ancienttextmoderntablet

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Omens from Assurbanipal's library arising from the different shapes of spilled water (credit British Museum and CDLI). My wife can confirm I am frequently a good source of such omens!

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My rendition of a passage from Enlil A or Enlilsurashe, where a memorable description is made of the chief god Enlil’s unparalleled and stupefying intellect in a manner reminiscent of the Gordian knot, as a tangle of threads that cannot be unravelled. This is a fun passage to write because it has a few so called “itguru” signs, which are two of the same sign crossed with each other, in lines 2 and 3 (GUxGU = suh3, GIxGI = GILIM).

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In the news

Thanks to Nada AlTaher of the National!

https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/2022/03/04/meet-the-iowa-academic-making-mesopotamian-inspired-cuneiform-tablets-at-home/

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What’s in a name?

A handsome manuscript of the Sumerian personal name list Ur-ab-ba, now in the University Museum in Philadelphia. Many of the manuscripts were copied and precociously edited by Edward Chiera, a leading scholar and particularly stalwart copyist from the early days of Assyriology. The text is attested at Old Babylonian Nippur but originates from the preceding third millennium B.C.E. Just finished an edition of this text in the journal Oriens Antiquus. Personal names and especially lists of personal names that are not simply reflexes of contemporary naming practices are simultaneously great fun and maddening to analyze: lots of uncertainty and rabbit holes, with interesting tidbits about the temples and cities of Mesopotamia. 

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Advice from the Instructions of Shuruppak: When you are alone, you shouldn’t travel to where the sun rises (the eastern edge of the world). A very Mesopotamian way of saying “don’t be a hero!" https://www.instagram.com/p/CP3-EOOrkqp/?utm_medium=tumblr

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My rendition of part of the Sumerian "sunset prayer" that Lugalbanda gives to the sun god Utu while stranded in the mountains. It begins:  "A lost dog is bad, a lost man is terrible, a man last on an unknown path, at the edge of the mountain, Utu, is stiill worse!" https://www.instagram.com/p/CPY1FewLNDl/?utm_medium=tumblr

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My rendition of a brief but fascinating early Sumerian literary text from Nippur that describes nine major gods and the role or realm they “occupy”, as well as Gilgamesh, who is said to fill the role of en, an early term for the king at the city of Uruk. https://www.instagram.com/p/COdpdDKLZ8-/?igshid=19v8aermkpamk

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My rendition of a memorable passage of Sumerian erotic poetry where the goddess Inana praises her vagina. https://www.instagram.com/p/CNnrdsqLzU_/?igshid=1r5v018k38q5j

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A Sumerian riddle about linen from the city of Ur: "when I am young, I am a child of the garden, when I am grown, I am (on) the body of a god(s stature as clothing), when I am old, I am the physician of the land (as a bandage)." https://www.instagram.com/p/CNNjAoELsnu/?igshid=j26cs4wk8okt

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Here's a broken omen from Enuma Anu Enlil: if Ereshkigal roars like a lion (or wolf, fox), that site will be abandoned. Yep, if the queen of the netherworld starting howling around where I lived, I'd relocate too! https://www.instagram.com/p/CMucKasL3Us/?igshid=cev9a3466tzz

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My rendition of the front side diagram of the so-called "rules for the Royal Game of Ur." Slanted Late Babylonian signs, even though they spared the scribe the chore of making a lot of incisions at right angles, are tough to pull off. Best wishes for a happy (and much, much better) New Year! https://www.instagram.com/p/CJhMThzrPgM/?igshid=tj8gshu4qpq

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Currently drying: the complaint letter of Ea-Nasir, a proverb about the potency of garlic, and a passage describing the installation of the sun god Utu in his cosmic role by the god Enki. https://www.instagram.com/p/CJE04Vwr1Cj/?igshid=gdfaicjrh08t

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This is my rendition of a letter from the Neo-Assyrian period of one Aššur-reṣiwa to his superior, memorably asking who he doesn't respond to his messages--"why is my master silent while I shake and roam around like a dog?" https://www.instagram.com/p/CHYX3DwrosO/?igshid=1alh90qrtmt9

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‪“Afraid and joyful (at the same time), like a dog riding a wagon!” A quick rendition of a favorite bilingual proverb in a Neo-Babylonian hand.‬ https://www.instagram.com/p/CEPRgA6nlKT/?igshid=1ts4u1ffa8jjm

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If you spend too much time reading astronomical omens and don't know all the learned writings of observable phenomena, you'd think the tablet was laughing at you (ha-ha-ha)! https://www.instagram.com/p/CCtlSY7HM2d/?igshid=m4nike86kc1w

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"Anyone tasked with writing out a cuneiform text according to its generally quite rigid line structure will eventually run into a line or two that has WAY too much in it to fit." What was this 'rigid line structure'?

Cuneiform texts frequently are organized rigidly line by line, which often corresponds roughly to a single sentence. These tend to say the same from manuscript to manuscript of the same text. Think of it as a convention like  hitting return every time you finish a sentence.

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Anyone tasked with writing out a cuneiform text according to its generally quite rigid line structure will eventually run into a line or two that has WAY too much in it to fit. Continuing on to the next line with an indent is an option, but this costs precious extra space. Experienced ancient scribes were generally wizards of crunching signs into overtaxed spaces, but in a pinch, they could use the sides, even curling the line in various directions if necessary. This copy of planetary omens and Astrolabe B from Assurbanipal's library (image credit British Museum) shows a good example of the practice. Signs written on the side are frequently some of the poorest written signs on a tablet, because of the awkward incision angles involved. https://www.instagram.com/p/CAQs98annqZ/?igshid=xz9i0m4zkveq