Edition literarischer Keilschrifttexte aus Assur

Introduction

41

It is known from a Neo-Assyrian text from Assur that the 7th
day of the month was the day of dispelling.238 It is hence very
much possible that the performance of procedures for dispelling
a ban was also observed on such a day.239 This notwithstanding.
texts evidencing this remain presently elusive.
Certainly, some of the medicines against severe physical
Symptoms of the ban ailment were deemed “a secret reserved
for kingship”240 and doubtless the healers of Assur enjoyed a
particularly close relationship with those members of the royal
house sojouming in Assur and the influential families of the city.
Yet. not in the least due to the danger of contagion ascribed to
the ban illness. it seems extremely likely that the procedure for
dispelling a ban was directed towards the general populace alike.
Nevertheless. any männer of report upon this is presently lacking
within the textual record.
Within the environment of the Late Assyrian kings. the
procedure for dispelling a ban was not only employed when it was
believed that the ban had “seized” an individual; in all likelihood.
it was also performed prophylactically. One ritual calendar
namely earmarks one particular day of the year for the regulär
conducting of the procedure entitled nam-erim-bür-ru-da so
as “to hold a ban at bay”. The date for this was set on the 2 lst day
of the second month of the year (Ajjaru = April/May).241 A very
closely related Late Babylonian text, moreover. relates that the
procedure for dispelling a ban was associated with the star sign
Aquarius (mulGU.LA) on account of this date.242
The textual fixing of the process of the therapy named
nam-erim-bür-ru-da first began at the close of the second
millennium BCE. Nonetheless. the procedure practiced by the
healers must be considerably older in date.243 as is demonstrated
most tellingly by the excellent linguistic quality of numerous
Sumerian dicenda featuring the dispelling of a ban.
Listed within the ‘guide’ to nam-erim-bür-ru-da (Text
no. 1-2) are many measures recommendedforthe aimof dispelling
a ban within the order of their expected performance. each with its
corresponding dicenda.2^ Essentially the same course of therapy
underlies those tablet editions with the dicenda of the procedure
for dispelling a ban (Texts nos. 16-47). as therein the recitations
are generally positioned in the order prescribed in the ‘guide'.
Nevertheless. the ancient Near Eastem healers also transmitted
further descriptions of procedures for the dispelling of a ban
markedly divergent in content and structure from the tradition
known from the ‘guide’ (Therapy Descriptions 1-6 = Texts

238 See KAL 2. Text no. 37. col. V. 11’.
239 See. on this. T. Abusch. D. Schwemer. CMAwR 2. 62 and A. Cavigneaux.
OrNS 76. 293-335.
240 Text no. 70-72. 45.
241 See STT no. 300. obv. 7 (... UD. '21 '.KÄM rnam1-rerim1-rbür1-rda1
[: NA]M.ERIM ana 'LÜ1 TAR-.sh) and duplicates. and also J. Scurlock.
AfO 51. 129-130. Cf., furhtermore. the letter addressed to Assurbanipal
SAA 10. Text no. 89 (1904-10-9. 191 = ABL 1397). wherein the royal
adviser and priest of the Temple of Assur Akkullänu bewails that the
monthly (prophylactic) performance of ritual procedures for warding off
ill had been neglected.
242 BRM 4. no. 20. obv. 4. See also A. Ungnad. AfO 14. 258 and M. J. Geller.
Melothesia. 28. It is hardly by chance that the “(ritual) legal repeal"
(DI.BAL.A = dipaliT) was ascribed to the astral region of “Aquarius” in
the same text (BRM 4. no. 20. obv. 2). Precisely this. namely the revision
of a divine judgement and its repeal. forms the underlying intention of a
procedure for the dispelling of a ban.
243 See. on this. also above p. 29 with fn. 36.
244 On the details. see the textual edition presented in this book (Text no. 1-2)
and the appurtenant commentaries.

nos. 3-15). In the configuration of the healing procedure.
there must hence have been a freedom in arrangement which
should hardly be underestimated. Moreover. a procedure for the
dispelling of a ban would not always have been accomplished
with the same exhaustiveness and expenditure as would seem to
be demanded from the ‘guide’. It seems likely that the healers
would offer a more financially amenable treatment reduced to
its bare essentials for less prestigious and prosperous clients.
Accordingly. it hardly seems meaningful. or. indeed. possible to
reconstruct a course of events for the procedure for the dispelling
of a ban with any claim to universal validity. Rather. in what
follows. an overview should be conferred of the constitutive
elements of a course of therapy.
The healers taught that they acted "with the authority of
(the god of wisdom) Ea and the arts of (his son) Asalluhi”245
within the frame of their therapy. and merely repeated within
their treatment that "which (once) Ea and Asalluhi (themselves)
wrought.”246 The healers ascribed the procedures and techniques
of negating ill termed upsasü2^ much like the prayers. utterances.
and exorcistic formulae embedded within them. directly to
the god of wisdom and his son. the god who. according to the
Mesopotamian tradition. implements as ‘saviour’ the wisdom of
his divine father on earth for the Salvation of humans. and whose
words and deeds revealed to humanity are able to put all ill back
in its place.248 In the treatment of a patient. the ancient Near
Eastem healer viewed himself as the representative of Asalluhi.
through whom the god himself spoke and acted.249 Within the
underlying conceptual world. the supreme. ultimately inexorable
authority of the divine son was accordingly transferred to a healer.
A considerable portion of the potency ascribed to the procedures
for the dispelling of a ban are grounded upon this notion.
The procedures for dispelling a ban are bom of the wish to
lend an addressable form to the ill to be negotiated. For this.
the unseen must be rendered visible and the intangible granted a
bodily form. Like a god whose being assumes form in a divine
image. the ban weighing upon an individual should be incamated
into a clay figurine within the framework of the therapy. It should
thus become a corporeal Opponent in the here and now so as to
enable the healer to enter into direct communication with the evil
of the ban. and then to banish it with divine force.
"With the authority of Ea and the arts of Asalluhi”250 the
healer brought the ban to be combatted into being. Following
divine instruction. he shaped it from clay.251 that is. from that

245 Text no. 3.23 (ina narbt saEainaupsase sa Asalluhi). See also Text no. 4—10.
47-49 and 53-55; Text no. 48-51. 54. 56. and 62 and Text no. 54. 13’.
246 Text No. 48-51. 63; see also ibid.. 45.
247 See fn. 245.
248 See. on this. S. M. Maul. BaF 18. 41 and id.. in: A. Kablitz. C. Markschies
(eds.). Heilige Texte. 11-24.
249 It is known from the Surpu ‘guide’ (LKA 91. obv 4; see E. Reiner. Surpu.
11) that the healer entered his role as representative of Asalluhi by means of
the recitation of the Sumerian incantation gä-e lü kü-ga-me-en (“lam
the pure one”). The same incantation was also to be recited by the healer
in the procedure named ilt ul Tde (see KAR 90. obv. 16). Albeit it is never
explicitly stated. it seems entirely possible that the Sumerian incantation “I
am the pure one ” was also recited at the opening of the exorcistic actions
within the framework of the procedure for dispelling a ban.
250 Thus Text no. 3. 23.
251 See Text no. 1-2. 3’; Text no. 3. 13 and 23-24; Text no. 4-10. 2; Text
no. 11. 10; Text no. 14-15. 8; Text no. 46-47. 47. The description of the
procedures for dispelling a ban do not enlighten as to what size such an
anthropomorphic “image of the ban” possessed. nor as to whether it was
goat-headed or not. as might be suggested (see. on this. above fn. 45).