The ancient

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

n deity Bunene, inscribed in

cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

sumerograms as ^dḪAR and phonetically as ^d''bu-ne-ne'', was a subordinate to and '' sukkal'' ("vizier") or charioteer of the sun-god Šamaš, whom he drove from the eastern horizon at dawn to the doorway of the interior of heaven in the west at dusk in a daily ritual. Like his overlord Šamaš, Bunene had a sanctuary, the é.kur.ra, or "House of the Mountain", at

Sippar Sippar (Sumerian language, Sumerian: , Zimbir) (also Sippir or Sippara) was an ancient Near Eastern Sumerian and later Babylonian city on the east bank of the Euphrates river. Its ''Tell (archaeology), tell'' is located at the site of modern Tell ...

, modern Abu Habbah which was rebuilt by

Nabonidus Nabonidus (Babylonian cuneiform: ''Nabû-naʾid'', meaning "May Nabu be exalted" or "Nabu is praised") was the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from 556 BC to the fall of Babylon to the Achaemenian Empire under Cyrus the Great in 53 ...

, the last king of the

Neo-Babylonian Empire The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to ancient Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the King of Babylon in 626 BC a ...

and he also featured in the pantheons at

Uruk Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilo ...

and

Larsa Larsa (, read ''Larsamki''), also referred to as Larancha/Laranchon (Gk. Λαραγχων) by Berossus, Berossos and connected with the biblical Arioch, Ellasar, was an important city-state of ancient Sumer, the center of the Cult (religious pra ...

, where his patron was also venerated.

History

Bunene seems to have originated as a minor solar deity before he was absorbed as an attendant into the Šamaš cult. He first emerges in this role during the Old Babylonian period in an Akkadian prayer of a divination priest to Šamaš and in an inscription of

Yahdun-Lim Yahdun-Lim (or ''Yakhdunlim, Yahdunlim''; from Akkadian language, Akkadian ''ia-aḫ-du-un-li-im'', in Amorite language, Amorite ''Yaʿdun-lîm'') was the king of Mari, Syria, Mari probably in 1820—1796 BC. He was of Amorite origin, and became k ...

of Mari. The Kassite-era Land grant to Munnabittu kudurru has him following the goddess Aya in its listing of divine protectors and from the late Bronze age onward he appears as an intercessor in rituals and oracles directed at Šamaš. His cultic statue features in the donations of garments and food given to Šamaš in the Sun God Tablet of Nabu-apla-iddina, ca. 870 BC, where he seems to have formed a holy trinity with this god and his consort Aya. His prominence in the later Neo-Babylonian period in the environs of Sippar, meant he was typically listed fifth on inventories of offerings to the shrines in Sippar, such as that of Nabopolassar and

Nebuchadnezzar II Nebuchadnezzar II, also Nebuchadrezzar II, meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir", was the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from the death of his father Nabopolassar in 605 BC to his own death in 562 BC. Often titled Nebuchadnezzar ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bunene Mesopotamian gods Solar gods Sippar Uruk Larsa