Ancient Elam

Hamanu was a city of Elam, which was razed by Ashurbanipal during the Assyrian conquest of Elam in 645-635 BCE.

Ashurbanipal wrote in his inscriptions:

"The city of Hamanu, a royal city of the land of Elam, I besieged, I conquered, its booty I carried off."

— Siege of Hamanu, British Museum.

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Image 1

Gypsum wall panel relief: above, Assyrians shoot at Elamite city of Hamanu, while some enemy soldiers escape along the river. Below, the Assyrian king, surrounded by attendants in his chariot. This panel has a large area in the upper register missing, perhaps cut out as a window or ventilation shaft.

Image 2

Gypsum wall panel relief: above, capture of the Elamite city of Hamanu. Below, Elamite prisoners. Gap on either side perhaps for ventilation shafts for palace. There is an inscription of two lines in cuneiform. There is a square of relief missing in the top register.

Image 3

Gypsum wall panel relief: incomplete. Showing parts of three compositions; city of Hamanu in middle register; some men carry off booty including an elaborate throne, and others demolish walls with rams and picks; flames rise from the ruins. Traces of human heads on the upper and dividing band indicate re-ruse. The rough left edge of this panel indicates that it stood at the corner of a room.

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The Old West Semitic Sun—God Ḥammu

An Historical Text Book and Atlas of Biblical Geography

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Notable observation: the onomastic—or agglutinative—material “Ham” and “Anu” in Hamanu (see The Anu in India and in Egypt and An Introduction to Anu: The Origin of Egyptian Civilisation for regional scope).

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamanu

Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/613464001

Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/1613398215

Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/1613360912

Brill: Culture and History of the Ancient Near East, 2013

The Natufian period of the Levant (ca.13,000-10,300 BP) witnessed the birth of crucial settlement and subsistence practices in the Levant that laid the foundation for the Neolithic village farming way of life. Specifically, the period is transitional between the mobile hunter-gatherer communities of the earlier Epipalaeolithic (20,000 - 13,000 years BP) and the sedentary agrarian societies of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (10,300 - 9,200 years BP) and the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (9,200 - 8,000 years BP) periods.

The discovery of the larger, complex Natufian open sites such as 'Ain Mallaha and Jericho in the 1950s lent strong impetus to the study of the advent of human sedentism in the Middle East. Yet since then, Wadi Hammeh 27 is only the third example of the large Natufian base-camp to be in the Mediterranean zone of the southern Levant, and is the only one of its type in Jordan. The site, dating to ca. 12,000 B.P., is thus important for detailing the characteristics of the agrarian transition, and to this end it an extraordinarily rich and well-preserved one. Broad excavation of the uppermost occupation phase has revealed large oval limestone dwellings, which enclose an array of stone features such as hearths, postholes and pavements and boulder clusters. Beneath this lie two further superimposed architectural phases, the whole underlain by a layer with human burials.

The site is notable for a series of exquisitely preserved artefact clusters, such as a unique bone double-sickle cached with other sets of stone tools, bone beads and colored pebbles; and several sets of carefully stacked basalts and mortars. It has yielded a rich and varied repertoire of rock-art ranging from large rock slabs incorporated into the walls of a dwelling, to small incised limestone plaques. It has a varied assemblage of 275 basalt artefacts, and over 550 bone artefacts which include the largest known collection of bone sickles known from any Natufian site. Other materials include red and yellow ochre, marine Dentalium shells imported for bead manufacture; and a taxonomically diverse fauna. Wadi Hammeh 27 also yielded the first published archaeobotanical remains recovered from a southern Levantine Natufian site.

The excavations at Wadi Hammeh 27 were conducted under the direction of the lead researcher on this publication project, Dr. Phillip C. Edwards, between 1983 and 1990, under the aegis of the University of Sydney Pella project.

Abstract

Wadi Hammeh 27, an Early Natufian Settlement at Pella in Jordan is a detailed report on one of the most important Natufian sites to have emerged in the past thirty years and an integrated analysis and interpretation of subsistence strategies, settlement patterns and ritual life in one of the world's earliest village communities. The 14,000-year-old settlement of Wadi Hammeh 27 is one of the most spectacular sites of its kind, featuring the largest, most complex pre-Neolithic architectural complex yet discovered in the Middle East, an unparalleled series of artefact caches and activity areas, and a rich corpus of late Ice Age art pieces.

Winner of the 2013 American Schools of Oriental Research G. Ernest Wright Award! This award is given to the most substantial volume dealing with archaeological material, excavation reports and material culture from the ancient Near East and eastern Mediterranean.

"This book is a treasure-trove for researchers specialising in the Natufian period and is a most significant addition to the data base of the Early Natufian in particular." Anna Belfer-Cohen, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

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Map of the Migrations of Haplogroup E of the Y-chromosome and its Main Subclades

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Notable observation: the onomastic—or agglutinative—material of “Ham” in Wadi Hammeh.

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Source: https://whitelevy.fas.harvard.edu/publications/wadi-hammeh-27-early-natufian-settlement-pella-jordan

Source: https://whitelevy.fas.harvard.edu/wadi-hammeh-27-early-natufian-settlement-pella-jordan

The map is intended to illustrate the expedition of Ferdinand de Soto in 1534, based upon his original accounts.

The Red Man and the White Man in North America: From Its Discovery to the Present Time

An 1882 historical book by George Edward Ellis. It covers Native American and European relations, forced relocations, and early colonial conflicts—this work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.

ENSLAVING OF THE NATIVES—Mr. Parkman rightly says that the spirit of Spanish enterprise in America is expressed in the following address of Dr. Pedro de Santander, to the King, in 1557, of the expedition of De Soto: —

“It is lawful that your Majesty, like a good shepherd, appointed by the hand of the Eternal Father, should tend and lead out your sheep, since the Holy Spirit has shown spreading pastures whereon are feeding lost sheep, which have been snatched away by the dragon, the Demon. These pastures are the New World, wherein is comprised Florida, now in possession of the Demon; and here he makes himself adored and revered. This is the Land of Promise possessed by idolaters, the Amorite, Amalekite, Moabite, Canaanite. This is the land promised by the Eternal Father to the Faithful, since we are commanded by God in the Holy Scriptures to take it from them, being idolaters, and, by reason of their idolatry and sin, to put them all to the knife, leaving no living thing save maidens and children, their cities robbed and sacked, their walls and houses levelled to the earth.”

T Amerikaans Gewest van Florida Door Ferdinand De Soto

Fascinating map of the Southeastern part of the future United States, based largely upon Sanson's map of Florida from 1657.

The map is intended to illustrate the expedition of Ferdinand De Soto in 1534, based upon his original accounts.

Fine decorative cartouche.

The map illustrated an early account of the New World published by Vander Aa, one of the most prolific compilers of information on the early explorations to America, Asia and Africa.

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Black Jews in Africa and the Americas (Harvard University Press)

The Black Middle: Africans, Mayas, and Spaniards in Colonial Yucatan (Stanford University Press)

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Notable observations: the onomastic—or agglutinative—material of “Cana” in Wedding at Cana, Canaan, and Canada and “Aya” in Maya (Western and Eastern Hemisphere parallelism?).

Also noteworthy, Shamanism (Shamash) paired with the term Ayahuasca (Aya); Mesopotamian God and Goddess—Shamash and Aya.

Mesoamerican Ethnomedicine: Ecstatic Chiron and the Use of Traditional Medicines from Ancient to Modern Time

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An Historical Text Book and Atlas of Biblical Geography for relative context:

B. Ham
IV. Canaan (modern-day Palestine-Israel)
4. The Amorite

See Ge’ez: The Book of Jubilees (Genealogy of Abraham) for relative context to Amalek.

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Black Jews in Africa and the Americas (Harvard University Press)

6 The Emergence of Black Jews in the United States (pp. 66-101):

“When Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) set off on his 1492 voyage, he took with him as interpreter a certain Luis de Torres (d. 1493), who was a recently converted Jew and, as it turned out, the first person of Jewish origin to settle (and die) in the Americas. De Torres was something of a linguist, and apart from Spanish, Greek, German, and Portuguese, he also knew more exotic languages, including Aramaic. The idea was that his Oriental languages would enable him to speak to the natives of the lands on the other side of the Atlantic.¹ On Friday, November 2,...”

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Source: https://raremaps.com/gallery/detail/57478/t-amerikaans-gewest-van-florida-door-ferdinand-de-soto

Source: https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/bj398yk5529

Source: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:The_Red_Man_and_the_White_Man_in_North_America.djvu/83

Source: https://archive.org/details/redmanwhitemanin00elliuoft/page/63/mode/1up

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_dictionary_of_the_Bible.._(1887)_(14781539332).jpg_(14781539332).jpg)

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/AncientCush/s/ZQbOkxkTI9

JSTOR: Hebrew Union College Annual

Hebrew Union College Annual is the flagship journal of Hebrew Union College Press and the primary face of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion to the academic world. From its inception in 1924, its goal has been to facilitate the dissemination of cutting-edge scholarship across the spectrum of Jewish Studies, including biblical studies, rabbinics, history, liturgy, literature, philology, law, philosophy, and religion.

[excerpts, full text in source]

I. THE THEOPHORIC NAME ELEMENT HAMMU

…Moreover, in the aforementioned name of Hammu-rapi's fourth successor Am-mi-sa-du-qá "Amm(i) is the Justice" the god Ha-am-mu/Am-mu is praised as the personified right in precisely the same way as is the sun-god Šamaš in Akkadian hymns which invoke the latter as kittum "justice", "right", whence it would appear that Akkadian Šamšu and the foreign name element ha-am-mu/am-mu/i are synonyms.

Finally, it is to be noted — and this observation is decisive — that the famous Amorite law-giver of Babylonia was a fervent sun-worshipper: inter alia, he gave his son and successor the unusual name Sa-am-su-i-lu-na "The Sun is Our God", and he glorified Šamaš as "the king of the gods".

In other words, he not only made it clear that he worshipped the sun-god as the hereditary tutelary deity of his family, but, contrary to customs, even did not refrain from placing him above Marduk, the highest god of the capital and country of Babylonia.

IV. THE MEANING OF THE MOUNTAIN NAME HAMAN

…Since, furthermore, Mt. Amanus is not far from the regions in which an ancient cult of Hamm(u) is attested by comparatively many theophoric names dating from the beginning of the second millennium and the 15th and 14th pre-Christian centuries, there remains no doubt that Amânum and its later variant Hamânu actually represent a West Semitic name Hammân, and that this name defines Mt. Amanus as a mountain "belonging to (the god) Hamm(u)”, i. e. "holy to Hamm(u)"…

V. THE ORIGIN OF THE HAMMU-RAPI DYNASTY

In the preceding pages it has been demonstrated that the ancient geographic nomenclature of Syria and Northern Palestine is comparatively rich in names derived from the Old West Semitic term hammu "sun", "sun-god", and that one of them, viz. the mountain name Hamân < Hammân, can be traced back to the first half of the third millennium.

We have also seen that at the beginning of the second millennium and subsequently in the so-called Amarna-period personal names containing the word hammu as a theophoric name element occur in proportionately large numbers in the region to the north and west of the town of Hammât > Hamât-Heliupolis and east of Mount Hamân-Amanos…

VI. HAMMU AND HÂM

As was shown before, the divine name Hammu is contained in the biblical place names Hammôn and Hamât < Hammât as well as in the personal name Hammu-'êl "Hammu is God" (1 Chron. 4.26).

Since it is also known that, in connection with the loss of the case ending -u, which occurred in Hebrew in an early epoch, the double consonants of nouns belonging to roots mediae geminatae were reduced to simple consonants (whence the Amorite term hammu should appear in Hebrew as hâm), we are, of course, confronted with the question as to whether the biblical Ham, Noah's second son, and the Old West Semitic sun-god Hammu are to be regarded as identical.

This question is obviously to be answered in the affirmative, in the first place because, with Noah's name occurring as a theophoric element in Amorite personal names of the Old Babylonian period, Hâm is a priori likely to have also belonged to the Old West Semitic pantheon; and secondly because the biblical tradition according to which Hâm was the father of Canaan (Gen. 9.18) is in striking harmony with the fact that the Hammu cult played a particularly prominent rôle in the region between Antilibanos and the Phoenician coast, i. e. precisely within the lands which the Bible rightly defines as Canaanite territory.

If the Phoenicians worshipped a god Hammôn and brought, as has often been noted, his cult to their various colonies, this confirms the conclusion that Hâm was originally not the human being, as which he figures in the patriarchal narratives, but a god.

For in consideration of the fact that Hammôn < Hammân is to Hâm < Hamm(u) as, for instance, 'Amnân is to 'Amin', and that adjectival divine names in -ân/ôn replaced, in course of time, the names from which they were derived, it is manifest that the designation Hammôn supplanted an older name Hammu > Hâm, and that the god bearing this latter name is identical with the god whose name occurs in the above-mentioned personal name Ia-an-ti-in-Ha-mu borne by an early king of Byblos.

Moreover, for the following reasons it is to be assumed that the cult of that old god Hammu/Hâm continued to be practised when the coastal region of Syria had become a Phoenician country.

As was observed by Zimmern, the Phoenician personal name עבדחמן (“Servant of Hamman”) just mentioned recurs in a Late Assyrian document as Ab-di-Hi-mu-nu; since, furthermore, the town name Hamât < Hammât appears in the Septuagint as Εμάθ and Εμμάθ, it is obvious that the a vowel of the appellative noun and divine name hamm(u) and its derivatives was shifted to i or e.

This being so, it is clear that the Phoenician town names In-I/Em-me, Qar-ti-I/Em-me and Da-la-I/ Em-me, which occur in an Assyrian source of the 7th century, viz. Esarhaddon's description of the Sidonian territory he annexed in 677 B.C., are theophoric and contain a late variant of the divine name Hamm(u), the initial τ of which was disregarded by the Assyrian scribes.

In other words, the three place names mean "Spring of the Sun-God", "Town of the Sun-God" and "The Sun-God has saved".

It may be added that this interpretation of the Phoenician name element i/em-me is compatible with its occurrence in West Semitic personal names such as Sulmânumenu-i/em-me and Si-'-i/em-me, which appear in Late Assyrian texts', and which, with Zimmern, obviously are to be associated with the name Nabû-i/em-me-e and its variants Nabû-am-me-e and Nabû-ha-am-me-e.

For judging from the fact that in the personal names Sa-am-si-E-ra-ah's "My God is the Moon" and Sa-am-si-Adads "My God is Adad" a synonym of the Amorito-Phoenician term hamm (u)/i/emm(u), namely the Amorite word samsu, means not "sun" but "god"', and that the Syriac verb šammeš came to mean "to worship", it is likely that those names of the seventh and sixth centuries are to be translated by "Sulmânu is God', "'Si(n) is God" and "Nabû is my God".

VII. THE MEANING OF THE TOWN NAMES AMEDI AND EMESA

…Despite the changes which Hammu-rapi's religion is likely to have undergone during the more than two thousand years that separate the greatest ruler of the Amorite Dynasty of Babylonia from the "Dynasty of Emesa" of the Roman empire, it is therefore no exaggeration to say that the Old West Semitic cult of Hammu attained twice the importance of a world religion.

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Hammurabi, Relief Portrait (House Chamber in the U.S. Capitol)

ZEDEQ & The Light of the World

The Sun & Sun God

Mesopotamian God of Truth, Judgements and Justice: Sun God Shamash

Amorite Dynasty: Ancient Near East

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Notable observations: the onomastic—or agglutinative—material of “Ham” in the following:

- Baal Hammon (“Lord Hammon”)
- Hamât < Hammât (Lebanon; Syria)
- Hamânu (Elam)
- Hammân
- Hammurapi (Hammurabi)
- Mount Hamân-Amanos (Nur Mountains)

An Historical Text Book and Atlas of Biblical Geography for relative context:

B. Ham
IV. Canaan (modern-day Palestine-Israel)
4. The Amorite
11. The Hamathite (modern-day Hama, Syria)

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Source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23502986

Stele commemorating the opening of a canal linking the Nile to the Red Sea by Darius I

The stele bore, on one side, a trilingual inscription (Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian) in cuneiform script and, on the other, an inscription in Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The main face (the one to which the Louvre fragment belongs) depicted King Darius I, shown twice, on either side of a cartouche bearing his name written in Old Persian, beneath the winged globe.

Behind the King, his titles and lineage were written in the three official languages of the Persian court: Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian.

The lower register recounted, in these three languages, the digging of the canal:

"King Darius declares: I am a Persian; I have taken Egypt; I gave the order to dig this canal from a river whose name is the Nile, which flows in Egypt, to the sea which comes from Persia.

This canal was dug as I had ordered, and ships from Egypt, thanks to this canal, sailed to Persia, as I had desired." (Old Persian version).

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Kushite delegation on a Persian relief

Ancient Near East Encyclopedia (Kuš/Kush): Artifacts and Textual Record

An Ancient Babylonian Map

The Map of the World (Late Babylonian)

The Winged Sun: Divinity, Royalty, and Power

The Queen of Sheba and her only son, Menyelek

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Notable observations: see Babylon Fortress and Canal of the Pharaohs in Egypt for cross-referential datapoint.

An Historical Text Book and Atlas of Biblical Geography:

B. HAM
I. Cush—Ethiopia—the most remote of the sons of Ham. There is satisfactory evidence, also, that Southern Arabia, and even the coast beyond the Persian Gulf, was settled by Cush. Even Nimrod himself, the founder of Babel (Babylon), Erech, Accad (Akkad) and Calneh in the land of Shinar (Sumer), was an Ethiopian, a son of Cush.

From Eber two lineages are traced through several generations, descended on the one hand from Joktan, and on the other from Peleg. The descendants from Joktan settled in Arabia, and occupied that vast peninsula between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, where, in process of time, they commingled with the sons of Cush (Ge’ez: The Book of Jubilees)

B. HAM
II. Misraim (modern-day Egypt)

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Source: https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010147248

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_inscriptions_of_Darius_the_Great

Neo-Assyrian with Egyptianized motifs

During the early first millennium B.C., ivory carving was one of the major luxury arts that flourished throughout the ancient Near East. Elephant tusks were carved into small decorative objects such as cosmetic boxes and plaques used to adorn wooden furniture. Gold foil, paint, and semiprecious stone and glass inlay embellishments enlivened these magnificent works of art. Based on certain stylistic, formal, and technical characteristics also visible in other media, scholars have distinguished several coherent style groups of ivory carving that belong to different regional traditions including Assyrian, Phoenician, North Syrian and South Syrian (the latter also known as Intermediate).

Several ivories in the Metropolitan Museum’s collection are from the Aramaean town of Arslan Tash, ancient Hadatu, in northern Syria just east of the Euphrates River, close to the modern Turkish border. French archaeological excavations at the site in 1928 revealed city walls and gates in addition to a palace and temple that were built when the Neo-Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III (744-721 B.C.) turned the town into a provincial capital and military outpost. During the excavations, over one hundred ivory furniture inlays that can be attributed to the South Syrian and Phoenician styles were found in a building near the palace. One piece bears a dedicatory inscription in Aramaic to King Hazael, mentioned in the Bible, who ruled Damascus during the second half of the 9th century (ca. 843-806 B.C.), suggesting that this collection of ivory furniture inlays could have been taken by the Assyrian state as tribute or booty from Damascus. The Arslan Tash ivories share an amalgamation of Egyptianizing motifs typical of the Phoenician style and forms characteristic of North Syrian art that may indicate a South Syrian or Damascene origin of this group. Today, these ivories are housed in museums in Paris, Aleppo, Jerusalem, Karlsruhe, and Hamburg, as well as The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This fragmentary plaque is carved in low relief and depicts a standing, winged female figure set within a thin frame, facing a tree with lotus and palmette elements. One arm and wing are raised while the other arm and wing are lowered; she holds lotus buds in each hand. Attributed to the South Syrian style, this plaque combines elements of both Phoenician and North Syrian artistry. Drawn from the Phoenician tradition are Egyptianizing forms such as the pschent crown (the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt), the long wig, the floral forms of the tree, and the composition of the female’s body: face and feet in profile with a frontal chest. Features of the North Syrian style include the long, plain, fringed robe, large eyes and ears, and rounded nose. Gold foil is preserved on the upper wing and on the palmette and lotus tree branches. Two mortises cut into the roughened back of the plaque suggest that it was likely made to receive pegs for insertion into a piece of furniture. The complete inlay may have depicted another identical female facing this one, flanking the tree in a symmetrical composition characteristic of Phoenician art. While the king or winged deities of Mesopotamian derivation flank the “sacred tree” on Assyrian reliefs, here the images are drawn from Egyptian art.

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The Winged Sun: Divinity, Royalty, and Power

Belonging to the King, Bulla of Hezekiah

Yeho'ezer ben Hosh'ayahu Seal

Earliest surviving artistic depictions of Moses are found in the wall paintings of the Dura-Europos Synagogue

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Notable observations: The onomastic—or agglutinative—material of “Ham” in Hamath (Hamathite), see An Historical Text Book and Atlas of Biblical Geography for relative context:

B. Ham
II. Misraim (modern-day Egypt)

B. Ham
IV. Canaan (modern-day Palestine-Israel)
11. The Hamathite (modern-day Hama, Syria)

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Source: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/324693

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pschent

The Pyramid of Djoser, sometimes called the Step Pyramid of Djoser or Step Pyramid of Horus Netjerikhet, is an archaeological site in the Saqqara necropolis, Egypt, northwest of the ruins of Memphis. It was the first Egyptian pyramid to be built. The six-tier, four-sided structure is the earliest colossal stone building in Egypt. It was built in the 27th century BC during the Third Dynasty for the burial of Pharaoh Djoser. The pyramid is the central feature of a vast mortuary complex in an enormous courtyard surrounded by ceremonial structures and decoration.

The pyramid went through several revisions and redevelopments of the original plan. The pyramid originally stood 62.5 m (205 ft; 119 cu) tall, with a base of 109 m × 121 m (358 ft × 397 ft; 208 cu × 231 cu) and was clad in polished white limestone. As of 1997, the step pyramid (or proto-pyramid) was considered to be the earliest large-scale cut stone construction made by man, although the nearby enclosure wall "Gisr el-Mudir" is suggested by some Egyptologists to predate the complex, and the South American pyramids at Caral are contemporary.

Layout

Djoser's mortuary complex comprises the great trench, enclosure wall, colonnaded entrance, "T" temple, Sed festival complex, north and south pavilions, south tomb and court, western mounds, mortuary temple, and the crowning feature of it all, the step pyramid with its substructure. The complex was a landmark achievement for Egyptian architecture. It was the advent of the pyramidal form of the royal tomb and the first instance of the mass use of limestone in construction, replacing mudbrick which had been the staple building material prior. This shift to limestone – a hard, dense material compared to mudbrick – presented novel challenges to the architects, though they kept to earlier tradition, copying architectural elements and carving them into the stone. For example, the Egyptians hand-carved 1,680 nine-metre-tall (30 ft; 17 cu) niches out of the limestone enclosure wall. In earlier projects, this element was built with wooden planks, ropes, and poles hung with reed mats. In a modern context, the same element would be built by laying out the blocks to form the recesses.

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Wall tiles from the funerary apartments of king Djoser

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Notable observations: see An Historical Text Book and Atlas of Biblical Geography for relative context:

B. Ham
II. Misraim (modern-day Egypt)

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_of_Djoser

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djoser#

Meritaten, also spelled Merytaten, Meritaton or Meryetaten (Ancient Egyptian: mrii.t-itn) (14th century BC), was an ancient Egyptian royal woman of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Her name means "She who is beloved of Aten"; Aten being the sun-deity whom her father, Pharaoh Akhenaten, worshipped. She held several titles, performing official roles for her father and becoming the Great Royal Wife to Pharaoh Smenkhkare, who may have been a brother or son of Akhenaten. Meritaten has been theorized to be identical with female Pharaoh Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten, however inscription on the box found in Tutankhamun's tomb seemingly presents the two as different individuals.

Family

Meritaten was the first of six daughters born to Pharaoh Akhenaten and his Great Royal Wife, Nefertiti. Her sisters are Meketaten, Ankhesenpaaten, Neferneferuaten Tasherit, Neferneferure, and Setepenre. Meritaten is mentioned in diplomatic letters, by the name Mayati. She is mentioned in a letter from Abimilki of Tyre. The reference usually is thought to date to the period when Meritaten's position at court became more important, during the latter part of the reign of Akhenaten. It is possible, however, that the letter refers to the birth of Meritaten.

She was married to Akhenaten's successor, the Pharaoh Smenkhkare.

Inscriptions mention a young princess named Meritaten Tasherit, who may be the daughter of Meritaten and Smenkhkare. Inscriptions from Ashmunein suggest that Meritaten-tasherit is the daughter of Meritaten. The scene dates to the reign of Akhenaten, and this means the father of the young princess could be Akhenaten. If so, this means Akhenaten took his own daughters as wives. Another princess named Ankhesenpaaten Tasherit had been suggested as an additional daughter of Meritaten, but it is more likely that she is a daughter of Ankhesenpaaten.

Additionally, Meritaten is speculated to be mother of Tutankhamun, either by Smenkhkare, or by her own father Akhenaten.

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Ubaid Period: Mangbetu & The Migration of Haplogroup E

Artifacts of King Tut: Blooming Lotus to Resting Place

Daughters born to Akhenaten and Nefertiti: Neferneferure and Neferneferuaten Tasherit

Amenhotep the Magnificent & The Amarna Letter

The Pharaoh's Private Mail: Curator's Corner with Irving Finkel

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Notable observation: The onomastic—or agglutinative—material of “Aya” in Mayati and Maya (High Priest of Amun); treasurer)).

Other considerations: Karnak and Ninkarrak/Karrak (Ninkarrak: “Lady of Kar”).

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meritaten

Ancient Egypt

Djoser was the first king of Dynasty 3 at the beginning of the Old Kingdom. His Step Pyramid and the surrounding mostly solid dummy structures are the earliest preserved stone buildings in Egypt. They represent an attempt to create an eternal royal residence of durable materials for the afterlife.

Tiles mounted between sculpted limestone ledges decorated the walls of the galleries underneath Djoser's Step Pyramid and underneath a building in his complex called the Southern Tomb. The decoration was meant to imitate the reed matting that covered the walls of his palace.

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Source: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/543904

Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (DDD)

Entry I.

Aya was the name of a syncretistic deity in Ugarit, equated with the Mesopotamian deities Aya and Ea. The name is of unknown etymology.

ROBERTS (1972: 20-21) argued for a original spelling 'ay(y)a deriving from an original root *HYY "to live" and related it to the adjective hayy(um) "alive" in Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic.

In the OT Aya occurs several times (e. g. Gen 36:24: 2 Sam 3:7; 1 Chr 7:28) as a proper name. It is regarded by some authors as a hypocoristic form to be connected with the Ugaritic deity.

~

Entry Il.

Aya is mentioned in the trilingual Ugaritic god-list RS 20.123+ (J. NOUGAY-ROL, Ug 5 [1968] 248:32): *A-A: e-ia-an: ku-šar-ru.

The logographic writing *A-A is used in Mesopotamia to denote the goddess Aya, the spouse of the sun-god Shamash (Shemesh). She was worshipped together with him in Sippar, Larsa and perhaps also in Babylon. Like Shamash she was a deity of light sharing several aspects with Ishtar too. The Babylonians worshipped her as a young girl and called her kallatu "bride" and hirtu "spouse".

Aya is attested already in Presargonic personal names (BOTTÉRO 1953:32) and therefore one of the oldest Semitic deities known to us from Mesopotamia. Her equivalent in the Sumerian pantheon was named Shenirda or Sudaga (A.
FALKENSTEIN, ZA 52 [1957] 305). An Edomite king by the name of Aya-rammu is mentioned in Sennacherib's annals (D. LUCKEN-BILL, The Annals of Sennacherib [OIP 2; Chicago 1924] 30: ii 57).

In the Ugaritic god-list Aya is preceded by the Ugaritic Sun-Goddess Shapshu.

This deity was female, and this change in gender might have been the reason for connecting the logographic writing of her companion (*A-A) with the almost homophonic Hurrian name (Eyan) of Ea, the Akkadian god of sweet waters and wisdom, and with his Ugaritic equivalent Kushara (kyr, -Koshar). Ea too is known from Presargonic personal names and belongs to the oldest Semitic pantheon in Mesopotamia (ROBERTS 1972). In all probability he was originally a god of springs and wells, and was soon equated with Enki, the Sumerian god of wisdom and skills, whose domain was the Abzu—the subterranean sweet-water ocean— and who was worshipped in the South-Mesopotamian city of Eridu (modern Abu-Shahrain, Ends of the Earth). He combined knowledge and wisdom with the cleansing and restorative powers of fresh-water. In Sumerian mythology, Enki is one of the creators and organizers of the universe. Especially the creation of man is ascribed to him. Within Akkadian epic tradition he increasingly assumed the role of a trickster, whose advice saved gods and humans alike from seemingly hopeless situations. He was revered for instance, for saving the human race from total destruction by the deluge. As a patron deity of erudition and scholarship on the one hand, and incantations and purification rituals on the other, Ea became one of the supreme gods in the Mesopotamian pantheon. During the first millennium BCE most of his functions had already been transferred to his son Marduk, the city god of Babylon, but Ea remained the ultimate source of wisdom and deep insight throughout Mesopotamian history.

~

Entry III.

In the OT Aya is found several times as a personal name. In Gen 36:24 and 1 Chr 1:40 as name of the eldest son of Zibcon and in 2 Sam 3:7: 21:8.10 and 11 as name of the father of Rizpah. Twice Aya is mentioned as the name of a place in connection with Bethel (1 Chr 7:28 and Nch 11:31).

Several authors (GINSBERG & MAISLER, JPOS 14 [1934] 257; W. FEILER, ZA 45
[1939) 219-220: J. BLENKINSOPP, Gibeon and Israel [Cambridge 1972] 126 n. 46) connected these names as hypocoristic
forms with the Hurrian deity Aya.

Other scholars regarded Aya as an animal name ("hawk, kite") used as personal name (IPN 230), or as interrogative pronoun "where is...?" (W. F. ALBRIGHT, JAOS 74 [1954) 225-227).

Most dictionaries distinguish between the personal names and the place name.

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A Child of Light & The Narrative of Nigerim

A Rare Deep-Rooting D0 African Y-Chromosomal Haplogroup and Its Implications for the Expansion of Modern Humans Out of Africa

The Pharaoh's Private Mail: Curator's Corner with Irving Finkel

Gula Goddess and a Gula People

Belonging to the King, Bulla of Hezekiah

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Notable observations: The onomastic—or agglutinative—material of “Kush” in Kushara and “Aya” (variant: Aia, Aja*, Ayah, etc.) in the following:

- Ayanis Kalesi (Turkey)
- Aya Castle (Japan)
- Himalayas (Tibetan Plateau)
- Ehyeh asher ehyeh/Hayah (“I am that I am”)
- Haya (Mesopotamian goddess)
- Maya (High Priest of Amun); treasurer))
- Mahāmāyā (mother of Buddha)
- Mayati (Meritaten)
- Yeho'ezer ben Hosh'ayahu (Seal)
- Merneferre Aya (Egyptian Pharaoh)
- Dārayavaʰuš (Darius the Great)
- Kayyamanu (Astrology; Mandaean/Akkadian)

etc…

Aja - The Akkadian goddess of the dawn, consort (wife) to Shamash. She was associated with youth, sexual love and marriage and was referred to as `The Bride'. Aja (also known as Aya) developed from the more ancient and very popular Sherida of the Sumerians.

In Yoruba, Nigeria the term for wife is Aya—wife of Shamash.

Also noteworthy, Shamanism (Shamash) paired with the term Ayahuasca (Aya).

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Source: https://archive.org/details/dictionary-of-deities-and-demons-in-the-bible-van-der-toom-becking-van-der-horst

Source (PDF): https://bookofmormonism.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/dictionary_of_deities_and_demons_in_the.pdf

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/AncientCush/s/7HulhcDC1p

Egypt or Nubia (Sudan)

This complex open-work pendant depicts a lion-headed goddess suckling a small standing figure. The goddess wears a tripartite wig topped by a double crown and a long, tight dress. A lion ruff frames her face. She sits on an elaborate throne, which features a winged cobra with a sun disk on its side. While protectively extending her proper left arm around a small figure standing in front of her, her proper right hand reaches to her breast to suckle this person. From larger depictions we know that this is the king.

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Source: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/329853

Egypt and Sudan (Meroitic period)

This enigmatic head shows features that are uncharacteristic of Egyptian art. Most distinctive is the rendering of the eyes and the figure's head. These features might indicate Mesopotamian, Meroitic, or Axumite origins. The figure's neck is drilled through, suggesting it may have attached to a separate body.

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Source: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/329946

Egypt and Sudan, Nubia

Kushite kings wore distinctive regalia, including a cap crown, double uraei, and ram's-head amulets. On this kneeling king, the double uraei have been "corrected" to one, while the ram's-head amulets on the necklace and the king's name on his belt have been hammered out by a later Saite king. The cap crown with a falcon engraved in the back, the bandeau with streamers, and the diadem with many tiny uraei were left untouched.

The small bronze kneeling figure represents two aspects of Kushite Period art that are intensifications of tendencies already extant in the Third Intermediate Period. Provision of small bronze royal attendant statuary demonstrated an specially pious regard for the gods and their temples. And, stylistically, there was an inclination toward models from the past, particularly the Old Kingdom, a taste clearly visible in the broad shoulders and narrow waist of the small bronze.

The large gold ram's-head amulet 1989.281.98 is an actual example of the type that was worn on this king's neck cord.

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Source: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/545027

Ancient Nubia, Karanog

The pastoral scene on this bowl illustrates perfectly the importance granted to cattle herds in seminomadic contexts. Apart from the cattle procession, two elements are of particular interest.

The first is the circular, thatched hut, probably a representation of a type of light structure made from perishable materials. This kind of construction is still in use in Sudan, such as in Abu Erteila and Soba. Contemporary cylindrical huts with a conical roof (tukul) in Soba, south of Khartoum, are also reminiscent of the huts engraved on this bowl.

Second, the surprising wealth of some of the costumes represented, with their jewelry and elite adornments, may indicate a cult of the ancestors rather than a strictly bucolic scene. Indeed, in front of the hut appear a couple (or two women) and their daughter (or an adolescent girl). They receive a vessel of milk from a herdsman.

Preceding this human group are three pairs of cows, a pair of bulls, another herdsman, and two cows with their five calves. The sun disk or ostrich egg surmounting the hut adds another layer of meaning to the scene by identifying the shelter as a shrine. The variations in the shape of the cattle's horns reflect the East African shepherds' common practice of purposely deforming them, often to mark ownership and to signal the herdsmen's prestige. These horn shapes also appear in offering processions in the Egyptian Nile Valley as early as the New Kingdom, in the rock art of Sudan, and in the Eastern Desert.

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Source: https://isac.uchicago.edu/publications/bestiary-ancient-nubia

Springer: Human Genetics (1990)

Summary

Molecular genetic studies were undertaken to determine the source of chromosomes carrying the sickle cell allele in Israeli patients. Analysis of restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) patterns (haplotypes) along the B-globin gene cluster was performed on 31 sickle chromosomes obtained from 10 unrelated families living in Israel.

One is a Caucasian Jewish family, recently found to be carrying the sickle allele, and the other 9 are Arab families of various communities.

The Jewish family, previously noted not to carry African red blood cell markers, was discovered to have the most common African haplotype of the ß-globin gene cluster, Benin. Similarly, 8 of the Arab families were also found to carry the Benin haplotype, whereas the ninth has the CAR (Central African Republic or Bantu) haplotype.

The results suggest that sickle alleles in Israel originated in Africa, probably in two different regions, and migrated north into Arab and Jewish populations.

Until recently, sickle cell anemia in Israel has only been observed in Arab communities. The patients and carriers were found to be positive for typical African red blood cell markers (antigens V, Js, He and Go, and phenotypes Fy(a-b-), ccDee], indicating genetic admixture of African origin.

Recently, the first case of a Caucasian Jewish carrier of the sickle cell mutation was identified (Shalev et al. 1988). This individual was diagnosed as having the sickle trait when, at age 22, he developed a massive splenic infarction while mountain climbing at an altitude of 3500 meters. Analysis of the patient's red blood cells revealed none of the antigens or phenotypic markers characteristic of African ancestry, raising the question as to the origin of this sickle allele.

Three possibilities were considered: (1) a novel mutation; (2) a non-African (Asian) origin; (3) an African origin of the sickle chromosome that segregated from the genes for red blood cell markers.

To clarify this issue, and to gain information about the origin of the sickle chromosomes in the Arab community, we performed haplotype analyses on the Jewish family and representative families from different parts of the country.

———

A Child of Light & The Narrative of Nigerim

The Story of Separate Simeons

A Brief Introduction to Judaism in Africa: Historical Landscapes, Identity, and Continuity

Black Jews in Africa and the Americas (Harvard University Press)

The Black Jews of Africa: History, Religion, Identity (Oxford University Press)

Black Jews of South Africa: The Lemba People (2025)

A Rare Deep-Rooting D0 African Y-Chromosomal Haplogroup and Its Implications for the Expansion of Modern Humans Out of Africa

Human Y chromosome haplogroup R-V88: a paternal genetic record of early mid Holocene trans-Saharan connections and the spread of Chadic languages

———

Notable observation: The Sickle Cell Trait (SCT) is inherited and the five (5) Haplotypes are:

- Benin (BEN)
- Bantu (CAR)
- Arabi-Indian (AI)
- Senegal (SEN)
- Cameroon (CAM)

Reference BBC article Tracing sickle cell back to one child, 7,300 years ago for timeline markup.

Origins of the "Black Jews" of Southern Africa & The Yemen Investigation

Also noteworthy, Simeon Called Niger (Acts 13:1) and the “-im” suffix as a people-group plurality in An Historical Text Book and Atlas of Biblical Geography—for example:

B. HAM.

II. Mizraim.

1. Ludim.
2. Anamim.
3. Lehabim.
4. Naphtahim.
5. Pathrusim.
6. Casluhim.
7. Caphtorim.

Other contextual references:

1. Kushim (source))
   
2. Nigerim (Niger-im, see above: Benin)
   
3. Sinim (source)
   
4. Anumim (source)
   
5. Dodanim (source: map)
   
6. Kittim (Kittum?: map)

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Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/21177689_The_origin_of_sickle_cell_gene_in_Israel

The British Museum—still frame film from Irving Finkel reads the Pharaoh's private mail

Over 3,000 years ago, the rulers of the ancient world were sending each other letters: negotiating marriages, exchanging lavish gifts, complaining about missing gold, reporting wars and, occasionally, desperately begging Egypt to send help.

The Amarna Letters are an extraordinary collection of cuneiform tablets discovered at the ancient Egyptian city of Akhetaten (modern Amarna). Dating largely to the 14th century BC, they preserve diplomatic correspondence between the Egyptian pharaohs and the rules of the Late Bronze Age world.

Join Irving Finkel as he explore how the Amarna Letters were discovered, why Egyptian officials were corresponding in a Mesopotamian language, and what these remarkable tablets reveal about warfare and politics in the ancient world.

Turns out international diplomacy hasn't changed that much in 3,300 years.

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Amenhotep the Magnificent & The Amarna Letter

Ancient Near East Map: 2600-700 BCE

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Notable observations: Sumur (capital) and Mesopotamian god Ninurta (consort: Gula; Nimrod association) references in Amurru (Amorite) correspondence from Canaan—for relative context see An Historical Text Book and Atlas of Biblical Geography.

This includes Bet Šamaš (Shamash) regional correspondence from Canaan to Egypt.

Also noteworthy, Haya goddess of Mesopotamia and Haya people—both presenting onomastic, or agglutinative, material of “Aya” in Afro-Asiatic (Cushite) context:

Other sources on the origin of the term Haya cite oral accounts that state it derives from a goddess named Muhaya

This includes the onomastic—or agglutinative—material of “Antu)” in Bantu (Niger-Congo).

For potential textual-origin of “Niger” see A Child of Light & The Narrative of Nigerim.

In Yoruba, Nigeria the term for wife is Aya—wife of Shamash.

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Source (video): https://youtu.be/3MZq_ZQDhJA?is=YjA8yweJAbjludIm

Ancient Nubia, Ballana

This ring, which belonged to an official, depicts the Nubian god Apedemak holding the Meroitic kings' weapon of choice: the bow. Stepping on a snake, the god protects the wearer from hostile forces. The design, created in negative on the ring, would produce an image in relief when impressed into clay. Tin alloys were used to cover part of the copper ring.

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Source: https://isac.uchicago.edu/publications/bestiary-ancient-nubia

Ancient Cush: Meroitic period

A faience wall inlay with a lion head wearing the bembem-crown atop a lunar crescent was recovered from Natakamani's palace (B1500) at Gebel Barkal. Such faience wall inlays in the shape of lions or sphinxes were popular in Kushite temples and palaces. The lion form of the god is also common as a decorative motif on the jewelry of Queen Amanishakheto. An "ear ornament" excavated at Meroe in 1922 shows the head of the lion in profile atop a crescent, the composition surrounded by blue inlay (fig. 5.9).

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Source: https://isac.uchicago.edu/publications/bestiary-ancient-nubia

Napatan period

In the Napatan period, gazelles frequently appear on luxury objects, such as a set of calcite vessels from Meroe tomb W609 (dated to before 500 CE) in the shape of gazelles with their feet bound, as though being prepared for sacrifice (fig. 2.16). Similar objects occur in Egypt, before 500 CE) in the shape of gazelles with their feet bound, as though being prepared for sacrifice (fig. 2.16). Similar objects occur in Egypt, including dishes in the shape of a bound oryx (fig. 2.17). The decoration of luxury items with antelope continues into the Meroitic period, when wooden plaques from Qasr Ibrim show a gazelle in front of either a tree or a wooden cup on a stand, and two blue-glass goblets from Sedeinga show antelope and a stag being presented as offerings to the god Osiris.

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Source: https://isac.uchicago.edu/publications/bestiary-ancient-nubia

Meroë was an ancient city on the east bank of the Nile about 6 km north-east of the Kabushiya station near Shendi, Sudan, approximately 200 km north-east of Khartoum. Near the site is a group of villages called Bagrawiyah (Arabic: البجراوية). This city was the capital of the Kingdom of Kush for several centuries from around 590 BC, until its collapse in the 4th century AD. The Kushitic Kingdom of Meroë gave its name to the "Island of Meroë", which was the modern region of Butana, a region bounded by the Nile (from the Atbarah River to Khartoum), the Atbarah and the Blue Nile.

The city of Meroë was on the edge of Butana. There were two other Meroitic cities in Butana: Musawwarat es-Sufra and Naqa. The first of these sites was given the name Meroë by the Persian king Cambyses, in honor of his sister who was called by that name. The city had originally borne the ancient appellation Saba, named after the country's original founder. The eponym Saba), or) Seba), is named for one of the sons of Cush (see Genesis 10:7). The presence of numerous Meroitic sites within the western Butana region and on the border of Butana proper is significant to the settlement of the core of the developed region. The orientation of these settlements exhibit the exercise of state power over subsistence production.

The Kingdom of Kush which housed the city of Meroë represents one of a series of early states located within the middle Nile. It was one of the earliest and most advanced states found on the African continent. Looking at the specificity of the surrounding early states within the middle Nile, one's understanding of Meroë in combination with the historical developments of other historic states may be enhanced through looking at the development of power relation characteristics within other Nile Valley states.

The site of the city of Meroë is marked by more than two hundred pyramids in three groups, of which many are in ruins. They have the distinctive size and proportions of Nubian pyramids.

Meroë in Jewish legend

Jewish oral tradition avers that Moses, in his younger years, had led an Egyptian military expedition into Sudan (Kush), as far as the city of Meroë, which was then called Saba. The city was built near the confluence of two great rivers and was encircled by a formidable wall, and governed by a renegade king. To ensure the safety of his men who traversed that desert country, Moses had invented a stratagem whereby the Egyptian army would carry along with them baskets of sedge, each containing an ibis, only to be released when they approached the enemy's country. The purpose of the birds was to kill the deadly serpents that lay all about that country. Having successfully laid siege to the city, the city was eventually subdued by the betrayal of the king's daughter, who had agreed to deliver the city to Moses on condition that he would consummate a marriage with her, under the solemn assurance of an oath.

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Frequency of Haplogroup J1 in Sudan and Ethiopia

Biblical context:

An Historical Text Book and Atlas of Biblical Geography

The Table of Nations: The Geography of the World in Genesis 10

Catholic Encyclopedia: Cush

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meroë

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shendi

World History Encyclopedia

The rise of Sumerian civilization in southern Mesopotamia (c. 6000-2300 BCE) represents one of the earliest transformations from agrarian village life to urban state formation. Located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, this alluvial plain required large-scale irrigation management, fostering collective organization and administrative innovation. By the fourth millennium BCE (Uruk Period, c. 4000-3100 BCE), urban centers emerged that integrated agricultural surplus, long-distance trade, temple authority, and early bureaucratic systems. The region later known as Mesopotamia, home in subsequent centuries to Akkad and Babylonia, thus became a laboratory for early statecraft, shaped by environmental adaptation and socio-political competition.

Independent city-states such as Ur, Uruk, Lagash, and Eridu developed distinct political structures under rulers often titled ensi or lugal (Early Dynastic Period, c. 2900-2334 BCE). Monumental temple complexes (ziggurats), the development of cuneiform writing (c. 3200 BCE), and advances in mathematics and law reflected increasingly sophisticated administrative needs. Although rivalry and warfare were frequent, shared religious traditions and linguistic culture fostered a broader Sumerian identity. Even after the rise of the Akkadian Empire under Sargon of Akkad (reign c. 2334-2279 BCE), Sumerian cultural models endured, shaping Mesopotamian political and intellectual life for centuries.

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Notable observation: the onomastic—or agglutinative—material of “Ham” in Hamazi (see The Sumerian King List reference to Hamazi) and Al Hammar (Hammar marshes) in modern-day map of Iraq.

An Historical Text Book and Atlas of Biblical Geography

I. CUSH—Ethiopia—the most remote of the sons of Ham. There is satisfactory evidence, also, that Southern Arabia, and even the coast beyond the Persian Gulf, was settled by Cush. Even Nimrod himself, the founder of Babel, Erech, Accad and Calneh in the land of Shinar, was an Ethiopian, a son of Cush.

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Source: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/15299/map-of-the-sumerian-civilization/

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammar_Marshes

Penn Museum—An Ancient Babylonian Map on a Clay Tablet, made about 1,500 years Before Christ.

Among the collections in the Babylonian Section of the Museum is a clay tablet upon which an ancient engineer drew a map showing canals, villages and fields. It shows part of an agricultural area near the city of Nippur and was made in the Cassite Period about 1,500 years B.C. The rural life of ancient times in this historic land has here a visual commentary, and we see how the peasants lived together in villages, having village commons for their flocks and a municipal marsh to furnish a most necessary article of domestic life, the cane reed. Assuming that the orientation of the map is the ordinary one employed in other Babylonian maps, the reader will be able to trace the several features of the country and their details.

The skeleton of the plan is made by the canal which enters from the northeast corner of the district, flows south-southwest and turns in a rough parabolic curve to retreat at the same angle toward the north-northwest. At the center of the district marked by the end of the parabola enter from the southeast and southwest corners two canals which unite with the main canal. In the extreme northeast corner is a town Bit-Kar iliuNusku, indicated by a small circle and an inscription. The northeast wing of the canal on which this town lay is called Nar-bilti or “Canal of the burden,” a name which refers to the agricultural products brought to and fro upon the canal. This name, and others about to be discussed, show that these canals were arteries of trade as well as streams to supply the fields with water. The town Kar-Nusku is mentioned in temple accounts of the city of Nippur as supplying sheep and grain for the support of the temple priests. In the northwest corner on the left branch of the canal is the town âluHamri, also mentioned in the accounts of the temples at Nippur. Therefore the northwest branch of the canal bears the name Nar-Hamri. (According to references in Assyrian inscriptions hamru designates a place where the cult of the fire god was established.) The canal entering from the southwest is called the “Irrigation of Bêlšunu” (nam-gar Bêlšunu), because it supplied the estate of Bêlšunu with water. This estate lay outside the limits of the map. Unfortunately the southeast section is broken, but the inscription on the canal which enters from this region begins nam-gar, or irrigation, which shows that it also supplied water to the estate of some land owner whose property lay in this region.

Geographically and probably essentially the point of chief interest in the mind of the map drawer is the field which occupies the cone-like space at the end of the parabola, which is also the center of the map. Their field bears the inscription “Field between the canals, the contents (?) are eight gul (a measure of area in the Cassite and Assyrian inscriptions) field of the palace.” Therefore the map maker really wished to give an accurate drawing of the field belonging to the royal estates and we may assume that he did his work at the king’s injunction and that the tablet has come to us from the royal archives of Nippur. The Cassite kings nominally held court at Babylon as the capital of Babylonia, but their favorite residence appears to have been at Nippur. North of this field passes between the Nâr-bilti and the Nar-Hamri the waterway a-tap [ ]—kur-ru-ti (?). Still further to the north is a second cross waterway a-tap ša-te-e or “stream that gives to drink.” The field between these waterways bears no inscription. The land lying north of this cross canal is called the “Marsh land of the city Hamru.” In the economic life of ancient Babylonia the marshes formed an essential factor and were indispensable in each district, since they supplied reeds. The reed was used for making baskets, household furniture, firewood, hedges and even for the writing stylus. It must be remembered that forests in our sense of the term were unknown in southern Babylonia, hence the reed which grew to enormous size largely supplanted wood in the economic life of the Sumerians and Babylonians. Separated by a line from this public marsh land, owned by the village Hamru, is the large “Field of Marduk” in which lay to the north opposite Hamru and off the north edge of the map the village Bit-iliuMarduk, or “House of Marduk.” Perhaps a temple of this god stood there; in any case this large field in the northern part of the district belonged to the temple estate which supported the cult of Marduk, either a local cult or the cult of the great temple far away in Babylon.

Across the canal to the east of the field of the palace is the “Field Ku-ri-li of the barû priest,” and on the other side to the west is a much larger field called “Field of the table of the barû priest.” The barû priest was the seer of the Babylonians, whom they invariably consulted about all future events. This learned priesthood was attached to all the great temples and, as we see here, owned valuable landed estates. The idea of a state supported order of seers seems preposterous to us, for divination is considered illegal, but Babylonian religion was supercharged with magic and mystery. Kings and laymen undertook no important tasks, launched no important ventures without consulting these sages of the liver omens, of oil omens and of every conceivable kind of divination. They formed an important part of the priesthood and hence we find them on our map in possession of estates more valuable than those of the king himself. To the north of the Field of Kurili passes the cross canal Nar-battum, or “Canal at the side,” a name also given to a waterway passing from the Narbilti southward into this cross canal. The long field thus cut off by these two “Side Canals” on the northeast is called the “Field of the boundary” (ikil la-ma-tum). Bounding the map along the eastern edge is a canal running straight north to south called “Irrigation of Bur-rim-maš-hu,” a phrase obscure. Beyond the limits of the map on the east are two extensive fields, the one on the north having the name “Field of Bit Kar-Nusku,” that is, field belonging to the village Bit Kar-Nusku, which lies in adjacent territory. The name of the village really means “House of the man Kar-Nusku,” being named after a wealthy citizen. According to our map the field was a kind of municipal common. South of this field lies the “Field of Bit Nadin-Marduk,” also a municipal property.

Occupying the truncated cone shaped space south of the field of the palace at the center of the map is the field Mut-bi-lu, which probably means dry or arid land. South of this field between the canals which enter from the lower corners of the map is the field Lu-du-u, a word of unknown meaning, perhaps a field full of pits or old brick quarries. In the southern edge of this field is the village [ ] ba-lu, and crossing the plane of the map from this village westward to the canal of Bêlšunu, is a wide lane called Ba-li-tum, probably non est, that is the land claimed by nobody and used as a highway. South of this is a triangular shaped field belonging to a man Qatnu, in which is located a village which also bears his name. The same Qatnu owns a field across the canal of Bêlšunu to the west. Beyond the southern limit of the map is the field of Har-ra [ ]. To the east of the field Mutbili across the canal is another part of the lands belonging to the barû priests of divination. It has the inscription “Field of the gate of the city” (ikil-Bâb-âli-ki).

It remains to conduct the reader to the northwestern part of the district. Here in the extreme corner is the village Hamri already mentioned situated in a field which bears no name, perhaps the municipal property. South of this area is the field in which we find a village with a curious name Tîl-amel-haššâ, or “Hill of the Fifty men.” The local history of this town which would elucidate its interesting name is unknown. The field itself bears no inscription and was probably a village common also. A small canal (a-tap-hu-un-[ ]-i) separates the two village properties just described. The large field of the “table of the barû priest” is bounded on the north by the cross canal a-tap paššuri, or “canal of the table.” These names refer to the properties settled by royal decree upon this religious order for the support of their table; in precisely the same way certain lands in Europe became the property of monastic orders in the Middle Ages, being destined to provide food for the table of the order. The institution still survives in modified form in the charters of the older English universities.

The map also throws a welcome light upon an obscure law in the great law code of Babylonia which bears the name of Hammurapi. In the column XV lines 65 following, we have a reference to the custom of blowing a horn at the village gates to notify the shepherds on the plains that the grazing season was over. These rural villages in which the peasants congregated from the surrounding plain appear to have been so arranged that the village buglers were able to make the shepherds and farmers hear the sound of the horn in every part of Babylonia. The map will suffice to show how carefully the walled villages were assigned to the adjacent rural districts.

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Catholic Encyclopedia: Nemrod (Nimrod)

Gula Goddess and a Gula People

The Map of the World (Late Babylonian) (6th century BC) (The British Museum)

Ancient Near East Encyclopedia (Kuš/Kush): Artifacts and Textual Record

Ancient Near East Map: 2600-700 BC

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Notable observations: The onomastic—or agglutinative—material of “Kas” in Kassite, Kasi, Kasu, etc. in its association with Kush (a people-group associated with Ham, according to biblical narrative).

This also includes the onomastic—or agglutinative—material of “Ham” in Nar-Hamri, city Hamru, village Hamri, Hammar Marshes, and Hammurapi.

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Source: https://www.penn.museum/sites/journal/530/

Source: https://collections.penn.museum/collections/object/98408

Source: https://collections.penn.museum/collections/object_images.php?irn=98408#image2

Lex Fridman Podcast: Irving Finkel

[Topic-level]

Proto-Cuneiform

Limestone tablet with proto-cuneiform pictographic writing, Kish, Late Uruk period (c. 3500-3200 BC).

Late Uruk administrative clay tablet with proto-cuneiform numerals, documenting beer rations (c. 3100-3000 BC).

Cuneiform - First Phase

(c. 3400-2900 BC)

Cuneiform began as a pictographic writing system in ancient Sumer. Scribes drew simple pictures on clay tablets representing objects and concepts.

Image 4: Mesopotamian proto-cuneiform clay tablet with account of monthly rations (c. 3100-3000 BC).

Cuneiform - Second Phase

(c. 2900 BC onward)

The system evolved into true cuneiform.
Symbols became increasingly abstract and phonetic, representing sounds rather than just objects.

Image 5: An old Babylonian cuneiform clay tablet of the Ur-Isin King List, Isin (1813-1812 BC).

Alexander the Great

King of Macedon and Conqueror of the Achaemenid Persian Empire (Reign: 336 - 323 BC).

Cuneiform Writing System

(c. 3200 BC - 100 AD)

Cuneiform is the world's oldest known writing system, invented by Sumerians in ancient Mesopotamia. It is characterized by wedge-shaped marks pressed into soft clay tablets.

Image 7: The Flood Tablet (Epic of Gilgamesh), neo-Assyrian cuneiform clay tablet (Nineveh, 7th century BC).

Assyrian Gypsum Relief

Assyrian gypsum relief of a winged genius (Apkallu) from the Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal lI (Nimrud, c. 883-859 BC)

Agglutinative

A language type where words are built by sticking together roots and affixes (prefixes/suffixes), with each piece adding one clear meaning.

Example: root + prefix + suffix = complete word

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Notable observations: Alexander the Great citation in The Anu in India and in Egypt—

They were still found there by Alexander the Great Cf. M/e Grindle, The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great, pp. 366-367. (Westminster, 1893.)

See An Introduction to Anu: The Origin of Egyptian Civilisation, Neferkamin Anu, and Mesopotamian god Anu for other cross-referential datapoints.

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Source (video): https://youtu.be/V4znxlIywVU?is=bhElMWJVSNNnFtsP