The divinatory series Šumma ālu ina mēlê šakin, "If a city is set on a height", named after its first line, is the longest Mesopotamian collection of unprovoked omens. According to catalogues and colophons of the series, it consisted of 120 Tablets, representing a total of approximately 10,000 entries.
The omens of the series are commonly qualified as "terrestrial", as opposed to the "celestial" omens of Enūma Anu Ellil. Unlike other divinatory series about earth-bound phenomena, whose topics are clearly delimited (for instance Šumma Izbu or Šumma Alandimmû), Šumma Ālu deals with a wide range of topics, mostly related to everyday life, from the most mundane to the most extraordinary. The great diversity of omens is especially striking in the second half of the series. The manuscripts from Kalhu, Huzirina and Uruk well illustrate this diversity, as shown by the list and the examples below:
The general structure of Šumma Ālu, that is the ordering and numbering of the Tablets, was probably organised later than other divinatory series, probably not before the very end of the second millennium. During the first millennium, it was still unstable and there are various recensions attested in Kalhu, Huzirina and Uruk.
There are 11 manuscripts of Šumma Ālu from Kalhu, a small number compared to the hundreds from Nineveh, and only two from Huzirina. Some of the Kalhu manuscripts are not duplicated anywhere else. For instance, CTN 4, 49 [/cams/gkab/P363464/] provides a long list of people or animals a man may encounter in the street.
By contrast, some passages of the Huzirina manuscript STT 2, 321 [/cams/gkab/P338636/] dealing with snake-omens partially duplicate some Assur or Nineveh ones. Other passages, however, are unparalleled. According to the colophon, the omens gathered on this tablet are "extraneous" (Akkadian: ahû). The exact meaning of the word is uncertain: it could either refer to a different tradition or to a compilation of different traditions.
On the other hand, the colophon on STT 2, 32 [/cams/gkab/P338638/]3, a Huzirina manuscript dealing with lizard-omens, testifies that it is a copy from Babylon, and the text is different from the "Assyrian" one(s) preserved in both Nineveh and Assur.
Finally, 5 of the 13 manuscripts from Uruk are "excerpts" (Akkadian: nishu) of the series, according to the colophons. A different numbering from that of the so-called "standard" series is given to them, and they are further qualified as "extraneous". Some of them are not yet known elsewhere. For instance, the 43rd excerpt is a long list of omens describing a man bathing in various locations in the city (SpTU 2, 34 [/cams/gkab/P348639/]) while the 71st considers situations where various animals eat a man's garment or shoes (SpTU 3, 97 [/cams/gkab/P348701/]).
The series Šumma Ālu has many omens in common with other divinatory series because its topics are so diverse. SpTU 1, 76 [/cams/gkab/P348497/] from Uruk mixes omens from Šumma Ālu and Šumma Alandimmû, while SpTU 3, 94 [/cams/gkab/P348598/], which belongs to the series Šumma Izbu according to its colophon, considers both "sows giving birth" and the "behaviour of pigs". Mixing between series is also common in commentaries during this period.
Marie-Françoise Besnier
Marie-Françoise Besnier, 'Signs of the earth: Šumma ālu ina mēlê šakin', The Geography of Knowledge, The GKAB Project, 2019 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/cams/gkab/theworldoftheipu/divinatoryseries/signsoftheearth/]