Canceled- Talk by Frank Simons

Invited talk at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Yale University

Talk: “Burn long and prosper: Studies on Šurpu”

Venue: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Yale University.

The ritual and incantation series Šurpu ‘Burning’ is one of the most important sources for understanding religious and magical practice in the ancient Near East. The purpose of the ritual was to rid a sufferer of a divine curse which had been inflicted due to personal misconduct. The series is composed chiefly of the text of the incantations recited during the ceremony. These are supplemented by brief ritual instructions as well as a ritual tablet which details the ceremony in full.

The first half of the paper will present a comprehensive and radical reconstruction of the entire text, including the reintroduction of approximately 150 lines of text belonging to a large, and previously unsuspected, lacuna in the published version.
In the second half of the paper I will present a new the interpretation of the penultimate tablet in the series, which has been a source of some confusion up to now.

Cancelled due to Corona virus.