VOLUME -I " L
DbcTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
BY
'f.
, ., " , • f .
I aa d.eply grate£ul to th~ £o~lowing,indiv1dua~swho o 1 ,~ .' ., ,
in,Y~~ioua way; to'th~ cq.pletion of ~h~~ ~ .~aYe contrib~~ed
"­ dis.ert.at.ion.
. , and gUided the r.~eerch through ~~e first three years of'
.. l-~' -" <-
e~!~~.,.¥'. in the dissert.at.ion. The col Iection of theop~orJ.c
na~.s· and- t.h. first: draft· ~f the ,Glossary were b,as1~allY
When Dropsie College closed it$ doors to £urt.her class
work, Dr. Sol 6p~.n very graciously accepted the t.aak o£
guiding the proJect. t.o a conclusion. ,
The aanuacriptwas Qver
1000 pages long at t.hat point andatilJ.. growing_ Dr. Cohen
h4!ls direct..d t,he writing o~ Chapter.. I and II and hslped to
put the entir~e dissert.ation into 1 te :final :form. Wi t.hout. h~s
j - insight.~ul co••ent.. and p.t1.n~ endurance with a leng~~y
.. • anuscript, t.his diesertat10n would never hav. been cOMplete~.
, " . Dr.'Stephen Geller hae also served on my cOIII.ttte. and helped, in t.he :fi:".l{~J.ng o£ the iIlaAuecript.. ' . '.
Credit should alao be given to Dr. Nahu~ M.' Waldman who ..
£irat. int.rodud'~d.e t.o '-t.he Akkadian language and the hist.ory
and culture o£ ancient Near E~t.rn tia.e. His lect.ures
opened up a whole new world of faaclnat.ing people and events
which haa intrigued •• ever since.
1ii
"
, .
In my own family I have- been bl!lisaed wit.h many "helpers."
""My wife Ginger has been ~a conetant source ~£ strength to me ,
through this long doctoral program. Without her continual
'enco'rage~ent a~d pat.ience' ~nd Willin~ e8cri':£1cea~ tp!s prograll
wculci' have 'enc.:l~d~JihY yearsago~ I My t~o daughters, Heidi and ~
Shelley, have also been a'help:£ul,part. ,0:£ t.h1s~proJect. At. 'w tiae~ .*h~y have been p'ressed";.p.nto servicE!! (with a :few bribes)
" .,. '. . ~l;\.
to experience t.he "Joy" 0:£ collecting and organi'zin~ over I
15~OOO nam.s, but .o~t. of .•11, t.hei~ yout.hful int.erea~a have'
b.en a w.~come .:iversion ·froM,the tedinuan~as 0:£ doctoral
'research. My parent.s and ·in-laws ha.",. hCllped in so many ways, .
but especially wit.h encouragement, baby-sitting, and ~rayer.
Karly otthers dJserve a' special word o:f thanks :for var,ious E.
kindnesses al~ng the way: Ky. colleagues in the Division o:f
Ph~losophy.and Religio~ at Nort.hwest. Nazarene College, the
librarians at N.N.C. and various other 1n8tit.utions~ my students
and :£ormer parishioners.
The mo.~ in:£luent.ial peraon in thj~ ent.ire proJect. has • ~ ,(".: • Of
been ay,Heaven+y Father who provl.dedi).e with whatever talents
and resources were necessary to reach this goal. Old-Babyl~nian
worahip~rs.expres8.dtheir d&votion to their deities in various' "
ways~ but none could be more grate£ul than I for' the influence
0:£ the divine upon my lif&~ To Him belongs all the glory and
praise r I.n the words', o£ t.~,e Psalmist:
o Lord~ our Lord~ , How maJestic ia t.hy nam. in all the earth!
(Psalm 8:1)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. ., . .. . . ··i i. i
LIST OF TABLES 0 0, 0 0 0- "0 0 '0 0 0 0 vii
LIST Of ABBREVIATIONS
. , . . ....._. ... .
~revi~~. Studies "of Ak.~di:n Personel N'ames
N8~ure and Scope of the ~esent Work 0 0 00 0 :~7·' ; -1 ..
'Method • 4 • • • • • • • • • ". • 8'
Chapter ~-.
- , ic
ci~
Io A .STUDY OF ~EL~Gl0N A~FOUR OLD-BABYLONIAN, CITIES '. >i 0 0 0 0 • • • • • 0
Sin • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
17
17
94
119
126
136
139
142
158
176
£6
The Evidence from the Personai Names
.'
Analysis of the Evidence ~1~ Form and Word Select.ion . . . . ~ : . . _a •.• • • • • •
Analysis of the Evidence by Groups
II.
v
2. Ur Theophoric Names
,"~ .
1. Classi£ication o£ Elemen~s' by Category
8. Addu~ Number o£ Elements at Each City
4. Distribution o£ Elements by Category and City
22
83
;S8
122
124
140
143
154
Categories Ollitt~d at Each City~
Distribution ~£ ~lements
Dtstr~bution o£ Elements
Number o£ Elements at Each City · · · · Categories Omitted at Each City · · · ·
"',
vlstar:
Addu:
. ",.
18.
17.
15.
19.
16.
14.
22. Distribution o£ Divine Names end Theophoric ~ El~I\'ents • •• ••••••
11. Ea: Number o£ Elements at 'Each City
12. Ea: - Categories Omitted at Each City
13. IXtar: Distribution o£ Elements
21.
10.
20.
.W. von Soden. Akkadiaches H.ndw6rt.erbuch. Vnter Benutzung de. lexik.liachen Mechl.saes yon Bruno.l.issner (1868-1947), (Wl••baderi. 1965-1981); -
. • \ _..-f
.. ' ~3SL
1 ~ , ,~.t. . t '.':'"
~"
R. Harria, Ancient Sipper; A De.ographic Study of an Old-Babylonian Cit.y (1894-1595 B.C.> ("Uit,geven van het. Nederland. Histori.c:h-· Arcbaeologi.eh Inat.it.uu:t 't.
g Ist.anbul" II XX'XVI; Net.herlands, 19?5).
J. J. St.a•• , .Die akkadiaehe Ha.ang.bung (IIMit.teilungen der vorderaaiatisch-aegypt..ischen G••ellachaft.," XLIV; Leipzig, 1939).
J. 8. Prit.chard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Text'Jlelating t.o the Old Testa.ent., 3rd ed. (Princeton, 1969).
Alter Orient Mnd Alte. T.et.a.ent.
K. L. Tallqv1at., Assyrian personal Ha!.a ("Act.a Societ.at.is Scient.ieruJl Fennicae," XLVIII/1; H.la1nk~, 1918).
viii
. ·t
,'H. B •. Hutt.on, A.or~te';ers9nal Names in t~' HA"r1~ Text._: A St.ruct.u'faJ.. and. Lexical St.udy· (Baltlaore, 1965).
d 1 .. ',( I·Haut.e... ,,"..- Orient.41les t II ,~2; ~en.Ya, 1980)., ()
ArChiye: rOllle. de,Mati~: Y, •
M. '9i9, H. Kizilyay, and F~ R. Kraus, Eaki aa~il zaaanina _it. Mippur hukuki veS1kila~i
('"Alt.babylonische Recht,aurkunden aua Nippur: II
Iat.anbul,' 1952) ....
Archiv Or1ent.Aln1.
Aa.vriologlcal Studi••.
B. Mei.sner, BeitrlS. zu. §ltbabyloniseben' Priyat.recht (""A••yrialogiac:he Bibl-iothek, II
XI; ,Leipzig, 1893).
Re.earch.
E. Grant, BabYl$nian Buaipe•• Docu.ent. of the Cla••ic.l Period (Philadelphia, 1919).
L. Wateraan, Busine•• Docu.ent.. of t.he Ha••urapi' period fro. t.he Brit.ish Muaey•- . (London, 1916).
The Babylgpi.n Expedit.ion of the Universit.y of Pepnsylyapia' •
B.bylpniao In.cript.ions in~t.he Co!lec~ion o£ 318.s I. Niea.
B1bliot.heca Ori.nta!isu
ix
I
,apprQx~.at..1V.
·A. L,,!, ,Oppenl)ei., et. aI ... , eda., Tbe A'"lyrian Dict.ionary;gf tbe:Oriental Inatitute, of the Upivtt,rait.y oj' Cbieago (C,bieago, i95~- ) ..
• • ~.__~ \ ~ 1 • •
'" '!','
I: E'. 'S. Edwards, ,e't.; al ... eda~, Tbe Cambridge Ancient ,H1et.ory~ Vola.' I-'ll, 3rd, edit.ion
. (O...b~id9~! ·1:~70'-1~75).
E. Grant. J ~ 990''''9[' Pocy"ent.. in t.h'e , S,it.b C9119'se', t..t.brary (Haver£Qrd, Pa., 1918).
G,. 80y.1", CqOt.fibUiigD A l"hiatoir, /"y~!diq~.~., ~I.lr. d¥n••t.ie ~abyloni.nne
(Peri." 2:'928).. '~ . " . ' if ' ,
o '" cqho~t.at.i ve • ' . ,
T.~Jacob.en, Cuoeilor, T.,~ in the Nationa'l Ius..... :. Copenbagen, Cbief'ly of EcOpo.ical,~ontept.. (Leiden, 1939).
const.ruct ., ~
Cun.ilAr' ',Ten. ,fro' Babylonian Tablet. e ie, .1.n 1;h8 Brit'iah'lu.eua.
, f" • ,
i-Co'1uabia Univeraity" 1974).. '
" "Philad;.lPbia, 1905)'.'
'" \(ohl-r 'I1U!.. ~. 'Ungnad. Haa....·...b!· a~ G.~at1;. ,'vola. rIll-V! (Leipzig" 1909-1923)~ .. ' " ." • ' t' .. '
,
K. Noth_ Die lareeliti8cben PerloDennaaen ia Rahaen der 9Iaeinaeait.t.chen Naaengebung ("Beitrlge zur Wia.~n8cha£t voa Alten und
~ .euen Teata.ent," 111/10; Stut.tga~t, 1928; repri~t. edit.ion, Hildesheim, 19~6). .
JAOS
JCS
" .,."JMES ~ ;.
J'RAS
KB
Journal of Cuneifor" St.udiea. • Journal of Near East.ern Studiea.
G} Journal A81at1,c Societ.y·~of the Ro,ya1
K,ailJ.nschrift,liche B!.bliOt,httk.
L' .' .1,-
'." ..
'. ~.
·C'.-F.' Jean" Laraa d',prt. lea t.ext:es cun.~£orilles 2187 • .1901 <Paris. 1931>: f ••
, . - ,lowe.r ' edge.:
" , , Manchest.er ~unei£9~.Studies.
MVAeG
N
N
Nippur •
.... Nabu
NBN
AF. Po~pOriio. N:::t :: bu~tf: ;:--2?::a :1. di un· dio del b!l. 8 0_8 < __Si_9 <
""St.ud! S••itici,'~- LI; Ro•• , 19.'8)." ~ -' •. .-(', . '!' . ~ • 'CD
K. L. Ta~qvi.t, Ney~abY19n1.cbe.a••enbych
. -
at t.ext... d£yers bora-collestion. Premitre partie: N08. propres ("Archive. royale. de Mari," XVI/l:Paris, 1979).
I. .1. Gelb, P.' M. Purves, and A.- A. MacRae, Huzi Personal Haaes ("alP," LVII; Chicago, 1:943).
E,
r- "-\-
, ,
Dri.ntal InatitMte Publication••
T •.8a9.r,pi9 OatkajJ,ap'.r. 'Eine pbilolggi,@ch­ bittgriache UnteraucbUn9 Aber die W.Qd.raqhicb~
der eogenannt.en "'A.orit.r" in Bab¥lSM'K..n. - CLeipzig, 1926). -~\ ,
pageCe) •
pare.
par-t..
PBS
per£' .',
Per.oonsnamen
..- Aeublica~iona of the:aabyloni8n Section, The University' MueeuDt, Universi~y o~ })ennaylvania.
per£ect.. ? ,
B. Ge••e~, De bet.ek9p£s'qer perAoonsnamen 'tRor op~e k~eDi@' yan het. leveo eo denken d~,
gyde Babylooi'Ea eo (Aeayr~'r. (Wageningen, 1924). , .
'R. A'lbertz, 'Pere6nlichegr~mmigkeityod offiziel!'; Religiqn t"CalwerT,heologiashe Monographien, II Series A, ~X: St.ut.t.gert., 1978).," ,~
plural.
" reverae. ~
&9Y»9'4',s,vr10109ie at d'arch6010g1e 9fientale.
L. Spel••r,. Recueil de. in.cription. de l'As!.e Ant.trlaure de' Ku.t.a Rovau! du Cloquent..nair, A Iruxalleg (Bru••els, 1925).
E. Ebeling and 8. Mei.sner, eds., Reallexikon g9r A.ayrlologie, Vola. I-VI <Berlin, 1932­ 19~3>.
Riyiet, de91i stud! orientali.
Recueil de trayaux relatifs • la philologie e\ A,1'arph6010qie tgyp\ienn•• et .,syrienne••
singular.
SAppar.
school t.ext..
C. Ra••u••en, '"A St.udy o£ Akkadian Personal Na••• frail Mari" <The Dropsis Univ.rsit.y,~ 1981).
C. ". Gordon, SMitb College Tablet•• 110 _Cyneiforll Tex\a Selected froll \he College Collection <'"Smit.h College St.udiea in Hiatory," XXXVIII; N~rt.ha.pt.on, Ka••• , 1952).
SDIOA
SEOOIN
SFS
-E. C. Stone, liThe Social and -Econollic. .
Organizat.ion of Old Babylonian Nippur" (Univerait.y of Ch~cago, 1979).
V. Scheil, Une ••1.on de fouil1e. A Slppar (IIM••oir•• publi•• par lea .eyre. de l'In.t.itut £ranceia d'arch6010gie prient..le du Ca1re," I; Cairo, 1902).
xiv
Sla,:,ery
SL8
SLOB
I. Mendel.ohn, Slavery in t.he 4ncient.,Near £aot (New' York, 1949~. .
'. ~ia ad Tabula. cuneiforaa. collect.as a . F. M. Th. de Liagr.BOhl pert.inentia.
S. J. Lieber.an, The Su.erian Loanword. in Old BabvIoniJULAkkad1an ("Harvard Selftitic Seriea, II
XXII; Mi.soula, Mt..,. 1977>. '
M. Weit.eaeyer, SOlfte Aspects Qf the Hiring of Workers,iritthe Sippar Region!at t.he Tiae of Ha••urabi (Copenhagen, 1962>. '
at.. .t.ativ••
StrKT
au:£.
SV,JAO
Symbolae
~~.~;:::h~=t:::a::t:i;n~:C~;rhS;r~6h:tein (IISchri£ten ·d.r S1;.ra"aburger Wiaaensc:ha£tl.ichen G••ellsehaft. in Heidelberg," New Series IX; Berlin an~ ·Lei~zi9~,1928).
suffix.
A. P. Ri£t.~1i, Sta%to-yayilOnakie Juridicheakie i ad.j,nAat.r.at.4.ynie document.i v aobraniJ.ch SSSR (Itoscow and Leningrad, '1937).
"M. A., Beek p at al., eds., Symbol•• BibIie,e at. ' ••opotaaicae franCisco Iorio Thaodoro pe
-Liagr. BOhl D.d~cat.ae (Leiden, 1973). J'
verbal .t.e••
C•.-F. 3e.n, §u".r et. Akkad. Cont.ribut.'ioD A 1#bi.toir. d. 1a c&yi1iaat.ion dan. 1. bas.e~
.•••0Rot.a.ie (Paria, 1923>.
.. text in t.ranslit.eration only •
T. 3acob••n, TOwars t.be I.,ge of Ta••uz aDd Ot.her E••aya oh M••oDOt.••1aD RiMory aDd Cult.yre, edit.ed by W. L. Moran (IIHarvardSeJRit.ic Serie.... XXI; Cambridge, Ma.a., 1970).
lu.t. dy Loyvre, ptpftrt.••nt de. antiguitt. or1,0;81.a. iext.'. cHn.1£or••••
G. 3. Bot.t.rw.ck and ~. Ringgren, .d••" Theologic.l Dic\ionary of t.h. Old Te.\all.Dt,. Vola. I-V (Grand Rapids, ~1ch••. 1974-1986). <
t.heophoric .1e••n~(.).
TIM
TJDB
TLB
Treasures
U
u.e.
UET
Unity
VAS
vent.. '
vol./vola.
Wat.er
WK
- wo
L. DeMeyer, H. Gasche, and R. P~epe, Tell .~ Qs£ (Louva~n, 1971->.
D. O. ~d2ard, Alt.babyloniache Rechta- und Wirt.asbaftaurkund.n aus T~~A ed-per im Iraq Kus.u". Baghdad ("Bayerisshe Akade"ie der
. Wia.enacha£ten, Philoaophiach-hiatoriache Klaa••," New Ser'ie. 72; Munich, 1970).
terainat.ive-adverbial.
~
£. SzlechtGr, Taelett@a Juridiguea de la lre dynast.!. de BabylOn•• conaerv••sau Mua.e d~Art. .t d~Hi.toiE. d. G.ntye, 2. vola. ("Publications d. l'Inatitut de Droit Romain de l'Univerait6 de Paria," XVI; Paris, 1958).
Tabula. Cuneiforaa•• a F. K. Th~ d. Liegre BOhl Coll.ctae. beida. Cona.ry,t.,••
T. Jacob.en, The Treasures o£ Darkn••• : A History of IssoRot.aLan Religion (New Haven, 1976).
Ur.
Yr ExcavatloQs Text~,
, ~. Go.dick. and J. J. M. Roberta, Unity and 'ql¢eraity; Eaeaya in the Hist.orY. Literat.ure, and 8eligion o£ t.he Ancient Ne.r E,at (B,lt.1more, 1975),
'yorderaa1atAsche Schrif~denk.'l.r der KlJnigli'chen, Mus••n zu B.r~in.
ventlve.
volu•• (s>.
S. D. Weltera, Water for Laraa: .An Old Babylonian Archive Dealing with Irrigation (IIYele Near Eastern Reaearchea," IV; New Haven, 1970) ,
H. W. Hauss1g, ed., W8rterbuch der "tt.hologi. (Stuttgart, 1965).
Die Welt d•• Orient..
.:
1
2
3
Ever since the first Near Eastern cuneiform tablets were "'':'
unearthed and deciphered, scholars have been intrigued by the
aany personal n.mes found in these tablets. 'Soae economic
documents contain as many 8S twenty or more different
witnesses. School texts, which are practice documents !or
apprentice scribes,.. may contain sevel'al hundred poreonal nalles.
Many· publications of tablets have" ~ncludeci a list of
the personal naaes found in theIR, 'but. aoat CJf these 1 iats are "
aiaple alphabetized enumerations with littl~ or no co.menta
on the aeanings of the names.
, The number of attdated names has grown 'with the publication
of more tablets, and various attempts have been aade to study
thea. Early in the development of cunei£orm studies, scholars
began to collect the naaea fro. a particular tiMe period.
1For example, Ur III naaea were collected by- E. Huber, the Old-
2 3Babylonian by H. Ranke, the Cappadoeian by F. J. Stephens,
lEngelbert Huber, Die Personenna••n in den Keilachrifturkuoden aua dar Zeit der KOnige yon Ur und Niain ("As.ayriologieche 8ibliot.hek," XXI; L.ipz~g, 1907).
2 - Hermann Ranke, g.rly Babyloni.n P.rsonal Na•••• iroli
the Ii•• of the FiEst Dyn••ty of aabylon. Chiefly fro. Sippar C"BE," Series A, Vl/1; Philadelphia, 1905).
3Ferria J. Stephena, Personal Naa•• t~o. Cuneifora Inscriptions of Cappadocia (uYOSR," Xlll/1; New Haven, 1928>.
1
2
1the Middle and Neo-Assyrian by K. L. Tallqviat, the Kassite by
2 3A. T. Clay, and the Neo-Babylonian by K. L. Tallqvist. Most
of theae works contain lists of namQS from the available
t~blets and a glossary of the name el~~enta with their .eaning ..
Some early studies also atteapted to investigate the
forms of the names. For example, H. Ran~e divided all Old­
Babylonian names 'into three forms: sentences r status
constructus formations, and single subatantives. 4 K. L.
Tallqvist gave examples of various two-'end three-element names
and the hypocriatic or abbreviated names which developed fro.
them. 5
In 1939 J. J. Stamm published the .oat thorough study
- 6 of Akkadian personal n•••8--0i. akkadische Nemengebung, a
dissertation he had writt.n under the supervision o£ Benno
Landsberger. In .the introduction Stamm di8cuaa~d the v&rious
grammatical foras in which neaes appear, and then he deelt with
the meaning o£ the names. He divided all names into twenty-
,eight di££e~ent categories, including greeting namea r
,1 T P N SSFKnut L.,allqviot, Assyrian ersonal aaes (IIA ," XLVIII/1; Helsinki, 1918>.
2 Albert T. Clay, Personal Nam•• $[0. Cuneiform Inscript.ions of the C.sett.e perioA. (IIYOSR," I; New Haven, 1912).
3Knut L. Tallqvist, !N~U~~~~~~II-B~~~~~~~gn Gea u en ("ASSF," XXXII/2; Helsinki, 1905>.
4 \EBPN, pp. 5-6.
6.1ohann Jakob Sta•• , Die akkadische Ne.engebung (IIMVAeG," . .
XLIV; Leipzig, 1939>." '"
/,
was a maJor advance Over the earlier studies of Akkadian
personal names sinc~~offered more than Just a dictionary­
type definition of the n~.* elements. It grouped similar
nam~s together and provided some rationale for the existence
-~ o£ each type of name.
Stam.'s work is, however, too inclusive in nature. It
included sources from all time periods (Old Akkadian to Late
Babylonian) and all geographic loca~ions~ Thus~ one"cannot
. ,~ get a picture of cha~~cteristics and peculiarities in a
specific location or ti,e period~ Nonetheless, Stamm's book
is still the standard reference source for studying Akkadian
personal names, even though it ia now over forty-five years old.
Studies of Akkadian personal nalles aince Stamm, 'like the
works of his predecessors, have been more specific with
regards to time and place. They have usually limited themaelvea
to a specific city or area, e.g. Nuzi 1 and Mari. 2 There
has also been an increasing interest in probing the name
studies for mQre than Just lingUistic ends. Several scholars
have used naae studies to investigate and portray the
religious and sooial makeup of a population. The various gods
which are ~~ioned in ~he personal naa.. can be exaained ~o
cz:::::::::: 1 Ignace 3. Gelb, Pierre M. Purves, and Allan A. MacRae,
Nuzl Personal Naaes ("OIP," LVII; Chicago, 1943>.
2Haurice Birot, 3ean-Robert Kupper, and Olivier Rouault, Rtpertoire analytique, To••s I-XIV. XVIII et textes divers hors-collect"ion. Pre.i.re parti.: No•• propre. ("ARM," XVIii; Parie p 1979")J and 3ean Bot.t-6ro and AnClr6 Finet., R6pertoireanalyt.igue de. to••• I • V ("ARM," X~; Paris p 1954).
4
get an .ide,a bfthe pantheon 'in a city, and the lan9ua9~ of
the nalles Ila~ giv. sOlle rough e8t~.ate of the linguistic and
ethnic ~ix~ure of the population. Using this approach J. J. M.
Roberts described the earliest Seaitic pantheon,l and I.
\
Muz! Personal Naaes by I. J. Gelb, P. M. Purves, and A. A.
Ma~R8•. i. ,an exc.llen~ exaaple of a Ilodern ..,approach to nallle
atudies-.. The book contains the usual naJle list and glossary of
eleaents, in this c~se in Suaerian and Hurrian, as well as
Akkadian. It also has SOMe discussion o£ gra••atica'l foras 4nd
distinctions b,tw••n theophoric and non-theophoric naaes.
In addition, it Makes aOMe observations on the: nature of the , 3
panth.o~ and the lingUistic mixture ~t Muzi. These reaarks
are not exhaustive, but th~y indicate the value of nell. studies
for understanding ancient societiea.
- With all of the studies which have been produced in the
past decades, one Might expect that everything which could ~~
said about personal- ~a••s haa been said, but that is not the
caee. There has been very 'little effort ~ade to analyze and
synthesize the religious inforMation, which Can be gained from
the personal neaes beyond Sta.a's categories. Most religious
analysis stops with a discussion of the gods which Make up the
pantheon. However, there ia Much More to be g.Lned fro.
I . J. J. M. Roberta, The Earliest ~.itic Pantbeon
(BaltiMore, 1972). i> • 2 >-
Ic;hiro Nakata, "Deities in the Kari Texts" (Ph.D. dis~ertation, Columbia Univer.i~y, 1974).
3~ pp. 5, 282-284, 289-290.~
. ,
5
studying personal names than aimply a list Q% the most popular
gods in the pant~eon.
As early as 1910 C. H. W. Johns no~ed that personal name
studies could be used to discovor the peraonal ~nd practiQal 1
religio~of ancient Semitic peoples as distinguished :CroM the
official religion o£ the.~riests and maJor temples. Johns '"
believed that each Babylonian family was free to select the
personal naMes for their own children,. Uspontaneous,_'end free
, 1 from preJudice or distractions." Therefore,. he argtied~
personal name studies should be able to reveal the rel1gious v .
concerns of the common Babylonian person in contrast to the
official state religion. Of cours.,. there are aome limitations
-to this type of investigati<;m,. but. there is also a great deal
to be gained,. and Johns pointed the way.
Two books whichLpro~ide new models for the uae of
ono.astic studies in religious investigations are ~ .
iaraelitAash.n Person.nna••n i •. Rah.en der g•••inaemitiachen
Na.epgebung by Martin' Noth2 and Peraq'pl iche FrO••igkei t upd
offiziol19 Relfgion by Reiner Albertz. 3 Both of these are ,
prima~ily inter~sted in Hebrew personal names,. although Aibert~ ~\--..
• I
1 - , C. H. W. Johns. The Religious Sigpificance of Se.itic
Proper Na.e. (tiThe John Bohlen Lecture•• U 193.0; C.mbridge. 1912),. p. 4. ./~
2Martin Noth. Die iar••iitiachep Persop.nna.en Aa Rab.en , d'er ge.einee.ittachen Na.eng"bung (""SWANT. II 111/10; St.uttgart. 1928; reprint edition, Hilde.heim, ~966).
3Rainer Albertz, f,ra801icbe FrO••1gk.it upd offizielle Religion (IiCelwer Theologiach. Monogr.phien," Seri•• A. IX; Stuttgart. 1978). •
, .
6
includes a section on Akkadian 1·na'mes .' They make use of
Stamm's categories to some extent, but the exciting aspect.o£
these works is ·t.heirattempt to study, thA personal piety of the
ancient worshiper. The names which w~re give~ to children
~re~eal something of the ancient w~rshipers' understanding of
and relationship to the divine. This approach is the same one
auggeated earlier by C. H. w~ Johns.
This disserto~ion will try to discover concepts o£ the
aame types as t.he Hebrew views £oun~ by Noth and Albertz • . "\..
The subJect is limited~to Mesopot.amian religion of t.he Old-
Babylonian period, but. aany of Not.h's and Albert.z's principles
apply. ,"-
Personal names can also be used for a further type of
religious st.udy, namely co.parat.ive studies between cit.ies.
- Unt.il now, t.here has been no comparison of t.he Old-Babylonian
'personal names used at. different localities.~ Although there , 2
are several list.ings for individual cities, e:g; Larsa,
3 4Nippur, and Sippar, no comparison across cities has been "1:.:- •
done. This dissertat.ion will at.t.empt. t.o rectify that. sit.uation. " .
1PFR, pp. 96-158.
2 Charles-F. Jean, Larb. d'.prts lea textes sun6iformes 2187 A 1901 (Pari~, 1931).
3 ' Elizab~th C. Stone, "The Social and Economic
Organization of Old Bebylonian NiPpur~ (Ph.D. d~ssertation,
Univeraity of Chicago, 1979). ~ '"
;
The purpose o£ this dissertation is 'to investigate the
personal rel1gion .0£ 01d-BabylQ~ian.tilkes as shown in the
theophoric personal na~ee. We'have uaed the nam.a attested in
the four ~ities of Ur, Laras, Nippur, and Sippar as ~ sample.
All of the ~ame6 at each location have been grouped 'int~ cat.egories which represent- broad areaa of divine -involvel\EJlnt
- ~
insight into the popular ~eligious clim.te of each city.
There were ac~ually t~ree levels of'religious ~elief operating
-in Old-Babylonian times. (1) The firat'level ~as the religion
of the lly~h8. Theae stories of the Babylonian gods a~d, . '1'
goddessea have been tranalated and amply described and
analyzed in the many booka on ancient MeGopotam!an religiop
(aee the Blbliography for many examples>.
(2) The official religion of the state proyided a second
~ ' level of religio~s unde~sta~ing. This level may be discovered
b~ining the various ~::~le ~ocumenta~ a~ch aa liturgies"
hymns, offering li}it.s, administrat.ive document.Ii" et.c. ::J.
Ranger's listing of the various goda,lraligious personnel: and r "
offerings at each cit.y provides a basic, first. step in analyzing
dO
1 '. The maJor ones are tranalatect ,in J. B. Pritchard-,
~-- ..
)
"
\
(3) The focus f£ this dissertation is on the thlrdJlevel, . ,
the 'popular religion of the people. This level is still
largely unknown because ther9 are few documents to illustrate, ; it. However, a pr.oper analysis' of the onomastic evidence
. ..r'\.". .'
w.ill provide satRe' preliJainary {indings whi'~ I!a¥ then be ; I
We hope to ~harpen th~
• • f '_.
unClerstanding of Old-Babylonian popular re~g~on by ·noting .the."
characteristics end variations of religiQus e~p~es81on at
four different·cities.
The work is divided into ~wo Il-.in secticins. T,he first . ~~~
chapter~ deals wi~h ~9~ p~'1er religious cli~ate of each of.. these- four O~d-Babylonian cities, how each ~ity viewed its
gods. The second chapter focuses on several llaJor go~s'whose
nalles,are found at the cities. The epithe-t;sfor eachJgo'd
"- , will be d4[l-t.egorized at each city as in ,.t:he..~~~s~ section,
.<and wec"'ill try to characterize how these p'aJor gods were ;-
viewed by their various worshipers ..
Itethod '-,
l .. ,"
the :fall of the Ur' III Dynasty in ca. 2006 B.C. t9--the
>
scholars diVide this period, into.~wo parts.p:£' about. 200
.. "
"
9,·
years each,,-"calling t.he £irat. t.he nIsin-Larse" period and'. the second the "Old-Bapylonian" periO'~" and other scho.lars
divide the period into tHree"l but we ~ill not make any
such ~iatinctions.
'v Four ancient Near Eastern cities have been selected fOr
inveatigetio.n in t.hia paper: 'Ur,. Laraa, Nippur, 'and Sippar.
Their selection is based on t.wo conaiderat~ons: '£i~st" each
.' of t.heaefcit.ies haa yielded a large 'enough number of Old-
Babylonian tablet. ~o provide, corpus of over· ~OO,theophoric'
namea" and ~econd, t.hey are 'geographical~y d~_parat.e. Two '- ~
of t.hem, Ur and L.rsa, are located in the extreme southern
part of Babylonia. ~ippur ia "in l:.he cent.ral regfon and
.' ·' 1
I
Sippar in, the north.
,The t.exts which have ,been used for this study reprG~8nt
only a sampl~ng of the tablets which h~ve been found in each " .
city, aince many hundreds of tablets' are not yet published.
Of t.~e published tablets which are available for study,. ~~o
(1) Only transliterated
tablets,have been used, and (2) O~ly~ablets whoae or1gi~
~an definitely be pinpointed have been ae1ected. Thia second
liMitation haa meant thah we have ignored all lettera. It is
difficult to determine t.he ci'ty of ,esidence/origin of the
pe9ple mentione~ in let.ters, since let.t.ers were sent. from
one city, t.o another.
The tablets which have been investigated, ~
"-
·,
\.
in our st.udy are economj.c, legel, end edminist.ret.i ye texts.
The school t.ext.shave alao been included, but t.heae present
additional p~oblea. which will be discussed below • • ..
Deteraining w~ich't.ablets belong to a city aay be
difficult. Often eerly archaeologists 'were not careful in ,..
identifying the find-spots 'of tablets. Frequently, tablets
were purchas.d froa dealers,Qr bedouin who aistakenly ~t ,
"
Fqrtunetely, in recent tillee,scholera have painstakingly
, ,~ 1------_· begun the task of sorting out the various colleetions.
D. Charpin has publ~.he~ a list of the Ur aaterial. 2
- - 3 E. Stone's dissertation covers the Nippur tableta, and
4R. Harris's work onSippar list.s th. Sippar sources. For
~he Larse aaterial there is no single authoritative li~'at
5present. The bibliogrsphy of R. F. G. Sw~et's dissertation as
well as R. B~~ger's Handbuch del' Keilschriftliteratur6 have \
1 " E.g. see Herten Stol, review o£ Early Old Babylonian
Docullents ("YOS," Xlv.), by Stephen D. Siallons, in Journal of if Cuneiforll Studi.s 31 (1979), pp. 177-183.
2 ' DOllinique Charpin~ Archives £allilial•• et propri6tt
privA_ en BabYloni. inei.nne; Et.ude des docuaent.s de tlTell S1fr" (Geneva, 1980), pp. 55-60.
3SiOOB8. pp. 843-855w
4anci.n; Sippar, pp. 384-387. ~ 5 0- ~
Ronald F. G. Sweet, "On Pricea, Moneys, and Money Uses in the bId Babylonian Periodtl (Ph.D. dissertation,, Universit,y of Chicago, 19~8), pp.21'7-~43.
6 " Riekele Borger, Handbuch del' KeLlschri£tlit@rat.ur,
vol. III (Berlin, 1975>, pp. 45-41. '"
been used for ident.ifying t.hese sC;;urcea. A complete' list 0%
all ~he t.ext."Lt.tiized is found in Appendix 1. ,;', '
The nam.s used for t.his study-are limit.ed t.O Akkadian
theophoric names of ' the Old-Babylonian Period. The ent.ire '
corpus of Old-8abylonian personal names is not. t.heophoric, ~
but. it. is difficult to .stimate t.he ratio of ~he6phoric names
t.o non-theophoric. A. A. MacRae mak~s the st.atement. t.hat t.he 1 ;:~"
"vast aaJori~,y" of Akkadian names at Nuzi are t.heophoric, . ,
but h. do•• nbt give an exact perce~tage. We did not. actively
keep track'of the non-theophoric.n.m.s, but we would estiaat.e
that the percentage. of theophoric naaes at Ur, Larsa, Nippur,
and Sippar is probably over fift.y percent. as well. The
p.rcentag8 may be even auch higher at.Nippur where a la~ge
nuaber of school text. are included. It would require a great of'
deal of further'investigation to arrive at an exact percentage.
The nuaber o£ theophoric na.es which appea~ in this
't rt._ study are as follows:
I Tot.al theophor1c naaes at Ur 943 19",.
Tot.al theophoric na••• at Laraa 1247 24"
Total theophoric naaes at Nippur 1350 26"
Tot.al theophoric naa.a at. ~ippar 1598 31"
Total theophoric naae. in this .tudy 5138 100"
Theophoric naa.s are usually coaposed of t.WO el.aent.a: ·s
divine ele.ent and on epithet. Either ele.ent aay appear firat
in t.he naa•• The divine el••ent ia:eit.her a-god'. na.e or aOMe
1 MPH, p. 287.
12
substitute £or it. Such a substitute may be a general t.ra ,
£or an unnamed personal god, such as ilum (ngod n ), .u.!.
v(limy god'~), ilo ("his god"), a personal pronoun such as
att; (lIyou··)~l or another propnr name, such a8 a t.mple na•• ,
city name, river name, or family name like abum. ("father").
-It is very difficult to determine whether aubstitut. elementa .
Were actually thought of as divine, but they are· found with the
"aame epitheta as the gada. Aa a consequenc., most of them,have
b.~lm included. Nam•• auch as Meri-Uri! (.uSon of Ur") and
. Hiri-Sipp.r (USon of S~pp.r"), where no 1;.heophoric n.ture ia
..". , '.
natqr. is highly q~estionable (e.g. Nisapnu-- name· of a
.onth, vv vv 'e•••••u -
;
a religious featival" t,iturum - "bridge ll )
have'- been included becau.. they ar. u••d with' epi theta
normally u.ed with deitio.. El~••nta of'this type are not&d /
in th~ Gloaaary (Appendix 6).
The epithet consiat. of ao.e type o£ deacription of the
god, such aa an attribute, or & relationship, or a request, etc.
This .econd element i. the crucial matter for our' study.
Th. frequency of appear.nce pr ~.i••ion of, these .leme~ta . -.
will .how the popular religious p~ceptions of the ihhabitanta
of a city.
C.rt.in theophoric n•••• which provide no evidence for
the questions of ipt.r••t h.re have been omitted. Naaes such
A A - - - vas Sioi., Sina;u., Abuni, and 8.1auDu are propably
8
'''­l
13
theophoric r but they do not .how anything o£ the theological
conceptions of the gods. Likewisei' hypocorist.ic na.e.
such as'Ballt! and Ga,iIul h.ve been oaitted because they •
do not. contain a theophoric ele.ent. .nd there ia no
possibility of learni~g what deity they re£er to without
painstakin~ prosopographic investigat.ions.
~'" ~. . , ,
naa.s is so••ti.e. rather difficult.. As a general principl;,;",,,,,t..
all naaea Wi~t lea~t one element which is syllabically
spelled in,Ak dian have been included. Thus r JRahy "aixed"
naae. which coa ine a Suaerian or AJRorite ~od with an
Akkadian ele.ent have been retained.
In addition r .oae naa•• with an Akkadian god and an Q
epithet writt.n in Suaerian have been includ.d despite the
£.ct that there aay' be no syllabic spelling in Akkadian.
For exaaple~ LV-XXX and ~iME-E§4-PAR have be.n included r
, d "d' but~not LU- NANNA or,GEIE- GU-LA: O~her ideogram. o£ this
, , type are ~ ~ PUNU. an4 ZALAG. Soa. ideograa. could
repr.sent either an ,Akkadian or Suaerian god,,! e.g. LV-dIl r
"c·' '" dkU- EN-ZU r and LU-,UTU. There 1s'a good possibility that
so.e of theae are to be read 1n Akkadianratber than in
Suaeri.n,,·but th.y have been excluded becau.e o£ their
aabiguity. Certain SUDerian 1d~~~r••s which usually; repre.ent
Akkadian ele.ents!" the vast IU!lJor1ty of personal naaes have
al.oJ~en inciuded" even though they could' be Suaerian" e.g. ,
mlJi.,. rLLAT" and, )J8U4 • • 1
Proble.s of Methodology
evidenco. As a conaequence, we would like to note so.e
methodological probl••••
The first concerns the validity of connecting personal
na.es with the city where a tablet was found. The fsct that
a PQrson'. na.e, such aa Addu-iddina., ia found at Ur does
not necessarily .ean that the name originated at Ur.
Addu-iddinal could have been born in northern Babylonia
..
might have originat.ed els.where~' Thus, it JIlay be more proper . .
to say that this study an,ly~•• t~e popular religion of the
..text.... o£ .. certain lo~..~on 'r..tht th"n the loeat,ion 1t..el~'. - . ~ -
-~ ~ ..: . The ••c;ond probl•• concerns the 'use of· schC?ol t.exts'.
There is no w~of knowin~ whet~er every nalle mentioned in a
school text was act.uallyJo ~sed. ,No dO.':I~t, lIlany were, for .' , ~ ..
they appear in ot.her tablets, but SOil. JIlay wel~ not have
b••n. Th. Kippur school texts, ~hich are the moat numerous,
prOVide a good exa.ple o£ ~he problea raised by school texts.
They seea si.ply to repeat the saae standardized set~f
epithets with each maJor god or theophoric ~l~ment. Therefore
one Must b~wary 0.£ ,'dra~in9 Co~fusions~ .f,rom. the fact that -v /- . .
the epithet bast! occurs ten times at ~ippur,~ but only .~~
twice at Sippar, since all of the Kippur occurr~nces are in
school texts. 'In order to MiniMize this problem, we have
1/
15
used names of real people whenever possible (i.e. references in
economic, legal, and administrative texts have been given
pre£erence over references in school texts). However, there
are still many names found only in school texts.
The thi"rd problem concerns the validity of drawing
conclusions based on the oaissions. The fact that Addy-ibni
does not appear in t~~~Ur texts may not mean that Addu-ibn!
was never given to anyone at Ur during the period under
consideration. The availability of source materials is
dependent on chance £ind8, but there a~e many tablets still I
buried at Ur, Larss, Nippur, end Sippar, and there are many
tablets which are found but they are still waiting to be
,~ treated, and some names on tablets are destroyed or illegible.
The name. studied here do not, then, represent a total
picture of the population at any city.
A furthe~ consid.~at.ion is t.he fact. t.hat. BlOSt. o£ the
documents represent busin.s. transactions. dlearly, thoae
who di~,no~ have any~~ransactions recorded on tablet.s are
not included. Other names probably existed, but there is
., no
silence aay commonly be used. to support opposit.e viewa.so
it is best to be cautious in basing conclusions on silence.
All that one can do is· to not.e the patterns or trends which
appear in the availablo evidence and then recall the ga~a
in the evidence. Som. of these may well be filled 1n as a
'"J.
16
study must have a beginning.
A final problem is the result o~ our imperfect knowledge
o£ Akkadian. There are many epi~hets whose exact meaning
--v vand/or nuance is still unc:lear,,__ ,e.g.tlU.stu, !!!!lJ,!.,a.,aru. • ,,>-\
,-:.... -- .~.-:. ~ . .' .- -' . :,~ .
With such words the dictionat.~e~'~nd~. J. Stamm are often .~
uncertain and/or in d~aagree*ent. As a result, the
classification of many of the olements in the Glossary is
put forward.ea a tentative proposal which may need.,t.o be
changed or adJusted by future inYestig3tiona.
".
In order to £acilit~te ~he analysisJo£ the thousands o£
theaphoric naaes which 1fe listed in the Ap~endices, ~e have
constructed a table <Table 1> which 1s divided into twenty-five
categories, each of which represents a quality o£ cilvine
character. The categories are br9ad enough to include .any
£acets o£ that quality, but they are specific enough to be .
di~tin9uished froM other qualities.
rn-a~ran9in9 the categories we have tried to go beyond
J. Sta•• 's broad cla..aification of thanksgiving names, praise
Da.ea, attribute naaes, etc., and identify the reason £or the
thanksgiving or the prsise or the attribute, etc. So.etiMes !' ~.,
.~ ~-
two or t.hree categories. We have tried to be- is".!! aele~t.1v~ as ~ ' ._------}... .
possible so that Most naaes are list.ed only once. Nonetheless,
Many three-element neaes are listed twice because they contain
two nan-theophoric elements.
The categories are listed b~ow with a ,general heaQing
£ollowed by a short description or descriptive synonyms.
A full analyeis of each category follows the table.
1. ~ction. Elements of affection, love.
17
3. B1£th. Elements concerning the birth, creation, or
naMing of the child.
5. COMpensatiQn. •EleMents which indicate that the d~ity
has compensated for the death of a previous family member by
providing a new child.
•••ing, reMeMbrance, understanding.
triUMph, victory, sparing.
tmportance, goodne.s.
9. Guidan<i9,.. Ele••nt.s of guidance, adv ice " fate.
10. ~. Ele.ents of reJoicing.
12. ,Q1mep8hip ~ Ele.ents of ownership, belong1ng •
13. Parden. Ele.6nta of pardon, reconciliation.
14. Praiae. Ele••nte of preise, affirMation.
15. PEe.ence. Ele••nts indicating the presence of the deity.
16. PEoteCtlOn. EleMehts of protection, shelter, haven.
17., Proyia.it00. £'leaent.s indicating that t.he deity provides
for the baeic 114••da of the individual" especially food.
1,8. Radiance.. Ele.enta of light and br.i.ght.nesa indicat.ing , '
the radiant appearance' of 'the deity.
19. Reyarence. Ele.ent.. of reverence, £ear.
2Q. Speaking. EleMents indicating that the deity haa
a
19
deity has a special rolationship to the child or mankind.
22. Strength. Elements o£ physical strength, power.
23. Trust. n{:
24. Well-b!ing. Elemen~s of well-being, life, health,
prosperity, success, good fortune.
26. Unclasa1fi!d. Elements whose meaning is·unknown or
whoae classification is ,problematic or wh~se meaning is not
significant to the meaning o£ the PH.
We' have also applied-form critical analysis to our study
-by distinguishing within each name element eight different
name forms. They are listed 88 follows:
1. General 'statements. Most of these PHs are in the
form of a verbal sentence with a subJect, a finite v.rbal form, AA
and someti.es a direct obJect (e.g. Sin-eha.-iddinam, "Sin has
given to me a brother"). Theae PMs describe some activity o£
the deity or make a statement about the deity.
2. Attribute na.es. An attribute name t~kes the for.
of a nominal sentence with two nouns, a noun and a participle, A _ A
or a noun and the stative form o£"the verb (e.g. Sin-abi, "Sin A A
is my father," or Sin-rabi." "Sin is great"). Soaet.imes a
preposition such as QA, k!.r itti. etc. is used (e.g. It.ti-Sin- A
milki, "My counsel is with Sin"). The theophoric element is
usually in t.he first position although .ometimes the order
is reversed. These names indicate 8 charact~ristia quality
JIlay happ~n.
of the deity from tbe perspective o£ the speaker.
3. D.si~n9tiO'_D4mes. The form o£ these6 names is the 1.
construct-ge~itive. The non-theophoric element 1s usually 1n >
the construct state followed by the theophoric. element in the A A
genitive (e.g. Ap11-51n, "Th~ heir of S1n"). Soaetimes these
names are the nominal equivalent o£ a general statement na.e,
and other times they are another form o£ an attribute name.
These names "designate" a quality of the deity which has been
experienced by the name-bearer or a relationship between the
deity and t~e name-bearer.
4. Requesta/wishes. These names contain a verb in A
the imperative, precative, or cohortative (e.g. §An-pwtram,. '
"0 Sin" release me~" or Sin-IU.ur, "May I see Sin·'). -They,:"
~<'
whiph emphasize a particular divine quality.· They usually
contain a divine name in the vocative. If a verb-is present, _ A A
it is in the imperative (e.g. Nidni-Sin, "My gift, 0 Sin").
The questions can be addressed to a deity, or they can be
rhetorical in nature and addressed to no one in particular- _ A A
(e.g. Mannum-ki-Sin, "Who is like Sin?").
6. Complaints. Complaints are usually in the form
of a question or a negative statement (e.g. Ali-1lum, "Where 1s
- -the god?" or Atanah-1l1, "I have become t.ired, 0 my god").
They indicate displeasure over some ai~uat.iJn which the deity
is be11eved to-have caused.
7. Admonitions. 'These names are ~ord~ of advice from
the parent to the child, r~minding the ch~ld ~o continue
doing something in relation to the deity. They usually have
1 v .
an imperative verba torm (e.g. Ilis-tikal, "Trust in the god!~).
8. Exelte~ p9~itioq. These n~mes are all "at~ribute"
names (see no. 2 above) which exalt the deity in relation to
other gods'or mankind or the land, e~c. They contain three
elements usually in the following pattern: (i) divine name,
in mo~e than one cate~ory.
(2) characteristic of -comparison, (3) ob~ect of comparison A _ _ A
(e.g. Sin-bel-ili, "Sin is the lord of the gods").
The inforMation we have Just described is listed in
Table 1 which follows. The number of times each e!e~ent
appears at each city is giv~n in parentheses at the end of the
element. Totals are given at'~lhe end of each category to
facilitate the comparison of cities. However, no totals are ~
~.
~ >~Tables 2 and 3 arrange the informati~n from T~ble 1 in~'
a'form which can be used for compariaQn. Table 2'ranka the
categories in each city according.to their frequency of usage.
It inCludes the total nuaber"of personal names in each
category, the percentage of personal na.es in each category
(based on the,total number of personal names ~t each city),
and the ranking of each category in ~elat~on to~the other' , ~
categories (1 = Moat frequent 'usage-: 25 = least frequent, • ~
usage). Table 3 g~ve. t~e a~~e information i~~~other format. -~
. It ranks the four citie~ eac~ category.
,
'/
\ .
(2) (0) (0) (O) ~.>l
Kslu
b . (0) (1) (2) (2)
kililu
(0) (0) (0) (1)
(0) (2) (3) (1 ) . ,. )lgdu ..
Attribute naIRes '4 3 1 4
(4) (3) (1) (4)
(1) (0) (0) (O)
(1) (0) (0) (0)
(10) <12> (7) (25)
Exalted position 2 2 3 3
(85)(107) (85)(156)
:(0) (0) (1) O( 1 )
- !.nY.
(2) (3) (4) (15)
Requests/wishes 0 0 1 0
(8) (9) (33) (12)
(0) (0) (0) (2)
(5) (6) -(0) (6)
"
Tot.al.
\
-- .. (19) (21) (40) (24)
(0) (0) (0) (1)
Requ.sts/wishes 0 1 0 0
(2) (3) (1) (3)
(1) (1) (0) (1)
n.du
Reque.t../wi.h.._ 0 .1 0 0
Coapl.int.s 0 '0 1 1 - <'t!>F
(0) r <3> (2) (3) ,
~
021 ~
(1) (2) (17) (0)
I
3 5 0 2
1 3 1 9
(4) (9) (2) (15)
'\, (0) (0) (0) ( 1.)"\
(3) (8) (1) (6) 11-guradu
Attribute names 0 1 0 1
Designat.ion names 0 1 1 0
(0) (2) (1 ) ( 1·)
(0) (1) (2) <tp "'.;. V
A \ sadu
".,./. (2) (4) <1 ) (8)
(39) <59) (32) <56)
<0> <1> <0> <1)
Request.a/wishes 0 2 1 2
<0> <3> <1> <3>
<2> <0> (1) <1)
Requests/wishes 0 0 0 1
<1> <0> _ <0> <4>
Request.s/wishes 0 2 1 1
(0) <2> <2> <1 >
(8) <1.3) (5) <23>
~\.
The percentages £or'Ur are based on 943 PMs.
Rank Category Number o£ PNs in This Category
cPercent.a,ge o£ PHs in This Category
\
The percentages for Larsa'~;are bas~d ort' 124:.'1 PHs.
Nusber of PN& in" Percentage o! PNs Rank Cateoory Tbis Cat.egor.:t. in Tbis Category
<l
2~ Birt.h 145 11.G~
3. Great.nea8 107 8.6"
4. Prot.ect.ion 105 8.4~
5. Consideration 94 7.5"
S. Well-being 71 5.7"
. /
15. / Trust. 32 2.6". .~
17. Guidance 27 2.2"
/'
2<1: • ,Justice 14
22. Wisdom ,~. 13 v
Th~ percent.ages for 5ippar are based on 1598 PHs.
Nuaber a£ PMs in Percent.a'ge o£ PMs Rank Category This Category ~n This Category
1. Special Relat.ionship 241 15.1" - -,?
2. Birth 222 13.9"
3. Great.nesa 156 .. 9.8"
4. Prot.ection 127 7.9" .'
5. Consideration 116 7.3"
6. Well-being 105 6.6" •
7. Asais1:.anC::e 63 ~--'. 3.9" ~
8. DelivDrance 61 3.8"
10. Speak.tng 'AI 57 9.6"S!f< 11. St.rengt.h ''', 56 3.5"
. ,
(' ,.
Percentage o£ PNa Category in This Category Ra-nk
1 • A££ection
-.. r
• r
j
90 "~
. f
(2) Sip~ar
(2).~··. U.:-~
The follow~ng .nalys~~ is based on the information
contained in Tables 1, 2 and 3. We have tried to co.ment on
items which are significant for ~\ia study and not Just , ~
repeat the tables in another formai~
~
In analyzing each category one should keep in mind the I
totalnumper of thebphoric names at each c~ty.~ The number of . , .
names which sr. used and the p~rce~tage of the total are listed .6
in the Introduction (p. 11). The cities with" a larger corpus &- ~
of names would norMa,t1r>Y be 'expected to use elements more
frequently.and with a broas1er range c.,f religious ideas, but
this'is not always the case. Deviations fro~ the e~pected
pattern are noted throughout the analysis •.'
CATEGORY ~. AFFECT~4 A~
1 .
EAements l of a£f~ction .xpr.ss an emotional attachment c.
betweep the deity and ~he name-bearer th~ough ~ords such as
'i OIlove ," "desire," "£avor, if etc.
, 'i Most of~en the a££ec1ion is
; ,- ,
his/her affectio~ ~or the deity (e.g. dadu)i . . ?~
As a group~these ele••nts rank sixt~enth to eighteenth
out o£ twe~ty-~ive categQr!ea at all four citieAI. They appear
in approxi~ately two percent o£ all theophoric names. There are
not a large number of el.ments in this category··-only ten,
and most az:.e not u,sed very o£ten, but the ones 1:.hat do appear
are used cOJil.monly in moat o£ the cities. Only 1:.wo elements
appear in only-one city. Three ~leDenta appear at all fouF
•
95 , -
Sippar. ihe'most numerous eleme~is ar~ ereXu and raau and : • a 9
their nominel 'forms. Tha'former grotp~~~ ~ott pop~lar at
Larsa, and the latter group is moat popular at Slppar.
AlmQst all of these ~lements appeer in either attribute
names or designation names. The attribute naa. is £ar more
popular at Nippur and the designation name is far more popular
at Sippar. At Ur and Larsa the t~o forms are about the sa.e.
~EGO~Y 2. ASSISTANCE.
In this category the dei±y is portrayed as one who
assists, helps, and aupports'mankind. Theaeelements refer
to the normal day-to-dey assistance of the deity and not the
extraordina~y help needed in times of crisis ~see C~~egory 7,
Deliverance)'. The high'popularity of this category indicates .~
that assfstance'was viewed as a normal part of the deity's
activity' and could be called upon frequent~y.
. The elements in this category are used many tiaes.
They are very po~lar at Nippur and Sippar (rank_d fifth to
sev~nth>, ~ut someWhat less popular at Lersa and Ur (ranked
twelfth to fourteenth>. Their frequency of appearance is most
noticeable at Nippur (6.9 percent>, while at the other three.
cities it ranges from 3.2 to 3~9 perc~nt.
There are ninet.en different elements employed. Six ~
of thea appear in all four cities, ana five at only one- ,- ", .
city. The most papular elements.at all locations are hazaru ~ ~
and tillatu. In ad~ition, several elements are used qUite A
,frequently at Nippur in the school texts, notably resu,
-ainu, and 'nemedu. Elements refering to the hand as a helping.
96 ­ '~
~lso, one occupation word (;ukkallu> is used.
Witn-regard to ,form" attribute names are used in the
maJority of cases. Nippur~is especially fond of this form.
There are also a number of general statements and exclamationsl
questions. The exclamati6n/question £orm is used only with ~, '
v' vsymma/summan. No complaint'forms are used and very few
requests are employed. ~he eleJll~nts hazaru" imittu, and , ."
V ,"',r - " ' 8ykkallu are also used as tbeophoric elelents (see Table 22>.
CATEGORY 3. 8IRTH~ .'1. ~\. \ ......
creation" or naming of the n~~!l'b.ar,r-. Altogether" this ..,." .!...
category is the second m~st popul~~ type o~ p~rsonal name at
all four cities. These elements appear in at least ten
percent o£ all theophoric names. at each city. They are
employed most frequentlj at Sippar (13~9 percent> ~nd least
freq~ently at Nippur (10.0 percent>.
'"There are thirty elements which are used in this category.
Eleven appear in all four cities; e~~~en appear in only one
city. Nippur U3es t~e fewest elements" only tnirteen,out 0%
thirty" while ,Sippar.uses the most with twenty~three.
for the sake of analysis we have.divided the thirty
eleJllent~ into five g~oups. ~Each·group ~s concerned with a
different aspect of the birth of a child. I
~, -"'--~. - .:-..--~~
"producing" of the child by "'the deity. 'i It includes the ...
elements banu" -v
97
and zeru. Banu is clearly the most £requen~ element in 'chis
group, appearing in more than thirty-six peraonal, names a~
eec:h city. Examples of liptu and inbu are f~~nd at all~£pQr g. '\
cities, but they are used only occasional'ly, excep't at,:Sippa~
Attribute names and general statements are the most co~mon
:rorms in-this type of nall\e.
ThCl second group deals wit.h the "giving ll o£ the child by
. - the deity. Elements which express this thought are nadanu,
, \
any ot,her \type of birth name. Nadanu and its nqminal forl'8 - _.~. I,. ., .
are as popular as banu, occurring at least thirty-nine
times at 'each city • . ;., ,
common element., occurring at::least. ten t.imes at. each city. The
bulk of these namea,are g~~~~l statement forms with aome 'f. ~
designat.ion names, but. very few attribute names.
The third group indicates the IInaming ll of the child by the
deit.y. ,. v ..
This type includes the elements nabu, sumy, zakaru, ,.
a~d zikry. Nabu is frequent.ly used at all four cities •.
y The other elements are seldom u~ed except sumu which appeara
nine times at. Sippar.
The fourt.h group of birt.h names indicat.es the number
v "of c:hl1drfan in- t.he family. Wedu and ait.tu indicat.e an only , A /«"b_~__
V V -v···"child, a!!DJL. second chlld, .and salasu a third chilc;1.",·"'<· - V A -. _ • ~-f
Except.·£or aanu and wedu these ele.ent.s are aeldo•. used~
The fift.h group of birth names is also a minor type.
"
. ,
....
,~ .' ~~':.:
,98
They include the elements waladu. wasu,. These elements are seldom used. '
'1.
The general statement is the most frequent form in this
category. Attribute and designation names are also popular.
l~here are very few requests/wishes for births and only one
complaint. 'Three elements Gre also used as theophoric ... v ....
elements--banu. sueu. and wedu (see Table 22).
~ATEGORY 4. COMPASSION.
but compassion is an emotion which is aroused by someone
else's need· or diatreas. With re~erd to the persenal names
in this category the dei~y is responding to an individual's
need by showing compasaion, grace, or mercy • .,.~
This category of ~le.ents is qUite populer, ~eing
ranked ninth in all four cities. The eleme~ts appesr in
approximately four percent o£ all theophoric names. There
are basically only three elements in thi~ category (damagu,
iegy, and remy), but the derived forms bring th~ total to
six. Ipgu is the moat frequently used element at all four. ~
cities, but all six elements are found at three of the cities.
Ur is lacking two elements.
Almost all of the elements appear in attribute or
designation naaes. There are only three to £ive requests I
wishes at each city and 'even less of the other forms • .
CATEGORY s. CQMPENSATIO~.
A 60mpensation personal ~a.e is a name which indicates
that a fa.ily •••ber he. previously died and the deity has
99
compensated for this death by providing a new child. As 8
whole, compensation e~ements appear very infrequently. They
rank eighteenth or nineteenth at!all four cities. Their
frequency of appearance rang~s £rom 2.1 percent at Sippar
to 1.3 percent at Ur.
This categ~ry contains sixteen elements, but only ~
riabt.t and its nominal f'orJ'tS occur on a rS,gularbasia.
Eight of' the elements appear only once in:one city, and the
others appear very seldom, so it is dif'£iqult to make any kind
of meaningful &naly~is. What is significa~t is that
compensati~n can'be expreesed in many ways{ but only ri~bu -", 1\
gained Gny'popular~ty at all four e~tlea. ,~q~e,b£ the /';'- ~ ,\. ,
elements describe the deity as "oppressin9 .. ~" "binding," \ "
\
sat1s:fied." However, none are used enough t~ indicate any
"
"
The most' frequent form in this category ~s the "general • i
statement. Lesser occurrences ftppear in about\ theaame
frequency for attribute naaes, designation nam~s, requestsl \ '
wishes, and complaints. Compared to the smsll\number of \
personal n~.es in this category, the number of' \requestsl
\ "wishes and complaints is rather large. i
CATEGORY 6. CONSIDERATION. I , •
100
party (usually the de+ty) is aware ox another party (usually
a person). This aWareness is expressed in terms such as
OIconsiderJ.ng." "hearing." "seeing." "agreei.ng." "remeMbering."
"understanding." etc. However. tha situation can be reversed. ~..
At t.imes t~he worshiper is the one who is doing the "considering. II
etc •• or ~ho is seekin~.the attention of the deity. These
names use such terms as "seeing." .. imploring .,," "pleading." ,~
"praying.'" etc. ,.':tp~~v~ry city except Laraa. appro~;ima~'~/ ///
seventy pcarcent 0%' th~ person41 names in t.his c70ry
indicate divine consi.deration. and:7,~~rty pe~nt indicate
hUlAan consideration. At Larsa t.he £igUres~or human
conaldera~lonare aoaewhat lower. indl~~ng that hUMan
consideration was not. as popular ther1: The exact £igures ! ~ .
.; tor each city' are as follows:
Divine conaideration
The total number of nalles '~~~~hiS catego~y indi~ates
ranked fifth or sixth at al~
t.hat. this was a'popular type .60£ name ..,'l;his, ~t.e90ry is !,;li( -;.,~ ,~, ~...,
fo~r cLtiea •. The frequency .....~"
of 1.-•
.. IJ' • from 7.5 percent at Larsa to 6.4 percent. at. Ur~.
." usage r8lngee
and Nipl)Ur. The category contains the 8econ~eat number ~.
of elemants--thirty-two. Eight of them appear in all £our
cities; fifteen at only o~e city. Ur uses the least number
of .'l.ments in t.his categox-y (fourteen). while Lars3 uses-
the most <twenty-one). The moat popular elementa which
. V A
". !nd-ic4tt.e divine consideration ere semu and J1\agaEu. Amaru is "f_. ,;.- .t.,
101
The 'most frequent forms are genera+'statements. ~ttribute .,.,l .,
• r -.. '........ "
~nta~ns a large number of requests/wishes-for the deity I'-'
.. '-.
somet.h-ing-_ This suggests 81 fear th~t. t.he deity was not
listeningQ The frequency of usage indicates that this fear
was g~eatest et Larsa. There are alao some admonitions in , ~~ a
this category. especially ~t'Sippar, exp~essing a parental -- ~/
desire that their children ~hou~d pay'~ttention to the de1ty~
CATEGORY 7. DELIVERANCE.
ability to deal with crises and troubles 'in one's life.
The deity is portrayed as one who "saves." "apares. I.
"triumphs." "is victorious."
frequen~ly. Ur - 6.6 percent (ranked fifth) and Larsa - 5.3
percent (ranked seventh). However. the two other cities use
them ~ch les~ frequently. Sippar - 3~8 percenf (ranked eighth) I
and Kippur - 3.3 percent (ranked thirteenth).
these differences is difficult to determine. o ~
The reason for
They JR~y 'indicte
a perceived sense o£ more need for deliverance in the south.
or they may indicate more confidence 1n the deity's ability
to provide deliverance in the south.
Another factor which 1s based mainly 9n the form of the \>
names also needs to be considered in this analysis. There
are basically two types of names i~ this category: (1) those
102
that expr~ss the positive viewpoint that the deity is~~lready
y,
.a saviour or has saved them (mainly attribute names or general
statements)~ and (2) those that indicate~ either by a compla~nt
or, a request for deliverance~ that the speaker is in desperate /
atreits and needs divine help immediately. When the two
types of names are compared~ they indicate that Nippur and
Larsa are more positive ~n their estimation of the deity's
ability to triumph in the i.ce of adversity. Nippur has . - ~ ~
seventy-a~' percent positive names, Larsa seventy-one percent~
Ur sixty-six percent~ and Sippar sixty-two percent. Very
strangely~ Nippur which uses these elements the least has
the highest percentage of positive names~ and Ur which uses
them the most has ten percent less positive names. These '.
figures indicate very clearly t~t different rates of usage
may not necessarily denote difierent perceptions of the
divine. One must exercise caution in uaing the frequency
i , • '
There a~e fifteen elements in this category. Nine of
them appear at all four cities~ and qnly one appears at a
single city. This indicates that deliverance was commonly
expressed in the same'voc&bulary at all four locations •... Gamalu and its nominal form 9imillu are the moat popular
elements. They appear in at least sixty percent of all the -Ii-
personal names in this category.
The attribute form is the most popular means for
expressing deliyerance. Also~ this category has many.., .
complaints and requests/wishes. In fact there are more
,
complaint names in this category than in any other category.
CATEGORY 8. GREATNESS • • i
~he elements in this category are mainly attribute names
which could be called "praise'~ names" but we have placed them
here because their £ocus of att~ntion is mainly on an intrinsic
quality o£ the deity rathertherl the praise o£ the 'deity • .
'Qualities such as "greatness,," "maJesty,," "honor,," "ilJ"portance,,"
and:"goodness" are designated.
.' 9.8 percent. o£ t.he theophoric n~!lmes. These elem'9nt.a occur
less £requently at Ur (9.0 percent) and Larsa (8.6 percent)
and"quit.e a bit. less at Nippur (6.3 percent.). ,T~ey are
ranked t.hird in eVe~y c,ity exce:pt Nippur where: they are
seventh. Overall", t.his is a category o£ maJor import.ance •.
Twenty-qine elements are £ound in t.his large category.
Eleven element.s appear at. all four cities" and eight. appear in
only one city. Some of the more popular element.s are riabu" ...
rabKo,mannu" etellu" wa9pru" and Anum. The meaning o£ mannu ~;.~~~.,\ .,~-~"
Y!i realry has 'nothing to do with 9/reatne_s" but the rh~torical
£orm of names with thLs element certainly indicates the
greatness o£ t.he deity. Watprn. is popular at all, cities
except Ur" where it does ~ot al~pear.
The attribute name is the principal £orm. There ~re
-~~-
also a substantial number o£ exclamations/questions f~om the
usage o£ mannu. This category us.s~th~ exalted position v - I, ".
form w1th several elements <Aaaredu: ~" 11l11u, kalu"
mala" kuzbu) at all £our c1~iels to indicate the greatness
of the deity.
Elements o£ guidance indicate.±he deity's role in "-. \. . ' > ~,.
uguiding, U uedvi.sing, U and "determining the '£e1'8 'of· the . ,1"'j,
• ~ L q ,
individual •.•• As a group t.hey appear infreq,u6nt.l~.(~bout. t.wo _ .. • _",,* ;_ 1 ,. ,<.
percent. of the theophoric name~ at all cities>,fand they are
ranKed £i£teenth or seventeent.lV'at. all cities.
{' ~;
appear in all four cities--.in.J!. and ",alAKu. : _Sip~r'uses
all ten elements, and Larsa uses eight, but Ur and ~ippur are ~ f>
very limited in the usage o£ different elements (£our ~r less>.~
HalaKu and i t.s _nominal forms are the most £fequen't.,:~lements.
They are especially populai-~n-the school texts at Nippur~
v -The element. tiamu and it.s nominal £orms, expressing £ate or
dest.iny, appear five-times each at Larsa and Sippar, but only
once at Ur and never at Nippur. Inu appears frequently .}
at Sippar but. seldom in the ot.her cities.
Wit.h regard to form, t.he at.tribute name ~s the only , l
frequent type. There are some exalte_ position,names at
all four cities with ~.
reJoicing. The exact. reason for this reJoicing fS never
mentioned, but. the most. likely reason is-t.he birt.h of a child, 111
although this would not. apply to the personal name with siahu.
This concept of "Joy" arid "reJoicing" is one of the least
popular categories. It is ranked at or near the bottom in
all cities except Sippar where it is nineteenth. Ur has only .0
105
two personal names in this category, and Larsa and NfPpur
~
There are only three elements in this ~ategory•. Sippar ¥
~ uses them all. /".
" '
all cities .. an,d, it. .is used .quite £.requent·lY at Sipps'r. .. ~ _ f
'Designation names are the most popular £orm in this category.
CATEGORY 11. JUSTICE.
.' power to Judge .. to-Iftake.right .. to see that Justice is done~
~ ~
anq Judgment were a part o£ ~he divine character· and at .
times ne~ded to be mentioned.. ,
Th~.£requency o£ appearance o£ th_ae el~ents is the
same at al~cities.. ·4bout one percent or less. This category
ranks twentY-£i~i~or twenty~second at each location. Six , ...... '.
All sixa,re £ounq, at ~. - -" .
~. __...----.,,~_. --Y
and dinu. ,They express the cQncept o£ J~dgment. Three
other elements in this category ~eal with the resuit' o~ ..---'"
Judgment which is Justice. Both concepts are £ound' at all
cities except Nippur .. where only JUdg.ent appears. Wheuher
'.. "oi • -
,,_,"::- n
(see Table 22).
Ownership elements ind~cate that one party belongs to
another party or 'is, claimed by another party. In. moat o£ "
- - ·the names in this category it is the name-bear~r who belongs
to a deity. Howe;er, the concept is reversed ~n ~he names v,..
with !§y. where the deity is claimed by the name~~earer
and his/her £amily.;
This is not~a:large category with Qnly six ~lements, and
- - . v three o£ them are £orms o£ the'determinative pronoun (sa,
v- v ' sat,~~). The determinative pronoun is the most popular
element, and it is £ound£--%'equently in: all cities, being , \'.'-
especi~lly popular at Ur. The other elements are ~~e4_.uch r-JJ. Q <
lese frequently, but th~y are generally common to mo~~ ~£
the cities. Five~£ the six el~ments appear ~t e~ch~location. , g=b
T~is category is located about ~he halfway p~int in rank , .
(tent.h to t~hirteenth position) except at Ur where ft J •
is more popular in the seventh pdsition. The'frequency
of usage ranges from 5.4 peraent at Ur to 2~9 percent at C
S!ppar. -The designation form is the most \£requen~~y used " -
form, but general _tatement.s are a~so cOlflmon.
9.Af£G08Y .13 :"1 PARDOlf. ,. "
Pardon and-reconcilie-tion are needed-when one hCls. - -'- .
.~.
'-"
-wronged "or 'grieved a deity. The this
'~a~egory are attempt~ at dea~in9· with d~ ine anger and seeking.. - . ... '- . ' ". ~ . ~
reconciliation.~- The individual understands that ,the ange~ of o •
the deity JP.ust be -appeas'-d ~e£ore his/her misfortune can •
ch8ng~. Some ot these .na••• are,C:OJnPla'~S or ettemp'ts to \ -
~ppease the deity.
\
'These elements appear very infrequently (less than-
one percent>, and the category as a whole~anks last or -
near the last;. in all cities. Sipp~ris the only place
wh~re these elements~are used-more than 'a handful of times. "
- v-There are only five elements" and pasaru is the only element
found at each location. Three ~lements are used in 'only on~
city. There,sre £ive d~££erent £orms used in this category.
and none of the. are especially popular.
..
CATEGORY 14. PRAISE. J'
For the most part. thip category of n~.es does,not deal .
wit'h a divine qu,lity but rather with a human response to
the divine. The worshiper' is glori£ying a deity. The reason
for this praise is never mentioned, but it probably is '.
rtilated ,,,;to ~:~birth. However. the g';ner41 statement nallles
v .. with samary ~ttribute the act 0% p~afsing to the deity
also (see this elellent in the G~ossary £or a discussion-C?f
its pr~ble.atic interpret.tion>~ Even the gods sometimes
pra~se the birth of 8 child.
of a general,praiae nature in
J. St~~m includes many -names . '
- 1 t~i~ category, but we have
included only those which directly sp~ak of praiae or
There are five elemen~s in this
a££ir.ation of the deity.
" .
1·ANG. pp. 237-238.
L.rsa is the only city ! :~
""",
which uses all five e1ements. Praise names arE! most .popular
4~ N~ppur and Ur where they are ranked fou~teenth o~ fifteenth. _ . I •
~t ~araa and Sippar they are.ranked quite a b~t lower. 'The. "
frequency of :appearan.e ranges from 3.0 percen't at Nippur to i A
1.5 percent 4t Sippar. Nadu is the most popu~ar element in ' I
this categorr. Nippur uses it repeatedly in the school texts.
The·" moef frequent:l y used form is the req\Jle.st/wish, and
aore names
interpreted them as general wishes addressed to no one in
particular since they are plural in form (see this element in
the ·Glossary 'for a discussion of ita uncertain inte~retation)• .'
CATEGORY lS. PRESENCE.
T~e elements .in·th~s eate$ory in~ieate that
b£.er is near ~r i~,the preeenc~ of the deity.
the name--?
Sometimes, this ie shown by action on the part of the deity, such as
"colliing ~ near," "com1n.9 down, II IIcom,in9 forth, II IIretu_rning, ,.
etc. Other times prepositions such as IIwith," "be£.ore,1I
·'after ll , are used. i
"
, all four cities (from eleventh at Nippur and Larsa to
I ~
fourteen~h at Sippar). The frequency of appearance"}a
around three ~ four pe~cent at ali locations. it is a
fairly large category with twenty-one elemonts, five of which
are ~ound in all citie~>. Ten of· the elemeltt.s appear at only
one site.
The element tvuand its nominal forms tayyaru and ,., .....
turu are the R\oatfpoPul~r elements in this category. As a
"group they are used very frequently. Taru indidates not ~
only the i~mediate'presenceof the deity but also his/her
previous presence, so that fellowship with the deity is an 0
" o~going relationship •. Another popular element~s tappu.
This element is a favorite o£ the school texts at Nippur.
The most popular forms are the attribute names and general
sta,tements" but there are also' a good number of' requests/wishes
for the deity~s presence. Two elements are also used as A A
theophoric elements--tappu and W8§U (see Table 22) •.. CATEGORY 16. PROTECTION.
Elements o£ protection ind~cate that ~he deity cares
enough about the name-bearer· to provide protection, shelter,
haven from the troubles and misfortunes of life. This~concept
is one o~ the most· popular categories at all cities. The
, frequency o£ appearence ranges from 8.7 percent at Nippur to
6.9 percent at Ur. This category is ranked third or £ourth
in each city.A Over one hundred theophoric names appear at n
Larsa, Nippur, and Sippar. Only at Ur 1s this category
somewhat smaller.
Twenty-three elements ar.. used in this category. Seven
of them are used at all locations: nine of them at only one.
Ur uses tbe least nu~ber of elements (ten out of twenty-three),
while Sippar uses the most (nineteen).
. ,.'.'..
"
110
of the nam~s are in the attribute or designation form. The
designation form is more popular in the southe~n cities of
Ur and Larsa, and the attribute form in the cities o£ Nippur
and Sippar. Nippur especially prefers the attribute name , II
over the design~tion name. There are very few requests/wishes
and general s~~tements, indicating that protection was ass~~ed , - .
to-be a nor.al function o£ the divine responsibility, and it
... did not need to be requested or described.'
" '. '~
".
The most popular elentents are, sillu, puzru, -~ . nasaru,.
and ¥l"lla,*~u.~. Larsa has a r.r.""ery strong preference for puzru' .~ #po.. ~.-< ~ , \ • !!'
and ,illu. ,Almost SiX~yper~ent..of the one hundr\d £ ive
pr(;f£ect1.6n ~ames at Lar,s45 use these two elements. '"At Nippur
the oP~9.i~e is true. Puzru and §i~ are u~ed in only
eighteen percent o£ the names. Nippur prefers elements such ~ A
as itu, -nagidu, and re'~.
This category likes to use physical obJects to get across
the iC\ea o£ protection" e.g. babu "gate," dimtu "tower,"
duru,"wall,," ekallu "palace,," llY.. "border," kibru "edge,"
...~ ~
. '
t.he idea' o£ ~est.ing wi thin '8 shel t.far~d enclosure. ' This ~ ... / 9t"
category also uses occupations, e.g,. ,...at~ OIga t.ekeeper, "nagidu A
"herdsman," re'u "shepherd,," and i'Abu OItr.oops. II One element. is~~@~ used a~('a' theophoric element.,.-ri'; ;Csee Table 22).
~ r ~~j-
CATEGORY 17: PROVISION.
In these elements the deity is seen as one who provides ,.
for the individual"s basic needs, especially food. A few
111
nouns deal~ng with items of food product~on are used (e.g. ",,'
karu IOlailo" and namu/nawu IOpasture land lO ) and also an
occupat.,ion name (tamkaru IOmerchant10) •
ASI a group this category is not used .frequently except
at Nippur. The other three cities have a. frequency of usage
around one percent~ and they are ranked twentieth o~ twenty~
third. 'However~ na~es of provision are a favorite categoryl
at Nippur where they are ranked eighth and have a frequency
of usage of 5.4 percent. Most of these n4mes at Nippur come
from tne school texts~ so it is difficult to estimate their
actual popularity.
There a~e nine elements in this ca~egory. Only two
v-(asgru and wabalu) are found at all four cities. The elements
karu. - - wabqlu~ and ?ranpnu are u.ed repeatedly in the school
" texts at Nippur~ but they are seldom found elsewhere. The
most common forms ~re t~e attribute names and the general
statements.
terMS such as "radiance~" "light~·i "bright~" "shining~" etc., ...
is a popular subJect for personal names. This category ranks
from tenth position-at Nippur to thirteenth at ~arsa. The
frequency of appearance is ~.1 to 4.1 percent.
There are only six ele"ents in thi6l.category. Three of
them a~ear at all four citi~s ~nawaru~ nUru~ and Xam~u).
~ost 0 th~_namee in t~ie_ca~e90ry are concentrated in two
element -nUEU ,and,nawaru. Nuru is especially popular at
"
v y Astral obJects such as thQ sun (samsu) and
all cities~ and:-' 't.~, • . .... "" •
The most popular forms are designation and attribute names.
- - v v 'Nawaru, D~, samau, a~d warhu also appear as theophoric , .
elements (see Table 22). It
CATEGORY 19. REVERENCE.
Like the catE!gory of "Praise~" this category is concerned
with the human response to the divine rather than a div~ne
quality. These elements indicate "reverence'~II tI£ear ~.. "*respect II
for the divine.
This is a very minor category~, ranking at the bottom or
near the bottom in all cities. The £requ~cy of appearance /,
is always lees than o~e p~fcent. Only t~o names appear at
Nippur ~ and the other ci tice'AI &%'e rt6i"'JlLU,¢h higher. There' ,,:,~:.,,:,~~- ~'f{-·-~--\.li. i .... ..,
are only t~o elements. Palahu ~~e~fs ~t .- '.' ~,. }
• euu is ori1y missing at Nip~ur. !epu is a physi~al obJect I
used as a sign of. nomage,_ i.'~ bo~ng at 1;-~~ foou, of th~ dei~Y.
Admonitions, indid~'i~n9 a par~~tal re~l.nder to cO'ntinua1,t,y
respect the deity~ are used frequently at Sippar.
CATEGQ~ 20. SrEAKING.
This 'category contains elements which d~not~ the "speaking"
or "sound" o~ the deity. Sometimes the "act of speaking" is
emphasized, and other tiaes the "word spoken" is important.
This category ranks near the middle 'point of popularity at
three cit.ies--Sippar (tenth), Ur (t'hirteenth),! and Larsa
(fourteenth). Only at Nippur is this category somewhat less
popular (twentieth). The frequency of appearance is 3.6 to
113
3.0'percent at Sippar, Ur, and Laraa, but drops to 1.3 percent
at Nippur.
There are seven elements in this categ~ry. ~ is I
cle~rly the moat popular element, appearing in as many as
- forty elements at Sippar. The large number of theopboric
namea wit.h QJd. indicat.es that. "the word of a deit.y" is a
/:..
ikun, and sani~. ~ and qabu are th~ only elements which
are found at all locations. With regard t.o form, attribute
n8mes and genera~ statements are used the most.
CATEGORY 21. SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP. { .
namea," and "social positions" w,hich ':'ndicate a" special.
relat.ionship between t.he deity and t.he na~e-bearer or mankind
in general. This type of name is clearly the most popular
theophoric personal na.e in Old-Babylonian t.imes. The
frequency of appearance is about. fourt.een to sixteen percent
at ev~ry ,cit.y except Nippur where it is qUite a bit. less at.
11.2,perce~. This category ranks first at all four cities
under consideration. Ii the enoraous number of names which
uae these eLements 'as theophoric elements are 'also added
-~ --(see abu" aha.t.u,,~,-~ '-.plu" belt.u" belu" lli., ..
tarru" u.mu, and wardu in Ta61e 22>" t.hen this cat.egory
represent.s fort.y to fifty percent. of all theophoric names • ., .1'
Thi~ category also contains the largest number of -
elements--thirt.y-faur. Sixteen are used in all four cities; .
114 .. nine are used at only one city. The moat :frequently used
elements are ~ and ~.
'. The ":family" names (~"ahu" belu, "hClu" kimtu,
A - - - - v- ligutu" martu" maru" marutu~ nisu~ p~r'u, ummatu" and ummu)
t ..q __ .~ .. •~. ~,., '. ,>,
:form a group which is q:uit.e popialfl1f. -Th~y_ $i=,Omprise . .l "-'--'" ';'f-'$.~..... ~' : >:' 4 ~ '(~
l .-- .:~ .';.~ ; -k;; ~~ '<It . }ltl
Some o:f ,t,heJit--.1ght. J)8, -c5onaidered "Birth" names" but we have
placed all th4 £~mily~names here. Sippar has almost twice •...
as many o£ t.hese as t.he other cit.~es CUr - £i:£.ty-£our, Larss - i " ,
:fi:fty-nine" Nipp~r - forty-seven,,! Sipp~r - one hundred three).
"Social position" names (ay.bu" yj;,Y,,, -asiru" awiltu,
- - - v v - -aWilu, beltu, belu" sarru" sarrU~u" ubar~" wardu, and zika~u)
comprise another third o£ the special relationahiij~~~s. •fit,·
Most reflect a positive" servile reletionship to the deity.
AYabu is included here" although its negative tone may
indicate another category.
,"young c&1:£,',," kalbu "dog,," labu "liol'll,," lulimu "stag,," .and /""=
"
this category for lack o£ a better place to put", them. They "j.: ~
usually appear aa attribute or deeignatio~ names •. l However,
-some with riMu alsQ appear in the exalted position £orm.
Only buru and rimu are used at all four cities. The animal
names are ~he most popular at Larsa and SipPar (Ur - ten"
Larss - eighteen" Nippur - eleven" Sippar - twenty).
The other three elements do not £it into any of the , -~\~"':1
above three groups. ~ is a very popular eteme~t~w~iCh
115
indicates that the deity is a personal god (see the Glossary),
whil~ n§bu and ~ are used infrequently.
All the elements 'in this category ere nouns. As one 4
would expect with nouns, attribute and designation names are
by far the most frequently ,used forms. There are also the
largest number o£ exalted position names in this category.
CATEGORY 22. STR~NGTH.
The elements in thi~ category deal with strength end
power and the ability to do things. Most o£ them attribute
thi~ quality or the source of this quality to the deity. but
some of them de.C~i~e the nG~a-bearer as strong or firm (see
klnu, rids. 3-4 in the Glossary).
:>.,
•
The qUG~i~y of strength is much a~ired in Larsa where ~-~ '\-
, l:'~
is rankedelgh'th, but it is less apprecJ.ated in the "
other citi~s where it is ranked tenth at Ur, eleventh at
~ipp~~,; and sixt.eenth at Nippur.