Editing Akkadian literature (section)

===Omens, divination and incantation texts===

The magnitude of omen literature within the Akkadian corpus is one of the peculiar distinguishing features of this language's legacy. According to Oppenheim, 30% of all documents of this tradition are of this genre.<ref>{{cite book | title = The world's oldest literature: studies in Sumerian belles-lettres | url = https://archive.org/details/worldsoldestlite00hall | url-access = limited | author = W. Hallo | publisher = Brill | year = 2009 | page = [https://archive.org/details/worldsoldestlite00hall/page/n39 7] | isbn = 9789004173811 }}</ref> Exemplars of omen text appear during the earliest periods of Akkadian literature but come to their maturity early in the first millennium with the formation of canonical versions. Notable among these is the [[Enuma Anu Enlil]] (astrological omens), [[Šumma ālu]] (terrestrial omens), [[Summa izbu|Šumma izbu]] (anomalous births), [[Esagil-kin-apli#Alamdimmû|Alamdimmû]] (physiognomic omens), and [[Iškar Zaqīqu]] (dream omens). It is among this genre, also, that the [[Esagil-kin-apli#The Sakikkū (SA.GIG)|Sakikkū (SA.GIG)]] “Diagnostic Handbook” belongs.

The practice of [[extispicy]], divination through the entrails of animals, was formalized into a science over the millennia by the Babylonians and supporting texts were eventually gathered into a monumental handbook, the [[Bārûtu]], extending over a hundred tablets and divided into ten chapters.<ref>{{cite book | title = Babylonian Liver Omens: The Chapters Manzazu, Padanu, and Pan Takalti of the Babylonian Extispicy Series Mainly from Assurbanipal's Library | author = Ulla Koch-Westenholz | publisher = Museum Tusculanum | year = 2000 | page = 9 }}</ref> Divination, however, extended into other fields with, for example, the old Babylonian [[libanomancy]] texts, concerning interpreting portents from incense smoke,<ref>{{ cite journal | title =A New Piece of Libanomancy | author = I. L. Finkel | journal = Archiv für Orientforschung | volume = 29 | year = 1983 | pages = 50–57 }}</ref> being one and Bēl-nadin-šumi's omen text on the flight paths of birds, composed during the reign of [[Kassites|Kassite]] king [[Meli-Shipak II|Meli-Šipak]], being another exemplar.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Bird Divination in Mesopotamia - New Evidence From BM 108874 | author = Nicla De Zorzi | journal = KASKAL: Rivista di storia, ambienti e culture del Vicino Oriente Antico | volume = 6 | year = 2009 | pages = 91–94 }}</ref>

Incantations form an important part of this literary heritage, covering a range of rituals from the sacred, [[Maqlû]], "burning" to counter witchcraft, [[Šurpu]], “incineration” to counter curses, [[Namburbi]], to preempt inauspicious omens, [[Utukku|Utukkū Lemnūtu]] (actually bilingual), to exorcise “Evil Demons,” and [[Bīt rimki]], or “bath house,” the purification and substitution ceremony, to the mundane, [[Šà.zi.ga]], “the rising of the heart,” potency spells, and [[Zu-buru-dabbeda]], “to seize the ‘locust tooth’,” a compendium of incantations against field pests.<ref>{{cite journal | title = The Dogs of Ninkilim, part two: Babylonian rituals to counter field pests | author = A. R. George and Junko Taniguchi | journal = Iraq | volume = LXXII | year = 2010 | pages = 79–148 | doi = 10.1017/S0021088900000607 | s2cid = 190713244 | url = https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/10101/1/IRAQ72_0006_offprint.pdf }}</ref>