Hadabal
Hadabal | |
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Tutelary god of the Orontes valley | |
Major cult center | Ebla, Luban, Larugadu, Hamadu[1] |
Consort | Ba'altum (dBAD.MUNUS)[2] |
Deities of the ancient Near East |
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Religions of the ancient Near East |
Hadabal (also spelled 'Adabal[3]) was a god worshiped in Ebla and its surroundings in the third millennium BCE. He was one of the main gods of that area, and appears frequently in Eblaite documents. His character is not well understood, though it has been proposed that he might have been an agricultural or lunar god. Like the city's tutelary god Kura and his wife Barama, he is absent from sources postdating the destruction of Ebla.
Name and origin
The name Hadabal was written as dNI-da-KUL[4] or dNI-da-BAL in Eblaite cuneiform.[5] The KUL sign being a simplified version of BAL, employed in texts later than the time of the vizier Arrukum.[5] Alfonso Archi assumes that it belonged to a linguistic substrate, similar to these of other Eblaite gods, including Adamma, Aštabi, Ishara and Kura.[6] The existence of a non-Semitic and non-Hurrian substrate language in ancient Syria has been first proposed by Igor M. Diakonoff, who in 1971 concluded that Ishara and Kubaba, while worshiped by the Hurrians in Syria in the second millennium BCE, were in origin pre-Hurrian deities.[7] This theory subsequently found support from other researchers, such as Volkert Haas, Alfonso Archi[7] and Joan Goodnick Westenholz.[8]
However, Semitic etymologies for Hadabal's name have also been proposed. Paolo Xella interprets it as yawda'-ba'l, "the lord knows," a name structurally similar to Itūr-Mēr and Yakrub-El known from the pantheon of Mari.[9] Pelio Fronzaroli assumes that it might have been a way to render the name Hadda ba'l, "Hadda the lord," but according to Alfonso Archi this is implausible due to the only attested writings of the word ba'l from Ebla being ba-al6 or BAD.[10] He points out that the short history of writing at Ebla makes it unlikely that another sign or signs could have been an additional archaic rendering.[10] The assumption that Hadabal was an epithet of the weather god rather than an independent deity is also considered to be unconvincing by Daniel Schwemer.[3]
Character
Hadabal was likely the principal god of the Orontes valley in the third millennium BCE.[11] It is possible he was an agricultural god.[12] Alfonso Archi states that despite his prominence in Ebla his role and cosmological importance for the most part cannot be presently determined.[13] Hadabal of Larugadu on occasion could receive maces as offerings in Ebla, but it occurred much less frequently than in the case of Haddu and Resheph, possibly indicating that if he had a warlike character, it was less pronounced than in the case of these two gods.[14]
Hadabal had a spouse, referred to with the name Ba'altum (dBAD.MUNUS), "the lady."[2] She is mentioned around forty times in documents from Ebla, with twenty six of these mentions specifying she was associated with Hadabal of Luban.[15] Statues of the pair are attested in a document dealing with offerings made in this location.[16]
Moon god theory
Worship
The three primary centers of Hadabal's cult outside Ebla were Luban (possibly located in the proximity of
Hadabal is frequently mentioned in Eblaite administrative texts (105 mentions), with only the city god Kura appearing more often (130 mentions). No other deity appears even half as commonly in known texts.[27] Collectively his various hypostases received more sacrificial animals even than Kura.[18]
The head priestess of Hadabal was the dam-dingir.
In addition to dam-dingir, another type of priest of Hadabal attested in Eblaite texts was the pāšišu (pa4-šeš), perhaps "he who anoints."[33] While most gods only had a single pāšišu , Hadabal was served by two.[33]
Despite being a high-ranking and commonly worshiped god, Hadabal is only attested in two
The main festival of Hadabal took the form of a pilgrimage. It was annual and involved visits in his sanctuary in Luban, the royal palace of Ebla, and other sacred locations throughout the kingdom, though not Larugadu and Hamadu.[2] With the exception of Darib (modern Atarib), most of the places visited are difficult to identify, and it is possible that they were small agricultural settlements.[37] Between five and fourteen members of ašeš-II-ib, a group connected to the palace took part in it.[12] Alfonso Archi describes šeš-II-ib as a "religious confraternity," and notes that it was closely associated with the worship of Hadabal,[38] though not exclusively associated with him, as its members also took part in ceremonies dedicated to other deities and in funerals.[39] A separate pilgrimage's goal was Larugadu.[12][31] It is not well documented, and apparently fewer members of šeš-II-ib took part in it.[39] Additionally, Hadabal of Larugadu was celebrated in Ebla during a ceremony referred to as "the opening."[40] Lauren Ristvet proposes that Eblaite pilgrimages were meant to provide the inhabitants of the kingdom of Ebla with a shared religious experience.[41] It is also possible that by partaking in it the ruler could legitimize himself in the eyes of his subjects even in distant settlements.[41] She assumes that a journey undertaken by the king as part of his coronation had a similar role, but the places visited do not overlap, with only Ebla itself and Darib visited both during the pilgrimage in honor of Hadabal and the royal ceremony. Additionally, the latter covered a much smaller area, while the pilgrimage likely reached areas distant from the city, located in the proximity of Amadu (modern Hama) and the Amik Valley.[41]
Hadabal is no longer attested in sources postdating the destruction of Ebla, similar to Kura[42] and his wife Barama.[1]
References
- ^ a b c Archi 2015, p. 20.
- ^ a b c d Archi 2015, p. 510.
- ^ a b Schwemer 2007, p. 154.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 302.
- ^ a b c Archi 2015, p. 620.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 643.
- ^ a b Archi 2015, p. 678.
- ^ Westenholz 2010, p. 397.
- ^ Archi 2010, pp. 35–36.
- ^ a b Archi 2010, p. 36.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 503.
- ^ a b c Ristvet 2011, p. 11.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 514.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 585.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 756.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 315.
- ^ Krebernik 1997, p. 363.
- ^ a b Sallaberger 2018, p. 122.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 600.
- ^ Archi 2015, pp. 599–600.
- ^ Fleming 2000, pp. 156–157.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 513.
- ^ Archi 2010, p. 38.
- ^ Archi 2010, p. 37.
- ^ Ristvet 2011, p. 23.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 572.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 644.
- ^ a b c d Archi 2015, p. 259.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 256.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 699.
- ^ a b c Archi 2015, p. 511.
- ^ a b Archi 2015, p. 709.
- ^ a b Archi 2015, p. 665.
- ^ a b Archi 2015, p. 646.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 243.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 649.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 622.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 244.
- ^ a b Archi 2015, p. 618.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 521.
- ^ a b c Ristvet 2011, p. 12.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 35.
Bibliography
- Archi, Alfonso (2010). "Hamath, Niya and Tunip in the 3rd Millennium B.C. according to the Ebla documents" (PDF). Studi micenei ed egeo-anatolici. 52 (1): 33–39. ISSN 1126-6651. Retrieved 2022-03-15.
- Archi, Alfonso (2015). Ebla and Its Archives. De Gruyter. ISBN 978-1-61451-716-0.
- Fleming, Daniel E. (2000). Time at Emar: The Cultic Calendar and the Rituals from the Diviner's Archive. Mesopotamian civilizations. Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 978-1-57506-044-6. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
- Krebernik, Manfred (1997), "Mondgott A. I. In Mesopotamien", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-04-15
- Ristvet, Lauren (2011). "Travel and the Making of North Mesopotamian Polities". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 361. University of Chicago Press: 1–31. ISSN 0003-097X.
- Sallaberger, Walther (2018). "Kura, Youthful Ruler and Martial City-God of Ebla". In Matthiae, Paolo; Pinnock, Frances; D’Andrea, Marta (eds.). Ebla and Beyond. Harrassowitz. ISBN 978-3-447-19744-1.
- Schwemer, Daniel (2007). "The Storm-Gods of the Ancient Near East: Summary, Synthesis, Recent Studies Part I" (PDF). Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions. 7 (2). Brill: 121–168. ISSN 1569-2116.
- Westenholz, Joan G. (2010). "Ninkarrak – an Akkadian goddess in Sumerian guise". Von Göttern und Menschen. BRILL. .
Further reading
- Archi, Alfonso (1996). "Il in the Personal Names". Orientalistische Literaturzeitung. 91 (2). Walter de Gruyter GmbH. ISSN 2196-6877.
- Archi, Alfonso (2013). "Ritualization at Ebla". Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions. 13 (2). Brill: 212–237. ISSN 1569-2116.