CT 41, pl. 43, BM 054595
| Obverse | |||
| o 1o 1 | “Dust storm (Sumerian)” means “du[st storm (Akkadian).”] | ||
| o 22 | “Twin (Sumerian)” means “twi[n (Akkadian).”] | ||
| o 33 | “Vulture (Sumerian)” means “vulture (Akkadian).” | ||
| o 44 | “d.GIŠ-gím-maš” is pronounced “Gilgamesh.” | ||
| o 55 | “(A particular type of) metal bowl” (pronounced “qû”) means “(a particular type of) metal bowl.” | ||
| o 66 | “Owl (Sumerian)” (pronounced “nennu”) means “owl (Akkadian).” | ||
| o 77 | “Hide of Kūšu” means “hide of an ox.” | ||
| o 88 | “Caterpillar” means “dormouse” (which also means) “weakling.” | ||
| o 99 | “Reed stalk” means “bush.” | ||
| o 1010 | ŠÚ means “to set.” | ||
| o 1111 | “The ‘larva’ (plant)” means “the ‘caterpillar’ (plant).” | ||
| o 1212 | “Saltpeter” means “lump (of salt).” | ||
| o 1313 | [x x] ⸢x-ú⸣ | ⸢na-an⸣-[(x x x)] | […] … […] |
| Reverse | |||
| r 1'r 1' | [x] ⸢x x⸣ | [...] | […] … […] |
| r 2'2' | [x] ⸢x⸣ u i-na-⸢al?⸣ [(...)] | […] he lies down (?) [(…)] | |
| r 3'3' | Lemmata and oral explanations | ||
| r 4'4' | relating to (the work) “In order to tear out and disperse antašubbû(-disease).” | ||
1The restoration was first made by R. Labat, Commentaires assyro-babyloniens sur les présages (1933), p. 112. The equation is attested in lexical texts (CAD A/1 411b-412a) and imDAL.ḪA.MUN is also probably to be restored in l. 45’ of the commentary CCP 3.1.47 (on Enūma Anu Enlil), in which an equation of a lost word with ašamšūtu is explained as “on account of the disturbance” (duluhhû). The latter entry thus indicates that at least some ancient scholars considered imDAL.ḪA.MUN to be etymologically related to ašamšūtu.
2The restoration of the traces of the sign following ma as mu follows CAD T 443a. The equation is attested in Nabnītu IV 318 and Sumerian entries that include MAŠ.TAB.BA as a component are equated with tūʾamu in several places in Ur₅.ra (as cited by CAD T 443a).
3This equation is also attested in Ur₅.ra = ḫubullu (as cited by CAD Z 106a) and Mur.gud B IV 307 and C 21 (as cited by CAD Z 105a and 106). In Mur.gud, the Akkadian zību is then equated with the word ḫa-ru-ḫa-a-a.
4See Introduction.
5The correct decipherment of this entry was reported first in CAD (Q 289a and S 166b).The equation of qû/gû with sappu also appears in Diri, Proto-Diri, and A = nâqu (as cited by CAD Q 291a). CAD Q lists qû “measuring vessel” and qû “copper” as two different words, whereas AHw (followed by CDA) understands them as one lemma.
6As noted by M. Stol Epilepsy in Babylonia (1993), p. 9, eating the flesh of eššebu-bird is recommended in a prescription against antašubbû (BAM 487 r. 7). The same advice is attested in a prescription “in order to tear out and disperse ‘hand-of-a-ghost’(-disease)” (anaŠU.GIDIM.MAnasāḫi u pašāri) (= BAM 471 III 15), which suggests a conceptual connection between antašubbû and ŠU.GIDIM.MA.
7This equation is attested in a commentary on the medical treatise on fumigations, Qutāru (CCP 4.2.M.a, ll. 8-9). Note also TCL 6 34, ll. 6-7.
8This equation is attested in a commentary on the medical treatise on fumigations, Qutāru (CCP 4.2.M.a, l. 28), where the equation with ulālu is stated more fully as: “Caterpillar” means “dormouse” (which also) means “weakling from Subartu.”
9The explanans was previously read as kabnu, which von Soden suggests understanding as an Aramaic loanword meaning “encasement” (AHw 417b) whereas CAD K 22a tentatively suggests “a tree.” It seems, however, preferable to read it as gáp-nu, a writing also attested in the Neo-Babylonian economic document VAS 5, 121 ll. 9 and 14 (gišgáp-nu), or perhaps gùp-nu, “tree trunk”.
10As noted already by E. Frahm, Babylonian and Assyrian Text Commentaries. Origins of Interpretation. Ugarit-Verlag, 2011, p. 94, this equation – which is also attested in another medical commentary, CCP 4.2.Q (o. 13) – draws on an entry in the plant lexikon Uruanna (III 251-252).
11Saltpeter appears in two commentaries on Šumma ālu, namely CCP 3.5.6 r. 7’ (where the explanation is entirely broken away) and CCP 3.5.54 l. 26 (where it is equated with ṭabtu, which does not fit the traces of the present line).
12M. Stol, Epilepsy in Babylonia (1993), p. 9 notes that antašubbû(-disease) is the only form of epilepsy that is said to be “torn out” in Babylonia.