The Cults of Uruk and Babylon: The Temple Ritual Texts as Evidence for Hellenistic Cult Practice

Abstract

This review was published by RBL 2007 by the Society of Biblical Literature. For more information on obtaining a subscription to RBL, please visit http://www.bookreviews.org/subscribe.asp. RBL 09/2007 Linssen, Marc J. H. The Cults of Uruk and Babylon: The Temple Ritual Texts as Evidence for Hellenistic Cult Practices Cuneiform Monographs 25 Leiden: Brill/Styx, 2004. Pp. xvi + 343. Cloth. $157.00. ISBN 9004124020. Hector Avalos Iowa State University Ames, Iowa There are few academic subjects more arcane than ancient Mesopotamian rituals. Marc J. H. Linssen, however, offers as compelling a reason as I have seen to learn about ancient rituals that were used in what is now Iraq. Cuneiform texts from the Hellenistic period have been studied at least as far back as F. Thureau-Dangins Tablettes DUruk a lusage des pretres du Temple dAnu au temps de Seleucides (1922). Similarly, the existence of Babylonian culture in the Hellenistic period is well established. Linssen, however, provides perhaps the most systematic attempt yet to establish the extent to which Babylonian cult practices survived into the Hellenistic period. The first chapter (Introduction) is a succinct primer on the study of the continuation of Babylonian culture into the Hellenistic period. In particular, Linssen collects cuneiform texts that illuminate the cultic life of Babylon and Uruk, important cities in southern Mesopotamia. The key question is: can we use the temple ritual texts as evidence for Hellenistic cult practices? (1). The question is important because temples may have stored copies of older compositions that were no longer in use. To answer the question, therefore, Linssen also surveys other types of texts that originated in the Hellenistic period, including building inscriptions, legal documents, chronicles, and astronomical diaries. Since most of the texts from Babylon derive from illicit excavation, it is difficult to ascertain their exact origin within the city. At Uruk, however, the literary texts are classified into three groups. The first are texts found in the Res temple area at Uruk. The second are illicitly excavated texts that are believed to be from the Res temple or from other locations within the Res temple (5). A third set come from private archives in living quarters. All these texts can be assigned to four families (Ekur-zakir, Sin-leqe- unnini, Hunzu, and Ahutu). The Ekur-zakir family consisted mainly of asipu-priests, while the Sin-leqe-unnini family specialized as lamentation priests (kalu). Linssen concludes that there was no apparent difference between archives found in the temple and those found in private homes. Chapter 2, which is by far the longest, treats Ceremonies, Rituals and Festivals. Linssen categorizes the ceremonies by their frequency (daily, monthly, and annual) and by the object on which they center (e.g., the kettledrum ceremony, the building ritual). Each ceremony is subjected to a detailed analysis that discusses the actual procedure, ingredients, paraphernalia, the type of priests, and participants. Linssen summarizes, for each ceremony, the extent to which he believes that ceremony was actually enacted in the Hellenistic period. The Divine Meal forms the topic of chapter 3. Linssen follows W. W. Hallos theory that these cultic meals were meant to sanctify the act of consumption (129). In addition, the meals involved the concept of reciprocation (The offerant gives in order that gods return the favor). In the conclusion (ch. 4), Linssen returns to his original key question and concludes that there is enough evidence to suggest that the temple ritual texts do indeed describe the cultic activities as they took place during the Hellenistic period (167). The appendix, however, is not to be overlooked, because it comprises nearly half the book. Therein are editions and translations of the main texts that form the data-base for Linssens discussions. The new editions are mostly those for which older or incomplete editions were available, but those from the British Museum were newly collated by Linssen. These texts, which include variant versions, concern the New Year ritual, a festival for Istar, the kettledrum ritual, the building ritual, and the eclipse of the moon ritual. Assyriologists have rightly fought to establish the worth of Mesopotamian texts for what they tell us about Mesopotamian culture rather than for their subsidiary role in biblical studies. Nonetheless, biblical scholars will find much of interest. For example, we find omen texts that explicitly connect the fracture and overturning of a cultic statue with a shortened reign (cf. the statue of Dagon in 1 Sam 5:34). A text of a building ritual, previously published but yet perhaps missed by many biblical scholars, ends with a recitation of a creation story, whose first line (e-nu-ma A-nu ib-nu-u An-e = When Anu created heaven) is more verbally similar to Gen 1:1 than the first line of the better-known Enuma elish. The appendix contains an extensive edition of the New Year festival, which includes a purification ritual with parallels to the Day of Atonement ceremony in Lev 16, including the use of the same Semitic root, kpr. Such a connection already has been noted by, among others, Jacob Milgrom (Leviticus 116 New York: Doubleday, 1991, 106771), but Milgrom was relying on older copies (translated in ANET, 33234) to argue for the preexilic date of the ritual in Leviticus. The fact that such a Babylonian ritual survived into the Hellenistic period, however, can also support a late dating for Lev 16. One main criticism to be made is that Linssen is not sufficiently sensitive to the role of these cultic practices in the health-care system of the Hellenistic period. Consider, for example, his brief discussion on page 83 of the text known as British Museum (BM) 41577, which provides new textual evidence that may bear on the New Year festival in Babylon. Linssen seems interested only in the mechanics of the ritual, as in this description: The main proceedings described in this fragment consist of a visit of the high priest to the cella of Bel, where he recites a Sumerian blessing to Bel. Then he enters the cella of Beltija, to recite another Sumerian blessing. He returns to Bel and recites a blessing, this time in Akkadian, after which he enters the cella of Beltija again for another blessing also in Akkadian. Missing from the discussion is the integration of healing rituals that appear in the more complete edition of this text provided by A. R. George (Four Temple Rituals from Babylon, in Wisdom, Gods, and Literature: Studies in Assyriology in Honor of W. G. Lambert ed. A. R. George and I. L. Finkel; Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2000, 260 70). For example, note this prayer addressed to Marduk on page 268: O one who takes the hands of the fallen, who revives the dead, who with his spell drives off the wicked! The one whom the Asakku demon possesses and whose body it consumesyou cast your life giving spell on him and drive out his sickness. Such an oversight is important because Linssen elsewhere remarks that there is no evidence to suggest that the phrase for the life of the king in the Hellenistic period deals with anything other than the physical and mental well being of the king, just as in pre- Hellenistic times (128). However, BM 41577 suggests that the health of the king and the country were a much more important part of the reason for such elaborate cultic rituals in the temples. In addition, the importance of health care helps explain why so many of these texts were found in the archives of asipu-priests, who were some of the main health- care consultants of Mesopotamia. But, overall, Linssen is highly successful in answering the question of whether Babylonian temple rituals continued into the Hellenistic period. Linssen shows not only that we must answer such a question affirmatively but that we also must now recognize how extensively such practices survived. His work is an important contribution that should prompt other scholars to continue to investigate how extensively other aspects of Babylonian culture (health care, music) survived into the Hellenistic era, as well.