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Belet Ekallim
Ninegal (also spelled Ninegalla) or Belat Ekalli (Belet-ekalli) was a Mesopotamian goddess associated with palaces. Both her Sumerian and Akkadian name mean "lady of the palace." From Mesopotamia the worship of Ninegal spread to Elam in the east and to Syria and the Hittite Empire in the west. She was particularly venerated in Mari and Qatna, and due to her presence in the pantheon of ancient Syria she was also incorporated into Hurrian religion. The Hurrians transcribed her name as Pentikalli (Pendigalli). Especially in literary works, Ninegal could function as an epithet of Inanna, and they could be also associated with each other in other contexts. However, it is now generally assumed that they were distinct deities in origin. Additionally, Ninegal could be associated with the goddess of prisons, Nungal. Character While in the past it has been proposed that Ninegal was a form of Inanna in origin, or, as argued by Thorkild Jacobsen, that the name designated Inanna in a pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Urash (god)
Urash (Uraš) was a Mesopotamian god who was the tutelary deity of Dilbat. He was an agricultural god, and in that capacity he was frequently associated with Ninurta. His wife was the goddess Ninegal, while his children were the underworld deity Lagamal, who like him was associated with Dilbat, and the love goddess Nanaya. Urash occasionally appears in myths, though they only survive in small, late fragments. Functions Urash was the tutelary god of Dilbat, modern Tell al-Deylam in Iraq's Babil Governorate. His character was regarded as Ninurta-like, with an emphasis on the role of a farming deity, as evidenced by explanatory texts referring to him as "Ninurta of the hoe," "of the calendar" or "of the tenant farmer." In a late commentary (KAR 142), he is a member of a group labeled as "seven Ninurtas." Another late text describes him as "Marduk of planting." Associations with other deities The god Urash worshiped in Dilbat was not the same as Urash, the spouse of Anu. Eviden ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nungal
Nungal ( sux, d''Nun-gal'', "great princess"), also known as Manungal and possibly Bēlet-balāṭi, was the Mesopotamian goddess of prisons, sometimes also associated with the underworld. She was worshiped especially in the Ur III period in cities such as Nippur, Lagash and Ur. Her husband was Birtum, and she was regarded as a courtier and daughter in law Enlil. Texts also associate her with deities such as Ereshkigal, Nintinugga and Ninkasi. Much of the available information about her role in Mesopotamian beliefs comes from a Sumerian hymn which was a part of the scribal curriculum in the Old Babylonian period. Name Nungal's name means "Great Princess" in Sumerian. A plural form of the name attested in some documents can be regarded as analogous to one of the collective terms for Mesopotamian deities, Igigi. An alternate form of the name, Manungal, was possibly a contraction of the phrase ''ama Nungal'', "mother Nungal." It is first attested in documents from the Ur I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ensi (Sumerian)
Ensi (cuneiform: , "lord of the plowland"; Emesal dialect: ''umunsik''; akk, iššakkum, script=Latn, italic=yes) was a Sumerian title designating the ruler or prince of a city-state. Originally it may have designated an independent ruler, but in later periods the title presupposed subordinance to a lugal. For the Early Dynastic Period (about 2800–2350 BC), the meaning of the titles en, ensi and lugal cannot be differentiated clearly: see lugal, ensi and en for details. Ensi may have originally been a designation of the ruler restricted to Lagash and Umma. The ''ensi'' was considered a representative of the city-state's patron deity. In later periods, an ensi was normally seen as subordinate to a lugal. Nevertheless, even the powerful rulers of the Second Dynasty of Lagash (c. 2100 BC) such as Gudea were satisfied with the title ensi. During the Third Dynasty of Ur (about 2100–2000 BC) ensi referred to the provincial governors of the kingdom. These exercised great pow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shuruppak
Shuruppak ( sux, , "the healing place"), modern Tell Fara, was an ancient Sumerian city situated about 55 kilometres (35 mi) south of Nippur on the banks of the Euphrates in Iraq's Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate. Shuruppak was dedicated to Ninlil, also called Sud, the goddess of grain and the air. Shuruppak and its environment Shuruppak is located in Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate, approximately 55 kilometres (35 mi) south of Nippur. The site of extends about a kilometer from north to south. The total area is about 120 hectares, with about 35 hectares of the mound being more than 3 meters above the surrounding plain, with a maximum of 9 meters. Archaeology After a brief survey by Hermann Volrath Hilprecht in 1900, it was first excavated in 1902 by Robert Koldewey and Friedrich Delitzsch of the German Oriental Society for eight months. Among other finds, hundreds of Early Dynastic tablets were collected, which ended up in the Berlin Museum and the Istanbul Museum. In Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia)
The Early Dynastic period (abbreviated ED period or ED) is an archaeological culture in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) that is generally dated to c. 2900–2350 BC and was preceded by the Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods. It saw the development of writing and the formation of the first cities and states. The ED itself was characterized by the existence of multiple city-states: small states with a relatively simple structure that developed and solidified over time. This development ultimately led to the unification of much of Mesopotamia under the rule of Sargon, the first monarch of the Akkadian Empire. Despite this political fragmentation, the ED city-states shared a relatively homogeneous material culture. Sumerian cities such as Uruk, Ur, Lagash, Umma, and Nippur located in Lower Mesopotamia were very powerful and influential. To the north and west stretched states centered on cities such as Kish, Mari, Nagar, and Ebla. The study of Central and Lower Mesopotamia has long b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ninshubur
Ninshubur (; Ninšubur, "Lady of Subartu" or "Lady of servants"), also spelled Ninšubura, was a Mesopotamian goddess whose primary role was that of the '' sukkal'' (divine vizier) of the goddess Inanna. While it is agreed that in this context Ninshubur was regarded as female, in other cases the deity was considered male, possibly due to syncretism with other divine messengers, such as Ilabrat. No certain information about her genealogy is present in any known sources, and she was typically regarded as unmarried. As a ''sukkal'', she functioned both as a messenger deity and as an intercessor between other members of the pantheon and human petitioners. Due to the belief that she could intercede with higher ranking deities, Ninshubur was popular in everyday religion, and many theophoric names invoking her and other references to personal worship are known. Her original cult center was Akkil, but in the Early Dynastic Period she was already worshiped in nearby Uruk. She was also int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shala
Shala (Šala) was a Mesopotamian goddess of weather and grain and the wife of the weather god Adad. It is assumed that she originated in northern Mesopotamia and that her name might have Hurrian origin. She was worshiped especially in Karkar and in Zabban, regarded as cult centers of her husband as well. She is first attested in the Old Babylonian period, but it is possible that an analogous Sumerian goddess, Medimsha, was already the wife of Adad's counterpart Ishkur in earlier times. Both in a number of relatively late Mesopotamian texts and in modern scholarship she is sometimes conflated or confused with Shalash, a Syrian goddess regarded as the spouse of Dagan. Name It is accepted that Shala's name has no plausible Akkadian etymology, and it is possible that it was derived from the Hurrian word ''šāla'', daughter. Researchers attributing Hurrian origin to Shala include Gary Beckman and Daniel Schwemer. A theory regarded as less plausible considers it to be a cognate of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aya (goddess)
Aya (rarely Nin-Aya) was an Akkadian goddess of dawn, and the wife of Shamash, the sun god. Her Sumerian equivalent was Sherida, wife of Shamash's equivalent Utu. Character Aya's name means dawn in Akkadian. She was associated with morning light and the rising sun. In this role she was called "morning-maker." It has also been suggested that the Sumerian name Sherida () was a loan from Akkadian ''šērtum'', "morning." Gebhard Selz notes that this would make her one of the first deities whose name has Akkadian origin to be integrated into the pantheons of Sumerian-speaking areas. Other such examples are Suen, a name of the moon god, and Ishtaran, a divine judge. Further attested names of the sun god's wife include Ninkar, Sudaĝ and Sudgan. Her another primary function was that of a divine bride, as exemplified by her epithet ''kallatum'' ("bride," "daughter in law"). As Shamash's wife she was regarded as epitome of beauty and charm. Shamash and Aya are the divine couple most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ninsianna
Ninsianna ( Sumerian: "Red Queen of Heaven") was a Mesopotamian deity considered to be the personification of Venus. This theonym also served as the name of the planet in astronomical texts until the end of the Old Babylonian period. There is evidence that Ninsianna's gender varied between locations, and both feminine and masculine forms of this deity were worshiped. Due to their shared connection to Venus, Ninsianna was associated with Inanna. Furthermore, the deity Kabta appears alongside Ninsianna in many texts, but the character of the relation between them remains uncertain. The oldest evidence for the worship of Ninsianna comes from the Ur III period, and includes references to the construction of two temples of this deity. Many further attestations are available from the Isin-Larsa and Old Babylonian periods, including royal inscriptions, personal letters, seals and theophoric names. The use of Ninsianna's name to refer to the planet Venus declined later, though the feminine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nippur
Nippur (Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''Nibru'', often logogram, logographically recorded as , EN.LÍLKI, "Enlil City;"The Cambridge Ancient History: Prolegomena & Prehistory': Vol. 1, Part 1. Accessed 15 Dec 2010. Akkadian language, Akkadian: ''Nibbur'') was an ancient Sumerian city. It was the special seat of the worship of the Sumerian god Enlil, the "Lord Wind", ruler of the cosmos, subject to An (mythology), An alone. Nippur was located in modern Nuffar in Afak District, Afak, Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate, Iraq (roughly 200 km south of Baghdad). Occupation at the site extended back to the Uruk period, the Ubaid period, and the Jemdet Nasr period. History Nippur never enjoyed political hegemony in its own right, but its control was crucial, as it was considered capable of conferring the overall "kingship" on monarchs from other city-states. It was distinctively a sacred city, important from the possession of the famous Ekur temple of Enlil. Ninurta also had his main Cult (reli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sin (mythology)
Nanna, Sīn or Suen ( akk, ), and in Aramaic ''syn'', ''syn’'', or even ''shr'' 'moon', or Nannar ( sux, ) was the god of the moon in the Mesopotamian religions of Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylonia and Aram. He was also associated with cattle, perhaps due to the perceived similarity between bull horns and the crescent moon. He was always described as a major deity, though only a few sources, mostly these from the reign of Nabonidus, consider him to be the head of the Mesopotamian pantheon. The two chief seats of his worship were Ur in the south of Mesopotamia and Harran in the north, though he was also worshiped in numerous other cities, especially in the proximity of Ur and in the Diyala area. In Ur, he was connected to royal power, and many Mesopotamian kings visited his temple in this city. According to Mesopotamian mythology, his parents were Enlil and Ninlil, while his wife was Ningal, worshiped with him in his major cult centers. Their children included major ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isin-Larsa Period
The Isin-Larsa period (circa 2025-1763 BCE, Middle Chronology, or 1961-1699 BCE, Short Chronology) is a phase in the history of ancient Mesopotamia, which extends between the end of the Third Dynasty of Ur and the conquest of Mesopotamia by King Hammurabi of Babylon leading to the creation of the First Babylonian dynasty. According to the approximate conventional dating, this period begins in 2025 BCE and ended in 1763 BCE. It constitutes the first part of the Old Babylonian period (2025-1595 BCE), the second part being the period of domination of the first dynasty of Babylon, which ends with the Sack of Babylon in 1595 BCE and the rise of the Kassites. The Third Dynasty of Ur immediately preceded the Isin-Larsa period, and its fall was due to the combined attacks of the Amorites from the west, and the Elamites from the east. As its name suggests, the Isin-Larsa period saw successively the emergence of two great powers in Lower Mesopotamia: the kingdom of Isin, which attempts to se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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