Mesopotamian divination was divination within the Mesopotamian period. Perceptual elements utilized in the practice of a divinatory technique included the

astronomical Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxi ...

(

stars A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

and meteorites),

weather Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloud cover, cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmos ...

and the calendar, the configuration of the earth and waterways and inhabited areas, the outward appearance of inanimate objects and also vegetation, elements stemming from the behavior and the birth of animals, especially humans. Magic was used to counter a negative fate foretold by divination.

Dating and development

The earliest evidence for practice is (''dating is true to this article'') from the fourth millennia B.C. (

Sumeria Sumer () is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. It is one of the cradles of c ...

), 2100 to 2000 BC ( Neo-Sumeria) and 7th century BC ( Babylonia), except for circa 2100 via the Babylonian

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, and is regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with ...

Sumer

The area of land known as Sumer, within Mesopotamia, had a settled population within the 5th millennia BCE. A seal from Sumer, (of ''

Mudgala Mudgala (), sometimes also rendered Maudgalya (), is a rishi (sage) in Hinduism. Leading a life of poverty and piety, he is regarded to have mastered the attainment of the state of nirvana. The Maudgalya Brahmanas are said to trace their descent ...

,'' ''Lord of Edin,'' ''Minister to Uruas'' ) shows the word Azu, which meant water-divinator (lit. water knower), and additionally, physician. Lord Mudgala was the son of Uruas the Khad, who was the first dynasty of Sumeria (via

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...

) of the fourth millennium BCE. Another artifact from

Sumerian culture Sumer () is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. It is one of ...

, a death amulet seal, shows the name Uzu-as' and is a resurrection amulet for the slave and seer of the Temple of the Sun, Uzu-as'. The part of the name, the word Uzu, meant in Sumerian, diviner, magician, or seer.

Neo-Sumerian

There is some suggestion people of this era knew of, and were experiencing,

dreams A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, althou ...

as portents and sources for divination.''Issue 142 of Journal for the study of the Old Testament: Supplement series'' The

Neo-Sumerian The Third Dynasty of Ur, also called the Neo-Sumerian Empire, refers to a 22nd to 21st century BC (middle chronology) Sumerian ruling dynasty based in the city of Ur and a short-lived territorial-political state which some historians consider to ...

period was from circa the years 2100 to 2000 BC.

Babylonia

Most of the extant material showing evidence of divination practice are from the 7th century BCE and accordingly from Babylonian culture, which dates from 1850 BCE and later. The Sumerian version of the

(circa 2100 ) has the mother of Gilgamesh interpreting a dream of Gilgamesh (a portent of the advent of

Enkidu Enkidu ( sux, ''EN.KI.DU10'') was a legendary figure in ancient Mesopotamian mythology, wartime comrade and friend of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk. Their exploits were composed in Sumerian poems and in the Akkadian ''Epic of Gilgamesh'', writte ...

Development

Divination practice evolved through time from abductive positions to reckonings by virtue of an '' a priori'', and a tendency to make generalizations about causes.

Classification

Two types of divination existed in Mesopotamia, divine and human. Mesopotamian diviners most often used a

liver The liver is a major organ only found in vertebrates which performs many essential biological functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the synthesis of proteins and biochemicals necessary for digestion and growth. In humans, it ...

for divination, or else by observing the sky. Another difference delineated by Bottéro, is of two types of divination, both divine, but one artificial and the other natural; the artificial being divinations where through a process of "computation and constant observation" a future truth is gleaned; and natural, being a kind of gift from a god whereby direct inspired communication occurs from god to human. Bottéro and Bahrani assert Mesopotamian divination was not just divination, and not limited in development to a type of superstition, but was developed to the extent to which it was in fact a

science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

Divine

Study of portents from gods was vital within Mesopotamia throughout the entire time of its existence. The gods

Šamaš Utu (dUD "Sun"), also known under the Akkadian name Shamash, ''šmš'', syc, ܫܡܫܐ ''šemša'', he, שֶׁמֶשׁ ''šemeš'', ar, شمس ''šams'', Ashurian Aramaic: 𐣴𐣬𐣴 ''š'meš(ā)'' was the ancient Mesopotamian sun god. ...

and

Adad Hadad ( uga, ), Haddad, Adad ( Akkadian: 𒀭𒅎 '' DIM'', pronounced as ''Adād''), or Iškur ( Sumerian) was the storm and rain god in the Canaanite and ancient Mesopotamian religions. He was attested in Ebla as "Hadda" in c. 2500 BCE. ...

were associated most closely with divination, Šamaš related to divination in decisions, and Adad for oracles and

omens An omen (also called ''portent'') is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change. It was commonly believed in ancient times, and still believed by some today, that omens bring divine messages fr ...

Celestial

Celestial divination was conducted for the purposes of the king and the state. Diviners observed the sun by day and the stars of the

night sky The night sky is the nighttime appearance of astronomical object, celestial objects like stars, planets, and the Moon, which are visible in a clear sky between sunset and sunrise, when the Sun is below the horizon. Natural light sources in a ...

, which they knew as šıṭır samé , or, šıṭır šamāmī , or, šıṭır burūmē (writing of the

firmament In biblical cosmology, the firmament is the vast solid dome created by God during his creation of the world to divide the primal sea into upper and lower portions so that the dry land could appear. The concept was adopted into the subsequent ...

). These three things refer to their thought of the stars of the sky interpreted as ''heavenly writing''. By way of the celestial, this type of divination was one of Babylon's three related celestial sciences, along with

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...

and horoscopy. The descriptions šıṭır šamê and šıṭırti šamāmī are found sometimes within Neo-Babylonian royal inscriptions in special reference to those temples thought of a beautiful in a way of those temples being (lit.) ''like the heavenly writing''.(Rochberg references A. Livingstone & Wayne Horowitz, p.304, p.1 - "...three related..." )

Impetration

Impetration is a type of divination which involved a diviner asking a deity to control a medium for the diviner to foretell the future. Media might include smoke, lots, or drops of oil in, or on, water.

Human

Divination by way of deductive thought whereby people understood the significance of forms and/ or, changes in a medium as showing and revealing a truth, is attested to within Old Babylonia, at a date of 1950 BCE(p.70 & 71)

Hepatoscopy

Divination of this type involved using the

, and possibly additionally the

gall-bladder In vertebrates, the gallbladder, also known as the cholecyst, is a small hollow organ where bile is stored and concentrated before it is released into the small intestine. In humans, the pear-shaped gallbladder lies beneath the liver, although ...

. Examinining internal organs to make predictions is known as extispicy.definition
published by The Free Dictionary etrieved 2015-12-20/ref> Extant sources reveal individuals were restricted from using extispicic means by a prohibitive cost for the performance of this divination so that

royal Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ...

members and nobles were mostly the only ones able to afford to know the future by this means. Existing sources for knowledge of hepatoscopy are clay models of divined livers. Hepatoscopic practice and belief began during the third millennium BCE. The practice is referred to in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Ezekiel 21:21.

=Practice

= To make predictions, diviners had two things to aid their making of a divinatory statement – lists of previous predictions and clay models made of previously interpreted livers. Hepatoscopic predictions were made on the entrails of slaughtered animals (Oppenheim) by observing any kind of abnormality within the organ, such as atrophy,

hypertrophy Hypertrophy is the increase in the volume of an organ or tissue due to the enlargement of its component cells. It is distinguished from hyperplasia, in which the cells remain approximately the same size but increase in number.Updated by Linda J. ...

, displacement, or any type of unusual marking.(A.A. Orlov references L. Oppenheim - ''Ancient Mesopotamia portrait of a dead civilization'')

=Belief

= In Mesopotamian culture, the

was thought of as being the centre of thought and feeling.

Physiognomics

Study of the human body and foretelling of an individual's fate from this study is known as physiognomics. Diviners (or perhaps associated others) made and circulated these texts to successive generations, handing down knowledge for nearly two millennia.(Popović references F. Kraus & B. Böch > "texts of nearly two millennia") Physiognomic divination omens, in the first extant recorded, date from a period 2000 - 1600 BCE

Dream interpretation

The Mesopotamian dream interpreter was known as ša'il(t)u.

Necromancy

Necromantic practice is shown by historical document to have begun from at least 900 BCE, and was relied upon for insight to a much greater extent within urban culture by the time of King

Esarhaddon Esarhaddon, also spelled Essarhaddon, Assarhaddon and Ashurhaddon ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , also , meaning " Ashur has given me a brother"; Biblical Hebrew: ''ʾĒsar-Ḥaddōn'') was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of hi ...

in the early 7th century BCE.

Literature

In literature, Babylonian divination material very often does not appear in the contents within written introductories, making it difficult for any reader who might want to know the contents of the text. Enūma Anu Enlil is a text of conclusions of divination. Šumma alammdimmǔ is a series of omens made by physiognomics dating to the close of the second millennium BCE. They are inscribed upon 27

clay tablets In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a stylus ...

History of study

The study of divination within Babylonian culture belongs to the discipline of Assyriology and began in earnest sometime during the decade of the 1870s.

References

{{Reflist Divination Astronomical myths Mesopotamian religion