According to the catalogue from Kalhu credited to the late second-millennium scholar Esagil-kin-apli, the divinatory series Šumma Alandimmû "If the form" "(concerns) external form and appearance".
As shown by Esagil-kin-apli's catalogue, it was treated together with the diagnostic series Sakikkû. Its topic is indeed close to Sakikkû, as it describes all kinds of marks on the body, with particular emphasis on the face, and other physical particularities, from the most benign to the most dangerous. The two series are also associated in a literary text from Huzirina, where the speaker clearly states: "I am a complete expert in Alandimmû and Sakikkû" (STT 1, 37 [/cams/gkab/P338354/]: 25).
The Kalhu catalogue also informs us about the general structure of the series: Šumma Alandimmû covers 12 Tablets and, like Sakikkû, is organised from head to foot. Tablet 1 deals with abnormalities and various shapes of the head; the following Tablets then successively treat: the hair, the forehead, the eyebrow, the nose, the lips, the upper cheeks, the face, the neck, the chest and other parts of the body, the toenails and finally the general appearance (Akkadian alandimmû).
Excerpts from Tablet 5, which deals with the nose, are only known in SpTU 4, 151 [/cams/gkab/P348744/] from Uruk; SpTU 4, 150 [/cams/gkab/P348743/], the other surviving manuscript from Uruk, has omens from Tablets 6 and 7, on lips and cheeks. Two commentaries on the series have also been found in the āšipus' house in Uruk.
The series also includes four subseries, the first three all mentioned in Esagil-kin-apli's catalogue:
There is one surviving manuscript of Šumma Kataduqqû in Kalhu (CTN 4, 74 [/cams/gkab/P363489/]): this subseries not only lists words and expressions and their consequences when they are spoken aloud, but also considers behaviours or qualities, such as weeping or forgetfulness. The subseries Šumma Liptu is further divided into more sections, one of them dealing with moles. There is one surviving manuscript of this subseries in Kalhu (CTN 4, 75 [/cams/gkab/P363490/]).
There are no manuscripts of the series Šumma Alandimmû from Huzirina, but 6 from Kalhu. The series is not well-attested in Uruk, where only 4 manuscripts have been found together with 2 commentaries.
Marie-Françoise Besnier
Marie-Françoise Besnier, 'Signs of appearance: Alandimmû', The Geography of Knowledge, The GKAB Project, 2019 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/cams/gkab/theworldoftheipu/divinatoryseries/signsofappearance/]