The Unninnu-prayer of Nabu-shuma-ukin to Marduk
This prayer is found on one tablet, BM
40474 (= 1881-04-28, 13), housed in the →British Museum in London. Irving Finkel published an edition and study of the prayer in Finkel 1999 (→bibliography; →library). In 2011, Oshima produced another edition of the prayer for his monograph, Babylonian Prayers to Marduk: 95-96, 316-327 (→bibliography; →library). Other translations include Foster 2005: 852-856 (English) and Hecker 2013: 91-94 (German). The present transliteration is based on Finkel's initial edition from 1999 (for his copy, see →here), in consultation with the cited studies and translations, and, as of April 2024, in consultation with the available photographs, both here and at the link to the British Museum above. Nota Bene: According to the Catalogue of the Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum, Volumes IV–V, p. 447 (Leichty, Finkel, and Walker 2019), this tablet was initially published with the wrong Museum Number (BM 40475) and Accession Number (1881-4-28, 9).
Contrary to Finkel's historical commentary that accompanied his editio princeps of the text, the prayer has nothing to do with the literal imprisonment of the supplicant by his father. Rather, as I argued in a paper at the Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale in Helsinki in July 2024, the prayer is something of an anti-witchcraft prayer, countering the malicious gossip and slander that is sometimes treated as a supra-human force and commonly associated with witchcraft. The handout from the presentation as well as Powerpoint slides are available →here. A full write up of my interpretation is in preparation.
Contrary to Finkel's historical commentary that accompanied his editio princeps of the text, the prayer has nothing to do with the literal imprisonment of the supplicant by his father. Rather, as I argued in a paper at the Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale in Helsinki in July 2024, the prayer is something of an anti-witchcraft prayer, countering the malicious gossip and slander that is sometimes treated as a supra-human force and commonly associated with witchcraft. The handout from the presentation as well as Powerpoint slides are available →here. A full write up of my interpretation is in preparation.