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Yakrub-El or Ikrub-El was a
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 substan ...
worshiped in
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 ...
in the kingdom of Mari in the early
Old Babylonian period 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 ...
. Since his name is structured as if it were a
theophoric A theophoric name (from Greek language, 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 relat ...
personal name, is commonly assumed that he was a
deified Apotheosis (, ), also called divinization or deification (), is the glorification of a subject to divine levels and, commonly, the treatment of a human being, any other living thing, or an abstract idea in the likeness of a deity. The term ha ...
hero or ancestral figure in origin. He is absent from the sources postdating the destruction of Mari.


Name and character

Yakrub-El's name is structured like a
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 deit ...
, and can be translated as "the god blesses." While Icihiro Nakata in an early study of this deity concluded that it should be understood as a reference a deity identical with
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 El, Alfonso Archi argues that the elements ''el'' and ''il'' in
Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to: * Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire * Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language * Akkadian literature, literature in this language * Akkadian cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabi ...
,
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 ...
and
Amorite The Amorites (; sux, 𒈥𒌅, MAR.TU; Akkadian: 𒀀𒈬𒊒𒌝 or 𒋾𒀉𒉡𒌝/𒊎 ; he, אֱמוֹרִי, 'Ĕmōrī; grc, Ἀμορραῖοι) were an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking people from the Levant who also occupied lar ...
names do not designate a specific deity, and considers the emergence of the god El to be an Ugaritic religious innovation. Variants of the name Yakrub-El already occur in the oldest Akkadian documents as given names. A single ordinary person bearing the name Yakrub-El is attested even in the corpus of Mari texts. Multiple spellings are attested in known
cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...
texts, including '' dIk-ru-ub-El'', ''dIk-ru-ub-Il'', ''dIk-ru-ub-''AN, ''dIk-ru-bé-El'', ''dIk-ru-bé-''AN, ''dYa-ak-ru-ub-El'', ''dYa-ak-ru-ub-Il'' and ''dYa-ak-ru-ub-''AN. The alternation between El and Il might indicate lack of differentiation between the
phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
s ''e'' and ''i'', a possibility also supported by other examples of Mariote scribal conventions. AN (the
dingir ''Dingir'' (, usually transliterated DIĜIR, ) is a Sumerian word for "god" or "goddess". Its cuneiform sign is most commonly employed as the determinative for religious names and related concepts, in which case it is not pronounced and is con ...
cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...
sign) was a
logographic In a written language, a logogram, logograph, or lexigraph is a written character that represents a word or morpheme. Chinese characters (pronounced '' hanzi'' in Mandarin, ''kanji'' in Japanese, ''hanja'' in Korean) are generally logograms, a ...
representation of the same word. These writings are all attested in a single type of texts, namely the letters sent by Kibri-Dagan, a
governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
of Terqa, which makes the high number of variants unusual. Deities whose names mirror ordinary theophoric names, such as Yakrub-El,
Itūr-Mēr Itūr-Mēr was a Mesopotamian god worshiped in the kingdom of Mari, and after its fall in the kingdom of Khana, especially in Terqa. His name is structured like a theophoric name rather than a typical theonym, which lead to the proposal that he ...
, Tašqi-Mama and Tar’am-Mēr are often assumed to represent deified
ancestor An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from whom ...
s. Lluís Feliu proposes that Yakrub-El was specifically a deified chief of an Amorite clan, while Ichiro Nakata in an earlier publication more cautiously refers to him and similar deities as "originally heroes of one type or another."


Worship

In known texts from
Old Babylonian Old Babylonian may refer to: *the period of the First Babylonian dynasty (20th to 16th centuries BC) *the historical stage of the Akkadian language Akkadian (, Akkadian: )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Camb ...
Mari, Yakrub-El appears exclusively in association with
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 its immediate surroundings. Ichiro Nakata has suggested that he could be referred to as the "lord" (''
lugal Lugal ( Sumerian: ) is the Sumerian term for "king, ruler". Literally, the term means "big man." In Sumerian, ''lu'' "𒇽" is "man" and ''gal'' "𒃲" is "great," or "big." It was one of several Sumerian titles that a ruler of a city-state could ...
'') of this city, though other researchers, including
Jean-Marie Durand Jean-Marie Durand (13 November 1940) is a French Assyriologist. Career A student of the École Normale Supérieure (Lettres 1962), agrégé of grammar (1965), Doctor of History following a thesis dedicated to the documents of the rooms 134 and ...
and Amanda Podany, generally presume that the deity designated this way would instead be Dagan. Lluís Feliu assumes that Dagan was the god of the city of Terqa, while Yakrub-El represented the surrounding district (''ḫalṣum'') and its population, both permanently settled and
nomad A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...
ic, and suggested it might have been an example of a broader pattern of local pantheons combining gods already known from the third millennium BCE, worshiped chiefly in the urban centers of the region, with ones brought through population movements. He considers
Itūr-Mēr Itūr-Mēr was a Mesopotamian god worshiped in the kingdom of Mari, and after its fall in the kingdom of Khana, especially in Terqa. His name is structured like a theophoric name rather than a typical theonym, which lead to the proposal that he ...
to be another example of a deity belonging to the latter group. Yakrub-El was commonly associated with Dagan in religious texts. They appear together in greeting formulas from Terqa. One example can be found in a letter to Zimri-Lim from Kibri-Dagan, the governor of this city: Dagan and Yakrub-El are well. The city of Terqa and the district are well. Multiple texts from the so-called "archive of Asqudum" (for example MA:T 22, MA:T 23, MA:T 24 ) mention sacrifices of sheep to Yakrub-El made in Terqa alongside the offerings to many other deities, such as
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. ...
,
Nergal Nergal ( Sumerian: d''KIŠ.UNU'' or ; ; Aramaic: ܢܸܪܓܲܠ; la, Nirgal) was a Mesopotamian god worshiped through all periods of Mesopotamian history, from Early Dynastic to Neo-Babylonian times, with a few attestations under indicating hi ...
and
Annunitum Annunitum () or Anunītu was a Mesopotamian goddess of war. While initially she functioned as an epithet of Ishtar (Sumerian Inanna), she started to develop into a separate deity in the final years of the Sargonic period and through the Ur III per ...
. He is attested in
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 deit ...
s as well, with examples including Yakrub-El-andullī ("Yakrub-El is my protection") and Yakrub-El-tillalī ("Yakrub-El is my help"). Despite being a theophoric name itself, the theonym is evidently treated as if it were a single word in these cases. A legal text mentions that Kibri-Dagan and a "judge of the king" (''dayyān šarrim'') pronounced a verdict in front of Yakrub-El and
Lagamal Lagamal or Lagamar (Akkadian: "no mercy") was a Mesopotamian deity associated chiefly with Dilbat (modern Tell al-Deylam). A female form of Lagamal was worshiped in Terqa on the Euphrates in Upper Mesopotamia. The male Lagamal was also at some po ...
. A letter to
Zimri-Lim __NOTOC__ Zimri-Lim (Akkadian: ''Zi-im-ri Li-im'') was king of Mari c. 1775–1761 BCE. Zimri-Lim was the son or grandson of Iakhdunlim, but was forced to flee to Yamhad when his father was assassinated by his own servants during a coup. He ha ...
from Šamaš-nasir, an official stationed in Terqa, relays an
oracle An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The word '' ...
of Dagan in which Yakrub-El is mentioned. While the main topic is a verdict pronounced by Dagan for
Tishpak Tishpak (Tišpak) was a Mesopotamian god associated with the ancient city Eshnunna and its sphere of influence, located in the Diyala area of Iraq. He was primarily a war deity, but he was also associated with snakes, including the mythical mus ...
, Yakrub-El also plays an active role and brings him the words of the goddess
Ḫanat Anat (, ), Anatu, classically Anath (; uga, 𐎓𐎐𐎚 ''ʿnt''; he, עֲנָת ''ʿĂnāṯ''; ; el, Αναθ, translit=Anath; Egyptian: '' ꜥntjt'') was a goddess associated with warfare and hunting, best known from the Ugaritic texts. ...
from
Suhum Suhum, Sūḫu, or Suhi was an ancient geographic region around the middle course of the Euphrates River, south of Mari. =History= Its known history covers the period from the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000-1700/1600 BCE) to the Iron Age (c. ...
, presumably endangered by the actions of the Eshnunnean god. It has been pointed out that this text is most likely using the gods to describe the political situation at the time of the Mari archives, with Dagan standing for the kingdom of Mari, Yakrub-El for Terqa, Ḫanat for Suhum, and Tishpak for Eshnunna, whose troops were presumably threatening the latter of the aforementioned areas within the orbit of Mari. As of 2011, no published documents from Terqa from the later part of the Old Babylonian period mention Yakrub-El. Ichiro Nakata suggests that he might have ceased to be worshiped after Itūr-Mēr was introduced to the city's pantheon, possibly by members of the administration or clergy from Mari who fled there after the destruction of that city during the campaigns of
Hammurabi Hammurabi (Akkadian: ; ) was the sixth Amorite king of the Old Babylonian Empire, reigning from to BC. He was preceded by his father, Sin-Muballit, who abdicated due to failing health. During his reign, he conquered Elam and the city-states ...
of
Babylon ''Bābili(m)'' * sux, 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 * arc, 𐡁𐡁𐡋 ''Bāḇel'' * syc, ܒܒܠ ''Bāḇel'' * grc-gre, Βαβυλών ''Babylṓn'' * he, בָּבֶל ''Bāvel'' * peo, 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽𐎢 ''Bābiru'' * elx, 𒀸𒁀𒉿𒇷 ''Babi ...
.


References


Bibliography

* * * * *{{cite book, last=Sasson, first=Jack M., editor1-last=van Soldt, editor1-first=Wilfred H., editor2-last=Dercksen, editor2-first=Jan G., editor3-last=Kouwenberg, editor3-first=N. J. C., editor4-last=Krispijn, editor4-first=Theo, title=Veenhof Anniversary Volume: Studies Presented to Klaas R. Veenhof on the Occasion of His Sixty-fifth Birthday, chapter=Ancestors Divine?, publisher=Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, series=Pihans Series, year=2001, isbn=978-90-6258-091-0, chapter-url=https://my.vanderbilt.edu/jacksasson/files/2020/07/Sasson-VeenhofFs-1.pdf, access-date=2022-08-13 Mesopotamian gods Mari, Syria