Kulla, 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 ...
as
dSIG4, where
SIG4 was the
Sumerogram
A Sumerogram is the use of a Sumerian cuneiform character or group of characters as an ideogram or logogram rather than a syllabogram in the graphic representation of a language other than Sumerian, such as Akkadian, Eblaite, or Hittite. Th ...
for the
Akkadian word ''libittu'', meaning “brick,” was the
Sumer
Sumer () is the earliest known civilization, located in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (now south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. ...
o-
Babylonia
Babylonia (; , ) was an Ancient history, ancient Akkadian language, Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as a ...
n brick-god who was invoked alongside
Mušdam, the divine architect at the outset when laying a foundation for a building, but consequently banished when construction work was completed in elaborate incantation rituals which formed a part of the exorcist's curriculum. He was formed from a piece of clay that
Ea had pinched off in the
primeval ocean, in a tale recited as part of the ritual for restoring a temple, “when
Anu created heaven.”
The rituals
The earliest attestations to the god whose specialty was to govern the fashioning of bricks and supervise the building process from start to finish was in the
Sumerian myth 'Enki and the World Order' from the
First Dynasty of Isin
The Dynasty of Isin refers to the final ruling dynasty listed on the ''Sumerian King List'' (''SKL''). The list of the Kings of Isin with the length of their reigns, also appears on a cuneiform document listing the kings of Ur and Isin, the ''Lis ...
which recalls that Enki put Kulla in charge of the pickaxe and brick-mold.
He was invoked when the laying of the foundation of buildings, and shooed-away upon their completion, lest his presence cause further construction to be required and other building work elsewhere to be neglected. In a ritual for the repair of a temple, the invocation is described:
In
Esarhaddon
Esarhaddon, also spelled Essarhaddon, Assarhaddon and Ashurhaddon (, also , meaning " Ashur has given me a brother"; Biblical Hebrew: ''ʾĒsar-Ḥaddōn'') was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 681 to 669 BC. The third king of the S ...
’s account of the laying of the foundations of
Esagil, he recalls:
A second ritual was often performed at the end of the work to drive away the god, with him unceremoniously “loaded” onto a boat and banished to the netherworld with incantations. The construction crew, too, were forbidden to approach the building for three days. Alternatively the divinities were thanked for their assistance and bidden to return from whence they came.
References
External links
* Laying the foundations of a house text a
eTACT* Exorcising Kulla (the brick god) from a newly built house text a
eTACT
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kulla (god)
Mesopotamian gods