Ninpumuna

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Ninpumuna
Goddess of salt springs
Major cult centerUr, Puzrish-Dagan, possibly Gishbanda

Ninpumuna was a Mesopotamian goddess associated with salt springs. It is assumed she was also an underworld deity. She is only attested in a handful of texts from the Ur III period from Ur and Puzrish-Dagan, in which she can appear alongside deities such as Ninazu and Ningishzida. It has been proposed she was also worshiped in the cult center of the latter god, Gishbanda.

Character[edit]

Ninpumuna's name can be translated from Sumerian as "mistress of the salt spring."[1][2] The term pu3-mun, "salt spring," is first attested in a document from the Early Dynastic period.[3] The theonym is rendered as dNin-TÚL-mun-na in the Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie,[1] but more recent publications by Dina Katz (2007),[4] Annabelle Staiger (2010)[2] and Jose Hernández (2013) consistently use the reading "Ninpumuna."[5] Mark E. Cohen already referred to her as "Ninpumunna" in a monograph published in 1993.[6]

It is presumed that Ninpumuna was associated with the underworld.[6][1] Possibly the type of springs she was associated with was perceived as a symbol of death.[1] However, Steiger notes that future studies of her character will need to take into account that salt also had positive associations in Mesopotamian culture,[7] chiefly as a valuable ware or as an agent of ritual purification.[8]

Worship[edit]

The only known texts which mention Ninpumuna come from Ur and Puzrish-Dagan.[3] All have been dated to roughly the same forty years old section of the Ur III period, and most were specifically written during the reigns of kings Amar-Sin and Ibbi-Sin.[9]

In a text from the latter of these two sites, a priestess of Meslamtaea is stated to be responsible for offering sheep to Ninpumuna.[10] However, she also had her own clergy, as evidenced by the fact that a "saĝĝa of Ninpumuna" appears in a document from the same location dealing with deliveries for Usaga, a possible member of the royal family, and to an Amorite named Naplānum.[5] The term saĝĝa can be translated as "temple administrator."[11] One ceremony involving Ninpumuna took place in a temple of Ninsun, and apparently was overseen by the reigning king at the time, Shu-Sin.[12] She also appears in the fourth ritual[4] from a series pertaining to funerary rites of the same monarch which has been discovered in Puzrish-Dagan.[13] According to this text, she received an offering of sacrificial animals alongside deities such as Ninshubur, Bau, Belet-Šuḫnir, Haya, various manifestations of Inanna, Shamash, Meslamtaea, Geshtinanna, Allatum, Gilgamesh, the underworld gatekeeper Bitu, the deified king Amar-Sin, and others.[4] The order in which they are arranged might be random.[14]

In Ur Nipumuna appears in two offering lists, in both of which she receives offerings alongside Ninazu, and in one also and Ningirida, Ningishzida, Ninazimua, Alla and a deity whose name is not fully preserved.[6] Similar associations between her and underworld deities are commonly attested in other available sources.[1] She is also attested in association with Alammuš and Ninurima.[15] Based on her connection to Ningishzida, Annabelle Steiger suggests that she might have been worshiped in his cult center, Gishbanda.[12]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e Cavigneaux & Krebernik 1998, p. 507.
  2. ^ a b Staiger 2010, p. 225.
  3. ^ a b Staiger 2010, p. 226.
  4. ^ a b c Katz 2007, p. 176.
  5. ^ a b Hernández 2013, p. 692.
  6. ^ a b c Cohen 1993, p. 468.
  7. ^ Staiger 2010, pp. 232–233.
  8. ^ Staiger 2010, pp. 231–232.
  9. ^ Staiger 2010, p. 232.
  10. ^ Staiger 2010, pp. 226–227.
  11. ^ Hernández 2013, p. 689.
  12. ^ a b Staiger 2010, p. 227.
  13. ^ Katz 2007, p. 174.
  14. ^ Katz 2007, p. 179.
  15. ^ Staiger 2010, p. 228.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Cavigneaux, Antoine; Krebernik, Manfred (1998), "dNin-TÚL-mun-na", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-10-01
  • Cohen, Mark E. (1993). The cultic calendars of the ancient Near East. Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press. ISBN 1-883053-00-5. OCLC 27431674.
  • Hernández, Jorge (2013). "The Role of the Saĝĝa in Ur III Based on the Puzriš-Dagān Texts". Time and History in the Ancient Near East. Penn State University Press. pp. 689–704. doi:10.1515/9781575068565-059.
  • Katz, Dina (2007). "Sumerian Funerary Rituals in Context". In Laneri, Nicola (ed.). Performing death: social analyses of funerary traditions in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. ISBN 1-885923-50-3. OCLC 156832396.
  • Staiger, Annabelle (2010). "Ninpumuna, die Herrin des Salzbrunnens". In Shehata, Dahlia; Weiershäuser, Frauke; Zand, Kamran V. (eds.). Von Göttern und Menschen: Beiträge zu Literatur und Geschichte des Alten Orients. Festschrift für Brigitte Groneberg. Cuneiform Monographs (in German). Vol. 41. Brill. pp. 225–236. doi:10.1163/9789004187474_014. ISBN 978-90-04-18748-1. Retrieved 2022-10-01.
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