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The Fan of Ba-Ba

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

C. J Gadd
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Extract

In the Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse, Vol. I, Plate 16 (repeated in II, 24), there stands among the symbols carved upon a finely-executed and preserved ‘boundary-stone’ one that is at present unique, namely, that in the lower left corner, numbered 22 in subsequent publications. It is true that one other has been compared with it—L. W. King, Babylonian Boundary-Stones, Plate III (at bottom)—but there is really no resemblance here. Dismissing, therefore, the suggestion (most inapparent to the eye, and founded only upon this supposed identity) that a sheaf of corn is the object depicted on top of the divine seat or shrine, the only remaining explanation offered of this thing is that it is a shell, in particular that of the pecten, the comb-shell. While it is not possible to disprove this, several arguments may be brought against it. First, the representation is not much like the thing compared. Three typical pecten-shells, from species which occur particularly in the Persian Gulf, do not show anything like the transverse line following the curved border which is so carefully marked upon the emblem; contrariwise, the sculpture has nothing like the prominent ‘wings’ at the apex of the shells. Next, even the largest of the three shells proffered as specimens, Pecten townsendi Sowerby, is quite small, being about 4 inches in extreme measurement, so that if the object resting upon the ‘seat’ is a pecten-shell it must be many times magnified in the representation.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , Autumn 1948 , pp. 93 - 100
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1948 

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References

page 93 note 1 See Hinke, W. J., A New Boundary-Stone of Nebuchadrezzar I, p. 28 Google Scholar, and Steinmetzer, F. X., Die babylonischen Kudurru, p. 158 Google Scholar, No. 42.

page 93 note 2 de Morgan, J., D.E.P.,I, p. 174 Google Scholar, une coquille de Pecten; W. J. Hinke, op. cit., pp. 76, 233; Kugler, F. X., Im Bannkreis Babels, p. 154 Google Scholar, ‘eine Kammmuschel auf Thron (wohl eine Wassergottheit darstellend).’ Mrs. Van Buren's Symbols of the Gods is not available.

page 93 note 3 These I was able to examine by the kindness and with the advice of Mr. J. C. Vickery of the Department of Zoology at the British Museum (Natural History). The other two were Pecten senatorius Gmelin and Pecten pyxidatus Born. An interesting comparison of shells found at Nineveh by the late Dr. R. C. Thompson shows that those characteristic of the Persian Gulf were, as might be expected, twice as numerous as those presumed to come from the Mediterranean. As it happens, they do not include the Pecten ( Archaeologia, Vol. 79, p. 148 Google Scholar). See also Iraq, IX, 259 Google Scholar.

page 94 note 1 See, most recently, Andrae, W., ‘Gravierte Tridacna-Muscheln aus Assur’ (Z.A., XLV, 88 ff.)Google Scholar. Loftus, says (Chaldaea and Susiana, 202)Google Scholar that he found two shells in a wooden box in a Parthian grave at Warka.

page 94 note 2 Unless this depicts an edging of precious metal or other adornment. It will be seen later that sumptuous baskets for ritual use were made, and might be presented by kings.

page 94 note 3 For all of these, see Harrison's, J. E. articles ‘Mystica vannus lacchi,’ in J.H.S., 1903, and 1904 Google Scholar, also Prolegomena to the Study of Greek. Religion (3rd ed.), 526 ff. The object illustrated by Sir Arthur Evans in Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult, p. 115, Fig. 9, is the nearest approach to the figure on the boundary-stone, if the present suggestion is correct.

page 94 note 4 G. Dossin, lettres de la Première Dynastie Babylonienne, No. 4.

page 94 note 5 Zukkû, which corresponds with the figure in John the Baptist's preaching, ‘whose fan (πτύον, i.e., shovel) is in his hand, and he will throughly purge (διακαθαριεÎ) his floor.’

page 94 note 6 In a celebrated passage of the myths found at Ugarit (1 A.B., col. II, 32, in Syria, XII, 205 ffGoogle Scholar.), is related how Anat ‘cleansed’ Môt in a winnowing-basket. The word used there is hšr, which reappeared in post-Biblical Hebrew: see Sidersky, D. in Mélanges syriens offerts à Monsieur R. Dussaud, II, 637 Google Scholar.

page 95 note 1 According to a popular Iraqi description recorded by Meissner in B.A., V, 106, winnowing is now done with the mirwḥ (‘ventilateur,’ Dozy) only, doubtless a kind of fork or shovel. But this is not likely to be a full account of the operation.

page 95 note 2 It is clear, in fact, from all accounts of the process that the uses of the basket and the sieve are not very clearly distinguished, the former tending to pass into the latter. An interesting detail is the observation of Blackman, W. Miss, The Fellahin of Upper Egypt, p. 78 Google Scholar, that new-born babies are put to sleep for one night in the corn-sieve. This is the same as the ancient Greek usage with the λίκνον ( J.H.S., 1903, p. 315 Google Scholar, and n. 58), and it is now attested in the Old Babylonian age (see below, p. 96).

page 95 note 3 For winnowing and sifting in the Old Testament and in modern practice, see the Encyclopaedia Biblica (‘Agriculture’), Benzinger, I., Hebräische Archäologie (3rd ed.), p. 145 Google Scholar, and especially the detailed descriptions in Dalman, G., Arbeit und Sitte in Palästina, III, 116 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 95 note 4 Probably in the sense of osier rather than wood.

page 95 note 5 Reisner, Sumer.-babyl. Hymnen, No. 44, Obv. 30 (rendering ma-DI-ab in first half of line).

page 95 note 6 Dangin, Thureau, Rituels accadiens, p. 63, l. 42Google Scholar.

page 95 note 7 Délégation en Perse, II, p. 91, l. 26Google Scholar.

page 95 note 8 Examples are collected by Deimel, , Sumer. Lexicon, II, 622 Google Scholar, and by Langdon in J.R.A.S., 1933, p. 338 Google Scholar. More occurrences are found in the tablets of this period from Ur (Legrain, Business Documents of the Third Dynasty of Ur, see index, p. 127). In these the ma-sab are of woven rushes, sometimes delivered empty as containers, sometimes filled with fish, dates, or a fruit-product (GIŠ) ÚR + a-na. Most are of moderate capacity, up to 40 sila, but one of the fish-baskets contained 180 sila.

page 96 note 1 A. Poebel, Histor. and Grammat. Ttxts, Plate XLIII, Col. III, 27 ff., translated by Koschaker, and Ungnad, , Hammurabis Gesetz, VI, p. 146 Google Scholar.

page 96 note 2 Sommer, and Ehelolf, , Das hethitische Ritual des Papanikri von Romana, p. 8*, l. 1Google Scholar.

page 96 note 3 J.H.S., 1903, p. 318 Google Scholar.

page 96 note 4 Streck, M., Assurbanipal, II, p. 282 fGoogle Scholar.

page 96 note 5 pašallu—the suggestion of gold leaf is Thompson's, , Diet, of Assyr. Chemistry, p. 59 Google Scholar.

page 96 note 6 Meissner, , Babylonien und Assyrien, II, p. 76 Google Scholar, and Langdon, , J.R.A.S., 1933, p. 337 Google Scholar: they were normally of earthenware.

page 97 note 1 As does Bauer, Th., Das Inschriftenwerk. Assur-banipals, II, p. 48 Google Scholar.

page 97 note 2 Reisner, Sumer.-babyl. Hymnen, No. 44, Obv. 30, še (GI) ma-sá-ab um-mi-si é: še-am ma-sa-ab-ba mul-li-mi, ‘fill the masab with grain and to the house [of the ša'ilu-priest go,’ cf. l. 27, where the Akk. should perhaps read il(?)-ki] The direction is apparently addressed to (l. 27) ‘thou who art a maid not a woman,’ or (l. 28) ‘maid of the granary, thou (who) art not a woman.’ The ll. after 30 continue (in the Akkadian) ‘carry (?) the food of the shrieking (?) ghost, go out of the door to do mercy (?).’ The Sum. and its connexion with the Akk. in this place are obscure. If the above is right, the emphasis upon the virginity of the basket bearer is an interesting parallel with Greek custom. Thucydides says (VI, 56) that Harmodios conceived a mortal hatred for the tyrants because they had insulted his sister as unworthy to carry the basket. A survey of the religious associations of the basket in the ancient oriental and classical worlds is given by two articles in the Annual of the Amer. Schools of Orient. Research, Vol. V.

page 97 note 3 kfl-ri-e once, but generally written with the complex sign GUR 7. One might translate ‘barn-fan,’ but that the old implement so named in English was of a quite different character, according to J.H.S., 1903, p. 311 Google Scholar.

page 97 note 4 R. P. Dougherty, Records from Erech (Time of Nabonidus), Nos. 62, 10: 189, 14: 192, 13, 27. The qualifying phrase ša makk(qq)iti, which is added in each instance, is unexplained. Meissner says ( Babyl. und Assyr., II, 78 Google Scholar) that maqqu, maqqitu were ‘schlanke Kannen’ for libations, but this could apply in the present case only upon the supposition that the masab was a basket for carrying these vessels, which is not at all likely.

page 97 note 5 Dalman, G., Arbeit und Sitte in Palästina, pp. 254, 277 Google Scholar and Abbild. 57.

page 98 note 1 For the reading of this divine name see, recently, Jacobsen, T., The Sumerian King-List, 104, n. 196Google Scholar. A probable example not yet quoted is in the well-known seal of Kilulla,B.M. 89131, published in CT., XXI, 9 Google Scholar. The name of Kilulla's father was Ur-ba-x, the last sign being read gá by Thureau-Dangin, , S.A.K., 194 Google Scholar, z, who in a note identifies the sign with his R.E.C., No. 417. But it now appears that the reading of the latter should be gár (see the same author's Homophones sumériens, p. 10, and Hallock, R. T., The Chicago Syllabary, 16 51 Google Scholar), and in any case (as a fresh examination proves) the engraver certainly traced, and doubtless intended, the same sign here as in the last place of the whole inscription (l. 12). There it is quite beyond cavil, from the phrase, that the sign is bi, and consequently in l. 8 we must read the father's name as Ur-ba-bi. That ba-bi is here a divine name can hardly be questioned, though without determinative. A doubt recently raised against ‘Ba-ba’ in B.A.S.O.R., No. 95, p. 21, l. 11, is not very substantial, for the name there is uncertain.

page 98 note 2 Langdon, , Sumerian Liturgies and Psalms, No. 12 and pp. 330 ffGoogle Scholar. cf. also L. Legrain, Historical Fragments, No. 60.

page 99 note 1 In an appendix to K. Frank, Bilder und Symbole babyl.-assyrischer Götter.

page 99 note 2 According to the inscription upon the stone, col. IV, l. 30 (numbered 29 by Scheil, who ran ll. 17, 18 into one). M. Jean Nougayrol has kindly confirmed from the original that the number is 17, and is of the opinion that the last sign is probably nu, rather than na, already suggested as an emendation of Scheil's pat.

page 99 note 3 Moreover, this list, associating things with gods, and dating from the Kassite period, has an obvious affinity with the tablets afore-mentioned.

page 99 note 4 Rightly condemned by Hinke, op. cit., p. 93. Still more arbitrary was Zimmern's attempt to insist that there must be something upon the vacant seat, despite the positive testimony of those who had examined and touched the stone. Steinmetzer, , Die babyl. Kudurru, p. 132 Google Scholar, in affirming that the identity of the seated goddess with Gula is ‘durch die erklärende Bemerkung mašab rubati sicher gestellt,’ reverted presumably to Scheil's translation ‘siège (?).’

page 99 note 5 See the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, Essex, II, 275 Google Scholar, and illustration opposite 273. This came to my notice in Esdaile's, K. A. Mrs. book, English Church Monuments, 1510–1840, p. 95 Google Scholar. The author thereupon kindly furnished me with additional information and references, which I use here with grateful acknowledgment.

page 100 note 1 Spiers, W. L., The Notebook, and Accountbook, of Nicholas Stone (Walpole Society, Vol. 7), p. 57 Google Scholar.