Namerimburrudû or “curse-breaking” incantations, inscribed KA-INIM-MA NAM-ÉRIM-BÚR-RU-DA-KAM, are 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 spells composed to avert the effects of

oath Traditionally an oath (from Anglo-Saxon ', also called plight) is either a statement of fact or a promise taken by a sacrality as a sign of verity. A common legal substitute for those who conscientiously object to making sacred oaths is to ...

-breaking, namely the curses which result from them. The genre is listed on the Exorcists Manual with the gloss: 'māmītu''''ana pašāri'', “to dissolve a curse.”''māmītu'' CAD m 1, p. 194. Probably a genre on single

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 rather than a defined series, exemplars have been found in 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 BC, including texts in vari ...

and late

Babylonia Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c. ...

n Sippar.

The incantation

In many respects, ''Namerimburrudû'' incantations share characteristics with both the

Šurpu The ancient Mesopotamian incantation series Šurpu begins ''enūma nēpešē ša šur-pu t'' 'eppušu'', “when you perform the rituals for (the series) ‘Burning,’” and was probably compiled in the middle Babylonian period, ca. 1350–1050 ...

series and Lipšur litanies. The incantations endeavor to determine whether the subject has intentionally or otherwise sworn falsely and brought upon himself the wrath of his personal god. However, in contrast, the invocation of inanimate objects, such as various boats, road travel, sunrise and sunset, entry and exit of city gates, the street, oven or bellows, may merely be related to their misuse in the delivery of oaths. The accompanying ritual entails the use of figurines of the demons Silakkum and Barīrītum to carry away the subjects sins: ''lû paṭrā lû passā'', “may it be released, may it be wiped out.” Various deities, natural forces (the four winds,

Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...

, Diyala and Zab rivers) and ritual objects (plants, woods, reeds, altars and vessels) are employed to neutralize the curse. There is a litany of sins the gods are asked to forgive, and finally a ritual is described where flour and dates are scattered, beer is poured, and sulfur burned.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Namerimburrudu Akkadian literature Incantation Sippar