The ancient

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

n incantation series Šurpu begins ''enūma nēpešē ša šur-pu t'' 'epp'''ušu'', “when you perform the rituals for (the series) ‘Burning,’” and was probably compiled in the middle Babylonian period, ca. 1350–1050 BC, from individual incantations of much greater antiquity. It consisted of a long confessional of sins, ritual offences, unwitting breaches of taboos, offences against the moral or social order when the patient was unsure what act of omission he may have committed to offend the gods. Composed in

Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to: * Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire * Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language * Akkadian literature, literature in this language * Akkadian cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabi ...

, its adjurations extend to nine

clay tablet In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a stylu ...

s and, at

Nineveh Nineveh (; akk, ; Biblical Hebrew: '; ar, نَيْنَوَىٰ '; syr, ܢܝܼܢܘܹܐ, Nīnwē) was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. It is located on the eastern ban ...

Assurbanipal Ashurbanipal ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning " Ashur is the creator of the heir") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 669 BCE to his death in 631. He is generally remembered as the last great king of Assyria. Inheriting the throne a ...

's scribes had canonized the series, fixing the sequence and providing a codicil at the bottom of each tablet providing the first line of the following tablet. Elsewhere, such as at

Assur Aššur (; Sumerian: AN.ŠAR2KI, Assyrian cuneiform: ''Aš-šurKI'', "City of God Aššur"; syr, ܐܫܘܪ ''Āšūr''; Old Persian ''Aθur'', fa, آشور: ''Āšūr''; he, אַשּׁוּר, ', ar, اشور), also known as Ashur and Qal'a ...

, the tablet order could vary.

The text

In contrast to the

Maqlû The Maqlû, “burning,” series is an Akkadian incantation text which concerns the performance of a rather lengthy anti-witchcraft, or ''kišpū'', ritual. In its mature form, probably composed in the early first millennium BC, it comprises eight ...

incantation series, which was intended to counteract ''kišpū'', black magic, it is a ritual against a ''māmītu'', or curse, and entailed the burning of dough which had been applied to and wiped (''kuppuru'') over the patient, transferring sins to an object that is burnt, providing relief from, for example, the consequences of adultery, murder, theft, perjury, witchcraft, arrogance against the gods, humans or contamination by accursed people or the objects they had infected. The patient would throw various items such as garlic or onion peel, or red wool, symbolically representing his transgressions, into the fire while an incantation was recited: Apart from these references,

Erica Reiner Erica Reiner (4 August 1924 – 31 December 2005) was an American Assyriologist and author. From 1974, she was editor of the '' Chicago Assyrian Dictionary'', which was published in 21 volumes over 55 years, being completed in 2011 after her ...

observed that “contrary to what we may expect from its title, burning plays a very small roll in the series. With the exception of tablet V-VI, none of the prayers or incantations have anything to do with the magical operation the title suggests” and by tablet VII impure material is disposed of in the wilderness, where desert deities are active. The second tablet provided purification from sins of the mouth such as eating taboo things, evil speech, contempt, lying and so on, and also a long list of offenses for the patient to confess. The reverse continues with an invocation of a list of more than forty gods on behalf of the afflicted. Tablets III and IV are addressed to the patron god of magic,

Marduk Marduk (Cuneiform: dAMAR.UTU; Sumerian: ''amar utu.k'' "calf of the sun; solar calf"; ) was a god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon. When Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of ...

, and the bulk of the remainder include invocations of lists of gods. The ninth tablet sanctified the various instruments and paraphernalia of the ritual using what is referred to as ''Kultmittelbeschwörungen'', incantations conveying purification. “Incantation: Your hands are washed…you are holy; your hands are washed, you are pure.” (IX 88–95)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shurpu Akkadian literature