Zisurrû

Zisurrû, meaning “magic circle drawn with flour,”^[1] 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 drawings with a variety of powdered cereals to counter different threats and is accompanied by the gloss: SAG.BA SAG.BA, Akkadian: māmīt māmīt, the curse from a broken oath, in The Exorcists Manual, where it refers to a specific ritual on two tablets the first of which is extant.^[2]

The ritual

The zisurrû, a word ultimately derived from Sumerian, was used as a defensive measure and drawn on the ground around prophylactic figurines as part of a Babylonian ritual to thwart evil spirits, around a patient's bed to protect against ghosts or demons in much the same manner in which bowls thwart demons and curses, or as a component of another elaborate ritual.^[3] It was a component in the Ritual and Incantation-Prayer against Ghost-Induced Illness: Šamaš,^[4] and also the Mîs-pî ritual.^[5] In the ritual tablet of the Maqlû incantation series, it instructs “Thereafter, you encircle the bed with flour-paste and recite the incantation sag.ba sag.ba and the incantation tummu bītu (“Adjured is the house”).”^[6] It occurs in a namburbi performed when preparing to dig a new well and appended to tablet seventeen of the Šumma ālu series.^[7] It is incorporated into the Kettledrum rituals, where the circle of flour surrounds the bull whose hide forms the drum skin.^[8] The encipit én sag.ba sag.ba also appears in the Muššu’u ritual tablet,^[2]: 233 line thirty-eight.^[9]

The circle is rationalized in commentaries as representing certain protective deities, LUGAL.GIR.RA and Meslamtae’a according to one.^[10] In other rituals a circle might be painted in whitewash or dark wash on either side of a doorway for apotropaic purposes. The choice of flour was crucial to the purpose of the ritual, with šemuš-flour reserved (níĝ-gig) for repelling ghosts, wheat-flour for rituals invoking personal gods and šenuḫa-barley to encircle beds, presumably to counter disease-carrying demons.^[11]

In the ritual against broken oaths, a catalogue from Aššur gives the incipits of the two tablets as én (abbreviation for én é-nu-ru) sag-ba sag-ba and én sag-ba min sil₇-lá-dè.^[2]: 231 The colophon line of the first of these tablets, which has been recovered, reads KA-INIM-ma ZÌ-ŠUR-ra NIG-ḪUL-GÁL BÚR.RU.DA-kam. The text describes measures to repel, thwart or imprison demons, such as trapping them in a covered fermentation vat.^[12]

Primary publications

• G. Barton, H. C. Rawlinson (1875). The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia; Vol. IV: A Selection from the Miscellaneous Inscriptions of Assyria et Bd. R. E. Bowler.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) pl. 16 no. 1
• R. Campbell Thompson (1903). Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, &c. in the British Museum, Part 17. pl. 34–36, line-art.
• R. Campbell Thompson (1904). "The tablet of the Ban; tablet "V"". The devils and evil spirits of Babylonia, vol II. Luzac and co. pp. 118–125. transliteration, translation.
• H. Zimmern (1914). "Die Beschwörung "Bann, Bann" (sag-ba sag-ba)". Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie. 28: 75–80. doi:10.1515/zava.1914.28.1.75. S2CID 162276306.
• Gerhard Meier (1936–1937). "Keilschrifttexte nach Kopien von T. G. Pinches. Aus dem Nachlass veröffentlicht und bearbeitet". Archiv für Orientforschung. 11: 365–367. JSTOR 41634968. transliteration, translation
• W. H. Ph. Römer (1989). "Eine Beschwörung gegen den 'Bann'". In H. Behrens; D. Loding; M. T. Roth (eds.). DUMU-E2-DUB-BA: Studies in Honor of Åke W. Sjöberg. pp. 465–479.
• W. Schramm (2001). Bann, Bann! Eine sumerisch-akkadische Beschwörungsserie. Gottingen: Seminar fur Keilschriftforschung. pp. 20–72. text: A1.