A Cassite Liver-Omen Text

Abstract

THE TABLET here published (University of Penn. Mus. No. 13517), dated in the twenty-first year of Burnaburiash II, the Cassite contemporary of Akhenaten and Smenkhkara, is both interesting and important, as its contents offer additional material for the subject of Babylonian hepatoscopy. Of published material of this class of texts it is preceded by three earlier texts, two of which belong to the First Dynasty, the third being dated in the eleventh year of the same king Burnaburiash'. These four early liver inspection texts are alike in style and exhibit at the end of each division the number of tirinu, a point in which they differ completely from all the Assyrian liver texts of the Ashurbanapal library. This word has been generally understood to imply the sum-total of the marks or signs observed, and therefore was translated simpliciter by 'mark' or 'sign', although only in one case, i. e. in Clay, BE 14. 4: 10 does the number of observations agree with the tiranu mentioned (12 observ.-12 titrdnu). In the present tablet the number of the tiranu nowhere corresponds to the numbers in the report. In six cases the number of the tirinu falls below the number of the observations (i. e., ? 2:12t-16o; ? 3:12t-16o; ? 5:12t 16o; ? 6:10t-14o; ? 7:12t-19o; ? 8:12t --14o). In Division 4 the number of tiranu is omitted, while the report gives 16 observations. Divisions 9 and 10 have a larger number of tirdnu than the report contains (i. e., ? 9: 14 t-12 o; ? 10: 12 t-11 o). As in most cases the number of the observation in the report exceeds the number of tirdnu2, we may not suppose that the barui-priest gave only a synopsis of the actual observations