Anna was the main deity of
Kanesh, an
Anatolia
Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...
n city which in the
Old Assyrian period served as an
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...
n trading colony. Multiple possibilities regarding her origin have been considered by researchers. A temple, festivals and clergy dedicated to her are attested in texts from her city, and in contracts she appears alongside the Assyrian god
Ashur. At some point her position declined, and an unidentified
weather god
A weather god or goddess, also frequently known as a storm god or goddess, is a deity in mythology associated with weather phenomena such as thunder, snow, lightning, rain, wind, storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Should they only be in charge of ...
became the main local deity instead. It is nonetheless assumed that she continued to be worshiped later on by
Hittites
The Hittites () were an Anatolian peoples, Anatolian Proto-Indo-Europeans, Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of the Bronze Age in West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in mo ...
and
Luwians
The Luwians (also known as Luvians) were an ancient people in Anatolia who spoke the Luwian language. During the Bronze Age, Luwians formed part of the population of the Hittite Empire and adjoining states such as Kizzuwatna. During the Hittite ...
. It has also been proposed that a deity from
Emar can be identified with her, though not all researchers share this view.
Anna in Kanesh
Name and character
Anna (also transcribed as Annā) was the principal deity of
Kanesh, a city which served as the main
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...
n
trading colony in
Anatolia
Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...
. Four different spellings of her name are attested 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 ...
texts from this site, dated to the
Old Assyrian period: ''A-na'', ''An-na'', ''A-na-a'' and ''
dA-na''.
Piotr Taracha tentatively suggests that Anna might have belonged to an "early central Anatolian
substrate", similarly as a number of other deities known from texts from Kanesh, such as Ḫariḫari, Ḫigiša,
Nipaš, Parka, Perwa (
Peruwa) and Tuḫtuḫani. He notes that the existence of speakers of a pre-
Indo-European
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...
non-
Hattic substrate language (or languages) in Anatolia is seemingly also supported by a section of the later ritual of Anna (here the name of a historical person, not the deity) of Kaplawiya, KUB 12.44 + KBo 27.108, which contains a passage in a hitherto unidentified language.
Volkert Haas instead considered the Kaneshite Anna to have her origin in
Syria
Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
. Guido Kryszat notes the name is similar to the
Hittite and
Palaic
Palaic is an extinct Indo-European language, attested in cuneiform tablets in Bronze Age Hattusa, the capital of the Hittites. Palaic, which was apparently spoken mainly in northern Anatolia, is generally considered to be one of four primary sub ...
word ''anna'', "mother", and
Luwian
Luwian (), sometimes known as Luvian or Luish, is an ancient language, or group of languages, within the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The ethnonym Luwian comes from ''Luwiya'' (also spelled ''Luwia'' or ''Luvia'') – ...
''annā'', "cleverness" or "experience".
It is presumed that the deity referred to as the "goddess of Kanesh" and "goddess of the city" (''ilat ālim'') in texts from the site is one and the same as Anna. Furthermore, ''bēlat māmītim'', the "lady of the oath", known from only one text, might correspond to her as well.
Gojko Barjamovic additionally considers it a possibility that the
sumerogram d UTU, which designated the sun deity worshiped in Kanesh, also referred to Anna, due to most Anatolian solar deities being female. An alternate proposal is that Anna was a male deity, identical with ''il Kaniš'', the "god of Kanesh", and the feminine titles designated his hitherto unidentified spouse.
Worship
A festival of Anna attested in Old Assyrian texts from Kanesh is one of the oldest known Anatolian religious ceremonies. It took place in the beginning of the year, and involved a visit of the local ruler in her temple. Reference to a ''qaššum'' of Anna found in one of the texts most likely refers to one of the architectural parts of this building, as the context makes the other meaning of this term, the name of a type of religious functionary, an implausible translation. Names of two priests of Anna (GUDU
4 ''ša A-na''), Azu and Aluwa, have been identified. It is agreed that all people designated by this
logogram
In a written language, a logogram (from Ancient Greek 'word', and 'that which is drawn or written'), also logograph or lexigraph, is a written character that represents a semantic component of a language, such as a word or morpheme. Chine ...
in this context were men.
In earliest contracts from Kanesh, Anna appears next to
Ashur, the tutelary god of the Assyrian city of
Assur. She was also worshiped by the Assyrian traders living in Kanesh. In one case, Anna is invoked alongside Ashur, the Assyrian king and ''rabi sikkatim'' (presumed to be a local civic authority) in an oath meant to cement the divorce of Pūšu-kēn and Lamassī, both of whom hailed from Assyria. Klaas R. Veenhof suggests that Anna (who he treats as a male deity) might have been introduced to the pantheon of Assur at some point, as
theophoric name
A theophoric name (from Greek: , ''theophoros'', literally "bearing or carrying a god") embeds the word equivalent of 'god' or a god's name in a person's name, reflecting something about the character of the person so named in relation to that d ...
s with this theonym occur in texts from this site.
Whether Anna can be identified with a deity with a sword-like object depicted on
seals from Kanesh cannot be presently determined with certainty.
Decline
While Anna's position as the main goddess of Kanesh is well attested in sources from level II of the site, level Ib indicates that a
weather god
A weather god or goddess, also frequently known as a storm god or goddess, is a deity in mythology associated with weather phenomena such as thunder, snow, lightning, rain, wind, storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Should they only be in charge of ...
, seemingly absent from the earlier texts, became the main local deity, taking Anna's place in contracts. His name was written with the Mesopotamian
logogram
In a written language, a logogram (from Ancient Greek 'word', and 'that which is drawn or written'), also logograph or lexigraph, is a written character that represents a semantic component of a language, such as a word or morpheme. Chine ...
dIM, but it is presumed that he was an Anatolian deity. In theophoric names of local inhabitants, both
Hittite Tarḫunna and
Hattian Taru are attested. Additionally, due to a proposed connection between the Kaneshite theonym Nipaš and the Hittite word for
heaven
Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...
, ''nipas'', it has been proposed that this deity might have been responsible for the weather and thus one and the same as the god in mention, though this view is not universally accepted and ultimately the precise identity of Anna's replacement remains uncertain.
The reason behind the change in the structure of the local pantheon is unknown, and it cannot be determined with certainty if it was a result of a political process. Piotr Taracha notes that it might be related to the spread of veneration of weather gods across
upper Mesopotamia
Upper Mesopotamia constitutes the Upland and lowland, uplands and great outwash plain of northwestern Iraq, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey, in the northern Middle East. Since the early Muslim conquests of the mid-7th century, the regio ...
and Syria in the nineteenth and eighteenth centuries BCE. He compares the new structure of the pantheon of Kanesh to that known from early sources from
Hattusa
Hattusa, also Hattuşa, Ḫattuša, Hattusas, or Hattusha, was the capital of the Hittites, Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age during two distinct periods. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey (originally Boğazköy) within the great ...
, where the local goddess
Inar according to him possibly initially had a similar role as Anna in her city, which later also came to be associated with a weather god. He also remarks that in Hittite times the position of city deities in Anatolia was consistently secondary compared to the heads of the pantheon, namely the
sun goddess and the weather god.
Possible later attestations
Hittite and Luwian texts
It is assumed in later periods Anna continued to appear in sources pertaining to
Hittite religion
Hittite mythology and Hittite religion were the religion, religious beliefs and practices of the Hittites, who created an empire centered in Anatolia from .
Most of the narratives embodying Hittite mythology are lost, and the elements that w ...
and
Luwian religion. However, she was no longer associated with Kanesh. She was regarded as one of the deities from the circle of the goddess
Ḫuwaššanna
Ḫuwaššanna was a goddess worshiped in Hittite religion and Luwian religion in the second millennium BCE. Her name could be written phonetically or using the logogram dingir, dGazbaba, GAZ.BA.BA and its variants. She was the main goddess of the ...
. She was a member of a group of primeval deities (''ḫantezziuš'' DINGIR
MEŠ) associated with her, which also included the
deified sea, the river Šarmamma and the deity Zarnizza. However, this attestation is not entirely certain, as it cannot be ruled out that a different deity with a
homophonous name is meant.
Emariote texts
A deity named Anna (''
dAn-na'' or ''An-na'', without a repeat of the AN/''dingir'' sign) attested in texts from
Emar according to
Volkert Haas can be considered identical with Anna known from Kanesh. This hypothesis is not universally accepted and other identifications have been proposed as well.
Daniel E. Fleming considers the Emariote Anna to be male and possibly related to
Mesopotamian
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 o ...
sky god
Anu. According to
Gary Beckman's more recent survey of the local pantheon the origin of this deity remains uncertain.
A temple of Anna existed in Emar. This deity's name is also attested in the name of a month in the local calendar and in
theophoric name
A theophoric name (from Greek: , ''theophoros'', literally "bearing or carrying a god") embeds the word equivalent of 'god' or a god's name in a person's name, reflecting something about the character of the person so named in relation to that d ...
s. It is presumed that the month corresponded to a part of either autumn or winter. However, not much is known about the celebrations which took place during it. There is also no indication that any of them were specifically focused on Anna. An association between the riverbank, presumably of the
Euphrates
The Euphrates ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originati ...
, and Anna is also attested.
References
Bibliography
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*{{cite book, last1=Veenhof, first1=Klaus R., last2=Eidem, first2=Jesper, title=Mesopotamia: the Old Assyrian period, url=https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/151184/, publisher=Academic Press, publication-place=Fribourg, date=2008, isbn=978-3-525-53452-6, oclc=244654503
Hittite deities
Luwian goddesses