| Adamma | |
|---|---|
| Major cult center | Ebla, Hadani,Tunip |
| Genealogy | |
| Spouse | Resheph |
Adamma was a goddess worshiped inEbla in the third millennium BCE, later also documented inHurrian sources and inEmar. The origin and meaning of her name remain a matter of debate among researchers. It is commonly assumed that it originated in one of theSemitic languages and that it can be compared toHebrewʾădāmâ, "soil" or "earth". An alternate view is that it belongs to a linguisticsubstrate at some point spoken in part of modernSyria.Hurrian origin has been proposed as well, but is considered implausible. In Ebla, Adamma received sacrificial sheep on behalf of the royal palace. She also had clergy of her own, as evidenced by references to adam-dingir priestess in her service. Eblaite texts indicate she was also venerated in Hadani andTunip. She was locally regarded as the spouse ofResheph, though the connection between them is not attested in later sources. After the fall of Ebla, she was incorporated intoHurrian religion, and in this context appears inHittite andUgaritic sources as well, often forming a pair withKubaba. Furthermore, she was worshiped inEmar, where under the nameAdammatera she might have been perceived as a deity associated with storage areas and the underworld. It is also possible that the goddessAdmu known fromMari and from the Mesopotamian god listAn = Anum was the same deity.
Adamma's name was written incuneiform asda-dam-ma inEblaite[1] andHurro-Hittite sources,[2] or asda-dama, as attested inEmar.[3] In theUgaritic alphabetic script, it was rendered asadm.[4] Itsetymology is a matter of debate.[5]Karel van der Toorn andPieter Willem van der Horst compare it with theHebrew wordʾădāmâ, "soil" or "earth", and suggest it originated in aSemitic language.[6] They state this view was the majority position at the time of publication of the relevant entry in theDictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (1999).[7] Alfonso Archi has instead tentatively suggested a derivation from theroot,*ʾdm ("blood, red"),[8] though he argues that ultimately Adamma's name cannot be clearly attributed to any known language, including any of the Semitic languages in particular.[9] He suggests origin in asubstrate as an alternative.[10]Harry A. Hoffner[11] andPiotr Taracha [de] also consider her to have her origin in a substrate, similarly as a number of other deities worshiped in ancientSyria who came to be incorporated intoHurrian religion, for exampleIšḫara andAštabi.[12] SometimesHurrian origin is ascribed to Adamma as well.[13][14] This view is accepted for example byGary Beckman.[15] However,Daniel E. Fleming argues it is incorrect,[13] and that while Adamma was worshiped by Hurrians, this should be considered to be the result of adoption of this goddess from the beliefs of another group.[16] He points out that attributing a Hurrian origin to her would require assuming Hurrians lived inEbla in the middle of the third millennium BCE,[13] but they only migrated into the region in times postdating the duration of the Eblaite archives.[14] Fleming describes Adamma's origin broadly as "north Syrian".[13]
It is assumed Adamma was a female deity.[5][17] As pointed out byManfred Hutter, her gender is directly specified as such in the ritual of Ammiḫatna fromKizzuwatna.[18] Fleming initially suggested was Adamma male instead,[16] but later based on Eblaite evidence accepted the view that the name designated a goddess.[19]Volkert Haas considered it possible that the gender of Adamma was variable,[20] but this position is now regarded as unfounded.[21] It relied on the assumption that the name was derived from a combination of thelallnamesada ("father") andamma ("mother"),[20] which found no widespread support among researchers.[7]
The oldest attestations of Adamma have been identified in texts fromEbla dated to around 2400 BCE.[6] She appears in documents listing sacrificial sheep provided by the palace, presumed to reflect the royally recognized officialpantheon, though references to her are less frequent than these to the best attested deities, such as varioushypostases ofHadabal,Hadda ofAleppo,Resheph andKura.[10] It has also been pointed out that much likeBarama,Išḫara andIshtar, but in contrast with some of the male deities, she did not have own annual renewal rites.[22] Furthermore, she does not occur in anytheophoric names, which according to Alfonso Archi might be a part of a broader pattern involving Eblaite deities originating in a substrate, which he sees as an indication that name giving customs in the city reflected an archaic tradition predating their incorporation intoEblaite religion.[23] A month in the Eblaite calendar interpreted as either first or ninth,[24]da-dam-ma(-um), was named after Adamma.[9] A festival dedicated to her, which had a mercantile dimension as it involved the preparation of a market (KI.LAM7) during which textiles and silver were traded, took place during it.[25]
Adamma was one of the deities served by their owndam dingir, "woman of the deity"; this term designated a class of priestesses who came either from the royal family, or from the families of allied monarchs or Eblaiteviziers.[26] The attesteddam-dingir of Adamma, Dadub-damu, was a daughter of the king of Ḫuzan, and resided in Hadani.[27] Archi stresses that the fact that a woman could be thedam dingir of a female deity makes it implausible that the consecration of such a priestess was seen as asacred marriage rite, as sometimes suggested.[26]Joan Goodnick Westenholz noted comparisons have been made between the holders of this office andMesopotamianereš-dingir andnadītu.[28]
In Eblaite sources, Adamma appears as the spouse ofResheph.[9] Eleven cases in which they received offerings together have been identified.[29] They were also worshiped together in nearby Hadani[30] and Tunip.[31] However, the association between them was limited to sources from the kingdom of Ebla from the third millennium BCE, and it does not reoccur in text corpora from other locations and time periods.[32]
The termgunu(m), associated almost exclusively with Resheph, could be linked to Adamma as well.[33] However, the single known reference to "Adamma of Gunum" is isolated.[34] The meaning of this term is uncertain, and Alfonso Archi notes that while afunerary character has been ascribed to it based on a supposed parallel withUgariticgn ("garden", possibly implicitly a royal graveyard) this seems implausible in the light of Resheph's character in Eblaite religion.[33] Maciej M. Münnich interprets this term as a toponym, and similarly rules out a connection to funerals, additionally highlighting that the supposed custom of burying rulers in a garden on which this theory rests is not documented in either Ebla or Ugarit.[35] He suggests it might have been the name of an enclosure for animals located in the palatial district of Ebla, based on similarity toAkkadiangunnu, "enclosure", attested in sources fromAssyria andAlalakh.[36]
While some of the Eblaite deities ceased to be worshiped after the destruction of the city, for exampleKura,Barama andHadabal,[37] others, like Adamma, as well asAštabi andSaggar, despite acquiring no major role in religion of theAmorites, who became the dominant power inSyria after the fall of Ebla, came to be incorporated into the religion of theHurrians, who spread through the region in the early second millennium BCE.[8] In Hurrian sources, Adamma is attested in offering lists (kaluti [de]) dedicated to the circle of deities associated withḪepat, in which she appears afterShalashbitinḫi and beforeKubaba.[12] In the version of theHurrian pantheon typical forKizzuwatna she formed a dyad with the last of these goddesses.[9] Worship of pairs of deities in dyads treated almost as if they were a unity was a common feature of Hurrian religion and other examples includeAllani andIšḫara,Ninatta and Kulitta,Hutena and Hutellura[38] andPinikir andGoddess of the Night.[39] Adamma and Kubaba are also paired inUgaritic andHittite sources.[40] Dennis Pardee summarizes that the association between these two goddesses can be considered common.[41] A third goddess, Ḫašuntarḫi, could be linked to them both.[40]
As one of the deities belonging to the pantheon of Kizzuwatna Adamma was venerated during theḫišuwa [de] festival.[2] It was supposed to ensure the prosperity of the ruler.[42] Adamma received offerings during it alongside Kubaba in temples dedicated to different hypostases ofNupatik.[43] The ceremonies are documented on tablets prepared forHittite queenPuduḫepa based on Kizzuwatnean originals.[42] She also occurs in a Hittite ritual dedicated toŠauška, KUB XXVII 1+, originally prepared forMuršili II, but later reworked during the reign ofḪattušili III, and in a similar list of deities in KBo V 2, in both cases after Shalash and before Kubaba and Ḫašuntarḫi.[44] Adamma is also attested as one of the members of the local Hurrian pantheon in texts fromUgarit.[4] In the text RS 24.261, a set of instructions for a ritual focused on Šauška and the local goddessAshtart combining Ugaritic and Hurrian,[45] she is listed as one of the deities receiving offerings, after the pair Ninatta and Kulitta and before Kubaba.[46]
Adamma is attested in texts fromEmar.[15] Similarly as in Ebla earlier on, a month in the local calendar was named after her,[9]da-dama.[47] It most likely fell in autumn or winter.[48] Not much is known about the celebrations which took place during it.[47] The personal namea-dam-ma is classified as a reference to the goddess as well byDaniel E. Fleming.[16]
Texts from Emar mention a deity named Adammatera,da-dam-ma-te-ra or rarelyda-dadama-te-ri,[47] with the last sign in the latter case being agenitive ending,[49] It has been argued that thistheonym can be considered a longer form of Adamma's name.[16]Joan Goodnick Westenholz[50] andGary Beckman attributeHurrian origin to Adammatera.[15] It has been proposed that thesuffix might be connected to the Hurrian wordteri-, "front".[47] Comparisons have been alternatively made between the structure of this name and tjeonyms such asAdunterra, Muntara and Mutmuntara.[51]Volkert Haas argued that the same suffix is present in all of them and that it originated in asubstrate language at some point spoken inSyria.[52] Since some of the celebrations focused on Adammatera took place in the month ofAnna, directly before the month of Adamma,Daniel E. Fleming has suggested that the name "may have developed its own cult and drifted free of its original place in the calendar", with its original connection to the latter eventually forgotten.[47] While he states Adammatera was a male deity,[16] according to Westenholz this should be considered a mistake.[50] John Tracy Thames also refers to Adammatera as a goddess in a recent treatment of Emariote religion.[53]
Adammatera was a minor deity in the religion of Emar[54] and is only attested in texts describing a festival focused on the NIN.DINGIR priestess, in an account of an annual cycle of offerings and in a damaged offering list.[16] All of these rituals have local origin.[55] Adamaterra apparently resided in thebīt tukli,[56] seemingly a storehouse which acted as the source of allotments of various supplies for religious personnel.[57] As noted by Thames, no other Emariote deity displays any links to this structure.[58] Fleming has tentatively suggested that she might have been the deity of storage areas.[16] However, he also noted an apparent connection to theunderworld.[59] A further location in Emar where Adamaterra was worshiped was the temple of the city god (designated by thesumerogramdNIN.URTA), as the inscription of a certain Ba‘lu-malik, likely adiviner, dedicated to him also mentions offering of red clothes for Adammatera, We’da and Šaššabêttu.[60] In the damaged offering list, Adammatera is paired withdNÈ.IRI11.GAL EN KI.LAM, the "lord of commerce" (bēl maḫīri).[16] An association between Adammatera and Šaḫru, possibly a deity analogous to UgariticShahar, is attested in a ritual meant to commemorate the death of a NIN.DINGIR.[59]
It has been proposed that Adamma was identical with the goddess Admu.[1] The latter is first attested in an offering list fromMari dated to theUr III period[61] or theŠakkanakku period.[62] Under the spellingdNIN.ad-mu, in which the signNIN serves as an additionaldeterminative clarifying her gender, she appears in it betweenNergal andShamash.[63] She is otherwise only attested in Mariote texts inOld Babyloniantheophoric names of women.[64] While not as popular asAnnu,Ishtar andIšḫara, she is nonetheless attested comparably often asKakka and Mamma (presumably corresponding to the divinemidwifeMami), with fifteen types of names attested, among them Admu-ummī ("Admu is my mother"), Admu-halṣa ("Admu is a fortress") or Admu-išha ("Admu is my help").[65] Attestations of Admu from outside Mari are very rare.[62] She appears in the god listAn = Anum where she is described as the wife of Nergal (tablet VI, line 13), though this role is also attributed toLaṣ andMammitum in the same source, with the former appearing in association with said god most commonly elsewhere.[61]
Ichiro Nakata stresses that little can be said about Admu's character aside from her gender, which is confirmed by the combination of her name with feminine elements in theophoric names, though he considers a connection with theunderworld possible based on her connection to Nergal.[62] Frans Wiggermann considers her to be anearth goddess and translates her name as "earth".[61] Antoine Cavigneaux andManfred Krebernik [de] link her to both of these spheres of activity.[63]
It has been proposed that the goddess Itum (itwm), known from theLeiden Magical Papyrus from theRamesside Period which identifies her as the wife ofResheph and invokes her to help with curing a disease, was analogous to Adamma.[66] This would constitute the only reference to a connection between these two deities from outside Ebla, though the view that Itum is identical with Adamma remains controversial.[67]
Attempts to connect Adamma with the name ofAdam, the first man in biblical tradition, are regarded as unfounded. and while the termʾădāmâ might be a etymologically related, it is generally demythologized in theHebrew Bible, with a possible exception being the nameObed-Edom, which has been interpreted as theophoric, with a variant of the theonym Adamma rather than the toponymEdom as the second element.[7]
It has been argued that Adamma's name occurs on a marble tablet dated to 83 or 82 BCE, found on theRoman Agora inAthens but originating in themetroon ofCybele-Agdistis inRhamnous.[20] However, Ian Rutherford states that it is most likely a title of a cultic official, possibly also mentioned byHesychius of Alexandria, rather than a reference to this deity.[68] Maria G. Lancellotti stresses that theories linking Adamma toPhrygian religious practice and deities derived from it, such as Agdistis, should be considered implausible hypotheses and rely on outdated interpretations of sources fromAnatolia.[21]