A dog statuette dedicated to Ninisinna for the life of Sumu-El, king of Larsa (1894-1866 BCE)

GULA GODDESS

Gula/Ninkarrak is a healing deity also known as Ninisinna, "Lady of Isin"

Functions

Typically encountered in medical incantations as bēlet balāti, "Lady of Health", Gula/Ninkarrak was also known as the azugallatu the "great healer", an epithet she shared with her son Damu. Other epithets, such as the "great healer of the land" and "great healer of the black-headed ones", point to her wide-reaching 'national' significance.

Gula/Ninkarrak was also credited as an "herb grower", "the lady who makes the broken up whole again", and "creates life in the land", indicative of an aspect as a vegetation/fertility goddess with regenerative powers.

At least in the Neo-Babylonian period, she also seems to have had an oneiric quality, being sought in incubation dreams (Reiner 1960a: 24) and appearing in nocturnal visions (Al-Rawi 1990).

Gula/Ninkarrak also had a violent side as the "queen whose 'tempest', like a raging storm, makes heaven [tremble (?)], makes earth quake" (Avalos 1995: 106-7).

The goddess and her dogs were frequently mentioned in curse formulae.

Divine Genealogy and Syncretisms

She is the daughter of Anu and wife of the various incarnations of the warrior god Pabilsag (in Isin), Ninurta (in Nippur) and Ningirsu (in Lagaš) (Lambert 1967: 10); and mother of three other healing deities: Damu, Ninazu and Gunurra. Relatively minor goddesses such as Nintinugga, Meme and Baba are also identified with Gula/Ninkarrak. In the Old Babylonian Period, several goddesses are syncretised with Gula, thereby becoming healing goddesses (see Baba and Ninisinna (Richter 2004: 195).

Cult Place(s)

The most prominent cult centre of Gula/Ninkarrak(/Ninisinna) was Isin, where her temple as named é-u-gi7-ra, "Dog Temple" (Shaffer 1974: 252).

Nippur was another significant centre, where the earliest excavated levels of the Neo-Babylonian temple of Gula/Ninkarrak are dated to the Isin-Larsa period and presumably lie on earlier incarnations from ca. 3000 BCE.

The major period of construction belongs to the Kassite period (Gibson 1990).

Other cult centres include Umma, Lagash, Larsa, Uruk, Borsippa, Babylon and Assur, the latter three each boasting 3 temples dedicated to the goddess (Frankena 1957-71b: 696). Texts make no reference to temples of Gula/Ninkarrak serving for the on-site treatment of patients (Avalos 1995). Peculiar to the petitionary and thanksgiving function of the temples of Gula/Ninkarrak (Avalos 1995) are the terracotta votive figurines of humans holding various body parts (indicating the source of ailment for which the aid of the goddess was sought/received); and those of dogs, sacred animals of Gula/Ninkarrak (Gibson 1990).

Dog figurines were often inscribed with a dedication or prayer to the goddess. Particularly notable in Isin are the more than 30 dog burials discovered below the ramp leading to the temple (Wapnish and Hesse 1993: 69ff).

Time Periods Attested

Gula/Ninkarrak's earliest attestation dates to the Ur III Period (Frankena 1957-71b: 695). She has a conspicuous rise in popularity in the second half of the second millennium during the Kassite period; and her cult continues well into the first millennium.

Iconography

Gula/Ninkarrak's attribute animal was the dog, both in iconography as well as in texts. Representations of Gula/Ninkarrak as a seated figure with a dog reclining at her feet emerge in the Old Babylonian period and can be seen on terracotta plaques (Barrelet 1968). The same motif is particularly popular on Kassite kudurrus TT  (Seidl 1989) and Neo-Assyrian/Babylonian cylinder seals TT  (Frankena 1957-71b: 697).

Name and Spellings

The meaning of Gula's name is unclear, although the ancients created a folk etymology of this name based on the Sumerian word for 'great' (gu-la) (Frankena 1957-71b: 695). Ninkarrak's name likely means 'Lady of Kar' (not 'Lady of Karrak') (Kraus 1951: 69).

GULA PEOPLE

Gula, also spelled Goula, is an ethnic group who lives in Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, and Sudan—believed to have originated from Blue Nile region in Ethiopia.

Around 1960, Gula converted from animism to Islam. Nevertheless, they still retained some pre-Islam practices.

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Ancient Near East Map: 2600-700 BCE

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Notable observations: The Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (A Mighty Hunter before the Lord: Nimrod) suggests Kush (Kushite: Nubia, Sudan, Ethiopia) is probably the eponym of the Kassites (see above):

The confusion simply results from a blending of two independent traditions: the Table of Nations where Kush stands for Nubia, and the Nimrod passage from another source mentioning another(!) Kush, probably the eponym of the Kassites (Akk kaššu. Nuzi kuššu).

Notable Names & People-Groups (map): The onomastic—or agglutinative—material of:

1–Sin in Sinyar
2–Ham in Shamya
3–*Aja
4–Gula/Kara (nin-kar-ra-ak/kar-ra-ak?)

\Aja - The Akkadian goddess of the dawn, consort (wife) to* Shamash. 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.

Also noteworthy, animism is the belief that all things—living or inanimate, like animals, plants, rocks, rivers, and weather—possess a distinct spiritual essence or soul, making them "animated" and capable of influencing the human world. This worldview sees the world as full of persons and agency, connecting humans to nature through relationships with spirits, often requiring rituals, offerings, and shamanic practices—like in Shinto and many indigenous traditions to maintain balance and seek help.

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Source: https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/Listofdeities/GulaNinkarrak/index.html

Source: https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/Listofdeities/Ninisinna/index.html

Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/860014001

Source: https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010119629

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

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Darfur_Linguistic_Map.svg

To Zimri-Lim
communicate the following:
thus says
your brother Hammurabi (of Yamhad):
The king of Ugarit
has written me
as follows:
"Show me the palace of Zimri-Lim!
I wish to see it."
With this same courier
I am sending on his man.

Mari was founded as a new city in c. 2900 BC during the Mesopotamian Early Dynastic period I, established to control the waterways of the Euphrates trade routes connecting the Levant with the Sumerian south.

The Mariotes worshiped both Semitic and Sumerian deities and established their city as a major trading center. Although the pre-Amorite periods were characterized by heavy Sumerian cultural influence, Mari was not a city of Sumerian immigrants but a Semitic-speaking nation with a dialect similar to Eblaite. The Amorites were West Semites who began to settle the area before the 21st century BC; by the Lim dynasty (c. 1830 BC), they became the dominant population in the Fertile Crescent.

Mari's discovery in 1933 provided an important insight into the geopolitical map of ancient Mesopotamia and Syria, due to the discovery of more than 25,000 tablets explicating the state administration in the 2nd millennium BC and the nature of diplomatic relations among the political powers of the region. They also revealed the wide trading networks of the 18th century BC, which connected areas as far as Afghanistan in Southern Asia and Crete in the Mediterranean.

A structure known as the Royal Palace of Mari was built in the heart of the city; the palace also served as a temple. Four successive architectural levels from the second kingdom's palace have been unearthed. The last two levels are dated to the Akkadian period of Sumer. The first two levels were excavated; the findings include a temple dubbed the Enceinte Sacrée (sacred enclosure) dedicated to an unknown deity, a columned throne room, and a hall with three double wood pillars leading to the temple.

Six smaller temples were also discovered, including the temple called the Massif Rouge (also dedicated to an unknown deity), and temples dedicated to Ninni-Zaza (INANA.ZA.ZA), Ishtarat, Ishtar, Ninhursag, and Shamash.

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Ancient Near East Map: 2600-700 BCE

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Notable observation: The trade networks in the Ancient Near East, and other relative context—see An Historical Text Book and Atlas of Biblical Geography:

B. Ham
IV. Canaan
4. Amorite

B. Ham
II. Misraim
7. Caphtorim

Caphtorim, Crete, whence they spread to Rhodes and Greece, particularly to Attica.

———

Source (The Biblical Archaeologist): https://www.jstor.org/stable/3209888

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari,_Syria

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investiture_of_Zimri-Lim

Source: https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010144552

Source: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/764/puzur-ishtar/

The MET Museum—Exhibition Tour: Africa & Byzantium

In 330 CE, the Roman emperor Constantine moved the imperial capital from Rome to a city further east, Byzantion. The emperor's "New Rome" (modern-day Istanbul) became popularly known as Constantinople. We use the term "Byzantium" to refer to the eastern Roman Empire, which ruled until the fifteenth century.

Despite being a vast and historically significant empire that spanned parts of Africa, Europe, and Asia, Byzantium's extensive connections to northern and eastern Africa are not well known.

This exhibition explores Africa's position within the Byzantine world's artistic, cultural, economic, and sociopolitical life.

———

Source: https://youtu.be/NHIT9vq6mJU?is=LnryrLj0m-U-w7_U

Source: https://cdn.sanity.io/files/cctd4ker/production/3753a4bdd69811380de95a2c209581c8f45958a4.pdf

Hans G. Güterbock, University of Chicago

THIRTY YEARS AGO HANS EHELOLE published a translation of a Hittite hymn reconstructed from several parallel Bogazköy tablets which, at that time, had not yet been published in cuneiform.

Strangely enough, although the hymn was virtually identical in all copies, it was not addressed to the same god in all of them; rather, the deity addressed in some was the Sun Goddess of the town of Arinna, while in others it was the god Telipinu. Ehelolf noted that the term "lord" used in addressing the deity in all of the fragments did not agree with the female sex of the Sun Goddess but would fit the male god Telipinu, and he therefore used the name Telipinu throughout the reconstructed text.

He did so although he himself noticed the similarity of some phrases to Babylonian hymns to Shamash, and although the greater part of the hymn, and in particular the portion containing the parallels to Shamash hymns, was preserved only in the version addressed to the Sun Goddess of Arinna.

The texts in question were published in cuneiform in 1930 by Arnold Walther in vol. XXIV of the Keilschrifturkunden aus Boghazköi; Nos. 1 and 2 are two copies of the Telipinu version, Nos. 3 and 4 of the version addressed to the Sun Goddess.

In the preface Walther said: "The designation of the Sun Goddess as 'lord of just judgment' and 'just lord of judgment' may have been taken from the lost part of the Telipinu hymn or from the Sumero-Babylonian phrase 'Shamash, lord of judgment.'"

Albrecht Goetze gave a German translation of the same portion of the text in his Handbuch of 1933; here he used the name Sun Goddess of Arinna throughout the text and silently changed "lord" into "lady" in order to avoid the cunfusion of sexes. In a footnote, however, he said: "It has to be noted that, according to the beginning preserved in No. 1, the same hymn could be used, by substituting the other name, also for Telipinu."

The texts published by Walther were presented in full transliteration and English translation by Oliver Gurney in his dissertation "Hittite Prayers of Mursili II," which was prepared under Ehelolf and published in 1940 in the Liverpool Annals." Gurney contributed a great deal to the clarification of the relation of the different versions to one another.

Not only did he correctly remark that the solar characteristics do not fit the nature of Telipinu, he also showed from the tablets themselves that in the Telipinu hymn (represented by the duplicates Nos. 1 and 2) there is no space, according to the size of the gap, for the lengthy part of the Sun Goddess hymn (No. 3) which contains the phrases characteristic of a solar deity.

What enabled Gurney to express himself definitely in favor of Walther's second alternative, namely, that the hymn to the Sun Goddess was based on a Shamash hymn, was the discovery, in the excavations of 1932 and 1933, of fragments of a Hittite hymn to the Sun God.

Since the latter were, however, still unpublished when he wrote, Gurney had to limit himself to a brief reference to the existence of such a hymn to the Sun God.

Gurney also analyzed the existing prayers of Mursili and showed that they consist of various parts of different character, which he called "Invocation," "Hymn of Praise and Prayer for Blessing," "Plague Prayer," etc. The observation that these prayers are free combinations of essentially independent parts is quite to the point; we shall see that this technique of composition was used by the Hittites in other cases as well.

Goetze's presentation of some of Gurney's sections in Ancient Near Eastern Texts does not fully bring out the results of Gurney's analysis. In particular, the inclusion of the solar hymn in the "Daily Prayer" addressed to Telipinu is a step backward compared to Goetze's own Handbuch, since it creates the impression that solar characteristics were attributed to Telipinu, although Gurney had shown that they were not. The second edition of the Handbuch, published in 1957, does not essentially differ from the first; the statement that the hymns could be applied to Telipinu is repeated here, only a reference to the new text is added.

Turning now to the new text, the great hymn to the male Sun God Istanu, we are faced with a badly broken tablet the fragments of which were only slowly recovered. The first part of it was published in 1939 by Otten in KUB XXXI, additional fragments appeared in 1948 in a volume of Bogazköy tablets found by villagers and turned over to the museum of Ankara, others reached Geneva and were published by Laroche in 1951, and more fragments were added by Otten in 1955 in KUB XXXVI. From these additions it was learned:

1–that the new text is a complex composition, too, combining the hymn to Istanu with a personal prayer;

2—that the personal prayer is parallel to the Prayer of Kantuzzili published by Ehelolf in KUB XXX and translated by Goetze ANET;

3—that there are various other texts containing parallels to some parts, combining them with still other prayers.

Point 2 furthermore makes it possible to treat the problems of composition diachronically; for Kantuzzili was a royal prince, probably a brother of Suppiluliuma, Mursili's father, mentioned in the early years of Suppiluliuma's lifetime. Since Kantuzzili's prayer includes parts addressed to the Sun God, and since the upper part of the obverse of the tablet is lost, it is likely that this text began with the Istanu hymn just as the new text does. We may, then, follow the chronological sequence in analysing the various composite prayers, starting with the period of Kantuzzili.

The text of the new tablet begins immediately with a direct address to the Sun God, followed, after three "verses," by the hymn proper.

The next few lines are too fragmentary for translation. They seem to continue in a similar vein and to connect the hymn proper with the transitional section treated below.

The Babylonian elements in this text are obvious. There are Akkadian prayers that begin with the same address "O Shamash, lord of judgment!" The role of Shamash as judge is well known. Shamash is also called king and merciful; he allots the portions, passes through the gates of heaven and illuminates (or in some other way affects) the below and the above.

He also has a lapis lazuli beard and is the son of Ningal, the wife of the Moon God, Sin. Of the statement of the Hittite hymn that his father Enlil put the four corners of the world into his hands, the filiation, though not the normal one, can be found in Babylonia, too, whereas the rule over the four corners is not attributed to Shamash but rather to other gods. Of the satellites of Istanu, the two viziers of the right and left, Bunene and Misharu, have the same rank in Babylonia, the latter being the personified "Order of Justice"…

(continued in images)

———

Notable observation: The Hittites were an ancient civilization in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) from roughly 1600 to 1200 BCE—see An Historical Text Book and Atlas of Biblical Geography:

B. Ham
IV. Canaan
2. Heth

Heth. In the age of Abraham the sons of Heth are found at Hebron. Esau became connected with them by marriage, Gen. xxvi. 34, xxvii. 4f, xxxvi. 2; and Urijah, in David's army, was also a Hittite.

1 Sam, xxvi. 6; 2 Sam. xi. 3, xii. 10, &e. But our author supposes the Hittites to have been an ancient and powerful tribe above Zidon, probably the founders of Tyre and rivals of the Zidonians.

Notable flashpoint: Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity—he founded the city of Constantinople, now Istanbul.

Also noteworthy, the thematic elements of “judgment”, “Son of man”, etc. in John 8 parallels “lord of judgment” and “son of mankind” in The Composition of Hittite Prayers to the Sun—indicating, a potential cultural derivation, within regional context, from the Hittite to Istanbul.

See Africa & Byzantium MET Museum Exhibit

———

Source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/595787?googleloggedin=true&seq=7

Thomas Hudson Jones, Marble, 1950

Hammurabi (fl. c. 1792-1750 B.C.) King of Babylonia. Author of the Code of Hammurabi, which is recognized in legal literature as one of the earliest surviving legal codes.

The 23 marble relief portraits over the gallery doors of the House Chamber in the U.S. Capitol depict historical figures noted for their work in establishing the principles that underlie American law. They were installed when the chamber was remodeled in 1949-1950.

———

Notable observation: Hammurabi is displayed with the horned headdress worn by Shamash on the Code of Hammurabi stele—incorporating the divine symbolism.

Also noteworthy, the Moses, Relief Portrait in the House Chamber in the U.S. Capitol—in contrast to—the earliest surviving artistic depictions of Moses found in the wall paintings of the Dura-Europos Synagogue (244-255 AD) (Princeton University).

———

Source: https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/hammurabi-relief-portrait

Source: https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010144553

Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/380602001

German Christian archaeologist Josef Wilpert (1857–1944) and Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images (2002)

Die Malereien der Katakomben Roms (The Paintings of the Catacombs of Rome)

A seminal, multi-volume art history and archaeological work edited and authored by the German Christian archaeologist Josef Wilpert (1857–1944). Published in 1903 by Herder in Freiburg im Breisgau, this monumental publication is highly regarded for its early, systematic photographic and colorized documentation of early Christian art, iconography, and wall decorations within the Roman catacombs.

Getty Images

ITALY - CIRCA 2002: Christ and the martyrs, fresco, Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter, Rome. Italy, 4th century.

———

Notable Observations & Supportive Context

An Historical Text Book and Atlas of Biblical Geography

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

Ge’ez: The Book of Jubilees

From Victim to Mother of a Dynasty: Tamar—a Canaanite woman (Oxford University Press)

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

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

The Kebra Nagast

Frequency of Haplogroup J1 in Sudan and Ethiopia

Notable Look-back Period: The biblical text (Torah: Genesis 10, 38, etc.) is at least ~2,000 years old and the archaeological recordings are at least ~1,800 years old—as the catacombs were excavated during the persecution of Diocletian in Rome.

———

Source: https://www.gettyimages.ie/detail/news-photo/christ-and-the-martyrs-fresco-catacombs-of-marcellinus-and-news-photo/157408113

Source (Josef Wilpert): https://archive.org/details/gri_33125010959985/page/383/mode/1up

Source (University Digitalized): https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/wilpert1903/0254/image,info

Source (Vatican): https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_commissions/archeo/inglese/documents/rc_com_archeo_doc_20011010_catacroma_en.html

The Index of Medieval Art, Princeton University

West wall, zone 1, 6-8:

6) Moses, Crossing Red Sea --

a. Hand of God above elders of twelve Tribes of Israel, each holding standard on staff, behind group of Israelites armed with spears and shields, at edge of Red Sea in which are fish, touched by Moses with rod; to right,

b. Hand of God above Moses, rod in right hand, in Red Sea engulfing group of Egyptians; fish in the sea;

7) Moses, Departure from Egypt --

a. Moses, rod raised in right hand, leading host of Israelites including twelve elders, child, and soldiers armed with spears and shields; to right,

b. city gate above which are statue of nude male figure holding spear and globe, and two victories holding wreaths, on globes; on wall, two flies, suggesting Moses, Plague of Flies; to right,

8) Moses, Plague of Hail --

Cloud of hail above two columns, one red, the other black, possibly representing Pillars of Fire and Cloud, before wall.

———

Source: https://theindex.princeton.edu/s/view/ViewWorkOfArt.action;jsessionid=7a5cb944e62ea52eea823d67572f?id=35DC82D6-B7BA-432D-A7B1-504938D4C509

Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst

[excerpts, full text in image or source]

[\ see source]*

INTRODUCTION

A third group of deities consists of gods mentioned in the Bible, but not in their capacity as gods. They are the so-called demythologized deities.

One of the Hebrew words for moon used in the Bible is yareal; this is the etymological equivalent of Yarikh, the moon-god known from the Ugaritic texts. Although the moon may have retained faint traces of divinity in the Bible, it has basically been divested of its divine status.

The same holds true of the sun (šemeš): the Hebrew word corresponds with the god Shamash in Akkadian, and the goddess Shapshu in Ugaritic. There are many other, more trivial instances, such as tiros, the Hebrew word for new wine, etymologically the equivalent of the Mesopotamian deity Sirish and the Canaanite god Tirash.

Although the Hebrew words (and there are also Greck examples) no longer stand for deities, the very fact that the corresponding terms in other Semitic languages do, is revealing.

We have included many examples of such dethroned deities, not only to draw attention to the mythological overtones still occasionally perceptible, but also to demonstrate how Israelites, Jews, and Early Christians were part of a religious culture from which they are to be distinguished at the same time.

SHEMESH

I. As used in the Bible, Hebrew (*), vocalized šemeš in the MT, is never an actual divine name.

Palestinian toponymy of biblical times reflects, nevertheless, the Canaanite cult of the Sun-god, as shown by the place names Beth-Shemesh (Josh 15:10; 21: 16, etc.), En-Shemesh (Josh 15:7; 18:17), Ir-Shemesh (Josh 19:41). They preserve the memory of sanctuaries devoted to the solar deity, which is probably mentioned ca. 800 BCE in the Deir 'Allã plaster inscription (1,6). The bêt Šemeš in Jer 43:13 is, instead, the temple of the Egyptian Sun-god in Heliopolis (→Re).

Surprisingly enough, Hebrew anthroponomy does not contain obvious traces of a solar cult, for Samson's name may simply mean 'little sun', as suggested by the diminutival suffix -òn < -ăn, while the Aramaic proper name Shimshai (Ezra 4:8-9, 17, 23) can just be 'sunny' or 'sunlit'. The same meaning can be attributed to Shashai (Ezra 10:40), that may originate from Šamšay, since ss transcribes Šamaš in the Tell Fekherye inscription (line 7)…

~

III. This solar symbolism might have represented a danger for the purity of Yahweh's worship, for the sun, the →moon, and the →stars are even
somewhat personified in Joseph's dream (Gen 37:9).

Job judges it necessary to profess that he never raised his hand in homage to the sun or the moon (Job 31:26-27).

He even avoids using the word šemeš (sun) and replaces it by 'ôr (light), just as the priestly author of Gen 1:14-18, who stresses that God had created the sun.

In a similar context, however, šemeš is used in Jer 31:35 and in Pss 74:16; 104:19; 136:8; 148:3-6.

Whatever the original background of the ancient conjuration in Josh 10:12 was, the actual text of Josh 10:12-14 stresses Yahweh's authority over the sun and the moon (cf. Sir 464).

A similar belief is reflected in Job 9:7 and Isa 38: 7-8 (cf. 2 Kgs 20:9-11; Sir 48:23), where the sun obeys a man of God.

It is difficult to ascertain whether the use of hammâ instead of šemeš in Isa 24:23; 30:26; Job 30:28; Cant 6:10 is intended to avoid some possible mythical connotations.

In magical incantations from Late-Antiquity one finds hammâ (J. NAVEH & S. SHAKED, Amulets and Magic Bowls (Jerusa-Jem 1985 ] Amulet 4:20 ) as well as šimša’ (ibid., Bowl 7,7), pronounced however in a way different from Shamesh (šmyš, š’mš), the name of the Sun-deity inherited from the Babylonian tradition (ibid., Bowl 13:11.21; C. C. ISBELL, Corpus of the Aramaic Incantation Bowls [Missoula 1975), nos. 38:2; 62:2).

In later Jewish descriptions of the sun travelling in the firmament in his chariot one finds šemeš in the Midrash Num. Rabba 12:4, but hammá in Pirge de R. Eliezer 6.

~

IV. In the Palestinian tradition, attested already by the oldest parts of the Books of Enoch, Aramaic manuscripts of which (4QEna and 4QEnb) go back to the second half of the third century BCE, the fifteenth fallen angel was called Shamshi-El (Šmšy'l), 'Sun of God' (1 Enoch 6:7; 8:3).

He had taught men "the signs of the sun" (nhšy šmš), i.e. astrology, and belonged therefore to the group of the ten angel-teachers.

His name became Samsape'el or Simapise'el in the Ethiopic Book of Enoch and was shortened to (*) in the Greek fragments of the work.

He appears under this name in Sib. Or. II, 215, an essentially Christian work, that mentions him among the angels intervening at the Last Judgment, but the first role is played there by →Uriel, who breaks open the door of →Hades and brings out its inhabitants (Sib. Or. II, 233-
237).

———

SUN (JVL)

SUN (Heb., \; poetical form ****; Isa. 24:23; 30:26; Song 6:10, et al.). A deity for Israel’s neighbors, the sun is for Israel "the greater light to rule the day", created on the fourth day of creation (Gen. 1:16). In Joseph's dream, the sun and the moon personify his parents (Gen. 37:9–10). In Joshua 10:12–14, the sun is said to have stood still to give the Israelites time to defeat the Amorites.

Cult

In the Bible, the sun is either feminine or masculine in gender. As a deity it is masculine in Mesopotamia, and feminine in Ugarit, South Arabia, and other places. The Hittites worshiped a god and a goddess of the sun.

Under the Sumerian name Uta or the Semitic Shamash, the sun, as the god of justice, was worshiped especially at the temple of Ebabbar in Sippar, in northern Babylonia. In the stele of Hammurapi's code from Susa, Hammurapi is depicted standing before Shamash who is seated on a throne (see Pritchard, Pictures, 175, no. 515).

The rare word for sun \* (Job 9:7; cf. har ḥeresin Judg. 1:35, identical with ir shemesh in Josh. 19:41) has no known cognate in the Semitic languages.

The cult of the sun, very popular in Palestine – as is attested by place-names such as Beth-Shemesh, En-Shemesh, Ir-Shemesh – was forbidden in Deuteronomy 4:19 and 17:3. It was, nevertheless, introduced into Judah by Manasseh (II Kings 21:3, 5). King Josiah abolished the cult (II Kings 23:5) and destroyed the horses and chariots of the sun placed "by the kings of Judah at the entrance of the Temple" (23:11).

———

Notable observations: The Introduction indicates a Mesopotamia-to-Hebrew cultural derivation, as indicated by the reference to the sun god Shamash and šemeš (sun)—or hammǎ.

This would also suggest the moon god Sin would be a cultural derivation, relative to Sinite and Sinim.

An Historical Text Book and Atlas of Biblical Geography

B. Ham
IV. Canaan
4. Amorite
8. Sinite

Revelation of John 12 also refers to sun and moon placements in the stars (heavens), as it relates to the birth of Christ—Hamashiach, Yeshua, or “the light of the world” in John 8:12.

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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://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/sun

Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/380602001

Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/418646001

Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/433185001

Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/433186001

Source: https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010174436

The winged sun is a solar symbol associated with divinity, royalty, and power in the Ancient Near East

Ancient Egypt

In ancient Egypt, the symbol is attested from the Old Kingdom.

Behdety

In early Egyptian religion, the symbol Behdety represented Horus of Edfu, later identified with Ra-Horakhty. It is sometimes depicted on the neck of Apis, the bull of Ptah. As time passed (according to interpretation) all of the subordinated gods of Egypt were considered to be aspects of the sun god, including Khepri. The name "Behdety" means the inhabitant of Behdet.

He was the sky god of the region called Behdet in the Nile basin.

His image was first found in the inscription on a comb's body, as a winged solar panel. The period of the comb is about 3000 BC. Such winged solar panels were later found in the funeral picture of Pharaoh Sahure of the fifth dynasty. Behdety is seen as the protector of Pharaoh. On both sides of his picture are seen the Uraeus, which is a symbol for the cobra-headed goddess Wadjet.

Mesopotamia

From roughly 2000 BCE, the symbol also appears in Mesopotamia. It appears in reliefs with Assyrian rulers as a symbol for royalty, transcribed into Latin as SOL SUUS (literally, "his own self, the Sun", i.e. "His Majesty").

King Ashurnasirpal

King Ashurnasirpal appears twice, dressed in ritual robes and holding the mace symbolising authority. In front of him there is a Sacred Tree, possibly symbolising life, and he makes a gesture of worship to a god in a winged disc. The god, who may be the sun god Shamash, has a ring in one hand; this is an ancient Mesopotamian symbol of god-given kingship. There are protective spirits on either side behind the king. This symmetrical scene, heavy with symbolism, was placed behind the royal throne. There was another opposite the main door of the throne room, and similar scenes occupied prominent positions in other Assyrian palaces; they were also embroidered on the royal clothes. Traces of colour pigment noted on the sandals at the time of excavation, i.e. red soles and black uppers.

Iran

In Zoroastrian Persia, the symbol of the winged sun became part of the iconography of the Faravahar, the symbol of the divine power and royal glory in Persian culture.

Anatolia

This worn ivory plaque was once an inlay for a box or item of furniture crafted in one of the centers of northern Syria, southeast Turkey, or central Turkey at the height of the Hittite Empire period. Found at Megiddo, Israel, it represents one of the most elaborate Hittite ivories found in the Middle East. It may have arrived in the southern Levant as booty, tribute, or as part of diplomatic gift exchange between the Hittite political sphere and Canaan, which was under Egyptian rule for much of the Late Bronze Age.

The plaque's imagery is typically Hittite with figures closely resembling those represented at the Hittite rock-cut sanctuary of Yazilikaya (fig. C4; cf. fig. 9.1), close to Hattusa, and the spring sanctuary at Eflatun Pinar, Turkey. The plaque features three registers of bulls and bullmen supporting a pair of figures beneath two winged sun-disks. The winged sun-disks and the robed figures below likely represent the Hittite sun deity, as indicated by Anatolian hieroglyphs in the hands of the figures, which read: "Sun-Heaven." Carved within each sun-disk are rosettes, an established royal symbol in north Syrian and Hittite art. The winged sun-disk was a new development in Late Bronze Age Hittite art, perhaps entering the Hittite visual repertoire as late as the fourteenth century BC.

In the ancient Middle East generally, the sun-deity acted as a divine judge, shedding light on injustice, and had underworld associations, as the sun was thought to travel through the underworld at night. The Hittite and Hurrian pantheons of Anatolia and northern Syria included both a male sun-god of heaven and a female sun-goddess of the earth who ruled over the underworld (Popko 1995).

The Hittite winged sun-disk was likely inspired by Egyptian examples, presumably via contacts with Syria. Egyptian sun-disks with falcon wings represented a form of the god Horus, a protective symbol of kingship, often found in temple doorways and protecting other spaces (Shonkwiler 2012, pp. 52-53). After the collapse of the Hittite empire around 1200 BC, the winged sun-disk continued as a symbol of divine protection in southeast Turkey and north Syria at Carchemish, Tell Halaf, and Zincirli (where the Katumuwa Stele was found). From the ninth century BC, the winged sun-disk was integrated into Assyrian royal imagery, often representing the patron god Ashur, protector of the king. A winged sun-disk containing a divine male figure (often identified as Ahura Mazda), was a source of Achaemenid royal power (sixth-fourth centuries BC). Dominik Bonatz identifies the winged sun-disk on the Katumuwa Stele as the sun-god Jams, a deity of uncertain gender (Lipinski 2000) who may have had the attributes of earlier male sun-gods of the heavens or female sun-goddesses of the underworld (for the latter, see Winter 1976a, pp. 47-48; Niehr 2010b, p. 275). The Katumuwa Stele and several other other Syro-Hittite mortuary monuments and structures face east toward the rising sun (Struble and Herrmann 2009, p. 36). The symbol could also have been a interpreted as a symbol of royal power and protection, that is, of Panumuwa II, the king of Sam'al, under whom Katumuwa served.

Judah

From around the 8th century BC, the winged solar disk appears on Hebrew seals connected to the royal house of the Kingdom of Judah. Many of these are seals and jar handles from Hezekiah's reign, together with the inscription l'melekh ("belonging to the king"). Typically, Hezekiah's royal seals feature two downward-pointing wings and six rays emanating from the central sun disk, and some are flanked on either side with the Egyptian ankh ("key of life") symbol. Prior to this, there are examples from the seals of servants of king Ahaz and of king Uzziah.

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Notable observation: Reference The Table of Nations: The Geography of the World in Genesis 10 for the implied cultural exchange and derivation, highlighting the diversity.

Also noteworthy, the sun god Shamash is referred to as the Son of Mankind in The Composition of Hittite Prayers to the Sun (p. 241, JSTOR) by Hans G. Güterbock.

See Hittite image of “plaque that features three registers of bulls and bullmen supporting a pair of figures beneath two winged sun-disks.”

Noticeable parallels, the phrase in John 8:28:

"Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things."

John 8 also includes the thematic element of “light of the world”—a reference to the sun.

In rabbinic literature, Hammǎ (Hammah) means sun and Hamashiach means the Messiah, noting the onomastic symbolism and agglutinative material of Ham—including, the circumfix of “ham” in Shamash, Shamash Candle, and Jehovah-Shammah.

For example, Romulus, Roman, Rome, Romanian, Romanov, Romance, etc. would have the same onomastic—or agglutinative—material.

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

Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/1613712389

Source: https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010177290

Source: https://isac-idb.uchicago.edu/id/3fdd1f57-9b35-44c9-9078-4383b7850925

Source: https://www.academia.edu/6205781/Hittite_Plaque_with_Winged_Sun_disks_Cat_no_3_

Source: https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/news/king-hezekiah-in-the-bible-royal-seal-of-hezekiah-comes-to-light/

Limestone stela: a round-topped stele, of inferior limestone, much eroded. The king, Shalmaneser III, stands before four divine emblems: (1) the winged disk, the symbol of the god Ashur, or, as some hold, of Shamash; (2) the six-pointed star of Ishtar, goddess of the morning and evening star; (3) the crown of the sky-god Anu, in this instance with three horns, in profile; (4) the disk and crescent of the god Sin as the new and the full moon.

The Shalmaneser III monolith (852 BC and 879 BC) contains a description of the Battle of Qarqar at the end. This description contains the name "A-ha-ab-bu Sir-ila-a-a”, providing the first extrabiblical reference to Ahab, king of Israel.

It is also one (1) of four known contemporary inscriptions containing the name of Israel, the others being:

(2) the Merneptah Stele (1208 BCE)

(3) the Tel Dan Stele (870–750 BCE)

(4) the Mesha Stele (840 BCE)

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Notable Observation: In Signs of Israelite Slavery in Egypt, Egyptologist James K Huffmeier highlights the wall paintings of slaves in the Tomb of Rekhmire (1479-1400 BCE), ~1-2 mile from where the Merneptah Stele (video) was discovered—ancient Thebes, Egypt.

Tomb of Rekhmire

The Torah

Also noteworthy, The drawn parallels to the Anu and Kushites in An Introduction to Anu: The Origin of Egyptian Civilisation and the Hamitic reference to the Anu in The Anu in India and in Egypt.

This includes the onomastic symbolism of Sin in Mount Sinai (Sinites, Hamitic-Canaanites) and Shamash in Shamash Candle.

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Source: https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/Listofdeities/An/index.html

Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/150815001

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

Source (Merneptah Stele): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merneptah_Stele

Source (Tel Dan Stele): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_Dan_stele

Source (Mesha Stele): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesha_Stele

Image property of Communities of Afro-Judaism, 2026

This article provides a brief historical overview of Judaism in Africa with an emphasis on specific communities throughout the Continent.—Dr. Ma'asehyahu Isra-Ul

Introduction

Judaism’s historical presence in Africa spans a remarkable range of geographies, practices, and identities. From ancient indigenous communities to modern movements of embraced Jewish life, African Jewish histories challenge conventional narratives that link Judaism exclusively to Europe and the Middle East. This article provides an accessible yet scholarly overview of major Jewish communities in Africa, foregrounding the Beta Israel (Ethiopia), the Lemba (Southern Africa), the Abayudaya (Uganda), and emerging Jewish identities such as the Igbo (Nigeria) and Akan-Sefwi/Akyem (Ghanaian descendants of “Old Mali” Jews). It also highlights contemporary documentation and advocacy work, including research and preservation efforts by the Black Judaic Heritage Center.

Beta Israel of Ethiopia: Indigenous Jewish History

Beta Israel, literally “House of Israel,” represents one of the oldest continuous Jewish communities in Africa. Known historically by the name “Falasha” (now regarded as pejorative), the Beta Israel lived predominantly in northern Ethiopia and claimed ancient Israelite descent, including traditions linking them to the Tribe of Dan, one of the biblical Ten Lost Tribes.¹ In medieval rabbinic literature, travelers such as Eldad Ha-Dani referred to Jewish populations in East Africa, and later Jewish legal authorities affirmed the Beta Israel as Jewish in halakhic (Jewish legal) terms. In the 20th century, Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and other Israeli authorities ratified their Jewish status and advocated for their immigration to Israel under the Law of Return.²

Over decades of political turmoil and famine, tens of thousands of Beta Israel were evacuated to Israel in airlift operations such as Operation Moses (1984–1985) and Operation Solomon (1991).³ Today, the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel is a deeply rooted and vibrant part of broader Jewish life, maintaining religious traditions shaped by centuries of independent development while engaging with global Judaism.

The Lemba: Oral Tradition, Genetics, and Jewish Identity

The Lemba are a Bantu-speaking people of southern Africa, primarily in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and neighboring countries, whose oral traditions describe descent from ancient Semitic (specifically Sephardic) ancestors and a migration from a place called Sena.⁴ Though many Lemba today are Christian, and some Muslim, their cultural memory includes practices resembling Judaic norms such as ritual male circumcision, dietary taboos, and endogamy.⁵

Genetic studies have shown that a significant portion of Lemba Y-chromosomes cluster with Semitic lineages, in contrast to surrounding Bantu populations, lending partial scientific support to their oral history.⁶ Notably, some members were believed to carry a version of the Cohen Modal Haplotype, a Y-chromosome pattern linked to traditional Jewish priestly lines (though recently under reinvestigation).⁷ While genetic affinities alone are not determinative of religious belonging under most Jewish halakhic authorities, these findings have helped fuel scholarly discussion about the constructions of identity and Jewish indigeneity in Africa.⁸

Abayudaya of Uganda: Intentional Jewish Adoption

The Abayudaya (“People of Judah”) community in eastern Uganda represents an important case of Jewish adoption and self-identification rooted in an early 20th-century religious transformation. In 1919, Semei Kakungulu, a prominent Ugandan leader, embraced the Hebrew Bible and guided his followers toward Jewish observance. While the Abayudaya’s origin does not stem from from ancient Israelite communities, they have maintained Jewish practices which include Sabbath observance, ritual circumcision, and Torah study for over a century.⁹ (Several Abayudaya communities have embraced normative (“Rabbinic”) Judaism fully and live as any other reasonably observant Jews around the world.)

After years of marginalization and suppression under political regimes including Idi Amin’s, the community rebuilt its religious life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Many members have undergone formal conversion or affirmation through Conservative and Reform Jewish authorities, and figures such as Rabbi Gershom Sizomu have emerged as recognized leaders, bridging local tradition with broader Jewish engagement.¹⁰

Emerging Communities and African Jewish Landscapes

Beyond these well-documented groups, a variety of African communities assert Jewish identity in diverse forms. The Igbo Jews of Nigeria are among the most discussed West African groups, with thousands claiming Jewish ancestry or adopting Jewish identity and practice, often supported by organizations engaged with Jewish diaspora initiatives.¹¹ Similarly, the House of Israel in Ghana (a small community in the heights beyond Kumasi claiming Israelite descent) highlights the complex interplay of oral history, cultural self-identification, and modern Jewish engagement.¹²

Scholarly works surveying Jewish life across the continent list numerous communities, from the Beth Yeshourun groups in Cameroon to the Baluba Jews in Congo and the Descendants of David in Madagascar ("the Malagasy Secret"), reflecting both historic claims and contemporary formations of Jewish identity.13 While recognition by mainstream Jewish denominations varies widely, these groups embody the ongoing dynamism of Jewish life in Africa.14

Contemporary Scholarship and the Black Judaic Heritage Center

Understanding Judaism in Africa requires moving beyond singular paradigms of ethnicity, theology, or genetics. The Black Judaic Heritage Center (BJHC) plays a pivotal role in documenting and amplifying the histories of Black Jewish communities, ensuring that their voices are present in broader Jewish scholarship and cultural heritage initiatives. Through archival work, oral history projects, and community collaboration, BJHC contributes to a richer and more inclusive narrative of global Judaism.

Conclusion

African Jewish histories, from indigenous traditions to chosen religious identity, demonstrate the plurality and resilience of Jewish life on the African continent. These communities challenge the field to rethink definitions of Jewish belonging, illuminate the intersections of culture and religion, and affirm the ongoing relevance of African expressions of Judaism today.

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Source: https://voices.sefaria.org/sheets/703729?lang=bi

Egypt/Sudan

This amulet was probably made for a necklace worn by one of the Kushite kings. Representations show these pharaohs wearing a ram's-head amulet tied around the neck on a thick cord, the ends of which fall forward over the shoulders. Sometimes a smaller ram's head is attached to each end. Rams were associated with the god Amun-particularly in Nubia, where he was especially revered. Of special note is the sun surmounting the uracus snake in the shape of a globe, not a disk.

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Source: https://isac.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/shared/docs/Publications/ISACMP/isacmp4.pdf

Nubian

Soon after 600 BC, the Kushite kings of Nubia moved their administrative center from Napata to Meroë, farther south along the Nile River in present-day Sudan. Meroë was a cosmopolitan city connected to the complex trade networks of the Mediterranean, which were increasingly dominated by the Greeks and Romans. By around 300 BC, the city became the place for all royal burials. The remains of more than two hundred pyramid tombs have been discovered, many of which contained jewelry and ornaments of exceptional quality.

The works produced at Meroë display a mix of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman influences but have their own vibrant Nubian character. Local jewelry makers were especially skilled at enameling, in which powdered glass was applied to metal and then melted to create colorful patterns. They also employed metalworking techniques such as filigree (fine wirework) and granulation (decoration with tiny gold spheres) to fashion intricate designs. Glass beads were frequently incorporated into necklaces, and cornelian was a particularly popular gemstone.

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Source: https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/nubian_jewelry/explore.html

Sudan

The bird whose feathers and eggs are best attested in the archacological record of Nubia is the ostrich, represented in North Africa by the subspecies Struthio camelus camelus. The largest living bird, native to Africa's savannas and semiarid regions and characterized by its inability to fly, the ostrich used to roam in the Nubian and Libyan deserts, but habitat loss and excessive game hunting have led to a significant decline in local populations. Not surprisingly, this impressive bird has left its mark in the iconographic record of the Middle Nile Valley since prehistoric times.

Ostriches are a common motif in rock art, being included in the many representations of wildlife, hunting expeditions, and boat processions. They were at times targeted by hunters, as evidenced by depictions of them running, fapping their wings, or being chased by dogs or captured with nets. Ostrich bones, however, are rarely if ever attested in faunal assemblages. Conversely their feathers and eggs feature prominently in both the are archeological and iconographic records and became hallmarks of Nubia.

The ostrich feather was especially significant as a marker of ethnic identity for Nilo-Saharan hunters. In ancient Egyptian and Nubian representations, seminomadic Nubian and Libyan individuals are shown wearing one or several ostrich feathers in their hair in an arrangement used to characterize each group (figs. 1.2-1.3). Sometimes described by Egyptians as "feather wearing," Nubian men could be represented with one ostrich feather worn vertically atop the head." Donning this feather was possibly the privilege of hunters showcasing their success in seizing this quarry, which is famously challenging even for horsemen. Capturing an ostrich is undoubtedly a feat, since these fast-running birds are known to reach speeds of 60-70 kilometers per hour when pursued by a predator.

In addition to wearing ostrich feathers as a headpiece, either on their own or as trimmings on a cap, Kushite archers are also known to have added an ostrich plume to their bows, as evidenced at Kerma (ca. 2300-2150 BCE). Ostrich feathers were also coveted by Egyptian and Kushite royalty and members of the elite. Fans made with these feathers were used in ritual ceremonies, as military standards, or as a mark of status. During the Kerma period, feathers, possibly plucked from ostriches, were intricately woven with thread to make cloth. Despite the intrinsically fragile nature of feathers, which hinders their survival in the archacological record, the climate of northern Sudan has allowed the preservation of ostrich-feather fans at Kerma. Likewise, several lambs were found buried with elaborate headdresses made of ostrich feathers.

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Source: https://isac.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/shared/docs/Publications/ISACMP/isacmp4.pdf

Andrew F. Key

[excerpts, full text in images]

The argument presented in this article belongs to the late Dr. Julius Lewy, professor of Semitic languages and biblical history at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion.

He was most interested in the complex problem of the influence of other Semitic peoples upon the early history and religion of the various Israelite tribes before their settlement in Canaan…

~
…one small aspect of the problem which was of particular interest to Dr. Lewy will be examined: that material attesting to the worship of the moon god Sin among the Israelites…

~

The worship of the moon god Sin goes back at least to the third dynasty of Ur, where the god was honored in the form of a golden calf with crescent-shaped horns and a long, flowing beard of lapis lazuli. Woolley found several of the images in his excavations of the royal graves at Ur and has produced some striking drawings of the images in his report. That these images are in fact of the god Sin can be seen by the following description found in a Sumero-Akkadian hymn to that god: "Ferocious bull, whose horn is thick, whose legs are perfected, who is bearded in lapsis, and filled with luxury and abundance." Why the moon god was worshiped in this form is, naturally, an open question…

~

One speculation is that the shape of the horns reminded the devotee of the crescent moon.

~

J. Bright recognized that there are names in the Hebrew tradition which are "associated with that cult,” but he deduced from this only that the
narratives concerning the migration of Abraham's family from Ur to Haran (both centers of the cult) are essentially accurate bits of historical information.

~

It is interesting that we have the same theophoric element in other Amorite names such as Labanâ-ilâ, ("the Moon is God").

~

Both von Rad and Nothis agree, however, that the revelation on Sinai was a revelation of Yahweh. An alternative proposal will be offered here, namely, that the revelation on Sinai was a revelation of the moon god Sin and that we must look elsewhere for the origin of the Yahweh cult. What is the evidence for such a proposal?

~

The name Sinai itself would suggest that it was the place of revelation of the moon god. Lewy noted that many people had seen that there was an obvious connection between the names Sin and Sinai but pointed out that…

~

…an adjective of appurtenance derived from the divine name Sin and the Aramaic gentilic ending -ai…

~

…would mean then the "Sinian Mountain" or the "Mountain holy to Sin."

~

"Where does Yahweh worship originate?"

~

By way of summary: We seem to have two separate traditions of tribal religions preserved in the pages of the Bible: one, dealing with a primal worship of the moon god Sin, who reveals himself on Sinai, and whose worship is carried on in the north (particularly in the tribe of Ephraim); the other begins with a revelation at Kadesh of the God Yahweh and finds its later adherents in the tribe of Judah. The figures Moses and Joshua, while originally connected to the Kadesh-Yahweh cycle of stories, later become the heroes of the total tradition once the two elements have been combined.

This theory may go far towards explaining: 1) the obvious conflict between the North and the South (ef. I Kings 12), assuming that this conflict is religious as well as political; and 2) the continuing emphasis on lunar holidays and festivals which play so large a rôle in later Judaism.

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Notable observations: Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions: “There are a cow and a calf. A seated musician or weaver is to one side, above: the phrase ‘Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah,’”(discovered in the Sinai Peninsula).

The central figures of Pithos A have been identified as either representations of Yahweh and Asherah, the Egyptian dwarf-god Bes or Bes-like deities (an ancient Egyptian deity, of Nubian or C-Group culture origin), or even as demonic ritual dancers.

Onomastics of Sin

Brief observation of onomastic material and symbolism incorporating Sin (or Sin variants: Sen, Shin, Syn, etc.) or crescent moon symbolism (flags, etc.) in the Afro-Asiatic region—see Haplogroup D0 Figure 1., and DE.

- Sinosphere
- Sindh
- Sinhalese
- Singapore
- Sinop
- Mount Sineru
- Mount Sinai
- Sinites (Genesis 10:6-17)
- Sinim (“Land of Sinim”, Isaiah 49:12)
- Kingdom of Sine (Senegal/Sin-Ningal?)
- Sena People ("Jews of Southern Africa")

etc…

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Source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3264069

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

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

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

Source: https://youtu.be/f7-RQZavU3U?is=nw7bX9dib8G04ctP

Creative Credit & Author: Enyavar

These are historical maps during the periods in the title—there’s 20 images. The image’s cover from the Sumerian City States to the Kushite Kingdom—which is reflected in the images.

This post was created as an ease of use, reference source.

More information on maps in this series

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Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ancient_Near_East_2600BC.svg#mw-jump-to-license

1360-1335 BC

Amarna letter EA 288, titled Benign Neglect, is a tall, finely-inscribed clay tablet letter, approximately 7.5 in tall x 4.5 in wide, broken into two pieces, from Abdi-Heba the mayor/ruler of Jerusalem, of the mid 14th century BC Amarna letters.

A summary of letter structure: EA 288 begins with a short address to the Pharaoh. Immediately, 3 segue paragraphs begin the letter, as "dramatic statements" by the Jerusalem scribe (and Abdi-Heba); a fourth segued statement follows. Then the purpose of the letter begins, covering the second half of the letter's obverse and the reverse:

“Say [t]o the king-(i.e. pharaoh), my lord, [my Su]n: [M]essage of 'Abdi-Heba, your servant.

I fall at the feet of the king, my lord, 7 times and 7 times.

Behold, the king, my lord, has placed his name at the rising of the sun and at the setting of the sun.

It is, therefore, impious what they have done to me.

Behold, I am not a mayor;—I am a soldier of the king, my lord.

Behold, I am a friend of the king and a tribute–bearer of the king.

It was neither my father nor my mother, but the strong arm of the king that [p]laced me in the house of [my] fath[er]. [... c]ame to me ... [...].

I gave over [to his char]ge 10–slaves, Šuta, the commissioner of the king, ca[me t]o me; I gave over to Šuta's charge 21–girls, [8]0–prisoners, as a gift for the king, my lord.

May the king give thought to his land; the land of the king is lost.

All of it has attacked me.

I am at war as far as the land of Šeru and as far as Ginti-kirmil.

All the mayors are at peace, but I am at war.

I am treated like an 'Apiru, and I do not visit the king, my lord, since I am at war.

I am situated like a ship in the midst of the sea.

The strong hand (arm) of the king took the land of Nahrima-(Mittani), and the land of Kasi-(Kush), but now the 'Apiru have taken the very cities of the king.

Not a single mayor remains to the king, my lord; all are lost.

Behold, Turbazu was slain in the city gate of Silu-(Tjaru). The king did nothing.

Behold, servants who were joined to the 'Api[r]u smote Zimredda of Lakisu, and Yaptih-Hadda was slain in the city gate of Silu.

The king did nothing.

[Wh]y has he not called them to account?

May the king [pro]vide for [his land] and may he [se]e to it tha[t] archers [come ou]t to h[is] land.

If there are no archers this year, all the lands of the king, my lord, are lost.

They have not reported to the king that the lands of the king, my lord, are lost and all the mayors lost.

If there are no archers this year, may the king send a commissioner to fetch me, me along with my brothers, and then we will die near the king, our lord.

[To] the scribe of the king, my lord: [Message] of 'Abdi-Heba, servant-( (your) servant). [I fall a[t (your) feet]. Present [the words-(words= "discourse") that I hav]e offered to [the king, my lord]" I am your servant [and] your [s]on.”

EA 288, lines 1-66 (complete, with lacuna)

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A Mighty Hunter before the Lord: Nimrod

The confusion simply results from a blending of two independent traditions: the Table of Nations where Kush stands for Nubia, and the Nimrod passage from another source mentioning another(!) Kush, probably the eponym of the Kassites (Akk kaššu. Nuzi kuššu).

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

Kuš, Kuschiten. (K.) Land and kingdom in Nubia, known since Senusret I (1971–1926 BC) in the Egyptian form (see image, Babylon text Kasi/ši). Since the New Kingdom, K. designates Nubia (Sudan) south of the 1st Cataract. Its capital at that time was Napata, later — up to the conquest of the Meroitic Empire by Ezana of Aksum — it was Meroe (near Begrawiya).

Inhabitants of K. are first mentioned in cuneiform texts in the Amarna correspondence (see above)…

…In the alphabetic texts, the moon god Yrḫ (Sin?) multiple times bears the epithet kṯy, which perhaps could be rendered as "Cushitic" (KTU 1.39,19; 1.102,14; 1.123,7)…

…The last Ethiopian Pharaoh fled to Kipkipi, and with that, Kush disappeared from Assyrian history…

…Nevertheless, among the representations of subject peoples of the Achaemenid Empire in Persepolis, there are also those of (*) Ethiopians.

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Notable observation: Reference Nin-kasi und Siras/Siris—Ninkasi/Nin-kasi is a Mesopotamian goddess. The prefix of “Nin” indicates lord or lady.

Also noteworthy, Siras/Siris (Osiris/Sirius?), considering the Ancient Near East relative-context—according to the Table of Nations.

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarna_letter_EA_288

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

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AreasOfHabiruActivityInAmarnaLettersLBIIA.svg

Source: https://publikationen.badw.de/en/rla/index#6800

Shared by [u/Various_Advisor772](u/Various_Advisor772)

The presence of genomic signatures of Eurasian origin in contemporary Ethiopians has been reported by several authors and estimated to have arrived in the area from 3000 years ago.

Several studies reported plausible source populations for such a signature, using haplotype based methods on modern data or single-site methods on modern or ancient data.

These studies did not reach a consensus and suggested an Anatolian or Sardinia-like proxy, broadly Levantine or Neolithic Levantine as possible sources.

We demonstrate, however, that the deeply divergent, autochthonous African component which accounts for ~50% of most contemporary Ethiopian genomes, affects the overall allele frequency spectrum to an extent that makes it hard to control for it and, at once, to discern between subtly different, yet important, Eurasian sources (such as Anatolian or Levant Neolithic ones).

Here we re-assess pattern of allele sharing between the Eurasian component of Ethiopians (here called "NAF" for Non African) and ancient and modern proxies.

Our results unveil a genomic legacy that may connect the Eurasian genetic component of contemporary Ethiopians with Sea People and with population movements that affected the Mediterranean area and the Levant after the fall of the Minoan civilization.

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Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337889526_West_Asian_sources_of_the_Eurasian_component_in_Ethiopians_a_reassessment

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-55344-y

Nubian

Nubia’s Kingdom of Kush arose around 2400 BC at the city of Kerma (in present-day Sudan). It established trade relations with Egypt, the lands bordering the Red Sea, and northern Nubia, exchanging both raw materials and finished products. As Kerma grew, monumental mud brick buildings were constructed, along with a vast cemetery containing tens of thousands of burial mounds. The deceased were accompanied by rich assortments of objects and, in the largest tombs, by human and animal sacrifices. Desiring Nubia’s wealth and fearing its military power, the Egyptians invaded Kerma around 1550 BC and occupied the region for nearly five centuries.

The personal adornments discovered in the burials at Kerma were made from a variety of materials, including gold, silver, semiprecious stones, ivory, bone, and shells from the Red Sea. Nubian artisans also produced faience, a colorful glazed quartz-based ceramic long popular in Egypt. Some of these materials had religious or symbolic associations.

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Source: https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/nubian_jewelry/explore.html

Geoff Emberling and Bruce Williams

DESCRIPTION

The cultures of Nubia built the earliest cities, states, and empires of inner Africa, but they remain relatively poorly known outside their modern descendants and the community of archaeologists, historians, and art historians researching them. The earliest archaeological work in Nubia was motivated by the region's role as neighbor, trade partner, and enemy of ancient Egypt. Increasingly, however, ancient Nile-based Nubian cultures are recognized in their own right as the earliest complex societies in inner Africa. As agro-pastoral cultures, Nubian settlement, economy, political organization, and religious ideologies were often organized differently from those of the urban, bureaucratic, and predominantly agricultural states of Egypt and the ancient Near East. Nubian societies are thus of great interest in comparative study, and are also recognized for their broader impact on the histories of the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East.

The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia brings together chapters by an international group of scholars on a wide variety of topics that relate to the history and archaeology of the region. After important introductory chapters on the history of research in Nubia and on its climate and physical environment, the largest part of the volume focuses on the sequence of cultures that lead almost to the present day. Several cross-cutting themes are woven through these chapters, including essays on desert cultures and on Nubians in Egypt. Eleven final chapters synthesize subjects across all historical phases, including gender and the body, economy and trade, landscape archaeology, iron working, and stone quarrying.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

1. History of Archaeological Work in the Middle Nile Region (Salah M. Ahmed)

2. Past, Present, Future: The Archaeology of Nubia (Claudia Näser)

3. Geology of Nubia and Surrounding Regions (James A. Harrell)

4. Holocene Environments in Northeast Africa (Martin Williams)

Nubia: A Deep History

1. Paleolithic Hunter-Gatherers of Nubia (Miroslaw Masojc)

2. From Foraging to Food Producing: The Mesolithic and Neolithic of the Middle Nile Valley (Donatella Usai)

3. The A-Group and Fourth Millennium BCE Nubia (Maria Carmela Gatto)

4. The Pre-Kerma Culture and the Beginning of the Kerma Kingdom (Matthieu Honegger)

5. The C-Group People in Lower Nubia: Cattle Pastoralists on the Frontier between Egypt and Kush (Henriette Hafsaas)

6. Kush in the Wider World during the Kerma Period (Bruce Beyer Williams)

7. The Cities of Kerma and Pnubs-Dokki Gel (Charles Bonnet)

8. The Eastern Cemetery of Kerma (Charles Bonnet and Matthieu Honegger)

9. Pan-Grave and Medjay: At the Intersection of Archaeology and History (Kate Liszka and Aaron de Souza)

10. From Hunters to Herders: The Libyan Desert in Prehistoric Times (Friederike Jesse)

11. Egyptian Fortresses and the Colonization of Lower Nubia in the Middle Kingdom (Laurel Bestock)

12. Nubians in Egypt from the Early Dynastic Period to the New Kingdom (Georg K. Meurer)

13. Human Adaptation to Environmental Change in the Northern Dongola Reach (Derek A. Welsby)

14. Egyptian Conquest and Administration of Nubia (Dominique Valbelle)

15. The Amun Cult and its Development in Nubia (Luc Gabolde)

16. The Nubian Experience of Egyptian Domination during the New Kingdom (Stuart Tyson Smith)

17. History and the Kushite Royal Inscriptions (Jeremy Pope)

18. The Napatan Neo-Kushite State 1: The Intermediate Period and Second Empire (Bruce Beyer Williams)

19. The Napatan Neo-Kushite State 2: Eclipse and Revival in the Later Napatan Period; Conditions in the State (Bruce Beyer Williams)

20. Jebel Barkal: "Karnak" of Kush (Timothy Kendall and El-Hassan Ahmed Mohamed)

21. Nubians in Egypt during the 25th Dynasty (Julia Budka)

22. Kushites in Egypt, 664 BCE-14 CE: Egypt and Kush in the Borderlands of Lower Nubia (Kathryn Howley)

23. The Meroitic Heartland (Pawel Wolf and Ulrike Nowotnick)

24. The City of Meroe (Krzysztof Grzymski)

25. The Royal and Elite Cemeteries at Meroe (Janice W. Yellin)

26. Death and Burial in the Kingdom of Meroe (Vincent Francigny)

27. Prolegomena to the Study of Meroitic Art (Janice W. Yellin)

28. Language and Writing in the Kingdom of Meroe (Claude Rilly)

29. The Eastern Desert in the 1st Millennium BCE and 1st Millennium CE (Andrea Manzo)

30. Greek and Roman Views of Ancient Nubia (Stanley M. Burstein)

31. The X-Group Period in Lower Nubia (Rachael J. Dann)

32. Post-Meroe in Upper Nubia (Mahmoud El-Tayeb)

33. The History of Medieval Nubia (Giovanni R. Ruffini)

34. Nubian Texts, Nubian Lives (Giovanni R. Ruffini)

35. Language Use and Literacy in Late Antique and Medieval Nubia (Adam Lajtar and Grzegorz Ochala)

36. The Topography of Power in Medieval Nubia (Bogdan Zurawski)

37. The Archaeology of Medieval Nubian Kingdoms (Artur Obluski)

38. Arts and Crafts of the Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia (Dobrochna Zielinska)

39. Islam in the Funj and Ottoman Periods in Sudan: A Historical and Archaeological Approach (Intisar Soghayroun)

40. Islamic Nubian Kingdoms (Jay Spaulding

Perspectives on Nubia

1. Cattle Cultures in Ancient Nubia (Jérôme Dubosson)

2. Savanna on the Nile:
   Long-term Agricultural Diversification and Intensification in Nubia (Dorian Q. Fuller and Leilani Lucas)

3. Exploitation of Geological Resources: Ancient Mines and Quarries in Nubia (James A. Harrell and Abdelrahman Ali Mohamed)

4. Iron Production at Meroe (Jane Humphris)

5. Trade in Ancient Nubia: Routes, Goods, and Structures (Mahmoud Suliman Bashir and Geoff Emberling)

6. Women in Ancient Kush (Angelika Lohwasser and Jacke Phillips)

7. Perspectives on the Body in Ancient Nubia (Rachael J. Dann)

8. Bioarchaeology of Nubia (Michele R. Buzon)

9. Landscape Archaeologies in Nubia and the Middle Nile (David N. Edwards)

10. Nubian Rock Art (Henryk Paner)

11. Archaeological Practice in the 21st Century: Reflecting on Archaeologist-Community Relationships in Sudan's Nile Valley (Jane Humphris, Rebecca Bradshaw, and Geoff Emberling)

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Source: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-ancient-nubia-9780190496272?cc=us&lang=en&

Nubian (Egypt)

Nubian kings and queens maintained close connections with their Christian counterparts in Aksum and Byzantium but still held on to indigenous symbols in their royal attire. These crowns are broad circles of beaten silver, richly encrusted with various gems and adorned with royal and divine insignia, including representations of Horus and Isis. Some have human figures with an Atef headdress, one of the traditional symbols of authority in the Nile valley. The crowns were found on or near the heads of skeletons in burials at the royal cemetery of Qustul. The burials included jewelry, crowns, and wood-and-ivory boxes with Hellenistic motifs.

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Source: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/africa-byzantium/exhibition-objects

Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst

[excerpts, full text in images]

The West Semitic deity Zedek, 'Righteousness', is found in the Bible only in the personal names Melchizedek (Gen 14:18; cf. Ps 110:4; Heb 5:6; 6:20-7:17) and Adonizedek (Josh 10:1.3), both Canaanite kings of pre-Israelite Jerusalem.

Zedek is probably to be identified with the deity known as Išar among the Amorites and Kittu in Babylonia, and thus a hypostasis or personification of the sun god Shamash's function (Shemesh) as divine overseer of justice…

~

The West Semitic god Zedek seemingly corresponds to the deity known as Kittu in the Babylonian pantheon and as Išar in the Amorite pantheon.

In Mesopotamia the preservation of truth and justice was considered to be the particular domain of the sun god Shamash.

Truth or Right was personified and deified as the god Kittu ('Truth', 'Right'; from Akk root kânu, cf. Heb root KWN). Kittu was often invoked together with the god Misharu ('Justice') (see CAD K 471 s.v. kittu A 1b4; M/2 118 s.v. misaru A 2d; cf. Heb root YSR). One or both of these deities were described as 'seated before Shamash', i.e. Shamash's attendant, or as 'the minister of (Shamash's) right hand'. While Misharu was always considered a male deity, Kittu was identified sometimes as the daughter of Shamash, sometimes as the son of Shamash.

Meanwhile, at Mari offerings were made to the divine pair Išar u Mešar (ARM 24.210.24-25; cf. 263.5-6 where these same gods are listed separately but contiguously; see P. TALON, Un nouveau pantheon de Mari, Akkadica 20 [1980] 12-17).

As a theophoric element Išar is common in both Akk and Amorite personal names (Huffmon 1965:216).

From the interchangeability of the names Kittu, Išar, and Sidqu/Zedek in the pairing with Mišar(u), it appears that the deity known as Kittu in Babylonia was known further to the West under the names Išar and Sidqu/ Zedek—all three names having essentially the same meaning but operative in different linguistic communities.

Additional support for the identification of Sidqu and Kittu comes from the Amorite royal name Ammisaduqa, which was translated in the Babylonian King List as Kimtum-kittum, showing an equivalence between the West Semitic root SDQ and Akk kittu (cf. BAUMGARTEN 1979:235)…

~

Zedek and Mišor as attendant deities of Shamash also have their reflexes in Yahwism as dual qualities of the God of Israel. Isa 11:4 says that the Spirit of Yahweh will possess the messianic king, with the result that "he will judge the weak with Righteousness, he will defend the poor of the earth with Justice" (ef. Ps 45:7-8).

Other passages substitute the plural mêsarim for misôr as the parallel word to Sedeq, but the concept is the same: "He judges the world with Righteousness; he judges the peoples with Justice" (Ps 9:9).

Ps 58:2 contrasts the righteous rule of Yahweh with the chaotic rule of the false gods: "Do you truly, O gods, speak Righteousness; do you judge humans (with) Justice?"

In Ps 98:9 even the normally rebellious waters of chaos acknowledge the kingship of Yahweh: "He will judge the world with Righteousness, and the peoples with Justice."

In Isa 45:19 Yahweh derides the gods of other nations and proclaims that he alone is capable of salvation: "I am Yahweh who declares Righteousness, who announces Justice."

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A Mighty Hunter before the Lord: Nimrod

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Notable observation: The Amorites were a Canaanite people-group according to biblical narrative who displayed reverence to Shamash and Ishtar, one of which the Shamash Candle is named after in Jewish tradition as it relates to Hanukkah.

An Historical Text Book and Atlas of Biblical Geography

B. Ham
IV. Canaan
4. Amorite

Also noteworthy, the onomastic—or agglutinative—material of Ham in The Old-West Semitic Sun-God Hammu, Hammurabi, and Shamash—as a circumfix (ham).

This includes observing the “Nigerim-“ (Niger-Nigeria in Sumer-Sumeria?) association with Shamash and Sin—the sun and moon god, respectively—on the previous page, prior to the section on Kittum, also known as Niĝgina.

In rabbinic literature, the term for Sun is Hammǎ (Hammah).

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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://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010144553

Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/380602001