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How to cite: Cohen, Yoram. "puzru." Tomorrow Never knows. Last modified October 27, 2022. https://sites.google.com/view/tomorrow-never-knows/3d-models/liver-minor-features/puzru.
Written by: Yoram Cohen
Updated: 27 October, 2022.
Table of Contents:
1. The Term Puzrum, 'Secret Message:'
1. The Term Puzrum, 'Secret Message:'
The term puzru(m), ‘news’, ‘omen’, ‘sign’, ‘secret divine message’, was a part of, or more likely, a mark on the liver. The term was metonymically used for another organ (perhaps the danānu) or for another feature of the liver. The method of denoting the physiological features of the liver with non-anatomical terms which replace the anatomical terms is one of the key strategies of divination. The most well-known example is the gallbladder, martu, which was renamed as ‘the shepherd’, rē’û.
The puzru is associated with the Weapon-mark (kakku) in precursors to the Bārûtu (Susa; Middle Assyrian), and in the Bārûtu commentary to the kakku.
2. Sources:
2. Sources:
Mari Letter Reports
Durand 1988: 264–265 (100-bis [A.4222], ll. 9 and 37); a letter report:
Ibid., 280–281 (113 [A.860], l. 10); a letter report:
Ibid., 321–322 (155 [A.4337], l. 12); a letter report:
Old Babylonian Compendia
Jeyes 1989: 122 (4, obv. 8’); compendium:
Jeyes 1989: 126 (6, 7’); compendium:
Jeyes 1989: 124 (5, ii 1’) puzrum compendium:
Susa
Labat 1974: 117, 120 and 125 (Susa 5 rev. 16–17); kakku compendium
Labat 1974: 139, 146 (Susa 6 iii 26–27)
Middle Assyrian Precursor to šumma kakku, 3rd Tablet
Heeßel 2012: 161 (KAL 5 42 / KAR 148, ii 18 and 22); compendium:
Commentary to Bārûtu 8, kakku B (Nineveh)
Jeyes 1978: 225; Nougayrol 1967; 226, n. 53 (CT 31 11/K 2086+ obv.! 28’-29’).
3. Writing:
3. Writing:
4. Discussion:
4. Discussion:
In the Mari letters the word puzrum always refers to a part of the liver under inspection. It is never used to denote ‘secret’ or ‘secret message’ in the Mari discourse, and other terms are used. For example, awātam naṣirtim, ‘a secret’ and piristum, ‘an (official) secret’. These are the same terms which are used also in the apodoses of the OB omen compendia.
The same can be said about the term puzru in extispicy literature in general. The secret art of the diviner 4is called niṣirti bārûti and not by way of using the word puzru. In fact, apart from its appearance in the protases, as a liver part or feature, puzru is found only very rarely in extispicy apodoses (as ina puzri, ‘in secret’). Indeed, it is surprising but also telling as regards to the meaning of the word, that the apodoses, as few as are preserved, do not deal with official secrets or similar issues.
The first meaning of puzru was message or news. The secondary meaning of the word puzru was ‘secret’, which derives from its primary sense. In omen literature, the term means thus ‘secret divine message’. Otherwise, meaning of ‘secret’ is usually used adverbially, as in ina puzri, ašar puzri, “in secret”.
The root of the word p-z-r is perhaps etymologically related (and was probably differentiated at a later stage) to b-s-r. Note in this respect the spelling at Mari, pu-IŠ-ru; the phonetic complement ŠA in the logogram KA✕GAN2+ŠA = PUZUR4; and spelling such as bu-ZU-ra-at. The root b-s-r is attested in Akkadian in the following words: bussurtu, passurtu, busratu, ‘good news’ and busāru, ‘announcement’. Famously, these are words to be born upon the winds with the death of Tiamat, as Marduk announces that he slaughtered her (IV 131-132; eBL, Poem of Creation):
The same is found in the Myth of Anzu, after the lion-bird is killed.
A different etymology is offered by Kogan and Krebernik 2020: 447, 456–457.
Thus, the word basically means ‘news’, ‘omen’, reached by the result of an oracle question. Since the news was concealed and had to be revealed by divination, it is ‘secret’, hence the secondary meaning of the word, ‘secret message’ and its derivative denominative verb pazāru, ‘to hide, conceal’. From this aspect developed a third meaning of the term, ‘protection’ (of a deity), which is found in personal names. The semantics operated here in a way similar to the semantics of ṣillu, ‘shade, under cover’, a word which in personal names became to mean ‘protection’ (of a deity).
The writing of the term is also revealing. Apart from its syllabic writing in the OB sources, it is written with three different logographic writings. The first sign is simply ‘u’, which can stand for a ‘mark’ on the liver surface. This sign, as BUR3, indeed is used in extispicy literature for the term šīlu, ‘hole’. The reading of ‘u’ (‘10’) as PUZUR/puzru may have been sparked by the initial sound of the logogram BUR3, namely, /pu»bu/, which is also given a value of bu12. But the association with puzru could have arisen because of the liver mark itself, that is ‘u’, a sort of hole or cavity, with puzru as a secondary and metonymically fill-in.
The sign PUZUR2 is simply a doubled ‘u’, or ‘man’ (‘20’). The sign can be also read as Šamaš or probably somewhat later as šarru, ‘king’. The use of ‘man’ for puzrum is documented in personal names as early as the Old Assyrian period. It is difficult to know how the use of this sign arose, because ‘man’ does not have a reading of /pu»bu/. One may want to assume some connection with divination, with ‘man’ as a stand-in for Šamaš, hence a divine secret message, transposed to ‘protection’ (of the divine force) offered to the name-bearing child, but there is no evidence to support this suggestion.
The third use of logographically writing puzru is PUZUR4. The sign is written as KA✕GAN2+ŠA. An alternate and simpler sign is PUZUR5 = KA✕GAN2 (also having the value of PÙ). We will start with the simpler sign. PUZUR5 is made up with the sign KA, ‘mouth’, which has in Akkadian the same meaning, pû, ‘mouth’. Inside the KA appears the GAN2 sign. The sign GAN2 stands probably for the Sumerian word gana, which means ‘shackles’. Hence, “shackled mouth”, in other words, a ‘secret’.
The sign PUZUR4 is the same sign as PUZUR5 followed by ŠA, hence: KA✕GAN2+ŠA. The sign ŠA is probably a phonetic complement for /s/, which one can reconstruct as *pus/z, on account of Old Akkadian names spelt as PUZUR4-ru-sa or PÙ.ŠA-ru-sa for Puzru-sa, ‘Her-protection’ (CAD/P: 558).
Similar to PUZUR5 is KA✕ŠU+ŠA, also PUZURx hence “hand over mouth”, i.e., a ‘secret’ + phonetic ŠA
5. Bibliography:
5. Bibliography:
Durand 1988: 64
Glassner 2005: 284–285
Heeßel 2012
Jeyes 1978
Jeyes 1989
Koch 2000: 47
Kogan and Krebernik 2020
Nougayrol 1967
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