Sumerian Religion

Thorkild Jacobsen (1963; 1976) entwarf ausgehend von den Begriffen von Rudolf Otto (1917) ein Modell der mesopotamischen Religion, das sich durch seine Konsistenz auszeichnet und weite Bereiche von Göttervorstellungen, Mythologie und Ritual abdeckt. Dieser Beitrag will sowohl die Attraktivität wie die Grenzen des substanzialistischen religionsphänomenologischen Ansatzes herausarbeiten, der durch eine monotheistisch geprägte Perspektive gekennzeichnet ist. Des weiteren zeigt sich, wie weit verbreitet dieser Ansatz in der Altorientalistik war und ist, während funktionalistische Ansätze (etwa von E. Durkheim, C. Geertz) kaum rezipiert wurden. In Hinblick auf die religionshistorischen Befunde ist hervorzuheben, dass bei heutigem Wissensstand die Repräsentation von Herrschaft in der Götterwelt schon in der Uruk-Zeit nachweisbar ist, während der von Jacobsen als urtümlich aufgefasste Dumuzi-Amaʼušumgalana aufgrund seiner Namensform einer späteren Schicht des frühen dritten Jahrtausends angehört. Die Quellen der Uruk-Zeit, insbesondere die schriftliche Repräsentation von Städtenamen durch ihre jeweiligen Götter, deuten die Existenz eines mesopotamischen Pantheons schon im Chalkolithikum an. Man muss deshalb davon ausgehen, dass mit der Differenzierung von Göttern nach ihren Funktionsbereichen schon in der Uruk-Zeit auch eine lokale Gliederung einherging.

Inanna is typically the waning out of the feminine spirituality of Pre-Ice-Age Homo Sapiens to the masculine spirituality of Neolithic time. We are dealing with Sumerian mythology and it is the matrix of at least two Semitic religions, Judaism and Christianity.

Inanna is the last omnipotent goddess and she is becoming a triple goddess, the merging of three divine principles into one, which Greek mythology and other European mythologies will do whereas Christianity invest this ternary pattern directly in the trinity of the omnipotent and omniscient god.

That shift corresponds to the social development from the hunting and gathering ancient prehistoric society to the agricultural and pastoral society that completely changed the position of women.

Second informative article in the "Do you know...?" series for the journal of the South African Veterinary Association. Topic of the month: sumerian ornithology, study of some of the species mentioned in the beautiful hymn "Nanshe and the birds".

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/716031

Babylonian hermeneutics has been the subject of several studies in recent years that have showed that speculative thought exploited the potentiality of the cuneiform system through analogical reasoning in order to find and create new meanings according to phonetic, semantic and graphic similarities. Analogical hermeneutics was prompted by the polysemic and homophonic nature of cuneiform writing and was intended as an inquiry into the cuneiform system itself. Analogical reasoning is also well known in ancient Greece particularly in Heraclitus producing semantic proliferation and ambiguity. A comparison between Mesopotamian and Greek sources shows that Heraclitus’ fragments share with cuneiform scholarship a similar epistemic reasoning based on analogy. The present contribution aims at setting the Babylonian epistemological system in light of Heraclitus' philosophy.

The point of departure is a short definition of prestige: “The prestige of a person, an object or a cultural practice is higher, the more exclusive its bearers and the more widespread its
estimation in the relevant group are”. This allows modern scholars to identify the cooccurrence of various aspects of prestige at state festivals as culturally significant markers.
This not only pertains to the participants, above all the king of the Third Dynasty of Ur (21st c. BCE), the governors of his provinces and foreign messengers, but also concerns
time, space, the ostentatious presentation of treasures, artistic performances etc. Interestingly, personal gift-giving is not included in the exchange of goods at state festivals, where goods from all over the country are collected and partly redistributed.

While working in southern Iraq, archaeologist Sir Leonard Wolley uncovered 16 royal tombs in the cemetery of ancient Ur. The wealth in these tombs, which remains unparalleled in Mesopotamian archaeology, included some of the most celebrated pieces of Sumerian art that now grace the halls of the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania Museum. They were a remarkable but grisly find. Inside the 4,500-year-old tombs,​ Woolley was meet by a macabre scene of human and animal sacrifice

Uruk, Auruk or Warka was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia) situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates 30 km (19 mi) east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.

Uruk is the type site for the Uruk period. Uruk played a leading role in the early urbanization of Sumer in the mid-4th millennium BC. By the final phase of the Uruk period around 3100 BCE, the city may have had 40,000 residents, with 80,000-90,000 people living in its environs, making it the largest urban area in the world at the time. The legendary king Gilgamesh, according to the chronology presented in the Sumerian king list, ruled Uruk in the 27th century BC. The city lost its prime importance around 2000 BC in the context of the struggle of Babylonia against Elam, but it remained inhabited throughout the Seleucid (312–63 BC) and Parthian (227 BC to 224 AD) periods until it was finally abandoned shortly before or after the Islamic conquest of 633–638.

William Kennett Loftus visited the site of Uruk in 1849, identifying it as "Erech", known as "the second city of Nimrod", and led the first excavations from 1850 to 1854.

The Arabic name of Babylonia, which eventually became the name of the present-day country, al-ʿIrāq, is thought to derive from the name Uruk via Aramaic (Erech) and possibly via Middle Persian (Erāq) transmission.
In Sumerian, the word uru could mean "city, town, village, district, circular area"

Nin-me-šara - Myths as argumentative weapons in a ritual song of the high priestess En-ḫedu-Ana:
New translation (revised version of the edition of Zgoll 1997),
first study of myth and ritual in the text,
terminus ante quem for the myth INANA BRINGS THE FIRST HOUSE OF HEAVEN

Bundan 14 yıl önce bir kısım sosyal mühendisler, Doğu Perinçek üzerinden M. İlmiye Çığ’ın kalemiyle topluma yönelerek; Din diye bir gerçeklik yokmuş; çünkü İslamiyet, Yahudiliğin kopyasıdır; Yahudilik de Sümer efsanelerinin kopyasıdır, şeklinde propagandaya başladılar.

Ben o zaman kırk gün içinde Tevratın mucizevî bir metin olduğunu, başka kaynakların kopyası olmadığını ispat eden bir kitap yazdım ve yayınladım. Kur’anın da mucizevî bir metin olduğunu, saf vahiy olarak elimizde bulunduğunu gerek bu tarihten önce ve gerek sonraki yıllar içinde altı cilt kitabımla göstermiş oldum. Fakat bu bakış açısını görmek için, elimizdeki bu numune makalede de gösterildiği gibi, Kutsal Kitaplardaki bu tür anlatımların asla tarihî bireysel bilgiler olmadığını, tam aksine evrensel, sosyolojik ve ontolojik bilgiler olduğunu bilmek gerekir.

Bu nazarla bu metinler incelendiğinde değil kopya olmak; her kelimesinde bile birçok yasalar ve olağanüstü bilgiler olduğu görülecektir. Aralarındaki bazı küçük detayların farklılığı ise, bu zamanlar üstü kıssaların baktığı dönemlerin ve toplumların az farklılıklar arz etmesinden kaynaklanıyor. Ayrıca M. İlmiye Çığ’ın Sümer metinlerini ne kadar sağlıklı olarak okuyup bize aktardığını test edemiyoruz.  Çünkü kitap ve programlarında birbiriyle çelişkili bilgiler verebi-liyor. 

Ayrıca mitoloji dilinden, sembol ilminden ve benzeri edebiyat dallarından da mahrumdur. Nitekim bütün dünya, bu mitolojik bilgilerin tarih olmadığını, bu metinlerin birçok sosyolojik ve psikolojik manalar olduğunu biliyor. Büyük bir ihtimalle Sami dillerindeki misal kelimesi Akatçadan Yunancaya geçerken mito olarak okunmuştur. Fakat bütün bu gerçeklere rağmen Muazzez Hanım, bir kelime ile dahi olsa bu metinlerin hiçbir yorumunu yapmış değildir. Sade-ce mahalle diliyle insanlığın bu 8 bin yıllık birikimini hurafe ve saçma diye lanse ediyor. Bu mitolojik metinler, Kutsal Kitaplar kadar zengin olmasa da (çünkü insanlar o zaman henüz tam anlama seviyesinde değillerdi; dolayısıyla bu metinler biraz ilkel bir dil taşıyorlar.) mana ve evrensellik açısından bu asrın materyalistlerini utandıracak kadar zengin mana katmanlarına sahiptirler. Mitoloji ve Gerçek isimli çalışmamıza özellikle Gılgamış Destanı üzerine yazdığımız yorumlara bakabilirsiniz.

The Sumerian mythological corpus is made up of many odd
narratives telling the story of the gods, setting up their divine
characters, describing different behaviors, attitudes, or emotions.
The interpretation of these emotional configurations
cannot be restricted to the anthropomorphism. The study of
Inanna’s emotions, especially, reveals the organization, the
impact, and the limits of her divine prerogatives and brings
to light some narrative mechanisms of her stories, and the
underlying ritual strategies. Thus, anger, sorrow, or any other
sensitive expression can tell us about the specific position
of a god within his pantheon and his ways of proceeding.
Consequently, in this literary frame, emotions operate as a
trading medium between humans and gods, playing the part
of a preferential medium putting together these two categories
ontologically different, but close in their behaviors.

O presente trabalho pretende discutir a construção da ideia de prostituição sagrada no Antigo Crescente Fértil a partir da análise de trabalhos historiográficos do século XIX, XX e início do século XXI. Analisaremos como as relações de gênero e o contexto histórico dos autores têm reflexos sobre a leitura e interpretação das fontes bem como sobre o desenvolvimento de sua obra, contribuindo assim para a construção da ideia que cada autor desenvolve.

Two lectures held at Sapienza - Università di Roma (October 14th 2016) and at VIU - Venice International University (October 21st 2016).


The scepter has always been in the social imaginary a symbol of power and royalty, a concrete and material expression of the power of a preeminent individual upon the masses. It always takes the form of a staff or a baton, more or less embellished or decorated, of precious or daily materials.
The scepter assumes a central role also in the Mesopotamian literature, being in most cases part of the royal insignia of sovereigns and gods. This lecture aims to investigate the role of the scepter and the realm of the word ĝidru in Early Mesopotamia from the age of the ED IIIb archives of Fara to the Sargonic reign of Šarkališarri. In order to reach this goal, 267 occurrences of the word ĝidru were collected, surveying literature, royal and dedicatory inscriptions, lexical texts, legal and administrative archival documents. The results include not only evidence of the lexeme per se, but also of the scepter as a part of divine names, temple names, and personal names.

This work is set within the wider framework of an argument defending the thesis that the image of the ark of gopher wood is to be understood  as a    mythological representation of the Jerusalem temple. The objective of the resent article therefore is to explore a single piece of literary evidence which shall, in an accumulative manner, assists in the substantiation of the whole. By a thorough examination of the translation of k'ni'm (Genesis 6:14b) it shall be shown that its somewhat anomalous rendering as ‘rooms’ or compartments’ betrays an ancient error in translation. Such an inaccuracy, is shall be argued, is most likely due to the gradual loss of the mythological presuppositions of the author. Consequently this work shall survey both the
traditions of translation and the mythological background of the biblical flood narrative in order to demonstrate that the primordial reed hut temple of Mesopotamian tradition is preserved in the Genesis account. The presence of which shall be shown to be evinced in the k'ni'm vocabulary.

In order to achieve this end there shall follow a comprehensive look at the numerous parallels between the Genesis redaction and the earlier Mesopotamian accounts in the Gilgamesh Epic and the myth of Atrahasis. Such, it is hoped, shall establish firmly the notion that the Genesis account follows the same method of ark construction as was already established in its
Mesopotamian antecedents. In conclusion this article shall provide contemporary readers with evidence sufficient to reconstruct an allusion to the reed hut Urheiligtum at the heart of the Genesis redaction of the flood myth.

Rich ethnobiological study of antiquity is usually constrained by the limitations of the archaeological remains of plants and animals. Sometimes, ongoing tradition, images and texts add a symbolic dimension. Such a study has been done of  the Warka Vase, an iconic artifact of Mesopotamia. The lowest of three registers appears to represent the basis of Mesopotamian life: water, plants, and animals. Identification of the water and animals is relatively straightforward. In the absence of serious botanical study, the plants depicted are usually thought to be grain and flax. Analysis of the plant imagery in concert with that of archaic signs, botanical charactistics, and our understanding of Mesopotamian agriculture and tradition shows that the 'grain' is date palm and confirms the other plant as flax. Analysis based on these plant identifications demonstrates the composition of the imagery on the Vase has a gendered and political narrative structure.

NOTE: Scholarly paper on this topic is now available online:
Miller, Naomi F., Philip H. Jones, and Holly Pittman. 2015. Sign and image: representations of plants on the Warka Vase of early Mesopotamia. University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons, Philadelphia. http://repository.upenn.edu/penn_museum_papers/2

This master’s dissertation is focused on the Sumerian deity Inanna and its Semitic counterpart Ištar. We have collected and analysed sets of myths, narrations, hymns, oracles and prayers from different geographies and chronologies in order to compose a portrait whose complexity by far supersedes gender issues and can be related with feelings that concern men and women of all times and places. Inanna/ Ištar had an outstanding position in a pantheon of highly specialised deities because she performed multiple functions. A trifunctional goddess, commanding Love and War, she was also the divine representation of planet Venus. At first sight this uniqueness is a bewildering feature preventing us from understanding her. Indeed her problematic nature was the most influential driver behind our decision to study her. By examining her different angles, we proposed a common explanation for her apparent ambivalence, interpreting love and war as metaphors with the same meaning, i.e. power. Thus we found that warrior and bride complemented – rather than contradicting, each other. Right by the king’s side, in the sacred bed or in the battle field, they always express the divine
blessing required for legitimizing royal deeds, as representative of the Gods on Earth and, consequently, the warrant of order. The long-lasting permanence through time of the system of beliefs originally created by hand of the Sumerians, enduring conquests and dynastic change, and its expansion in space across natural and man-made borders, demonstrate that the peoples of the Fertile Crescent shared it, notwithstanding a few semantic modifications. As regards the perspective of history of religions, this look over the past also helps to better understand the mind of Mesopotamian men and perceive the impact of cultural change on the sociopolitical fabrics of ancient times. We also touch upon a few aspects of continuity, expressed in the presence of Mesopotamian influence in Greek literature and religions, more specifically in Aphrodite and Demeter, respectively goddesses of love and fertility. Lastly we suggest the permanence of mental categories that bring the past to the present, connecting Antiquity with Modernity.
Keywords: Inanna, Ištar, mythology, history of religions, Mesopotamia.

Gilgamesh é representado como uma criação divina, dotado de força, coragem e grande beleza (assemelha-se muito a Hércules). Era portanto dois terços deus e um terço homem, sendo assim um semideus. Capítulo I-A chegada de Enkidu Ao mesmo tempo em que Gilgamesh era tido como um grandioso rei, também era visto como um tirano. Levava para longe dos pais desde cedo os filhos homens, e seu desejo desejo não deixava uma só virgem, seja a filha do camponês ou a esposa de um nobre. Essa postura de Gilgamesh não agradava muito ao povo, que clamava aos deuses por justiça. Os deuses do céu ouviram os incontáveis lamentos do povo, e dirigiram-se a Anu, deus de Uruk, em busca de ajuda. Logo após foram a Aruru, deus da criação, que ao ouvir as reclamações, criou um ser equivalente a Gilgamesh, dotado de extrema força, para desafia-lo e por fim aos dias de Gilgamesh. Enkidu é então criado e enviado a terra, homem de extrema " selvageria " , juntasse aos animais e passa a conviver com eles. Certa vez um jovem percebe que alguém desarma suas armadilhas de caça, e de repente o caçador vê Enkidu, e se assusta com sua estrutura física, e imagina que nem mesmo o rei de Uruk, Gilgamesh, seria capaz de vence-lo em um combate. Quando o jovem retorna a casa de seu pai, lhe explica o ocorrido, mas, seu pai lhe repreende falando que ninguém na face do mundo jamais consegui vencer Gilgamesh. O pai enviou seu filho para Uruk, para pedir a Gilgamesh que lhe cede-se uma prostitua para tentar fisgar Enkidu. Enkidu cai na armadilha e ao deitar-se com a mulher passa a ser rejeitado pelos animais. A mulher então explica a Enkidu que em Uruk vive um rei que possui enorme

The cross-disciplinary inquiry as to whether Artificial Intelligence is capable of an evolving self-awareness places the electronic arts in the hot seat. Heidegger left it to the arts to resolve the matter of a holistic ontology of Being. In 2020, this sentience reflects the leap in quantum physics characterizing a new decade of inner/outer space exploration. Antiquated interpretations of the Copenhagen Collapse as contingent on the consciousness of a physical observer brings us into the Age of Entanglement. New leaps towards holism in quantum physics, along with recent cross-disciplinary breakthroughs in the academy, are rapidly transforming this debate into a new pedagogy requiring an integral perspective for hermeneutics reflecting the inner/outer process identified by philosophy as the Möbius strip. This paper presents a decade of groundbreaking experimental electronic arts mattering/mothering the sentient/spectral as a contemporary praxis incorporating ancient technologies synchronizing human co-creation with the rotational movements and interrelationships of heavenly bodies. The ontological ART-I-FACT of an ancient praxis of the hieros gamos (sacred marriage) is rendered a new constant of the Intergender Third via the wedding of biological corps to electronic corpus, demonstrating The Science of Magic methodology operates in the Third Space between cosmos and psyche.