Manuscripts and Tablet Formats
All the texts are written in cuneiform script on clay tablets of various types and in various states of preservation. Many of them (about 33% of the material) are multicolumn, [[1]] and a few of them have catch lines indicating that they were parts of larger wholes originally consisting of several tablets arranged in sequence.2[[2]]
CHART 1. Headings and "Afterheadings" (nos. 11-14)
| 1. [The n]ew [rites] which [Ass]urbanipal, king of Assyria, [perfor]med from the 16th [of Shebat] until the 10th of Adar, eponym year of Bel-Harran-šadûʾa. | 9:1-4 |
| 2. Lamentations and eršahunga-psalms of Aššur. Enemy attack. | 13:1 |
| 3. When the king performs the nāṭu of [Ninitu]. | 19 i 1-2 |
| 4. When the king performs the nāṭu of Kuli[ttu]. | 19 ii 12 |
| 5. [Tukulti-Ninurta, king of Ass]yria, [performed and] instituted the (following) rites for the Lady-of-the-Mountain, his god. | 24:1 |
| 6. [Tukulti-Ninurta, king of Assyria, performed and] institu[ted the (following) rites for the Lady-of-the-River, his [g]od. | 25:1 |
| 7. [Tukulti-Ninurta], king of Assyria, [performed and instituted] the (following) ri[tes for Sin, his god]. | 26:1 |
| 8. Tukulti-[Ninurta, king of Assyria], performed and instituted [the (following) following) rites fo]r Nusku. | 27:1 |
| 9. [When you are to provide for the House of Aššur, (when) you are to strew salt (likewise likewise ibid. 9, r. 1, 3, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15-22). | 37:1 |
| 10. The [...] cup[s] of the House of [Aššur, which] Shalmaneser, king of [Assy]ria, established. | 51 i lff |
| 11. The regular offerings to be made and the wine [to be libated] from the 23rd through the 25th of [Shebat]. | 3 r. 10 |
| 12. The procedures for the (proper) time of the great Equ house of Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta. | 29 r. 10' |
| 13. [Al]l this is [of providing for the House] of God of Nineveh. | 38 r. V 52 |
| 14. The gods dwelling in the house of the Divine Judges, [the shr]ines, sanctuaries, daises, abodes and holy places, listed by) their names. | 49:197-98 |
CHART 2. Colophons
| Writ[ten] according to the original and collated. | 1 r. 26 |
| Copied [for ins]pection. | 9 r. 23' |
| Tablet of Mard[uk]-kabti-ilani, high priest of Aššur ... | 15 r. 49'ff |
| [Written] according to the original and collated. Tablet of Aššur-nadin-ahi, junior [stu]dent, son of [Kiṣi]r-Ašš[ur, exorcist of the House of Aššur]. | 17r.15ff |
| [Written] according to the original and collated. | 18 r. 6 |
| [Writ]ten [according to the original] and collated. | 24 r. 43 |
| [Written according to the original and] collated. | 25 r. 48, 27 r. 41 |
| Written according to the [or]iginal an[d collated]. | 26 r. 43 |
| [...] Written according to the original (and) collated. [Tablet of DN]-šumu- šuklil, chief singer of Aššur. | 32 r. 24f |
| Written [according to the original] and collated. [Hand of Kiṣir-Aššur, exor]cist of the House of Aššur. | 37 r. 24f |
| [......] the gods [...]. [Tablet of Issar]-šumu-ereš, [chief] scribe. | 40 r. vi 29'ff |
| Checked against the original. Written by Kiṣir-Aššur, exorcist of the House of Aššur. | 49:199f |
| Written [according to the original] and collated. | 50 r. 7 |
| Written according to the original and co[llated]. Hand of Kiṣir-Aššur, [ex]orcist of [the House of Aššur]. | 51 r. ii 15'ff |
14 texts contain headings or "afterheadings" (Chart 1) stating the purpose or cultic context of the ritual, and four more texts state this in an introductory line at the beginning of the tablet or one of its subsections. Almost all the texts date from the seventh century BC, but their colophons (Chart 2) show that many of them are copies of older originals.
Indeed, on the basis of their language and script, two of them (nos. 7 and 29) must be dated to the Middle-Assyrian period, to the twelfth or eleventh century BC.[[3]] Both of these well-preserved MA texts come from archaeological contexts also containing seventh-century tablets, which indicates that they were still being used in Neo-Assyrian times, perhaps because their excellent condition rendered the preparation of a fresh copy unnecessary. It is thus likely that many of the Neo Assyrian copies go back to Middle-Assyrian originals.
No single tablet in the corpus has been completely preserved. On the contrary, most of them have been broken into small pieces containing only a portion of the original text. Diagram 1 illustrates the original format of no. 9, the distribution of text on it, and actual condition of the tablet. As can be seen, this tablet originally had four columns of text on both sides containing a total of c. 430 lines, of which only 150 (c. 35%) are extant today. The missing text can to some extent, but only partially, be restored from parallels and duplicates, using similar diagrams to reconstruct the original tablet shapes and estimate the amount of missing text.
DIAGRAM 1. A 125+ (no. 9), obverse cols. i-iv, and reverse, cols. iv-i.
1 11 tablets (nos. 2, 4, 7, 19, 20, 42, 45, 46, 48, 51 54) have two columns on both sides, nos. 14, 16, 42 and 53 are three-column tablets, no. 9 is a four-column one, nos. 38 and 52 are five-column tablets, and no. 40 has six columns on both sides. 23 tablets are single column ones, the remaining 14 are too broken for classification. Note that the multi-column tablets include texts from all categories (not only rituals proper), and conversely texts of all types could be written on single-column tablets.
2 "On the 23rd day the king performs the 'Washing of the Mouth' in the main room," no. 1 r. 25 (catchline to no. 6:1); "On the 22nd day the king [goes down to] the House of God," no. 2 r. iv 45'; "On the 25th day the king does not go down," no. 3 r. 9.
3 The former (Royal Coronation Ritual) was found in the courtyard of the Aššur temple and probably belonged to the library-archive of the temple containing both MA and NA texts, see Pedersén 1986, p. 23, #70. The other MA ritual (Initiation into the Secrets of Ištar of Heaven), comes from in the library-archive of the exorcists of the Aššur temple from which many of the NA royal rituals published here also come, see ibid., p. 70, #472. It was found next to a medical incantation text (KAR 31) copied from an older original by the exorcist Nabû-bessunu, who was active during the reign of Esarhaddon (see PNA 2/II 814b).
Simo Parpola
Simo Parpola, 'Manuscripts and Tablet Formats', Assyrian Royal Rituals and Cultic Texts, SAA 20. Original publication: Winona Laka, IN, Eisenbrauns, 2017; online contents: SAAo/SAA20 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2020 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa20/textsmanuscriptsandformats/manuscriptsandtabletformats/]