Sumerian EZEN “Festival”: Ideography and Etymology

Written by Vladimir V. Emelianov.

The noun ezen/ezem, the only Sumerian word for ‘festival’, has not yet got special attention, as there are still no monographs on Sumerian festivals^[1]. While preparing an article on the ways of describing festivals in the Sumerian and Akkadian texts, I turned to the greatest expert on Mesopotamian pictography R. Englund with the question of what, in his opinion, could be depicted with the EZEN pictogram. The answer followed: “I believe no one has credible explanation of the referent behind this sign. But since it does appear to have also represented a walled enclosure of some kind (seen from above, with inscribed phonogram bad and thus read bad₃, wall or fortress in Sumerian texts), I might suggest such an enclosure with towers where a festival might have been held” (letter dated 20.09.2018) (Emelianov 2018: 5, note 1). The situation is even worse with the etymology of this word. None of the experts spoke out clearly on the topic, although the way to solve the issue was found right away in a an almost forgotten monograph, which is not cited by modern Assyriologists.

So, what can be said about the EZEN ideogram at present? It depicts a view of a citadel with towers from above, and from the time of Uruk III it has three variants: EZEN a, EZEN b, EZEN c. The word šir₃ = zamāru  “song, to sing” is also written with the same ideogram. If we enter the sign KASKAL “way” into this ideogram, we get UBARA = kidinnu  “protection”. With the inscribed sign BAD, the ideogram gets meaning “fortress” and will be read as bad₃. If we inscribe A “water”, we get asila “joy, exultation” (MZL: 308; MEA: 104-105). So, we have got a range of meanings associated with the EZEN pictogram as it is: festival, song, joy, protection, fortress^[2]. We can conclude that the image of this sign is indeed a fortress-type structure^[3], inside which people rejoice, sing, and celebrate, because they are protected by strong walls.

Reading of the sign EZEN is known from several sources: [i-zi-en] ŠIR₃ = i-sin-nu, arḫu “new moon”, eššešu “(festival) of sanctuaries”^[4], nubattu “evening” (AVIII/2: 16 and following); i-zi-e[n] (MSL II, pl. III ii 4’); e-zi-en (JCS 8, 144-145a ii 1) (cit. on: CAD I/J: 195; Lieberman 1977: 333). It is clear from these data, that the sign EZEN represent a festival associated with coming evening and appearing of the new moon^[5]; and its pronouncing in Sumerian [ezen], and later in Akkadian languages, ignoring vowel harmony, could be [izen].

The word EZEN is one of the most ancient words and concepts fixed in clay. It is found in pictographic texts from Uruk, in archaic verbal-syllabic texts from Fara and Ebla.

Uruk III

1. EZEN~b MUŠ₃~a U₄SIG AN
2. AN AN AN

(CDLI Seals 001379)

It is possible, that the signs of the first line are read in the following order: ezen-u₄-muš₃-an-sig “a festival (when) the light of the heaven face is getting faint”^[6]

3. EZEN~b EN~a SAG

(CUSAS 1 150: obv. I 3)

It is possible, we should read ezen-en-sag “festival (in honour of) the highest lord (= chief priest/main god)”

1. , GU NAR
2. , NAR AD~c
3. , EN~a EZEN~b

(CDLI no. P006041, col. IV)

In these lines, there is the sign NAR “singer”, EN “chief priest”, AD “father”. It is possible, GU is used instead of GU₃, then, it means “voice”. They speak about old singers presenting hymns at the festival in honour of EN.

MUŠ₃~a# KAŠ~b EZEN~b

(CDLI no. P003808, obv, I 1)

There are such signs as “face”, “beer”, and “festival”. There is a lacuna after the sign MUŠ₃.

ED IIIa (Fara)

lu₂-ezen “man of the festival” (FTP 37: rev. I 1)

lugal-ezen “king of the festival ” (NTSŠ 569: rev. III 8’)

amar-ezen “calf of the festival” (NTSŠ 65 + 159 + 178 + 974: obv. I 9)

šir-ezen “song of the festival” (TSŠ 49: obv. II 6)

nin-ezen-gal “lady of the festival” (WF 74: rev. I 11)

e₂-ezen-du₁₀ “temple of the auspicious festival” (WF 78: rev. II 10)

ša₃-ezen “heart of the festival” (TSŠ 783: obv. III 4’)

E₂-PIRIG-EZEN gu₄ (SF 12: obv. V 6)

It is possibly read as gu₄-E₂-pirig-ezen “ox of the temple of Pirig-Ezen”. Literally, Pirig-Ezen means “lion of the festival”.

E₂-HI-EZEN-NIN-ZAG (RIME 1 15: 1)

It is possibly read as e₂-du₁₀-ezen-Nin-zag “temple of the auspicious festival of Ninzag”

ED IIIb

Ebla

8. EZEN-^dEn-ki “festival of Enki” (MEE 2 43: rev. VI 8)

5. E₂-PIRIG-EZEN^[7] “ temple of Pirig-Ezen” (MEE 3 47: obv. V 5)

6. EZEN
7. i₃-zi-num₂

(lexical match of Sumerian and Eblaite words; MEE 3 52: obv. IV 6-7)

Abu-Salabikh

Here. We should take into account the presence of the word ezen in the ciphered cuneiform of the so called UD.GAL.NUN-orthography. There are matches: šeš-gal = ezen-gal “great festival” (IAS 165: 1’-2’ = IAS 117: III’ 7’); ezen-an “heavenly festival” = šeš-an (SF 39: VI 10 = IAS 163: VIII 17’) (Krebernik 1984: 270). It is clear from these matches that in the ciphered cuneiform ezen was replaced with the sign ŠEŠ. How could we explain such encryption? Obviously that encryption was semantic^[8]. EZEN in included into u₄-sakar (EZEN) “new moon”, the sign ŠEŠ is used in the name of the lunar god Nanna. The association with the festival of eš₃-eš₃ “sanctuary” is not excluded; in its course the moon was the main object of veneration. That is, at that epoch, the phenomenon of the festival was closely connected with the rites of the welcoming of the new moon^[9].

The most common combinations (frequency according to CDLI)

iti-ezen-FN “month of a certain festival” - 13012

u₄-ezen “day of the festival” - 24

niĝ₂-ezem-ma “festival sacrifice” - 129

niĝ₂-dab₅-ezen-MN “delivery (by) the festival of a certain month” - 44

zi-ga-ezen-DN “delivery (by the festival) of a certain god” - 8

sizkur₂-ezen “festival libation” - 2

ezen-MN “festival of a certain month” - 5

ezen-DN “festival of a certain god” - 228

ezen-gal “great festival” - 5

ezem-mah “high festival” - 1820

Using with case endings and pronouns (according to ePSD)

EZEN-ma “at the festival” Loc.

EZEN-ma-da “together with the festival” (< ezen-ak-da) Gen. + Kom.

i-zi₃-iĝ-bi “this festival” (ES)

EZEN-a-na “at his festival” (< ezen-ani-a)

EZEN-gim₇ “as at the festival” Eq.

EZEN-zu “your festival”

EZEN-ĝu₁₀ “my festival”

We see, that in different cases this lexeme can be read with different endings: ezem-ma, ezem-ma-da, ezen-na. The form ES iziĝ also indicates the possibility of m/n alternation.

Now, let us turn to the etymology of ezen. In his monograph on the calendars of Ancient Mesopotamia, B. Landsberger noticed the similarity of the Sumerian ezen and the Arab. mawsim (Landsberger 1915: 9). According to various editions of ‘The Encyclopedia of Islam’, mawsim is a polysemantic word meaning “market day, festival; season of the year; seasonal wind (whence then ‘monsoon’)”. Mawsim comes from the verb wsm “to stigmatise, to mark, to imprint” (EI 5: 422)^[10]. The same is said in the latest dictionary of South Arabic epigraphic vocabulary, where the wsm stem is interpreted as “mark, inscribed symbol; brand on an animal” (Biella 2004: 133). The same meanings are confirmed for medieval Arabic as well: “he marked, or put a mark on; a brand, or mark, or figure made with a hot iron” (Lane 1863-1893: 3053-3054). Words formed from the same stem are known also in other Semitic languages: Heb. məzummān “fixed currency”, zəmān “appointed time, season”, Aram. zəmān, zəman “time”^[11].

The observation by Landsberger turned out to be very productive. It would be strange, however, to directly connect the Sumerian word with the Arabic one. G. Rubio was clearly in a hurry when he decided to summarize it in a short note: “ez e n / e z e m (EZEN) may come from wasim, from wsm, “celebration, festival” (Falkenstein 1960: 312; Oberhuber 1981: 257); cf. Arabic mausim (pl. mawasim) “time of the year, season, festival, holiday, harvest-time”; al-mausim “the Muslim hadj festival (both the place and the time)” (Wehr 1976: 1070a; Hava 1982: 870b). Akkadian isinnum comes from Sumerian e z e n / e z e m” (Rubio 1999: 7, fn. 14). It would be more reasonable to pay attention not to the Arabic parallels, but to the stem wsm in Akkadian, where it has a truncated form asāmu and means “to be fitting, proper, suitable” (CAD A 2: 328). From that basic form they produced such words as simānu “season, proper time, time: a) referring to the seasons of the year; b) referring to the phases of the human life; c) referring to the timing of celestial and meteorological phenomena; d) referring to times prescribed for the performance of rituals” (CAD S: 268-271), asmu “fitting, proper, seasonable” (CAD A 2: 337), (w)usmu “something fitting, appropriate, suitable” (CAD U/W: 279), simtu (šimtu) “1. person or thing that is fitting, suitable, seemly, appropriate, necessary; 2. person or thing that befits, does honor to, is the pride of; 3. appurtenances, ornament , characteristic, insigne, proper appearance or behavior or ways, figural representation; 4. face, features” (CAD S: 278-283). The fact that the base could also be wšm is evidenced by the noun šimtu “paint, glue, varnish; mark, marking; branding iron” (CAD Š 3: 9).

So, we see that the only Sumerian word for the festival ezen had the original form ezem and came from the Semitic stem wsm/wšm, the main meaning of which was to mark a thing or the duration of an action (i.e. time), from which later in Akkadian specific meanings “mark, characteristic feature, suitability for something, dignity, outstanding qualities” were shaped. A festival is, first of all, a designation of a moment in time, its “mark”, fixation in word and action. The wsm stem itself could be used even to an abstract designation of time.

Now, let us turn to the issue of the Akkadian form from which the noun ezem could have come. An intention of G. Rubio to derive ezem from the wasim stative looks strange, since verbs, not names, were formed from the stative forms. Most likely, the noun ezem came from the noun (w)usmu “decoration; suitability”^[12]. We find it in the form Status constructus wuzum in Old Akkadian proper names^[13]: DINGIR-Wu-zum, ^dUTU-Wu-zum (MAD 3: 69)^[14]. The ending disappeared, the original (w)u- turned into /e/^[15], /s/ became voiced, and according to the rules of vowel harmony, another sound /e/ was formed between the second and third roots. The further history of the Sumerian word is known to us through the Eblaite lexical list, where there is a correspondence of EZEN = i₃-zi-num₂. Apparently, it was then, in the 25^th century BCE, when Sumerism izin (izina) (MAD 3: 69) appeared in the East Semitic languages (first in Eblaite, and then in Akkadian), whence, at a later time, isinnum, iši/ennum (CAD I/J: 195- 197). Now, we can line up the data in a chain:

Sem. WS/ŠM > OAkk. wuzmu > St.constr. wuzum > Sum. ezem > Sum. ezen > OAkk./Ebl. izin > OB isinnu, išinnu

Thus, the only Sumerian word for the festival is a borrowing from Semitic languages, or rather from Akkadian language. The Sumerogram for the festival depicts a citadel in which they sing and rejoice. And the wsm base itself means marking a thing or a certain time. As for the original ritual meaning of the word ezem, then, as we see from the combination of signs in archaic texts and from the commentary of the syllabaries, we are talking about hymns and a meal on the occasion of the evening, i.e. waning sunlight and the appearance of a crescent moon in the sky.

Bibliography:

• [ATU 2]. 1987: Green, M.W., Nissen, H.J. Zeichenliste der Archaischen Texte aus Uruk. Berlin. Gebr. Mann Verlag.
• [ATU 7]. 2001: Englund, R.K., Nissen, H.J. Archaische Verwaltungstexte aus Uruk: Die Heidelberger Sammlung. Berlin. Gebr. Mann Verlag.
• Biella, J.C. 2004: Dictionary of Old South Arabic, Sabaean Dialect. Winona Lake, Indiana. Esienbrauns.
• [CAD]. 1956-2011:  The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Chicago. Oriental Institute.
• [CDLI]. 1998-: Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (http://cdli.ucla.edu/search/search.pt).
• [CUSAS 1]. 2007: Monaco, S.F. The Cornell University Archaic Tablets. Bethesda. CDL Press.
• Emelianov, V.V. 2018: [Presentation of Calendar Festivals in the Cuneiform Texts of Ancient Mesopotamia]. Aziatika. Trudy po filosofii I kulturam Vostoka [Asiatica. Studies in philosophies and cultures of Orient]. 12/1. 3-26.
• Emelianov, V.V. 2018: [A Description of the Calendar Festivals in Sumerian and Akkedian Texts]. Asiatica. Trudy po filosofii I kulturam Vostoka [Asiatica. Studies in philosophies and cultures of Orient].12/1. 3-26.
• [EI V]. 1993: E.J. Brill’s First Encyclopaedia of Islam. 1913-1936. Vol. V. Leiden, New York, Kőln. Brill.
• [ePSD]. 1996-: The electronic Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary. http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/epsd/nepsd-frame.html
• [ETCSL]. 1998-: The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature. http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk
• [FTP]. 2001: Martin, H., Pomponio, F., Visicato, G., Westenholz, A. The Fara Tablets in the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Bethesda. CDL Press.
• [IAS]. 1974: R. D. Biggs, with a chapter by D. P. Hansen. Inscriptions from Tell Abu Salabikh. Chicago. The University of Chicago Press.
• Kogan, L. 2002: Addenda et Corrigenda to the Hamito‐Semitic Etymological Dictionary (HSED) by V. Orel and O. Stolbova (II). Journal of Semitic Studies. 47/2. 183–202.
• Krebernik, M. 1984:  Die Beschwörungen aus Fara und Ebla. New York, Zürich, Hildesheim. Olms Verlag.    
• Krebernik, M. 1998:  Die Texte aus Fara und Tell Abu-Salabih. Bauer J./Englund R. K./Krebernik M. (Hrsg.). Mesopotamien. Späturuk-Zeit und Frühdynastische Zeit. Annäherungen 1 (OBO 160/1). Freiburg, Switzerland. Universitätsverlag. 237-427.
• Krecher, J. 1992:        UD.GAL.NUN versus ‘Normal’ Sumerian: Two Literatures or One? Fronzaroli, P. (ed.). Literature and Literary Language at Ebla. Firenze. 285-303.
• Landsberger, B. 1915: Der kultische Kalender der Babylonier und Assyrer: I. Die altbabylonischen Lokalkalender. Leipzig. J.C. Heinrichs’sche Buchhandlung.
• Lane, E.W. 1863-1893: An Arabic-English Lexikon. London. Williams and Norgate.
• Lieberman, S.J. 1977: The Sumerian Loanwords in Old-Babylonian Akkadian. Vol. 1. Prolegomena and Evidence. Ann Arbor, Michigan, Edwards Brohthers, Inc.
• [MAD 3]. 1957: Gelb, I.J. Glossary of Old Akkadian. Chicago. The University of Chicago Press.
• [MEA]. 1976: Labat, R., Manuel d'épigraphie akkadienne. Paris.
• [MEE 2]. 1980: Pettinato, G. Testi amministrativi della biblioteca L. 2769. Vol. 1. Naples.
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^[1] The frequency of usage of this word in various digital databases is quite big: ePSD – 1138 mentions from the period of ED IIIb (Ebla), CDLI – 364 from the period of Uruk III (ezen), 16885 (ezem), ETCSL – 74 (from the II Dynasty of Lagash). The most often, it is found in economic and administrative texts, where they mark food rations for various temple festivals. In literature it is not very often (less than 100 cases).

^[2] There are also known signs of well-proved readings and meaning which were found in archaic texts only: EZENxGU₄ (festival x ox), EZENxSIG₇ (festival x yellow-green), EZENxUD (festival x day), EZENxKUG (festival x light, fair) (MZL: 309).

^[3] V. Yu. Shelestin, who read the article, noted in his letter from 16.05.2020: “Englund writes about the encircling wall. The sigh looks like more as a tower with adjoining parts of the fortress wall (b and с). But an earlier (?) variant а is a circle with walls adjoining from four sides, i.e. it is not a part of the fortress wall, but a single construction”.

^[4] In the texts of Ur III this festival is dated to the 1, 7, and 15^th days, i.e. it was a ritual marking of the change of the lunar phases up to the full moon. Later, they celebrated it, however, on the 4, 8, and 17^th days; perhaps, it was associated with the sacred days of Marduk in the Babylonian calendar (CAD E: 373).

^[5] According S. Liberman: “izen ‘(offering for) festival’” with variants ezen_x, ezun_x, izem_x, izim_x, izin_x, izun_x (Lieberman 1977: 332).

^[6] There are similar combinations of pictograms known: SIG EZEN~b AN MUŠ₃~a (CDLI no.               P003807), KISAL~b1 SIG EZEN~b MUŠ₃~a AN TAK₄ “Festival of weakening (and) disappearing of the heavenly face (in the) yard…” (ATU 2 28: obv. II 5), U₄ EZEN~b MUŠ₃~a (ATU 7 57: obv. II 1). In all cases, they, evidently, meant some fixing of the fading day light. See also: SIG EZEN~b MUŠ₃~a AN [...] / U₄ ŠU₂ “sunset” (ATU 7 46: obv. I 2-3).

^[7] Or EZEN should be read as ug_x, because the lexical text allows to read PIRIG. UG_x.GA (ED Word List = “Tribute” 69; cit.: CDLI).

^[8] М. Krebernik and J. Krecher established, that a similarity of the sign of encryption and the sign of the ciphered could be graphic, phonetic, and semantic; they explained some signs. For instance, the sign TUD (“to born, to deliver”) is replaced in UD.GAL.NUN with the sign AMA (“mother”), because they are connected with the delivery semantic; the sign AB was replaced with the sign NISAG, because they have graphic similarity; the sign GIN₇ was replaced with the sign LAGAB, because LAGAB has reading niĝin₂, gin and niĝin are similar in their phonetic. At that, some signs of ciphered inscriptions could notify several simple signs (for instance, the sign NUN “lord, master” could replace the signs GAL “great”, E₂ “house, temple”, LIL₂ “wind, air”). Nonetheless, a small group of sign did not get an explanation of the method of encryption (Krecher 1992: 285-303; Krebernik 1984: 268-286; Krebernik 1998: 299-302).

^[9] Contexts since the I Dynasty of Lagash have been collected [ePSD, ezem] and explained.

^[10] L. E. Kogan gives some other words with the same root in Semitic languages: “The Arabic roots under discussion are clearly connected with Semitic words for ‘mark', in particular ‘birthmark': Akkadian šimtu ‘paint, glue, varnish; mark, marking, etc.' (CAD S/3: 9, AHw: 1238), Post-Biblical Hebrew šūmā ‘mark, mole, wart' (Ja.: 1536), Judaic Aramaic sūmā, sīmā ‘mark, spot' (Ja.: 966), <…> wasāmat- ‘trait de beaute qui distingue; beaute du visage' (ibid. 2: 538), Sabaic s₁m-t ‘line, mark, sign' (SD: 163)” (Kogan 2002: 199).

^[11] See also the words in adjacent lines of the Eblaite administrative text: EZEN / mu-sa-ma-a₃-num₂ (LUM) (MEE 4 74: rev. III 2-3). It is possible that the second line is a translation of the first one, and, then, we can definitely establish a connection between the Sumerian word and the Semitic root. It is rather difficult, however, to prove the connection between the lines.

^[12] W. Sommerfeld takes a skeptical attitude towards ezem < wsm. He considers the similarity of the Sumerian word and the Semitic stem to be an accident. At the same time, Sommerfeld notes by right that Akkad. *wasim does not mean “festival” anywhere, and it makes more sense to derive ezem/n from *usVm(a). For some reason, however, he does not find Akkadian words with this form and therefore refuses to consider the most probable form usVm(a) to be derived from Akkadian (Sommerfeld 2006: 661).

^[13] Of course, that borrowing must have occurred much earlier than the Akkadian era. But, at present, all the earliest Akkadian lexemes in the Old Sumerian texts are called Old Akkadian. This is incorrect, but there is still no separate term for them.

^[14] Later, wu-zum šarrūti “dignity of kingship”, usum ^dIgigi “dignity of Igigi” (or “decoration of kingship, decoration of Igigi” (CAD U/W: 280).

^[15] As in the case: Sumer. emeš= Akkad. umšu “heat, summer” (CAD U/W: 137).

Tags: Ancient Mesopotamia, Vladimir V. Emelianov

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