The Revival of the Anu Cult and the Nocturnal Fire Ceremony at Late Babylonian Uruk
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Related papers
C. Proust, J. Steele eds., Scholars and Scholarship in Late Babylonian Uruk, 2019
The scholarly activities of the cuneiform-literate elite of Hellenistic Uruk ranged from astronomy, astrology, and medicine to theology and religious worship. Most scholars had priestly duties in the temples and many of Uruk’s leading minds were involved in the celestial sciences as well as in the city’s cultic reforms centred on the sky god Anu. The influence of these scholars’ intensive engagement with the stars on other disciplines, leading to new intellectual fields like birth horoscopy and astral medicine, is well-known. In this article, it is argued that the predominance of the celestial sciences in Hellenistic Babylonian scholarship also left its mark on local religious thought and ritual practice, both in Uruk and in Babylon. Stars and planets were included in daily offering cycles at the temples, cultic calendars were reinterpreted in astrological terms, and the astronomically significant events of the summer and winter solstice became occasions for religious festivals.
The history of the cult of the sky-god Anu in Uruk: Philological and archaeological evidence
The Ritual Sphere In Cultic Texts And Practices From The Ancient And Early Medieval East. Edited by Paola COTTICELLI-KURRAS and Velizar SADOVSKI with the editorial assistance of Alfredo RIZZA. Oslo: Hermes 2020. ISBN 978-82-8034-206-5 (ebk); ISBN 978-82-8034-219-5 (pbk)., 2020
ASJ 14 (1992) pp. 54f. refers to the rise of Anu in Uruk during the Achaemenid period (on which see § 2 below), which culminated in the construction of the rēš temple in Seleucid times. P.-A. BEAULIEU, RlA 14 pp. 454f. draws attention to Anu's rise to prominence in Uruk in the 5th century BC, which eventually led to the building of the rēš sanctuary which dominated the landscape of the Hellenistic city. P.-A. BEAULIEU, Fs. W.W. Hallo p. 48 states that the rise of Anu that began in the 5th century BC was consummated with the final construction of the rēš in the Seleucid period. According to C. WAERZEGGERS, Ezida p. 115, and P.-A. BEAULIEU, MARG 16 (2004) pp. 315f. the rēš did not yet exist in the time of Nabopolassar (625-605 BC). For evidence that the roots of the Hellenistic rēš temple lie further in the past and indeed can be traced back to the preand protohistoric periods, see A. FALKENSTEIN, Topographie pp. 8f. and the archaeological literature; see below, § 2. 4 The inscription of Nikarchos is extant on a clay cylinder, YOS 1 52. For an edition, see A. FALKENSTEIN, Topographie pp. 4f. The inscription of Kephalon is extant on several bricks. It has been treated by A. FALKENSTEIN, Topographie pp. 6f. and J. VAN DIJK, UVB 18 pp. 47f. I am preparing a study of both inscriptions, along with a new edition of Kephalon's brick inscriptions, that will appear in a forthcoming book.
'Prayers From Him Who Is Unable to Make Offerings': The Cult of Bēlet-ṣēri at Late Babylonian Uruk
Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions, 2018
IAA Prize for best first article after the PhD (2019). After 484 BC, several deities were (re)introduced into the pantheon of Uruk—most importantly the city’s new patron deity, the sky god Anu, but also the netherworld goddess Bēlet-ṣēri (“Lady of the Steppe”). In this article, I investigate the possible reasons behind the introduction of Bēlet-ṣēri’s cult at Uruk and the role ascribed to her by local worshipers. Using literary compositions, ritual texts, and legal documents, I trace the historical development of Bēlet-ṣēri’s divine characteristics, reconstruct her daily worship at Uruk, and examine the socioeconomic status of Urukean individuals bearing a “Bēlet-ṣēri-name.” I conclude that Bēlet-ṣēri was especially popular among non-elite citizens, probably because she could intercede with the queen of the netherworld, Ereškigal, for the lives of her followers and their families.
The Babylonian Akitu Festival: Rectifying the King or Renewing the Cosmos?
Journal of the Ancient Near East Society, 2000
The Babylonian Akitu festival has played a pivotal role in the development of theories of religion, myth and ritual; yet the purpose of the festival remains a point of contention among both historians of religion and Assyriologists. The historian of religion J. Z. Smith has suggested that the festival functioned as a piece of national-religious propaganda. He argues that the rite asserted the legitimacy of the foreigners who ruled Babylon during the Hellenistic age. Smith rejects an older consensus, associated with scholars such as A. J. Wensink, M. Eliade, I. Engnell, H. Frank-fort, T. H. Gaster, and W. G. Lambert, according to whom the Akitu rituals exemplify an archaic ideology of the center; through its ceremonies primeval chaos was again subdued, and the world was renewed. In spite of Smith’s stimulating challenge to the older consensus, several features of the Babylonian Akitu do show that the festival was intended to destroy and subsequently renew the cosmos. Oddly, the earlier scholars failed to cite these features and instead focused on extremely dubious data. A revised version of the older consensus best accounts for the Akitu festival described in Neo-Babylonian texts. The festival indeed exalts a sacred center, but its worldview cannot be portrayed as archaic, since it stems from a highly developed urban culture. The evidence for the older reading does not come from the oldest Akitu festivals (i.e., from second millennium Sumer) but from one of the latest ones (from first millennium Babylon). The religious mentality evident in this festival exemplifes a worldview that valorizes the center, but (contra Eliade) this mentality cannot be portrayed as archaic. At least in this case the mentality in question stems from a highly developed urban culture, and it represents the culmination of a venerable Mesopotamian tradition. My disagreement with Smith regarding the Akitu, then, confirms another thesis of Smith’s: in his description of the (Eliadian) ideology of center, Smith points out that such an ideology is not exclusively archaic but can be found in any period and any religion.My argument, then, confirms Smith’s own revision of Eliade’s theoretical model.
This paper will focus upon several of the introductory incantations in the Babylonian magical series MaqIU (I 37-72) and discuss the mythic framework and religious experi ence underlying this section of the text. Starting from the calendrical setting and purpose of the text that 1 have established elsewhere, 1 will examine first the legal setting, then the personal experience of the participant (his transfonnation, ascent to heaven, and mission to the netherworld), and finally the cosmic framework in which he acts.
The King goes up to the Roof: Hittite Nocturnal Rites performed during the New Moon
Cult, Temple, Sacred Spaces Cult Practices and Cult Spaces in Hittite Anatolia and Neighbouring Cultures Proceedings of the First International HFR Symposium, Mainz, 3–5 June 2019, 2020
At particular times, Hittite ritual practices could take place on the flat roof of sacred or profane buildings, perceived as the ideal setting for the performance of rites directed to celestial or astral deities. This paper aims at analyzing some examples of cult activities taking place on the roof, before focusing on a particular group of texts describing a sequence of ritual actions performed by the Hittite king during the night, in connection with the first appearance of the new moon. Many fragments of this group are currently filed under CTH 645. Besides providing a general description of the text corpus, the paper will address the debated issue of the possible relationship of these rites with the great state festival of the month.
TWO TEMPLE RITUALS FROM BABYLON
BM 40790 (81-04-28, 335) and BM 40854 (81-04-28, 401) + BM 41208 (81-04-28, 756) bear ritual instructions to be carried out in the Esagil. The main activities described deal with Nabû and Nanāya in their cellas: Ezida and Euršaba, respectively. These two tablets clearly belong together, and-together with other tablets now lost-may have originally constituted a series of rituals for the whole year that were connected, in a way or another, to the New Year Festival of Nisan. A striking aspect of BM 40790 and BM 40854+ is the presence of female deities and of female and sexually ambiguous cult attendants. The two texts show a new perspective on temple rituals, in which female agency appears stronger than previously assumed.