The auspicious timing and correct performance of rituals and sacrifices were also of concern to the king and his priests. A significant number of letters are therefore devoted to these topics as well. The king is informed, for example, that the temple of Ištar in Calah was to be cleared on the 28th of the month, that the goddess was to be taken down from atop her sacred lion, and that her jewellery was to be removed in preparation for a ritual bath that was to be filled only if the moon was seen on the 29th (no. 59).[[31]] We also learn that the almanac (Abšegeda) was consulted to choose a propitious month and day in which to reconsecrate the newly rebuilt temple of Mullissu in Assur (no. 12);[[32]] that the king dispatched notices to the clergy in the Babylonian cities of Cutha and Der to inform them of intercalations of the calendar necessary to bring the annual lunar cycle of 354 days in line with the solar year of 365 days (nos. 4, 5); and that when the king once failed to do this, a delegation of nobles from Babylon and Borsippa had to travel to Calah to ask how the intercalation should be accomplished, because without this information they would be unable to determine the correct day on which to perform sacrifices before Bel (no. 60). Since sacrificial animals also had to be without defect, the discovery of such flaws occasioned yet more reports, as when the left kidney of a sheep was discovered to be too small and was forwarded to the palace to be inspected by the scholars (no. 131), or when another sheep was found to have its right kidney missing and was put in storage, presumably to be inspected later by the scholars as well (no. 133).
Huge numbers of sheep and oxen were consigned to be sacrificed before Aššur on behalf of the king, to be consumed in the banquets of the gods, or to be fired as burnt offerings to the planets, Sun, Moon, stars, and constellations. These animals, we are told, were supplied by the cities of the Assyrian heartland and beyond, each of which was assigned one or more days in the cultic calendar.[[33]] (We read that Raṣappa and Arzuhina alone were required to provide 10,000 sheep annually [no. 21].) Similar practice is attested as far back as the Ur III period. The locales from which the Assyrian deliveries were sent include Barhalzi, Raṣappa, Kilizi, Isana, Tillê, Kullania, Arpad, Diquqina, Isana, Halzi-Atbar, Birtu, Arzuhina, Arbela, Guzana, Šahuppa, Tamnuna, and Talmusu (see e.g. SAA 10 96).[[34]] Of course, failures to meet delivery deadlines prompted yet more reports and complaints. This seems to have been an age-old problem for temple administrators; in fact, remarkably similar complaints were lodged against those responsible for monthly deliveries of regular sheep offerings to the Annunitum temple in Sippar-Amnanum in the Old Babylonian period. [[35]]
31 The cultic bath in question probably pertains to the ritual wash of Tammuz at the end of the month of Duʾuzu. The mourning rites of Tammuz apparently took place in the Ištar temple on Duʾuzu 28-29, when families and kin gathered to mourn the deceased; see W. Farber, Beschwörungsrituale an Išstar und Dumuzi: attī Išstar ša harmaša Dumuzi (Wiesbaden 1976), p. 140:3-18.
32 For another mention of the Abšegeda, "favorable days," see S. Parpola, "Assyrian Library Records," JNES 42 (1983) 1-29 (= ADD 943 + 944, now re-edited as SAA 7 49), r. ii 3, where this work is said to have been recorded on a polyptych consisting of three leaves.
33 These deliveries seem to be related to those recorded in the archive of Aššur temple offering lists (= SAA 7 nos. 182-219), which was discovered at Kuyunjik and includes inventories of commodities present on a certain day in a certain department of the temple (see van Driel Cult, p. 207). These inventories consist, in the main, of the following categories of deliveries: offerings for the chapel of Dagan, the leftovers "which were before Aššur," offerings for the wedding night (quršu) of Mullissu, and new regular offerings (ginû eššu); see Fales and Postgate, SAA 7, p. XXXV. According to LAS II, p. 317 ad No. 309:5ff, sheep offerings were performed in each temple on certain fixed days, and these were extracted from the local population, or, in the case of large establishments, from provincial governors. For a similar institution in the MA period, compare the Ninurta-tukulti-Aššur archive (111 texts in all): nos. 1-48 edited by E. Ebeling, "Urkunden des Archivs von Assur aus mittelassyrischer Zeit," MAOG 7/1-2 (1933) 26-53 (copies in KAJ); no. 49 edited by 0. Schroeder, "Über einige Keilschrifttexte aus Assur," StOr 1 (1925) 262-63; nos. 50-111 edited by E.F. Weidner, "Aus den Tagen eines assyrischen Schattenkönigs," AfO 10 (1935-36) 33-48; copies by V. Donbaz, Ninurta-Tukulti-Aššur (Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınlarından 6, Istanbul 1976); additions and corrections idem, JCS 32 (1980) 211-28; Belleten 40 176-82.
34 SAA 12 80:1 mentions, in addition, "wine that the magnates gave to the temple of Aššur."
35 See e.g. W. van So!dt, Altbabylonische Briefe 13 (Leiden 1994), no. 123 (= BM 86283).
Steven W. Cole
Steven W. Cole, 'Rituals and Sacrifices', Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Priests to Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal, SAA 13. Original publication: Helsinki, Helsinki University Press, 1998; online contents: SAAo/SAA13 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2020 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa13/lettersfrompriests/ritualsandsacrifices/]