#Manfred Krebernik

[danieleneandermancini]

TAVOLETTE IN CUNEIFORME MOSTRANO I PRIMI ELEMENTI DELLA LINGUA AMORREA

TAVOLETTE IN CUNEIFORME MOSTRANO I PRIMI ELEMENTI DELLA LINGUA AMORREA Un team di assiriologi, gli studiosi della storia, dell'archeologia e della lingua dell'antica Mesopotamia, nella faticosa ricerca di decifrare  tavolette cuneiformi relative a idiomi comel'accadico, il sumero, l'elamita, l'aramaico e l'ugaritico, hanno recentemente effettuato una grandiosa scoperta. Nathan Wasserman, docente presso l'Istituto di Archeologia dell'Hebrew University e del Dipartimento di Antiche civiltà del Vicino Oriente, coadiuvato da Yoram Cohen del Dipartimento di Archeologia dell'Università di Tel Aviv, hanno scoperto quello che definiscono un "cambiamento di paradigma" di importanza fondamentale nello studio della

Un team di assiriologi, gli studiosi della storia, dell’archeologia e della lingua dell’antica Mesopotamia, nella faticosa ricerca di decifrare  tavolette cuneiformi relative a idiomi comel’accadico, il sumero, l’elamita, l’aramaico e l’ugaritico, hanno recentemente effettuato una grandiosa scoperta. Nathan Wasserman, docente presso l’Istituto di Archeologia dell’Hebrew University e del…

[yamayuandadu]

Is there more information about Melam, besides 'the substance that covered the gods in terrifying splendor,' which makes humans experience 'the physical creeping of the flesh'?

You’re citing a subpar wikipedia article like it’s a primary source. Please don’t do that in my ask box.

Melam(mu) is an ordinary word referring to the abstract notion of radiance of deities (as well as certain other supernatural entities, most famously Humbaba; rulers; places and objects regarded as numinous, like temples, statues and cultic paraphernalia; and so on). Since terms like melam(mu) and puluḫtu have a more specific meaning than the generic namru, “shining”, more poetic translations like “awe-inspiring radiance” are fairly common. For more context see Radiant Things for Gods and Men: Lightness and Darkness in Mesopotamian Language and Thought by Shiyanthi Thavapalan (esp. p. 14-15). A deity could be described as possessing a plurality of melam, though this is generally rare (most famously, Humbaba has seven, but there are isolated attestations available for Nergal and Marduk too) and the term is typically left singular.

In textual sources melam is already attested in the Early Dynastic period (see the Reallexikon entry by Manfred Krebernik for a list of attestations), but in visual arts it only shows up in a coherent, consistent way in the Neo-Assyrian period, where deities are often surrounded by a so-called “nimbus” (The Melammu as Divine Epiphany and Usurped Entity by Mehmet-Ali Ataç, p. 295). Literary texts can present melam as something tangible - a divine garment, crown, wig and so on (for some examples see A New Occurrence of the Seven Aurae in a Sumerian Literary Passage Featuring Nergal by Jeremiah Peterson) - or even as logs of wood (in the Humbaba narrative; see The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts by Andrew R. George, p. 10). However, this holds true for many abstract concepts.

[kdlazde-blog]

Bestseller in Archäologie #10: Götter und Mythen des Alt... von Manfred Krebernik https://t.co/o6BVhcU3yT #Kindle… https://t.co/KM9lEw8cL1

Bestseller in Archäologie #10: Götter und Mythen des Alt... von Manfred Krebernik https://t.co/o6BVhcU3yT #Kindle #Archäologie pic.twitter.com/KnEjXGXVDn

— KdlAzDE.bot (@KdlAzDE) October 30, 2017

via Twitter https://twitter.com/KdlAzDE October 30, 2017 at 02:30PM

[yamayuandadu]

Hi, I don't know where else to go with this. My ability to find scholarly search results has atrophied. I'm looking for information on Napir, or Napiri, as far as I've seen. Supposedly an Elamite moon god, but I've noticed a great deal of mis-attribution with Elamite deities. The name simply being a god word doesn't help

Never seen the form "Napiri". If you mean Napirisha that's a completely unrelated deity. You will not find much solid on this matter because the Elamite moon deity's name was always written with the Akkadian logogram for the number 30 and the reading Napir relies entirely on the assumptions of Hinz and Koch and... neither of them was exactly rigorous. The only possible phonetic spelling in an actual primary source according to Manfred Krebernik seems to be Nanna or Nannar (p. 364 here) which imo fits pretty well with what we know about the pantheon of Susa and its surroundings, ie. that it was pretty much about as culturally (southern) Mesopotamian as the local pantheon of Mari. Elam obviously does not end there and one cannot rule out there was more than one lunar deity even in a specific area, obviously. I will note that it does seem there WAS an Elamite deity actually named Napir, as such a figure does appear in an inscription of Hanni of Ayapir. The only thing it tells us about this figure is that they were sipakirra, which is a term of still unknown meaning as per Wouther Henkelman, Other Gods Who Are, p. 356; long ago attempt has been made to prove it means "shining" but afaik it did not really catch on. Some sort of clergy of Napir is mentioned in a text from the reign of Tepti-Huban-Inshushinak (same book, p. 362).

The most recent instance of a publication where Napir is explicitly referred to as a moon deity I found isEnrique Qitana's chapter in The Elamite World but it does not really seem to be up to date, seeing how ex. he presents alleged spousal relations between deities as fact while more cautious authors like Wouter Henkelman note that in many cases even the gender of deities like Ruhurater is not actually known, let alone their relations to others. Tl;dr you're not finding much because there simply isn't much.

[yamayuandadu]

What were the roles and genealogy of Ninhursag?

Placed under the cut due to length. If not stated otherwise, the source is the book Goddesses in Context, linked pretty early on.

Starting with genealogy, because it's more straightforward. According to Manfred Krebernik, no explicit references to Ninhursag's parentage are known, and implicit evidence is largely provided just by statements about her being a sister of Enlil (source). Note that in Enlil and Sud, Enlil's sister is instead named Aruru, who was initially a separate goddess, associated only with vegetation. Since as far as I can tell no explicit references to Ninhursag being Enlil’s sister occur in most texts focused on Enlil’s own genealogy, I can’t really tell you if it means all the Lugaldukugas and Ninkis and Enmesharras commonly populating his family tree were also believed to function as Ninhursag’s ancestors. Or ancestors of his other sisters like Ningirima, for that matter. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a direct reference to Anu being her father. Krebernik also speculates that she might have been treated as a cosmogonic deity (ie. involved in the early history of the universe) which, I presume, would imply no real genealogy.

As a side note, Ninhursag’s relation with Enlil actually varies between sources, and in Lagash they were envisioned as a couple, though fwiw it was not really considered significant in Nippur (Enlilville) or Kesh (Ninhursagville) from what I’ve been able to gather, and Ninhursag appears there alongside Shulpa’e, her stock husband, instead. Rather elusive deity, but you can read a bit about him here.

Ninhursag's primary role is creation/birth; note that while commonly employed, the term "mother goddess" is not fully adequate because Mesopotamian goddesses who performed such a function only made living beings, they did not nurture them, and the process could be compared to crafting statues at times (also note craftsman deities like Ninmug appear in the entourage of “birth goddesses”). As always, I direct everyone to Goddesses in Context for relevant info. Note that Westenholz points out that it is possible that Ninhursag was initially responsible for nurturing rather than birth, though, since kings of Lagash and Kish seemed to present her as such.

Ninhursag’s other role is self-explanatory - her name means “mistress of the mountain ranges.” This might be tied to her possible cosmogonic role. Via merges with other similar goddesses she also came to be viewed as the creator in mankind, as in a Neo-Babylonian inscription, where she is “ exalted ruler, creatress of mankind, queen of the great mountains.”

A role Ninhursag at first seemingly did NOT hold was that of a city goddess of a major settlement - most of her cult centers were, according to Westenholz, “suburban towns and villages.” After the Sargonic period, she also “moved in” with her son Ashgi in Adab and, to put it colloquially, kicked him out of his city god position there. She also eventually displaced/absorbed the tutelary goddess of Kesh, Nintur. Some info on her early cult centers can be found here but it’s all in german.

Ninhursag also held the generic position of one of the “great gods,” though the common claim she was universally the #4 of the pantheon is not entirely correct. Also - note that when she is referred as “mother” this might be reference to this position of authority rather than to any association with children. As summed up in Goddesses in Context linked above: “nineteenth-century gender ideology that could not imagine motherhood other than in terms of an immanent feminine quality rooted in biology, contrasting with a universal, transcendental masculine divinity.”

[yamayuandadu]

Is there a default version of Dumuzid's parents?

Well, there is a default version of his mother, at least: almost always the otherwise irrelevant goddess Duttur/Durtur/Turtur (outdated reading disproved based on phonetic Akkadian spelling: Sirtur) is cast in this role. She is very sparsely attested aside from appearing in compositions where she mourns Dumuzi. The available information has been gathered here by Manfred Krebernik (only in German, sadly). She might have been associated with sheep but this notion is disputed. Her other role is obviously that of a lamenting mother, and in that department only Ninisina gives her a run for her money (though Ninsina obviously is chiefly known from other contexts). An alternate tradition places Ninsun (yeah, that Ninsun) in the role of Dumuzi's mother, according to Dina Katz possibly because king lists, which record the order Lugalbanda -> Dumuzi the Fisherman -> Gilgamesh, lead to the conclusion Dumuzi must be a son of Lugalbanda and his wife and then the Dumuzis got confused. According to Wilfred G. Lambert there is an Old Babylonian incantation which labels Ea/Enki as Dumuzi's father but iirc according to Bendt Alster in the "classic" Dumuzi family tree as represented in myths as laments his father plays no role. The -other- other Dumuzi, Dumuzi-abzu (the female Dumuzi), had no genealogy initially afaik, but the late male variant from An = Anum is also a son of Ea though this was a secondary development likely postdating the relevance of Dumuzi-abzu as a deity.