I made this tablet last Friday in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep. Translated to English it says: “The strength of my god completes my own. Inanna zami.”
The first part is a Sumerian proverb. There is some debate over the authenticity of this quote, but it is listed in the CDLI. Besides, I like the quote.
usu diĝir-ĝa2 ni2-ĝa2 ba-til
𒀉𒄨𒀭𒂷𒉎𒂷𒁀 𒌀
The second part, Inanna Zami, means “Inanna be praised.”
𒀭𒈹𒍠𒊩
Then on Sunday I made a new cuneiform stylus to make smaller wedges and tried it out by making these tiny clay tokens. I made ones featuring the names of Inanna, Ninshubur, and Dumuzi. I also made a smaller version of the “Go Away” amulet that I made earlier and one that translates to “Live, Laugh, Love” for funsies. I made the new stylus from one of those sticks that comes with poly-fil stuffing and squared it off on the end. Well, it’s more of a triangle than a square.
Then I made a similarly-sized token featuring Inanna’s star to test out my new set of clay carving tools. After making all of these simple projects I felt like trying my hand at sculpting something more complex. I decided to make a small pocket-sized figurine of Inanna for a travel altar. I wanted something small and simple to practice sculpting. I posed Her arms crossed against Her body so they wouldn’t be broken as easily during travel, but She kinda just looks like She’s done with my shit, so I feel like I should carry this representation of Her with me when I know I’m about to make poor decisions.
I already want to make a larger similar statue with more details representing more of Her iconography, including Her 8-point star, and the rod and ring symbol that frequently appears in images of deities in Mesopotamian art.
I wanted to practice my cuneiform writing on smaller projects before attempting a larger tablet I want to make soon, so I made a couple smaller things over the weekend.
𒆠𒋫 𒁺𒈾 – kita ĝena
The first is a “magickal” amulet meant to keep people (by “people” I mean my husband) out of the room while I’m doing ritual work. Or if I just feel like being alone. It has many uses! The cuneiform says “kita ĝena,” 𒆠𒋫 𒁺𒈾, which means “go away” (lit. “leave from here!”). I found this translation on a Tumblr blog called Sumerian Language. I put a hole with a ribbon through it so it can be hanged on the door.
I didn’t actually do any type of magickal working on it. It’s really more of a “privacy please” sign. If you need magick to keep the people you live with out when you need alone time, you should probably find new people…
𒁲𒄳 – Hello World
The second tablet says 𒁲𒄳, “Hello world!” I made it for my husband, who is a programmer. I just thought it was amusing to use the world’s first written language to make a representation of the first program everyone ever makes when learning a new programming language because I’m a dork. It is transliterated as “silim gulkin.” Silim, 𒁲, was used as a greeting, and literally means “to be healthy.” Gulkin, 𒄳, means “inhabited world.”
I found the “Hello World” translation on the same Tumblr blog as above. That blog seems really good for finding translations of things that are useful in the modern world. It appears that the author there frequently takes translation requests from other Tumblr users.
While making these tablets, I also figured out that this particular clay I am using requires about 3600 times more water than I think I should use while forming the tablets to prevent cracking (the air in my house is very dry). I’m still working on my technique, but I’m confident I can get them to actually look nice eventually. I’ll probably try a different brand of clay that someone recommended to me on FaceBook after I run out of my current supply, however.
I wanted to represent Dumuzi and Ninshubur on my altar, but I was having trouble finding statues of either of these deities to purchase. I ended up just making my own, based on ancient artifacts that were found in Sumerian ruins. I know my sculpture skills are exactly on par with those of actual artists, but I hope the gods appreciate them none the less. I presented them to Dumuzi and Ninshubur at the Temple of Inanna and Dumuzi’s monthly devotional this month, along with food offerings and roses for Inanna (all handmade by me or harvested from my garden). I like to think that the gods appreciate everything we make for them with love. I mean, I enjoy it when kids give me a picture they drew, saying that it’s supposed to be me. Maybe it’s the same kind of thing?
Votive Figurine for Dumuzi
My votive statue for Dumuzi. I dedicated the gnome candle to Dumuzi as well. It just reminded me of him for some reason. IDK why.
I based my votive figurine for Dumuzi on a statue of a shepherd that was found in the modern-day site of Tell Telloh in Iraq, what was once the ancient Sumerian city Girsu. I came across the original artifact while searching for statues of Dumuzi. There are some recovered ancient statues that are more certainly meant to represent Dumuzi, but I used one that is only identified as a shepherd for my inspiration. It is a simpler design that I could more closely replicate myself, and it just looked whimsical to me. The design made me happy to look at, and I wanted to capture that joy in my offering to Dumuzi. I just really like that particular artifact, I can’t completely explain why.
This particular artifact was labeled as being a representation of Dumuzi on Bing image search, via some sketchy website (as soon as I saw references to Sitchen, I left and tracked down the original source for the image). I traced it back to the Louvre, where the artifact is currently housed, and found out that it is thought to represent a shepherd holding a baby goat or sheep.
Shepherd figurine from Girsu. Louvre.
The original artifact is missing an arm, but I made both arms for him. I also embedded a goat bone (I think it’s probably a spine bone) into his back. I got the bone in a goat curry meal from a local Jamaican restaurant like a year ago. I didn’t know what I was going to use it for at the time, but it looked super cool, so I cleaned it up, removed all the soft tissue that remained, and kept it packed in a cup of diatomaceous earth until I thought of a use for it. Since Dumuzi is a shepherd god, I thought it would be a nice offering to him.
Dumuzi’s back, with embedded goat bone.
I used the same air-dry clay that I used to make my cuneiform flashcards. Both figurines looked a bit crumbly when they dried, but I kinda like how it makes them look more ancient and old-timey, so I didn’t try to fix it before glazing them.
Votive Figurine for Ninshubur
Votive statue of Ninshubur
I used the same basic process to make my votive statue for Ninshubur. Her figurine is based on two ancient artifacts depicting her, though both original statues are missing their heads, so I had to make up that entire part. The head didn’t want to stay attached, so I used wooden rods inside to hold the whole thing together.
The first original artifact I used as inspiration is a statue from the Sumerian city-state of Der, the modern-day site of Tell Aqar in Iraq. This one is currently housed at the British Museum.
Statue dedicated to Ninshubur from Der. British Museum.
The other statue I was inspired by was found in the Sumerian city Adab, modern day Bismaya, Iraq. It is currently on display in the Sumerian Gallery of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. Like the statue from Der, this one is also missing her head.
Statue dedicated to Ninshubur from Adab. Iraq Museum.
For my figurine, I made a head featuring a horned crown, as seen on many ancient depictions of deities. I tried to make her features a bit androgynous since there is some confusion over Ninshubur’s gender in the various ancient texts. She is depicted as female in the texts related to Inanna, but I kind of feel like she has a more non-binary androgynous energy about her.
I also added a staff in her hands because the staff is her symbol as Inanna’s sukkal. I kept her posed with her hands clasped, like in the original statues, but I put the staff in her hands. The staff is made from a willow branch. Willow is one of the types of trees that the Huluppu tree from the myth is theorized to have been, though it could have also been a date palm. There are probably other theories out there too. Anyway, I only had a willow branch dried and ready to be used, so that’s what I went with. Willow is my favorite type of tree anyway.
I was planning on inscribing both deities’ names in cuneiform directly onto the figurines, but I kept squishing them too much in the process (I’m already clumsy, and I think my hands aren’t working as well as they were since having chemo). I made separate little name plaques for them instead.
I might make one for Inanna some time too. I already have a few representations for her, but maybe she’d like a homemade one too (other than the eye-idol one I made for her a few months ago). I might make them for Geshtinanna and Ereshkigal eventually too. I just need to do more research on their iconography and existing known representations of them.
I probably mentioned in a previous post that I’m working my way through Rod and Ring: An Initiation Into a Mesopotamian Mystery Tradition by Samuel David. I just started the second section of the book last month, which is taking me through a journey of meeting seven gods, many of whom I wasn’t previously very familiar with. I mainly worship Inanna, and I am undertaking this initiatory journey to better know the other gods of the pantheon so that I may better understand Inanna. To better acquaint myself with these ancient deities I’m getting to know through this initiatory journey, and to honor them by bringing back awareness to their presence, I am writing an article for each deity as I meet them through the journey. Last month I met the god of fire, Gibil. Here is the article I wrote for him:
Gibil is the ancient Sumerian god of fire and light. As a god of fire, he was both feared for the destructive power of fire as well as praised for its benefits to civilization. He was the oppressive heat of the desert in Mesopotamian summer, as well as the creative spark of the fires used by potters in their kilns, bakers in the ovens, and metallurgists in their forges.
Gibil was considered the patron god of metallurgists, as his fire was used to refine metals. He was also praised as a god of kilns and brickwork for the role fire played in the creation process of bricks. Bakers relied on Gibil’s fire to bake their bread. Because of the creative potential fire had for the formation of civilization, Gibil was often called the “founder of cities.” Gibil, with his purifying fires, also played an important role in purification rituals, in which he was commonly invoked alongside other important gods such as Enki/Ea, Marduk, and Utu/Shamash.
This month, I met Ninurta. I am working on his article right now, and will post it here once I finish and the HubPages editors do whatever it is they do before publishing to the niche sites.
A few months ago, I wanted to make a figurine of Inanna using some colored stone-esque Sculpey clay I found in my hoard of craft supplies. I’m not great at art, so I didn’t want to attempt anything too ambitious. I’ve always been drawn to the eye idol figurines that were uncovered in Tell Brak in what was once Northern Mesopotamia. They are cute and simple to make. I still have a few reproductions that I made about 20 years ago when I first got interested in Mesopotamian history/mythology as a teenager (I was a weird kid, which is probably why I’m now a weird adult). So I had the idea to combine imagery from the Burney Relief (aka Queen of the Night), an ancient relief sculpture that most archaeologists believe to represent Inanna/Ishtar.
I was originally going to make it all pink, but I didn’t have enough pink, so I used light blue for the details an accessories. I think the blue eyes work very well, considering blue eyes, typically made from lapis lazuli (considered a sacred stone), are seen in a lot of Mesopotamian art.
The original eye idols were mainly found in what is now Tell Brak in modern-day Syria. A smaller number of these sculptures were also later found in Tell Hamoukar. They are probably meant to be abstract representations of human worshipers meant as votive offerings to an as-of-yet unidentified deity or deities. The large, prominent eyes likely represent attentiveness to the gods, as do the large eyes seen throughout Mesopotamian art. They are NOT supposed to be “grey aliens” as the “ancient astronauts” conspiracy theorists claim. For more information than you probably want about these figurines, see The Eyes Have It: An In-Depth Study of the Tell Brak Eye Idols in the 4th Millennium BCE: with a primary focus on function and meaning (Honors Thesis by Arabella Cooper from the University of Syndey).
Example of a Tell Brak “eye idol,” Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gift of The Institute of Archaeology, The University of London, 1951
The Burney Relief, also known as Queen of the Night, is the best known image of Inanna/Ishtar, though there is some debate by archaeologist over exactly which goddess it is meant to represent. Most believe it is meant to be Inanna/Ishtar, though there are some who argue that it may be Ereshkigal or Lilith (Lilith is NOT a Mesopotamian deity. She is a figure from Semitic folklore). It is unknown where exactly this ancient work of art was actually discovered, as it wasn’t excavated archaeologically. It most likely originates from Southern Mesopotamia, but the exact site location is unknown. The relief features iconography commonly associated with Inanna/Ishtar, including the rod and ring symbol, lions, wings, and the horned headdress.
Burney Relief (Queen of the Night). Mesopotamian terracotta plaque depicting a winged, nude, goddess-like figure with bird’s talons, flanked by owls, and perched upon two lions. Height: 49.5 cm. Old-Babylonian, 19th-18th cent. BCE. British Museum
I just finished Learn to Read Ancient Sumerian: An Introduction for Complete Beginners by Joshua Bowen and Megan Lewis (other than the additional exercises in the appendix), as well as their YouTube series that goes along with the book. I feel like I need to go back through the whole book and video course to really understand it and memorize everything, however. Verbal chains are hard!
Anyway, I had the idea to make little “flashcards” from clay to help me memorize the cuneiform signs. I made them for the signs shown in every chapter of the book. Here is an article I wrote on how I made them:
