„ოქროს საწმისის“ კვალი შუმერულ ტექსტში
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Date
2024
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ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტის გამომცემლობა
Abstract
In the report, we will discuss lines 420-434 of the Sumerian epic "Enmerkari and the Lord of Arata", which still remains obscure for researchers. The text refers to the victory of the king of the Uruk I dynasty (XXVII-XXVI centuries BC) over the distant country Arata. The versions that have reached us are dated to the period of the Third Dynasty of Ur (XXI century BC) or the Old Babylonian periods (XX-XVIII century BC).
Based on the context of the existing text, we must be dealing with an unknown ritual of Alchemy. With this ritual the Uruk king Enmerkar fulfills the task given by lord of Arata - to make a scepter from a special material. As the text tells us, if Enmerkar makes a scepter of such material, then Arata will be handed over to city-state Uruk.
This part of the epic should serve to present the knowledge of alchemy in Uruk, which the text tells us in detail. The king must create a special material to make the scepter, which will be neither wood nor ordinary silver and gold.
In the report, we will discuss this episode in detail, the text up to lines 420-434. We present in detail the meaning of the composites and the approximate readings. The
episode begins with presenting hidden wisdom by Enki to Enmerkar ( 420-21). 423 we read: 423.lugal-e /munsub(sumur3?)\ […]šu ba-ra-an-ti The King took the one covered with hair [...]
The king begins to act, when we see that "the king picked up an unknown object covered with hair". Only the presented words can be recovered from the damaged line of the text, which is very important for the issue of interest to us. After twisting the munšub, he crushes the obtained material in a pestle like a plant. Here it becomes obvious that we are dealing with an ancient, well-known method of crushing metals.
The next lines of the text tell us about the knowledge of obtaining certain materials, admixtures and chemical processes.
Our attempt is based on the contests of the existing text and also of the four poemsof the Arata cycle to specify the word recorded in the alchemy ritual presented in the
text, which looks like a furry skin and is also related to the Sumerian knowledge of alchemy.
Could we be dealing with the Kolkhi method of extracting gold from the Enguri basin and then using various impurities and the knowledge of alchemy to obtain a certain precious material.
We will also focus on the artistic features recorded in the passage of our interest - comparisons and metaphors that point to a certain location in another contest, which also remains unexplained to this day.
The recording of "furry weapons" (leather?) in the Sumerian cuneiform text in the context of metal mining and processing, we think should be interesting for both Caucasian and ancient Near Eastern relations, which is a matter of future research.
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ეძღვნება პროფესორ თინათინ მარგველაშვილის ხსოვნას (1924 – 2006) / Dedicated to Memory of Prof. Tinatin Margvelashvili (1924 – 2006)
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აღმოსავლეთმცოდნეობა №13, თბილისი, 2024, გვ. 100-109 / Oriental Studies №13, Tbilisi, 2024, p. 100-109