Annotation
Aims: The aim of this advanced course is to give an overview of the Old Babylonian Omen-Texts. The lessons are going to be devoted to the translation of different Old Babylonian unpublished omina, and also ikribu prayers to the gods involved in the divinatory practice. At the end of the course, the students should be able not only to understand what divinations is, how it works, which specialized categories are connected to this particular practice, its inner structure and the purpose of the oracular investigation, but also translate the omen on their own and analyze verbal and syntactical elements in the texts.
The omina that are going to be taken into consideration in this course are mainly connected to the specialized branch of extispicy, that is the art of reading divine messages in the exta of sacrificial animals, especially the liver and the lungs.
Bibliography:
Biggs, R. D., Qutnu, maṣraḫıu and Related Terms in Babylonian Extispicy: RA 63 (1969, ersch. 1970) 159-167.
Frahm, Eckart, Reading the Tablet, the Exta, and the Body: The Hermeneutics of Cuneiform Signs in Babylonian and Assyrian Text Commentaries and Divinatory Texts: Annus, A. (Hg.), Divination and Interpretation of Signs in the Ancient World (OIS 6. 2010) [69:39] 93-141.
Guinan, Ann K., Left/Right Symbolism in Mesopotamian Divination: SAAB X/1 (1996) 5-10.
Heeßel, Nils P., Diagnosis, Divination and Disease: Towards an Understanding of the rationale behind the Babylonian Diagnostic Handbook: Horstmanshoff, H.F.J. - Stol, M. (Hg.), Magic and Rationality in Ancient Near Eastern and Graeco-Roman Medicine (Studies in Ancient Medicine 27. 2004) [63:501] 97-116.
Koch, Ulla Susanne, Sheep and Sky: Systems of Divinatory Interpretation: Radner, K. - Robson, E. (Hg.), The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture (2011) [70:963] 447-469.
Rochberg, Francesca, “If P, then Q”: Form and Reasoning in Babylonian Divination: Annus, A. (Hg.), Divination and Interpretation of Signs in the Ancient World (OIS 6. 2010) [69:39] 19-27.
Rochberg, Francesca, Observing and Describing the World Through Divination and Astronomy: Radner, K. - Robson, E. (Hg.), The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture (2011) [70:963] 618-636.
Rutz, Matthew T., The Archaeology of Mesopotamian Extispicy: Modelling Divination in the Old Babylonian Period: Rutz, M.T. - Kersel, M.M. (Hg.), Archaeologies of Text. Archaeology, Technology, and Ethics (Joukowsky Institute Publication 6. 2014) [74:1071] 97-120.
Steinkeller, Piotr, Of Stars and Men: The Conceptual and Mythological Setup of Babylonian Extispicy: Gianto, Agustinus (Hg.), Biblical and Oriental Essays in Memory of William L. Moran (Biblica et Orientalia 48. 2005) [64:760] 11-47.