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Tablets from the Sippar library XI. The Babylonian almanac

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Khalid Salim Isma'el  and
A. R. George
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Extract

The Babylonian Almanac is a text that gives abbreviated prescriptions for the days of the year. Since it was last edited, by René Labat in 1941 (“Un almanach babylonien”, RA 38, 13–40), new sources for the almanac have steadily accrued. Two more copies of the text have been identified among the tablets of the library discovered in the temple of Šamaš at Sippar by archaeologists of the University of Baghdad in 1986. Both are full almanacs, that is, they give an entry for all the days of the year, unfavourable as well as favourable. The two sources share a common format, with each month occupying one column of text, so that the first six months of the year occupy the obverse of the tablet and the last six months fill the reverse. They are, however, not exact duplicates, for on some days their entries differ.

A new edition of the almanac and other hemerological literature is in preparation by Alasdair Livingstone. Consequently the present publication is limited to making available the Sippar manuscripts without further discussion.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 64 , 2002 , pp. 249 - 258
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2002 

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References

1 Both tablets are published here by permission of the Directorate-General of Antiquities and the University of Baghdad. We wish to record our thanks to Farouk Al-Rawi and A. Livingstone for help with the preparation of this article.

2 We expect karṣa(EME.SIG.GA) ikkal(ì.GU7.E).

3 We expect kaspa(KÙ.BABBAR), but cf. ix 3.

4 We expect ana kaspi(KÙ.BABBAR.ŠÈ); cf. viii 12.

5 Perhaps partially erased; we expect libbu ṭābu, “contentment”.

6 Or ˹la˺ kašād(KVR), “failure of enterprise”.