The Transmission of Terrestrial Omens from the Old Babylonian to the Late Babylonian Period: The Example of the Thirty-third <i>nisḫu</i> of Uruk

Old Babylonian precursors of terrestrial omens generally cover topics similar to those found in the first millennium series Šumma ālu ina mēlê šakin without having identical omens. The present article will focus on a group of omens that are handed down in a hitherto unknown continuity over nearly 1500 years. They are first attested in the Old Babylonian omen compendium MS 3104 and are integrated almost verbatim as the thirty-third nisḫu in the divinatory corpus of Late Babylonian Uruk. Four excerpt tablets from Nineveh and a Neo-Babylonian manuscript have been discovered by the authors to record a choice of the very same omens. The article discusses the place of these omens in the Šumma ālu series and gives a full edition of the “thirty-third nisḫu” omens as well as copies of the newly identified manuscripts.