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Kakka
Kakka was a Mesopotamian god best known as the sukkal (attendant deity or divine messenger) of Anu and Anshar. His cult center was Maškan-šarrum, most likely located in the north of modern Iraq on the banks of the Tigris. A deity named Kakka was also worshiped in Mari, Syria, Mari in modern Syria, but there is no consensus among experts whether this was the same deity. It has been argued that the Mariote Kakka was a goddess, rather than a god. It is assumed she functioned as a deity associated with medicine. Name The origin of Kakka's name is most likely not Sumerian language, Sumerian or Akkadian Empire, Akkadian, but rather Amorite language, Amorite. A deity named ''dingir, dga-ga'' (a common writing of Kakka's name) is nonetheless already attested in the Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia), Early Dynastic god list from Abu Salabikh. The god list ''An = Anum'' provides the gloss ''dgaka-kaga'', indicating ''dga-ga'' was pronounced as Kakka. Multiple spellings are attested f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesopotamian God
Deities in ancient Mesopotamia were almost exclusively anthropomorphic. They were thought to possess extraordinary powers and were often envisioned as being of tremendous physical size. The deities typically wore ''melam'', an ambiguous substance which "covered them in terrifying splendor" and which could also be worn by heroes, kings, giants, and even demons. The effect that seeing a deity's ''melam'' has on a human is described as ''ni'', a word for the " physical creeping of the flesh". Both the Sumerian and Akkadian languages contain many words to express the sensation of ''ni'', including the word ''puluhtu'', meaning "fear". Deities were almost always depicted wearing horned caps, consisting of up to seven superimposed pairs of ox-horns. They were also sometimes depicted wearing clothes with elaborate decorative gold and silver ornaments sewn into them. The ancient Mesopotamians believed that their deities lived in Heaven, but that a god's statue was a physical embodiment ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sukkal
Sukkal (conventionally translated from Sumerian as "vizier") was a term which could denote both a type of official and a class of deities in ancient Mesopotamia. The historical sukkals were responsible for overseeing the execution of various commands of the kings and acted as diplomatic envoys and translators for foreign dignitaties. The deities referred to as sukkals fulfilled a similar role in mythology, acting as servants, advisors and envoys of the main gods of the Mesopotamian pantheon, such as Enlil or Inanna. The best known sukkal is the goddess Ninshubur. In art, they were depicted carrying staffs, most likely understood as their attribute. They could function as intercessory deities, believed to mediate between worshipers and the major gods. The office sukkal is also known from various areas to the west and east of Mesopotamia, including the Hurrian kingdom Arrapha, Syrian Alalakh and Mari and Elam under the rule of the Sukkalmah Dynasty, while the concept of divine sukk ... [...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] |
Ningal
Ningal ( Sumerian: "Great Queen"), also known as Nikkal in Akkadian, was a Mesopotamian goddess of Sumerian origin regarded as the wife of the moon god, Nanna/Sin. She was particularly closely associated with his main cult centers, Ur and Harran, but they were also worshiped together in other cities of Mesopotamia. She was particularly venerated by the Third Dynasty of Ur and later by kings of Larsa. Character and iconography While Ningal was a major deity in the Mesopotamian pantheon and worship of her is attested from all periods of Mesopotamian history, her character was largely “passive and supportive” according to researchers. She was the tutelary goddess of Ur alongside her husband, and was referred to as its "lady" or "mother" on occasion. Based on some of Ningal's epithets it has been proposed that she was in part an astral deity, much like her husband. A type of bird, ''u''5-''bi''2, was possibly associated with Ningal, though the evidence is inconclusive. Propose ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ninkarrak
Ninkarrak ( akk, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒋼𒀀𒊏𒀝, '' dnin-kar-ra-ak'') was a goddess of medicine worshiped chiefly in northern Mesopotamia and Syria. It has been proposed that her name originates in either Akkadian or an unidentified substrate language possibly spoken in parts of modern Syria, rather than in Sumerian. It is assumed that inconsistent orthography reflects ancient scholarly attempts at making it more closely resemble Sumerian theonyms. The best attested temples dedicated to her existed in Sippar in modern Iraq and in Terqa in modern Syria. Finds from excavations undertaken at the site of the latter were used as evidence in more precisely dating the history of the region. Further attestations are available from northern Mesopotamia, including the kingdom of Apum, Assyria and the Diyala area, from various southern Mesopotamian cities like Larsa, Nippur and possibly Uruk, as well as from Ugarit and Emar. It is also possible that Ninkar from the texts from Ebla and Nikaraw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meme (Mesopotamian Goddess)
Meme or Memešaga was a Mesopotamian goddess possibly regarded as a divine caretaker. While originally fully separate, she eventually came to be treated as one and the same as Gula, and as such came to be associated with medicine. The god list ''An = Anum'' additionally indicates she served as the sukkal (attendant deity) of Ningal. Name and character The theonym written in cuneiform as dME.ME likely can be read phonetically, though according to Manfred Krebernik a degree of caution is necessary. The meaning of this name is uncertain, though it is commonly suggested that it might be an example of a so-called " baby word" (''Lallwort'') which referred to a mother or more generically to a female caretaker. A lexical text from Ebla explains it as ''u3-me-tum'', possibly to be understood as a Loanword originating in Sumerian, "nursemaid". Based on these lexical factors it has been proposed that Meme was regarded as a divine caregiver. The original full name of the goddess was like ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terqa
Terqa is the name of an ancient city discovered at the site of Tell Ashara on the banks of the middle Euphrates in Deir ez-Zor Governorate, Syria, approximately from the modern border with Iraq and north of the ancient site of Mari, Syria. Its name had become Sirqu by Neo-Assyrian times. History Little is yet known of the early history of Terqa, though it was a sizable entity even in the Early Dynastic period. In the early 2nd millennium BC it was under the control of Shamshi-Adad (c. 1808–1776 BC) of the Amorite Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia, followed by Mari beginning with the reign of the Amorite ruler Yahdun-Lim one of whose year names was "Year in which Yahdun-Lim built the city walls of Mari and Terqa". Control by Mari continued into the time of Zimri-Lim (c. 1775 to 1761 BC). One year name of Zimri-Lim was "Year in which Zimri-Lim offered a great throne to Dagan of Terqa". Control shifted to Babylon after Mari's defeat by Hammurabi (c. 1810 – c. 1750 BC) of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theophoric Name
A theophoric name (from Greek: , ''theophoros'', literally "bearing or carrying a god") embeds the word equivalent of 'god' or God's name in a person's name, reflecting something about the character of the person so named in relation to that deity. For example, names embedding Apollo, such as ''Apollonios'' or ''Apollodorus'', existed in Greek antiquity. Theophoric personal names, containing the name of a god in whose care the individual is entrusted (or a generic word for ''god''), were also exceedingly common in the ancient Near East and Mesopotamia. Some names of theophoric origin remain common today, such as Theodore (''theo-'', "god"; ''-dore'', origin of word compound in Greek: ''doron'', "gift"; hence "God's gift"; in Greek: ''Theodoros'') or less recognisably as Jonathan (from Hebrew ''Yonatan/Yehonatan'', meaning "Yahweh has given"). Classical Greek and Roman theophoric names * Demetrius and its derivatives mean "follower of Demeter." * Dennis, in Latin ''Dionysius'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joan Goodnick Westenholz
Joan Goodnick Westenholz (1 July 1943 – 2013) was an Assyriologist and the chief curator at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem. She held positions related to academic research at the Oriental Institute (University of Chicago), Harvard University, Ruhr University Bochum (Germany), New York University, Princeton University, and the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research at Jerusalem. She was one of the first people to research gender studies in relation to the Ancient Near East and she co-founded and edited the inter-disciplinary NIN – Journal of Gender Studies in Antiquity. Early life and education Westenholz was born in 1943 in Philadelphia and attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated at the age of 21 with a degree in anthropology. She completed her PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from the University of Chicago in 1971 and studied under Erica Reiner, A. Leo Oppenheim, I. J. Gelb, and Miguel Civil Miguel Civil (Miquel Civil i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mari, Syria
Mari (Cuneiform: , ''ma-riki'', modern Tell Hariri; ar, تل حريري) was an ancient Semitic city-state in modern-day Syria. Its remains form a tell 11 kilometers north-west of Abu Kamal on the Euphrates River western bank, some 120 kilometers southeast of Deir ez-Zor. It flourished as a trade center and hegemonic state between 2900 BC and 1759 BC. The city was purposely built in the middle of the Euphrates trade routes between Sumer in the south and the Eblaite kingdom and the Levant in the west. Mari was first abandoned in the middle of the 26th century BC but was rebuilt and became the capital of a hegemonic East Semitic state before 2500 BC. This second Mari engaged in a long war with its rival Ebla and is known for its strong affinity with Sumerian culture. It was destroyed in the 23rd century BC by the Akkadians, who allowed the city to be rebuilt and appointed a military governor (''Shakkanakku''). The governors became independent with the disint ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dietz-Otto Edzard
Dietz-Otto Edzard (28 August 1930 in Bremen – 2 June 2004 in Munich) was a German scholar of the Ancient Near East and grammarian of the Sumerian language. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1976 and an International member of the American Philosophical Society in 1996. Works * ''Sumerian Grammar'' 2003 * ''Geschichte Mesopotamiens: Von den Sumerern bis zu Alexander dem Großen'' 2004 * ''Gudea Gudea ( Sumerian: , ''Gu3-de2-a'') was a ruler ('' ensi'') of the state of Lagash in Southern Mesopotamia, who ruled circa 2080–2060 BC ( short chronology) or 2144-2124 BC (middle chronology). He probably did not come from the city, but had marr ... and His Dynasty'' (Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia Early Periods) 1997 * ''"Gilgames und Huwawa" : Zwei Versionen der sumerischen Zedernwaldepisode nebst einer Edition von Version " B "'' 1993 * ''Die Orts- und Gewässernamen der präsargonischen und sargonischen Zeit'' (Beihefte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gula (goddess)
Gula ( Sumerian: "the great") was a Mesopotamian goddess of medicine, portrayed as a divine physician and midwife. Over the course of the second and first millennia BCE, she became one of the main deities of the Mesopotamian pantheon, and eventually started to be viewed as the second highest ranked goddess after Ishtar. She was associated with dogs, and could be depicted alongside these animals, for example on ''kudurru'' (inscribed boundary stones), and receive figurines representing them as votive offerings. While Gula was initially regarded as unmarried, in the Kassite period she came to be associated with Ninurta. In Babylon his role could also be fulfilled by Mandanu, while the god list ''An = Anum'' links Gula with Pabilsag and Abu. The circle of deities closely associated with her also included Damu and Gunura, who eventually started to be regarded as her children, as well as her sukkal (divine vizier) Urmašum, who might have been imagined as a dog-like being. Through vari ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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