Sunday, February 19, 2023

Temple and palace discovered in Iraq

Ava and I are doing everything we can to get an edition up at THIRD in the next few hours.  We have a very rough draft of a piece on Roseanne's comedy special (the draft needs a polish) and we're working on a piece about Anne Heche that we've paused so I can come over here.  With Betty, we worked on another piece, Dona and the gang are working on something and Ty has an idea for something so, hopefully, in a few hours we'll be done.  I do not like it when it drags on into the week.  That said, if this takes too much longer, I'm going to be the one throwing in the towel tonight.

Iraq, we covered the 5,000 year old pub recently discovered a few weeks back.  There's a new discovery in Iraq.  Now Tobi Thomas (GUARDIAN) reports:

It has been described by the director of the British Museum as “one of the most fascinating sites” he has has ever visited, but the archaeologist who led the discovery of a lost Sumerian temple in the ancient city of Girsu has said he was accused of “making it up” and wasting funding.

Dr Sebastien Rey led the project that discovered the 4,500-year-old palace in modern-day Iraq – thought to hold the key to more information about one of the first known civilisations.

The Lord Palace of the Kings of the ancient Sumerian city Girsu – now located in Tello, southern Iraq – was discovered during fieldwork last year by British and Iraqi archaeologists. Alongside the ancient city, more than 200 cuneiform tablets were discovered, containing administrative records of the ancient city.

Rey said that when he first brought up the project at international conferences no one believed him. “Everyone basically told me, ‘Oh no you’re making it up you’re wasting your time you’re wasting British Museum UK government funding’ – that’s what they were telling me,” he said.

Girsu, one of the earliest known cities in the history of humankind, was built by the ancient Sumerians, who between 3,500 and 2,000 BC invented writing, built the first cities and created the first codes of law. The ancient city was first discovered 140 years ago, but the site has been the target of looting and illegal excavations.



While excavating a section of the Girsu site, archaeologists finally located the long-lost structure, uncovering the temple’s main sanctuary, according to the release. The sanctuary was dedicated to Ningirsu, a Sumerian god and the city’s namesake.

 Although only the ruins of the sanctuary remain, the structure was once massive and magnificent. Digital reconstructions show what the temple may have looked like, an intricately decorated prominent building.

 The joint team of British-Iraqi archaeologists working on The Girsu Project also uncovered another “significant” find: a “lost palace” used by the city’s kings, per the release.

 
Ningirsu?  Also known as Ninurta.  From WIKIPEDIA:


Ninurta (Sumerian: 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒅁: DNIN.URTA, possible meaning "Lord [of] Barley"),[1] also known as Ninĝirsu (Sumerian: 𒀭𒎏𒄈𒋢: DNIN.ĜIR2.SU, meaning "Lord [of] Girsu"),[2] is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with farming, healing, hunting, law, scribes, and war who was first worshipped in early Sumer. In the earliest records, he is a god of agriculture and healing, who cures humans of sicknesses and releases them from the power of demons. In later times, as Mesopotamia grew more militarized, he became a warrior deity, though he retained many of his earlier agricultural attributes. He was regarded as the son of the chief god Enlil and his main cult center in Sumer was the Eshumesha temple in Nippur. Ninĝirsu was honored by King Gudea of Lagash (ruled 2144–2124 BC), who rebuilt Ninĝirsu's temple in Lagash. Later, Ninurta became beloved by the Assyrians as a formidable warrior. The Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (ruled 883–859 BC) built a massive temple for him at Kalhu, which became his most important cult center from then on.

In the epic poem Lugal-e, Ninurta slays the demon Asag using his talking mace Sharur and uses stones to build the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to make them useful for irrigation. In a poem sometimes referred to as the "Sumerian Georgica", Ninurta provides agricultural advice to farmers. In an Akkadian myth, he was the champion of the gods against the Anzû bird after it stole the Tablet of Destinies from his father Enlil and, in a myth that is alluded to in many works but never fully preserved, he killed a group of warriors known as the "Slain Heroes". His major symbols were a perched bird and a plow.

Ninurta may have been the inspiration for the figure of Nimrod, a "mighty hunter" who is mentioned in association with Kalhu in the Book of Genesis. Conversely, and more conventionally, the mythological Ninurta may have been inspired by a historical person,[3] such as Ninus. He may also be mentioned in the Second Book of Kings under the name Nisroch.[a] In the nineteenth century, Assyrian stone reliefs of winged, eagle-headed figures from the temple of Ninurta at Kalhu were commonly, but erroneously, identified as "Nisrochs" and they appear in works of fantasy literature from the time period.

Worship 

Ninurta was worshipped in Mesopotamia as early as the middle of the third millennium BC by the ancient Sumerians,[4] and is one of the earliest attested deities in the region.[4][1] His main cult center was the Eshumesha temple in the Sumerian city-state of Nippur,[4][1][5] where he was worshipped as the god of agriculture and the son of the chief-god Enlil.[4][1][5] Though they may have originally been separate deities,[1] in historical times, the god Ninĝirsu, who was worshipped in the Sumerian city-state of Girsu, was always identified as a local form of Ninurta.[1] According to the Assyriologists Jeremy Black and Anthony Green, the two gods' personalities are "closely intertwined".[1] As the city-state of Girsu declined in importance, Ninĝirsu became increasingly known as "Ninurta".[2] He became primarily characterized by the aggressive, warlike aspect of his nature.[1]

In later times, Ninurta's reputation as a fierce warrior made him immensely popular among the Assyrians.[4][6] In the late second millennium BC, Assyrian kings frequently held names which included the name of Ninurta,[4] such as Tukulti-Ninurta ("the trusted one of Ninurta"), Ninurta-apal-Ekur ("Ninurta is the heir of [Ellil's temple] Ekur"), and Ninurta-tukulti-Ashur ("Ninurta is the god Aššur's trusted one").[4] Tukulti-Ninurta I (ruled 1243–1207 BC) declares in one inscription that he hunts "at the command of the god Ninurta, who loves me."[4] Similarly, Adad-nirari II (ruled 911–891 BC) claimed Ninurta and Aššur as supporters of his reign,[4] declaring his destruction of their enemies as moral justification for his right to rule.[4] In the ninth century BC, when Ashurnasirpal II (ruled 883–859 BC) moved the capital of the Assyrian Empire to Kalhu,[4] the first temple he built there was one dedicated to Ninurta.[4][7][6][8]

The walls of the temple were decorated with stone relief carvings, including one of Ninurta slaying the Anzû bird. Ashurnasirpal II's son Shalmaneser III (ruled 859–824 BC) completed Ninurta's ziggurat at Kalhu and dedicated a stone relief of himself to the god.[4] On the carving, Shalmaneser III's boasts of his military exploits[4] and credits all his victories to Ninurta, declaring that, without Ninurta's aid, none of them would have been possible.[4] When Adad-nirari III (ruled 811–783 BC) dedicated a new endowment to the temple of Aššur in Assur, they were sealed with both the seal of Aššur and the seal of Ninurta.[4]

After the capital of Assyria was moved away from Kalhu, Ninurta's importance in the pantheon began to decline.[4] Sargon II favored Nabu, the god of scribes, over Ninurta.[4] Nonetheless, Ninurta still remained an important deity.[4] Even after the kings of Assyria left Kalhu, the inhabitants of the former capital continued to venerate Ninurta,[4] who they called "Ninurta residing in Kalhu".[4] Legal documents from the city record that those who violated their oaths were required to "place two minas of silver and one mina of gold in the lap of Ninurta residing in Kalhu."[4] The last attested example of this clause dates to 669 BC, the last year of the reign of King Esarhaddon (ruled 681 – 669 BC).[4] The temple of Ninurta at Kalhu flourished until the end of the Assyrian Empire,[4] hiring the poor and destitute as employees.[4] The main cultic personnel were a šangû-priest and a chief singer, who were supported by a cook, a steward, and a porter.[4] In the late seventh century BC, the temple staff witnessed legal documents, along with the staff of the temple of Nabu at Ezida.[4] The two temples shared a qēpu-official.[4]






The ancient Sumerians, who between 3,500 and 2,000 BC invented writing, built the first cities and produced the first codes of law, built Girsu, one of the earliest known cities in the history of mankind. The ruins of the ancient city were first found 140 years ago, but since then, they have been the target of theft and unauthorized excavations.

The finding is the result of the Girsu Project, an archeological collaboration, established in 2015, led by the British Museum, and funded by the LA-based Getty Museum.

Together with the discovery of the palace and the tablets, the main temple dedicated to the Sumerian god, Ningirsu, was also identified. Before this pioneering fieldwork, its existence was known only from ancient inscriptions discovered alongside the first successful excavation of the ancient city.

The ancient city's site in southern Iraq was "one of the most fascinating sites I've ever visited," according to Hartwig Fischer, the director of the British Museum.



Kat's "Kat's Korner: Chase Rice delivers and then some" went up earlier today.  The following sites updated:






 
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