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CALENDAR OF LAGASH

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Written by Vladimir V. Emelianov.

Occasional months

On the earliest step of the development of the calendar in the city of Lagash (24th century BCE), the months could be both permanent and occasional. The occasional months are mentioned in a block of texts from the temple of the goddess Bau one time each. On the sixth year of reign of Urukagina (c. 2313 BCE), there was a bright event which gave its name to the month of iti mul UD saĝ e-ta-RU-a-a (Nik 1, 2: rev. VII 10). According to the signs, it would be "a month-star-light-head fell". There was obviously a moment of falling a sky body to the earth. At the same time, citizens of Lagash saw a military event: iti-lu2-Unugki-ga-3-kam-ma-ĝin-na "a month, when the man of Uruk came for the third time " (Nik 1, 227: obv. I 4-5-rev. I 1). The man of Uruk was a rival of Lagash, a king of Umma named Lugalzagesi, who was proud to conquer Uruk.

At the reign of the previous king Lugalanda, there were the following occasional months: iti-udu-dNin-ĝir2-su-ka-ka si-bi dub2-ba "a month, when rams of Ningirsu hit their horns” (Nik 1, 162: rev. I 2-3); iti-ud5-de3-gu3-ra-a "a month when a she-goat screamed" (Nik 1, 226: obv. I 3).

Sources:

Permanent months

The permanent calendar of the city of Lagash is associated with three external markers: the cycle of barley reproduction, the cycle of reproduction of temple cattle (primarily bulls and sheep), and the production of beer. But, besides these three cycles, there are also months dedicated to certain deities, their veneration, and the rites of their sacred marriage. Let us turn to the texts of the same Lagash of the Akkadian period. The months of the calendar were set in the following order:

  1. Buru14-mašx (March-April) “harvest share”
  2. gu4-ra2-IZI-mu2-mu2 “burning a bull”
  3. ezem Li9-si4 “the festival of Lisin”
  4. šu-numun “sowing of (early) barley”
  5. ezem-munu4-gu7 “the festival of eating grist”
  6. ur (a lion or a dog)
  7. ezem-dBa-U2 “the festival of the goddess Bau”
  8. mu-šu-du8 “keeping a year”
  9. mes-en-DU-še-a-nu2 “Mesendu[1] lays down in barley”
  10. amar-a-a-si “calves get full with seads”
  11. še-kin-a “barley harvest”
  12. ezem-še-il2-la “bringing barley (to rams for the name of Nanše)”

(Cohen, 1993, 65-67)

IN the epoch of the III Dynasty of Ur, there were some changes: instead of the obscure for Sumerians the month of ur, they set a month of the festival of Dumuzi, and on the eve of the autumn equinox, they started a month of the king-god Šulgi (c. 2093-c.2046 BCE).

Ur III

vi. ezem dDumu-zi “the festival of Dumuzi”
vii. iti dŠul-gi “the month of Šulgi”

(Cohen, 1993, 69)

It means, that in the calendar of Lagash of the epoch of the III Dynasty of Ur there were:

  1. 4 months of sacrifices associated with getting new products (barley and new-born cattle);
  2. 3 months of venerating gods;
  3. 1 month of venerating the king-god;
  4. 2 months named after field works;
  5. 1 month associated with the livestock fertility;
  6. 1 uncertain month.

The data known to us can be commented in the following way. one month of the Lagash calendar is called “harvest share (in barley and beer)”. It was the bringing of plant sacrifices to the two main gods of Lagash: Ningirsu (the patron god of agriculture and the god of warriors who defended the city) and Nanše (she was considered the patroness of fishermen and poor people, and, besides, she was an interpreter of dreams). In March-April, people brought a plant sacrifice to them. Then comes the second month, when they brought an animal sacrifice, because it was the time of the burning offering of a bull. A description of that ritual has come down to us only from the Seleucid era. The tablet on the celebration of the spring New Year in Babylon says: “... at sunset, the priest-sheshgallu binds forty reeds together (each three cubits long, uncut, unbroken, straight) and uses a palm branch as a rope. A pit is dug in the Sacred Court, and he puts this bundle in it. (There also) he puts honey, cream, first-class butter... A white bull is in front of the pit ... by him. The king sets (all this) in fire with burning reed. The king [and the priest-sheshgallu] say such a prayer: Oh, Bull! Shining light illuminating the darkness!…” (Linssen, 2004, 223, 232). The third month is May-June, when a very interesting ritual was performed: the goddess Lisin mourns her drowned son. Literary texts on this topic have come to us: we know that the son of Lisin was swept away by floods (Kramer, 1982, 133-144). What was that mourning ritual for? They lamented that barley grain, a part of which fell into the flood and drowned, and which could no longer be restored for the purpose of threshing and for extracting ears. The fourth month was dedicated to the sowing of early barley. The next month was a period of eating grist (or malt), when beer started to be brewed. It was July-August. And then, in the autumn, they held festivals in honour of the venerated gods, the most important of which was the celebration of the sacred marriage of Ningirsu and his wife, the goddess Bau. The festival of the sacred marriage was necessary for the maintenance of world order, i.e. for the reproduction of grain and livestock. The last months of the year in Lagash were named after young bulls (calves), which getting full of seed during the winter, and in honour of the harvest; and the year was finished with bringing of freshly harvested barley to feed rams. The full name of the twelfth month is known to us from Old Sumerian texts, where it is called iti-udu-še3-še-a-il2-la-dNanše “a month of bringing barley (and) water (for) Nanše to sheep” (Cohen, 1993, 63). In the epoch of the III Dynasty of Ur (the 21 century BCE), very important changes occur in the calendar of Lagash associated with the deification of the kings of Ur. The first god-king of Ur was Šulgi, and the seventh month (that is, the month of the new harvest year) and the star were named after him.

Literature:

  • [Nik 1] — Nikolsky M.V. Dokumenty khoziaistvennoy otchetnosti drevneishei epokhi Jhaldei iz sobraniya N.P. Likhacheva (Documents of the common-day reporting of the most ancient epoch of Chaldea from the collection of N.P. Likachev). Moscow: without PH, 1908.
  • Cohen, M.E. The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near East. Bethesda, MD: CDL Press, 1993.
  • Kramer S.N. Lisin, the Weeping Goddess: A New Sumerian Lament. // Zikir Sumim: Assyriological Studies Presented to F R. Kraus, eds. G. van Driel, Th. J. H. Krispun, M. Stol, and K. R. Veenhof. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1982. P. 133-144.
  • Linssen, M. J. H. The Cults of Uruk and Babylon. The Temple Ritual Texts as Evidence for Hellenistic Cult Practices. Leiden-Boston, Brill-Styx, 2004.

 

[1] Mesendu is a conventional reading of the name of the deity venerated in Lagash in the Ancient Sumerian time and was connected with the world of dead.

Tags: Ancient Mesopotamia, Vladimir V. Emelianov

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