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The Dream of Kurigalzu and the Tablet of Sins

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Irving L. Finkel
Irving L. Finkel
Affiliation:
The British Museum
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Extract

A rather choice cuneiform fragment from the British Museum forms the subject of the present note, viz. BM 47749 = 81-11-3, 454, here copied as Fig. 1. The composition may be conveniently classed in the “historical-literary” genre, or more specifically, in the “historical epic” genre, although at present no more than one-quarter of the original tablet is available. It is with much pleasure that I dedicate this study to the distinguished sometime Keeper of the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities who is the recipient of this celebratory volume, and who for so many years had the resources of the British Museum tablet collections under his care.

The small group of historical epics discussed by A. K. Grayson includes three Late Babylonian copies of texts from Babylon describing events under second millennium kings, two of which are concerned with Kassite kings; a Kurigalzu (probably Kurigalzu II), and Adad-šuma-uṣur. The present Late Babylonian text, BM 47749, is likewise concerned with one of the kings named Kurigalzu, but differs from the published manuscripts in having one, rather than two, columns per side.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 33 , December 1983 , pp. 75 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1983

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References

1 The terminology is that of Grayson, A. K., Babylonian Historical-Literary Texts = Toronto Semitic Texts and Studies 3 (University of Toronto, 1975)Google Scholar.

2 Op. cit. 42–6.

3 Tablets in the 81-11-3 collection which do have a provenance recorded are said to come from Babylon, Birs Nimrud (Borsippa) and Dailem (Dilbat), the greater proportion being from Babylon.

4 See Brinkman, J. A., Materials and Studies for Kassite History Vol. 1 (University of Chicago, 1976) 205 ffGoogle Scholar. The name Kurigalzu does occur other than royally (see ibid. 245 (Q.5.7.) and refs.), but incubation dreams are mostly limited to royal personages (see Oppenheim, A. L., The Interpretation of Dreams in the Ancient Near East = Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 46/3 (Philadelphia, 1956Google Scholar) (henceforth Dream-book), and given the presence of courtiers there is no reason to suppose that this Kurigalzu was not a king.

5 Accounts of the incubation rite are still something of a rarity, and the present passage complements nicely many of Oppenheim's observations in his Dream-book. Note that the zaqīqū here (for the difficulties with this term see Dream-book 232) come to Kurigalzu while he is still awake, apparently to dispel his anxiety, and correspond to the zaqīqu in Craig, J. A., Assyrian and Babylonian Religious Texts = Assyriologische Bibliothek 13 (Leipzig, 1895) 1Google Scholar no. 5 23, which comes from Nabû to Assurbanipal before he falls asleep and makes him relax (cf. Dream-book 235). According to Oppenheim, Mesopotamian dreams characteristically will not concern themselves with people who are still living (cf. Dream-book 198), but there are hardly sufficient passages to allow certainty on this point, and in the present context it seems very probable that Nabû is addressing Bēl in line 12′, and that they are discussing Qatantu's behaviour as described in line 11′. The king's turning for an interpretation to his courtiers rather than to professional interpreters as might be expected can be paralleled from Egyptian sources; see Dream-book 207.

6 A study devoted to the topos of barrenness in cuneiform texts by the author is in preparation, and is to appear in Archiv für Orientforschung under the title “The Crescent Fertile II.” On the question of personal prayer in these passages see Saggs, H. W. F., The Encounter with the Divine in Mesopotamia and Israel (London, 1978) 173Google Scholar.

7 See Schrader, E., Die Keilinschriften und das alte Testament (3rd edition, Berlin, 1903) 402Google Scholar; Schrank, W., Babylonische Sühnriten = Leipziger semitische Studien III/1 (Leipzig, 1908) 46–7Google Scholar, and particularly Widengren, G., The Akkadian and Hebrew Psalms of Lamentation as Religious Documents: A Comparative Study (Stockholm, 1937) 151–5Google Scholar.

8 See Lambert, W. G., “The Reign of Nebuchadnezzar I: A Turning Point in the History of Ancient Mesopotamian Religion” in McCullough, W. S. (ed.), The Seed of Wisdom: Essays in Honor of T. J. Meek (Toronto, 1964) 3–13Google Scholar.