| Ninkurra | |
|---|---|
Name of multiple Mesopotamian deities | |
| Genealogy | |
| Children | Ninimma orUttu (in the mythEnki and Ninhursag) |
Ninkurra orNinkur was a name of multipleMesopotamian deities, including a divineartisan, presumably a femalesculptor. There is no agreement among researchers if this Ninkurra corresponds to the identically named goddess appearing in the mythEnki andNinhursag. A different deity named Ninkur appears in enumerations of ancestors ofEnlil in god lists. This theonym was also employed as alogogram to represent the name of a goddess worshipped inMari and inEmar on theEuphrates, possibly to be identified as the wife ofDagan,Shalash.
The theonym Ninkurra (dnin-kur-ra) or Ninkur (dnin-kur)[1] is sparsely attested in sources from southernMesopotamia.[2] It is assumed that more than one deity bearing this name existed.[1] According to Dina Katz all of them were female,[3] though in a more recent publication Josephine Fechner and Michel Tanret point out a reference to a male Ninkurra in the god listAn = Anum.[4] The character of the deities designated by this name shows a high degree of fluidity, which is likely to reflect the geographic scope of the individual attestations.[5]
Ninkurra (alternatively: Ninkur) appearsWeidner god list,An = Anum and ritual texts as acraftsman deity, associated with other similar figures, such asKulla,Ninmug orNinagala.[1] Sometimes the collective termilī mārē ummâni (Akkadian: "gods of the craftsmen") was used to describe a group of such deities.[6] Anincantation states that various artisan deities, including Ninkurra, were created byEa fromclay.[7] Ninkurra was regarded as asculptor,[8] but the material she was believed to work with varies between sources: aMîs-pî incantation connects her withprecious and semi-precious stones, while an inscription ofSennacherib instead mentionslimestone.[9]
In the mythEnki andNinhursag a goddess named Ninkurra is a daughter of the eponymous god born from an incestuous encounter between him andNinnisig.[10] Subsequently, she also becomes his victim,[11] and depending on the version, she is either the mother ofNinimma and thus grandmother ofUttu, or the mother of the latter goddess, with Ninimma skipped.[10] According to Dina Katz it remains uncertain why any of the goddesses who appear in this section of the myth were selected by its compilers for their respective roles.[3] Lluís Feliu interprets this version of Ninkurra as a goddess of the mountains based on the literal meaning of her name, and argues she was the same as the craftsman deity, whose role as a divine sculptor according to this theory would point at the origin of the material divine statues were made of.[8] However, Antoine Cavigneaux and Manfred Krebernik consider them to be two separate deities.[1]
In a late tradition documented in the god listAn = Anum Ninkurra, in this case male, appears as the husband of Uttu.[4] According to Cavigneaux and Krebernik this version corresponds to the divine craftsman.[1] Josephine Fechner and Michel Tanret suggest that this Ninkurra might be the same as the deity Nin-NAM.RI,[4] possibly to be read as Ninbirre, explained inAn = Anum as a divineseal cutter (dBUR.GUL).[12]
Another goddess with the same name, Ninkur, occurs alongside a male deity named Enkur in lists of the so-called "Enki-Ninki deities,"[1] the ancestors ofEnlil.[8][13] The pair Enkur-Ninkur is attested in theOld BabylonianAn = Anum forerunner, inAn = Anum itself, and in a god list known from a copy fromMari, but their exact position among the generations of primordial deities varies.[14]
It has been argued that a further deity named Ninkur or Ninkurra was associated with theunderworld.[15] In this context, the name would designate her as the "lady of the underworld",[16] as the sign KUR could serve as a designation of the land of the dead.[17] The name might appear in this context in the so-calledFirst Elegy of thePushkin Museum, in which a man named Ludingira invokes Ninkurra alongside various underworld deities, afterNergal and beforeNingishzida,Gilgamesh,Bitu andEtana, to ask them to care for his father in the land of the dead.[16] An identical enumeration of deities is attested independently in three more sources.[18]
Dina Katz notes that while this version of Ninkurra would plausibly have a similar character toEreshkigal, she is unlikely to be identical with her, as she never appears alongsideNamtar; additionally anOld Babylonian god list fromUruk which places her afterNinti and beforeLisin seems to treat she was a separate figure from Ereshkigal.[19] She tentatively proposes that she might have been a goddess of similar character originally worshiped further to the north than Ereshkigal, and closely linked to Nergal, possibly as his spouse, though ultimately lack of evidence makes determining the nature of the relations between these three deities impossible.[20] Support for this interpretation has been voiced by Grégoire Nicolet as well.[21]
A further deity represented by the logogramdNIN.KUR is also attested inMari, for the first time appearing in a list of bread offerings from theEarly Dynastic orSargonic period.[1] This entry directly precedes "LugalTerqa," an epithet ofDagan.[2] A further attestation comes from a list of cloth offerings from the reign ofZimri-Lim.[22] However, it is possible that in the Old Babylonian Mari god list, where this name occurs in the end of the section focused on theonyms starting with the signNIN, the male craftmanship deity is meant.[23]
The namedNIN.KUR ordNIN.KUR.RA is additionally well attested in texts fromEmar.[24] They attest the existence of a temple (É), a treasury, and additionally a gate and a street named in honor of this deity.[25] This theonym appears in a number of offering lists too.[26] A month named afterdNIN.KUR is attested in the local calendar.[25] Akissu festival dedicated to Dagan, which apparently took place in the nearby settlement Šatappi, involveddNIN.KUR as well.[27] The nature of this celebration is difficult to ascertain, though since the rites dedicated todNIN.KUR involved anugagtu, sometimes translated as "mourning woman," as well as laying down her statue and making offerings tounderworld deities such asShuwala, it has been proposed that it commemorated the descent and subsequent return of a deity from the land of the dead.[28] However, since much of the evidence is ambiguous, more cautious proposals are also present in scholarship, for example that thekissu commemorated themarriage or symbolicenthronement of the deities involved.[29] Another Emariote ritual dedicated todNIN.KUR involved specialists namednagīrtu (the feminine form of Akkadiannagīru, "herald"), though neither the details of its performance nor the role of these women in it is known.[30]
Antoine Cavigneaux and Manfred Krebernik suggest that in both Mariote and Emariote texts the theonymdNIN.KUR(.RA) should be read as Bēlet-mātim, and that it refers toShalash, a goddess presumed to be Dagan's usual spouse.[1] Lluís Feliu simply renders it as Ninkur or Ninkurra,[26] but he also notes that a goddess named Ba’alta-mātim appears in texts from Mari in association with Emar, and might be one and the same asdNIN.KUR.[30] He also concludes that she was a spouse of Dagan, and that she can be identified as Shalash based on the presumed continuity of traditions pertaining to the latter.[31] He points out that the use ofdNIN.KUR to represent her might be related to the logogramdKUR being used to write the name of Dagan in the areas located around the middle of theEuphrates.[32] Additionally, he considers it possible thatdNIN.KUR was understood as a synonym ofdNIN.HUR.SAG, also uses as a logographic writing of the name of Dagan's spouse.[33]
Grégoire Nicolet proposes that the entry Ninkur in a variant of the Weidner god list known exclusively fromUgarit might represent the deity from Emar, as opposed to anylower Mesopotamian namesake.[21] He suggests that Ugaritic scribes might have added her to the list due to her importance in the traditions of a nearby area.[5]