The Aramaic Uruk incantation acquired 1913 by the Louvre, Paris and stored there under AO 6489[1][2] is a unique Aramaic text written in Late Babylonian cuneiform syllable signs and dates to the Seleucid Empire ca. 150 BCE. The finding site is the reš-sanctuary in the ancient city of Uruk (Warka), therefore the label “Uruk”.[3][4] Particular about this incantation text is that it contains a magical historiola which is divided up into two nearly repetitive successive parts, a text genre that finds its continuation in the Aramaic magical text corpus of late antiquity from Iraq and Iran,[5] most prominently in incantation bowls and Mandaic lead rolls.
The Aramaic style in which the text is composed is of a literary standard nature and follows a conventional transliteration system of the Aramaic phonemes in cuneiform syllable signs (e.g. <*ḍ> > <q> > Late Aramaic <’>).[6][7] The text is of importance for the linguistic setting as it is the only Aramaic text example of this period and geographical area (Mesopotamia) so far,[8] which shows already the masculine plural ending of the determinative -ē on nouns as in Eastern Aramaic,[2] but lacks certain morphemes as demonstrative pronouns, or the imperfect.[9]
The text is set up in a strict literary style and works with typical elements like parallelism and chiasmus as already employed in the earlier Babylonian incantation type, for example in the incantation series Maqlû and Šurpu. There have been manifold discussions and studies concerning the interpretation and translation since the master handcopy by François Thureau-Dangin was published in 1922.[1] It is noteworthy that it contains an idiomatic expression in line 2, which already occurs in the Aramaic part of the Book of Ezra, "a wood shall be pulled out from his house" (יִתְנְסַ֥ח אָע֙ מִן־בַּיְתֵ֔הּ, Ezra 6:11).[2][7]
^ abcChrista Müller-Kessler, "Die aramäische Beschwörung und ihre Rezeption in den mandäisch magischen Texten am Beispiel ausgewählter aramäischer Beschwörungsformulare," in Rika Gyselen (ed.), Magie et magiciens, charmes et sortilèges (Res Orientales XIV; Louvain: Peeters, 2002), pp. 195–201, pls. 1–2. ISBN 9782950826688
^Jan van Djik, "Ausgrabungen in Warka: Die Tontafelfunde der Kampagne 1959/60," Archiv für Orientforschung 20, 1963, p. 217.
^Klaus Beyer, Die aramäischen Texte vom Toten Meer, vol. 2 (Wiesbaden: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1984), p. 45 n. 4 ISBN 3-525-53571-6
^Christa Müller-Kessler, "Zauberschalen und ihre Umwelt. Ein Überblick über das Schreibmedium Zauberschale," in Jens Kamran, Rolf Schäfer, Markus Witte (eds.), Zauber und Magie im antiken Palästina und in seiner Umwelt (Abhandlungen des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 46; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2017), pp. 59–94, pls. 1–8. ISBN 3447050594
^Émile Puech, "Sur la dissimilation de l’interdentale ḍ en araméen qumrânien; à propos d’un chaînon manquant," Revue de Qumrân 19, 2000, pp. 607–616.
^ abChrista Müller-Kessler, "Aramäisches equ „Holz“ im keilschriftlichen Brief aus Tyros und eq in der aramäisch-keilschriftlichen Uruk-Beschwörung," in Ludĕk Vacín (ed.), u4 du11-ga-ni sá mu-ni-ib-du11. Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Memory of Blahoslav Hruška (Dresden: ISLET-Verlag, 2011), pp. 155–158. ISBN 978-3-9808466-6-0
^Stephen A. Kaufman, The Akkadian Influences on Aramaic (Assyriological Studies 19; Chicago, 1974), pp. 11–12.
^Stephen A. Kaufman, The Akkadian Influences on Aramaic (Assyriological Studies 19; Chicago, 1974), pp. 125.
and 26 Related for: Aramaic Uruk incantation information
The AramaicUrukincantation acquired 1913 by the Louvre, Paris and stored there under AO 6489 is a unique Aramaic text written in Late Babylonian cuneiform...
holds a unique cuneiform tablet in Aramaic known as the AramaicUrukincantation. The last dated cuneiform tablet from Uruk was W22340a, an astronomical almanac...
Aramaic (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: ארמית, romanized: ˀərāmiṯ; Classical Syriac: ܐܪܡܐܝܬ, romanized: arāmāˀiṯ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated...
but less to the various dialects of Aramaic appearing in the incantation texts on unglazed ceramic bowls (incantation bowls) found mostly in central and...
Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Greek mythology, in the AramaicUrukincantation, incorporated in Mandaean incantations, as well as in Jewish kabbalah. There are also...
to the Talmud. The incantation bowls which have been analysed, are inscribed in the following languages, Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, Syriac, Mandaic, Middle...
commonly worshipped. It is sometimes proposed that the Eanna temple located in Uruk originally belonged to him, rather than Inanna, but while he is well attested...
writers forming a new text genre for Aramaic (historiolas) which have a forerunner in the AramaicUrukincantation written in a very Late Babylonian cuneiform...
of the name and by texts written in the Aramaic alphabet, which does differentiate between z and ṣ. The Aramaic spelling zrpnt is known from the Sefire...
of Aramaicincantation bowls—ceramic artifacts dated to this era—discovered in Iraq, northeast Syria and southeast Turkey. While the Jewish Aramaic script...
example in the theophoric name Samsu-iluna ("Samsu is our god"). The ancient Aramaic form of the name was most likely Śameš, though many variant syllabic spellings...
form "Syria" is attested as a synonym for Assyria, notably in Luwian and Aramaic texts from the time of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, modern scholars overwhelmingly...
arrives safely back at the quay of Uruk. Eventually, Enki admits his defeat and accepts a peace treaty with Uruk. Politically, this myth would seem to...
/kaɬdu/. The name appears in Hebrew in the Bible as Kaśdim (כשדים) and in Aramaic as Kaśdāy (כשדי). The Bible (Book of Genesis 22:22) uses the name Kesed...
"Nanai"; antiquated transcription: "Nanâ"; in Greek: Ναναια or Νανα; Imperial Aramaic: נני, Classical Syriac: ܢܢܝ) was a Mesopotamian goddess of love closely...
architecture, and the calendar. They created the first city-states such as Uruk, Ur, Lagash, Isin, Kish, Umma, Eridu, Adab, Akshak, Sippar, Nippur and Larsa...
the 10th century AD, in the houses of which were large numbers of Aramaicincantation bowls. Jewish names, appearing in the Persian documents discovered...
was an Akkadian period die. and a terracotta incantation bowl written in "typical Jewish Babylonian Aramaic of the Sasanian period". The site consists of...
deities. Inanna was also the most important deity in Uruk and a number of other political centers in the Uruk period. Gudea regarded Ninhursag, rather than Enki...
with older narratives, he is apparently well known to the inhabitants of Uruk, rather than an unexpected encountered in the forest without prior notice...
Nuska was regarded as the son of Ningal and her husband. In a Maqlû incantation, Manzat (Akkadian and Elamite goddess of the rainbow) appears as the...
and musicians appear in the 4th millennium BCE; and later, in the city of Uruk, the pictograms for ‘harp’ and ‘musician’ are present among the earliest...
Ancient Egyptian Literature, vol.2, 1980, p.203 Alan Lenzi (2008). "The Uruk List of Kings and Sages and Late Mesopotamian Scholarship". Journal of Ancient...
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Yakubovich, Ilya (2022). "Binding and Smiting: One More Merism in Luvian Incantations". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 142 (2): 371–386. doi:10...
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