Takpirtu or Takpertu, inscribed ''tak-pir-tú'' and as a gloss to the term ''šu-gur-gur-

meš The cuneiform MEŠ, or meš is a plural form attached at the end of Mesopotamian cuneiform words as a suffix. As part of a name (PN, personal name, or other), or major class being referenced, in capital letters (a Sumerogram form), it is typical ...

'', and literally meaning “wiping,” from ''kupurru'', “to wipe, rub,” or more generally ““to perform a wiping rite,” were

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

n purification rituals whose oldest attestations go back to the Old

Babylonia Babylonia (; , ) was an Ancient history, ancient Akkadian language, Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as a ...

n period. It was an integral part of the Bīt rimki (''House of Ablution'') and Bīt salā’ mê (''house of water sprinkling'') rituals and may have been a cleansing rite in its own right as it is listed separately in the

Exorcists Manual In some religions, an exorcist (from the Greek „ἐξορκιστής“) is a person who is believed to be able to cast out the devil or performs the ridding of demons or other supernatural beings who are alleged to have possessed a person, ...

, perhaps in the form of ''tak-pir-tú nussētiq'', burnt offerings.

The ritual

Its earliest appearance seems to have been at Mari. Middle Babylonian attestation comes in the form of two references to the supply of grain or flour for the ceremony in temple administrative tablets from

Kassite The Kassites () were a people of the ancient Near East. They controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire from until (short chronology). The Kassites gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of Babylon in 1531 B ...

Nippur Nippur (Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''Nibru'', often logogram, logographically recorded as , EN.LÍLKI, "Enlil City;"I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, ''The Cambridge Ancient History: Prolegomena & Prehistory'': Vol. 1, Part 1, Ca ...

. In later neo-

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

n and neo-Babylonian periods it was used for the spiritual cleansing of a field or a building, especially in the temple of the moon god Sîn in

Uruk Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilo ...

, but also in the context of a person, such as a sick person or the king, a type of cleansing ceremony was accompanied by a ''liḫšu'', whispered prayer, “By the life of

Anu Anu ( , from 𒀭 ''an'' "Sky", "Heaven") or Anum, originally An ( ), was the divine personification of the sky, king of the gods, and ancestor of many of the deities in ancient Mesopotamian religion. He was regarded as a source of both di ...

and

Enlil Enlil, later known as Elil and Ellil, is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian god associated with wind, air, earth, and storms. He is first attested as the chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon, but he was later worshipped by t ...

they are conjured,” or conjuration, "butting evil." Dough was wiped over the thigh of the subject, a scapegoat was sacrificed or carcass of a sheep was used to purify the cella of the temple, which was afterwards cast into the river along with the ''

zisurrû Zisurrû, meaning “ magic circle drawn with flour,” and inscribed ZÌ-SUR-RA''-a'', was an ancient Mesopotamian means of delineating, purifying and protecting from evil by enclosing a ritual space in a circle of flour. It involved ritual drawin ...

'', “magic circle of flour,” and ''garakku''-brazier, a black and white cord.

References

{{Exorcists Manual Mesopotamian religion