CORPUS OF MESOPOTAMIAN ANTI WITCHCRAFT RITUALS Among the most important sources for understanding the cultures and systems of thought of the ancient world is a large body of magical and medical texts written in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages. Over the course of some 2500 years (ca. 2600-100 BCE), numerous cuneiform texts written in both the Sumerian and Akkadian languages refer to personal crisis and individual suffering. By and large, the most important sources detailing ways to cope with illness, danger, and personal difficulties are the various types of texts that describe symptoms, provide etiological or descriptive diagnoses, and prescribe ways to deal with evil and suffering. These treatments include medical therapies, ritual prescriptions, and oral rites (prayers and incantations). Procedural texts prescribe the treatment of problems either by means of various ritual or ceremonial therapies (āšipūtu) or by means of traditional herbal therapy (asûtu). Most magical and medical texts treat one or another of the principal agencies of evil. Some of these agencies are: gods, demons, ghosts, tutelary gods, witches, evil omens, curses, and sins. One especially significant branch of this magical and medical literature centers upon witchcraft. Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft literature attributes misfortune and ill-health to the machinations of a special class of people designated as witches and prescribes the various ceremonies, devices, and treatments for dispelling witchcraft, destroying the witch, and protecting and curing the patient. This literature makes explicit some of the understandings of human life and of the supernatural that underlie the Mesopotamian cuneiform tradition. Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft literature includes a large body of very significant and interesting prayers, incantations, magical rituals, and medical prescriptions. This very important body of magical texts from early antiquity sheds invaluable light on many aspects of ancient life and thought and helps us to understand the development of later literary (e.g., biblical psalms of lamentation, Greek and Latin defixiones), social, and intellectual forms. I should add that the witch was generally viewed as female, and for this reason, the texts are invaluable for the study of attitudes toward women and gender construction in ancient Mesopotamia. The corpus is divided into two major parts: a) the Maqlû (“Burning”) series, the longest and most important magical anti-witchcraft ritual from Mesopotamia; b) the Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals includes all other magical and medical texts against witchcraft.
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 11:59:07 +0000
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