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Ningikuga
Ningikuga was a Mesopotamian goddess. Her name can be explained as ''nin-gi-kug-a(k)'', "lady of the pure reed". A tradition according to which Ningikuga was a wife of Enki is known. In the Old Babylonian ''An = Anum'' forerunner she occurs in his circle after Damgalnuna, while in ''An = Anum'' itself she is outright equated with her. In the latter list she appears in line 178 of tablet II, before Ninti. In two sources, an Old Babylonian ''balbale'' composition and in a love song, Ningikuga is the name of Ningal's mother. By extension, she functioned as the grandmother of Inanna. While Thorkild Jacobsen assumed that the mother of Ningal and the spouse of Enki were the same goddess, Antoine Cavigneaux and Manfred Krebernik keep the two uses of the name separate. Jacobsen also argued that based on the meaning of Ningikuga's name it can be assumed that both she and her daughter were associated with reeds and marshes A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rath ... [...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] |
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] |
Damgalnuna
Damgalnuna, also known as Damkina, was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as the wife of the god Enki. Her character is poorly defined in known sources, though it is known that like her husband she was associated with ritual purification and that she was believed to intercede with him on behalf of supplicants. Among the deities regarded as their children were Nanshe and Asalluhi. While the myth ''Enki and Ninhursag'' treats her as interchangeable with the goddess metioned in its title, they were usually separate from each other. The cities of Eridu and Malgium were regarded as Damgalnuna's cult center. She was also worshiped in other settlements, such as Nippur, Sippar and Kalhu, and possibly as early as in the third millennium BCE was incorporated into the Hurrian pantheon. She appears in a number of myths, including the Enūma Eliš, though only a single composition, ''Damkina's Bond'', is focused on her. Name, character and iconography The theonym Damgalnuna can be translated as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesopotamian Goddesses
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] |
Old Babylonian Empire
The Old Babylonian Empire, or First Babylonian Empire, is dated to BC – BC, and comes after the end of Sumerian power with the destruction of the Third Dynasty of Ur, and the subsequent Isin-Larsa period. The chronology of the first dynasty of Babylonia is debated, since there is a Babylonian King List A and also a Babylonian King List B. In this chronology, the regnal years of List A are used due to their wide usage. The reign lengths given in List B are longer, generally speaking. Hardship of searching for origins of the First Dynasty The actual origins of the First Babylonian dynasty are rather hard to pinpoint with great certainty — simply because Babylon itself, due to a high water table, yields very few archaeological materials intact. Thus, the evidence that survived throughout the years includes written records such as royal and votive inscriptions, literary texts, and lists of year-names. The minimal amount of evidence in economic and legal documents makes it diff ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
An = Anum
''An = Anum'', also known as the Great God List, is the longest preserved Mesopotamian god list, a type of lexical list cataloging the deities worshiped in the Ancient Near East, chiefly in modern Iraq. While god lists are already known from the Early Dynastic period, ''An = Anum'' has most likely only been composed in the Kassite period. While often mistakenly described as a list of Sumerian deities and their Akkadian equivalents, ''An = Anum'' is focused on presenting the familial relationships between deities, as well as their courts and spheres of influence. The first four tablets list the major gods and goddesses ( Anu, Enlil, Ninhursag, Enki, Sin, Shamash, Adad and Ishtar) and their courts, arranged according to theological principles, but tablets V and VI do not appear to follow a clear system, and tablet VII is a late appendix listing the names of Marduk and one of his courtiers. Many other works of ancient scholarship were influenced by ''An = Anum'', including a simila ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ninti
Ninti ( sux, 𒀭𒎏𒋾; "mistress of life") was a Mesopotamian goddess worshiped in Lagash. She was regarded as the mother of Ninkasi. She also appears in the myth ''Enki and Ninhursag'' as one of the deities meant to soothe the eponymous god's pain. In this text, her name is reinterpreted first as "lady rib" and then as "lady of the month" through scribal word play. Attestations Ninti's name can be translated as "mistress who keeps alive" or "mistress (of) life." A variant form of her name might be Nintiḫal, "mistress who allocates life." However, Jeremiah Peterson notes that due to the existence of the divergent variant spelling Kurratiḫal it is not certain how the cuneiform sign NIN should be read in this case. Oldest attestations of Ninti have been identified in texts from Fara. She is also attested in Early Dynastic texts from Lagash, and according to Gebhard Selz must have been worshiped in this city, as references to a temple dedicated to her are known. This concl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inanna
Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, Divine law, divine justice, and political power. She was originally worshiped in Sumer under the name "Inanna", and later by the Akkadian Empire, Akkadians, Babylonian religion, Babylonians, and Assyrians under the name Ishtar, (occasionally represented by the logogram ). She was known as the "Queen of heaven (antiquity), Queen of Heaven" and was the patron goddess of the Eanna temple at the city of Uruk, which was her main Cult (religious practice), cult center. She was associated with the planet Venus and her most prominent symbols included the Lion of Babylon, lion and the Star of Ishtar, eight-pointed star. Her husband was the god Dumuzid (later known as Tammuz) and her , or personal attendant, was the goddess Ninshubur (who later became conflated with the male deities Ilabrat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thorkild Jacobsen
Thorkild Peter Rudolph Jacobsen (; 7 June 1904 – 2 May 1993) was a renowned Danish historian specializing in Assyriology and Sumerian literature. He was one of the foremost scholars on the ancient Near East. Biography Thorkild Peter Rudolph Jacobsen received, in 1927, an M.A. from the University of Copenhagen and then came to the United States to study at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, where, in 1929, he received his Ph.D. He was a field Assyriologist for the Iraq Expedition of the Oriental Institute from 1929 to 1937) and in 1946 became director of the Oriental Institute. He served as Dean of the Humanities Division from 1948 to 1951, as an editor of the ''Assyrian Dictionary'' from 1955 to 1959, and as Professor of Social Institutions from 1946–1962. In 1962, Jacobsen became a professor of Assyriology at Harvard University, where he remained until his retirement in 1974. Beyond being an expert translator, he was a brilliant interpreter whose insights ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reed (plant)
Reed is a common name for several tall, grass-like plants of wetlands. Varieties They are all members of the order Poales (in the modern, expanded circumscription), and include: In the grass family, Poaceae * Common reed (''Phragmites australis''), the original species named reed * Giant reed (''Arundo donax''), used for making reeds for musical instruments * Burma reed (''Neyraudia reynaudiana'') * Reed canary-grass (''Phalaris arundinacea'') * Reed sweet-grass (''Glyceria maxima'') * Small-reed (''Calamagrostis'' species) In the sedge family, Cyperaceae * Paper reed or papyrus ('' Cyperus papyrus''), the source of the Ancient Egyptian writing material, also used for making boats In the family Typhaceae * Bur-reed (''Sparganium'' species) * Reed-mace (''Typha'' species), also called bulrush or cattail In the family Restionaceae * Cape thatching reed ('' Elegia tectorum''), a restio originating from the South-western Cape, South Africa. * Thatching reed (''Thamnochortus ins ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesopotamian Marshes
The Mesopotamian Marshes, also known as the Iraqi Marshes, are a wetland area located in Southern Iraq and in southwestern Iran. The marshes are primarily located on the floodplains of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers bound by the cities of Basra, Nasiriyah, Amarah and a portion of southwestern Iran. Historically the marshlands, mainly composed of the separate but adjacent Central, Hawizeh and Hammar Marshes, used to be the largest wetland ecosystem of Western Eurasia. The unique wetland landscape is home to the Marsh people, descended from the Ur, Sumer and Babylon civilisations, who have developed a unique culture tightly coupled to the landscape – harvesting reeds and rice, fishing and herding water buffalo. Draining of portions of the marshes began in the 1950s and continued through the 1970s to reclaim land for agriculture and oil exploration. In the late 1980s and 1990s, during the presidency of Saddam Hussein, this work was expanded and accelerated to evict Marsh peop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sea And River Goddesses
The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, as well as certain large, entirely landlocked, saltwater lakes, such as the Caspian Sea. The sea moderates Earth's climate and has important roles in the water, carbon, and nitrogen cycles. Humans harnessing and studying the sea have been recorded since ancient times, and evidenced well into prehistory, while its modern scientific study is called oceanography. The most abundant solid dissolved in seawater is sodium chloride. The water also contains salts of magnesium, calcium, potassium, and mercury, amongst many other elements, some in minute concentrations. Salinity varies widely, being lower near the surface and the mouths of large rivers and higher in the depths of the ocean; however, the relative proportions of dissolved salts va ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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