The last wedge

Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie und Vorderasiastische Archaeologie

Volumn 87, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 43-95

  Geller, M J ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0141617204     PISSN: 00845299     EISSN: 16131150     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1515/zava.1997.87.1.43     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (103)

1. The title of this paper was the title of my inaugural lecture, given at University College, London on 1 December, 1994, in which the implications of the survival of cuneiform script were first presented. The edition of the Graeco-Babyloniaca texts offered here grew out of a previous article on the Graeco-Babyloniaca tablet from the Harvard Semitic Museum, in ZA 73 (1983) 114-120. I would like to thank Dr. I. Finkel, who discovered all of the new pieces of Graeco-Babyloniaca in the Babylon Collection of the British Museum, which are published here with the permission of the Trustees of the British Museum. I would also like to thank Dr. W. Cockle and Prof. H. Maehler for their advice on Greek paleography, and Professors J. Oelsner and A. Westenholz for critical advice. Much of the work presented here was carried out at the Fondation Hardt (Geneva) and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (Wassenaar)
2. See P. Brown, The World of Late Antiquity, from Marcus Aurelius to Muhammad (1978) 19-21, for a brief survey of the transitions from one epoch to the next
3. The opposite occurred in modern Turkish, in which Latin script was adopted for the contemporary language
4. There are cases from Syria of Aramaic being written on clay tablets, consciously borrowing the writing medium of cuneiform, and even translating the legal terminology. Cf. J. Starcky, Une tablette araméene, Syria 37 (1960) 99-115
5. An unpublished Aramaic tablet from a private collection containing Neo-Assyrian legal formulaé translated into Aramaic will be published by T. Kwasman. Further finds of archives of Aramaic tablets from the seventh cent. BC have been recently reported from Tell Ahmar in Northern Syria (Le Monde, 21-2-1996, p. 22)
6. The so-called Uruk incantation, TCL 6, 58, edited by C. H. Gordon, AfO 12 (1938) 105-117, and Or. 9 (1940) 29-38
7. B. Landsberger, AfO 12, 247-257
8. A. Dupont-Sommer, RA 39 (1942/44) 36-62
9. Cf. The recent article of R. Steiner, Papyrus Amherst 63: a New Source for the Language, Literature, Religion, and History of the Arameans, in: (ed. M. J. Geller et al.) Studia Aramaica (1995; = JSS Supplement 4) 199-207
10. The Graeco-Babyloniaca texts have been (re-)edited below
11. J. Oelsner, Materialien zur babylonischen Gesellschaft und Kultur in hellenistischer Zeit (1986) 192. No specific paléographic studies of the cuneiform script of late texts have been attempted. J. Black will soon be publishing a copy and text edition of an unusual tablet found in a Hellenistic context in Tell Fisna, the only late cuneiform tablet to be discovered in Northern Mesopotamia, although in unreadable cuneiform script, perhaps indicating an extremely late form of the script; the text will appear in Fs. H. Fujii, AI-Räfidän 17, forthcoming (courtesy J. A. Black)
12. Cf. Hunger, BAK no. 141 (163 BC), 144 (91 BC), 149 (154 BC), 174 (155 BC); for the dates, cf. Oelsner, Materialien (as fn. 8) 269 ff. Although the texts themselves may have been copied, there is no doubt that the colophons were being composed by contemporary scribes, who could still master cuneiform script in the traditional manner
13. Oelsner (as fn. 8) 162-191, provides an extensive survey of Hellenistic literary texts, although without isolating the latest dated texts (according to their colophons) in this group
14. I. L. Finkel recently studied a group of incantation tablets from the British Museum Babylon Collection of Utukku, Di'u, and related compositions, as well as Marduk's Address to the Demons, all reasonably well-copied tablets from the scribe, one Tanittu-Bêl, and all dating from Alexander the fourth. Cf. Finkel, Fs. M. Civil: AulOr. 9 (1991)91-104
15. E. Sollberger, Iraq 24 (1962) 63, and Oelsner (as fn. 8) 240, and now E. E. Knudsen, On Akkadian Texts in Greek Orthography, in: Fs. F. Lokkegaard (1990) 150, who dates the Graeco-Babyloniaca texts between the second cent. BC and first cent. AD, although without basing his conclusions on new paleographic studies. Knudsen showed Pinches' copies, published by Sollberger in Iraq 24, 64, to papyrologist L. Amundsen, who concluded that the Graeco-Babyloniaca texts dated to the "Roman Empire and preferably from its early period", demonstrating "no resemblance to Ptolemaic writing" (ibid., 149). These conclusions will be re-examined below
16. See A. Sachs, The latest datable cuneiform tablets, Fs. S. N. Kramer (= AOAT 25, 1976) 379-398
17. The tablets usually turn side-to-side (like a book) rather than end-over-end, as is usual with a cuneiform tablet, since the Greek is not a continuation of the cuneiform text but represents a repetition of the same text. Only one text edited below (BM 48863, text no. 6) is an exception to this rule. The usual format of cuneiform on one side and Greek on the other side is not true for the Ashmolean tablet, which was published by J. Black and S. Sherwin-White, and a decipherment offered by St. Maul (ZA 81 [1991] 87-107; see text no. 17 below)
18. Cf., for example, the loss of case endings in Akkadian, which is reflected in the Graeco-Babyloniaca texts, as noted by Knudsen (as fn. 12) 161
19. E. A. Speiser, JQR 33 (1926) 233-265. Speiser's examples are instructive, taken from Origen's Hexapla: t and t are carefully distinguished in such words as 30.1) and (32.10); σ = s, s, and š: (31.21); (31.22); (1.1); κ = q: (18.27); = k: (35.17)
20. According to Sollberger, they were "obviously school texts written by some Greek student, or students", Iraq 24, 63
21. Babylonians knowing Greek was favoured by Black and Sherwin-White in Iraq 46 (1984) 139, and favoured by Knudsen (as fn. 12) 150
22. BM 41548, published Leichty, TCS 4, 201, is written in a late script
23. meš] can be restored on p. 230: 15′ (133 BC)
24. The colophon itself served as the exercise to be copied, as a complete tablet rather than as an appendix of another text, as can be seen from text no. 15 below
25. ACT p. 22 and 23; Hunger, no. 170 and 171; Hunger, RIA 5 (1976-80) 589
26. ACT p. 23, see Hunger, BAK no. 179. Strabo's probably represents the LB personal Suma-iddina. O. Neugebauer, ACT 116, recognized that these Babylonian astronomers mentioned by name in colophons of astronomical tablets were known to the Greeks, but the appearance of Nabu-rimanni's name in a Graeco-Babyloniaca colophon further reinforces the proposition that Graeco-Babyloniaca tablets continued the school traditions into a later date
27. I. L. Finkel, Gs. A. Sachs (1988) 143-159, in which a colophon ascribes several series of omens to an. earlier famous redactor, Esagil-kīn-apli, who also features in the Exorcist's Manual, KAR 44
28. I am indebted to W. Cockle for this translation of the Greek. Cockle's translation of the Scholion about Iamblichus in Photius Bibliotheca § 75 b, is as follows: "This man Iamblichus was Syrian by origin on his father's and mother's side. He was a Syrian, not of the Greeks who settled in Syria [i. e. Seleucid settlers after Alexander the Great], but one of the natives He knew the Syriac language and lived according to the customs of the Syrians until a tutor taught him the Babylonian language and customs and history. One of these accounts is, he says, as follows and this he now relates: "The Babylonian was made prisoner of war at the time when Trajan attacked Babylon [115-116 AD] and was sold to a Syrian by those who sold off the booty. This man was wise in the wisdom of the Barbarians because he continued to be one of the king's scribes in his native land." This man Iamblichus knew Syriac as his native tongue In addition he learned Babylonian later and Greek with assiduity and practise so that he became a good rhetorician."
29. See F. Millar, The Roman Near East, 31 BC-AD 337 (1993) 491, who quotes this scholiast referring to Iamblichus. Millar, however, discounts the historicity of the scholiast, since the novel itself ascribed to Iamblichus is typically Greek rather than Babylonian, as the novel itself claims to be
30. See A. Momigliano, Alien Wisdom (1975) 7 ff
31. Cf. Diod. Sic. ii 9,9, that Babylon had been almost totally destroyed in his day. See also Joan Oates, Babylon (1986) 142-143. Oates assumes that Babylon had been abandoned by 75 AD, but based on the rather flimsy evidence of a Palmyrene merchant colony established at Babylon in 24 AD. The fact that this colony is reported to have relocated to another site fifty years later is taken by Oates to signal the end of the occupation of Babylon. This conclusion contradicts other evidence which she provides elsewhere (p. 161) that many terracotta figurines in Greek style from the site of the Esagil, as well as "a massive columned building and a nearby stoa" were found. See also p. 159, that the site of the Esagil was rebuilt in Parthian times
32. Cf. Pausanias viii 33,3, claiming that in Babylon only the walls and Temple of Bêl were left standing
33. Koldewey, Das wieder erstehende Babylon, ed. B. Hrouda (1990) 290f., and
34. F. Wetzel, Babylon in der Spätzeit, (MDOG 79, 1942) 50-51. Wetzel also refers to a dedicatory inscription for one Democrates son of Byttakos, dated to c. 150 AD on paleographic grounds. Finally, Wetzel (p. 74) cites Quintus Curtius Rufus' History of Alexander, V 1, 22, who, according to Wetzel, "kennt noch die verschiedenen Grade der babylonischen Priesterschaften, entsprechend der Einteilung in den keilschriftlichen Texten". Although this assessment of Rufus is exaggerated, Rufus' statement might be witness to a contemporary priestly procession (second cent. AD): Magi deinde suo more carmen canentes, post hos Chaldaei Babyloniorumque non vates modo, sed etiam artifices cum fidibus sui generis ibant, "Magi then came singing their own manner of chant, and after them the Chaldaeans, and not only the soothsayers (vates) of the Babylonians, but also the artisans (i. e. musicians) with their type of lyres"
35. Wetzel (as fn. 33) 33: "Man darf darum wohl annehmen, dass im 1. und vor allem im 2. Jahrhundert auf dem Hügel Amran eine parthische Wohnstadt gestanden hat, ... Es ist durchaus möglich, dass diese parthische Stadt in Babylon auch in sasani-discher Zeit fortgelebt, ja bis in die arabische Zeit hinein bestanden hat."
36. The question was already raised by F. Cumont, Die orientalischen Religionen im römischen Heidentum (1910) 111 f., who asserts that the powerful Babylonian "Priesterkaste" insured the survival of Babylonian religion and cult throughout the Seleucid and Parthian periods, and even allowed for its spread up the Euphrates into Syria. Cumont based his conclusions on Strabo's references to disputes with the Chaldaeans of Borsippa and Uruk over creation and cosmology (XVI, 1, 6), and Lucian's reference to pilgrims from Babylon (de dea Syria, c. 10)
37. Cf. The brief but important survey of E. Klengel-Brandt, Some remarks on the Terracotta Figurines from Babylon, Sumer 41 (1985) 118-120.
38. L. Hannestad and D. Potts, in: (ed.) P. Bilde et al. Religion and Religious Practice in the Seleucid Kingdom (1990) 107. In Strabo's days (writing in 18-19 AD), Babylonian temples were clearly still active, and he refers specifically to the cult of Nabû at Borsippa (ibid. XVI i 7)
39. Cf. Wetzel (as fn. 33) 29, quoting the inscription of Antiochus I, claiming to have rebuilt the Esagil and Ezida temples in 287 BC. It seems clear that the Seleucid kings extensively rebuilt Babylon
40. Dio xxx, 11, 2 (Loeb ix, p. 457); Millar (as fn. 29) 307
41. From a Babylonian perspective, this behaviour would be considered slightly less eccentric, since a priest having sexual relations with a priestess was not unknown. Cf. CAD N/1, 198, CAD Š/3, 207 (although it is questionable whether one should translate "illicit" intercourse, as in CAD). The parallel between Elagabalus's marriage to a Vestal Virgin and Babylonian sacred marriage rites has been suggested by M. Frey, Untersuchungen zur Religion und zur Politik des Kaisers Elagabal (1989) 47 ff., citing Herodias 5,5,2 and 5,6,3 in which Elagabalus ritually marries the statue of Ourania, the Heaven goddess, to a statue of his sun god, with the idea that people should celebrate the event as "a real marriage of the gods". Frey also cites the author Firmicus Maternus iv. 1, reporting on a 'sacred marriage' among Assyrians and some Africans.
42. For other texts relevant to sacred marriage (at Palmyra), cf. M. Gawlikowsky, Syria 118 (1971) 407, and J. T. Milik, Dedicaces faites par des dieux ... (1972) 154-155. There is no evidence, however, of sacred marriage in Mesopotamia in the first millennium BC
43. Scriptores Historiae Augustae II p. 119 = Elag. vii, 3
44. Frey (as fn. 40) 47, citing Herodias 5, 6, 6
45. F. Thureau-Dangin, Rituels accadiens (1921) 61-154
46. M. Gawlikowsky, Les Dieux de Palmyre, ANRW 18.4, p. 2614
47. cf. H. Seyrig, Syria 15 (1934) 165-73, and plate xx
48. cf. also Annales Archéologiques Arabes Syriennes (Damascus) 26 (1976) 83 ff
49. Cf. also Dura-Europos: the Seventh and Eighth Seasons, 324 f., in which the Necropolis Temple (with a Palmyrene inscription) was deemed to reflect the architectural style of an akïtu temple outside the city walls, dedicated to Bôl(Bēl)
50. Cf. H. J. Drijvers, The Persistence of Pagan Cults and Practices in Christian Syria, in: (ed.) N. Garsoïan, T. Mathews, and R. Thompson, East of Byzantium, Syria and Armenia in the Formative Period (1982) 39
51. Cf. T. Green, The City of the Moon God (1992) 145-159
52. and cf. Şminasi Gündüz, The Knowledge of Life (JSS Supplement 3, 1994) 130 f., in which he also emphasises the complete lack of Christian influences in Harran (as opposed to Edessa), even in the fourth cent
53. G. W. Bowersock, Hellenism in Late Antiquity, (1990) 31 ff
54. See now Joan Westenholz, Nanaya, Lady of Mystery, in: (ed.) I. L. Finkel and M. J. Geller, Th. Jacobsen Memorial Vol. (1997) 57-84
55. Cf. A. Feldtkeller, Synkretismus und Pluralismus am Beispiel von Palmyra, Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte 48 (1996) 20-38, in which Palmyra in the second cent. AD is described as representing cultic pluralism rather than syncretism, hence assuming the preservation of the Mesopotamian Bēl at Palmyra
56. Cf. H. Drijvers, Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt (ANRW) II/8 (1977) 858, and M. Gawlikowsky, ANRW II 18.4, 2645
57. Drijvers, ANRW II/8, 835, which mentions the title of the priest of Hatra as an apkallu; cf. also J. Teixidor, Syria 43 (1966) 91-93. The main temple is also referred to as sgyl, which A. Millard relates to the Esagil temple in Babylon
58. cf. Millard, JSS 21 (1976) 174 ff
59. B. Aggoula, Inscriptions et Graffites araméens d'Assour (1985)
60. The association between the predominance of inscriptions dated and the celebration of the Akītu festival was already noted by P. Jensen in his original discussion of the inscriptions, cf. Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 53 (1919) 1043
61. Mar Samuel was referred to as (Bab. Talmud Baba Metziah 85 b), "Samuel the astronomer (and) physician", which corresponds to the similar overlap in Akkadian professional titles of experts who copy astronomical tablets, known both as astronomers (tupšar emu̧na Ami Enlil) and mašmaššu (incantation) priests; cf. for example, Hunger, BAK, no. 103
62. Samuel used to consult with a colleague in the Bei Avidan (Bab. Talmud Shab 116 a), and twice a colleague named ('Ablat) is mentioned by name; one reference mentions that Samuel and Ablat used to drink wine together in the Bei Avidan (Ab. Zar. 30 a), while the second reference refers to a medical-astronomical incident, in which Ablat and Samuel discuss the medical effects of the sun, in respect to the summer solstice (Shab 129 b). There are two aspects of this story which are significant. 1) The name is an Akkadian name, possibly Ea-uballit (or less likely Anuuballit). The fact that Ablat is a Babylonian scholar with whom Samuel was both colleague and rival is clear from another passage in the same tractate, Shab. 156 a, in which Samuel and Ablat dispute whether astral magic applies to Jews, since Ablat tries to predict the death by snake-bite of a passing person. 2) The story is intended to indicate professional rivalry between the two experts, but is based upon a system of astral-magic which is typically Babylonian; see now E. Reiner, Astral Magic (1996). Samuel's refusal to reveal his information is reminiscent of Akkadian colophons which prohibit revealing esoteric information to the uninitiated, e. g. nişirti apkalli lā mudû lā immar, "a secret of the sage, may the ignorant not
63. see it" (cf. Hunger, BAK no. 303, and A. Livingstone, MMEW [1986] 259 ff.). 3)
64. The Bei Avidan in which some of the dialogues between Ablat and Mar Samuel took place has been discussed by S. Shaked, "A Persian house of study, a king's secretary: Irano-Aramaic notes", Z. Telegdi Memorial Volume (Acta Orientalia Hungarica 48 [1995] 171 ff.) as a Persian word for "temple", which provides the setting we would expect for a discussion between a Rabbi and a Babylonian priest or Magus (reference courtesy S. Shaked)
65. A. D. Nock, Essays on Religion and the Ancient World I (1972) 325
66. Cf. R. Murray, Aramaic and Syriac Dispute-poems and their connections, in (as fn. 6) 157 ff. and on the Mesopotamian background to the dispute-poems, see 158-165. The problem here is that such poems are easily adapted to oral transmission and translation into another language over a long period of time, so that the similarities between Syriac dispute-poems and Sumero-Akkadian prototypes may not in themselves suggest the survival of cuneiform into a late period, but rather a long process of transmission. The opposite case could only be made if a series of Akkadian loanwords would be found in Syriac texts, which so far is not the case
67. This situation, however, does not apply to other types of texts, particularly the technical literature in which Akkadian technical terms have been noted; cf. M. J. Geller, Akkadian medicine in the Babylonian Talmud, in: (ed.) D. Cohn-Sherbok, A Traditional quest (1991) 102-112
68. J. Stamm, Die akk. Namengebung (1939) 164; the doubled of Menippos is probably due to analogy with Philippos
69. Cf. also the name Bēl-īpuš in the Graeco-Babyloniaca colophon-tablet, cf. AfO 5, 11 (see text no. 15 below)
70. P. Kingsley, Meetings with Magi: Iranian themes among the Greeks, from Xanthus of Lydia to Plato's Academy, JRAS, Series 3, 5, 2 (1995) 201 f
71. Lucian, trans. A. M. Harmon, Loeb IV (1961) 86-87
72. Cf. R. Ellis, J. J. Memorial Vol. (1977) 67-76 (and fig. 2 and 3), and F. Wiggermann, RlA 8/3-4 (1994) 242
73. During the Ištar cult festival in Uruk the priests dressed as urmahhu, "lion centaurs"; cf. A. L. Oppenheim, JAOS 63 (1943) 32
74. W. Fauth, WO 12 (1981) 23 f.
75. and in Hittite texts, L. Jakob-Rost, Or. 35 (1966) 417-422
76. Ellis (as fn. 61) 67, and 76 fig. 1, featuring three dancing figures, two of whom are dressed in lion garb, and a third is holding a musical instrument
77. 11ga, "do not look behind you and do not speak with anyone" (BAM 248 iv 37)
78. Cf. also J. Scurlock, Magical Means of Dealing with Ghosts in Ancient Mesopotamia (Ph.d University of Chicago, unpub., 1988), in which she cites purification practices performed after rituals to expel ghosts have been completed which she terms "dissociative actions" (p. 37). One such action includes the patient going straight home without looking behind him (p. 47 f., referring to LKA 87 rev. 20). There is a somewhat similar reference in PGM IV 44: "
79. Then jump into the river. Immerse yourself in the clothes you have on, walk backwards out of the water, and after changing into fresh garments, depart without turning round" (translation H. Martin, apud H. D. Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, (1986) 37. The context of the Papyri Graecae Magicae passage, an obscure initiation rite, is quite different from either Lucian or the Akkadian rituals noted here
80. Annal. XII 22
81. Nock, (as fn. 56) I, 324, where he cites Tacitus' comment that the Magi used sacred rites and necromancy. Cf. Kingsley (as fn. 59) 200, in which Magi were identified at Athens with Chaldaeans
82. As fn. 56, I 312
83. D. Laertus, Prologue Book 1. According to Diog. Laert., the Chaldaeans apply themselves to astronomy and forecasting the future, while the Magi spent their time in worship of gods, in sacrifices and prayers
84. Cf. Kingsley (as fn. 59) 202 f., who points out that already in Plato's time the appellation magus was avoided as a pejorative term, replaced by either "Chaldaean" or "astronomer" (astrologos)
85. Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana Book I, xxxiii (Loeb. edition) p. 91.
86. See Cumont, Religionen (see fn. 35) 172, in which he comments upon the mixture of Persian religion (especially Dualism) with Babylonian magical rites and rituals, and assumed that the Chaldaeans had a profound effect upon the Magi
87. See Kingsley (as fn. 59) 200
88. Diog. Laert. Prologue Book 1
89. Ammian. Marc. xxiii 6: 25; 32; cf. also Quintus Curtius Rufus. As for late traditions regarding Chaldaean magic and divination, the assumption is that pagan wisdom was preserved in the so-called Chaldaean Oracles. For the oracles themselves, cf. Ruth Majercik, The Chaldaean Oracles (1989), which may contain references to practices harking back to Akkadian prototypes
90. Cf. M. G. Morony, Iraq after the Muslim Conquest (1984) 283, that none of the major Magian fire temples existed in Iraq, but only a few are attested from later periods, from Irbil, Madā'in, and Sura. In contrast, the temple of Nabû at Borsippa, and perhaps the temple of Bēl in Babylon remained until the third century AD, but by the fourth century the Nabû cult was practised in secret; cf. ibid., 384 f
91. Of the Mesopotamian names found at Palmyra, one name, Bēlšūri, is also found at Assur (cf. Aggoula [as fn. 52] 63, no. 39)
92. Another person at Palmyra, dating from the second century AD, was called 'sry, rendered in Greek as Asoraiou (genitive), "the Assyrian", cf. D. R. Hillers and E. Cussini, Palmyrene Aramaic Texts (1996) 238, 430
93. Many Nabû-theophoric names have been found in Dura-Europus, cf. Fourth Season (1930-31) 83, 95, 166
94. Fifth Season (1931-32) 317, as well as other names with Nabû, Nanai and Bēl, cf. Sixth Season (1932-33) 413, 510
95. Seventh and Eighth Seasons (1933-34, 1934-35) 439, 445 ff., and Nergal, cf. Third Season (1929-30) 63
96. These tablets are edited below
97. Cf. W. Andrae, Das wiedererstandene Assur (1938) 171. Sassanian levels palaces have been found at both Kish and Ctesiphon, and Sassanian levels at Uruk, but no specific evidence of temples
98. G. Gnoli, The Idea of Iran (1989) 140
99. Gnoli (as fn. 82) 160 f
100. The case for Sassanian oppression has in my view been oversimplified by L. Hannestad and D. Potts (as fn. 37) 107, but cf. also P. Brown (as fn. 2) 20
101. Even in the area of law, the documents from Syria in both Greek and Syriac betray signs of Akkadian influence, as do the Aramaic contracts from Wadi Murabba'āt
102. I am grateful to A. Westenholz for pointing this out (private communication)
103. Westenholz correctly points out that the distinction between proto-Semitic h and h were preserved in Septuagint transliterations from the third century BC but unknown to Origen five centuries later