PRINCES, SNAKES, AND SCORPIONS – New Investigations in the Early Mesopotamian Incantation Tradition

Incantations appear among the earliest documentation of ancient Mesopotamia in the middle of the third millennium and continue to be produced until the demise of cuneiform writing in the first centuries of the common era.

Whereas many incantations in the later Mesopotamian magical tradition were compiled into canonical series which can be reconstructed with the aid of multiple duplicates, the oldest incantations often survive on a single exemplar and accordingly present unique interpretative hurdles.

After providing an overview of the challenges posed in the study of Mesopotamian incantations dating from the middle of the third millennium through to the first half of the second millennium, this presentation proposes a new interpretation of an ancient incantation excavated from the royal chancellery of Ebla (modern Tell Mardikh), a major urban center located in northern Syria. Drawing upon new advances in the understanding of archaic incantations, it reanalyzes the inscribed text as a Sumerian composition directed against snakebite or scorpion sting, offers a new edition of the spell, and contextualizes the place of the recitation within the early Mesopotamian incantation tradition.