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On Some Assyrian Minerals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

R. Campbell Thompson
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Extract

Consider the following passages from vocabularies:—

(1) CT. xiv, 3, K. 4325, iv–vi, 11. 18–25: ib. 5, K. 4368, iv–vi, 11. 8–16; and for col, iv, presumably 81–7–27, 147 (Meissner, Suppt., pl. 27):—

(2) CT. xiv, 14, K. 4396, 11. 10–13, dup. ib., S. 995, rev. 4–7:—

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 65 , Issue 4 , October 1933 , pp. 885 - 895
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1933

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References

page 885 note 1 Abbreviations: As in JRAS., 1929, 801, with additions: Boson, = Rivista d. Studi Orientali, viiGoogle Scholar; BA. = Beiträge z. Assyr.; MVAG. = Mittheil. d. Vorderas. Gesellsch.; OTC. = my On the Chemistry; R. = Rawlinson, Cun. Inscr.; RA. = Revue d'Assyr.; ZA. = Zeits. f. Assyr. I am much indebted to Dr. Nevil Sidgwick, F.R.S., for his ready help in questions involving chemistry.

page 885 note 2 From CT. xviii, 26, Rm. 339, 4; see also Deimel, No. 390, 10, and p. 890 for an addition.

page 885 note 3 Presumed from CT. xviii, 26, Rm. 339, 3, which gives the additional = pur-ṭa-a-tum, but it is not a certain equivalent.

page 885 note 4 Cf. also equivalence, CT. xiv, 15, 13: 17, ii. 15: mu-[ṣa]l-tum.

page 885 note 5 Equivalence also, HWB. 50, quoting K. 4349, 10; and CT. xviii, 26, Rm. 339, 14.

page 885 note 6 Read thus with Meissner, , MVAG., 1904, 3, 17Google Scholar; Var. K. 4368, [taksagg]i-li-mut.

page 885 note 7 Rest, from CT. xviii, 26, Rm. 339, 15 (Meissner, ib.).

page 885 note 8 CT. xviii, ib., AN.AN (= sag)-gi-il-mut, Meissner, , MVAG., 1905, 4, 9Google Scholar.

page 886 note 1 Perhaps scribal indication of its “magical value”, i.e. takerî is a stone for pregnancy.

page 886 note 2 Actually he applied his suggestion todaîku (which was at that time misread aîku), properly the “not-birth-stone”.

page 887 note 1 Note the similarity of the myth of the ετιτης with the šamma šaaladi “birth drug” which the eagle provides for Etana's wife in the Assyrian story (Harper, , BA. ii, 447, K. 8578, 12, 13Google Scholar). We can, I presume, dismiss any punning connection with take-ri-e “the pregnant stone” and the word for “eagle”, erû. For this word with a plant-determinative see CT. xiv, 26, K. 4429, 11. 3–8, dup. pi. 31, K. 4581, rev. 1–4.

page 887 note 2 There are, of course, other botryoidal stones. Pliny, , NH. xxxvii, 53Google Scholar, mentions a botryitis, resembling a bunch of grapes, which Bostock says may be datholite, or borate of lime, a variety of which is known as botryolite.

page 888 note 1 Ṭalila. I cannot agree with ProfessorLangdon, (RA. xxix, 121)Google Scholar that this is merely a synonym for “frog”. We might almost say that prima facie the evidence is against this being an animal, since the grammatical lists give us so very many names for the various animals, and this is not included among them. The Heb. tall, the Syr. ṭallâ “dew”, may perhaps indicate that we have here the word for the crystalline secretion within the hollow stone. As was shown above, the hollow hæmatites of Mardin contain calcareous spar (carbonate of lime). Ebeling suggested that we had here a stone containing another stone inside, but at the same time, although he read da-li-la, he suggested that it should be ša-li-la (= embryo), Talm. Heb. šâlîl (Archiv.f. Gesch. d. Medizin xiii, 11).

Ṭa-lil(?) lalara in my article PRSM., 1926, 74, n. 4,1 translated “liquid of a cricket”, prescribed for putting on teeth. Dr. W. J. Rutherford has kindly drawn my attention to a passage in SirBrowne, Thomas (Works, ed. Wilkin, , iii, 359)Google Scholar: “To observe that insect which a countryman shewed Baricellus, found in the flowers of Eryngium cichoreum, which readily cure warts; est coloris Thalassini cum maculis rubris, et assimilatur proportions corporis cantharidi, licet parvulum sit. Acceperat ea rusticus, et singula in singulis verrucis digitis expressit unde exibat liquor.”

page 889 note 1 Von Oefele, loc. cit. (repeated by Boson, 413), considered the PEŠ-stone to be the λίθος σαυίος, “probably a kind of hæmatite.” He calls it the kakamabi-stone, but this is perhaps as I have suggested on p. 886, n. 1, properly INIM.INIM.MA.BI “its magical equivalence”, i.e. a stone for pregnancy.

page 890 note 1 The other equivalents, ḫandapil[lum?] (two words joined?), šiḳe [tum ?] and purṭâtum are difficult, although perhaps the latter might suggest Heb pereṭ “the broken off” esp. of grapes (Lev. 19, 10). Is(ṣ, z)sillatu can hardly be a corrupt form of is(š)killatu, but is perhaps to be compared with Heb. šālal “to collect” (Dalman, , Aram.-Heb. Wörterb., 405)Google Scholar, šělěl, in šělěl êṣîm “ovary”, and the Syr. šellěthê da-d'mâ “drops of blood”, the Assyrian š presumably having become s by doubling. But this is uncertain, for although forms like ikribu from karâbu exist, it is not easy to find forms like issillaiu. An additional value for takPEŠ is given in Deimel, No. 390, 10 = la-ḫi tak-na-te (= CT. xviii. 26, Rm. 339, 4 [la-ḫu ta]k-na-tum). Laḫu = “offspring” (embryo), and taknâti, f. pl. of taknu “care”; the group then referring to the protection given to the embryo in the womb, or the smaller stone protected by its outer covering.

As will have been noticed, we have had one instance of “takPEŠ-stone of the river”. This is used also in Assyrian medicine, externally, similarly to the simple takPEŠ: KAR. 192, ii, 27 (dup. AM. 73, i, ii, 3), where it is prescribed to be placed on a swelling (kabartu), which is to be anointed with ŠE.SUN (?) and bound on; in AM. 44,1, ii, 11, it is to be “reduced” and applied to the spot in some skin trouble (or similar affection). It may even be worn (magically) as a bead on a necklace, for a swelling (KAR. 192, iv, 32).

There is possibly a third form, the takPEŠ, A. AB. BA, of the sea, but the text is a little doubtful. This is also used for anointing a swelling or bruise (dikšu) with others. (KAR. 182, 18.)

page 891 note 1 Also see Landsberger, , ZA. 1926, 7Google Scholar.

page 891 note 2 I re-read this in 1922 as du (DU).

page 891 note 3 Kaziri ( “juice” ?) from this and the following passage about opium must mean “juice”. I was entirely wrong in AH. 43: the proper translation of the group ukanašû tamšil iluNAM. TAR PApl-šu ṣiḥrûtipl ŠALpl ka-zi-ri išûpl is “kanašû (opium-poppy), like mandrake (i.e. narcotic): its small and tender (?) capsules hold the juice” (CT. xiv, 22, vii–viii, 43). ŠALpl = sinnišâti “female”, which I have translated “tender” (without warranty) is difficult; it will be seen to occur also in the text about caper-buds a few lines further. The opium is collected by making incisions in the half-ripe capsule (Rhind, , Veg. Kingd., 547Google Scholar; Neligan, A. R., The Opium Question, 14Google Scholar). [A similar phrase is used about a plant which may now definitely be considered the caper (AH. 81), CT. xiv, 18, rev. xv–xvi, 12 uAhulap utliš upirḫi ŠAR PApl-šu ṣiḫrûtipl ŠAL pl . . . pl (?) (re-examined) “The Aḫulap-plant, in common speech Caper, the small and tender (?) buds . . .” (i.e. used for pickle; cf. CT. xiv, 10, obv. 1, 6, restored from Meek, RA. 1920, 181, S. 1701, and CT. xiv, 44, i, 18, iṣnibi' iṣuNIM ina (tak)mil'i “caper-buds in saltpetre”).] However much we might like to see “female” used to mark the capsule of the poppy with its seeds, it is surely impossible to apply it to the caper-bud.

page 892 note 1 The old Penny Cyclopædia, 1843, xxvii, 789Google Scholar, describes the Zizyphus spina Christi as being covered with thorns, with drupe ovate-globose, the fruit being oblong, about the size of a sloe. This exactly fits the slingbolt shape, which is usually that of an egg.

page 893 note 1 Quoted, Jeremias, , Das Alte Testament, 1930, 339Google Scholar.

page 893 note 2 Fletcher, L., Int. to Study of Meteorites, 1914, 71Google Scholar, quoting Mineralog. Mag., vii, 179.

page 893 note 3 See in general Fletcher, op. cit., 17; Enc. Brit., xivth ed., vol. xv, s.v.; Bostock, , Pliny, vol. i, 177Google Scholar. I am indebted to Dr. L. J. Spencer and Mr. W. Campbell-Smith of the British Museum for much help in the matter.

page 894 note 1 “Generally irregular” (Enc. Brit., loc. cit., 341); “always irregularly shaped fragments” (ib., 11th ed., vol. xviii, 263).

page 894 note 2 Ib., 14th ed., vol. 15, 340. We may at once eliminate belemnites, of which the same tradition has been held, as not being of slingstone-shape.

page 895 note 1 This latter passage I owe to Boson, 388, quoted under copper.