Discussions on Priesthood in Mesopotamia - 2018 Tel Aviv

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Steinkeller on the 3rd Millennium Priesthood

Hey e n e n ur u -









I've recently come across a series of lectures that were given in 2018 in Tel Aviv during a conference called "Priests and Priesthood in the Near East: Social, Intellectual and Economic Aspects". Fortunately, video recordings of the lectures are available here. The following talks were given:

Dominique Charpin (Collège de France), Opening Address: Recent Discoveries from Ur / Tell Muqayyar, Priests of Ur in the Old Babylonian Period: A Reappraisal in the Light of the Discoveries at Ur / Tell Muqayyar in 2017

Walther Sallaberger (LMU, Munich), Keynote Session I: Origins of Near Eastern Priesthood, Close to the Ruler and to the Gods: The Cultic Duties of the Cupbearer and the Role of Priestesses and Priests in Early Dynastic Mesopotamia

Piotr Steinkeller (Harvard University), Babylonian Priesthood during the Third Millennium BCE: Between Sacred
and Profane

Louise Quillien (EPHE, Paris), Identity Through Appearance: Babylonian Priestly Clothing

Aren Maeir (Bar Ilan University), “The priests, the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel” (Deut 18:1): Is There Archaeological Evidence of Priests and Priesthood in Iron Age Israel and Judah?

Yonatan Adler (Ariel University), “Is there a Priest in the House?”: Identifying Jewish Priests (Kohanim) in the Archaeology of Roman Judaea/Palaestina

Julietta Steinhauer (University College London), Near Eastern Priests: A Graeco-Roman perspective





Of these, I was particularly interested in Steinkeller's talk. As some of you may recall, I took a strong interest in a paper written by Steinkeller on a similar theme:

Steinkeller, Piotr 1999. "On Rulers, Priests and Sacred Marriage: Tracing the Evolution of Early Sumerian Kingship," In Priests and Officials in the Ancient Near East: Papers of the Second Colloquium on the Ancient Near East — The City and its Life held at the Middle Eastern Culture Center in Japan (Mitaka, Tokyo), edited by K. Watanabe, 103-137. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag C. Winter.


We discussed some of the aspects of that paper here, and I linked a term paper which I wrote years ago exploring some aspects of that paper here. What was particularly intriguing about Steinkeller's 1999 article was that he committed a one page subsection to his view of the early Mesopotamian pantheon, in which he sketches his notions that Enki was the high god before Enlil arrived, that Ninurta was the god of Nippur before Enlil arrived, and most controversially, that the early pantheon was dominated by goddesses before undergoing some sort of shift. Those ideas have never been solidly engaged in the secondary litature, to my knowledge, and I haven't seen Steinkeller elaborate on them. I was hoping that in this lecture, almost 20 years later, he would provide more discussion on this topic - unfortunately, he didn't. In any case, I have made some notes below on his discussion of the third millennium priesthood which, although it doesn't touch on questions of pantheon, is still an interesting topic. Steinkeller's discussion serves as a refresher on a dense and obscure subject matter.








- minutes 2:00-4:00


High Priests and Priestesses – often counted as symbolic spouses of the deity they were dedicated to (although the evidence is thin for this – 39:00). Lived within the temple complex attached to shrine of deity. Rarely depicted in art. The high priest / priestess are by profession name:

en (enu and entu)
lu2-mah
ereš-dingir
zirru
šennu
egi-zi
igi-zi-an-na
lukur-gal

Steinkeller: Wall plaque from ED Ur, shows the zirru priestess in the lower register with characteristic brimmed hat.

Steinkeller: an ED III seal, on the left again is a zirru or an en priestess.





7:00 – there is very little written description of the activities of the high priest / priestess except for mention of their appointments to these roles or sometimes their deaths. They must have officiated over official ceremonies involving their deities during festivals and during processions and boat trips and so on, but the specifics are lacking.

Lesser Priests:

gudu4
išib
nu-eš3 (nêšakku)
eš3-a-ab-du
išita / nam-šita4 / nam-šita (karibu)
lukur
lagar e

8:30: There are more regular duties which are documented somewhat better: such as the daily feeding and dressing of the (cultic statue) of the deity. These operations were carried out by the lower ranking priest, the gudu4 and the išib. Their roles seem identical, with the išib being perhaps the more important of the two.

In art, the gudu4 and išib are always shown naked with heads shaven. Interestingly, when answering a question at the 39:00 minute mark, Steinkeller remarks that the images of naked priest carrying out rituals seem to stop in the second millennium (the practice seems to have changed).

11:20: Steinkeller suggests that the nude individuals on the Warka vase are išib or gudu4 priests, which would date their origin quite early.

12:15 direct access to the shrine (eš3 – the inner sanctum of the temple) appears to have been limited to the high priests / priestesses, and the gudu4 and išib, as well as the nu-eš3 and eš-a-ab-du (the latter two are likely localized versions of the išib and gudu4).

20:00 Because information on ritual activity of the 3rd millennium priestly staff is fairly scarce, Steinkeller focuses instead on what he calls the ‘managerial’ class of temple staff, such as the sanga; the main activity of this group of temple staff was to manage the economic and administrative interests of the temple (which were very substantial in the third millennium). Due to the nature of their activities, the mangerial class is documented much more extensively. I did not take notes on this part of the talk.

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Just to mention - Westenholz apparently rejects Steinkeller's entire formulation of a evolution of royal titles en > lugal > ensi as articulated in Steinkeller 1999. Not that I currently have reason to doubt it, but all counter claims must be examined as well.


Westenholz A. 2002 “The Sumerian City-State.” In A Comparative Study of Six City-State Cultures, ed. M. Hansen, 23–42. Copenhagen: Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.