“The just judgements that Ḫammu-rāpi, a former king, rendered”: A New Royal Inscription in the Istanbul Archaeological Museums

This article publishes a royal inscription preserved on a clay tablet housed in the Istanbul Archaeological Museums. The inscription, which was intended for display on a stele, commemorates a royal grant of tax exemptions to nine Babylonian cities and presents the royal protagonist as a second Ḫammu-rāpi. The name and titulary of the king in question are not preserved, and the attribution of the inscription is accordingly uncertain. Following Jean-Vincent Scheil’s attribution of the text already in 1902, the study that accompanies an edition of the text argues that it should be attributed to Nabonidus, king of Babylon 556–539 BC, and explores its historical significance in this context.

Scientific Evidences of the "Prostration Effect" on the Forehead of Some Prayer

Prostration, putting forehead on the ground or clay-tablet, has many medical benefits. But some reports showed on the forehead of a few prayers it causes prostration effect/PE or clay-tablet effect/CTE, as a skin-callosity, on his/her forehead. This effect, which in Persian language is named Mohr-e-Pishani, has always been a curious question for researchers. Observation of the PE raises many questions in mind, which is not limited to the present time. For example; in old books 'Ali Ibn Al Husayn, Zainul Abedeen (PBUH), the fourth Imam of the Shia, has been nicknamed "Zol-Seqqnat" for having the CTE on his forehead which in the Arabic language means “the owner of skin-callosity”. The main purpose of this study was to uncover the scientific evidence of the PE on the forehead of some prayers. The results showed that several factors would result the development of PE, including physiological factors such as skin structure and its keratin content; allergens of the ground and soil as an external factor including chemical elements, acidity, macromolecules, and microorganisms. Physical factors, such as the way and duration of prostration, head weight concentration on the ground, soil or clay-tablet are also effective. These findings can answer some of the questions, curiosities, and possible doubts related to the phenomenon of PE or CTE on the forehead as a phenotype for other researches.

“Kenőcs a halotti szellem ellen”: egy késő-babiloni orvosi szöveg elemzése

This paper edits an accadian medical record out of the Late Babylonian period preserved on a clay tablet which is housed in the British Museum. The table provides a short insight into the Mesopotamian medical documents of the Late Babylonian period (the time of the Persian and Seleucid rule in Babylonia). This study while publishing and analysing the specific record demonstrates parallel the general characteristics of medical tablets of this era.

The Cradle of Exotica

This chapter discusses the role of exotica in the Mesopotamian mind. By 1875, The Epic of Gilgamesh had begun to emerge from the thousands of clay tablet fragments freshly unearthed in the remains of the great royal library of Assurbanipal at Nineveh. Gilgamesh’s drive to possess the exotic is rooted in long-standing Mesopotamian tradition. From the third millennium on, when he supposedly reigned, scholar-scribes organized and classified nearly all aspects of the natural world. Thematic lists of flora and fauna, heavenly bodies, precious and semiprecious materials, and topographical features provided the educated elite with a means of conceptualizing patterns and interrelationships. For Gilgamesh, as for many Mesopotamian rulers, the acquisition and display of exotica were key aspects of kingship. Once secured within the walled, urban cores of Mesopotamian cultural identity, exotica offered tangible signs of wide-ranging military might, commercial enterprise, and political status and control.

BM 30617: An astronomical diary from the reign of Antiochus and his son Antiochus

This is the first publication of the astronomical diary BM 30617 from Babylon. This clay tablet shows an example of “preliminary diaries”, which record primary observations of the sky and, if any, the Euphrates for one month or less. The cuneiform text of BM 30617 shows the primary day-by-day observations of the sky over the first four days of the Babylonian month IX (Kislīm). The recorded phenomena are dated to an unknown year during the joint kingship of Antiochus and his son (or stepson), also named Antiochus, of the Seleucid dynasty. Some clues in the diary, however, help us to narrow down the candidates for the year to which our month IX belongs.

Turning Points in Horse Breeding in the Eurasian Steppes and the Near East

This article discusses the pivotal points in horse domestication on the Eurasian steppes and the Near East in the 5th to 2nd millennia BC, from the initial time and place of the domestication of horses to the emergence of various types of horse harnesses. On the basis of 5th and 4th millennia BC Eurasian horse-headed scepters, the means for handling horses are reconstructed. Six types of head harnesses are described, and their evolution is traced from simple muzzles (type 1) and more complex ones (types 2 and 3) to those supplemented with drop nosebands (type 4) and snaffl e (type 5) and non-snaffl e bridles (type 6). A unique 3rd millennium BC document—an Elamite clay tablet from Susa, listing horse farms, has made it possible to assess the structure of each farm, and evaluate the size of the domestic horse population in Elam. Training techniques of chariot horses were described by the “master horse trainer Kikkuli of Mitanni”. These techniques were further developed by the proto-Indo-Aryans on the Eurasian steppes in the early 2nd millennium BC, and became known to the Hittites and Assyrians via the Mitanni horse breeders. On the basis of the Rigveda, the type and exterior of those swift horses with which the Indo-Aryans spread over Asia are characterized.