Nikarawa (Nikarawas) or Nikaruha was a

Luwian The Luwians were a group of Anatolian peoples who lived in central, western, and southern Anatolia, in present-day Turkey, during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. They spoke the Luwian language, an Indo-European language of the Anatolian sub-fa ...

deity known from inscriptions from

Carchemish Carchemish ( Turkish: ''Karkamış''; or ), also spelled Karkemish ( hit, ; Hieroglyphic Luwian: , /; Akkadian: ; Egyptian: ; Hebrew: ) was an important ancient capital in the northern part of the region of Syria. At times during its ...

and other nearly locations. It is commonly, though not universally, assumed that she corresponds to the

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 substan ...

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 langua ...

Attestations

Nikarawa's name is spelled in

Luwian hieroglyphs Anatolian hieroglyphs are an indigenous logographic script native to central Anatolia, consisting of some 500 signs. They were once commonly known as Hittite hieroglyphs, but the language they encode proved to be Luwian, not Hittite, and the ter ...

as ''^dni-ka+ra/i-wa/i-sa₂''. She is known from the curse formula "May the dogs of Nikarawas eat away his head" from

from the ninth or eighth century BCE, more precisely dated to the reign of

Yariri The House of Astiruwa was the last known dynasty of rulers of Carchemish. The members of this dynasty are best known to us through Hieroglyphic Luwian sources. One member of the House of Astiruwa may also be referred to in Assyrian sources. Astiru ...

, the successor of

Astiruwa The House of Astiruwa was the last known dynasty of rulers of Carchemish. The members of this dynasty are best known to us through Hieroglyphic Luwian sources. One member of the House of Astiruwa may also be referred to in Assyrian sources. Astiru ...

. She is the only deity invoked in it. Sylvia Hutter-Braunsar argues that a temple dedicated to her might have existed in this city, and points out a statuette of a dog has been found in 2012 during the excavations of the structure known as Temple B or the Hilani building. The inscription of Katamuwa from

Samʼal Samal, also Yadiya or Zincirli Höyük, is an archaeological site located in the Anti-Taurus Mountains of modern Turkey's Gaziantep Province. It was founded at least as far back as the Early Bronze Age and thrived between 3000 and 2000 BC, and on ...

also mentions Nikarawa, as well as the deities

Hadad Hadad ( uga, ), Haddad, Adad (Akkadian: 𒀭𒅎 '' DIM'', pronounced as ''Adād''), or Iškur ( Sumerian) was the storm and rain god in the Canaanite and ancient Mesopotamian religions. He was attested in Ebla as "Hadda" in c. 2500 BCE. ...

of ''Qrpdl'', Hadad of the vineyard,

Shamash Utu (dUD "Sun"), also known under the Akkadian name Shamash, ''šmš'', syc, ܫܡܫܐ ''šemša'', he, שֶׁמֶשׁ ''šemeš'', ar, شمس ''šams'', Ashurian Aramaic: 𐣴𐣬𐣴 ''š'meš(ā)'' was the ancient Mesopotamian sun god. ...

and

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 ...

, and states she was one of the recipients of the offering of a sacrificial ram. The

theonym A theonym (from Greek ''theos'' (Θεός), "god"'','' attached to ''onoma'' (ὄνομα), "name") is the proper name of a deity. Theonymy, the study of divine proper names, is a branch of onomastics (the study of the etymology, history, and u ...

Nikaruha might also designate the same deity. This form of the name is attested in a curse from

Tabal Tabal (c.f. biblical ''Tubal''; Assyrian: 𒋫𒁄) was a Luwian speaking Neo-Hittite kingdom (and/or collection of kingdoms) of South Central Anatolia during the Iron Age. According to archaeologist Kurt Bittel, references to Tabal first appear ...

which invokes her alongside Kubaba, and possibly in a damaged inscription from the same ancient kingdom found in

Kayseri Kayseri (; el, Καισάρεια) is a large Industrialisation, industrialised List of cities in Turkey, city in Central Anatolia, Turkey, and the capital of Kayseri Province, Kayseri province. The Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality area is comp ...

, which mentions a deity whose name begins with the signs ''ní-ka''.

Nikarawa and Ninkarrak

Ignace J. Gelb proposed identifying Nikarawa with the

in 1938. In addition to phonetic similarity of the names, he pointed out both of them were associated with dogs. This view more recently received support from

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 Unive ...

, but it has been subsequently challenged by Sylvia Hutter-Braunsar. She argues that they are unlikely to be one and the same due to distinct function of Nikarawa's dogs, who in contrast with Ninkarrak's were regarded as dangerous. However, the identification is still considered plausible as of 2022, and Irene-Sibbing Plantholt groups the inscription from Carchemish with western attestations of Ninkarrak from

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

and Mari.

References

Bibliography

* * * * *{{cite book, last=Westenholz, first=Joan G., title=Von Göttern und Menschen, chapter=Ninkarrak – an Akkadian goddess in Sumerian guise, publisher=Brill, date=2010, doi=10.1163/9789004187474_020 Luwian goddesses