Akkadische Rezepturen gegen Fieber (CTH 811)

Textüberlieferung

A	A1	KUB 29.58	339/c + 534/c
	A2	KUB 29.59	539/c + 569/c
	A3	KUB 37.84	167/c
B	B1	KBo 36.35	184/w
	B2	KUB 29.60	1377/c

Editionsgeschichte

1939, G. Meier, Ein akkadisches Heilungsritual aus Bogazköy, ZA 45: 195-215.

2018, A. Bácskay, Therapeutic Prescriptions against Fever in Ancient Mesopotamia, AOAT 447. Münster

Bibliographie

1901, H. Zimmern, Beiträge zur Kenntnis der babylonischen Religion (BBR). Leipzig

1908-1948, Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology (AAA), Liverpool

1923, R. C. Thompson, Assyrian Medical Texts (AMT). Oxford

1955, J. Aro, Studien zur mittelbabylonischen Grammatik, Studia Orientalia 20. Helsinki

1956-2010, I. J. Gelb et al., The Assyrian Dictionary of the University of Chicago (CAD). Chicago

1957-1964, O. Gurney – J. Finkelstein, The Sultantepe Tablets (STT), I/II. London

1959-1981, W. von Soden, Akkadisches Handerwörterbuch (AHw). Wiesbaden

1971, R. Labat, Fieber, in: RlA 3: 61.

1988, R. Labat, Manuel d'épigraphie akkadienne, sixth edition. Paris

1989, C. Ruster – E. Neu, Hethitisches Zeichenlexikon (HZL). Wiesbaden

1995, W. von Soden, Grundniss der akkadischen Grammatik (GAG), Analecta Orientalia 33. Rome

1997, D. T. Potts, Mesopotamian Civilization. The Material Foundations. Ithaca

2020, M. J. Geller, Ancient Babylonian Medicine. Theory and Practice. Malden

2011, J. Huehnergard, A Grammar of Akkadian. Third edition (Huehnergard). Winona Lake

2011-2016, T. Abusch – D. Schwemer, Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals, Voll. I-II, AMD-8. ⑄⑄Leiden-Boston

2015, W. J. I. Waal, Hittite Diplomatics. Studies in Ancient Document Format and Record Management, StBoT ⑄⑄56. Wiesbaden

2016, T. Abusch, The Magical Ceremony Maqlû: A Critical Edition (Maqlû), AMD-10. Leiden

2016, M. Rumor, Aluzinnu Versus Ἀλαζών: On the Use of Medical Terminology in the Babylonian and ⑄⑄⑄Greek Comic Traditions, in Corò, P., Devecchi, E., De Zorzi, N., Maiocchi, M. (eds.), ⑄⑄⑄Libiamo ne’ lieti calici. Ancient Near Eastern Studies Presented to Lucio Milano on the ⑄⑄⑄Occasion of his 65th Birthday by Pupils, Colleagues and Friends (AOAT 436): 587-603.

2018, F. M. Fales (ed.), La medicina assiro-babilonese. Rome

2019, A. Bácskay – Z. Niederreiter, The Tyszkiewicz Amulet, a Chalcedony Pendant Inscribed with an ⑄⑄⑄Incantation on Thorn Bush. Notes on Early Sumerian Kultmittelbeschwörung, in: ⑄⑄⑄⑄Altorientalische Forschungen 46/2: 174-185.

upcoming, L. Savino

Inhaltsüberbersicht

§1	Title of the tablet: “To remove the seizure of [moun]tain fe[ver]”. Instructions for the āšipu describing the making of human and donkey figurines made of clay and animal and human body parts (urine, hairs, nail parings, etc.). Setting up of the ritual arrangement on the roof of the house and making of flour offerings.
§2	Incantation “Šamaš, you (are) the Lord of Judgement and Law” (fragmentary, but surely comprising a list of evils).
§3	Further instructions (fragmentary): the figurines (?) are removed from the roof and the setting of the ritual shifts to the outside. Recitation by the patient: “Fe[ver, that] have grow[n] in my flesh”. Further recitations by the āšipu to channel the illness inside the substitue figurine. Flour offerings are poured.
§4	Incantation “Pure Nisaba that is placed for (lit. ‘in’) the prosperity of Man”. The figurines are taken outside of the city to an ašāgu-thornbush. Flour offerings are made. The ritual arrangement is set up again. Incantation “Šamaš, in your presence I got well”, comprising a list of evils.
§5	Incantation “ašāgu-thornbush, you (are) the offspring of Enlil”. Prayer to Šamaš for the patient to be released from his illness. Return to the city and sprinkling of flour on the city gate. Recitation of the incantation “I conjure you by the great gods”.
§6	Repetition of the title with a slight difference: “I[f the fever, the seizu]re of the mountain, is to be removed”.
§7	Possibility of reiteration of the illness after three days. Description of symptoms. Instructions for the preparation of a fumigation to be performed while the incantation arāpura arābāpura is recited. Positive prognosis.
§8 (only A)	Instructions for the crafting of an amulet to be put around the patient’s neck. Positive prognosis.
§9 (only A)	Instructions for the preparation of an anointment to smear on the patient’s temples and the soles of his feet. Positive prognosis.
§10 (only A)	Instructions for the crafting of an amulet to be put around the patient’s neck. Positive prognosis.

Regarding the meaning of the expression li’bu šadî, we can first refer to CAD L li’bu A p. 182 and la’bu (ivi: 35), which stress how the term li’bu seems to denote both a skin desease and a febrile state. In my opinion, skin diseases and fever can be related since various dermatological diseases that cause, for example, a rash (above all, even if I highly doubt that this is the case, chickenpox) can also cause febrile attacks. It is clear, though, that if febrile attacks can depend on rashes, the contrary is not true. The hypothesis of Labat (1971: 61) that ‘mountain fever’ is a disease of the malarial strain seems not very plausible to me, because in our case the patient seems to have good chances to survive, differently from the cases in which one presents symptoms of a malarial fever (even in modern times, with antibiotic prophylaxis); this hypothesis is probably due to the fact that the text suggests a possible reiteration in the insurgence of the illness, even if this reiteration does not seem to be an ordinary, but rather occasional characteristic of this disease. Nonetheless, Labat’s hypothesis remains the most authoritative about the matter, and, as such, cannot escape consideration. AHw li’bu p. 551b only describes it as “eine schwere Hautkrankheit”, thus considering it only a dermatological disease. As personally suggested to me by Professor Stefano de Martino, ‘mountain fever’ could perhaps be an illness caused by a tick-bite, since ticks are fairly common parasites in Anatolia and in the whole basin of the Mediterranean Sea in general. There actually is a disease associated to tick-bite, Rickettsiosis or ‘spotted fever’, characterised by a diffused rash and by febrile attacks. The symptoms of the disease well match both the fact that the term li’bu should be intended as a skin disease, and the symptoms it provokes to the patient. Furthermore, tick-bite can cause a phenomenon called tache noire, that is a blackening of the skin in the place in which the bite occurred, and we can see that in AMT 53, 7, another ritual against mountain fever,1 blackening on the body of the patient can be recounted; this blackening is said to spread from the foot to the shoulder, but it could refer not to the tache noire itself, but rather to the rash that follows it. Spotted fever is usually transmitted by contact with dog-tick, but also by contact with wild animals (deer, hares…). The disease has a very low mortality – 3%, even when no antibiotic treatment takes place – so that the practice of an āšipūtu ritual, merely a placebo, could have been sufficient even in ancient times. The fumigation is present in both tablets, while the ointment only in CTH 811.A, so we can suppose with a certain degree of certainty that asûtu techniques were seen as secondary and not necessary to heal the patient, but only accessory to treat the symptoms of fever and exhaustion. Even if the identification of an ancient disease such as, in this case, li’bu šadî (or li’bu in general) with a specific modern illness is extremely risky, this hypothesis seems to me more plausible than that of a malarial fever, and as such worthy of being reported. This hypothesis is, of course, based on the supposition that the two texts regarding the healing of ‘mountain fever’ actually refer to the same disease, and that the different symptoms described by the tablets complement, rather than mutually exclude, each other. If this were not the case, the term ‘mountain fever’ would simply be a way of describing an unknown disease coming from the wilderness, with symptoms related to inflammation and subsequent high temperature. It is therefore risky to assume that the two rituals regard the same illness – even if it goes under the same name – and not two.

I refer to Savino (upcoming) for a more in-depth palaeographic and stylistic study of the two tablets, as well as further information on parallels with other texts, in particular with reference to those that mention the solar deity in similar contexts, to other rituals in which the ašāgu-thornbush is concerned, and some formulaic expressions and incantations used by the āšipu.