Sumerian Literature

Theology

"Here a God, There a God: An Examination of the Divine in Ancient Mesopotamia" (2013) by Michael Hundley - academia.edu Altorientalische Forschungen 40 (2013) 1, 68–107  - Presents an "Aspective model" of deity.

• "In fact, there is no simple answer to even the most basic question: what is a god?"

• Mesopotamians themselves make little attempt to systematically unravel its complexities. As such, modern scholarly attempts to do so in some ways go against the grain of ANE thinking and thus are somewhat artificial.

• For them, inconsistencies, which may simply result from the limits of human cognition, are far preferable to consistent yet consistently restrictive categories. In other words, for them, it is better to allow the deity to be practically limitless even if that limitlessness baffles the mind than to confine the deity to the limited boundaries that are a necessary product of the human mind.

• Two gods in a single name? "It is probable that in combination the first deity is “described as like, or equivalent to, or incorporating the qualities of, the second god; Assur-Adad, in other words, should probably be understood to mean, Assur in the form in which he resembles Adad (probably as a storm god) and not vice versa”

General Considerations on Main Concerns in the Religion of Ancient Mesopotamia (2000) by Pietro Mander - academia.edu S. Graziani ed., Studi sul Vicino Oriente Antico dedicato alla memopria di Luigi Cagni, Istituto Universitario Orientale, Dip. Studi Asiatici, Series Minor LXI, Napoli 2000: vol 2 pp. 635-664 - A consideration of Sumerian religion by axis: An, Enlil, and Enki would be on the vertical axis, with the temple cities of Nippur (Enlil) and Eridu (Enki) forming a North-South axis across Ninhursag. The sun, moon, and planets - all perceived as major gods - provide an East-West axis.

Gods and Scholars:  Mapping the Pantheon in Early Mesopotamia (2011) by Gonzalo Rubio - academia.edu 

• (p. 105) Early Dynastic Sumerian and Semitic mix from Ebla (ARET 5.6 i 6–ii 2)  and Abū Ṣalābīḫ (IAS 326 i 8–13): ‘Prince Ea, god of rejoicing, burning light, fierce shining, splendor (?) of Apsû, leader among the Anunna gods’.

• Wiggermann, Frans A. M. (1998), "Nammu", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, retrieved 2022-10-30

Kalam-ma 𒌧𒈠 

𒌧 = KALAM = “land, country, territory.”

𒈠 = -ma = enclitic particle (locative, genitival, or emphatic, depending on context). 

The suffix -ma is locative/terminative in this case, giving kalam-ma = “in the land” → “the land (par excellence, i.e., Sumer).”

• PSD (Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary), entry KALAM: defines 𒌧 as “land, country,” with occurrences in royal inscriptions, hymns, and lexical lists.

• Edzard (Sumerian Grammar, 2003): emphasizes kalam as “country, land,” with -ma as an emphatic form.

• Thorkild Jacobsen (The Sumerian King List, 1939): glosses kalam-ma as the Sumerians’ collective self-designation.

• Jeremy Black et al. (The Concise Dictionary of Akkadian / ETCSL notes): kalam-ma = “the land (of Sumer), the country.”

• CAD (Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, s.v. mātu): notes that Akk. mātu šumeri(m) corresponds directly to Sumerian kalam-ma.

Semantic Development

• Early Dynastic III (Fara, c. 2600 BCE): kalam-ma was used for the Sumerian homeland.

• Akkadian Empire (24th–22nd c. BCE): kalam-ma glossed as māt Šumerim = “Land of Sumer.”

• Ur III period (21st c. BCE): fixed as a political term meaning the united territory of Sumer.

• Later bilingual texts: kalam-ma generalized into “the world” or “civilized land,” especially in contrast with kur = mountain/foreign land.

Paleographic Composition of 𒌧

• In archaic (Uruk III, Jemdet Nasr) sign lists, 𒌧 is indeed drawn as a composite.

• The upper part resembles KAL (𒆗), which itself is complex: KAL often represents ideas like “precious, valued, strong.”

• The lower/side components resemble NUN (𒉣), which carries values like “prince, great, noble, abundant.”

• Borger (MesZL 2003) lists 𒌧 as UN = KALAM, and notes its resemblance to KAL + NUN.

• The resulting ligature 𒌧 (KALAM) was conventionalized as a logogram for “land, country.”

Labat, R., & Malbran-Labat, F. (1976). Manuel d’épigraphie akkádienne: Signes, syllabaire, idéogrammes (5ᵉ éd.). Paris, France: P. Geuthner. Omnika

Borger, R. (2003). Mesopotamisches Zeichenlexikon (MesZL). Münster, Germany: Ugarit-Verlag. 

The lil2 symbol is 𒆤, as commonly used in the names of the gods Enlil and Ninlil, seems to be combined with KAL to produce the top of the symbol. The Uruk III Ninlil cuneiform symbols in Figure 1 of https://cdli.earth/articles/cdln/2011-6  seem a close match. Could the cuneiform for Kalam be a development of Ninlil?

Englund, Robert K. 2011. “Notes on KIDₐ.” Cuneiform Digital Library Notes 2011 (6). https://cdli.earth/articles/cdln/2011-6.