Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-5jtmz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-29T16:35:12.394Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE ANGRY IŠTAR OF ETURKALAMMA: BM 32482+ AND THE CONSERVATION OF CULTIC TRADITIONS IN THE LATE BABYLONIAN PERIOD

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2019

Rocio Da Riva
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

BM 32482 + is a Late Babylonian tablet with descriptions of rites and ceremonies held in the Eturkalamma temple of Bēlet-Bābili (Ištar of Babylon). The text refers to prayers and recitations to appease the goddess. Cult personnel from her temple (išippu priest) are also mentioned, as is music, a nigûtu performed by a nadītu priestess, a ritual involving a sakkikuddītu, a cultic commentary, omens involving birds, and astrological observations. Despite the fragmentary condition of the tablet, it seems that the performance of the nigûtu was in one way or another related to the preservation of the temple rituals, which would otherwise have been forgotten.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 81 , December 2019 , pp. 87 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Ambos, C. 2007. “Types of Ritual Failure and Mistakes in Ritual in Cuneiform Sources” in Hüsken, U., ed., When Rituals Go Wrong: Mistakes, Failure, and the Dynamics of Rituals. Numen Book Series 115. Leiden: Brill, pp. 25–47.Google Scholar
Ambos, C. 2013. Der König im Gefängnis und das Neujahrsfest im Herbst. Mechanismen der Legitimation des babylonischen Herrschers im 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr. und ihre Geschichte. Dresden: ISLET.Google Scholar
Assante, J. 2003. “From Whores to Hierodules: The Historiographic Invention of Mesopotamian Female Sex Professionals” in Donohue, A.A., and Fullerton, M.D., eds, Ancient Art and Its Historiography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 13–47.Google Scholar
Black, J.A. 1996. “The Imagery of Birds in Sumerian Poetry” in Vogelzang, M.E., and Vanstiphout, H.L.J., eds, Mesopotamian Poetic language: Sumerian and Akkadian. Cuneiform Monograhps 6. Groningen: Styx Publications. pp. 23–46.Google Scholar
Bobrova, L. and Militarev, A.. 1993. “From Mesopotamia to Greece: On the Origin of Semitic and Greek Star Names” in Galter, H.D., ed., Die Rolle der Astronomie in den Kulturen Mesopotamiens. Beiträge zum 3. Grazer Morgenländischen Symposion (23.–27. September 1991). Grazer Morgenländische Studien 3. Graz: Graz Kult, pp. 307–29.Google Scholar
Boiy, T. 2004. Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Babylon. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 136. Leuven: Peeters Publishers.Google Scholar
Budin, S. 2008. The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Çaǧirgan, G. and Lambert, W.G. 1991/1993. “The Late Babylonian Kislīmu Ritual for Esagil”. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 43/45: 89–106.Google Scholar
Charpin, D. 1980. “A propos de l'an 34 de Hammurapi”. Revue d'Assyriologie 74: 93.Google Scholar
Charpin, D. 2017. La vie méconnue des temples mésopotamiens. Paris: Collège de France, Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar
Clancier, Ph. 2009. Les bibliothèques en Babylonie dans la deuxième moitié du 1er millénaire av. J.-C. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 363. Münster: Ugarit Verlag.Google Scholar
Clancier, Ph., and Monerie, J.. 2014. “Les sanctuaires babyloniens à l’époque hellénistique: évolution d'un relais de pouvoir”. TOPOI 19: 181–237.Google Scholar
Cavigneaux, A., and Donbaz, V.. 2007. “Le mythe du 7.VII. Les jours fatidiques et le Kippour mésopotamiens”. Orientalia Nova Series 76: 293–335.Google Scholar
Cohen, M. E. 1988. The Canonical Lamentations of Ancient Mesopotamia. Maryland: Capital Decisions Limited.Google Scholar
Cohen, Y. 2015. “The Wages of a Prostitute: Two Instructions from the Wisdom Composition ‘Hear the Advice’ and an Excursus on Ezekiel 16,331”. Semitica 57: 43–55.Google Scholar
Collins, B.J. 2014/2016. “Vogel (bird). B. Bei den Hethitern”. Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie 14: 580–83.Google Scholar
Cooper, J.S. 2006/2008. “Prostitution”. Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie 11: 12–21.Google Scholar
Cooper, J.S. 2016. “The Job of Sex: The social and economic role of prostitutes in ancient Mesopotamia” in Lion, B. and Michel, C., eds. The Role of Women in Work and Society in the Ancient Near East. Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records 13. Boston/Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 209–27.Google Scholar
Da Riva, R. 2017. “A new attestation of Ḫanigalbat in Late Babylonian sources”. Welt des Orients 47 (2): 259–64.Google Scholar
Da Riva, R. [in preparation]. The Late Babylonian Temple Rituals Texts from Babylon: Structure, Language and Function.Google Scholar
Da Riva, R., and Frahm, E.. 1999/2000. “Šamaš-šumu-ukīn, die Herrin von Ninive und das babylonische Königssiegel”. Archiv für Orientforschung 46/47: 156–82.Google Scholar
Da Riva, R., and Galetti, G.. 2018. “Two Temple Rituals from Babylon”. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 70: 189–227.Google Scholar
Da Riva, R. and Wasserman, N.. [forthcoming]. The Divine Love Lyrics.Google Scholar
De Breucker, G. 2015. “Heroes and Sinners: Babylonian Kings in Cuneiform Historiography of the Persian and Hellenistic Periods” in Silverman, J.M. and Waerzeggers, C. (eds), Political Memory in and after the Persian Empire. Ancient Near East Monographs (Book 13). Atlanta: SBL Press, pp. 75–94.Google Scholar
Durand, J.-M. 1997. “La divination par les oiseaux”. MARI 8. Annales de Recherches Interdisciplinaires. Paris: Éditions Recherche sur les Civilisations, pp. 273–82.Google Scholar
Edzard, D.O. 1987. “Zur Ritualtafel der sog. ‘Love Lyrics’” in Rochberg-Halton, F., ed. Language, Literature, and History. Philological and Historical Studies presented to Erica Reiner. American Oriental Series 67. New Haven: American Oriental Society, pp. 57–69.Google Scholar
Fincke, J. 2013. “Another fragment of the ‘Love Lyrics’ from Babylon (BM 47032)”. Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 2013/76.Google Scholar
Frahm, E., and Jiménez, E.. 2015. “Myth, Ritual, and Interpretation. The Commentary on Enūma eliš I–VII and a Commentary on Elamite, Month Names”. Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 4/3: Interpreting the Interpreters: Hermeneutics in Ancient Israel and Mesopotamia: 293–343.Google Scholar
Freedman, S.M. 1998. If a city is set on a height: the Akkadian omen series Šumma ālu ina mēlê šakin. Occasional Publications of the Samuel Noah Kramer Fund, 17. Philadelphia: The Samuel Noah Kramer Fund, The University of Pennsylvania Museum.Google Scholar
Gabbay, U. 2014. Pacifying the Hearts of the Gods: Sumerian Emesal Prayers of the First Millennium BC. Heidelberger Emesal Studien 1. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Gabbay, U. 2015. The Eršema Prayers of the First Millennium BC. Heidelberger Emesal Studien 2. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Gabbay, U. 2016. The Exegetical Terminology of Akkadian Commentaries. Leiden/Boston: Brill.Google Scholar
George, A.R. 1992. Babylonian Topographical Texts. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 40. Leuven: Peeters.Google Scholar
George, A.R. 1993. House Most High: The Temples of Ancient Mesopotamia. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.Google Scholar
George, A.R. 2000. “Four Temple Rituals from Babylon” in George, A.R., and Finkel, I.L., eds, Wisdom, Gods and Literature. Studies in Assyriology in Honour of W.G. Lambert. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, pp. 259–99.Google Scholar
George, A.R. 2006. “Babylonian Texts from the Folios of Sidney Smith, Part Three: A Commentary on a Ritual of the Month Nisan” in Guinan, A. K., ed. If a man builds a joyful house: Assyriological studies in honor of Erle Verdun Leichty. Leiden/Boston: Brill, pp. 173–85.Google Scholar
Glassner, J.-J. 2004. Mesopotamian Chronicles. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.Google Scholar
Groneberg, B. 1997. Lob der Ištar. Gebet und Ritual an die altbabylonische Venusgöttin. Tanatti Ištar. Cuneiform Monographs 8. Groningen: Styx Publications.Google Scholar
Groneberg, B 1999. “Brust(irtum)-Gesänge” in Böck, B., Cancik-Kirschbaum, E., and Richter, T., eds, Munuscula Mesopotamica: Festschrift für Johannes Renger. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 267. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, pp. 169–95.Google Scholar
Groneberg, B 2007. “Liebes- und Hundebeschwörungen im Kontext” in Roth, M.T., ed., Studies presented to Robert D. Biggs. Assyriological Studies 27. Chicago: Oriental Institute, pp. 91–108.Google Scholar
Heeßel, N. 2011. “‘Sieben Tafeln aus sieben Städten.’ Überlegungen zum Prozess der Serialisierung von Texten in Babylonien in der zweiten Hälfte des zweiten Jahrtausends v. Chr.” In Cancik-Kirschbaum, E., van Ess, M., and Marzahn, J., eds, Babylon. Wissenskultur in Orient und Okzident. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 171–95.Google Scholar
Hibbert, Ph.M. 1984. “Liebeslyrik in der arsakidischen Zeit”. Welt des Orients 15: 93–95.Google Scholar
Horowitz, W. 1998. Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.Google Scholar
Hunger, H. and Pingree, D.. 1999. Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Joannès, F. 1992. Inventaire d'un cabaret. Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 1992/64 and 89.Google Scholar
Jursa, M. 2002. “Florilegium babyloniacum: neue Texte aus hellenistischer und spätachämenidischer Zeit” in Wunsch, C., ed., Mining the Archives. Babylonische Archive 1. Dresden: ISLET, pp. 107–30.Google Scholar
Jursa, M. 2010. Aspects of the Economic History of Babylonia in the First Millennium BC. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 377. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.Google Scholar
Jursa, M. 2014. “Economic Development in Babylonia from the Late 7th to the Late 4th Century BC: Economic Growth and Economic Crises in Imperial Contexts” in Baker, H. D., and Jursa, M., eds. Documentary Sources in Ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman Economic History: Methodology and Practice. Oxford: Oxbow. pp. 113–38.Google Scholar
Jursa, M. and Debourse, C. 2017. “A Babylonian Priestly Martyr, a King-like Priest, and the Nature of Late Babylonian Priestly Literature”. Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 107: 77–98.Google Scholar
Krul, J. 2018. The Revival of the Anu Cult and the Nocturnal Fire Ceremony at Late Babylonian Uruk. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 95. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Lambert, W.G. 1959. “Divine Love Lyrics from Babylon”. Journal of Semitic Studies 4: 1–15.Google Scholar
Lambert, W.G. 1975. “The Problem of the Love Lyrics” in Goedicke, H. and Roberts, J.J.M., eds, Unity and Diversity: essays in the history, literature, and religion of the ancient Near East. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 98–135.Google Scholar
Lambert, W.G. 1992. “Prostitution” in Haas, V., ed., Außenseiter und Randgruppen: Beiträge zu einer Sozialgeschichte des Alten Orients. XENIA 32. Konstanz: Universitätsverlag, pp. 127–61.Google Scholar
Linssen, M.J.H. 2004. The Cults of Uruk and Babylon: The Temple Ritual Texts as Evidence for Hellenistic Cult Practice. Cuneiform Monographs 25. Leiden and Boston: Brill and Styx Publications.Google Scholar
Livingstone, A. 2000. “On the Organized Release of Doves to Secure Compliance of a Higher Authority” in George, A.R., and Finkel, I. L., eds. Wisdom, Gods and Literature. Studies in Assyriology in Honour of W.G. Lambert. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, pp. 375–87.Google Scholar
Maul, S.M. 1992. “kurgarrû und assinnu und ihr Stand in der babylonischen Gesellschaft” in Haas, V.. ed., Außenseiter und Randgruppen: Beiträge zu einer Sozialgeschichte des Alten Orients. XENIA 32. Konstanz: Universitätsverlag. pp. 159–71.Google Scholar
Maul, S.M. 1994. Zukunftsbewältigung. Eine Untersuchung altorientalischen Denkens anhand der babylonischassyrischen Löserituale (Namburbi). Baghdader Forschungen 18. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.Google Scholar
Maul, S.M. 2003/2005. “Omina und Orakel. A. In Mesopotamien”. Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie 10: 69–88.Google Scholar
McEwan, G.J.P 1981. “Arsacid Temple Records”. Iraq 43: 131–43.Google Scholar
Mirelman, S. 2014. “The Ala-Instrument: Its Identification and Role” in Goodnick Westenholz, J., Maurey, Y., and Seroussi, E., eds. Music in Antiquity: The Near East and the Mediterranean. Yuval 8. Berlin/Boston and Jerusalem: Walter de Gruyter GmbH and Hebrew University Magnes Press, pp. 148–71.Google Scholar
Monerie, J. 2018. L’économie de la Babylonie à l’époque hellénistique (IVème – IIème siècle avant J.C.). Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records 14. Boston/Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Nielsen, J.P. 2011. Sons and Descendants. A Social History of Kin Groups and Family Names in the Early Neo-Babylonian Period, 747–626 B.C. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Nissinen, M. 2001. “Akkadian Rituals and Poetry of Divine Love” in Whiting, R.M., ed. Mythology and Mythologies. Methodological Approaches to Intercultural Influences. Melammu Symposia 2. Helsinki: The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, pp. 93–136.Google Scholar
Osten-Sacken, E. von der. 2009/2011. “Schwalbe”. Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie 12: 316–17.Google Scholar
Oshima, T. 2014. Babylonian Poems of Righteous Sufferers: Ludlul Bēl Nēmeqi and the Babylonian Theodicy. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.Google Scholar
Panayotov, S.V. 2013. “A Ritual for a Flourishing Bordello”. Bibliotheca Orientalis 70: 285–309.Google Scholar
Peled, I. 2016. Masculinities and Third Gender: The Origins and Nature of an Institutionalized Gender Otherness in the Ancient Near East. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 435. Münster: Ugarit Verlag.Google Scholar
Ragen, A. 2006. The Shirku of Babylonia. A Study of Ancient Near Eastern “Temple Slavery”. Unpublished PhD thesis. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Reiner, E. 1995. Astral Magic in Babylonia. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, 85/4. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.Google Scholar
Reiner, E. and Pingree, D. 1985. Babylonian Planetary Omens. Part Two. Enūma Anu Enlil Tablets 50–51. Malibu: Undena Publications.Google Scholar
Rochberg, F. 2004. The Heavenly Writing: Divination, Horoscopy, and Astronomy in Mesopotamian Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rochberg, F. 2010. In the Path of the Moon. Babylonian Celestial Divination and Its Legacy. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Rubio, G. 2009. “Sumerian Literature” in Ehrlich, C. S., ed. From an Antique Land: An Introduction to Ancient Near Eastern Literature. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield. pp. 11–75.Google Scholar
Sachs, A. and Hunger, H.. 1988. Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia, vol. I: Diaries from 652 BC to 262 BC. Vienna: Verlag der österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften.Google Scholar
Sachs, A. and Hunger, H.. 1989. Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia, vol. II: Diaries from 261 BC to 165 BC. Vienna: Verlag der österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften.Google Scholar
Sachs, A. and Hunger, H.. 1996. Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia, vol. III: Diaries from 164 BC to 61 BC. Vienna: Verlag der österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften.Google Scholar
Sallaberger, W. and Huber Vulliet, E.. 2003/2005. “Priester. A. 1. Mesopotamien”. Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie 10: 617–40.Google Scholar
Shehata, D. 2009. Musiker und ihr vokales Repertoire. Untersuchungen zu Inhalt und Organisation von Musikerberufen und Liedgattungen in altbabylonischer Zeit. Göttinger Beiträge zum Alten Orient 3. Göttingen: Universitätsverlag.Google Scholar
Shehata, D. 2017. “Eine mannshohe Leier im altbabylonischen Ištar-Ritual aus Mari (FM 3, no. 2)”. Altorientalische Forschungen 44(1): 68–81.Google Scholar
Strassler, R. 2007. The Landmark Herodotus. New York: Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Streck, M.P. and Wasserman, N.. [forthcoming]. “The Man is Like a Woman, the Maiden is a Young Man: A new edition of Ištar-Louvre”. Orientalia.Google Scholar
Tolini, G. 2013. “The Economic Activities of Isḫunnatu, a Slave Woman of the Egibi Family”. Carnet de REFEMA. refema.hypotheses.org/766Google Scholar
Trümpelmann, L. 1981. “Eine Kneipe in Susa”. Iranica Antiqua 16: 35–44.Google Scholar
Van der Spek, R.J. 2014. “The Volatility of Prices of Barley and Dates in Babylon in the Third and Second Centuries BC” in Baker, H.D. and Jursa, M., eds. Documentary Sources in Ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman Economic History: Methodology and Practice. Oxford: Oxbow, pp. 234–59.Google Scholar
Veldhuis, N. 2004. Religion, literature, and scholarship: the Sumerian composition Nanse and the Birds. Cuneiform Monographs 22. Leiden and Boston: Brill and Styx Publications.Google Scholar
Volk, K. 1989. Die Balaḡ-Komposition úru àm-ma-ir-ra-bi. Rekonstruktion und Bearbeitung der Tafeln 18 (19ff.) 19, 20 und 21 der späten, kanonischen Version. Freiburger Altorientalische Studien 18. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden Gmbh.Google Scholar
Waerzeggers, C. 2010. The Ezida Temple of Borsippa. Priesthood, Cult, Archives. Achaemenid History 15. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten.Google Scholar
Waerzeggers, C. 2011. “The Pious King: Royal Patronage of Temples” in Radner, K. and Robson, E., eds. The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 725–51.Google Scholar
Waerzeggers, C. 2015. “Facts, Propaganda or History? Shaping Political Memory in the Nabonidus Chronicle” in Silverman, J. M. and Waerzeggers, C., eds, Political Memory in and after the Persian Empire. Ancient Near East Monographs (Book 13). Atlanta: SBL Press. pp. 95–124.Google Scholar
Wasserman, N. 2016. Akkadian Love Literature of the Third and Second Millennium BCE. Leipziger Altorientalistische Studien 4. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar