182 herbert niehr
to the practice of divination belongs an 8th-century-B.c. bronze bowl
with aramaic inscriptions and astral imagery, which was described by r. D.
Barnett and intensively studied by a. lemaire and K. l. Younger.271 the
bowl provides a glance into the astronomy of the aramaeans of syria, and
probably originates from a royal court, where it would have been used for
divinatory purposes. as Younger notes, “this bowl undoubtedly had divi-
natory purposes that addressed particular royal concerns. it is likely that
it portrayed certain astral configurations that could be used in astral divi-
nation in order to avert any possible evil portents and ensure the benefi-
cent outcomes that the king desired. if this bowl was used as a censer, it
may well have served in either lecanomancy, libanomancy, or both, with
the oil or smoke pattern touching or covering different astral entities on
the bowl, and thus giving ‘signs’ of the portents that would need to be
averted.”272
3.5 Magicthe sefire treaties also contain, aside from curses that become effective
in the event of a breach of terms and are intended bring all kinds of
distress to the kingdom and its people, the so-called nullity curses (Kai
222 a: 14–35). additionally, there are some comparative curses that give
instructive examples of the practice of sympathetic magic:
(35) Just as this wax is burned by fire, so may arpad be burned and [her gr]
eat [daughter-cities]! (36) May hadad sow in them salt and weeds, and may
it not be mentioned (again)! this gnbʾ 273 and [ ] (37) (are) Matiʾel; it is his
person. Just as this wax is burned by fire, so may Mati[ʾel be burned by fi]
re! (38) Just as (this) bow and these arrows are broken, so may inurta and
hadad break [the bow of Matiʾel], (39) and the bow of his nobles! and just
as the man of wax is blinded, so may Mati[ʾel] be blinded! [Just as] (40) this
calf is cut in two, so may Matiʾel be cut in two, and may his nobles be cut
in two! [and just as] (41) a [ha]r[lot is stripped naked], so may the wives
of Matiʾel be stripped naked, and the wives of his offspring, and the wives
of [his] no[bles! and just as (42) this wax woman is taken] and one strikes
her on the face, so may the [wives of Matiʾel] be taken [and ].274 (Kai 222
a: 35–42)271 cf. Barnett 1966; lemaire 1999; Younger 2012.
272 Younger 2012: 230.
273 Meaning uncertain.
274 cf. on the translation Fitzmyer ²1995: 47.