Organizational Structure of Knowledge in Cuneiform Sources

UNIVERSITÀ CA’ FOSCARI VENEZIA

KASKAL Rivista di storia, ambienti e culture del Vicino Oriente Antico

Volume 12

2015

LoGisma editore Firenze 2015

UNIVERSITÀ CA’ FOSCARI VENEZIA


Volume 12 _ 2015

Direzione _ Editorial Board

Stefano de Martino, Frederick Mario Fales, Giovanni Battista Lanfranchi, Lucio Milano, Simonetta Ponchia

Consiglio scientifico _ Scientific Board Yoram Cohen, Stefano de Martino, Frederick Mario Fales, Francis Joannès, Michael Jursa, Giovanni Battista Lanfranchi, Cécile Michel, Lucio Milano, Simonetta Ponchia, Michael Roaf, Jack M. Sasson

Segreteria Scientifica _ Scientific Secretary Paola Corò

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All articles published in this journal were submitted to peer reviewed evaluation.

ISBN 978-88-97530-70-1 ISSN 1971-8608

Stampato nel marzo 2016


Volume 12 (2015)

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF KNOWLEDGE IN CUNEIFORM SOURCES

M. Willis Monroe

Introduction

Texts are often divorced from their format through the process of modern scholarship. Removed from the physical layout they loose the context in which the original author placed the words and signs of a composition. Studying the original structure of a text as it exists on the extent manuscripts can give clues to the reasoning behind the intentional placement of the content onto the medium on which it was preserved. Recent Mesopotamian scholarship has for the most part dealt with texts in a prose or linear format, however in this paper I would like to investigate the table on cuneiform material of the late-Babylonian period (750 B.C.E. to 100 C.E.). Tabular layouts are particularly interesting because of the inherent structure behind the two axes, the rows and columns and the order with which the data is sequenced within these organizational structures. This structure allows for relational links between cells across the table, creating a richer and more productive textual landscape of association. This landscape is “generative” in that the act of reading results in new knowledge derived from the organization of the text and combination of data.1 The Mesopotamian scribes composing these texts were experimenting with format and structure not only in an attempt to derive a more perfect form of knowledge through these new associations, but the new format also served as a strategy for the preservation of the content they were borrowing from.

The development of a two dimensional table for representing knowledge begins early in the history of cuneiform writing.2 The earliest tables are concerned with purely mathematical administrative material containing primarily numbers, as counts, totals, and sums. They deal primarily with 1. “Knowledge generators are graphical forms that support combinatoric calculation. Their spatial

organization may be static or mobile, but their spatial features allow their components to be combined in a multiplicity of ways. They make use of position, sequence, order, and comparison across aligned fields as fundamental spatial properties”: Drucker 2014, 105.

2. Robson 2004, 117.

M. Willis Monroe 520

measures of land, heads of sheep, goats, and other animals. In fact most of the earliest cuneiform tablets in existence are tabular in format, receipts of offerings to temples and other mundane administrative records. However, these tables do not replace traditional prose-like texts throughout the entire cuneiform history. From the earliest administrative tables to the end of cuneiform writing, mathematical tables exist side-by-side with prose recording of similar information. In contrast, it is not until the later part of the first millennium that the tabular layout is applied to literary texts containing scholarly information.3 This paper will summarize some of the work done on tabular formating in cuneiform documents and also investigate its use in one particular text, the micro-zodiac series. Finally, some theories on the use and structure of tabular formating will be presented as they relate to access and preservation of cuneiform material.

The organization of knowledge is fundamental to its communication, and Mesopotamian scholars were well aware of the various ways in which textual data could be transmitted. The traditional method for textual transmission was on clay tablets written in a prose format which were then copied by another scribe. Generally, the scribes tried to maintain a strict adherence to the original source material, copying content, format, and even in some cases physical characteristics of the source tablet. Texts were composed of vertically layered sequences of paragraphs, which could either be divided by horizontal lines to mark differences in content or left as a continuous piece of text. Vertical incised lines could divide the tablet into columns but this was merely an issue of space and did not affect the flow of the content. We know however from various records of scribal practice that texts were excerpted for specific purposes, and knowledge could be transmitted orally, either directly person-to-person and written down later, or taken as a form of dictation. 4 Throughout most of this history however the linear prose format dominated the scholarly material. In particular, large collections of omens were recorded entry by entry, paragraph after paragraph.

The micro-zodiac texts represent a sharp departure from this format and introduce a new layout for representing literary knowledge. Here knowledge is organized along two axes and a strict organizational structure guides the location of all data within the text. Copying into this new format required substantial planning and forethought during composition. The end product had a number of important features unique to the genre of astrology.

One important consideration is the way in which long-standing traditions and literary texts are transmitted and preserved over the centuries. It has long been acknowledged that any form of organized knowledge is subject to gradual entropy.5 Over time preserved, in this case written, knowledge loses its integrity through two processes. The first is perhaps the most recognizable, omission, either through outright destruction or gradual loss of coherence. In many exemplars of texts from Mesopotamia, damaged sections on previous manuscripts are marked with annotations 3. Hemerological tables occur earlier in the first millennium and they will be addressed later on. 4. Worthington has a comprehensive treatment of the evidence for and against dictation in a variety of

scribal contexts using a range of terminology. He concludes that dictation was likely in certain circumstances, many copies of a stable text, and possible in other textual genres. Worthington 2012, 7-13

5. The concept of entropy of knowledge comes out of the Philosophy or Theory of Knowledge where it gained most of its relevance in the past century during the digital “revolution”. Most of its adherences were particularly interested in the phenomena of knowledge being transferred from analog to digital forms, i.e. what happens when written text turns into bit and bytes, and how might knowledge degrade through that process. The processes of transmission here are similar in that knowledge is taking a new form, the ability to reverse the transformative process is not always easy or possible.

Organizational Structure of Knowledge in Cuneiform Sources 521

explain the absence or incompleteness of the material, representing a loss of the primary source material. In other cases tablet series were copied but the scribe omitted sections when originals could not be found. The second process is through disorganization. These same texts, copied again and again, accrued longer and longer sections without a process of editorial reorganization.6 These two processes in the end function to make the textual tradition less stable, in this case a form of entropy. Tabular formating, particularly in the case of literary material, could potentially serve to slow or halt both of these previous processes.

Tabular Formatting Unfortunately, there is as of yet no diachronic study of tabular formatting across cultural traditions. What follows are general observations on tabular formatting. Tables organize knowledge in very specific ways, their rigid format serves to bound the knowledge within conceptual limits and structure the knowledge according to an overarching system. Tables are made to contain knowledge and are not easily extended or modified when the contained knowledge no longer fits the original purpose of the table. Therefore, tables require a certain amount of forethought about the potential content to be kept within their bounds. If an organization scheme is used tables also allow for easier access of data, as each discreet piece of data lies on two vertices with their own order. Knowing the organizational structure of a table, the internal characteristics of both the columns and rows essentially provide shortcuts to reach a point in the text the reader might be directly concerned with.7 This is in sharp contrast to a prose like literary text where to find a relevant passage the reader might have to skim the entire text starting from the beginning. Additionally, in a very physical way, tables when written on a form of media, present real dimensions which restrict the total amount of text within a single cell.

While our digital spreadsheets might expand in limitless dimensions to accommodate our data, the physical table is designed to fit a predetermined size, and any entry must be concatenated in order to fit within its bounds. Additionally, tables allow for hidden commonalities between disparate pieces of data to be displayed through a physical relationship or implied by their relative closeness or orientation in the tabular matrix. Johanna Drucker writes that “The act of reading across and down, through the coordinate grid, to find information is a generative act”.8 Tables through their very format are knowledge generators. New knowledge is created when pieces are put in place within a schematic structure. This is especially true when tables are used in genres of knowledge that gain benefit from an increase in connections between discrete pieces of data, such 6. The scribe Esagil-kīn-apli famously described his work collecting the various texts of the Diagnostic

Handbook as joining “twisted threads that had no duplicates”. Finkel 1988, 148-149. 7. Alexander Jones in his comprehensive treatment of the astronomical fragments from Oxyrhynchus

concluded that there were a number of well-defined formats for the astronomical tables: Jones 1999. The standardization of tabular formats takes this ease of use one step further in that similar knowledge can be contained on similar, or the same, types of tables making locating data even easier. A good example would be monthly tabulations of the appearances of a certain celestial phenomena. While the data might differ month by month, the general parameters are the same.

8. Drucker 2014, 88.


as astrology. Astrological prediction, and all divination for that matter, depends on the linkage of celestial events to advice; the tighter the web of connections is the greater the predictive science.

Eleanor Robson has defined a number of terms which will be useful here.9 She uses formal and informal to differentiate between tablets which have distinct visual delimiters, such as incised lines, and those which lack any markings. In terms of features around the table, headed tables contain a header above the columns informing the reader of the content within a specific column. Tables might also include a title or preamble above the actual tabular layout. Similarly at the end of the table the scribe might have included a summary or, like many other tablets, a colophon. I would like to add one final piece of terminology to this already comprehensive list, that of the inserted-prose when a table is completely interrupted by a line, or lines, of text running the full width of table, this can completely disrupt the lines of the columns or run over them as well.

The long history of tabular formatting in Mesopotamia is dominated by mathematical accounting texts and in the later periods astronomical calculations and results. The introduction of tables with literary content is relatively late and must be differentiated in a few important ways. The first difference is the character of the content within the cells of the table. The mathematical and administrative tables are made up of almost entirely numbers, the only exception are labels which often contains descriptive information about the row or column in question. The content of each cell is rather short, often just a single number or word. Any explanatory material is often relegated to the title, summary, or written on the right side. A further substantial difference, is that mathematical and administrative tables are active, in that during the creation of the table a procedure is followed which creates new data. As number are filled in one place on the table, direct relational links to other areas of the table create new content, for example the tallying of a row. Or rather, mathematical (specifically administrative) tables are a means to end, i.e. the sum. They are a record of the mathematical work which went into creating the end result, a method to check the product. The relationships between cells is either explicit in the table or relatively easy to work out through the obvious links between rows or columns, for example most clearly in a final summing column or row. The tabular layouts exhibited by scholarly material certainly have a relational structure between cells but often it is opaque and difficult to access. The scholarly tables are the end themselves, and the means are often hidden behind esoteric logic.

Robson includes lexical lists in her categorization of tables, she terms lexical lists “tabular lists”.10 Lexical lists are a form of one-dimensional table where the primary axis is vertical. The inclusion of two or more columns suggest a horizontal access as well, but unlike mathematical tabulation the horizontal axis is fixed and not dynamic. The primary location for accessing the content is through the left most entry in the table and not through the columns to the right of the initial entry. In fact, the organizational structure is based on the leftmost column, rows are ordered according to their contents in the left column. However, the general theory of organizing knowledge in a schematic format with prominent delimiters is still present. Lexical lists, or the “tabular list” layout is one of the few tabular formats that exists for the majority of cuneiform history. Within these “tabular lists” an organizational structure might be used to order the entries. 9. Robson 2003, 20. 10. Robson 2004, 116.


“Tabular lists” make up the most common format for tablets within the commentary tradition.11 Frahm in his discussion of the format notes that the occasional entries spanning the columns suggests that the scribes formed the layout of the text first and then filled in the structure with the source text and commentary later. While the paradigmatic structure of a two columned commentary tablet is rather simple, the forethought to separate out different groups of knowledge and to order them in horizontal and vertical space indicated a deeper engagement with planning the text prior to writing.

Two types of tables remain that are closely connect with scholarly material. These texts are both related to the calendar in different ways. The first type of text which appears before the late tables with which this chapter is concerned are the calendric tables from iqqur îpuš. 12 These tables represent a development between the mathematically organized tables of the administrative tradition and the later scholarly tables. The organizational structure is the passage of the months. The content varies, but can contain short excerpts of text as well as simple prognostications, “good” or “bad”. While these are tables of scholarly material in a sense, the overriding organizational structure is still one that represents a linear structure. My concern in this article is with the placement of knowledge in novel arrangements. Drucker writes on the connection between tabular formatting and the diagram: “The creation of various tabular formats … might be the first fully diagrammatic human activity: one in which the spatial distribution of elements creates a structure in support of meaning production, but in which that spatial ordering has no analogical reference or prior existence”.13 In the case of the micro-zodiac series the organizing principle, the micro-zodiac, is a artificial scheme created through mathematical manipulation of an already artificial subdivision of the ecliptic.

Similar in some ways are the tables of lunar eclipse records were organized in a tabular layout. These texts seem to have been part of one group of eclipse records that preserved eclipse predictions for a span of 432 years.14 Each of the columns were separated from the preceding and following columns by a full Saros cycle (18 years) and the rows contained the possible eclipses during that Saros cycle.15 In this way eclipse possibilities could be compared between Saros cycles. The tabular format of the three tablets is unique within the eclipse prediction corpus. The Micro-zodiac One of the best examples of a tabular format is the micro-zodiac texts from the Seleucid period in Babylonia, first edited by Weidner in 1967. While the series is not complete, enough has been identified that the general scheme can be reconstructed and much of the content is now known. This reconstruction is aided by the formulaic nature of the table and the rigid structure that runs across the multiple tablets of the series. 11. Frahm 2011, 34-35. 12. Labat 1965, 11-12. 13. Drucker 2014, 86. 14. Texts 2, 3, and 4 in Hunger 2001. 15. Walker 1997.


The micro-zodiac is a new composition that must post-date the invention of the zodiac by Babylonian astrologer/astronomers in the fifth century B.C.E. However, the content within its cells is connected to a long stream of typical Mesopotamian genres. Included in its rows are medical ingredients, omen apodoses, cultic instructions, and advice for daily behavior. This content can all be found in similar sections of canonical tablets series. It is clear that scribes who were composing the micro-zodiac during the Seleucid period were well versed in the traditional genres of Mesopotamian scholarship. In fact when we have securely provenanced tablets of the micro-zodiac they are found among other texts of related material, often material that could have served as source material for the micro-zodiac. We must then see the composition of the micro-zodiac as a process of taking well known content from traditional texts and combining it with new material and reformatting the entire corpus into a tabular layout. This process of reformatting the content hints at the ways in which tabular formating is unique and useful for understanding scholarly material.

Aries Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo Virgo Libra Scorpio Sagittarius Capricorn Aquarius Pisces

Taurus Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo Virgo Libra Scorpio Sagittarius Capricorn Aquarius Pisces Aries

Gemini Gemini Cancer Leo Virgo Libra Scorpio Sagittarius Capricorn Aquarius Pisces Aries Taurus

Cancer Cancer Leo Virgo Libra Scorpio Sagittarius Capricorn Aquarius Pisces Aries Taurus Gemini

Leo Leo Virgo Libra Scorpio Sagittarius Capricorn Aquarius Pisces Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer

Virgo Virgo Libra Scorpio Sagittarius Capricorn Aquarius Pisces Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo

Libra Libra Scorpio Sagittarius Capricorn Aquarius Pisces Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo Virgo

Scorpio Scorpio Sagittarius Capricorn Aquarius Pisces Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo Virgo Libra

Sagittarius Sagittarius Capricorn Aquarius Pisces Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo Virgo Libra Scorpio

Capricorn Capricorn Aquarius Pisces Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo Virgo Libra Scorpio Sagittarius

Aquarius Aquarius Pisces Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo Virgo Libra Scorpio Sagittarius Capricorn

Pisces Pisces Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo Virgo Libra Scorpio Sagittarius Capricorn Aquarius

Table 1. The Micro-zodiac scheme. The micro-zodiac tablets are governed by a overarching organizational scheme which structures

the order of the tablets and columns contained within [See Table 1]. This scheme is derived from the signs of the zodiac, a relatively new invention at this point in time. The scholars who composed


the micro-zodiac essentially took a mathematical approach to extending the traditional twelve signs of the zodiac by squaring the total number and coming up with one hundred and forty-four new signs. Every new sign is a combination of a Major and minor sign, each of which is one of the traditional twelve signs of the zodiac. This results in columns assigned to Aries-pisces, or Libra-capricorn. I term these Major and minor signs, the Major sign being the zodiacal sign for the entire table, and the minor sign only for the individual column within the larger table. The scheme lays out the twelve minor signs under each Major sign following the order of the zodiac beginning with the Major and minor sign at the same point in the zodiacal list. Thus the table for the Major sign Scorpio has Scorpio as the minor sign for the first column and Libra as the last column. This scheme comes out of a desire by the astrologers working with this material to extend the potential for analogy and association between materials, omens, and advice and the heavenly realm. There is a certain logic towards expanding the zodiac in a mathematical procedural way.16

If we model the micro-zodiac scheme we find that it necessitates twelve tables, one for each of the Major signs with each table containing twelve columns, one for each of the minor signs. Generally each tablet of the micro-zodiac contains the tables for two Major signs, one on each side. This suggests that in an ideal form the micro-zodiac series would occupy six tablets. We know from the extent manuscripts that this is certainly not the case for all the tablets, as a few tablets contain only one sign, and at least one tablet seems to contain the entire series.

However, it is clear that the text was conceptualized as a group of twelve tables independent of their organization on the physical tablets.

The micro-zodiac was first noted as a series by Abraham Sachs in an article on Babylonian horoscopes.17 Weidner published a comprehensive treatment of the fragments known to him which included tablets in Berlin, Paris, and London. His work was instrumental in codifying the series and laying out some of its principle characteristics. Since this early work on the material however, little additional research has been carried out.

I split the micro-zodiac texts into tablets and tables, the tables are always assigned to one Major sign, but a tablet can contain one or more tables. When discussing the micro-zodiac series, for the purposes of this paper I am concerned only with the table portion of the text and its position in the overall scheme. On many of the micro-zodiac tablets there is additional content surrounding the table and this is equally important but for the purposes of this chapter I will be primarily concerned with the table itself. Two of the tablets from Uruk contain interesting texts appended to the end of the table. VAT 7847+ has a long multi-columned list of words and glosses, perhaps a cola-commentary that is concerned with a wide range of issues, many of them astrological. VAT 7851 preserves the bottom third of a circular astrolabe-like diagram, similar to those published in CT 33 10-12. The content of the circular diagram is simple horoscopic omens.

16. Johanna Drucker has outlined the history of this combinatory method of generative thinking: “... knowledge generators are combinatoric. In some instances, the generative capacity is effected by moving parts. In others, the diagrammatic form produces multiple outcomes through the reading of variables against each other even though no part literally moves”. Drucker 2014, 107.

17. Sachs 1952.


Typical material in a single column of the micro-zodiac table18 Minor sign: Scorpio Medical material: bricks of Uruk

Juniper šimrānu-plant chalcedony

Row A: Place of earthquake, enemy attack, lighting and silt. Jupiter is very weak, Mars is bright, there will be hostilities.

Row B: Day of opening the gate of Allatu and the great warrior Nergal.

Row C: Legal battle will be decided, god or man or goddess, snake.

Number: 1; 47 (107)

Table 2. A typical micro-zodiac column. Each of the four standard rows in the micro-zodiac contains a certain subset of information

[See Table 2]. These were initially edited by Weidner and I follow his general terminology. The first row contains medical material following a general order starting with dust of a certain place (often a temple or city), a type of wood, a type of plant, and one or more stones. Any or all of these general categories of ingredient can be repeated, but it is the stone which is most often doubled. This material comes from the long tradition of listing plants and other materia medica well known from the therapeutic tradition.19 In adition, Irving Finkel has published a large group of tablets that preserve many names of medical ingredients clearly used as school texts training medical professionals during the Hellenistic period.20 It is most likely that the material in the micro-zodiac is closely related to these school texts. If they do not borrow from each other explicitly they certainly borrow from a common source.

The next row, A, concerns itself with divinatory material coming primarily from the well-known celestial series Enūma Anu Enlil. Here many apodoses of omens are listed as well as certain events which occur when a planet is bright or weak. Presumably these signs were of special significance during the period of time demarcated by the Major and minor sign.

Row B contains material relevant to the opening of the gates of various gods and other generally cultic material. The entries always begin “Day of ...” which is followed by either the opening of a gate, and the names gods and their epithets. The total number of gods listed here are quite small considering the wide variety of other information contained within the table.

18. This is the column for Scorpio taken from the Leo table in the micro-zodiac series (VAT 7847+ obv.). 19. Heeßel 2005. 20. Finkel 2000.


Row C contains material very reminiscent of the Babylonian almanac.21 Entries are concerned with the daily actions of the reader or client. Common events are lawsuits, conflict, and various food prohibitions.

The final row contains only numerical data. Each tablet contains twelve numbers, one for each column and they count down from the left most column. These numbers follow one of the traditional day-length schemes known from a variety of astronomical texts, a division of day and night into a ratio of two to one during the solstices. The starting number for each tablet is ten numbers away from the tablet before it. The pattern goes both up and down according with the seasons and the length of daylight. While it is tempting to assign this numerical pattern to the astronomical scheme mentioned above, this section has some differences. First among these is the overlap of the last two columns of one tablet with the first two of the tablet directly following it. Second, is the fact that all of these numbers count down, when for half of the year they should count up. My initial impression is that the numerical scheme contained at the end of the table was borrowed from the astronomical tradition of length of daylight, but the real significance behind the numbers was lost and they remained just a way of numbering the columns and organizing the table. The number in the first column functioned as a head number tying the table to a position within the day and night length scheme.

All four rows interact with the table in different ways, some are unique to a particular combination of Major and minor sign, others remain constant between different Major signs. The medical material row and row C seem to have unique content for every single column, and Major-minor sign pair. This means that we are missing large parts of the unique text from these rows as the preservation of the entire series is not perfect. On the other hand rows A and B repeat the same content whenever the minor sign is the same. So for example, the cultic advice for the column identified as Pisces of Aries will be the same text as the cultic advice under Pisces of Taurus, similarly for row A. In contrast with the previously mentioned two rows, this means that we can reconstruct the entire content for both of these rows, as enough of the tablets remain to identify the content from each minor sign. Conversely, a small fragment with only the material from rows A or B cannot be located to a distinct point in the series, because of the repetitive nature of this column in the text. However, its content can be identified as fas the minor sign is concerned.

Finally one more aspect of the micro-zodiac worth mentioning is the re-ordering of the rows that occurs between tablets from Babylon and Uruk. The extent tablets from Uruk order the rows with the medical material first, followed by rows A, B, and C in order. This is the material that Weidner was basing his studying off of and the rows themselves were named from these exemplars. Turning to the material from Babylon we find a different picture. The majority of texts from Babylon keep the medical material row first, directly under the minor sign headings.

However, the next three rows are reversed in order from the Uruk material, running instead C, B, and A. This pattern is found in almost all of the manuscripts from Babylon, except notably on the tablet K. 11151+, to which we will return shortly. This re-ordering of the rows suggests a few interesting things about the transmission of the astrological knowledge contained within the table.22 21. Livingstone 2013. 22. For more information see Monroe, in press.


First, it should be mentioned that even despite the re-ordering of the rows between the exemplars in Uruk and Babylon, the content of the rows stays the same. A cell from row A under Virgo-aquarius (VAT 7847+) will contain the exact same content as the cell from row A under Gemini-aquarius (BM 34572). The first text places row A near the top of the tablet just under the medical material row, the second text places row A at the bottom of the table as the last row above the row of numbers. This means that the content itself was divorced from a single table layout and that the rows themselves were conceptualized as independent pieces of knowledge not related spatially to one another, albeit while still maintaining a rigid relationship to the organizational structure of the micro-zodiac scheme.

Another example of the divorcing of the content from a particular fixed tabular layout is tablet K. 11151+. This text, while first edited by Weidner in his study, has nearly tripled in size thanks to fragments found within the collections in the British Museum. It is now clear from the more complete picture that this tablet in fact contains a compressed, or abridged, version of the micro-zodiac table. The obverse of the tablet is split into groups of three rows, each group set off from those before and after it by a double ruling. These three rows contain the medical material, row B, and C (in that order) from the traditional micro-zodiac table. Unfortunately, the reverse of the tablet is not preserved. The identification of the content on the obverse suggests strongly that one side of this tablet would have contained abridged versions of six of the micro- zodiac signs, and presumably the reverse would have contained the other six, making a total of twelve signs on one tablet. From the perspective of the tabular layout, what makes this tablet particularly interesting is that the minor-sign labels, so prominent on the other texts, are completely absent here. Discussion Why convert a text to a tabular format? Tables provide a new way of viewing a text. 23 Robson concludes that this is a decision which comes to an individual choice by the scribe or bureaucratic office, and that the tabular format itself is not something that replaces a previous form of data storage, “The only other possible motivation I can suggest is individual, or at least bureaucratically internal, innovation driven by a desire for efficiency and accuracy”.24 This conclusion challenges the idea that tabular formating is a more ideal system and therefore must replace earlier forms of data storage. In fact it seems as if in the Old-Babylonian period tables go in and out of use, with standard lists remaining a constant format. A similar situation can be observed with the long-term usage of the simple clay token as an administrative aid well into the first millennium.25 These tokens were used in conjunction with written documents long after the development of accounting tablets written in a tabular format.

23. “… a diagram is fundamentally computational, and that the graphical distribution of elements in spatial

relation to each other supported “perceptual inferences” that could not be properly structured in linear expressions, whether these were linguistic or mathematical”. Drucker 2014, 206.

24. Robson 2004, 140. 25. MacGinnis et al. 2014.


Looking at the tables in late scholarly material from Seleucid Babylonia we see a similar situation. Focusing only on astrology, tabular formats co-exist with many copies of texts in prose format. Copies of Enūma Anu Enlil are found in many of the scribal families collections along with copies of the micro-zodiac. While these are not the same text, and do not show evidence of particular compositions being reformatted from prose into table, they suggest that scribes could play with format while writing within the same genre, in this case astrology. A illustrative example is the tablet BM 36746 edited by Rochberg.26 This tablet preserves 8 partial lunar eclipse omens (of an expected twelve) ordered by the signs of the zodiac. These omens are mostly verbatim used as the heading of each of the sides of tablets in the micro-zodiac series. It is hard to make a case for textual history between these two traditions but it is clear that the two texts co-exist. With the micro-zodiac series incorporating what was a prosaic linear ordering of eclipse omens into a tabular series.

Perhaps one way in which tabular formating can be contextualized is as a strategy for the preservation of esoteric knowledge. Certainly by this late period in Mesopotamian scholarship the well-known and recopied traditional textual series were lengthy and perhaps difficult to reproduce in perfect form or in fact to use in practice. There is a tend for organized knowledge, in this case the omens of an extensive omen series, to suffer from entropy, as mentioned before. In this case entropy can be defined by two mechanisms. The first is of course the simple fact of omission during the copying event. When creating a new copy any missing text cannot be transferred on to the new medium. This can happen in a number of ways, either an entire piece of text can be missing, or a small part can be broken and unreadable.

The second mechanism of entropy in cuneiform texts is a gradual process of disorganization which renders lengthy material more difficult to access. Judging from modern scholars own frustration with reconstructing the proper order of a particular series, this would have been a problem in ancient times as well. The combination of these two functions of entropy on the textual history of Mesopotamian learning would have create a difficult situation for those scholars involved in the creation of new texts during the Seleucid period.

Perhaps the tabular layout of the micro-zodiac was in part a response to the entropy exhibited in other textual material. The tabular layout solves both of the mechanisms of omission and disorganization solely through the format in which the content is placed.27 Firstly, any omission within the table is immediately obvious as all of the content within the series has its specific unique place. When copying from one text to another it becomes clear when a section might have been overlooked or a particular tablet was unavailable. This is not to say that these tablets were kept in pristine condition and never suffered any damage. VAT 7847+ contains a section on the obverse after the micro-zodiac table where significant damage must have existed on the original manuscript as the current text is full of a long string of “broken” annotations. These annotations include both the simple “broken” as well as the more detailed “new break”. A single “broken” gloss exists in within the table, although the current text is quite damaged as well at this point. After the table 26. Rochberg-Halton 1984. 27. It is interesting, perhaps, also to think of the tabular formatting as replicating a feature that Martin

Worthington has described as the “fits and starts” method of reading: Worthington 2012, 242. Here each cell would function as an individual unit allowing the reader to focus entirely on the reading of the signs contained within physically demarcated space. This would take care of many of the issues brought up by Worthington related to spacing and visual appearance of text.


finishes, within the first column of the glosses, almost all the lines feature a “new break” gloss in the middle of the line, with a few “broken” glosses included at the ends of the lines. The lack of the “new break” glosses in the column of the table directly above indicate that these two pieces of text, the micro-zodiac table, and the list of glosses came from different source manuscripts.28

The second way in which the tabular format can help counteract entropy in these literary texts is through the inherent structure and bounds of the table. As mentioned earlier, any text within a table must have been conceived of as a whole, without necessarily knowing the entire content, before the creation of the tabular format. In the case of the micro-zodiac the number of rows and columns had to be worked out ahead of time for the entire series. This exercise in forethought introduces considerable regularity and organization into an otherwise disparate text. Furthermore the very nature of the edges of the table impose distinct and immovable limits on the content. Rather than expanding an omen series continuously as new omens are created, the tabular text necessitates a logical end, coherent with the organizational structure.

This is not to say that the tabular format was only employed to deal with a real and specific danger to textual stability. These same scribes who were working on mathematical material, particularly those dealing with complicated astronomical texts, were familiar with the tabular layout as a method of organization and would have experimented with different formats for other texts. Other tablets written during this period, dealing primarily with astrology, include tables as part of their content. A good example of a mixed form of table and prosaic text is BM 56605 which was edited by Nils Heeßel in Babylonisch-assyriche Diagnostik.29 This tablet preserves, on the obverse a two column text concerned with astrological medicine, very similar in content to the 29th tablet in the Babylonian diagnostic handbook, in addition to a text which links certain parts of the body to celestial objects.30 However, the reverse of this text contains a table running perpendicular to the orientation of the text on the obverse, to the right of this table is a small single columned table. This small text contains thirteen entries for a well known medical scheme listing, stones, plants, and types of wood.31 In this case the medical ingredients are linked with signs of the zodiac and combined with prohibitions on the consuming of certain foods, very similar content to the micro-zodiac.

Returning to the table, it contains thirteen rows and twelve columns. In the first row the names of the zodiacal signs are written, and then below each cell of the columns contains a word and a number. While the interpretation of this table is not entirely clear, the scheme might represent some sort of form of astrological medicine in tabular form. Mark Geller suggests that the new connections and influences between zodiacal signs, medicine, ailments and parts of the body found on other texts of this period could be expressed in a tabular form similar to what is found on the reverse of BM 56605.32 This tablet represents three types of formating with literary texts. The first is the prosaic paragraph based traditional format exhibited on the obverse. Here the continuous text is only broken by horizontal rulings, in fact two distinct texts are concatenated together. The reverse contains the other two types. The first is the one- dimensional list where items are placed 28. In fact the various rows of the micro-zodiac table itself might have come from different source

manuscripts and been compiled into the current table on this tablet. 29. Heeßel 2000, 112-130. See also Wee 2015. 30. Heeßel 2008, 11-12. 31. Heeßel 2005. 32. Geller 2010, n. 173.


on a horizontal axis according to an organizational paradigm, in this case the signs of the zodiac. The second is the large table which takes up most of the reverse side of the tablet. This table is organized along two axes, horizontal and vertical. The horizontal axis is depends on the ordering of the signs of the zodiac, while the vertical axis follows an as of yet unknown organizational scheme. The combination of all three of these forms of layout shows that similar knowledge could exist in all styles. Scribes of this period seemed to be familiar and comfortable in prosaic and tabular formats for astrological content at least. Conclusion The layout of a text is fundamental to its understanding and tabular formatting lends itself to particular insight into how a text is composed and used. The transition from prosiac linear texts to tabular formats is a particular rich area for this type of study. However, it is difficult within the study of cuneiform literature, to pinpoint a place in time or space where a new text was composed. The process of copying and transmitting texts is often opaque, clouded by large gaps in the textual record or unclear methods of textual reproduction. The attempt of this article was to highlight perhaps another method of composition that can be identified and studied. In the case of the micro-zodiac we can see source material and a final product, the format changes radically from the former to the later. This is not to say we can locate the composition of the micro-zodiac texts to a point in time, in fact the only preserved colophon mentions that it was copied off of an old writing board, suggesting an earlier lost version. Rather, the change in format hints at a motivation behind the transformation of the text from one format to another.

These changes are indicative of the work that the scribes were involved in, and perhaps the motivations behind making new texts.

Ulla Koch in her edition of Multābiltu and other esoteric extispicy texts notes that these more complex lists of omens perhaps represent the beginnings of abstract or scientific thinking around divination.33 In those texts the layout and organization of the entries, while not tabular per se, still inform the reader of a process behind the scenes that informed the composition of these texts. In fact, one of the subsections bears the heading: “Signs which are extraneous in extipsicy and their characteristic suitable for learning”.34 The entries in this section alternate protases in a logical order creating a paradigmatic structure of divinatory logic for the education of new diviners. The choices being made in the selection of certain material for a distinct section of the text is indicative of the processes that are going on behind the scenes when tablets are written down. In this case omens were selected, from a very large corpus, for the purpose of teaching relationships between how the divinatory logic function. With the micro-zodiac a similar phenomena is happening. The use of a table to represent the inter-woven network of astrological knowledge is particular effective when the purpose of the text is to expose ideas and current most-likely developed prior to the writing of the first tablet in the series. The chosen format serves the purpose of making these associations clearer but also in representing well-known excerpts of traditional knowledge in a radical new 33. SA.GIG 26, 18’-19’. See Stol 1993, 61, 18’-19’; Heeßel 2000, 287, 18’-19’; Scurlock 2014, 201, 18’-19’. 34. Koch 2005, 35, 50.


layout making them both easier to understand and read. It was this through this very process of reading that these table became knowledge generators, creating new astrological associations in their tabular layout.

AO 6448, Louvre, Paris.

K. 11151+, British Museum, London.


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Documents

Organizational Structure of Knowledge in Cuneiform Sources