MESOPOTAMIAN ANTI-WITCHCRAF

T RITUALS
by
Sebastien MacCollin

In ancient Mesopotamia the belief in kip was widely spread. Akkadian kip (witchcraf)
designates both the evil actions performed by the witch and the resulting evil
which takes possession of the patient, makes him impure and binds him. We posses
s many cuneiform tablets confirming this fact. The belief and fear of evil witch
craft was so common that early on, a certain ''priestly caste'' emerged, namely
the ipu, wich can roughly be translated as ''exorcist''. The professional perform
ance of iptu (art of magic and healing) was restricted to males and the ipu had a hig
h social status, sometimes solely attached to the royal court. Due to this wides
pread fear of ''witchcraft'', these ancient exorcists develloped a vast corpus o
f apotropaic and ''anti-witchcraft'' rituals. The rituals and prescriptions used
by the ipu and the recipes for remedies administered by his colleague the physici
an (as) form the most important source of information on Mesopotamian witchcraft
beliefs. In this paper i will first identify the various forms of kip perpetrated
by the kaptu and kapu (witch and warlock), then i will describe what were those anti-w
itchcraft rituals, and finally i will reproduce a complete ritual.
ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAN WITCHCRAFT BELIEFS
There was different forms of evil-magic in ancient Mesopotamia. The principal on
es were zikurud (ZI.KU5.RU.DA) ''cutting of-the-throat'' magic (SUM.), kadabbed (K
A.DAB.B.DA) ''seizing-of-the-mouth'' magic (SUM.), dibal (DI.BAL.A) ''distortion-o
f-justice'' magic (SUM.) and zru (UL.GIG) ''hate-magic'' (AKK.).
''Cutting-of-the-throat'' magic was regarded as an especially dangerous and ofte
n deadly kind of witchcraft whose performance regularly involved the invocation
of astral gods and the sending of evil omens against the victim. Both ''seizingof-the-mouth'' and ''distortion-of-justice'' made its victim helpless and unable
to defend himself before judges and superiors generally, though kadabbed or '' s
eizing-of-the-mouth ''was held responsible for actual speech disorders, too. Hat
e-magic caused the victim to become the object of social isolation and hostility
, just as its antonym rmu (KI.G.G)''love-magic'' was thought to make its object fal
l in love with another person.
Rituals to counter zikurud are typically performed before astral deities, just as
the zikurud magic itself was believed to have been practised in the presence of
the stars; another feature particularly associated with zikurud is the interpreta
tion of rodents as evil messages of witchcraft sent by the witch.
Love-magic and a number of other forms of aggressive magic, such as rituals for
bringing back a runaway slave, for weakening ones adversary at court or for attra
cting customers to a tavern, fall into a category of rituals that belong to a gr
ey area between illegal witchcraft, or black magic, and the legal art of the exo
rcist (iptu), or white magic.'' Love-magic '', and good magic in general are rarer
in the official iptu documents. The ipu was mostly occupied with exorcisms, but he co
uld also practice this ''good-magic''. Unfortunately we have no extensive descri
ptions of those rituals; the only rituals that we possess, are the body of antiwitchcraft rituals written by exorcists wich were literate people as opposed to
the more obscure magic practised by the folk wich, most of the time, was illeter
ate.

The witchcraft affecting the patient was often conceived of as a foul substance
that could be washed off like dirt or stripped off like a soiled garment. The co
ncept of witchcraft as a transferable quality or substance is also implied in th
e ubiquitous motif of returning the witchcraft to those who performed it. The Su
merian term for witchcraft is ''u''. The basic meaning of ''u'' is ''spittle'' (al
so ''poison''), and when referring to witchcraft ''u'' is often further qualified
as ''u-ri-a'' : cast (expectorated) spittle. The close association of pouring sp
ittle and casting a spell emerges most clearly in two passages, one describing t
he witchs evil activities, the other referring to Eas life-giving spell. A first m
illennium incantation B.C. begins with the words N iddi Ea ipat Ea rutu Ea ''Incant
ation: Ea cast (it), the incantation of Ea, the spittle of Ea''. Easson Marduk is
praised as ''the lord of incantation, spittle and spell''.
Just as a spell can be evil or lifegiving, spittle is regarded as an ambivalent
substance. On the one hand, probably on analogy to the ejaculation of male semen
, the casting of spittle by the gods grants life and recovery; on the other hand
, the witchs spittle and spell spread contamination and illness. The latter theme
is frequently attested in Sumerian and Akkadian anti-witchcraft incantations, w
hile the motif of
Marduks and Eas healing spittle seems to disappear from the later incantation lite
rature.
The texts describe the evil activities of the sorcerers at great length. We know
that the evil witches transfered their sorceries to the victim by means of food
, drink, bathwater, ointments and presents; they bewitch the patient and recite
their evil spell against him. They chase, seize and destroy him. They scheme, th
ey are angry, they slander their victim before gods and men. They bind and defil
e the victim and cause him to suffer all kinds of ailments; the descriptions of
the ailments can be quite concrete and sometimes resemble the symptomologies of
anti-witchcraft rituals with regard to their vocabulary and phrasing. They send
messages of witchcraft (often in the form of evil omens). They fashion figurines
and identify them with the patient by pronouncing his name and by using materia
ls that have been in contact with him. They gag the figurines, dirty them, pierc
e them, burn and dissolve them in different ways. They immure them in a wall; th
ey bury them in a grave (symbolizing the death of the victim) or under a launder
ers mat (making sure that all the dirty laundry water constantly runs over the fi
gurine); they bury them under a threshold, in a gate, on a bridge or under a cro
ssroad, places where people constantly trample over them. They make funerary off
erings for the patient by pouring out water; they perform evil rituals before th
e stars or other deities, including ama himself.
Some incantations describe the kaptu not as a mere human who has employed evil ritu
als or substances that have been bewitched against the patient, but as a demonic
superhuman figure who roams the earth and bewitches humans and gods alike. One
incantation describes a group of seven demonic witches who descend to the land.
They carry water from the sea, but unlike the helpful Daughters of Anu, they do
not use it as a remedy for the patient quite the opposite: they spill the water
on the streets and spread silence and death everywhere.Possibly connected to this
group of seven heavenly witches, who seem to represent a perverted counterpart
of the Daughters of Anu, is the goddess Kanisurra, the lady of the witches, a youn
g goddess of Itars circle who is, by her name, associated withthe netherworld. In t
he anti-witchcraft rituals knownthus far, however, Kanisurra is only mentioned wi
thin stereotypical formulas that give little information on her actual role and
character.
A fair number of prescriptions give instructions for remedies that are effective
not only against witchcraft, but also against mmtu (nam-rim), the curse or ''ban''
a person inflicts on himself by breaking a taboo. Rituals against witchcraft an
d mmtu are also connected by the fact that they both use burning as a prominent ri
tual technique: in the case of anti-witchcraft rituals, to burn representations

of the witches or their witchcraft; in the case of rituals against ''ban'', to b

urn substances representing the patients transgressions and sins. The two extensi
ve rituals against witchcraft and ''ban'', respectively Maql and urpu, were regard
ed as a pair by the ancient scholars, and uburruda and namerimburru-da rituals ar
e likewise mentioned together in the Exorcists Manual.
A concept closely related to both witchcraft and curse is that of the anger of t
he gods. Of course, a persons wrongdoings and transgressions were believed to inc
ite the anger of the gods, but also witchcraft-induced suffering was interpreted
as a sign of the anger and absence of ones personal gods. The ultimate source of
the patients unjustified suffering is, of course, the sorcery of warlock and wit
ch; among other charges levelled against them, they are accused of having driven
off the patients protective deities and of having slandered him before the divin
e and human authorities, thereby causing his dismissal and rejection. On another
level, within a concept that is based less on analogy with interhuman personal
relations and more on the Mesopotamian understanding of destiny and divine will,
the witch can ritually change a persons fate (mtu) for the worse and can send evil
-portending omens to her victim; the actual manifestations of these omens, the me
ssages of witchcraft, have to be disposed of by an anti-witchcraft ritual, just a
s manifestations of normal evil-portending omens have to be removed
through the performance of namburbi rituals.

The incantations often refer to the agents of witchcraft as a pair; most commonl
y the texts call them kapu u kaptu warlock and witch, other designations include pi
orcerer and sorceress or bl dabbi u blet dabbi male and female adversary. Because very
often, the afflicted patient didn't know who was the actual perpetrator of the s
pell.
Finally, witches can not only send out bad omens against their victim, but can a
lso incite the ghost of a deceased person to pursue the patient, e.g., by handin
g over a figurine representing the patient to a skull representing a ghost.

THE CORPUS
The official corpus of Babylonian magical and medical literature as compiled by
Tzvi Abusch and Daniel Schwemer can in the main be subdivided into three major c
ategories: Diagnostic texts associate brief descriptions of symptoms with a diag
nosis that provides either the name of the given illness or information on the c
ause of the illness (etiology); diagnostic texts usually also offer prognoses on
the further prospects of the patient and the treatability of his illness. Thera
peutic texts detail instructions for the cure of specific illnesses or crises; t
hey give directions either for the execution of a ritual or for the preparation
and application of a medicine. Pharmaceutical texts list individual plants, part
s of plants, minerals and stones, supplying information on their appearance, the
rapeutic effects and application.
The therapeutic texts concerned with witchcraft split into two major groups: (a)
instructions for the performance of ceremonial rituals, typically comprising of
ferings, the recitation of prayers and incantations, the manipulation of represe
ntations of the witches and various purification rites; and (b) instructions for
the preparation of drugs (prescriptions), detailing the effective ingredients, th
e carrier substances (mostly without an indication of quantities and ratios), th
e basic steps of the production process and brief advice on the application of t
he medication.
Groups 13 mainly comprise prescriptions with instructions for the preparation of
remedies against witchcraft; the subgrouping of the texts reflects the various i

ntroductory formulas that are used in these texts: Group 1: Prescriptions for Un
doing Witchcraft (ana pierti kip),
Group 2: Prescriptions to be Used for Bewitched Persons (umma amlu kaip), Group 3:
Prescriptions for Symptoms Indicating Witchcraft.
A number of anti-witchcraft therapies form part of larger groups of texts that a
re devoted to specific kinds of patients, specific illnesses or particular forms
of remedies; these groups include but are not limited to witchcraft-induced ill
nesses: Group 4: Cures for the Witchcraft-induced Loss of Potency, Group 5: Prot
ecting Pregnant Women and Infants against Witchcraft, Group 6: Instructions for
the Fabrication of Amulet
Necklaces against Witchcraft.
The rubric KA.INIM.MA U.BR.RU.DA.KAM can in principle be used to classify any anti
-witchcraft incantation or, more precisely, any incantation used within a ritual
or prescription against witchcraft. At the same time, the uburruda label became
the name of the most comprehensive series of anti-witchcraft rituals and prescri
ptions. It was therefore decided to group texts with this label together, even t
hough we are far from being able to reconstruct the uburruda series, and, in any
case, many of the uburruda texts included in this group may never have been integ
rated into the extensive series of that name. A similarly heterogeneous group wa
s established for all ceremonial rituals that are transmitted outside a larger s
eries context:
Group 7: Uburruda Texts. Group 8: Ceremonial Rituals for Undoing Witchcraft. The
royal purification ritual Bt rimki contains a number of ritual sections that are
directed against witches and adversaries threatening the king, among them a cycle
of incantations also found in Maql. Group 9: Anti-witchcraft Incantations within
Bt rimki and related texts.
A number of rituals and prescriptions address particular forms of witchcraft, mo
st notably cutting-of-the-throat magic (zikurud), hate-magic (zru) and seizing-of-the
-mouth magic (kadabbed). They were assigned a group of their own, as were rituals
against ominous signs announcing the imminent threat of witchcraft: Group 10: Ri
tuals against zikurud and Other Special types of Witchcraft. Group 11: Rituals in
Case of Evil Omens Indicating Witchcraft. The texts belonging to groups 111 all
belong to the corpus of therapeutic texts. A final separate section
is reserved for the diagnostic texts concerned with witchcraft-induced illnesses
: Group 12: Diagnostic Texts.
Now, in ancient Mesopotamia witchcraft was one of the explanations for evil that
befalls the individual; it imputes illness and misfortune to the actions of oth
er humans. In general terms, the basic goal of most Babylonian anti-witchcraft r
ituals is a simple reversal of the patients and the witches fate. The witchcraft t
hat warlock and witch employed against their victim is removed from the latter a
nd returned to its originators: warlock and witch are destroyed by having their
witchcraft sent back to them and by the ritual destruction of their representati
ons. The patient regains his former position in life, while those who wished him
ill are brought down by their own evil schemes.
Naturally, the ritual enactment of this reversal within the anti-witchcraft ritu
al bears much resemblance to the evil ritual activities that warlock and witch a
re accused of in the diagnoses and, more elaborately, in anti-witchcraft incanta
tions; often the anti-witchcraft ritual gives the impression of being a mirror-i
mage of the acts that the witches are accused of having performed. The differenc
e between an anti-witchcraft ritual and actions that would have been regarded as
evil witchcraft may therefore seem to be merely a matter of perspective. But in
fact there are some significant differences between anti-witchcraft rituals and
the actions commonly imputed to warlock and witch. Anti-witchcraft rituals empl

oy a consistently defensive rhetoric and regularly emphasise the patients ignoran

ce of the identity of the witch. The rituals claim to be (and probably mostly we
re) performed openly, while the sorcerers are accused of having acted in secret.
Any form of contact with the accused
(but usually unknown) sorcerers is avoided witchcraft ingested with food is not
returned to the witch by putting it into her food; scraps of an alleged witchs cl
othing, her hair, her fingernails are never used in defensive figurine magic. Ra
ther, the occasional naming of the figurine (sometimes by means of an inscriptio
n on its shoulder) had to suffice to ensure its identification with the person i
t was meant to represent. There certainly was a grey area between what was regar
ded as illegal kip witchcraft and legitimate ritual practice. However, this grey are
a was formed not by the anti-witchcraft rituals, which were part of legitimate r
itual practice, but by the various types of aggressive magic briefly discussed a
bove.
Many anti-witchcraft rituals, and certainly most texts of the official corpus ad
dressed to ama, the divine judge, are clad in the language of a ritual lawsuit. Wi
thin this image the patient takes the role of a wronged party who has been unfai
rly attacked by the evildoers. He argues his case, and, at the end of the ritual
, he is purified, while the witches suffer the evil they had intended for their
innocent victim; their punishment thus conforms with one of the basic principles
of ancient Mesopotamian law. Some texts accuse the witches of having performed
their witchcraft before a god. In those cases, it would seem that the witches we
re accused of having slandered their victim before the divine
authority and of having elicited thereby a divine verdict against the patient th
at manifested itself in his illness and misfortune. The patient then appeals to
the gods to gain a just and favourable verdict. In this form, the image of the l
awsuit was part of a systematic reconciliation between a theistic conception of
the world and witchcraft beliefs.
The time of the performance largely depended on which deity was invoked in the r
itual. If ama is addressed, the time when the sun-god leaves or enters the netherw
orld to judge the living and the dead, sunrise or sunset, usually plays an impor
tant role in the ritual proceedings. If an astral deity was addressed, the perfo
rmance took place after sunset, when the stars illuminate the night sky. If Sn wa
s invoked, the fifteenth day of the lunar month, when the full moon can be seen,
was an obvious time for the ritual. The period of the new moon was regarded as
especially auspicious for the performance of anti-witchcraft rituals; oneuburruda
incantation addresses the personified New Moon thus:
Purifier of heaven and of the subterranean ocean, day of the New Moon, who undoes
witchcraft (and) magic. The messages of the night and of the whole day which yo
u (the witches) keep sending against me day of the New Moon, may your day of wra
th overpower them!
The performance of certain anti-witchcraft rituals seems to have been prohibited
on holidays. Though Abu (july-august), the month of the dead, was regarded as a
favourable time for the performance of Maql, and some other rituals recommended
a performance on specific dates, anti- witchcraft rituals generally did not have
a fixed calendrical setting, but could be performed on any auspicious day, when
ever the occasion arose and circumstances demanded it.
Typical elements of a ceremonial anti-witchcraft ritual include offerings presen
ted to the deities invoked in the ritual, prayers and incantations (both referre
d to as iptu in Akkadian), the fabrication and manipulation of substitutes repres
enting the witches or their witchcraft and various rites of purification of the
patient, rites wich could also serve apotropaic purposes.
The offerings of an anti-witchcraft ritual were usually presented at the beginni
ng of the proceedings and conform to the regular offering arrangements known fro

m other types of iptu-rituals. After the purification of the place by sweeping and
sprinkling water, a portable altar and a censer with juniper incense were set up
. The altar was loaded with bread and with a confection made of honey (or date s
yrup) and ghee; dates and fine flour were strewn on top. If a sheep was sacrific
ed, the various meat portions were put on the altar as well. A libation of beer
was made; often a special libation vessel was set up for this purpose, but somet
imes the beverages were provided in bottles that were then placed on the altar.
The offering arrangement could be set off from the rest of the ritual area by li
nes drawn with flour; in any case, the destructive rites carried out at a later
point in the ritual would often take place at some distance from the offering ar
rangement.

Once the offerings had been set up, the deity or deities invoked in the ritual w
ere addressed in a prayer with a fixed text that asked for divine presence and h
elp, for a just, or favorable verdict for the patient; the witches were accused
of their evil deeds, and the speaker asked that they be convicted of their crime
s. The length of these prayers ranges from short invocations to lengthy composit
ions of more than a hundred lines. Sometimes the whole procedure is condensed in
the simple ritual instruction you convict them before ama (ana maar ama tadnunti).
eady noticed, a great number of anti-witchcraft rituals address the sun-god ama. B
ut he was not the only god that could be invoked against a witch. Especially zik
urud-rituals were performed before various astral deities as well as the moon-god
Sn, just as the evil zikurud witchcraft itself was believed to have been performe
d before these deities.
A number of anti-witchcraft rituals address Marduk. This may be due to Marduks po
sition as the most prominent male god in the first millennium Babylonian pantheo
n, but these prayers also reflect Marduks role as the divine exorcist. This funct
ion certainly explains his role in the anti-witchcraft prayers that address the
divine exorcistic triad of Ea, ama and Asallui-Marduk or invoke Ea and Marduk. Some
of the anti-witchcraft rituals that invoke Itar clearly refer to her function as
the goddess of sexual desire and love. In other rituals, however, she is not in
voked for this reason; in those cases, her preeminent role as the goddess of the
Mesopotamian pantheon may have prompted the composers to address the text to he
r. Within ritual contexts that focus on transferring the witches to the netherwo
rld, chtonic deities such as the Anunnakki, Gilgame, Namtar, Bidu and Dumuzi may
be addressed; in such contexts ghosts of deceased people may also be addressed a
nd asked to accompany the witches to the netherworld. Some anti-witchcraft ritua
ls invoke personified and deified natural phenomena that play an important role
in the ritual proceedings: within burning rites Girra, the deified fire, was cal
led upon; when materials were disposed of in the river, the deified River could
be addressed; when clay for figurines was taken from the clay-pit, the latter wa
s often invoked, just as one addressed the grain-goddess Nissaba as the divine f
lour.
Since anti-witchcraft rituals were not performed in temples or shrines, they cou
ld not rely on ready representations of the deities addressed in the rituals. In
a few cases the texts include instructions for setting up divine images. Mostly
, however, the gods would have been addressed in the form of their natural manif
estation: ama as the rising or setting sun, Sn as the full moon in the night sky; It
ar was visible as Venus, just as other astral deities/stars/planets could be see
n in the night sky. And, of course, Girra, the divine fire flaring up in the cru
cible, and the divine River with its purifying waters were not represented by im
ages. Besides incantations addressed to deities, anti-witchcraft rituals also us
e incantations addressing the witch directly; this type of incantation is more c
ommon in prescriptions than in ceremonial rituals. During the performance of the
extensive ritual Maql, incantations of both types were recited.
How the fixed prayers and incantations were recited is mostly unknown. Their tex
t is always written from the perspective of the patient: the I of a Babylonian pra

yer is the ritual client. Some rituals instruct the exorcist to hold the patients
hand during the recitation of the incantation; if the patient is too ill to rec
ite the text, it seems likely that the exorcist recited the text on behalf of hi
m. Other rituals instruct the exorcist to have the patient speak the prayer (tuadba
bu, tuaqbu); in these cases, the exorcist probably spoke a few lines at a time, whic
h were then repeated by the patient, and this mode of recitation may have been w
idely practised. It is very unlikely that the average patient could read the pra
yers and incantations from a tablet or would know them by heart.
A regular feature of anti-witchcraft rituals is the use of substitute figurines
representing the warlock and witch. A number of prayers explicitly justify the u
se of figurines with the fact that the warlock and witch themselves were not pre
sent during the performance of the ritual: kma unu l izzazz since they are not presen
t. Most commonly, the rituals in line with the rhetoric of the incantations use p
airs consisting of a male and a female figurine; often the rituals prescribe emp
loying a whole series of such pairs of palm-sized, anthropomorphic figurines, ea
ch pair made of a different material. The typical materials used for making thes
e figurines include, among others, clay, tallow, wax, bitumen, dough, sesame pom
ace, wood and reed. Sometimes, a clear correlation between the particular materi
al and the method
of destroying the figurine can be observed.
Burning and burying were the most common ways of destroying the figurines and ri
tually killing the sorcerers represented by them. Burning symbolizes the complet
e annihilation of the evildoers, while burying symbolizes their banishment to th
e netherworld. If the figurines were exposed to the fire, their burnt remains ha
d to be eliminated at the end of the ritual; usually they were either thrown int
o a river or carried out to the uninhabited steppe. The final destruction of the
figurines was often precededby other actions which served to humiliate, defile
and hurt the evildoers: twisting their arms behind them or binding them symboliz
ed their imprisonment; they were smeared with malodorous fish oil or black paste
; the patient washed himself over the figurines, thereby transferring the impure
witchcraft back to the warlock and witch; the figurines were pierced with thorn
s of the date palm or beaten with an iron spike; the patient crushed them under
his foot symbolizing the victorious triumph over his enemies.
While substitute figurines of the warlock and witch are the most common feature
of anti-witchcraft rituals, the evildoers are not the only beings that can be re
presented by figurines. A ritual segment of Maql III employs a clay figurine of a
goddess to represent the deified fate (mtu) of the witch; the mtu-goddess is doused
with a black liquid and thereby transformed into an evil fate for the witch who
se death is decreed by this rite. Some rituals use figurines as a representation
of the patient. In one text, a thorn similar to the thorn which the witches are
accused of having stuck into the patients figurine is removed from a figurine re
presenting the patient and stuck into figurines representing the witches. In ano
ther text, a figurine representing a patient who had been sent down into the net
herworld by means of figurine magic is brought up from the world of the dead, wh
ereas figurines of the warlock and witch are buried, thereby banning the evildoe
rs to the netherworld.
Besides anthropomorphic figurines, the witch would sometimes be represented by t
he model of a tongue, the instrument the witch used for uttering her spell and s
landering her victim. In Maql hands of wax and tallow representing the witch and
her evil manipulations were melted. Both anthropomorphic figurines and tongue mo
dels were placed in boats and sent across the waters of death to the netherworld
. The witchcraft itself could be represented by knotted strings which were burnt
. One ritual employs a purse filled with precious stones as a substitute for the
patient, thereby passing his witchcraft on to a passerby who picks up the leath
er bag, but usually witchcraft was transferred onto figurines of the warlock and
witch.

Washing was the most common purification rite that was performed by the patient,
often over figurines of the warlock and witch. The patients full body or just hi
s hands were washed; sometimes purifying substances were added to the water that
was prepared in the ''holy water vessel'' (egubb) before its use in the washing
rite. The washing-of-the-mouth rite formed a special type of washing and was occ
asionally employed in anti-witchcraft ritual. Alternatively, the patient achieve
d purification by chewing purifying substances or just taking them into his mout
h. Standing on black stone or on tar pitch purified the patient, as did looking
onto silver or gold. More conventional purification rites involve donning a clea
n garment, moving a censer, torch and holy water vessel past the patient or fumi
gating the patient. Finally, it should be noted that a few anti-witchcraft ritua
ls include detailed instructions for the production and ceremonial consecration
of apotropaia effective against witchcraft. A ritual to be performed before Sn an
d ama involves the preparation and consecration of a pouch and a potion against be
witchment. But usually the instructions for the preparation of potions, salves,
phylacteria or amulet necklaces are given in the form of brief prescriptions.
RITUAL
The proceedings would be carried out at sunrise, when ama, the sun-god and divine
judge, rose from the netherworld and crossed the mountains to the east of Mesopo
tamia to start his daily journey across the sky.
To begin with, the exorcist purified the area by sweeping the floor and sprinkli
ng it with pure water. Then he set up an offering table, a censer and a crucible
; next to the latter he put a small bowl with burning sulphur. A whole set of sm
all anthropomorphic male and female figurines made of various materials such as
tallow, wax, dough, clay and bitumen was arranged in pairs alongside the crucibl
e.
Shortly before sunrise, the patient was helped to the roof to join the exorcist
for the performance of the ritual. The exorcist placed a portion
of emmer bread on the offering table, strewed the glowing acacia charcoal in the
censer with juniper incense and libated beer for the rising sun-god. Next he lo
aded the crucible with fast-kindling poplar twigs and bound the hands and feet o
f the figurines with string. Then he lit a torch in the sulphur fire and, reciti
ng the short standard incantation beginning with the words I raise the torch, he l
it the fire in the crucible with the torch. Once the fire in the crucible was bu
rning, the exorcist put the figurines into the blaze and, taking the patient by
the hand, he recited three times on his patients behalf an extensive prayer addre
ssed to ama. The prayer, which had a fixed text and formed a standard part of the
ritual, praised ama as the divine judge and lord of justice, presented the figurin
es as representations of the evil warlock and witch, described the witches evil a
ctivities against the patient at some length and, most importantly, asked that t
he witchcraft be returned to the evildoers, thereby reversing the unjust verdict
imposed on the client and inflicting his evil fate on those who had caused
it by practising witchcraft against him. When the figurines had been burnt the w
ax, tallow and bitumen melted, the clay burst, the dough was
charred and the symbolic destruction of the witches had thus been accomplished,
the exorcist extinguished the fire, reciting a standard incantation that was typ
ically used at that point in a burning ritual. Then the client stripped off his
clothes and donned a clean garment, reciting with the exorcists help a short stan
dard incantation that focused on the transfer of his impurity to the sorcerers.
This rite marked the end of the ritual. The patient had been purified, and the w
itchcraft affecting him had been returned to its initiator(s) whose figurines th
e fire had destroyed. It was left to the exorcist to dispose of the burnt remain
s by throwing them into a river or by taking them out of the city to an uninhabi
ted place in the ''steppe''.

REPRODUCTION OF A RITUAL TABLET(from Abu

sh and Schwemer 2010)
TEXT 10.2: ZIKURUD BEFORE URSA MAJOR, THE WAGON STAR
Preliminary remark : You must remember that Assyriologists are still puzzled by
some words and that many clay tablets are broken. Thats the reason why there's m
any missing words from the ritual.
Content
The greater part of CBS 1543 is taken up by a ritual designed to counter zikurudwitchcraft performed before the Wagon Star (Ursa Major); a condensed form of bas
ically the same ritual is known from a collection of zikurud therapies from Ninev
eh. At the beginning of the present text
stands a prayer addressed to the Wagon Star that consists mostly of well-known f
ormulaic material, but also contains a rather beautiful analogical spell referri
ng to the wagon of the Wagon Star. The ritual itself is performed inside a ritua
l reed hut that is furnished with a decorated standard (or four standards accord
ing to the parallel ritual) and a reed altar. In the parallel text the recitatio
n of a short form of the prayer to Ursa Major is accompanied by a libation, whic
h is not mentioned here. After a ruling the text continues with instructions for
the preparation and application of a salve. It is possible that these lines for
m a separate unit introduced by its own symptom description.
Translation
1 [ I] appeal to you, I have turned to yo[u],
2 [ ], do not accept the evil sorcerous devices
3 of warlock and witch, witchcraft, magic, sorcery,
4 the evil (and) wicked machinations of men,
5 distortion-of-justice magic, hate-magic, seizing-of-the-mouth magic,
6 cutting-of-the-throat magic of men,
7 of the one who is furious with me, of my opponent, of my litigant,
8 of my adversary, of my enemy,
9 who has performed (and) has had performed sortilege, rebellion (and) evil <word
(s)> against me,
10 has turned to (it) against me (and) has sought (it) against me. Now
11 I, (your) tired, exhausted (servant), seek your presence:
12 By your supreme command that cannot be changed,
13 (and) your reliable approval that cannot be altered,
14 remove (it) from my body! Just as no one hears the groaning of your wagon,
15 let no one hear the groaning of my illness.
16 You are the judge: Judge (my) case, render a verdict for me!
17 Do not accept the evil sorcerous devices
18 of warlock and witch!
19 By your command
20 and your approval
21 remove from my body evil, terror, the one who sustains evil,
22 which are present in my body, my flesh, my sin[ews]!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------23 Its ritual: [You sw]eep the ground, sprinkle pure water.
24 You set up a reed hut before Ursa Major,
25 you erect a standard;
26 you decorate (it)
25 with red wool,
26 blue wool (and) combed wool.

27 To the right of the standard you set up a portable altar;

28 you strew d[a]tes (and) fine flour. You recite the incantation three times.
29 You (or: he) [(must not)] prostrate(s) yourself (or: himself).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------30 [] his right eye , and his left eye: tears are running.
31 [] juniper, sesame pomace, isqqu-flour in billatu-substance.
32 [ ] cedar oil in marrow of a sh[eeps] bone
33 [ ] you mix [to]gether; you rub (him with it) repeatedly, then [he will recove
r].
(l. 34 too fragmentary for translation; text breaks)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FINIS