Wrestling with Nature From Omens to Science

Natural Knowledge in Ancient Mesopotamia 27

which do not vary from one copy to another, the colophons are unique
and within certain parameters contain vastly different information, as the
following examples illustrate. The fi rst is from the terrestrial omen series,
the second from the celestial:

52nd Tablet (of the series) “If a city is situated on a height.” According to its

[original (it was) written an]d collated. Hand of Sillâ, son of Šu[... the app]

rentice scribe, the junior exorcist. Tablet of Nabû- mudammiq, the [... ]^33

Enu ̄ma Anu Enlil series:

Tablet of Anu- aha- iddin, son of Nidinti- Ani, the son of Anu- be ̄l- šunu, the

descendant of Ekur- za ̄kir, the Exorcist of Anu and Antu, the high priest of the

Re ̄š Temple [... ]

Hand of Anu- aha- ušabši, son of Ina- qibı ̄t- Ani, son of Anu- uballit, the descen-

dant of Ekur- za ̄kir, the Exorcist of Anu and Antu, the high priest of the Re ̄š

Temple, Scribe of Enu ̄ma Anu Enlil.

He wrote [the tablet] for his study, long days, good health, that he not

become sick, and for the reverence of his lordship, and placed it in Uruk.

Whoever worships Anu and Antu, may he not remove it [the tablet]! Uruk,

Month XI, day 26, year 117 of Antio[chus, k]ing of kings.^34

It has long been recognized that in colophons some texts are desig-
nated as “secret” or “exclusive” knowledge (Akkadian pirištu, from the
root prs, meaning “cut off” or “separate”), as in this colophon from a
scholarly commentary:

Exclusive knowledge: The one who knows may show it to another one who

knows. [The tablet was] completed and collated; old original.

Hand of Kidin- Sin, junior scribe, son of Sutu, scribe of the king.^35

The colophon of an incantation text of the exorcist of the temple of Assur
is similar:

Exclusive knowledge of the great gods. The one who knows may show [it]

to another one who knows. The one who does not know may not see it. It

[belongs] to the forbidden things of the great gods.

Written according to its original and collated.^36

Summarizing the genres of texts so designated, Joan Goodnick Wes-
tenholz found lists of gods, stars, cult symbols, incantations, rituals,