Adamma was a goddess from the pantheon of
Ebla
Ebla ( Sumerian: ''eb₂-la'', ar, إبلا, modern: , Tell Mardikh) was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located about southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was an important center t ...
, later incorporated into
Hurrian religion
The Hurrian religion was the polytheistic religion of the Hurrians, a Bronze Age people of the Near East who chiefly inhabited the north of the Fertile Crescent. While the oldest evidence goes back to the third millennium BCE, is best attested in ...
.
Origin
Alfonso Archi, a researcher of Eblaite culture and religion, considers Adamma to most likely be one of the Syrian deity names with origins in a pre-
Semitic and pre-
Hurrian
The Hurrians (; cuneiform: ; transliteration: ''Ḫu-ur-ri''; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri or Hurriter) were a people of the Bronze Age Near East. They spoke a Hurrian language and lived in Anatolia, Syria and Northern ...
substratum
In linguistics, a stratum (Latin for "layer") or strate is a language that influences or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum or substrate is a language that has lower power or prestige than another, while a superstratum or sup ...
, much like
Hadabal
Hadabal (also spelled 'Adabal) was a god worshiped in Ebla and its surroundings in the third millennium BCE. He was one of the main gods of that area, and appears frequently in Eblaite documents. His character is not well understood, though it ha ...
,
Ishara
Ishara (Išḫara) was the tutelary goddess of the ancient Syrian city of Ebla. The origin of her name is unknown. Both Hurrian and West Semitic etymologies have been proposed, but they found no broad support and today it is often assumed that ...
,
Kura
Rúben de Almeida Barbeiro (born August 21, 1987 in Leiria), better known as KURA, is a Portuguese electro house music DJ and producer. Kura has released tracks through labels such as Hardwell's Revealed Recordings, Flashover Recordings, M ...
or
Aštabi
Aštabi ( uga, 𐎀𐎌𐎚𐎁, ''aštb''), also known as Aštabil, was a god worshiped in the third millennium BCE in Ebla, later incorporated into Hurrian beliefs in locations such as Alalakh and Ugarit and as a result also into the religion o ...
. Another possibility he considers is that her name was derived from the root *''ʾdm'', meaning "blood" or "red." Francesco Aspesi derives it from the Hebrew
Adamah, the word for "(red) soil, earth".
’adámâ"">"Precedenti divini di ’adámâ"
SEL 13 (1996) 33-40.
Hittitologist Piotr Taracha also considers her to be a "Syrian substrate" deity incorporated into Hurrian religion
The Hurrian religion was the polytheistic religion of the Hurrians, a Bronze Age people of the Near East who chiefly inhabited the north of the Fertile Crescent. While the oldest evidence goes back to the third millennium BCE, is best attested in ...
, and based on proposed origin groups her with Aštabi, Ishara, Kubaba
Kubaba (in the ''Weidner'' or ''Esagila Chronicle''), sux, , , is the only queen on the ''Sumerian King List'', which states she reigned for 100 years – roughly in the Early Dynastic III period (ca. 2500–2330 BC) of Sumerian history. A co ...
, Shalash
Shalash (Šalaš) was a Syrian goddess best known as the wife of Dagan, the head of the pantheon of the middle Euphrates area. She was already worshiped in Ebla and Tuttul in the third millennium BCE, and later her cult is attested in Mari as w ...
and others.
Archi proposes that after the fall of Ebla Adamma was among the deities who did not retain their former position in the religion of the Amorites
The Amorites (; sux, 𒈥𒌅, MAR.TU; Akkadian language, Akkadian: 𒀀𒈬𒊒𒌝 or 𒋾𒀉𒉡𒌝/𒊎 ; he, אֱמוֹרִי, 'Ĕmōrī; grc, Ἀμορραῖοι) were an ancient Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic-speaking people ...
, who became the dominant culture in Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
. He lists Ammarik
Ammarik, also transcribed as Ammarig or Hammarigu, was a god worshiped in Ebla in the third millennium BCE. He was most likely a deified mountain.
After the fall of Ebla, he was incorporated into the pantheon of the Hurrians.
Character
Ammarik w ...
, Aštabi, Šanugaru and Halabatu as other similar examples. He assumes that they were reduced to the status of deities of at best local significance, and as a result were easily incorporated into the religion of the Hurrians
The Hurrians (; cuneiform: ; transliteration: ''Ḫu-ur-ri''; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri or Hurriter) were a people of the Bronze Age Near East. They spoke a Hurrian language and lived in Anatolia, Syria and Northern Mes ...
when they arrived in the same area a few centuries later.
In Eblaite religion
Adamma was the spouse of Resheph
Resheph (also Reshef and many other variants, see below; phn, 𐤓𐤔𐤐, ''ršp''; Eblaite ''Rašap'', Egyptian ') was a deity associated with plague (or a personification of plague), either war or strong protection, and sometimes th ...
in Eblaite
Eblaite (, also known as Eblan ISO 639-3), or Palaeo-Syrian, is an extinct East Semitic language used during the 3rd millennium BC by the populations of Northern Syria. It was named after the ancient city of Ebla, in modern western Syria. Varian ...
texts. However, they are not associated with each other anymore in sources from the second millennium BCE.
A ritual dedicated to deceased kings of Ebla featured 8 deities, 6 of them arranged in pairs: Hadabal and his spouse (only known as ''Baaltum'', "the Lady"), Resheph and Adamma, Agu and Guladu, and additionally a deity whose name is missing identified as "of Darib" (a village connected to cult of deceased kings) and Ishara. Administrative records mention the purchase of belts for Adamma. However, in offering lists she overall appears less frequently than Kura, Hadabal, Resheph or Ishara. Additionally, Adamma was among the Eblaite deities who seemingly didn't have any annual renewal rite (the prime example of which was the yearly preparation of a new silver face for the statue of Kura). Other deities sharing this characteristic were Kura's spouse Barama and Ishara.
Adamma also did not appear as a theophoric element in personal names. The only possible "substratum" deities recorded in such a role are Kura and, much less frequently, Hadabal
Hadabal (also spelled 'Adabal) was a god worshiped in Ebla and its surroundings in the third millennium BCE. He was one of the main gods of that area, and appears frequently in Eblaite documents. His character is not well understood, though it ha ...
. Alfonso Archi interprets this as a sign that name-giving traditions of Ebla predated the contact with the culture of the "substratum" from which these deities were originally received.
The epithet ''gunu(m)'', associated most commonly with Resheph, occasionally was linked to Adamma as well. Its meaning is uncertain. While it has been proposed that ''gunu(m)'' was a burial place (based on Ugarit
)
, image =Ugarit Corbel.jpg
, image_size=300
, alt =
, caption = Entrance to the Royal Palace of Ugarit
, map_type = Near East#Syria
, map_alt =
, map_size = 300
, relief=yes
, location = Latakia Governorate, Syria
, region = F ...
ic parallels), Alfonso Archi notes Resheph does not appear to have a connection to funerals in Eblaite texts, and that in this context he was instead most commonly associated with Ea, Kura or the sun deity.
Hadani was a mayor center of worship of Adamma and her husband in the Ebla period. It was possible for daughters of kings of allied cities (the recorded example being the princess of Huzan) to become the ''dam-digir'' ("woman of the deity"), or head priestess, of Adamma in that location. Analogous offices existed for Hadabal, but these were seemingly reserved for Eblaite princesses. Daughters of viziers were ''dam-digir'' of unspecified deities as well. The fact that Adamma is a goddess rather than a god indicates that it's far from certain if ''dam-digir'' can be understood as a priestess partaking in a " sacred marriage" ritual as sometimes proposed, according to Alfonso Archi.
Another important cult center of Adamma and Resheph was Tunip, likely located close to Hamat, a settlement associated with Hadabal.
Later relevance
After the fall of Ebla, some of the deities largely unique to its pantheon disappeared from records, most notably Kura, Barama and Hadabal. The fate of Adamma, as well as Aštabi, Saggar and a number of other Eblaite deities, was different. While for the most part they had no major role in religion of the Amorites
The Amorites (; sux, 𒈥𒌅, MAR.TU; Akkadian language, Akkadian: 𒀀𒈬𒊒𒌝 or 𒋾𒀉𒉡𒌝/𒊎 ; he, אֱמוֹרִי, 'Ĕmōrī; grc, Ἀμορραῖοι) were an ancient Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic-speaking people ...
(Ishara being a partial exception), who became the dominant power in Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
after the fall of Ebla, the Hurrians
The Hurrians (; cuneiform: ; transliteration: ''Ḫu-ur-ri''; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri or Hurriter) were a people of the Bronze Age Near East. They spoke a Hurrian language and lived in Anatolia, Syria and Northern Mes ...
, who spread through the region in the early second millennium BCE, incorporated them into own religion.
Adamma formed a dyad with Kubaba
Kubaba (in the ''Weidner'' or ''Esagila Chronicle''), sux, , , is the only queen on the ''Sumerian King List'', which states she reigned for 100 years – roughly in the Early Dynastic III period (ca. 2500–2330 BC) of Sumerian history. A co ...
in Hurrian sources. Worship of pairs of deities almost as if they were a unity was a common feature of Hurrian religion and other examples include Allani
Allani, also known under the Akkadian name Allatu (or Allatum) was the Hurrian goddess of the underworld, incorporated into Hittite and Mesopotamian pantheons as well.
Name and epithets
The name Allani is derived from a Hurrian word meaning ...
and Ishara
Ishara (Išḫara) was the tutelary goddess of the ancient Syrian city of Ebla. The origin of her name is unknown. Both Hurrian and West Semitic etymologies have been proposed, but they found no broad support and today it is often assumed that ...
, Ninatta and Kulitta
Ninatta and Kulitta were two goddesses always invoked together who were the handmaidens of the Hurrian goddess Shaushka, the Hurrian counterpart of Mesopotamian Ishtar.
Functions
Ninatta and Kulitta were regarded as divine musicians. In a myth k ...
, Hutena and Hutellura
Hutena and Hutellura (also spelled Hudena and Hudellura; ''ḫdn ḫdlr'' in alphabetic Ugaritic texts) were goddesses of fate and divine midwives in Hurrian mythology.
Number
An unresolved problem in scholarship is the number of goddesses ref ...
and Pinikir
Pinikir, also known as Pinigir, Pirengir and Parakaras, was an Ancient Near Eastern astral goddess who originates in Elamite religious beliefs. While she is only infrequently attested in Elamite documents, she achieved a degree of prominence in H ...
and Goddess of the Night.
Sometimes the Adamma-Kubaba dyad was expanded into a trio with the addition of the goddess Hašuntarhi.
In rituals linked to the ''hišuwa'' festival from Kizzuwatna
Kizzuwatna (or Kizzuwadna; in Ancient Egyptian ''Kode'' or ''Qode''), was an ancient Anatolian kingdom in the 2nd millennium BC. It was situated in the highlands of southeastern Anatolia, near the Gulf of İskenderun, in modern-day Turkey. It enc ...
Adamma appeared alongside other Hurrian deities, Kubaba and Nupatik
Nupatik, also known as Lubadag, was a Hurrian god of uncertain character. He is attested in the earliest inscriptions from Urkesh, as well as in texts from many other Hurrian settlements, and possibly continued to be worshiped as late as in the n ...
.
In Emar
)
, image = View_from_the_Byzantine_Tower_at_Meskene,_ancient_Barbalissos.jpg
, alt =
, caption = View from the Byzantine Tower at Meskene, ancient Barbalissos
, map_type = Syria
, map_alt =
, map_size = 200
...
a month was named after her.
References
Bibliography
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{{Hurrian mythology
Hurrian deities
Hittite deities
Eblaite deities
Ugaritic deities