title of t.upsˇar Enu ̄ ma Anu Enlil“scribes of the (astrological series) Enu ̄ ma Anu Enlil,”
evidence from Babylon and Uruk clearly indicates that most, if not all astronomers
were also exorcists or lamentation singers (Rochberg 2000 ).
Even between the three main disciplines there must have been considerable overlap.
In a letter addressed to an unknown Assyrian king of the seventh century, the
Babylonian scholar Marduk-sˇa ̄pik-ze ̄ri, seeking employment for himself and his
colleagues, thus proclaims his mastery of his own discipline, the craft of the lamentation
singer: “I fully master my father’s profession, the discipline of lamentation (kalûtu);
I have studied and chanted the (appropriate) series.” He quickly moves on, however,
to advertise his knowledge of the series, rituals, and medical procedures belonging
to the craft of the exorcist in order to increase his chances of employment:
I am competent in.. ., the mouth-washing ritual, the purification of the palace
rituals.. ., I have examined healthy and sick flesh, I have read (the astrological
series) Enu ̄ ma-Anu-Enlil... and observed the stars, I have read (the teratological
series) Sˇumma izbu, (the physiognomic series) [Kataduggû, Alandi]mmû, and
Nigdimdimmû, [and the (terrestrial omen) series Sˇumma Alu] ina me ̄lê sˇakin.
(SAA 10 : 160 )In another letter, an unnamed sender complains to the Assyrian king that a goldsmith
named Parrut.u bought a Babylonian slave to teach portions of the corpora of the
exorcist and of the diviner to his son, as well as excerpts from Enu ̄ ma Anu Enlil (SAA
16 : 65 ). The evidence from late Babylonian colophons and libraries also provides clear
evidence that scholars often collected and copied texts from all disciplines, irrespective
of their own specialization. In general, however, late libraries still reflect the practice
of one particular discipline. For instance, the libraries of Achaemenid and Hellenistic
Uruk reflect the crafts of the exorcist and lamentation singer. The sixth-century library
found in the 1980 s in the Ebabbar temple of Sippar contain mostly texts which,
not surprisingly, reflect the craft of the diviner, an art reputedly revealed to humans
in antediluvian times by the local gods Sˇamasˇ and Adad. The only exceptions seem
to have been the very large encyclopedic libraries such as those of Ashurbanipal at
Nineveh and of the Esagil temple in Babylon. The latter is less well known than the
former but seems to have fulfilled the role of general reference library in Babylon
until the end of the Hellenistic period (Clancier 2005 : 193 – 335 ).
What is the significance of this division of knowledge between a ̄sˇipu ̄tu, kalûtu, and
ba ̄ rûtu? Does it tell us anything about the nature of the Babylonian intellectual quest?
In a colophon from his library, king Ashurbanipal lays the following claim:
I wrote on tablets, according to copies from Assyria and Babylonia, the wisdom
of the god Ea, the series of the lamentation singer, the secret knowledge of the
sages, which is suited to quiet the heart of the great gods.
(Hunger 1968 : 102 )In a fictitious letter of the Old Babylonian king Samsu-iluna, copied in late Babylonian
schools, the king states that:
after the great lord Marduk, supreme king of the gods, princeof his brethren,
had created gods and humankind and allotted them their destiny, he [set up] the— Paul-Alain Beaulieu —