The Anti-Witchcraft Ritual Maqlu: The Cuneiform Sources of a Magic Ceremony from Ancient Mesopotamia

This book examines the epigraphy and history of transmission of the cuneiform sources of the Maqlû anti-witchcraft ritual, one of the major compositions of ancient Mesopotamian exorcistic lore and a masterpiece of Babylonian literature.The performance of Maqlû, 'Burning', stretched over a whole night and included the recitation of almost a hundred incantations. In the course of the ritual, the victim of witchcraft is transferred from a state of imminent death back to life; he is purified and his bound state undone. The witches are assigned the fate they had intended for their victim by sending the witchcraft back to them.The book consists of three parts: First, an introduction to the Maqlû ceremony as a Babylonian anti-witchcraft ritual is provided; it includes an attempt at giving a step-by-step reconstruction of the ritual drama of Maqlû based on the instructions for its performance and the texts of its recitations. Next, a set of more specialized studies is devoted to various aspects of the cuneiform transmission of Maqlû: the history of the text's reconstruction; the types of manuscripts; their speci c provenance and historical context; variation in the textual transmission as well as spelling conventions and linguistic characteristics. Finally, the manuscripts are presented in 'hand-copies' (technical drawings) on the plates in the second half of the book.