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Ninura ('' dNin-ur4(-ra)''; also romanized as Ninurra) was a
Mesopotamian goddess Deities in ancient Mesopotamia were almost exclusively Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic. They were thought to possess extraordinary powers and were often envisioned as being of tremendous physical size. The deities typically wore ''melam'', a ...
associated with the state of
Umma Umma () in modern Dhi Qar Province in Iraq, was an ancient city in Sumer. There is some scholarly debate about the Sumerian and Akkadian names for this site. Traditionally, Umma was identified with Tell Jokha. More recently it has been sugges ...
. The god Shara, worshiped in the same area, was regarded as her husband. She is only attested in sources from the third millennium BCE. Her cult started to decline in the
Ur III period The Third Dynasty of Ur or Ur III was a Sumerian dynasty based in the city of Ur in the 22nd and 21st centuries BC (middle chronology). For a short period they were the preeminent power in Mesopotamia and their realm is sometimes referred to by ...
, and she no longer appears in
Old Babylonian Old Babylonian may refer to: *the period of the First Babylonian dynasty (20th to 16th centuries BC) *the historical stage of the Akkadian language Akkadian ( ; )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Cambridge Enc ...
texts. Other goddesses replaced her in both of her major roles, with
Inanna of Zabalam Inanna of Zabalam (also Supālītum, Sugallītu, Nin-Zabalam) was a hypostasis of the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna associated with the city of Zabalam. It has been proposed that she was initially a separate deity, perhaps known under the name Nin ...
becoming the goddess of Umma, and Usaḫara or Kumulmul taking her place as Shara's spouse.


Character

The meaning of Ninura's name is unknown, though it is agreed that neither of the two attested writings, older ''dnin-ur4'' () and newer ''dnin-ur4-ra'' (), supports the view that it was a
genitive construction In grammar, a genitive construction or genitival construction is a type of grammatical construction used to express a relation between two nouns such as the possession of one by another (e.g. "John's jacket"), or some other type of connection (e ...
. Manfred Krebernik and Jan Lisman suggest that in the light of wool production being a major industry at
Umma Umma () in modern Dhi Qar Province in Iraq, was an ancient city in Sumer. There is some scholarly debate about the Sumerian and Akkadian names for this site. Traditionally, Umma was identified with Tell Jokha. More recently it has been sugges ...
, where Ninura was worshiped, the ''ur4'' sign refers to the plucking of sheep in this context. Ninura's best attested epithet is "mother of
Umma Umma () in modern Dhi Qar Province in Iraq, was an ancient city in Sumer. There is some scholarly debate about the Sumerian and Akkadian names for this site. Traditionally, Umma was identified with Tell Jokha. More recently it has been sugges ...
", ''ama-tu-da Ĝiššaki''. The toponym Ĝišša is presumed to be an alternate name of Umma. However, it was originally a separate settlement corresponding to modern Umm al-ʿAqārib, which came to be abandoned by the end of the Early Dynastic period. The inhabitants presumably moved to nearby Umma (HI×DIŠ or UB.MEki, modern Tell Jokha), which might explain why ĜEŠ.KUŠU2ki, originally read as Ĝišša, came to function as a designation of Umma. The god Shara was regarded as Ninura's husband, and they (or their
temples A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...
) are commonly mentioned side by side. In the ''
Zame Hymns ''Zame Hymns'' or ''Zami Hymns'' are a sequence of 70 Sumerian language, Sumerian hymns from the Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia), Early Dynastic period discovered in Abu Salabikh. Their conventional title is modern, and reflects the recurring ...
'', she precedes him. She is similarly placed before him in early offering lists, and it has been suggested that she might have been the original tutelary deity of Umma, only replaced by Shara in this role later on. Hartmut Waetzoldt notes that while this theory is plausible, in historical times Ninura had fewer temples in the area surrounding the city than Shara did. The existence of an emblem (''šu-nir'') of Ninura is mentioned in texts from Umma. According to Julia M. Asher-Greve, seals from this city depicting a goddess accompanied by a lion are likely to be representations of her, as the animal was seemingly the city's emblem and appears both alongside inscriptions of members of upper classes of local society and as a symbol of Shara. It is also possible that analogously to spouses of a number of other city gods, for example Nanna's wife
Ningal Ningal ( Sumerian: "Great Queen"; Akkadian Nikkal) was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as the wife of the moon god, Nanna/Sin. She was particularly closely associated with his main cult centers, Ur and Harran, but they were also worshiped toge ...
, she could be depicted in the company of birds presumed to be swans or geese, who might have functioned as a symbol of both love between the divine couples and of their protective qualities. Aside from the ''Zame Hymns'' only a single literary text describes Ninura. An early UD.GAL.NUN source from Abu Salabikh describes her "making the heaven treamble" and "beating down the earth" to guarantee the city of IRI×A (reading uncertain) will submit to EN.MES, presumed to be a human hero.


Worship

Ninura is only mentioned in sources from the third millennium BCE. The earliest attestations come from Early Dynastic
Abu Salabikh The archaeological site of Abu Salabikh (Tell Abū Ṣalābīkh), around northwest of the site of ancient Nippur and about 150 kilometers southeast of the modern city of Baghdad in Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate, Iraq marks the site of a small Sume ...
, and include the ''
Zame Hymns ''Zame Hymns'' or ''Zami Hymns'' are a sequence of 70 Sumerian language, Sumerian hymns from the Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia), Early Dynastic period discovered in Abu Salabikh. Their conventional title is modern, and reflects the recurring ...
'', a god list and a literary text. She was associated with Umma and territories surrounding it. One of its rulers,
Gishakidu Gishakidu ( ''giš-ša3-ki-du10'' ;) was king of the Sumerian city-state of Umma and husband of queen Bara-irnun. He was the son of Il, and his reign lasted at least 4 years. He is particularly known from a gold votive plate by his queen, in whi ...
, referred to himself as an "'' en'' priest attached to the side of Ninura". Her temple located in this city bore the ceremonial name Eula, possibly "house of sleep". The name appears in an inscription of Nammaḫani, a local ruler contemporary with the period of
Gutian rule in Mesopotamia The Gutian dynasty ( Sumerian: , gu-ti-umKI) was a line of kings, originating among the Gutian people. Originally thought to be a horde that swept in and brought down Akkadian and Sumerian rule in Mesopotamia, the Gutians are now known to have bee ...
, who rebuilt it. The position of "temple administrator" is only attested among the clergy of Ninura and Shara in texts from Umma. A ''gudu4'' priest in her service is also attested. Furthermore, she had an 'egi-zi' priestess, associated with the settlement Gišaba. In early sources,
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 invoking Ninura were common in the state of Umma due to her status as a local deity, similarly to how Nanshe and Bau commonly appear in names from the state of
Lagash Lagash (; cuneiform: LAGAŠKI; Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''Lagaš'') was an ancient city-state located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk, about east of the modern town of Al-Shatrah, Iraq. Lagash ( ...
. Examples include Ku-Ninura, Lu-Ninura, Lugal-Ninura, Ninura-amamu, Ninura-da and Ninura-kam. However, only a single seal with the formula "servant of Ninura" is known. Ninura's importance in the
Ur III period The Third Dynasty of Ur or Ur III was a Sumerian dynasty based in the city of Ur in the 22nd and 21st centuries BC (middle chronology). For a short period they were the preeminent power in Mesopotamia and their realm is sometimes referred to by ...
was comparatively minor, and only a few references to offerings made to her are known. The scope of her cult shrank, and she was only worshiped in Umma and its proximity, in settlements such as A.KA.SALki, Anneĝar, DU6-na and KI.AN.KI. However, administrative documents nonetheless indicate her temple was considered to be the second highest ranked house of worship in Umma itself. Preparation of bricks for the construction of temples of Ninura and Shara is mentioned on a tablet from the Yale Babylonian Collection presumed to originate in Umma, and might be related to
Shu-Sin Shu-Sin, also Šu-Suen (: '' DŠu D Sîn'', after the Moon God Sîn", the "𒀭" being a silent honorific for "Divine", formerly read Gimil-Sin) (died c. 2028 BC) was king of Sumer and Akkad, and was the fourth king of the Ur III dynasty. He su ...
's building projects in the area, though according to Douglas Frayne the known copy is likely only a school exercise. It is also possible that a goddess depicted on the seal of Ninḫilia, the wife of Aakala, the governor of Umma during the reign of the same king, can be identified as Ninura. No attestations of Ninura postdating the Ur III period are known. In the
Old Babylonian period The Old Babylonian Empire, or First Babylonian Empire, is dated to , and comes after the end of Sumerian power with the destruction of the Third Dynasty of Ur, and the subsequent Isin-Larsa period. The chronology of the first dynasty of Babyloni ...
Inanna of Zabalam Inanna of Zabalam (also Supālītum, Sugallītu, Nin-Zabalam) was a hypostasis of the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna associated with the city of Zabalam. It has been proposed that she was initially a separate deity, perhaps known under the name Nin ...
seemingly came to be seen as the tutelary goddess of Umma instead. In later sources, Ninura no longer appears as Shara's wife either, and he is instead accompanied by Usaḫara or Kumulmul, with both attested at once in the Old Babylonian forerunner to the later god list ''
An = Anum ''An = Anum'', also known as the Great God List, is the longest preserved Mesopotamian god list, a type of lexical list cataloging the deities worshiped in the Ancient Near East, chiefly in modern Iraq. While god lists are already known from the ...
''.


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * *{{cite book, last=Zand, first=Kamran Vincent, title=Susa and Elam II, chapter=Mesopotamia and the East: The Perspective from the Literary Texts from Fāra and Tell Abū Ṣalābīḫ, publisher=Brill, date=2023, isbn=978-90-04-54143-6, doi=10.1163/9789004541436_005 Mesopotamian goddesses Tutelary goddesses