Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia

194 Pages·2010·9.57 MB·English

AN ILLUSTRATED DICTIONARY
Gods, Demons and Symbols
of Ancient Mesopotamia
JEREMY BLACK AND ANTHONY GREEN
Illustrations by Tessa Rickards
Gods, Demons and
Symbols of
Ancient Mesopotamia
An Illustrated Dictionary
Jeremy Black and Anthony Green
Illustrations by Tessa Rickards
THE BRITISH MUSEUM PRESS
Jeremy Black
The late Dr Black, formerly Director of the British
School of Archaeology in Iraq, was a Fellow of Wolfson
College, Oxford, and University Lecturer in Akkadian.
He was the author of several studies on Sumerian and
Babylonian literature and ancient philology, and headed
the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
project (http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk)
Anthony Green
Dr Green has formerly held the positions of Fellow of the
British School of Archaeology in Iraq, J. Paul Getty
Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the History of Art at the
University of Pennsylvania, G.A. Wainwright Research
Fellow in Near Eastern Archaeology at Oxford University,
and Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Free
University of Berlin. He is currently Shinji Shumeikai
Senior Academic Research Fellow in Near Eastern Art and
Archaeology at the Free University of Berlin. He has
conducted extensive archaeological fieldwork in Syria and
Iraq and writes on ancient Mesopotamian art and
archaeology.
Tessa Rickards
Tessa Rickards is a freelance archaeological illustrator
specialising in ancient Mesopotamia. She has worked as an illus-
trator on numerous international excavations in the Middle
East. She is an MA graduate of the Institute of Archaeology,
University College London.
Front cover: Green jasper seal depicting a conflict between two
heroes, a bull-man, a bull and a lion. Dated 225o BC, origin
unknown.
Frontispiece: A nude winged goddess on a large-scale baked clay
plaque in high relief The deity portrayed may be an underworld
aspect of Istar (Inana). Old Babylonian or Isin-Larsa Period.
Ht. 0.49 m.
© 1992 The Trustees of The British Museum
Published by The British Museum Press
A division of The British Museum Company Ltd
46 Bloomsbury Street, London wCIB 3QQ
First published 1992
Second edition 1998
Reprinted 2003, 2004
British Library Cataloguing in Pubiication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library.
ISBN 0 7141 1705 6
Designed by James Shurmer
Cover design by Andrew Shoolbred
Typeset in Ehrhardt and printed in Great Britain by
The Bath Press, Bath

Authors' note
The names and concepts of Mesopotamian religion are recorded in two
languages, Sumerian and Akkadian. Where possible, words have been listed
in this dictionary in their Sumerian form, with only a cross-reference under
the Akkadian name. Thus the goddess Ištar (Akkadian), for instance, is dealt
with under her Sumerian name Inana. However, within the entries, the
Sumerian or Akkadian name is used as appropriate, depending on the
sources or periods referred to. A number of Mesopotamian names are
commonly used in modern books (including this one) in Greek or Latin
forms (especially place-names, e.g. (Greek) Babylon for Akkadian Bâbili), or
in a form in which they occur in the Authorised Version of the Old Testa-
ment (especially the names of Assyrian kings, e.g. Sennacherib for Akkadian
Sin-ahhé-eriba). Similarly, archaeological sites are sometimes known by
their modern Arabic names, e.g. Abù Shahrain for Sumerian Eridu.
Of course we have no exact information on the pronunciation of the
Akkadian or Sumerian languages, but scholars have reconstructed an
approximate system based on comparison with other Semitic languages and
on ancient transcriptions into Greek. A simplified guide to this is as follows:
All letters are pronounced.
The four vowels a e i u are always pronounced as in Italian (i.e. as 'ah', `ay',
`ee', 'oo').
The signs - or ^ over vowels mark them as long.
The letter g is always hard, as in `god', not soft, as in 'gem'.
The symbols indicates the sound sh, as in 'shop'.
The symbol g in Sumerian words indicates the sound ng, as in 'sing'.
The letters s, t and q indicate 'emphatic' forms of the consonants s, t and k
(and can be pronounced as s, t and k).
The letter h always indicates the guttural sound ch, as in `loch'. This means
that -sh- indicates two sounds — sh followed by guttural ch — not just sh.
Words beginning with s are listed separately after those beginning with s.
Because our understanding both of the cuneiform writing system and of
the languages written in it has improved enormously since the early days of
Assyriology (as this study has come to be known), ancient names sometimes
5
Authors' note
appear written differently in early publications. For instance, we now know
that in the name of the god Ninurta, the sign is should be read as URTA, but in
older books `Ninib' will be found. This corresponds to the same group of
signs in Sumerian, but is now out of date as a transcription. The books in the
reading list on pages 191-2 all use the transcriptions currently favoured by
the majority of scholars.
Illustrations have been chosen to accompany many of the entries in this
book. Drawings are particularly useful to show iconographic details or
scenes, or the occasional relatively simple object. Most have been drawn by
Tessa Rickards especially for this work. In other cases photographs have
been preferred in order to give a clearer picture of the objects themselves.
Although each of these illustrations has been selected with a particular theme
in mind, they often contain elements which illustrate aspects covered in other
entries. Therefore, each illustration has been numbered in sequence and the
numbers of any that are relevant are printed in the margins of the text. Visual
representations of some of the supernatural beings and the major symbols of
the gods in art are given in illustrations 53 and 76.
6
Introduction
Ancient Mesopotamia was the home of some of the world's earliest cities, and
the place where writing was invented. For these two major developments
alone — urban society and literate society — it might justly be titled the 'cradle
of civilisation', but in its literature, its religious philosophies and no less in
its art it can also be placed firmly as the direct ancestor of the Western world.
Our knowledge of the civilisation of ancient Mesopotamia is constantly
expanding. A hundred and fifty years after the first modern excavations,
archaeological work in the Near East continues unabated and new dis-
coveries are constantly being made which add to, reshape and refine our
assessments of some of the most staggering human achievements of anti-
quity. At the sites of ancient settlements and in the museums of Iraq and of
other countries one can contemplate and wonder at the monuments, arts,
handicrafts and utensils of daily life of the Mesopotamians. Thanks to the
Mesopotamians' own greatest invention — writing — and modern decipher-
1 Worshippers stare
wide-eyed at the heavens.
Limestone statues found with
numerous others buried in a
shrine of an Early Dynastic
temple at EEsšnunnamodern
Tell Asmar). The eyeballs are
of inlaid shell. Ht. of each
statue 0.34m.
7
Introduction

(cid:9) 5
2 (below) A typical ancient mound (or tell) site of southern Mesopotamia.

A view of Eridu.

3 (right) Cuneiform (wedge-shaped) writing. The names and titles of iraMinerMa

Hammurabi, king of Babylon in the early second millennium BC, from the
II_
stone monument inscribed with his Laws.
.0

i4

Brk-
A uTitMl
^

ment of the languages in which they expressed themselves, we can read their

literature, reconstruct their history and learn something of their thoughts.

This is not to say that vast amounts of research do not still remain to be

done. If some areas of history can be reconstructed down to the smallest

detail, there are periods where enormous gaps in our knowledge remain. If

numerous copies survive of one poem, there are many others of which only

fragments have been recovered. If we can trace the use and meaning of some

religious motifs throughout thousands of years, there remain some whose

significance still eludes us completely. There is a constant need for skilled

archaeologists and scholarly researchers to sift through the great wealth of

evidence coming to light. But for the general reader, several reliable

accounts of Mesopotamian civilisation, together with the story of how it has

been revealed to us, are now available (see pages 191-2). There are lavishly

illustrated books showing the full range of ancient art, from temple architec-
ture and palace reliefs to cylinder seals and filigree jewellery. And gradually,

accurate and readable modern translations of the extensive Sumerian and

Babylonian literatures are appearing, together with explanatory studies.

This book does not attempt to emulate the breadth or detail of such works,

but rather to serve as an introductory guidebook for those who are tempted to

read for the first time about ancient Mesopotamia, and especially to those

8
Introduction
whose interest is drawn to the belief systems of ancient peoples as revealed in
their art and in their writings. It is not intended to be a complete survey of
religion and beliefs, and necessarily reflects the particular interests of the
authors. There are a number of extended essays, which are complemented by
shorter entries covering the most interesting individual deities, mo tifs and
symbols, and a selection of other topics. Inevitably much has been omitted.
The uses to which cuneiform writing was put in Mesopotamia have
ensured that, in addition to administrative, commercial and historical docu-
ments, extensive attention was paid to the recording of religious matters. In
pre-modern societies, religion had a much more pervasive influence on every
aspect of life: government and politics, social relations, education and litera-
ture were all dominated by it. Thus in this context we subsume under the
term religion a wide sweep of ideas and beliefs ranging from magic at one
extreme to philosophy at the other. A very considerable por tion of ancient art,
too, was produced within this broad religious sphere, or using mo tifs and
images derived from religious traditions. The gods, goddesses and demons,
the motifs, symbols and religious beliefs of the several thousand years of
Mesopotamian civilisation are bewilderingly complex to the modern reader
who stands on the threshold of that world. The authors hope that this dic-
tionary can be used as a first reference book to accompany them on their
journey within.
Peoples and places
The cultures of Mesopotamia grew up through the interplay, clash and
fusion of different peoples, with their separate social systems, religious be-
liefs and pantheons, languages and political structures. Uniquely, Meso-
potamia was a crossroads and melting-pot for vastly different groups of
peoples over thousands of years from the prehistoric periods to the Persian
conquest. Moreover, although the potential productivity and prosperity of
the region was the impetus for extensive and prolonged immigration, the area
has no real geographical unity, nor any obvious or permanent capital, so that
it is in marked contrast to civilisations of greater uniformity, such as Egypt.
There are, however, a few unifying factors, such as the cuneiform script for
writing, the pantheon of gods which through syncretism and assimilation
was an evolving tradition, and the highly conservative works of art, especially
religious art. In these fields, at least, it is therefore possible to speak of
something uniquely 'Mesopotamian'.
The map on page to shows the ancient Near East. Mesopotamia — 'the land
between two rivers' — was a name given first by the Greeks to the exceptionally
fertile river valley of the twin streams Tigris and Euphrates, which both rise
in the mountains of Turkey. The Tigris flows faster and deeper, has more
9