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Irḫan
Irḫan was a Mesopotamian god who personified the western branch of the Euphrates, which in the first millennium BCE became its main course. The name could also refer to the river itself. The woirship of Irḫan is sparsely attested, and many aspects of his character as a deity are uncertain. Two topics which continue to be a subject of debate among experts are his association or confusion with the snake god Nirah, and his proposed cosmogonic role. Name Irḫan was the Sumerian name of the western branch of the Euphrates. In Akkadian it was called Araḫtu. These names are cognates, and most likely both were derived from the Semitic root rḫ'', "to go on route." Araḫtu grew in importance in the first millennium BCE, because the eastern branch flowing through cities such as Kish and Nippur, which was formerly the main course, became difficult to navigate. As a result, the name Araḫtu started to be used interchangeably with Purattu. The name could be written both syll ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nirah
Nirah was a Mesopotamian god who served as the messenger (''šipru'') of Ištaran, the god of Der. He was depicted in the form of a snake. Name and character The name Nirah means "little snake" in Sumerian. It could be written with the logogram dMUŠ, as already attested in third millennium BCE texts from Ebla. However, this logogram could also designate Ištaran, Ninazu, the tutelary god of Susa, Inshushinak, the tutelary god of Eshnunna, Tishpak, and the primordial river deity Irḫan. With a different determinative, mulMUŠ, it referred to the constellation Hydra. Syllabic spellings are also attested, for example ''Ne-ra-aḫ'', ''Ni-laḫ5'', ''Ni-ra-aḫ'' and ''Ni-ra-ḫu''. Nirah was at times confused with Irḫan, originally the name of the western branch of the Euphrates, personified as a deity. The early history of these two deities is not fully understood, and it has been proposed that their names were cognate with each other, though the view that they shared ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nisaba
Nisaba was the Mesopotamian goddess of writing and grain. She is one of the oldest Sumerian deities attested in writing, and remained prominent through many periods of Mesopotamian history. She was commonly worshiped by scribes, and numerous Sumerian texts end with the doxology "praise to Nisaba" as a result. She declined after the Old Babylonian period due to the rise of the new scribe god, Nabu, though she did not fully vanish from Mesopotamian religion and attestations from as late as the neo-Babylonian period are known. In myths and god lists, she was a part of the circle of Enlil, alongside her husband Haya. In the myth ''Enlil and Sud'' she plays an important role due to being the mother of the eponymous deity. Enlil seeks her permission to marry Sud with the help of his sukkal (attedant deity) Nuska. Both this narrative and other sources attest that she and her daughter were regarded as very close. Outside Mesopotamia her name was used to logographically represent thes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lisin
Lisin was a Mesopotamian deity initially regarded as a goddess and addressed as ''ama'', "mother," who later came to be regarded as a god and developed an association with fire. The name was also applied to a star associated with Nabu. Lisin's spouse was Ninsikila, whose gender also changed between periods. It was believed that they had eight children. The initial cult center of Lisin is uncertain, with locations such as Adab and Kesh being often proposed. She is attested in texts from various cities, including Umma, Lagash, Nippur and Meturan. Only a single literary text focused on Lisin is known, a lament in which she mourns the death of one of her sons, for which she blames her mother Ninhursag. Both female and male version of Lisin also appears in other similar texts. Name and character Lisin's name was written as 𒀭𒉈 ('' dLi9-si4'') in cuneiform. It is sometimes transcribed as Lisi instead. The reading with ''n'' as the final consonant is based on genitive forms in wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ningirima
Ningirima was a Mesopotamian goddess associated with incantations, attested already in the Early Dynastic period. She was also associated with snakes, fish and water. According to the god list ''An = Anum'' and other sources, she was regarded as a sister of Enlil. While suggestions that she was conflated with the mongoose deity Ninkilim can be found in modern literature, this theory finds no direct support in primary sources. Her importance declined in the second millennium BCE, but in some locations, such as Ur, she was still worshiped after the Achaemenid conquest of Mesopotamia in the first millennium BCE. Character The typical early writing of the name, known from Tell Fara, Abu Salabikh and Ebla is d Nin-A.MUŠ.ḪA.DU, meaning "mistress of snake and fish water" in Sumerian. The sequence A.MUŠ.ḪA.DU could be read as ''girima''. Later the name was commonly spelled syllabically, for example ''dNi-gi-ri-ma''. A text from Lagash refers to her as the "great true-eyed one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ištaran
Ištaran (Ishtaran, sux, ) was a Mesopotamian god who was the tutelary deity of the city of Der, a Sumerian city state positioned east of the Tigris on the border between Sumer and Elam. It is known that he was a judge deity, and his position in the Mesopotamian pantheon was most likely high, but much about his character remains uncertain. He was associated with snakes, especially with the snake god Nirah, and it is possible that he could be depicted in a partially or fully serpentine form himself. Name The reading Ištaran has been established as correct by Wilfred G. Lambert in 1969. Other, now obsolete, proposals included Sataran, Satran, Gusilim, and Eatrana. Also attested are a variant form, Iltaran, and an Emesal one, Ezeran (or Ezzeran). It is commonly assumed that Ištaran's name originated in a Semitic language. It has been proposed that it was etymologically related to Ishtar. Christopher Woods suggests that the suffix ''-an'' should be understood as plural, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eshnunna
Eshnunna (modern Tell Asmar in Diyala Governorate, Iraq) was an ancient Sumerian (and later Akkadian) city and city-state in central Mesopotamia 12.6 miles northwest of Tell Agrab and 15 miles northwest of Tell Ishchali. Although situated in the Diyala Valley north-west of Sumer proper, the city nonetheless belonged securely within the Sumerian cultural milieu. It is sometimes, in archaeological papers, called Ashnunnak or Tuplias,. The tutelary deity of the city was Tishpak (Tišpak) (having replaced Ninazu) though other gods, including Sin, Adad, and Inanna of Kititum were also worshiped there. The personal goddess of the rulers were Belet-Šuḫnir and Belet-Terraban. History Early Bronze Inhabited since the Jemdet Nasr period, around 3000 BC, Eshnunna was a major city during the Early Dynastic period of Mesopotamia. It is known, from cuneiform records and excavations, that the city was occupied in the Akkadian period though its extent was noticeably less than it reache ... [...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] |
Enki
, image = Enki(Ea).jpg , caption = Detail of Enki from the Adda Seal, an ancient Akkadian cylinder seal dating to circa 2300 BC , deity_of = God of creation, intelligence, crafts, water, seawater, lakewater, fertility, semen, magic, mischief , symbol = Goat, fish, goat-fish, chimera , consort = Ninhursag, Damkina , children = Marduk, Dumuzid, Ninsar, Ninkurra, Uttu, Ninti , parents = An and Nammu , Greek_equivalent = Poseidon, PrometheusStephanie West. "Prometheus Orientalized" page 147 Museum Helveticum Vol. 51, No. 3 (1994), pp. 129–149 (21 pages) Enki ( sux, ) is the Sumerian god of water, knowledge ('' gestú''), crafts (''gašam''), and creation (''nudimmud''), and one of the Anunnaki. He was later known as Ea ( akk, ) or Ae in Akkadian (Assyrian- Babylonian) religion, and is identified by some scholars with Ia in Canaanite religion. The name was rendered Aos in Greek sources (e.g. Damascius). He was originally the patron god of the city of Eridu, but la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kalhu
Nimrud (; syr, ܢܢܡܪܕ ar, النمرود) is an ancient Assyrian city located in Iraq, south of the city of Mosul, and south of the village of Selamiyah ( ar, السلامية), in the Nineveh Plains in Upper Mesopotamia. It was a major Assyrian city between approximately 1350 BC and 610 BC. The city is located in a strategic position north of the point that the river Tigris meets its tributary the Great Zab.Brill's Encyclopedia of Islam 1913-36 p.923 The city covered an area of . The ruins of the city were found within of the modern-day village of |
Sumerian King List
The ''Sumerian King List'' (abbreviated ''SKL'') or ''Chronicle of the One Monarchy'' is an ancient literary composition written in Sumerian that was likely created and redacted to legitimize the claims to power of various city-states and kingdoms in southern Mesopotamia during the late third and early second millennium BC. It does so by repetitively listing Sumerian cities, the kings that ruled there, and the lengths of their reigns. Especially in the early part of the list, these reigns often span thousands of years. In the oldest known version, dated to the Ur III period (c. 2112–2004 BC) but probably based on Akkadian source material, the ''SKL'' reflected a more linear transition of power from Kish, the first city to receive kingship, to Akkad. In later versions from the Old Babylonian period, the list consisted of a large number of cities between which kingship was transferred, reflecting a more cyclical view of how kingship came to a city, only to be inevitably replace ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akshak
Akshak ( Sumerian: , akšak) was a city of ancient Sumer, situated on the northern boundary of Akkad, sometimes identified with Babylonian Upi (Greek Opis). History Akshak first appears in records of ca. 2500 BC. In the Sumerian text ''Dumuzid's dream'', Dumuzid king of Uruk is said to have been toppled from his opulence by a hungry mob composed of men from the major cities of Sumer, including Akshak. Another king of Uruk, Enshakushanna, is recorded as having plundered Akshak. Following this, Akshak was at war with Lagash, and was captured by Eannatum, who claims in one inscription to have smitten its king, Zuzu. The Sumerian king list mentions Unzi, Undalulu, Urur, Puzur-Nirah, Ishu-Il and Shu-Sin as kings of Akshak. Puzur-Nirah is also mentioned in the ''Weidner Chronicle'' as reigning in Akshak when a female tavern-keeper, Kug-bau of Kish, was appointed overlordship over Sumer. Akshak was also mentioned in tablets found at Ebla. In ca. 2350 BC, Akshak fell into the hands of Luga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul-Alain Beaulieu
Paul-Alain Beaulieu is a Canadian Assyriology, Assyriologist, a Professor of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. Beaulieu earned a master's degree from the Université de Montréal in 1980 under the supervision of Marcel Leibovici, and a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1985. He was an assistant and subsequently associate professor at Harvard University before joining the faculty at Toronto. Books Beaulieu is the author of: *''L'introduction du cheval et du char de guerre au Proche-Orient au IIe millénaire av. J.C.'' (Masters thesis, Université de Montréal, 1980).List of completed masters' theses in history Univ. de Montréal, retrieved 2011-05-03 (in French). *''The Reign of Nabonidus, King of Babylon, 556–539 B.C.'' (Ph.D. thesis, Yale University, 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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