KASKAL Rivista di storia, ambienti e culture del Vicino Oriente Antico
Nuova serie

Journal | KASKAL
Journal issue | Volume 1 | Nuova serie
Research Article | ‘Weaving Together Loose Threads’

‘Weaving Together Loose Threads’

On the Serialisation of the Therapeutic Corpus at Nineveh

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the development of the therapeutic text corpus in the Ashurbanipal Library. It explores the editorial steps taken to produce new standard editions of the therapeutic texts for the Library through a systematic investigation of the layout and format of tablets with pharmaceutical remedies as well as the colophon types used in the corpus. To facilitate the study of the available source material, the texts are divided into four groups. The classification is based on ductus and the different colophons used in the Ashurbanipal Library, yielding four groups: the ‘Babylonian group’, ‘mixed group’, ‘q-group’, and ‘dedicatory group’. As argued here, the tablets in these four groups represent different stages of the editing process.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: Sept. 2, 2024 | Accepted: Sept. 12, 2024 | Published Dec. 19, 2024 | Language: en

Keywords Library colophonsCuneiform medicinePharmaceutical remediesAshurbanipal LibraryTablet layout and formatScribal remarks on editing process


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