Fragments of magic, medicine, and mythology from Nimrud

Extract

A new volume of literary texts from Nimrud has been in gestation for a very long time. Tablets were first found in Max Mallowan's excavations at Nimrud in 1949, with many more tablets found in subsequent seasons. In 1963 the decision was made to publish all the literary tablets from the Nabû Temple in hand copy, and this effort has finally culminated in the form of Literary texts from the Nabû temple, edited by J. A. Black and D. J. Wiseman (Cuneiform Texts from Nimrud 4, 1998). As is so often the case with the publication of new literary texts, these copies often solve many problems and create just as many new ones for editors of texts; many of the copies could benefit from collation. Furthermore, the catalogue describing the tablets is extremely sparse, and much more could have been done by the editors to identify the tablets and note published duplicates. Nevertheless, the volume makes a valuable contribution to the field of Assyriology by publishing a large number of literary texts in cuneiform copy.