The first preserved paragraph mentions a “poor (person)” in direct speech, likely within an oracle question. The topics of most oracle questions in this text remain unclear but seem interconnected, based on the language of some queries (e.g., the =pat particle in kolon 29). Two oracle questions introduce the Zawalli deity or deities (k. 19, k. 61), which are possibly the primary focus of this series of oracle reports. The ‘deity’ mentioned in k. 41 might also refer to the same Zawalli god. These particular deities, found both as individual gods and as a group, are attested primarily in oracular context, in texts concerned with vows and dreams, and in cult inventories. In oracle texts, a Zawalli deity is typically associated with an individual person, usually (if not always) in reference to members of the royal family (for details, see Other characteristics). In these contexts, the oracle questions focus on determining whether the Zawalli of a certain person is angry or responsible for bewitching someone. This seems to be the case in this text as well. For example, in k. 61, the text mentions the Zawalli of a woman (MUNUS, probably as a determinative) whose name is lost in a lacuna. The text may also refer to the queen within an oracle report, but the passage is very fragmentary (k. 69).

For other bird oracles referring to the Zawalli deities, see especially CTH 573.10 and CTH 573.63. The augur Ašpinani, likely responsible for all the oracles in this document, appears also in tablets with combined oracles: KUB 49.52, KUB 16.76, KUB 5.20+.

Handcopy: A. Archi (KUB 52, Archi A. 1983c; KUB 57, Archi A. 1987b).

Edition: Sakuma Y. 2009b, II, 375-383.

Transliteration: (KUB 57.44) Tischler J. 2016b, 165-166.

Join Y. Sakuma (6.8.2006).

Two fragments (not directly joining) of the upper and central portion of a single-columned tablet.

NS (jh.); diagnostic signs: AL?(frg. 1, obv. I 11), ḪAR, LI. Early forms: TAR.

The sentence ‘it perched on the ground’ (kolon 47) is unusual in the standard formulary, since the specific location where the bird perches is usually not mentioned. However, it is possible that ‘the ground’ is implied even in the summarized standard phrase.

On the Zawalli deities, see in particular Archi A. 1979b, Wilhelm G. 2017 (RlA 15, 235), and Cognetti C. 2021a, 201-298.

Based primarily on the characteristic connection of these deities with specific individuals, Archi A. 1979b suggested that the Zawalli represented the spirit of a deceased person (“…lo spirito, il genio di un defunto”, ibid. 92), an interpretation followed in many studies (see e.g. more recently Beal R.H. 2002c, 25-26, “the ghost of ...”). In support of this interpretation, Archi pointed out a parallelism and overlap in some texts between the Zawalli deities and Sum. GIDIM (‘the dead; spirit of the deceased’), though making it clear that these terms should not be understood as exact equivalents. This interpretation was questioned by Hout Th.P.J. van den 1998c, 82-83, particularly showing that the textual connection between Zawalli and GIDIM was primarily based on an emended passage, whose reading he argued should be revised. According to him, a Zawalli deity “may (…) be redefined as a kind of divine spirit or genius dwelling in people and places or institutions or somehow representing them” and which “(…) may have been considered embodying the essentials of an individual or place” (ibid. 83). The prior discussion on the Zawalli deities, and the uncertainty surrounding their nature as deities representing the spirits of the dead, were briefly recapitulated in the entry ‘Zawalli’ in RlA (Wilhelm G. 2017). A similar perspective was offered more recently by Cognetti C. 2021a, 296-298, who further emphasized the close relationship between these ‘personal’ deities and the individual. She also highlighted the possibility that this relationship could materialize in representations, such as statues, which simultaneously identified the individual and their Zawalli. Possibly, after a person’s death, such imagery could become identified with the ‘spirit’ of the deceased as well (“Nach dem Tod der betroffenen Person mögen die Zawallis in Form von Statuen eine Art bildliche Darstellung des verstorbenen Menschen selbst gewesen sein (…)”, ibid. 297).