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How to cite: Cohen, Yoram, and Nathan Steinmeyer. "Borsippa." Tomorrow Never knows. Last modified August 1, 2021. https://sites.google.com/view/tomorrow-never-knows/3d-models/clay-models/borsippa.
Written by: Yori Cohen
Updated: 1 August, 2021
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Introduction
The clay liver model BM 50494 (1882-03-23, 1485) housed in the British Museum is one of the museum’s most famous artifacts. Its acquisition date is 1882 and it was sent to the museum by Rassam from Baghdad. It was found, along with other finds, at the city of Borsippa, near Babylon, probably a year or so before. Perhaps it originated from the Temple of Nabû (the Ezida), where many tablets were recovered.
The first edition of this remarkable object was only many years later, by Jean Nougayrol in the Revue d’Assyriologie of 1968 (who prior to his edition had written a short introduction about it in 1966). Ulla Koch (2005, no. 107) has provided a modern and updated edition of the model (and see below). Needless to say, this model, in particular, was instructive to modern scholarship in identifying the ancient liver terminology with the modern anatomical features of the liver and assisting the understanding of how the liver was rotated to be read, hence Nougayrol’s foie d’orientation. Modern discussions of the model include Jeyes 1978, Meyer 1987, Leiderer 1990, Glassner 2005, Glassner 2010, Glassner 2012 and Maul 2013.
Hormuzd Rassam
Discovery of the Ezida temple of Nabû
The object itself measures 7.30cm × 8.57cm, although it is not complete, since about a third of the original artifact is broken away and lost. Nonetheless, it is by far smaller, as all clay models are, from the physical liver of the lamb (which, when it is over 3 months old, already weighs approx. 40kgs). The model is sectioned into boxes, or areas, and sometimes circles. Almost all are filled with cuneiform writing, mostly logographic. The ‘upper’ part of the liver contains seventy sections and the back of the liver eleven more.
The back of the model also has a partial colophon, which gives us the name of the scribe who copied the text onto the clay. He is Mušezib-Marduk, an apprentice diviner. It is certainly possible to think that he dedicated this object, having finished his apprenticeship, as an ex voto to the Temple of Nabû at Borsippa. However, it must be made clear that as a diviner, Mušezib-Marduk, was not necessarily a priest of Nabû.
On account of the script and its providence, BM 50494 is dated to the Late Babylonian period.
© Wiki Commons
The Liver Model as a ‘foie d’orientation’
The Liver Model as a ‘foie d’orientation’
The purpose of this object, as Koch 2005: 68–72 explains, is to illustrate an explanatory composition, which we nowadays call, the Orientation Text (also called “Nougayrol’s Group 2”). This composition, known from twelve or so rather divergent manuscripts, was to instruct the diviner in the process of reading the liver. It says so itself because it provides its own title: “The areas of the front of the of the liver and the circumference of the liver are in front of you for the study of their meaning.” (This sentence is found as a catchline, that is, a sentence of the first line of the composition, at the end of another tablet [Koch 2005, no. 106], which also deals with explanations about the liver). Hence, the text found on the model is dependent on the Orientation Text composition.
The Orientation Text was also illustrated by KAL 5 78 (= KAR 444/VAT 9580), found in Assur. This is not a model like BM 50494, but rather a flat tablet, upon whose obverse side there is a text and drawn outlines of the liver features. The reverse side is dedicated to the lungs. The editor of KAL 5 78, Nils Heeßel, dates the tablet on account of its paleography to the Middle Assyrian period. This is important because it allows us to presuppose that the Orientation Text, whose manuscripts are exclusively dated to the first millennium, was in existence already in the last centuries of the second millennium.
KAL 5, 78
The Orientation Text passes along the various features of the liver, more or less as it would have been examined by the diviner. The starting point is the Pen to the left of the Position and the endpoint is the Liver canal. The following features are included along the way, with those of BM 50494 given in bold-type and numbered, so that they can be detected on the model on our website. We list only the main features (see more details in Jeyes 1978; Meyer 1987; Koch 2005: 69–70; Glassner 2010).
Position (1)
The Rise of the Wind (2)
The Dyeing Vat (3)
The Path
The Pleasing Word
The Strength (4)
The Palace Gate (5)
The Furrow (6)
The Gall Bladder (7)
The Finger (8)
The Yoke (9)
The Increment (10)
The Liver Canal (11)
© British Museum
Each feature of the liver is treated according to its left and right sides, and, when applicable, according to its three sub-zones, viz., its top, middle, and base. Areas between the features are also treated. Each entry is evaluated by either “Right” (positive), or “Left” (negative). Koch reconstructed 261 entries for the Orientation Text. This means that this model does not include all entries. In Nougayrol’s edition, only eighty entries dealing with the liver features are preserved. Some additional entries were contained, no doubt, on the parts of the model now missing. Where the model differs from the Orientation Text is its backside: which includes entries not found in the tablet versions of the Orientation text.
Because the model is much smaller than an actual lamb liver, the boxes and circles or areas do not represent a one-to-one correspondence and are to be treated, in our view, as approximations. The reason that a real life-size model was not produced is that it would not have been manageable in the hands of the scribe or apprentice.
We have provided a new enumeration of the text of the model, following the order established by Koch 2005, no. 107. This is the order by which the model was read. For the sake of convenience, and to enable cross-referencing, we have kept Koch’s and Nougayrol’s numeration in brackets, thus (K253/N66). Our numbering is consecutive (§§1–87) so as to allow an easy orientation across the model but be advised that textual gaps in the model are not indicated. One should follow Koch’s edition in order to appreciate these properly.
The transliteration and translation are based on Nougayrol 1968 and Koch 2005: 480–508. Broken entries which are not included are N38, N49, and N69.
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