Xianhua Wang AOAT 385
The Metamorphosis of Enlil in Early Mesopotamia ISBN 978-3-86835-052-4
xx + 297 pp.
2011
64,- EUR

 

Xianhua Wang has written a history of the Mesopotamian deity Enlil as it was before and during the time of Narām-Sîn. In handling primary sources such as personal names and geographical names, offering lists, royal inscriptions, year formulae, and cultic or mythic texts, the result of the work as presented here is thus a study on the attestations of the deity and of the central question how Enlil was relevant to the early Mesopotamian world. Special attention is paid to the history of the names of Enlil and his city, Nippur. The fusing of regional cultural traditions concerning Enlil became realized in the deity being the patron of nam-lugal-kalam-ma, “kingship of the Land”, at the rise of the Sargonids. The idea of Enlil as the patron deity of nam-lugal-kalam-ma was perhaps the innovation of Lugalzagesi who was defeated by Sargon. It seems the Sargonids had also their own interpretation of Enlil the patron of nam-lugal-kalam-ma. But when the Sargonids succeeded in their military conquests even beyond the Land, kalam, so as to create a large territorial state, the Babylonian nam-lugal-kalam-ma became insufficient and finally king Narām-Sîn was deified alive to accommodate the new situation. The deified king as the highest authority in his kingdom domesticcated Enlil by his cultic administration. The characteristics of Enlil as the one who grants ruling power remained in theory and he was still taken care of in a luxurious style but importantly the ideological system is no longer evolving around him and the focus of royal power is now the deified human king.

  

Introduction to the Enlil Project     1
0.1

Philological Studies of Enlil and its Name

    6
0.2

Diachronic Presentations of Enlil

  22
0.3

Enlil in Historical Perception

  28
 
Part I

EN.KID in the Archaic Texts

  41
1.1

EN.KID in Uruk III Sources

  42
1.2

EN.KID in Ur SIS IV-VIII Sealings

  52
1.3

The Pronunciation of ENa+KIDa in the Archaic Texts

  56
  
Part II

Enlil in the Fāra Period

  61
2.1

Enlil in Fāra Period Administrative Texts

  62
2.2

Enlil in the Earliest Royal Inscriptions

  77
2.3

Enlil in Fāra Period Literary Texts

  83
  
Part III

Enlil in the Pre-Sargonic Period

103
3.1

Enlil in Pre-Sargonic Administrative Texts

104
3.2

Enlil in Pre-Sargonic Royal Inscriptions

126
3.3

The Barton Cylinder

149
        
Part IV

Enlil in the Time of Narām-Sîn and After

157
4.1 Enlil in Sargonic Administrative Texts 163
4.2 Enlil in Sargonic Royal Inscriptions 188
4.3

ki-en-gi ki-uri in the “Enḫeduanna” Temple Hymn

212
   
Part V

The Metamorphosis of Enlil

217
5.1

EN+KID = NIBRU in the Late Uruk Period

218
5.2

NIBRU/ENLIL in the Early Dynastic I Period

223
5.3

ENLIL in the Early Dynastic IIIa Period

227
5.4

d.En-líl(É) in the Pre-Sargonic Period

236
5.5

d.En-líl(É) in the Sargonic Period

239
5.6

The History of Enlil and the Metamorphosis of Enlil

243
    

Cited References

247

Indices

273