Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals and prescriptions prescribe ceremonies and treatments for dispelling witchcraft, destroying the witch, and protecting and curing the patient. The Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals aims to present a reconstruction and critical editions of this body of texts.

Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals and prescriptions prescribe ceremonies and treatments for dispelling witchcraft, destroying the witch, and protecting and curing the patient. The Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals aims to present a reconstruction and critical editions of this body of texts.

Among the most important sources for understanding the cultures and systems of thought of ancient Mesopotamia is a large body of magical and medical texts written in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages. An especially significant branch of this literature centers upon witchcraft. Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals and incantations attribute ill-health and misfortune to the magic machinations of witches and prescribe ceremonies, devices, and treatments for dispelling witchcraft, destroying the witch, and protecting and curing the patient. The Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals aims to present a reconstruction of this body of texts; it provides critical editions of the relevant rituals and prescriptions based on the study of the cuneiform tablets and fragments recovered from the libraries of ancient Mesopotamia.

La 4e de couverture porte : "Among the most important sources for understanding the cultures and systems of thought of ancient Mesopotamia is a large body of magical and medical texts written in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages. An especially significant branch of this literature centres upon witchcraft. Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals and incantations attribute ill-health and misfortune to the magic machinations of witches and prescribe ceremonies, devices, and treatments for dispelling witchcraft, destroying the witch, and protecting and curing the patient. The 'Corpus of Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals' aims to present a reconstruction of this body of texts; it provides critical editions of the relevant rituals and prescriptions based on the study of the cuneiform tablets and fragments recovered from the libraries of ancient Mesopotamia."

This volume is dedicated to Dr. Holly Pittman, Bok Family Professor in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania and curator of the Near Eastern Section at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum). It was conceived to honor her extraordinary contributions to the field of Near Eastern studies as archaeologist, art historian, mentor, professor, and friend--Foreword.

Further Studies on Mesopotamian Witchcraft offers a collection of studies of Akkadian incantations and rituals directed against witchcraft. Many of these essays offer solutions for literary and textual difficulties in these texts through analysis and reconstruction of their historical development.