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Ninimma
Ninimma was a Mesopotamian goddess best known as a courtier of Enlil. She is well attested as a deity associated with scribal arts, described in modern publications as a divine scholar, scribe or librarian by modern researchers. She could also serve as an assistant of the birth goddess Ninmah, and a hymn describes her partaking in cutting of umbilical cords and determination of fates. It has also been suggested that she was associated with vegetation. In the Middle Babylonian period she additionally came to be viewed as a healing deity. Nippur was Ninimma's main cult center, though she is also known from documents from other cities, such as Adab and Uruk. In known sources, she appears alongside deities such as Nisaba, who like her was associated with scribes, or other members of Enlil's court, such as Shuzianna and Ninkasi. She is sparsely attested in literary texts, with only two hymns dedicated to her presently known. She also appears in the myth ''Enki and Ninmah'' and in a v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kusibanda
Kusibanda (Kusigbanda), also known under the disputed older reading of the name, Guškinbanda, was a Mesopotamian god regarded as the tutelary deity of goldsmiths and silversmiths. He was commonly grouped with other deities of similar character, such as Ninagal. He was also regarded as the husband of Ninimma, and was worshiped in her temple in Nippur. He is attested in texts describing the preparation of statues, as well as in a variety of documents from Uruk from the Seleucid period. Name and character Kusibanda's name was written in cuneiform as dKUG.GI.BÀN.DA. According to Julia Krul, the other proposed reading, Guškinbanda, is no longer used today. Wilfred G. Lambert has nonetheless argued that since ''guškin'' is a common reading of the first two signs, the modern consensus might be incorrect. Lambert's position is also supported by Frank Simons. Kusibanda was regarded as a divine goldsmith and silversmith. He served as the tutelary deity of both of these professions. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesopotamian Goddess
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] |
Ninkasi
Ninkasi was the Mesopotamian goddess of beer and brewing. It is possible that in the first millennium BCE she was known under the variant name Kurunnītu, derived from a term referring to a type of high quality beer. She was associated with both positive and negative consequences of the consumption of beer. In god lists, such as the ''An = Anum'' list and the Weidner god list, she usually appears among the courtiers of the god Enlil, alongside deities such as Ninimma and Ninmada. She could also be paired with Siraš, a goddess of similar character, who sometimes was regarded as her sister. A possible association between her and the underworld deities Nungal and Laṣ is also attested, possibly in reference to the possible negative effects of alcohol consumption. A number of works of Mesopotamian literature refer to Ninkasi, for example the myths ''Lugalbanda in the Mountain Cave'' and ''Lugalbanda and the Anzud Bird''. A hymn dedicated to her, known simply as the ''Hymn to Ninkasi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shuzianna
Shuzianna (Šuzianna; 𒀭𒋗𒍣𒀭𒈾 '' dŠu-zi-an-na'') was a Mesopotamian goddess. She was chiefly worshiped in Nippur, where she was regarded as a secondary spouse of Enlil. She is also known from the enumerations of children of Enmesharra, while in the myth ''Enki and Ninmah'' she is one of the seven minor goddesses helping with the creation of mankind. Name Shuzianna's name has Sumerian origin and means "the just hand of heaven." A late text offers an esoteric bilingual explanation, "AN-''tum gāmilat'' (ŠU.GAR) ''napišti'' (ZI) d''A-nim''," "the goddess (alternatively: Antu) who saves the life of Anu." Another similar source explains it as "''dBe-let Babili, e-ti-rat''," "Lady of Babylon, the savior," based on the similarity to ''Šu-an-naki'', an uncommon alternate name of that city. A neo-Assyrian theological text explains that she was a name of Gula. However, she and Gula were worshiped as two separate goddesses in Nippur. Position in the pantheon The Weidne ... [...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] |
Ninkurra
Ninkurra or Ninkur was a name of multiple Mesopotamian deities, including a divine artisan, presumably a sculptress. There is no agreement among researchers if this Ninkurra corresponds to the identically named goddess appearing in the myth ''Enki and Ninhursag''. A different deity named Ninkur appears in enumerations of ancestors of Enlil in god lists. This theonym was also employed as a logogram to represent the name of a goddess worshiped in Mari and in Emar on the Euphrates, possibly to be identified as the wife of Dagan, Shalash. Ninkurra in southern Mesopotamia The theonym Ninkurra ('' d nin-kur-ra'') or Ninkur (''dnin-kur'') is sparsely attested in sources from southern Mesopotamia. It is assumed that more than one deity bearing this name existed. According to Dina Katz all of them were female, though in a more recent publication Josephine Fechner and Michel Tanret point out a reference to a male Ninkurra in the god list ''An = Anum''. Craftsman deity Ninkurra (alternati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uttu
Uttu was a Mesopotamian goddess of Sumerian origin. She was associated with weaving. She appears in multiple myths, such as ''Enki and Ninhursag'' and ''Enki and the World Order''. Name and character Uttu's name was written TAG×TÙG, with the sign TAG (usually pronounced as ''tuku'') referring to the action of weaving cloth. The word ''uttu'' could also denote a part of a loom. It is also possible that the name dTAG.NUN should be read as Uttu, though Joan Goodnick Westenholz rejected this interpretation and instead assumed that dTAG.NUN was one of the multiple writings of the name of Bizilla or a closely related goddess who like her came to be associated with Nanaya in later sources. Uttu was regarded as the goddess of weaving. According to an esoteric explanatory text which links various materials with gods, she could be associated with colored wool. Uttu and spiders Thorkild Jacobsen argued that Uttu was envisioned as a spider spinning a web. However, the connection betw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ninmah
, deity_of=Mother goddess, goddess of fertility, mountains, and rulers , image= Mesopotamian - Cylinder Seal - Walters 42564 - Impression.jpg , caption=Akkadian cylinder seal impression depicting a vegetation goddess, possibly Ninhursag, sitting on a throne surrounded by worshippers (circa 2350-2150 BC) , symbol=Omega-like symbol , children = Ninurta, Ashgi, Panigingarra , consort=Enlil, Enki Ninḫursaĝ ( sux, ''Ninḫarsang''; ) sometimes transcribed Ninursag,Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Ninhursag". ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', 2 May 2018, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ninhursag. Accessed 28 April 2022. Ninḫarsag, or Ninḫursaĝa, also known as Damgalnuna or Ninmah, was the ancient Sumerian mother goddess of the mountains, and one of the seven great deities of Sumer. She is known earliest as a nurturing or fertility goddess. Temple hymn sources identify her as the "true and great lady of heaven" (possibly in relation to her standing on the mountain) and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aruru (Babylonian Goddess)
Aruru was a Mesopotamian goddess. The origin of her name is presently uncertain. While initially considered an independent deity associated with vegetation and portrayed in hymns as violent, she eventually came to be viewed as analogous Ninhursag. Her name could also function as an epithet of goddesses such as Nisaba and Ezina- Kusu. She was often called the older sister of Enlil. Her cult centers most likely were the cities of Kesh, Adab and Irisaĝrig. She appears in a number of literary texts, some of which preserve information about her original character. She is also present in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'', which her portrays her as the creator of Enkidu. Name and character The etymology of the theonym Aruru ('' dA-ru-ru'', 𒀭𒀀𒊒𒊒) is considered either uncertain or unknown. A connection with Sumerian ''a-ru'' or ''a-ri'', which can be translated as "the one who lets the seed flow," has been deemed implausible by Manfred Krebernik, as this term is only used in this se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phonemic Orthography
A phonemic orthography is an orthography (system for writing a language) in which the graphemes (written symbols) correspond to the phonemes (significant spoken sounds) of the language. Natural languages rarely have perfectly phonemic orthographies; a high degree of grapheme-phoneme correspondence can be expected in orthographies based on alphabetic writing systems, but they differ in how complete this correspondence is. English orthography, for example, is alphabetic but highly nonphonemic; it was once mostly phonemic during the Middle English stage, when the modern spellings originated, but spoken English changed rapidly while the orthography was much more stable, resulting in the modern nonphonemic situation. However, because of their relatively recent modernizations compared to English, the Serbian/ Croatian/ Bosnian/ Montenegrin, Romanian, Italian, Turkish, Spanish, Finnish, Czech, Latvian, Esperanto, Korean and Swahili orthographic systems come much closer to being consi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lexical Lists
The cuneiform lexical lists are a series of ancient Mesopotamian glossaries which preserve the semantics of Sumerograms, their phonetic value and their Akkadian or other language equivalents. They are the oldest literary texts from Mesopotamia and one of the most widespread genres in the ancient Near East. Wherever cuneiform tablets have been uncovered, inside Iraq or in the wider Middle East, these lists have been discovered. History The earliest lexical lists are the archaic (early third millennium BC) word lists uncovered in caches of business documents and which comprise lists of nouns, the absence of verbs being due to their sparse use in these records of commercial transactions. The most notable text is LU A, a list of professions which would be reproduced for the next thousand years until the end of the Old Babylonian period virtually unchanged. Later third millennium lists dating to around 2600 BC have been uncovered at Fara and Abū Ṣalābīkh, including the ''Fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brick
A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured construction blocks. Bricks can be joined using mortar, adhesives or by interlocking them. Bricks are usually produced at brickworks in numerous classes, types, materials, and sizes which vary with region and time period, and are produced in bulk quantities. ''Block'' is a similar term referring to a rectangular building unit composed of similar materials, but is usually larger than a brick. Lightweight bricks (also called lightweight blocks) are made from expanded clay aggregate. Fired bricks are one of the longest-lasting and strongest building materials, sometimes referred to as artificial stone, and have been used since circa 4000 BC. Air-dried bricks, also known as mud-bricks, have a history older than fired bricks, and have an additi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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