Tablets from the Sippar Library VIII. Omens from the Gall-Bladder

The present article in the series of Tablets from the Sippar Library presents a tablet of omens from the gall-bladder. It belonged to (and no doubt was written by) an apprentice diviner called Šamaš-ēṭir, who was responsible for at least one other tablet of omens in the library. The text was read and identified as Tablet VI of the omen series Šumma martu from the photographs published here (Figs. 1–2). It has not been possible to collate the tablet in Baghdad and the copy has been prepared from the photographs (Figs. 3–4). The upper third of the obverse is to a large extent illegible, but the subsequent identification of four duplicates, three published and one unpublished, enables a good deal of the text of this composition to be recovered. The currently known manuscripts of Šumma martu VI can be tabulated as follows:With the identification of the Sippar tablet and its duplicates as Tablet VI of Series 6 (martu, the gall-bladder) of the bārûtu, seven of the ten tablets of this series are now known:Pending a future edition of the series we offer here transliterations of the previously unavailable sources only, beginning with the Sippar tablet, together with a full translation and notes.

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