laws and omens: obverse and inverse

Divination in the Ancient Near EastA Workshop on Divination Conducted during the

54th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Würzburg, 2008

Edited byJeanette C. FinCke

Winona Lake, Indiana eisenbrauns

2014

Offprint From:

v

Contents

Bibliographical Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viiPreface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiVorwort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii

Divination im Alten Orient: Ein Überblick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Jeanette C. FinCke

Hethitische Orakelspezialisten als Ritualkundige . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Daliah bawanypeCk

Analyse hethitischer Vogelflugorakel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37yasuhiko sakuma

The Babylonian ikribs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53w. G. lambert†

Zur altorientalischen Opferschaupraxis: Opferschaudurchführungen über das Wohlbefinden und über das Nicht-Wohlbefinden . . . . . . . 57

an De Vos

Die Beobachtung der Nieren in der altorientalischen Opferschau: und die Stellung der Nieren-Omina innerhalb der Opferschau-Serie bārûtu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

nils p. heessel

New Readings in YOS 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77ilya khait

The Halo of the Moon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91lorenzo VerDerame

Laws and Omens: Obverse and Inverse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105ann k. Guinan

Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123General Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123Akkadian / Hittite / Sumerian / Logograms / Akkadograms . . . . . . 124Texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 A. Museum Numbers 125 B. Publication Numbers 125 C. CTH Numbers 127

105

Laws and Omens: Obverse and Inverse

Ann K. GuinanphilaDelphia

The law collections and the omen treatises are both products of Mesopotamian scholastic tradition and occupy a place of prominence in Mesopotamian intellectual life. Many scholars have noted the similarities between the two disciplines and have used the more accessible legal genre to understand the more alien one, divination. Jeanette Fincke’s recent discussion of the correspondence between omens and laws is the latest and most developed analysis of the way in which omen collections are a corollary of law collections. 1

These two genres share the same casuistic structure that characterizes certain other types of Mesopotamian systematic inquiry. This structure conveys informa-tion as a series of individual cases, presented as an itemized sequence. Each item is framed as a conditional sentence: the first clause, the protasis, records a hypotheti-cal situation and the second, its stipulated result. Not only do divination and law share the same casuistic form the sun-god Šamaš is patron of both. During the day he enables justice to be transmitted to the king and through the king into the hu-man arena. At night when he passes into the netherworld he presides over a divine court that issues divinatory decisions. This cosmic geography of law and divination has been described by Piotr Steinkeller. 2

Although the subject-matter of the two genres usually differs, three tablets (102 alt, 103, and 104) of the first-millennium series šumma ālu, deal with marriage and human sexual relationships and contain omens which treat the same or similar situ-ations as those found in Mesopotamian family law. 3 While the subject-matter of the

1.

Author’s note: I would like to thank Elizabeth Jewell and Joan Goodnick Westenholz (z″l) for their valu-able insights and patient editing.

Jeanette C. Fincke, “Omina, die göttlichen “Gesetze” der Divination,” JEOL 40 (2006–7) 131–47; Stefan M. Maul, Zukunftsbewältigung: Eine Untersuchung Altorientalischen Denkens Anhand der Babylonisch-Assyrischen Löserituale (Namburbi) (Baghdader Forschungen 18; Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern, 1994); Francesca Rochberg, The Heavenly Writing: Divination, Horoscopy, and Astronomy in Mesopotamian Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004). I am grateful to Francesca Rochberg for sharing a draft of her paper “Before Nature: Legal Metaphors and Divine Cosmic Order” before she presented at the University of Zürich symposium, “Laws of Heaven – Laws of Nature: The Legal Interpretation of Cosmic Phenomena in the Ancient World” September 5–6, 2011. The publication will be a significant contribution to the topic.

2. Piotr Steinkeller, “Of Stars and Men: The Conceptual and Mythological Setup of Babylonian Extispicy” in Biblical and Oriental Essays in Memory of William L. Moran (edited by Agustinus Gianto; Rome: Pontificio Istituto biblico, 2005) 11–46.

3. In addition to tablet 104 discussed here, two other šumma ālu tablets contain omens whose subject-matter relate to laws. Tablet 102 alt (K. 3677; CT 39 43) is a small fragment preserving four bro-ken omens the subject of which is leverite marriage. Tablet 103 contains omens which deal with sexual

Offprint from:Divination in the Ancient Near East: A Workshop on Divination Conducted During the 54th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Würzburg, 2008 edited by Jeanette C. Fincke© Copyright 2014 Eisenbrauns. All rights reserved.

ann k. Guinan106

omens corresponds to the laws, their meanings offer a striking contrast and appear to play off and to invert the more explicitly articulated legal norms. Omens that reverse expectations, cultural norms and literary topoi are part of a more general rhetorical pattern that occurs in šumma ālu and one of its most compelling features. This pattern can be seen in the following omen from tablet 1:

If cities’ temples lift their head to the heavens, the foundation of the land will not be secure, the throne will change, the land will be unhappy. 4

While the laws and the omens follow the trajectory of their separate disciplinary concerns and deal with issues ignored by the other, their areas of overlap provide a rich source of comparison. The similarities of subject-matter allow for a comparison between omens and law based on content and not just external form and for a more nuanced understanding of the relation between the two disciplines.

The tablets of šumma ālu are part of a corpus of omens derived from everyday human behavior. Unlike more typical omens which are based on observations of external phenomena, the human behavioral omens are drawn from the peculiarities that man observes in himself. They are based on the assumption that there are signs of a person’s future to be found in his daily actions. In addition to omens which deal with sex and the family, there are others which treat sleep, speech, un-conscious mannerisms, and careless accidents. 5 The connection made by the human behavioral omens between a man’s present behavior and his future may not have been understood in the same the way a modern reader would see it, but the connec-tion, nevertheless, resonates and, as a result, it is often possible to surmise the link between the ominous act in the protasis and its divinatory meaning in the apodosis.

The implications of the omens stretch in many directions and suggest provoca-tive avenues of inquiry. This study, however, is preliminary. In it, I will concentrate on the omens from šumma ālu tablet 104. These omens, which for the most part deal with marriage, constitute the core of the material. First, I will deal with the omens individually and demonstrate their connections to legal provisions, particularly those of the Middle Assyrian Laws. Secondly, I will discuss the structural context of the two types of texts, their broad similarities and their essential differences.

Taken out of context, these omens are odd, but they share a logic and coherence inherent to šumma ālu. The divinatory compendium šumma ālu contains what has been designated as terrestrial omens. More specifically, the divinatory context of šumma ālu is the built environment. Omens are observed wherever human habita-tion has modified the natural world. The omens are either distinguishing features of the built environment or they are natural phenomena observed against the back-ground of the built environment. The sequence of tablets of šumma ālu is generated by the outward expansion of human activity.

relations between a man and his female family members (K. 3134 lines 1′–8′; CT 39 43); VAT 13809 reverse 5–16′ (Nils P. Heeßel, Divinatorische Texte I. Terrestrische, teratologische, physiognomische und oneiromantische Omina [Keilschrifttexte aus Assur literarischen Inhalts 1; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007] 107–8, 183).

4. CT 38 1 line 18: šumma ālānu ēkurrātu rēssunu ana šamê ittanaššâ išid māti ul ikân kussû išanni libbi māti ul iṭâb.

5. For a discussion of the human behavioral omens of šumma ālu, see Ann Guinan,“Human Be-havioral Omens: On the Threshold of Psychological Inquiry,” Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Stud-ies Bulletin 19 (1990) 9–14.

Laws and Omens: Obverse and Inverse 107

When the locales that surround the city have been exhausted and the text can extend no farther, there is an abrupt change and text inverts to observe the ob-server. The tablets in the next sequence are roughly arranged to follow the course of a day. Omens taken from the behavior of a person during sleep are followed by observations made by a person upon awakening, directly upon leaving the house in the morning, while walking along the street, to a variety of activities that marked the passing of a day. The human behavioral omen tablets are interwoven through-out this last sequence.

Tablet 104 is the best preserved and longest of the human behavioral omens. 6 Resemblances to the laws come primarily from the omens in this tablet. A dividing line separates the text into two sections. The first 37 omens deal with a diverse ar-ray of sexual behavior. The subject of the second part concerns divorce and marital abuse.

MarriageOmens about adultery, divorce, and remarriage intersect with legally defined

transition points of a marriage. In the laws, these topics mark a woman’s entry into marriage, the termination of her marriage, and the severing of all ties to her first husband and his family. The law collections focus on the wife and specify the param-eters of behavior in terms of economic rights, obligations and constraints. Omens take the husband’s perspective. Marriage in this context is an emotional and more porous category.

AdulteryBeing subject to the death penalty for adultery defines a woman’s status as a

wife. 7 Adultery is a crime against the husband. As such, the law collections concern the remedy sought by the wronged husband. Juridically, the wronged husband can decide how he wants to punish his wife, but the punishment meted out to the par-amour may not exceed the one he imposes on his wife — both may put to death or both may be pardoned. 8 The omen, however, takes the paramour’s point of view and predicts that his personal god will act in his behalf against the interests of the com-munity and the norms of the culture:

If a man has sex with a(nother) man’s wife—the god will make his adversary in court sick (and) establish an accord for him. 9

Whereas the apodosis of the omen does not necessarily concern the adultery speci-fied in the protasis, a connection between the legal outcome and the act of adultery underlies the meaning. Both the protasis and the apodosis of the omen specify an adversarial relation between two men with the interests of one overwhelming the interests of the other. The benefic meaning of the omen flies in the face of explicit and well-documented legal and social norms, but it does not necessarily contradict

6. CT 39 44–46.7. Barry Eichler, “Literary Structure in the Laws of Eshnunna,” in Language, Literature, and

History: Philological and Historical Studies Presented to Erica Reiner (edited by Francesca Rochberg-Halton; New Haven, CT: American Oriental Society, 1987) 73.

8. LH 129, MAL A 14–16.9. CT 39 44 line 8: DIŠ NA ana DAM LÚ TE DINGIR EN DI.BI GIG ŠE.GA GAR-šú.

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Mesopotamian legal principles which provide an avenue allowing the adulterer to escape punishment. If the husband spares his wife, the man who cuckolded him must also be spared and may remain in the community. The paramour, the subject of the omen, has bested the other man by working around standard avenues of legal redress (his god has made his opponent in court sick).

DivorceThe omens that deal with divorce also invite a reading against the laws about

divorce. The following omens are the initial omens of part two of tablet 104.39. If a man divorces his first-ranking wife—unhappiness until the end of days, quar-

relling will be constant for him, his days will be short.40. If a man divorces his first-ranking wife, but then gives her a food allowance—his

prayer will find favor.41. If a man divorces his first-ranking wife, but then she lives in his house—constric-

tion; he will have a burden.42. If a man divorces his first-ranking wife, but then returns to her—he will die in

one year.43. If a man divorces his first-ranking wife, but then continues to search after her—

prickly flesh-disease will be inflicted on him.44. If a man divorces his first-ranking wife, and then another (man) marries her—he

will bear the god’s punishment.45. If a man divorces his first-ranking wife and then strangles her—he will be

burned. 10

These six omens need to be discussed individually and as a series. According to the first omen in this sequence, the dissolution of a primary marriage has emotional consequences. The strongly worded apodosis of the initial omen predicts a bleak future for a man who divorces his primary wife. This omen provides a thematic grounding for this sequence and for all the omens that follow. The second omen (no. 40) is the only benefic omen in part 2 of tablet 104. When read against omen 39 it suggests that providing for a divorced wife is the only way around the severity of the initial omen’s prediction. The nature of prayer referred to in the apodosis of omen 40 is unspecified, but it could be read as a plea specifically addressed to the consequences of omen 39.

The law collections are concerned only with the assets that the divorced wife is allowed or disallowed. The dowry, which the bride brings from her parents’ fam-ily to the husband’s household at the time of the marriage, remains vested in her throughout the marriage and, should the marriage end, it comes back into her pos-session. In addition, the legal standard in Mesopotamia provides for a woman di-vorced without grounds to receive a divorce settlement in addition to the return of her dowry although the amount and the way it is determined vary. 11 However, MAL

10. CT 39 45–46 lines 39–45: DIŠ NA NITLAM-šú i-zi-ib TIL u4-me ŠÀ-bi NU DÙG.GA DU14 sad-rat-su UD.MEŠ-šú GUD8.DA.MEŠ (40:) DIŠ II II-ma ŠUK id-din-ši qí-bit-su ŠE.GA (41:) DIŠ II II-ma ina É-šú aš-bat ki-ṣir-ti GUN TUK-ši (42:) DIŠ II II-ma i-tu-ur-ši ana MU.I.KAM ÚŠ (43:) DIŠ II II-ma ar-ka-ti-šá iš-te-ne-ʾ-i si-ḫi-il UZU GAR-šú (44:) DIŠ II II-ma šá-nu-um-ma TUK-si šer-ti DINGIR ÍL (45:) DIŠ II II-ma iḫ-nu-uq-ši iq-qal-li.

11. Raymond Westbrook, “Introduction: The Character of Ancient Near Eastern Law,” in A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law, vol. 1 (edited by Raymond Westbrook; Handbuch der Orientalistik, Section 1 Vol. 72; Leiden: Brill, 2003) 48–9.


A 37 specifies that the payment of a divorce settlement is made at the husband’s discretion and, thereby, takes a contrary position to the more common legal norm:

If a man intends to divorce his wife, if it is his wish he shall give her some-thing; if that is not his wish, he shall not give her anything and she shall leave empty-handed. 12

Two Old Babylonian court cases deal with litigation involving an allowance made to a divorced wife. In these instances the regular payments are made in lieu of returning the dowry in one lump-sum. 13 The return of the dowry is not discretion-ary and, therefore, the food allowance referred to in omen 40 must correspond to a divorce settlement. If the omen, as I contend, is a reference to law, it is most likely a reference to MAL A 37, the only Mesopotamian law which specifically says a man can choose whether or not to provide a settlement for a wife who is divorced without grounds.

Omen 41 concerns a divorced woman who continues to live in her ex-husband’s house, but it is the husband who is afflicted. 14 Two laws, LH 148 and LL 28 deal with an ailing wife who continues to reside in her husband’s house after his remarriage:

If a man marries a woman and later laʾbum disease seizes her and he decides to marry another woman, he shall not divorce the wife whom laʾbum disease seized; she shall reside in the quarters he constructs and he shall continue to support her as long as she lives. 15

If a man’s first-ranking wife loses her attractiveness and becomes paralytic, she shall not be evicted from the house; however, her husband may marry a healthy(?) wife and the second wife shall support the first-ranking wife. 16

Omen 44, the last omen in this sequence, underscores the alternate perspectives of the omens and laws. Shalom Holtz traces the usage of the phrase “the husband of her choice may marry her” and as well as similarly worded, equivalent phrases which occur in other legal contexts and demonstrates that these formulations func-tion as a legal release clause specifying that all ties to the marriage and all remain-ing obligations to previous family have been legally severed. 17 What is interesting for our discussion, is Holtz’s observation that, unlike other attestations, the use of a release clause is notably missing from the MAL divorce provisions, but is found in cases where a husband is absent (MAL A 36 and 45) or dead (MAL A 33). Both MAL A 36 and 45 deal with a husband’s prolonged absence and his failure to provide his

12. MAL A 37: šumma aʾīlu aššassu ezzib libbušuma mimma iddanašše la libbušuma mimma iddanašše rāqūteša tuṣṣa (M. Roth, Law Collections, 166–67).

13. Raymond Westbrook, Old Babylonian Marriage Law (AfO Beiheft 23; Horn, Austria: Berger & Söhne, 1988) 79.

14. For a discussion of the laws see R. Westbrook, Old Babylonian Marriage Law, 77–8.15. LH 148: šumma awīlum aššatam īhuzma laʾbum iṣṣabassi ana šanītim aḫāzim panīšu ištakkan

iḫḫaz aššassu ša laʾbum iṣbatu ul izzibši ina bīt īpušu uššamma adi balṭat ittanaššīši (M. Roth, Law Collections, 109). For laʾbu-disease see most recently Marten Stol, “Fever in Babylonia,” in Disease in Babylonia (edited by Irving L. Finkel and Markham J. Geller; Cuneiform Monographs 36; Leiden: Brill, 2007) 11–15.

16. LI 28: tukum-bi lú-ù dam-nita dam-a-ni igi-ni ba-ab-gi4 ù šu ba-an-lá-lá é-ta nu-ub-ta-è dam-a-ni dam galam-na ba-an-du12-du12 dam-egir-ra dam-nitadam in-íl-íl (M. Roth, Law Collections, 31–32).

17. Shalom E. Holtz, “”To Go and Marry any Man that You Please”: A Study of the Formulaic Ante-cedents of the Rabbinic Writ of Divorce,” JNES 60 (2001) 241–58.

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wife with sustenance. Both laws specify the number of years a wife must wait before she is released and may “live with the husband of her choice.” MAL A 33 presents a different situation. The woman is living in her father’s house. Her husband is dead and she has no sons. Her father cannot send her to the house of her father-in-law be-cause he is also dead. The legal formula that specifies her release makes no mention of remarriage: she is simply free to “go where she pleases” (ašar ḫadiutuni tallak). 18 The MAL release clauses do not appear to address the ties between husband and wife, but rather appear to be the final severing of ties to those who were providing her support when her husband was not in the picture. For whatever legal reason, the release clause is omitted from the MAL A divorce provisions. The release clause defines the legal boundary that ends a previous marriage and permits entry into the next.

The omens present a different perspective on the dissolution of a marriage and the line between one marriage and the next. Remarriage after a divorce does not sever all ties. From her ex-husband’s perspective a wife brings to her new marriage intimate knowledge of her previous one. As stated in omen 44:

If a man divorces his first-ranking wife, and then another (man) marries her—he (the husband) will bear the god’s penalty. 19

The perspective of the omens is quite different from the laws. According to the omens, marriages continue to resonate. There are ties that survive the legal termi-nation of a marriage and the disposition of marital assets.

BlasphemyIf the divorce omens suggest a tie to the Middle Assyrian Laws, an omen that

deals with blasphemy can be read against the Middle Assyrian Law A 2. This omen presents a much stronger connection:

If a man’s first-ranking wife curses his god—he bears the punishment of the god.[If the man] bears the [punish]ment—discord will be imposed on his family. 20

According to the omen text, retribution for a wife’s blasphemy is borne by her hus-band. Although the beginning of the following line is broken, it appears to be a con-tinuation of the omen. If this restoration given above is correct, then the apodosis of the omen text offers a striking parallel to the Middle Assyrian Law A 2:

If a woman, either a man’s wife or a man’s daughter, should speak something dis-graceful or utters a blasphemy, that woman alone bears the responsibility for her offence; they will have no claim against her husband, her sons, or her daughter. 21

18. S. E. Holtz, JNES 60 (2004) 245.19. CT 39 46 lines 44: DIŠ II II-ma šá-nu-um-ma TUK-si šer-ti DINGIR ÍL.20. CT 39 46 lines 64–65: [DIŠ NA] ḫir -ta-šú DINGIR-šú iz-zu-ur NAM.TAG.GA DINGIR-šú na-ši

(65) [DIŠ NA ar]-na iš-ši É.BI NU ŠE.GA GAR-šú.21. MAL A 2: šumma sinniltu lu aššat aʾīle u lu mārat aʾīle šillata taqṭibi lu miqit pê tartiši sin-

niltu šīt aranša tanašši ana mutiša mārēša mārāteša la iqarribu (M. Roth, Law Collections, 155). For a discussion of the law and the language of blasphemy, see Sophie Lafont, Femmes: Droit et Justice dans l’Antiquité Orientale: Contribution à l’Étude du Droit penal au Proche-Orient Ancien (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 165; Fribourg, Switzerland: Editions Universitaires; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999) 445–50.


Blasphemy occurs elsewhere in Middle Assyrian legal corpora, but it is not attested in other law collections. The law does not specify a legal remedy, nor does the omen predict a future result. The apodosis of the law and the apodosis of the omen are obverse statements of responsibility. Both first consider the woman and then what happens to her family. The law addresses the possibility that either a woman’s hus-band or one of her children could be held accountable for her blasphemy, but states that she alone bears the responsibility. The community cannot seek legal redress from a family member. In the divine realm, however, the blasphemed god applies another standard. The omen takes blasphemy in the context of marriage and the husband bears the consequences. The line of responsibility for the offense devolves through the husband to his household.

Sex between Male EqualsThe omen that deals with sex between equal status males offers another clear

connection to the Middle Assyrian Laws and is a topic which like blasphemy is spe-cific to this law collection. 22 Two provisions of this corpus deal with sexual relations between two men. The first law, MAL A 19, deals with slander: a man says of his tappû (comrade), either by spreading a rumor furtively or in a quarrel in front of other men, “everyone always penetrates you” but is unable to prove it. 23 The second law, MAL A 20, concerns the act: a man penetrates his comrade. The penalty is significant. If the charges are proved and he is found guilty, he is gang raped by the community and they turn him into a eunuch. 24 Both the placement of these laws in the context of adultery laws and the punishment of MAL A 20 indicate the gendered nature of the offenses. Reflecting a general principle of Mesopotamian legal compo-sition discussed below, the two laws represent polar cases which are juxtaposed to form a legal statement and maximally varied in order to define the outer boundaries of a legal situation. The meaning encompassed by the juxtaposition is open for legal discussion. In the first case, the victim has been publicly defined as someone known to be the receptive partner and in the polar case, he has been placed in the same position through active violation. The juxtaposition of two laws seems to leave open

22. For discussions, see Thorkild Jacobsen, “How Did Gilgamesh Oppress Uruk?” ActOr 8 (1930) 74; Jean Bottéro and Herbert Petschow, “Homosexualität,” in Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorder-asiatischen Archöologie Vol. 4 (edited by Dietz O. Edzard; Berlin: de Gruyter, 1972–75) 462; Ann Guinan, “Auguries of Hegemony: The Sex Omens of Mesopotamia,” in Gender and the Body in the Ancient Medi-terranean (edited by Maria Wyke; Oxford: Blackwells, 1998) 45–47, 50, 55 and “Ominous Masculinity of The Paper Title That Dare Not Speak Its Name” (paper presented at Masculinities in the Ancient Near East, Philadelphia, March 24–26, 2011; “Querying the Sounds of Silence: Mesopotamian Texts and Queer Theory” (paper presented at the Gender, Methodology, and Assyriology Workshop, RAI 59 (Ghent, 2013); Jerrold Cooper, “Buddies in Babylonia,” in Riches Hidden in Secret Places: Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Memory of Thorkild Jacobsen (edited by Tzvi Abusch; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2005) 83–85; Martii Nissinen, Homoeroticism in the Biblical World: A Historical Perspective (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1998) 27–28; and “Are There Homosexuals in Mesopotamian Literature?” JAOS 130 (2010) 76–77.

23. MAL A 19: šumma aʾīlu ina puzre ina muḫḫi tappāʾišu abata iškun mā ittinikkuš lu inā ṣalte ana pani ṣābē iqbiaššu mā ittininikkuka mā ubārka baʾura la ila ʾe la ubaʾer aʾīla šuātu 50 ina ḫaṭṭāte imaḫḫuṣuš iltēn uraḫ ūmāte šipar šarre eppaš igaddimuš u 1 bilat annaka iddan (M. Roth, Law Collec-tions, 159).

24. MAL A 20: šumma aʾīlu tappāšu inīk ubtaʾeruš uktaʾinuš inikkuš ana ša rēšēn utarruš (M. Roth, Law Collections, 160).

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the question of consensual sex between male equals. There is no perpetrator or vic-tim and therefore, it is not a matter of legal consideration. It is, however, a subject of divinatory interest and the subject of an omen from tablet 104:

If a man has anal sex with his social peer—that man will go foremost among his brothers and colleagues. 25

The paronomastic relationship between the words qinnatu (anus) and kinātu (col-leagues) underscores the possibility that collegiate relations could also be sexual.

Just as every man can penetrate, he can also be penetrated. This somatic real-ity threatens the gender-based assertion that hierarchy requires vigilance over the body. If the protasis opens the possibility of non-hierarchical, mutual sexual rela-tions and the symmetrical deployment of the body, the apodosis forecloses it. The apodosis revolves around the switch from “behind” to “going foremost’’ and, thereby, reasserts the imbrication of sexual domination and social supremacy. The penetrat-ing male gains position and agency over the receptive male. Sexual hierarchy is fundamental—it exists even where there is parity of status.

Other omens from tablet 104 have connections to the Middle Assyrian Laws which are not immediately obvious but, when seen in the context of more secure connections, it is apparent that they are part of the same subject constellation. 26

Sex in a Public StreetThe Middle Assyrian Laws cite cases where location is a factor in determining

whether the wife of a man or the man who has had sex with her can be punished for adultery. 27 In the case of consensual sex, punishment for a man depends on his knowledge of the woman’s marital status. If he has sex with her knowing she is a wife of another man they are both guilty of adultery. His punishment is tied to the punishment the husband metes out to his wife. If he does not know she is the wife of another man he is clear. A wife who is raped on a public thoroughfare and defended herself is not punished but the rapist is put to death. If the rape of a man’s wife on a public street is a crime, what can be inferred about the rape of a woman who is not a wife? The subject is not within the scope of legal inquiry, but again it is addressed by an omen. The omen is part of a set of three inauspicious omens that deal with sex on a public street. The first two omens contrast opposing types of sexual behav-ior: rape and having sex with a prostitute. The liminality of the locale, a crossroad cannot be taken as the reason the two behaviors are inauspicious: the locale of the third omen is a blind-alley. The three omens together make a divinatory statement. The inauspicious meanings of the omens cannot be attributed to the specific type of behavior or the liminality of the location, but rather to having sex outside the house on a public street.

If a man seizes a woman at a crossroad and has sex with her—that man will not prosper.

25. CT 39 44 line 13: DIŠ NA ana GU.DU (qinnati) me-eḫ-ri-šú TE NA.BI ina ŠEŠ.MEŠ-šú ù ki-na-ti-šú a-šá-re-du-tam DU-ak.

26. Omens 46–50 deal, respectively, with practicing black magic, exposing a divorced wife in the assembly, divorce and remarriage to a wife of a living man or to a widow and a philandering husband, while not exact parallels, do echo the laws.

27. MAL A 12–14.


If a man frequents a prostitute at a crossroads—either the hand of the god or the hand of the king will catch him.If a man has sex in a blind-alley—losses will beset him. 28

Textual Structure and LogicLaw collections and omen texts derived from the same scholastic tradition and

were produced within the intellectual paradigm in which knowledge is systemati-cally organized and presented in lists. Legal scholarship has its roots in third-mil-lennium textual history. In spite of the variations exhibited by the evidence from different temporal periods and geographical areas, the canon of legal problems re-mained relatively limited and the corpus of texts produced within the legal scho-lastic tradition rather small. In contrast, divinatory scholarship, exemplified by the systematic recording of omens, was a later scholastic development but produced a larger corpus of texts.

The single conditional sentence is the basic unit of both omens and laws; how-ever, each sentence is not formulated in isolation but related in a series of varia-tions. Mesopotamian law is casuistic—the protases present a series of hypothetical cases and the apodoses specify their legal remedies. Although the link between the sign in the protasis and predicted event in the apodosis of an omen can sometimes be determined, there is no intrinsic connection and much of the semantic basis of divination is beyond our reach. Nevertheless, through a comparison with the legal formulations, the logic underlying the formulation of an omen can be inferred. As Rochberg posits:

The relation between protasis and apodosis, or antecedent and consequent, is the working dynamic of Mesopotamian divination, and although to us that connec-tion, at least semantically, is not readily understood, it is subject to certain rela-tional (propositional logical) rules in the same way as are the casuistic statements of the cuneiform laws. The logical relation I refer to here is that of conditional logic and it applies independently of any semantic, causal, or empirical connec-tion there may be (or not be) between the statements P and Q so related. 29

The similarities between the two genres are more than formal and external. The formulators of the omen texts use language that make the connection between the two disciplines explicit.

The first scholars to study the law collections noted the topical arrangement of legal cases and began to explore the logic of their ordering. It was noted that the cas-es presented often represented the extremes of a legal situation. 30 Barry Eichler’s analysis of the literary structure of the LE demonstrates the legal reasoning that governed compositional structures. He summarized the compositional principles in-herent in the drafting of the LE:

28. CT 39 45 lines 29–31: DIŠ NA ina SILA.LÍMMU MUNUS DIB-ma TE NA.BI NU SI.SÁ (30:) DIŠ NA ina SILA.LÍMMU MUNUS.KAR.KID sa-dir šum4-ma ŠU DINGIR šum4-ma ŠU LUGAL KUR-su (31:) DIŠ NA ina SILA.SAG.GI4 TE im-ṭú-ú GAR.MEŠ-šú.

29. Francesca Rochberg, “Inference, Conditionals, and Possibility in Ancient Mesopotamian Sci-ence,” Science in Context 22 (2009) 9–10.

30. W. W. Hallo, “The Slandered Bride,” in Studies Presented to A. Leo Oppenheim (edited by R. Biggs and J. Brinkman; Chicago, 1964) 99 n. 35.

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an associative and ideational ordering of legal cases which are grouped together in topical sections; (b) the formulation of certain legal cases in a particular way in order to allow them to function as “bridges” between two unrelated topical sections; (c) the setting forth, within a single topical section, of a pair of polar cases with maximal variation that leaves a large discretionary middle that is not addressed; and (d) the juxtaposing of individual cases with one another in order to create a legal statement through the vertical reading of legal cases. 31

Legal reasoning is never stated—it can only be surmised through the way indi-vidual examples are related to one another. Polar cases define the outer boundaries of a legal situation. What the formulators meant by the area enclosed is left to later interpreters (both ancient and modern) to infer. Westbrook believed that modern inferences of the type stipulated by Eichler’s analysis runs the risk of cultural bi-as. 32 He misleadingly characterizes Eichler’s methodology as a “way of stating legal principles by inference”—a description that runs roughshod over Eichler’s carefully phrased argument that the juxtaposition of polar cases creates, not a “legal prin-ciple,” but a “legal statement.” According to Westbrook, the cases which feature “extreme polarity” are rhetorical markers meant to suggest that the text embraces all possible cases. Of course, any attempt to abstract categories and interpret a text that only expresses itself through examples will require inference.

Eichler’s methodology is carefully defined and argued within narrow param-eters. Furthermore, his later study, “Examples of Restatement in the Laws of Ham-murabi” adds weight to his argument. He demonstrates that the drafters of LH addressed specific “discretionary” areas and added cases where LE was perceived to be incomplete or was in need further refinement. 33

The ordering of cases in topical sequences, which is the structural basis of the legal compilations, also characterizes the omen compendia. The duplication of topi-cal sequences contributes to the formulation of new omens and to the ordering of tablets within a series. In its basic form the protasis of an omen records both the ominous sign and the context or field of observation. The context may be very gen-eral. For example, a sign may be seen in a specific area or during a specific activ-ity. Signs were also systematically located on formally defined divinatory arenas segmented into observational zones (a part of the exta, an area of the sky, a part of the body, a month of the year). The meaning recorded in the apodosis of an omen is the combined product of both the sign and context. When it is possible to interpret the meaning that lies behind a sequence of omens it becomes clear that the varia-tion of omens within a sequence are a function of divinatory reasoning in the same way that variations of law cases are expressions of the legal logic. The three omens discussed above (p. 112) which deal with sex on a public street are an example. It is also possible to compare topical sequences and extract larger patterns of meaning.

31. Barry Eichler, “Examples of Restatement in the Laws of Hammurabi,” in Mishneh Todah: Stud-ies in Deuteronomy and its Cultural Environment in Honor of Jeffrey H. Tigay (edited by Nili Sacher Fox, David A. Glatt-Gilad, and Michael J. Williams; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2009) 369–70.

32. Raymond Westbrook, “Hammurabi and the Ends of the Earth,” in Landscapes: Territories, Frontiers and Horizons in the Ancient Near East. Papers read at the XLIV Rencontre assyriologique inter-national, Venezia 7–11 July 1997. Part III: Landscapes in Ideology, Religion, Literature and Art (edited by L. Milano, S. de Martino, F. M. Fales, G. B Lanfranchi. History of the Ancient Near East/ Monographs 3/3; Padova: Sargon, 2000) 103.

33. B. Eichler, “Literary Structure in the Laws of Eshnunna,” 72.


Serial LogicInstead of “variation,” “serial variation” or “seriation” are better terms to de-

scribe this tool of logic thinking. The compositional principles of juxtaposition of two cases and polar cases with maximal variation presented by Eichler are also the features of a serially order set as defined by John Lyons: “In a serially ordered set there are two outermost members (if the set is determinate), and all other lexemes in a set are ordered between two others. . .” 34 Both omens and laws use similar tools of serial logic. Each item derives from the proceeding one by the addition of an ele-ment which adds to the precision of what went before and extends the conceptual range. A single item in a text is related both to the one it follows and then to the next in line. At some point a sequence reaches its outer limit. This is only known when the next item in line crosses a boundary provoking, in the process, a new topic of inquiry. In this way of thinking, meaning occurs at the border by defining the extremes. This line of thought never leaps from the concrete examples to define an abstract principle. Meaning defined by the addition of further examples can never be complete.

Serial Logic in Divorce Omens of Šumma Alu Tablet 104 (CT 39 45 lines 39–45)

The six divorce omens 39–45, discussed above, reveal a pattern of serial logic. A single omen when read backwards falls into one category and when forward falls into another. According to omen 40, if man gives his divorced wife a food allow-ance, his prayer will find favor. When the next omen (41), a negative omen, is read against omen 40 which is positive, the topic becomes maintenance. The addition of omen 42 switches the terms from “she lives in his house” to “he returns to her” and in the process extracts another issue: incomplete severing of the marriage. Taken together, omens 42 and 43 concern a husband who wishes to have his wife back. In omen 42 he returns to her, but in omen 43 he does not. When omen 43 is read with omen 44 his ex-wife is beyond his reach. In omen 43 he cannot find her and in omen 44 she has married another man. The apodosis states that he will bear the god’s punishment and it, thus, represents the polar extreme of omen 40, as defined the apodosis: “his prayer will find favor.” In omen 44, a divorced wife’s remarriage ends the line of thought that deals with the incomplete severing of the marital relation-ship, but the ultimate termination of the marriage is represented by the next omen, omen 45—he strangles her 35 The next sequence of omens deal with crimes a man commits against his divorced wife and, therefore omen 45 functions as a “bridge” between two topical sequences.

Serial Logic in the Laws of Eshnunna 25–31In legal inquiry serial sets defined by polar aspects of maximally varied situ-

ations establish the outer boundaries that encompass a legal problem. 36 The same

34. John Lyons, Semantics (Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1977) 289.35. CT 39 46 line 45: DIŠ II II-ma (NITLAM-šú i-zi-ib) iḫ-nu-uq-ši iq-qal-li.36. B. Eichler, “Literary Structure in the Laws of Eshnunna,” 81.

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sequence of cases from LE analyzed by Eichler can be further understood as evolv-ing from a process of serial reasoning:

25. If a man comes to claim (his bride) at the house of his father-in-law but his father-in-law wrongs(?) him and then gives his daughter to [another], the father of the daughter shall return two-fold the bride money he received.

26. If a man brings the bridewealth for the daughter of a man, but another, without the consent of her father or mother, abducts her and then deflowers her, it is in-deed a capital offense — he shall die.

27. If a man marries the daughter of another man without the consent of her father and mother, and moreover does not conclude the nuptial feast and the contract for(?) her father and mother, should she reside in his house for even one full year, she is not a wife.

28. If he concludes the contract and the nuptial feast for(?) her father and mother and he marries her, she is indeed a wife; the day she is seized in the lap of another man, she shall die, she will not live.

29. If a man should be captured or abducted during a raiding expedition or while on patrol(?), even should he reside in a foreign land for a long time, should someone else marry his wife and even should she bear him a child, whenever he returns he shall take back his wife.

30. If a man repudiates his city and his master and then flees, and someone else then marries his wife, whenever he returns, he will have no claim to his wife.

31. If a man should deflower the slave woman of another man, he shall weigh and deliver 20 shekels of silver, but the slave woman remains the property of her master. 37

LE 26–27 deal with violations of the parents’ legal right of control over their be-trothed daughter. In LE 26 the parental rights of control over the virginity of their daughter is violated by her abduction and rape. In the contrasting case, the groom assumes spousal control without the consent of the parents and without the fulfill-ment his contractual obligations. LE 26 also stipulates that the rapist is to be put to death. A man’s right to sexual exclusivity of a woman and the death sentence for its violation is a condition of marriage. As far as others are concerned, the con-tract between the parents and the groom establishes the groom’s right to sexual exclusivity. The woman herself is only subject to execution for adultery after the parents have transferred control to the husband and she has become a legal wife. LE 29 presents an exception to this principle. The woman is not subject to a charge of adultery and her husband is able to reclaim her from another man’s household. LE 30 is constructed in opposition to LE 29, but it is also the end point of a series of

37. LE 25–31: šumma awīlum ana bīt emi issīma emušu ikšīšuma mārassu ana [šanîm it]tadin abi mārtim terḫat imḫuru tašna utâr (26:) šumma awīlum ana mārat awīlim terḫatam ubilma šanû balum šâl abiša u ummiša imšuʾšima ittaqabši dīn napištimma imât (27:) šumma awīlum ana mārat awīlim balum šâl abiša u ummiša īḫussima u kirram u rik�sā�tim ana abiša u ummiša la i[škun] ūmī šattim ištiat ina bītišu līšimma ul aššat (note B. Eichler, “Examples of Restatement in the Laws of Hammurabi,” 368 translates kirram “nuptial drink”; see Reuven Yaron, The Laws of Eshnunna (2nd rev. edition [Jeru-salem: Magnes Press, The Hebrew University, 1988] 201) (28:) šumma �. . .� riksātim u kirram ana abiša u ummiša iškunma īḫussi aššat ūm ina sūn awīlim iṣṣabbatu imât ul iballuṭ (29:) šumma awīlum ina ḫarrān šeḫṭim u sakpim it[tašlal] ulu naḫbutum ittaḫbat ūmī [arkūtim] ina mātim šanītimma itta[šab] aššassu šanûmma ītaḫaz u māram ittalad inūma ittūram aššassu ita[bbal] (30:) šumma awīlum ālšu u bēlšu izērma ittaḫbit aššassu šanūmma ītaḫaz inūma ittūram ana aššatišu ul iraggam (31:) šumma awīlum amat awīlim ittaqab 1/3 mana kaspam išaqqal u amtum ša bēlišama (M. Roth, Law Collections, 62–64).


SERIAL VARIATION IN DIVORCE OMENS 39. If a man divorces his first-ranking wife – unhappiness until the end of days, quarrelling will be

constant for him, his days will be short.40. If a man divorces his first-ranking wife, but then gives her a food allowance – his prayer will find

favor. MAINTENANCE

40. If a man divorces his first-ranking wife, but then gives her a food allowance – his prayer will find favor.

41. If a man divorces his first-ranking wife, but then she lives in his house – constriction; he will have a burden.

INCOMPLETE SEVERING41. If a man divorces his first-ranking wife, but then she lives in his house – constriction; he will have

a burden.42. If a man divorces his first-ranking wife, but then returns to her – he will die in one year.

DESIRE TO RETURN TO HER42. If a man divorces his first-ranking wife, but then returns to her – he will die in one year.43. If a man divorces his first-ranking wife, but then continues to search after her – prickly flesh

disease will be inflicted on him.BEYOND HIS REACH

43. If a man divorces his first-ranking wife, but then continues to search after her – prickly flesh disease will be inflicted on him.

44. If a man divorces his first-ranking wife, and then another (man) marries her – he will bear the god’s penalty.

SERIAL VARIATION IN LAWS OF ESHNUNNA 25-30PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY TO THE GROOM

25. If a man comes to claim (his bride) at the house of his father-in-law but his father-in-law wrongs(?) him and then gives his daughter to [another], the father of the daughter shall return two-fold the bride money he received.

26. If a man brings the bridewealth for the daughter of a man, but another, without the consent of her father or mother, abducts her and then deflowers her, it is indeed a capital offense — he shall die.

PARENTAL RIGHT TO CONTROL THE SEXUAL EXCLUSIVITY OF A BETROTHED DAUGHTER26. If a man brings the bridewealth for the daughter of a man, but another, without the consent of her

father or mother, abducts her and then deflowers her, it is indeed a capital offense — he shall die.27. If a man marries the daughter of another man without the consent of her father and mother, and

moreover does not conclude the nuptial feast and the contract for(?) her father and mother, should she reside in his house for even one full year, she is not a wife.

TRANSFER OF CONTROL FROM PARENTS TO HUSBAND: ASSUMING THE STATUS AS WIFE27. If a man marries the daughter of another man without the consent of her father and mother, and

moreover does not conclude the nuptial feast and the contract for(?) her father and mother, should she reside in his house for even one full year, she is not a wife.

28. If he concludes the contract and the nuptial feast for(?) her father and mother and he marries her, she is indeed a wife; the day she is seized in the lap of another man, she shall die, she will not live.

THE ADULTERY PROVISION28. If he concludes the contract and the nuptial feast for(?) her father and mother and he marries her,

she is indeed a wife; the day she is seized in the lap of another man, she shall die, she will not live.29. If a man should be captured or abducted during a raiding expedition or while on patrol(?), even

should he reside in a foreign land for a long time, should someone else marry his wife and even should she bear him a child, whenever he returns he shall take back his wife.

AN ABSENT HUSBAND’S RIGHT TO RECLAIM HIS WIFE29. If a man should be captured or abducted during a raiding expedition or while on patrol(?), even

should he reside in a foreign land for a long time, should someone else marry his wife and even should she bear him a child, whenever he returns he shall take back his wife.

30. If a man repudiates his city and his master and then flees, and someone else then marries his wife, whenever he returns, he will have no claim to his wife.

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cases that began with LE 25. In LE 25 the parents break the contract that otherwise would initiate the sequence of events resulting in a woman assuming the status of wife. In LE 30 the woman’s status is abrogated by her husband’s deliberate absence. LE 31 is a bridge case connecting LE 25–30 which deals with marriage to the next sequence which deals with children. Violation of a man’s right of sexual control over a woman is only a capital offense in the context of marriage (LE 29–30).

The variations within a topical sequence constitute a paradigmatic legal prob-lem. Sets of legal problems were transmitted to other scribal schools where they were used for teaching and deliberation. 38 The legal traditions handed down by these ancient scholars demonstrate that they expanded lines of inquiry and devel-oped responses based on their own legal interests and cultural circumstances, but also provide testimony that these scholars were working within a coherent scholarly discipline, considering consistent problems and applying logic to them.

Omen texts systematically recorded topical sequences of signs and applied them to defined fields of observation. Omens were compiled according to type into small collections. The scholastic tradition increased textual production. As omen texts passed from generation to generation and were widely disseminated, smaller omen collections were compiled into larger, more inclusive compendia. In addition, sequences of omens were extracted from one type of divinatory text and applied to another. This is most pronounced in šumma ālu where sequences of omens that oc-cur in other divinatory texts such as enūma anu enlil, iqqur īpuš, and šumma izbu also occur in šumma ālu. 39

Comparisons and ConclusionsThe first-millennium compendia are characterized an enormous accretion of de-

tail, much of which is on subjects with no modern equivalences. Often these texts appear to be generated by process that seems mechanistic and combinatorial rather than the result of intellectual engagement. When the starting point of a divinatory inquiry is a cultural category such as the city, the accumulation of details becomes extremely revealing.

Similarities between the omen and laws collections are fundamental, but so are their essential differences. The differences in the size of their respective textual corpora derive from differences in their conceptual structure. Divination and law are the same order of knowledge. The law collections are drafted with the intent of producing a body of knowledge that is stable and knowable. Legal inquiry examines the existing boundaries and obligations of the social world and seeks to clarify them. Divination, on the other hand, does not investigate the customary or conventional. It looks to an extraordinary source of knowledge in order to deal with aspects of life whose solutions lie outside range of ordinary vision and control. An ominous sign is a manifestation of a human condition that is latent and which may, but does not yet fully, exist. Omen scholarship looks across vastly different domains of existence in order to find patterns of meaning that that are ordinarily hidden from view.

38. R. Westbrook, A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law, vol. 1, 18.39. Sally M. Freedman, If a City is Set on a Height: The Akkadian Omen Series Šumma Alu Ina

Mēlê Šakin, vol. 1 (Occasional Publications of the Samuel Noah Kramer Fund, 17; Philadelphia: Univer-sity of Pennsylvania Museum, 1998) 10–2.

http://www.franklin.library.upenn.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?SC=Title&SEQ=20110907014444&PID=7gU30T9INHeG2CDbqZEWOJ_my2cL&SA=Occasional+publications+of+the+Samuel+Noah+Kramer+Fund+;


Since further meaning is always waiting for the next item in a series, theoret-ically, a text remains open to endless new examples with no logical point of culmi-nation. Nevertheless, at some point a text will satisfy its agenda and arrive at a termination point. Legal collections reach a logical stopping point sooner than the omen texts which become endlessly extensive. 40 The tension between evoking the unknown, on one hand, and turning it into an accessible systematic body of knowl-edge, on the other, means that the recording of one set of ominous connections initi-ates a search for the next. The possibility of uncovering new, hidden meaning fuels the engine of textual production. 41

Meaning is produced also by referential reversal of cultural categories or rever-sal of standard symbols throughout šumma ālu. 42 The reversals are a function of the textual organization based on the expansion of the built environment. At the furthest extreme things suddenly invert to the opposite. When outward extension becomes over extension, one gets the reverse of what one intended. When cities and houses are built too high their inhabitants are unhappy. When doors are too wide, income leaves rather than enters.

The omens that parallel the laws focus on social rather than physical boundar-ies. Reversals occur when a common paradigm becomes a syntagm of: up is down/ bad is good/ front is back. What appears positive on the outside is a negative on the inside. The unknown becomes the reverse of the known. The reversals present divinatory meaning as a negative analogue—the other side of the coin.

In conclusion, the parallels to the laws give the omens a brief, but significant voice in the broader textual culture of Mesopotamia. The omens may address the circumstances that encompass legal norms, but they have an opposing perspective. They probe the ambiguities, contradictions, and potential cultural instabilities that the laws evoke, but do not resolve. Where laws articulate social boundaries and prohibitions applicable to all, the omens offer a different outlook on human relation-ships. They take the individual’s point of view and determine whether he is posi-tively or negatively positioned in relation to the social whole. Perhaps this inverse perspective of omens and laws derives from the cosmic geography of the two courts. The divinatory court is situated in space and time in a realm that is the mirror im-age of the sphere of human law and justice with the god Šamaš uniting both parts into a whole. Perhaps, as night is to day, as wife is to husband, as left is to right, divination is to law.

40. See also F. Rochberg, Science in Contact 22 (2009) 13–4 for a discussion of the logical stopping point in the celestial omens.

41. On the iterative structure of the omen texts, see Ann Guinan, “If a Severed Head Laughs: Sto-ries of Divinatory Interpretation,” in Magic and Divination in the Ancient World (edited by Leda Ciraolo and Jonathan Seidel; Ancient Magic and Divination, 2; Groningen, the Netherlands: Styx Publications, 2002) 13–40.

42. Ann Guinan, “The Perils of High Living: Divinatory Rhetoric,” in DUMU-E2-DUB-BA-A. Stud-ies in honor of Åke W. Sjöberg (edited by Hermann Behrens, Darlene M. Loding, and Martha T. Roth; Occasional publications of the Samnuel Noah Kramer fund, Vol. 11; Philadelphia: University of Pennsyl-vania Museum, 1989) 227–35; “Left/Right Symbolism in Mesopotamian Divination,” SAAB X (1) (1996) 5–10; “Social Constructs and Private Designs: The House Omens of Šumma Alu,” in Houses and House-holds in Ancient Mesopotamia. Papers read at the 40e Rencontre assyriologique internationale, Leiden, July 5–8, 1993 (edited by Klaas Veenhof; PIHANS 78; Istanbul: Nederlands Historisch-archaeologisch Instituut te Istanbul, 1996) 61–8.

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AbbreviationsK. Museum siglum of The British Museum, London (“Koujunyik”).LE Laws of Eshnunna (for edition, see Martha Roth, Law Collections from Mesopotamia

and Asia Minor. 2nd edition [Writings from the Ancient World 6; Altanta, GA: Schol-ars Press, 1997]).

LH Laws of Hammurabi (for edition, see M. Roth, Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor).

LL Laws of Lipit-Ištar (for edition, see M. Roth, Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor).

MAL Middle Assyrian Laws (for edition, see M. Roth, Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor).

VAT Museum siglum of the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin (“sVorderasiatische Ab-teilung, Tontafeln”).

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laws and omens: obverse and inverse

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