Master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (MA)
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This paper explores the evolution of the profession ṭupšar Enūma Anu Enlil and the connection to the decline in the presence of the profession of the ‘haruspex’ or bārû. The focus of the discussion...Show moreThis paper explores the evolution of the profession ṭupšar Enūma Anu Enlil and the connection to the decline in the presence of the profession of the ‘haruspex’ or bārû. The focus of the discussion lies during the late Neo-Assyrian period to the Arsacid period and the end of cuneiform documentation (674 BCE -75 AD). The extant cuneiform record of the bārû and ṭupšar Enūma Anu Enlil were used to exemplify scribal development and the melding of divinatory traditions. Social network analysis was employed to show how Neo-Assyrian divinatory scholars in the court of Nineveh interacted with each other. Furthermore, social network establishes how they interacted at court and what they advised on and to whom. Secondly, the evidence of Neo-Babylonian and Late-Babylonian scholars using the titles of bārû and ṭupšar Enūma Anu Enlil and their text corpus were compared. This was assessed to determine the change and shift of the evolution of the divinatory disciplines. It was determined that the different facets of divination were combined by scholars during the first millennium and celestial divination, replacing extispicy as the preferred method of divination. The aim was to show how transmission analysis can facilitate the perception of the decline and emergence of scholarly titles. The intent was to uncover community interaction and the criteria for the evolution of the divinatory profession. By the end of cuneiform documentation many of the practices of the bārû were combined into the practice of the ṭupšar Enūma Anu Enlil, however this varied between different cities in both the title and the mode of scholarly interpretation.Show less
