Bīt mēseri, inscribed ''bit me-se-ri''^meš and meaning “House of Confinement” or “Detention,” is an ancient

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

n ritual incantation text complete on four

cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

tablets for the protection of the house against invading evil. The earliest extant copies are neo-

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

n, from the

library of Ashurbanipal The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, named after Ashurbanipal, the last great king of the Assyrian Empire, is a collection of more than 30,000 clay tablets and fragments containing texts of all kinds from the 7th century BCE, including texts in ...

, where, according to its ritual tablet, it was to be conducted regularly in the months of ''Tašrītu'' and ''Araḫsamna'', but there is also a late

Babylonia Babylonia (; , ) was an Ancient history, ancient Akkadian language, Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as a ...

n (4th or 3rd century BC) rescension recovered from the house of a priest in

Uruk Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilo ...

and copied by Anu-ikṣur, ''kalû'', or incantation priest, son of Šamaš-iddin, descendant of Šangû-Ninurta. It is one of the works cited in the '' Exorcists Manual'' as forming part of the curriculum of the '' āšipu'', or exorcist.

The text

In contrast to the incantation '' šēp lemutti ina bīt amēli parāsu'', “to block the foot of evil into a man’s house,” which provides the ritual to be performed to protect a house from demonic attack, ''bīt mēseri'' prescribes the activities to be performed when someone has already become ill, which was assumed to be under demonic assault. The first tablet is extant in fragmentary form and probably included the incipits to the incantations on the other three tablets. Offerings are made to Ea,

Šamaš Shamash (Akkadian language, Akkadian: ''šamaš''), also known as Utu (Sumerian language, Sumerian: dutu "Sun") was the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian Solar deity, sun god. He was believed to see everything that happened in t ...

and

Marduk Marduk (; cuneiform: Dingir, ᵈAMAR.UTU; Sumerian language, Sumerian: "calf of the sun; solar calf"; ) is a god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of Babylon who eventually rose to prominence in the 1st millennium BC. In B ...

and there is a purification of “all the statues of wood and

lay Lay or LAY may refer to: Places *Lay Range, a subrange of mountains in British Columbia, Canada * Lay, Loire, a French commune *Lay (river), France * Lay, Iran, a village * Lay, Kansas, United States, an unincorporated community * Lay Dam, Alaba ...

that you have made.” The second tablet includes an instruction for the ''āšipu'' conducting the ritual – to impersonate the god Marduk: ''šiptu šipat Marduk āšipu ṣalam Marduk'', "The incantation is the incantation of Marduk, the ''āšipu'' is the very image of Marduk."''āšipu'' CAD š II, p. 431. It describes the events (deaths, confusion and unhappiness) which have befallen the house and led to the selection of this ritual and then provides a lengthy list of figures and incantations. The text describes in detail how figurines should be formed and paintings drawn of the ''

apkallu Apkallu or and Abgal (; Akkadian and Sumerian, respectively) are terms found in cuneiform inscriptions that in general mean either "wise" or "sage". In several contexts the ''Apkallu'' are seven demigods, sometimes described as part man an ...

s'', "sages," and the invocation to make them incarnate. They are arranged in the sick person’s room, close to his bed: It concludes with a lengthy prayer to the god

Nusku Nuska or Nusku, possibly also known as Našuḫ, was a Mesopotamian god best attested as the sukkal (divine vizier) of Enlil. He was also associated with fire and light, and could be invoked as a protective deity against various demons, such as L ...

, who is entreated to "expel the Demon, overcome Evil, and Šulak, the nightly wanderer, whose touch is death." The third tablet of the series is perhaps why the incantation series is considered significant as it includes the earliest extant list of the ''apkallus''. These come in three forms – ūmu-, fish- and bird-''apkallus'', where the former may mean light and/or day and seem to be of human descent. In contrast to the other extant lists, there are eleven of these primordial beings, in two distinct groups, seven antediluvian and four postdiluvian: At the end of the third tablet, the statues are discarded in the river and the drawings erased from the walls. The fourth tablet is fragmentary.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bit meseri Akkadian literature Clay tablets