Babylonian Liver Omens

The Babylonians were famous even in their own time for their expertise in divination, and Koch-Westenholz suggests the lack of modern scholarship from the extensive written record is because the texts are dry, monotonous, and difficult to access and because divination is thought to be simple superstition not worth serious study. She makes a beginning on the accessibility problem by presenting three texts on interpreting sheep livers as the first of a projected complete series on the divinatory texts from the world's oldest extant general library. The edition is based on a catalogue, compiled by Ulla Jeyes as part of what was to be a collaboration on the project before Jeyes' untimely death, of the collections in the British Museum. The original inscriptions are followed by transcription and English translation. Tablets are illustrated in 48 photographic plates. Livers not included. Distributed in the US by ISBS. c. Book News Inc.