°° was very likely associated with alcoholic drinks —specifically wine— and so was he a good pairing for Siris. Ninmada has none of the same connotations, and so the point is lost. The unilingual Sumerian version does not suffer from the same problem, as it does not name Siris, but rather an obscure god “tibir (T ‘AGxSU). This god is distinct from Tibira, a smith who is mentioned in CT 29 46 4’ and the partial duplicate CT 25 46 4’, which are fragments of an explanatory god list. No other reference to this god is known to the present writer, but the word tibir is Sumerian for “hand,” so we should perhaps imagine a deified hand. Gattung II describes Tibir as muhaldim.gal an.[n]a.key “great cook of An.’® The Late Babylonian version of the text describes Siris in the same way, though this role is otherwise unattested for her. It is possible that Ninmada’s role in bringing grain to Sumer makes him a reasonable partner for Siris as either brewer or cook, or Tibir as a cook —without grain there is no beer or bread. His placement immediately before Nissaba in the list supports this, though he seems a rather arbitrary choice of grain god. Ninmada, as far as we are aware, was not an important grain god, and, as Nissaba fills the role in any case, must have been superfluous. An alternative possibility is that Ninmada has an alcoholic aspect which is not clearly evidenced. Katz® has suggested that the myth of bringing grain to Sumer may be aetiological of Ninazu’s character as a dying god. That it might also cover the origins of alcohol inherent in Ninmada, while not yet evidenced, is not beyond the realms of possibility. Althanoch the names are different therefore the deitiec in Gattino TT are nlainiv haced ann very cmilar
Table 2. Feast Gods redux
Research paper thumbnail of Innovation in Serdab Decoration in the Late Sixth Dynasty
Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 2016
The decorative motif in the serdab of the tomb of Pepyankh Henykem at Meir is extremely unusual. ... moreThe decorative motif in the serdab of the tomb of Pepyankh Henykem at Meir is extremely unusual. Examination of this decoration, and a comparison with the few extant parallels, suggests that it represents a late Old Kingdom attempt at innovation in tomb decoration. In addition, the possibility of a personal link between Pepyankh and a family from Giza is presented.
TABLE 1 Titles found in the serdab
TABLE 1 (cont.) T7tles found in the serdab BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS
"'TaBLe 2 Name variants found in the serdab A number of points are immediately obvious from the information presented. Firstly, it will be easily perceived that names including km—‘the black’—are almost exclusively confined to the southern end of the serdab. Of the 62 names ending in km, just one is located in the north of the serdab. Four such names—Hny.t km, Hnni km, Ppy-‘nh km and Hnni.t km— are found only on the southern side of the serdab. While this may not be very revealing in the first three cases, each of which is found fewer than five times in total, Hnni.t km is found 24 times, and its absence from the north of the serdab is striking. It should be pointed out, as Kanawati’’ has stated, that the km sign in these inscriptions can easily ‘be mistaken for a chipped part of stone or a splash of paint.’ This could explain the anomalous northern km. However, in any case, this single irregularity does not materially affect the overwhelming statistical majority. Conversely, it will be noticed that names lacking the km element have an equivalent preponderance on the northern side of the break. 114 are recorded, just 20 of which are on the southern side. One name, Hni.t, is found only in the north of the serdab, though, as before, this is perhaps not of great interest—a name found only once has to be either north or south of the break, and whichever it is cannot be considered statistically significant.
Research paper thumbnail of A New Join to the Hurro Akkadian Version of the Weidner God List from Emar (Msk 74.108a + Msk 74.158k)
Altorientalische Forschungen, 2017
The present article offers an edition, copy and photographs of a newly identified join to the Hur... moreThe present article offers an edition, copy and photographs of a newly identified join to the Hurro-Akkadian bilingual tablet of the so-called Weidner god list from Emar. The new fragment adds substantially to our knowledge of the Hurrian translation of the list and fills in some small gaps in the Akkadian portion. It also offers valuable evidence concerning the identities of three relatively little known deities: Ištarān, who is equated in the text with Kumarbi, Erragal who is equated with Tarḫunta, and INANNA-g a l g a.s ù, a wife of the god Amurru.
Fig. 1a—b: Obverse. Copy: E. Zomer, except Msk 74.180b (Salvini 2015: 144). Photo: Msk 74.158k Obv.; kindly provided by M. Salvini; digitally enhanced by M. Brouillard.
Tab. 1: Msk 74.108a + Msk 74.158k +’ Msk 74.180b
Obv. 7’ This goddess is one of the hairdressers of Sarpanitum according to An=Anum II 250,” where the correct reading of her name is spelt out fully. MiuSSar is, according to Krebernik, a false reading. The restoration in iib assumes the name was spelt syllabically for the Hurrian audience.
Tab. 2: Inanna-of-X. As can be seen, the only completely consistent element is that the list of Inannas opens with Uruk, though Nin-ugnim ‘Lady of the troops’ and Nin-é-an-na ‘Lady of the Eanna’ precede the Inanna names proper in two copies. The inclusion of related but non-Inanna-X names before the main list is also seen in the Canonical Temple List’ and in a Middle Babylonian list of temples found in the Schgyen collection.“ Unfortunately neither of these offer any reasonable restorations for line 26’. As can be seen, the only completely consistent element is that the list of Inannas opens with Uruk, though
Research paper thumbnail of Alammuš Redux
NABU 2017, 1: 8-13
6) Alammu’ Redux” — In a recent note” the current writer presented evidence dealing with the identity and writing of the god AlammuSs, and suggested a possible chthonic dimension to his character. This suggestion is strongly supported by several instances of the god’s name overlooked in the last paper. The List of Stars and Deities VR, 46, 1°” has been edited four times since the schematic copy was published by Rawlinson and Pinches, most recently by Wee.” Lines 4-7 are of interest to us:” In the first place, it is worth noting that AlammuS and Ningublaga are, as in Mul Apin, neighbours of the underworld gods Lugalgirra and Meslamtaea. More important, however, AlammuS is equated to Palil, a god relatively well attested as a form of Nergal.® Krebernik has argued that this equation is an error based on confusion with the preceding line and that Palil is in fact to be equated with the established underworld god Lugalgirra. He supports this with reference to Surpu 9: 23,” in which the sequence Palil Lugalgirra appears. This is unnecessary, however, as well as unlikely. In the first place, as argued previously, AlammuSs was probably an underworld god in his own right. Second, the sequence in Surpu is part of a larger list: equation is an error based on confusion with the preceding line and that Palil is in fact to be equated with

Books by Frank Simons

Research paper thumbnail of (With Frank Simons), Animal Omens in the Divinatory Series Šumma ālu: Small Competitive Animals. 1. Study and Edition of Tablets 34-40 (in preparation).
(With Frank Simons), Animal Omens in the Divinatory Series Šumma ālu: Small Competitive Animals. 1. Study and Edition of Tablets 34-40 (in preparation).
Research paper thumbnail of A new manuscript of Namerimburruda recitation IV
Die Welt des Orients, 2023
The present paper offers an edition of a previously unpublished fragment (1889-4-26, 134) belongi... moreThe present paper offers an edition of a previously unpublished fragment (1889-4-26, 134) belonging to Nam-érim-búr-ru-da recitation IV, incorporating partitur, normalisation, translation, and a philological commentary. The new fragment fills several lacunae in the published text, and also demonstrates that the previously published manuscripts overlap slightly, meaning that the text of the incantation is continuous rather than broken. 1 This paper results from work carried out under the auspices of the project Mesopotamian Psychiatry, funded by the Irish Research Council under grant number 21/PATH-A/9412. My thanks to Marie Barkowsky, Stefan Maul, Martin Worthington, Shana Zaia, and Elyze Zomer for their generous and helpful comments. Any remaining mistakes are mine alone. 2 Maul 2019 (KAL 10). 3 Geers Folio O10. Viewable athttps://www.ebl.lmu.de/fragmentarium/1889%2C0426.134 (accessed 10/2/2023). 4 In particular Šurpu II 46 ú-sa mi-iṣ-ra ù ku-dúr-ru ˹uš˺-te-li 'He removed marker, border and boundary stone' , which appears verbatim as line 9' , see below, l. 42.
Research paper thumbnail of Unity Through Poetry The Development of Šurpu IV
Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 2022
The ritual and incantation series Šurpu ‘Burning’ is one of the longest and most complex magical ... moreThe ritual and incantation series Šurpu ‘Burning’ is one of the longest and most complex magical texts to survive from the ancient world. The present paper offers a close analysis of repetition and parallelism used in Tablet IV of the text, revealing an intricate web of interconnections, both within Tablet IV, and between Tablet IV and the rest of Šurpu. Through this sophisticated use of poetic techniques, Tablet IV plays a major role in completely reshaping Šurpu, turning it from a plea for help addressed to a wide range of important gods into a ritual focussed almost exclusively on the power of Marduk to help the sufferer.
Beyond this connection to the rest of the series, however, the bu refrain is used artfully to bring a sense of poetic unity to the whole of §A. A brief excerpt from the text demonstrates the thoroughness and poetic flair with which the composer of the text went about the task:
The characteristics highlighted above are not limited to, or even particularly heavily clustered within, this excerpt. They are found throughout §A. A second excerpt shows more or less the same quantity and quality of structural, phonetic, and graphic parallelism, used to draw the text together:
The poetic unity of §A is all the more striking when compared with the rest of Tablet IV. Similar techniques of poetic unity are used within §§B and C, but as a brief excerpt from §B shows, there are differences in emphasis:
Disregarding, for the moment, the first phrase of line 70, these two excerpts are identical — the same ailments are listed in the same order, with the same verbs attached.°! The only differences are the case — the lines from §A are mostly, though not entirely, S-stem infinitives, while those of §B are precatives — and the bu refrain.~ This can be seen repeatedly throughout the text. If we return to the excerpts already examined, we find a very clear example:
Several now familiar characteristics can be discerned straight away. The prolifer- ation of /8/ (marked with a single border), though not quite so marked as in the other excerpts from §A so far discussed, is still clear, and in Surbiiti we find an- other word that chimes with both bul/utu and sullumu.** The list of ailments is present again (marked with a double border), including mu dingir-mes, which is also found, without the me8, in line 70 (see above). The bu refrain (marked with a dotted border) is also present, though this stops after line 57. Two other elements are worthy of note. In line 56, two ailments are included which are not commonly found in the list of ailments: mihirti ili “encounter with a god’ and tazzimtu ‘com- plaint’ (marked with a triple border). This should be compared with an earlier line in §A: This is the most extensive use of direct repetition in the text. A subtler, but significantly more intricate, type of repetition is found leading up to line 58, the final line of §A and boundary between §§A and B:
Research paper thumbnail of Bang a Gong (Demons Gone)
Legitimising Magic (AMD 21), 2024
The legitimacy and efficacy of Mesopotamian magic was rooted exclusively in the power of the gods... moreThe legitimacy and efficacy of Mesopotamian magic was rooted exclusively in the power of the gods.1 Should they consent to act on behalf of those who enlisted their help through ritual and incantation, the magic, whatever its purpose, would be successful, otherwise it would not. This paper is an attempt to make sense of a particular type of magic, exemplified in the use of the musical, and more especially magical, instrument known as nigkalagû ‘Mighty Copper,’ which seems, subtly, to subvert this rule.
Research paper thumbnail of kurāru 'lumpy lesions'
Le Journal des Médecins Cunéiformes, 2022
The nature of the kurāru-disease has long been the subject of discussion and uncertainty. While ... moreThe nature of the kurāru-disease has long been the subject of discussion and uncertainty. While
it is clearly some sort of contagious skin lesion, modern editors are more or less evenly split
between two different translations: ringworm (Dermatophytosis)2 or a kind of lump.3
The
present paper will offer a few observations which favour the latter understanding.
Figure 1- Photograph of a ringworm infection on the leg By James Heilman, MD - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons. wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19051050
Research paper thumbnail of The Donkey of Anšan: A Rhino in Mesopotamia? Notes on the Construction of Meaning in a Bilingual Proverb
Journal of Ancient Civilizations, 2022
This paper is a detailed study of a short bilingual proverb about exotic animals. It is suggeste... moreThis paper is a detailed study of a short bilingual proverb about exotic animals.  It is suggested that one of these animals is an Indian rhinoceros, and that the proverb is the earliest textual reference to this animal in world history. In support of this suggestion a comprehensive investigation of the evidence for rhinoceroses in Mesopotamia is presented, and a wide array of comparative material from ancient Greece, Rome, India, China, Persia, and Arabia is adduced. Alongside the discussion of the animals involved, the form and structure of the proverb is investigated, with consideration of the ways in which its poetic quality influenced its construction, and of the nuances behind the concluding simile.
Fig. 1: Manuela the rhinoceros and one of the donkeys with which she shares an enclosure in Tblisi zoo, Georgia. Photo credit: Khatia Basilashvili. To be clear, it is not my position that a rhino was ever mistaken for a donkey. Rather, it seems possible that if forced to describe a rhino to someone who had never seen one “massive, grey donkeyish thing with a horn, lives in the east somewhere” would not be an unreasonable attempt. That such a description could be shortened to simply “donkey of AnSan” is not unlikely.
Fig. 2: Oriental Institute Chicago, N.11517a. Akkadian period cylinder seal found at . 51 Esnunna. 149) before being finally disproven in print by Meissner (1932, 40). In fact, the correct reading was established slightly earlier, possibly by Thureau-Dangin (Benveniste 1929, 375, n. 1). The suggested etymological connection between kurkizannu and karkadann/khadga has not been completely forgotten, however. Benveniste (1929, 375) suggests that the words are linked by the physical resemblance of a pig and a rhinoceros (cf. Strabo’s description), and this was noted without comment by Panaino (2001, 161, n. 75). A similar argument was made, prior to the refutation of the translation, in Delitzsch’s Assyrisches Handworterbuch (1896, 649, s.v. Sahti) in an attempt to explain the equation of Sumerian Sah.tur “piglet” to kurkizannu in lexical texts. Delitzsch argued that Sah was a determinative for “aller im Schlamm wiihlenden Thiere wie Eber, Rhinoceros u.a.m.” Nonetheless, despite the phonetic similarity of kurkizannu and karkadann, there is no good reason to connect the two, and there is no longer any suggestion that the Akkadian word means rhinoceros. The second suggestion, that of Barton (1926, 92-94), was that the Sumerian word am, Akkadian rimu, “wild bull,” originated as a word for rhinoceros, and acquired its common reading only
Fig. 3: de Clercq I 26. Cylinder seal of unknown date and provenience. Courtesy of Omar Khan. Photo credit: M. Chuzeville. The animal in the centre of the bottom register of this impression, beneath the large bird, has been identified as both a rhinoceros” and an elephant.” The seal was first published in 1888, in the catalogue of the de Clercq” collection, and all subsequent studies seem to be based on the image in this publication, or the republication of the same image by Weber.” The current location of the seal is unknown, but the rolling in Fig. 3 was published online” and offers a far clearer
Fig. 4: Detail of the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser HI. Taken from: Layard 1853, pl. 54. Later still, in the Hellenistic period tomb of Apollophanes at Tell Maresha in modern Israel, a very un-lifelike rhinoceros is depicted. This animal, which is clearly labelled in Greek pinoxepwe “rhinoceros,” is part of a procession of animals which seems to have been connected to the cult of Dionysus. It is evident from the faint second horn on the animal labelled rhinoceros that an African rather than an Indian animal is what the artist had in mind,” but it is equally clear that he had never seen one:
Fig. 5: Detail of the animal procession frieze in Tomb I at Marisa. Taken from: Peters and Thiersch 1905, pl. 10.
Fig. 6: Detail of the animal procession frieze in Tomb I at Marisa. Taken from: Peters and Thiersch 1905, pl. 14.
Research paper thumbnail of Ninurta bēl nignakki no more
NABU, 2020
NABU 2020, 1, 26 (58-59)
Research paper thumbnail of The Goddess Kusu
Revue d'assyriologie, 2018
This article examines the identity and character of the deity dkù-sù. Kusu has been variously und... moreThis article examines the identity and character of the deity dkù-sù. Kusu has been variously understood in the scholarly literature as the name of two deities, a god and a goddess, and as either a single god or goddess. It is argued here that, in almost every case, Kusu is a single figure –a grain and purification goddess. It is further argued that her association with the nignakku-censer only very rarely identifies her as the censer. In the vast majority of cases, the censer should be understood simply as one of several objects which Kusu uses in her role as purifier.
Lines 313, 314 and 317 once again demonstrate the same form as line 309. In each case, the alternative name sign describes the deity: muhaldim “cook,” gir “knife,” Sul “hero.” Unududu can be translated “Preparer of good food,” and so is also relevant to Ninnisig as butcher, but, as it was not written with a single sign, it was presumably not possible to treat it in the same way. The key point to note here is that Ninnisig is unquestionably a feminine deity, as she is married to Erragal, a god who is often, as here, a form of the underworld god Nergal 1° Her role in line 312, gir.la, being Sumerian, does not have a grammatical gender. When translated into Akkadian, however, gir.la becomes either fabifu “butcher,” as in the gloss to line 312, or the more literal nas patri “knife carrier,” as in Gattung II iv 78, discussed below. Both of these are masculine. Lambert offers the solution to this contradiction: “The term nds patri may have been unchangeably masculine in Akkadian because among humans the profession was exclusively male.”!” If this reasoning is accepted, there is no reason not to expand it to cover the chief purification priest as well, thereby removing the difficulty of a female Sangamahhu. Evidence from elsewhere, however, does present a problem with this argument. Sangamahhu is the Akkadianised form of Sumerian sanga.mah. In Sumerian, which does not distinguish grammatically between feminine and masculine, there is no difficulty in understanding the role to have been held by a female. In Akkadian, however, Sangamahhu is evidently masculine, and for a female holder of the role we should expect to read *sangamahhatu. That the feminine form is not known in any of the many occurrences of the title!? gives some cause for concern. Likewise, in an Egalkura spell, we read “kii-st mul-li-lu ti-bi K1-ia = Kusu mullilu tibi ittiya “Kusu, the purification priest, stands ready with me;”!* mullilu “purification priest” is masculine. It is instructive to consider the analogous case of Ninnisig.'> An = Anum I:
Table 1. Feast gods The final text in the group makes this organisation explicit. The incantation enuma “anu ibnii Samé “When Anu had created the heavens,” was recited as part of the rites for renovating a temple. It provides a creation myth for the first brick, describing the various divine and natural forces made by the god Ea to fashion and serve the brick:”° Although the names are different, therefore, the deities in Gattung II are plainly based on very similar organisational principles: myth, it seems unlikely. Wiggermann has argued persuasively that there is just one Ninmada.“ NingiSzida occurs earlier in Gattung II,°° and presumably the compiler did not wish to repeat him. This seems, however, to undermine the point of the text. NingiSzida, as Lambert has demonstrated,°° was very likely associated with alcoholic drinks —specifically wine— and so was he a good pairing for Siris. Ninmada has none of the same connotations, and so the point is lost. The unilingual Sumerian version does not suffer from the same problem, as it does not name Siris, but rather an obscure god “tibir (T ‘AGxSU). This god is distinct from Tibira, a smith who is mentioned in CT 29 46 4’ and the partial duplicate CT 25 46 4’, which are fragments of an explanatory god list. No other reference to this god is known to the present writer, but the word tibir is Sumerian for “hand,” so we should perhaps imagine a deified hand. Gattung II describes Tibir as muhaldim.gal an.[n]a.key “great cook of An.’® The Late Babylonian version of the text describes Siris in the same way, though this role is otherwise unattested for her. It is possible that Ninmada’s role in bringing grain to Sumer makes him a reasonable partner for Siris as either brewer or cook, or Tibir as a cook —without grain there is no beer or bread. His placement immediately before Nissaba in the list supports this, though he seems a rather arbitrary choice of grain god. Ninmada, as far as we are aware, was not an important grain god, and, as Nissaba fills the role in any case, must have been superfluous. An alternative possibility is that Ninmada has an alcoholic aspect which is not clearly evidenced. Katz® has suggested that the myth of bringing grain to Sumer may be aetiological of Ninazu’s character as a dying god. That it might also cover the origins of alcohol inherent in Ninmada, while not yet evidenced, is not beyond the realms of possibility. Althanoch the names are different therefore the deitiec in Gattino TT are nlainiv haced ann very cmilar
Table 2. Feast Gods redux
Research paper thumbnail of Innovation in Serdab Decoration in the Late Sixth Dynasty
Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 2016
The decorative motif in the serdab of the tomb of Pepyankh Henykem at Meir is extremely unusual. ... moreThe decorative motif in the serdab of the tomb of Pepyankh Henykem at Meir is extremely unusual. Examination of this decoration, and a comparison with the few extant parallels, suggests that it represents a late Old Kingdom attempt at innovation in tomb decoration. In addition, the possibility of a personal link between Pepyankh and a family from Giza is presented.
TABLE 1 Titles found in the serdab
TABLE 1 (cont.) T7tles found in the serdab BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS
"'TaBLe 2 Name variants found in the serdab A number of points are immediately obvious from the information presented. Firstly, it will be easily perceived that names including km—‘the black’—are almost exclusively confined to the southern end of the serdab. Of the 62 names ending in km, just one is located in the north of the serdab. Four such names—Hny.t km, Hnni km, Ppy-‘nh km and Hnni.t km— are found only on the southern side of the serdab. While this may not be very revealing in the first three cases, each of which is found fewer than five times in total, Hnni.t km is found 24 times, and its absence from the north of the serdab is striking. It should be pointed out, as Kanawati’’ has stated, that the km sign in these inscriptions can easily ‘be mistaken for a chipped part of stone or a splash of paint.’ This could explain the anomalous northern km. However, in any case, this single irregularity does not materially affect the overwhelming statistical majority. Conversely, it will be noticed that names lacking the km element have an equivalent preponderance on the northern side of the break. 114 are recorded, just 20 of which are on the southern side. One name, Hni.t, is found only in the north of the serdab, though, as before, this is perhaps not of great interest—a name found only once has to be either north or south of the break, and whichever it is cannot be considered statistically significant.
Research paper thumbnail of A New Join to the Hurro Akkadian Version of the Weidner God List from Emar (Msk 74.108a + Msk 74.158k)
Altorientalische Forschungen, 2017
The present article offers an edition, copy and photographs of a newly identified join to the Hur... moreThe present article offers an edition, copy and photographs of a newly identified join to the Hurro-Akkadian bilingual tablet of the so-called Weidner god list from Emar. The new fragment adds substantially to our knowledge of the Hurrian translation of the list and fills in some small gaps in the Akkadian portion. It also offers valuable evidence concerning the identities of three relatively little known deities: Ištarān, who is equated in the text with Kumarbi, Erragal who is equated with Tarḫunta, and INANNA-g a l g a.s ù, a wife of the god Amurru.
Fig. 1a—b: Obverse. Copy: E. Zomer, except Msk 74.180b (Salvini 2015: 144). Photo: Msk 74.158k Obv.; kindly provided by M. Salvini; digitally enhanced by M. Brouillard.
Tab. 1: Msk 74.108a + Msk 74.158k +’ Msk 74.180b
Obv. 7’ This goddess is one of the hairdressers of Sarpanitum according to An=Anum II 250,” where the correct reading of her name is spelt out fully. MiuSSar is, according to Krebernik, a false reading. The restoration in iib assumes the name was spelt syllabically for the Hurrian audience.
Tab. 2: Inanna-of-X. As can be seen, the only completely consistent element is that the list of Inannas opens with Uruk, though Nin-ugnim ‘Lady of the troops’ and Nin-é-an-na ‘Lady of the Eanna’ precede the Inanna names proper in two copies. The inclusion of related but non-Inanna-X names before the main list is also seen in the Canonical Temple List’ and in a Middle Babylonian list of temples found in the Schgyen collection.“ Unfortunately neither of these offer any reasonable restorations for line 26’. As can be seen, the only completely consistent element is that the list of Inannas opens with Uruk, though
Research paper thumbnail of Alammuš Redux
NABU 2017, 1: 8-13
6) Alammu’ Redux” — In a recent note” the current writer presented evidence dealing with the identity and writing of the god AlammuSs, and suggested a possible chthonic dimension to his character. This suggestion is strongly supported by several instances of the god’s name overlooked in the last paper. The List of Stars and Deities VR, 46, 1°” has been edited four times since the schematic copy was published by Rawlinson and Pinches, most recently by Wee.” Lines 4-7 are of interest to us:” In the first place, it is worth noting that AlammuS and Ningublaga are, as in Mul Apin, neighbours of the underworld gods Lugalgirra and Meslamtaea. More important, however, AlammuS is equated to Palil, a god relatively well attested as a form of Nergal.® Krebernik has argued that this equation is an error based on confusion with the preceding line and that Palil is in fact to be equated with the established underworld god Lugalgirra. He supports this with reference to Surpu 9: 23,” in which the sequence Palil Lugalgirra appears. This is unnecessary, however, as well as unlikely. In the first place, as argued previously, AlammuSs was probably an underworld god in his own right. Second, the sequence in Surpu is part of a larger list: equation is an error based on confusion with the preceding line and that Palil is in fact to be equated with

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