{"id":507,"date":"2025-03-27T21:02:06","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T21:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/societyforritualarts.com\/coreopsis\/spring-2025-issue\/?post_type=paper&p=507"},"modified":"2025-05-07T07:45:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T14:45:11","slug":"inanna-and-gender-ambiguity-some-evidence-from-sumer","status":"publish","type":"paper","link":"https:\/\/societyforritualarts.com\/coreopsis\/spring-2025-issue\/paper\/inanna-and-gender-ambiguity-some-evidence-from-sumer\/","title":{"rendered":"Inanna and Gender Ambiguity: Some Evidence from Sumer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Courtesy of the Penn Museum, Diadem B16684.71<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dedication<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For my teacher, Daniel Reisman, 1941 to 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abstract<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This paper presents two examples of the intersection of ritual and myth from approximately four thousand years ago. The focus is on gender ambiguity enacted in the rites of Inanna, Sumerian god of sexuality and fertility. Textual, linguistic, and archaeological sources are considered to explore the possibility of a four-tier gender system (no gender, female, male, both female and male) and how such a system might relate to the worship of Inanna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keywords:<\/em> <\/strong>gender, Sumerian, non-binary gender, Inanna, sacred marriage, Royal Cemetery at Ur, Puabi, ancient goddess worship<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Their right side they adorn with [men\u2019s]<\/em>1<\/sup><\/em> clothing\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They walk before the pure Inanna.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the great lady of heaven, Inanna, I would say: \u201cHail!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their left side they cover (?) with [women\u2019s] clothing,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They walk before the pure Inanna.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the great lady of heaven, Inanna, I would say: \u201cHail!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iddin-Dagan A<\/em>Daniel Reisman, translator
(Reisman, 1973, p. 187)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I begin by referencing one of the most provocative statements about gender from the ancient Sumerian literary corpus. Unfortunately, like the concept of gender itself, the passage is as ambiguous as it is provocative. The entire composition is challenging to translate. For the most part, a summary translation offered by the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL, Black et al., 2001) follows Reisman\u2019s interpretation. However, although the site remains active, ETCSL has not been updated for almost twenty years. The site that is currently being maintained, the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI), generally presents a translation after each line of transliteration, but for whatever reason, does not offer a translation for this composition (CDLI, 2024b).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All we know about the Sumerian corpus, indeed all we know about the Sumerian language and associated culture, has been the result of archaeological excavations. Large quantities of clay tablets have been unearthed from Asia Minor, particularly in an area referred to as Mesopotamia by European colonial powers. Sumerian could only be deciphered due to the existence of bilingual texts in Akkadian (of literary compositions and of reference materials such as lexical lists). Akkadian in its turn was deciphered from other multilingual sources, although the reconstruction of Akkadian was facilitated because it is a Semitic language and thus shares characteristics with modern Semitic languages. This is not true of Sumerian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The script used to write Sumerian and Akkadian is called cuneiform. It was not an alphabet. Rather, the signs were originally pictographs based on words and then expanded to include syllables. Signs were multivalent \u2014 the picture for \u201cmouth\u201d was also used to write \u201cword\u201d but also for grammatical elements. Related concepts like \u201cto eat\u201d and \u201cto drink\u201d were written with modifications of the basic \u201cmouth\u201d picture. An important step in translating a cuneiform text, in whatever language in which it was written, is to select the appropriate reading of the signs from context, a process called transliteration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of my graduate studies I was able to work through the transliteration and translation of the Iddin-Dagan composition with Dr. Reisman. We assembled hand-drawn copies of cuneiform tablet fragments and then transliterated and translated. Reisman had worked with the cuneiform tablets themselves, comparing the published drawings and transliterations with what he was able to see on the tablets and what he expected to see based on his preliminary translation. I am not so hands-on. Reisman could read a number of Ancient Near Eastern languages. I chose to limit myself to Sumerian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I tend to think of the culture which produced these texts also as Sumerian, probably because this is what Professor Reisman taught me. I learned that Sumerian was the dominant cultural force for a large part of the ancient Near East from some time around the early third millennium b.c.e. The Sumerian homeland was in what was to become southern Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. I learned that the Akkadian homeland was further north, around Baghdad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is what I was taught. But no. The situation was more complex. The area was multilingual throughout the \u201cSumerian period\u201d \u2014 one scholar has suggested it was multilingual as early as the end of the fourth millennium, that is, before 3000 b.c.e. (Z\u00f3lyomi, 2011, p. 396; see also Gelb, 1960). To complicate matters further, Sumerian continued to be used as a language of learning long after it faded from everyday use. Experts in the field agree that by the period from which most of the extant literary texts in Sumerian date, the Old Babylonian period (early second millennium, i.e., after 2000), Sumerian was no longer a living language (Crisostomo, 2015). Scholars also have concluded that much of what does survive were school exercise tablets (Delnero, 2012), so not the most reliable of sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of these Old Babylonian literary texts in Sumerian feature stories about the activities of gods. These stories continued to be told in Akkadian, with various adaptations, including changing the names of Sumerian gods to Akkadian ones. This was certainly the case with a story about Inanna, called \u201cInanna\u2019s Descent to the Netherworld,\u201d  simply \u201cInanna\u2019s Descent\u201d or as I prefer it, \u201cInanna\u2019s Journey\u201d (see Jones, Mijares, and Dalglish, 2023; Wolkstein and Kramer, 1983, pp. 51-73). Inanna\u2019s name becomes Ishtar, among other changes, but it is easily recognized as the same story (for an online text of \u201cInanna\u2019s Journey,\u201d see CDLI, 2024a; <\/em>for Ishtar\u2019s CDLI, 2024c). Since it turns out that this particular story is relevant to this discussion of gender ambiguity, I will be offering a synopsis of the Sumerian story after the following synopsis of our Iddin-Dagan composition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Synopsis and Discussion of Iddin-Dagan A<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\n\"Pu-Abi&#039;s\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Photo: Courtesy of the Penn Museum, Ribbon B17711A<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Iddin-Dagan composition I read with Reisman appears to be a script for a New Year\u2019s ritual in which Iddin-Dagan has sex with Inanna, the female god of fertility. Sumerian scholars classify this text as a royal hymn and refer to ritual sex with Inanna as a \u201csacred marriage\u201d (see Kramer, 1969; Lapinkivi, 2004). Iddin-Dagan was a king in the dynasty at Isin, a city in southern Mesopotamia. Reisman dates the Isin dynasty from 2017 to 1794 b.c.e., but does not place Iddin-Dagan chronologically within that span (Reisman, 1969, p. 13). While these dates fall within the Old Babylonian period, on stylistic grounds Reisman classified the hymn as neo-Sumerian (1969, pp. 11-12, note 51). \u201cNeo-Sumerian\u201d references a period of resurgence of the Sumerian language after the end of an Akkadian incursion southward (see Thomsen, 1984, pp. 26-30).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hymn is divided into ten major sections of varying lengths. The first section opens with a greeting highlighting Inanna\u2019s connection to celestial realms and light. The second section shifts to matters of Inanna\u2019s earthly authority: she decrees fates and renders judgment. This section ends with a statement that the people walk before her. The next several sections describe this procession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, the various musical instruments played in the procession are named. In the next section a certain type of cult personnel \u2014 I\u2019ll call them cult personnel 1 \u2014 is described as wearing distinctive clothing. Their hairstyle is mentioned as well as colored bands that decorate their hair or neck area. Next come a righteous  man \u2014 in one exemplar a righteous king \u2014 and a woman who holds a leadership role among other women. Music is again mentioned and weapons are introduced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fifth section opens with the lines I quoted at the beginning of this paper. It is a very short section; the only other thing that happens involves a competition with jump ropes and colored cords. The sixth section opens with mention of young men and young women. The women are described in terms of their hairstyle. In Reisman\u2019s translation, the men are \u201ccarrying hoops,\u201d but ECTSL has the young men wearing neck stocks, a rigid collar worn by soldiers to protect the neck from sword gashes. This seems a better translation, since later in the sixth section, cult personnel 2 wield swords and make what sounds like a blood offering. The procession then ends with loud drumming (Reisman, 1973, p. 188; Black et al., 2001). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the seventh section  the focus shifts to descriptions of abundance, fertility. Various animals and plants are named, including fish and birds. A feast is prepared and married couples are said to make love. In the eighth section we learn something about the results of fertility: once the storehouses are full the people take their concern to Inanna for her to punish wrongdoing and reward the just. The theme of fertility is continued in the ninth section, where offerings are made to Inanna \u2014 offerings of incense, sheep, ghee and cheese, several kinds of fruit, beer, bread made with date syrup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is in the tenth section that we learn this is a New Year\u2019s ritual. The \u201csacred marriage\u201d is described. Afterwards Inanna sits beside Iddin-Dagan on the throne and he hosts a feast for her while musicians play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the procession we met two female-male couples as well as two types of cult personnel whose gender is not explicitly specified. But, I suggest, we can read gender from the descriptions. In section four, cult type 1 is described in terms of hairstyle and colored bands that decorate the head area. Then weaponry is mentioned later in the section. Conversely, in the fifth section, cult type 2 is described specifically in terms of weaponry, with hairstyle mentioned earlier in the section. Stereotypic as it may sound, hairstyle-related descriptions are feminine and weaponry mentions are masculine. Later in this paper I will be presenting evidence about why we should accept this gender equation. Since the syntax of the four processional sections is difficult, I can\u2019t say for certain that both cult types are being described in terms of both genders. I can say that in both of these sections, gender markers are juxtaposed, just as in the intervening section women\u2019s and men\u2019s clothing are juxtaposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have left the names of these cult personnel untranslated in part because they don\u2019t translate easily into English and in part because the translations are contested.2<\/sup>  I can say that the cuneiform for the Sumerian name for cult personnel 1 could be read as \u201chead-warrior\u201d \u2014 not as in \u201clead-warrior\u201d but as in \u201chairstyle-warrior.\u201d  The spelling of the name of cult personnel 2 is a compound of the most common Sumerian word for the Land of the Dead (spelled with a pictograph for \u201cmountain\u201d) plus a form of the verb \u201cto put or place.\u201d  Significantly, the name for cult personnel 2 is the same name as one of the two creatures sent to rescue Inanna in \u201cInanna\u2019s Journey.\u201d  These two types of cult personnel generally appear together in ritual, so I am a little surprised that the name of cult personnel 1 is not the same as the name of the other creature sent to rescue Inanna. Still, it seems reasonable that these two types of cult personnel are meant to reference \u2014 or even embody \u2014 the two creatures who saved Inanna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In \u201cInanna\u2019s Journey,\u201d these two creatures are made from the dirt under the god Enki\u2019s fingernails. A. Leo Oppenheim has taken up the question of why the creatures were created in this manner. He first postulated that to prevent anyone from attempting to rescue Inanna, the god of the Land of the Dead, Ereshkigal, uttered a curse against anyone \u2014 male or female, born from a womb \u2014 who tries to do so (Oppenheim, 1950, p. 132). Such a malediction is not specified in the Sumerian composition, or even most versions of the story in Akkadian, but Oppenheim does offer evidence to support his supposition.3<\/sup>  However credible his evidence may be, and whether the prohibition was due to the god uttering a curse or whether it was simply a well understood law of the Land of No Return, Oppenheim\u2019s explanation is useful in that it helps us make sense of the gender patterns we find in Iddin-Dagan\u2019s hymn. To comply with the terms of the malediction, these cult personnel cannot be either female or male. They can be both, which is what I think the evidence from this hymn suggests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Synopsis of \u201cInanna\u2019s Journey\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The story opens as Inanna is making arrangements to visit the Land of the Dead. She dresses in full regalia and instructs her assistant about what to do if she is unable to return. After Inanna arrives at the Land of the Dead, she is taken through seven gates. At each gate she is divested of an item of her regalia. By the time she is taken into the presence of Ereshkigal, Inanna is naked. Ereshkigal condemns her to death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After three days, when Inanna does not return, her assistant does as she had been instructed \u2014 going to other gods asking for someone to come to Inanna\u2019s aid. The first two gods refuse to help but Enki agrees. He fashions those two creatures from the dirt under his fingernails and gives these creatures instructions about how to get into the Land of the Dead, how to trick Ereshkigal into turning over Inanna\u2019s corpse, and how to revive Inanna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This all goes to plan \u2014 until Inanna tries to leave the Land of the Dead, the Land of No Return. She is only allowed to leave if she provides a substitute. Demons are sent with her to retrieve this substitute. First they encounter Inanna\u2019s assistant, who is in mourning for Inanna. Mourning is marked by wearing ragged clothing, sitting in the dirt, even by scratching oneself. Inanna is moved by her assistant\u2019s faithfulness and will not let the demons take her. Two others are encountered, also in mourning. Inanna will not let them be taken either. One is described as Inanna\u2019s \u201csinger, manicurist, and hairdresser.\u201d  About the other Ianna says \u201coutstanding Lulal follows me at my right and at my left\u201d (CDLI, 2024a).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the demons and Inanna go on until they come to Inanna\u2019s husband, the shepherd Dumuzi. They find him under an apple tree, but instead of being clothed in rags sitting in the dirt, Dumuzi is dressed in fine garments and sitting on a throne. Inanna is so angry she tells the demons to take him. Of course, Dumuzi does not go willingly. He appeals to his brother-in-law, the sun god, reminding him of the milk Dumuzi had supplied to the family and asking to be turned into a reptile to slither away from the demons. The sun god does as he asks, but\u2026. Here the text breaks up and we don\u2019t have what happens until the very end when Dumuzi is serving as substitute for half of the year and his sister is serving for the other half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Linguistic Gender<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our task to understand how gender is constructed in the Iddin-Dagan hymn \u2014 and by extension perhaps in other Sumerian language compositions \u2014 is complicated by the way gender is treated by this language. I use the term \u201clinguistic gender\u201d to mean a distinction in grammar related in some way to a female\/male dichotomy.4<\/sup>  Some languages, like Spanish and French, over-extend this difference, assigning \u201cgender\u201d to ordinarily non-gendered objects such as tables and chairs. These languages require different versions of pronouns and adjectives to mark agreement with this apparently arbitrarily assigned gender. Akkadian took this type of linguistic gender distinction even further, requiring gender agreement in the verb conjugations (for an introductory Akkadian textbook, see Erickson & Hugenberger, 2022).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, the Sumerian language is disinterested in gender distinctions to such an extent that even the vocabulary for speaking of gender is limited. There were words for \u201cmother\u201d and \u201cfather,\u201d but none for \u201cdaughter\u201d or \u201cson,\u201d  only a word for \u201cchild.\u201d  Based solely on this grammatical analysis, I think it is safe to say the Sumerian language recognized three gender positions: female, male, and neither.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is not to say that the speakers (or writers) of this language could not specify a gender for a child or other subordinate. In later periods especially, scribes wrote the character for \u201cfemale\u201d preceding the word for \u201cchild\u201d to indicate that \u201cdaughter\u201d was meant. Scholars call these presumably non-vocalized markings \u201cdeterminatives.\u201d  Due to the multivalence of the cuneiform writing system, determinatives had long been used to help clarify what reading was intended (for an introductory Sumerian textbook, see Bowen & Lewis, 2020).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sumerian may not have pronouns based on gender, but it does have a different distinction, what linguists refer to as animacy (see Comrie, 1981, pp. 178-193). Perhaps it is more appropriate to think of this distinction in terms of a continuum of animacy \u2014 or even agency \u2014 because for this language the gods and humans fall on the animate side while animals and objects fall on the inanimate side. The inanimate pronoun was also used for collective entities such as assemblies and councils (Thomsen, 1984, p. 49, p. 71).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To return to the lines from our text quoted above, specifically the first and fourth lines, the passage is generally translated into English using third person plural, but the Sumerian text uses the third person inanimate possessive pronoun, \u201cits\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On its right side, men\u2019s clothing is worn<\/em>
On its left side, women\u2019s clothing is placed5<\/sup><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recalling that in Sumerian the third person inanimate could be used for collective entities, perhaps the participants as a group is being referenced. Or, perhaps \u201cit\u201d was used deliberately because of a desire for a pronoun to refer to ambiguous gender situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gender in an Archaeological Record<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It was the wearing of both female and male clothing at the same time that called our attention to this Iddin-Dagan hymn. Unexpectedly, the archaeological record also contains evidence of a similar type of gender ambiguity, not in terms of clothing, but in terms of the more durable artifacts placed on or near corpses at burial. Specifically, this evidence comes from the Royal Cemetery at Ur, from burials dated the Early Dynastic III and Sargonic periods, prior than the \u201cstylistic date\u201d of the composition and perhaps four or five hundred years before the date of the tablets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the excavator, Leonard Woolley (1934), who named this the \u201cRoyal Cemetery of Ur,\u201d on the assumption that the level of wealth revealed by the burials indicated royal status. This wealth included not just objects of gold, silver, and other precious materials, but human wealth as well. In one of the more memorable of these burials,6<\/sup> three attendants were buried in the same chamber as the female principal; outside the chamber several more individuals were interred. We know the name of the principal from inscriptions found in the tomb, although how to read that name is not straightforward. The excavation team read the name in Sumerian, but an Akkadian reading, Puabi, has been widely accepted. I adopt the reading here, even though the exact transliteration of the name is still contested. The inscriptional material names her as queen, but unlike inscriptions for other queens from the cemetery, no husband is named (Hafford & Zettler, (2015); Penn Museum, n.d.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evidence for gender ambiguity in burials at the Royal Cemetery is presented in a study by Susan Pollock (1983). Her interest was not in a treatment of gender as such; her goal was to study the symbolism of prestige. She wanted to identify which artifacts were markers of status. To that end Pollock conducted a distribution analysis to determine if any of the objects associated with individual skeletons tended to occur together or tended not to co-occur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One group thus identified consisted of objects such as axes, dagger, and whetstones (what we might call a \u201cwarrior\u201d group). Pollock found that this particular group exhibited virtually no association or overlap with other groups. She interpreted this group of objects as representing a \u201cmale\u201d dimension, while she considered a gold earring-silver\/gold pin-wreath-gold ribbon \u201ccomb\u201d group as a \u201cfemale\u201d dimension (Pollock, 1983, p. 153; shall we call it the \u201chead-hairstyle group?). Pollock puts female and male in quotes because, she notes, she was unable to correlate these artifact groupings to the sex of the associated skeletons and because these artifacts might be related to occupation rather than gender. I think this lack of association to skeletons is an advantage since it allows us to see these artifacts as markers of how gender was socially constructed without regard to how that might relate to biology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The majority of burials from Ur had to be excluded from Pollock\u2019s analysis because they did not contain any distinctive grave goods. These lowest status or \u201csubordinate\u201d graves had no markings for gender, just as linguistically, Sumerian is indifferent to the gender of subordinates. What I find most intriguing about Pollock\u2019s results is that many of the highest status burials contained both \u201cfemale\u201d and \u201cmale\u201d artifacts. Pollock reports several instances were artifacts from one \u201cgender\u201d were on a skeleton and artifacts from another \u201cgender\u201d were found nearby (Pollock, 1983, pp. 154-159). So, some of the highest status burials were marked for two genders \u2014 just as in the Iddin-Dagan ritual where we met cult personnel who seem to be both female and male. We have now identified four possible gender positions: no gender, female, male, and both female and male.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I should note that the attendants \u2014 these subordinates who were killed in order to be buried with a royal principal \u2014 were marked for gender, and quite richly (Woolley, 1934; Pollock 1983). Does this mean that the model I have been developing is imperfect \u2014 or  has been imperfectly developed?  Were other factors at play?  I think of Inanna\u2019s husband Dumuzi dressed richly and seated on a throne when he should have been in mourning. Were these attendants being offered as substitutes?  To be sure, we have moved from a simple family situation \u2014 adults and subordinate children \u2014 to a socially stratified situation with the poorest unmarked for gender, the intermediate marked as either female or male and the most elite who, according to Pollock, were marked for both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the problems with archaeology as a means of reconstructing the past is that it offers a very close look at a very small slice of life \u2014 a single site may or may not be in any way representative of the larger culture. This applies to the Royal Cemetery. Even though these burial practices went on for a few generations, this time span is only a few hundred years out of millennia. The cemetery is also unique geographically. I know of no other sites like this from the ancient Near East. This \u201croyal cemetery\u201d seems to have taken a place in scholarship that is disproportionate to its actual significance. The cemetery is so compelling, I think, not just because of its dazzling wealth, but also because of its undeniable evidence of human sacrifice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Puabi and Inanna<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The last question I want to address is whether these instances of a combined female and male gender were limited to contexts associated with Inanna or whether they may have been more widespread. To address this question, I focus on the tomb of Puabi since information about this burial is readily accessible. Is Inanna referenced in any way in the burial of Puabi?  The answer to this question is yes. On her head Puabi wore a gold comb with seven spikes, each topped with a rosette with a lapis center [Place illustration 1 \u2013 here  Courtesy of the Penn Museum, image 299835.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved]. The rosette, a star-shaped eight-petaled flower, is one of the symbols of Inanna (Van Buren, 1939, p. 99).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highly evocative of the fertility associated with Inanna were gold pendants found amongst about ten thousand small lapis beads. The excavator reconstructed a single item \u2014 what he called a diadem \u2014 although after careful study Penn Museum curators believe the beads and pendants were more likely from several separate pieces of jewelry [Place illustration 2 \u2013 here  Courtesy of the Penn Museum, image 296810.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved] (Pittmann & Miller, 2015). In any case, the pendants themselves are of gazelles, rams, stags, and bearded bulls, plus apples, date fruit, and date palms (Miller and Zettler, 2012).7<\/sup>  I am reminded of the seventh section of the Iddin-Dagan hymn with its listing of animals and  plants. These pendants also give a nod to Dumuzi sitting under his apple tree, Dumuzi claiming to have given milk to his in-laws. Some of the pendants were apples. Another set of pendants are a curious, loop-shape \u2014 often referred to informally as a \u201ccarpet beater.\u201d  According to Penn Museum curators, the carpet beater depicts a harness used to hold animals together during milking (Miller & Zettler, 2012). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The context of this find, in a burial, certainly suggests Inanna\u2019s journey to the Land of No Return. Was the tableau of Puabi\u2019s internment ritual \u2014 her final public appearance as she made her final journey \u2014 intentionally set to evoke Inanna?  It is tempting to pose this question in a way that pre-supposes an answer:  \u201cwhat self-respecting, royal devotee of Inanna would not have had her burial staged to emulate \u201cInanna\u2019s Journey?\u201d  Did Puabi, or her survivors, intend her regalia to evoke Inanna\u2019s in \u201cInanna\u2019s Journey\u201d?  I\u2019m not sure. We have many images of Inanna (see Wolkstein and Kramer 1983 for a collection), but none of them appear to show her on this journey. We have only the description of Inanna\u2019s attire from the composition where the most relevant lines are difficult to translate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Puabi is certainly well dressed, and, I think I can say, in ways that appear similar to, but not exactly like, what we have from the text of \u201cInanna\u2019s Journey\u201d \u2014 even allowing for the inevitable loss of certain types of detail. Some remnants of cloth might survive archaeologically, but the absence of such traces does not indicate cloth was never there. We cannot know, for example, if Puabi wore make-up \u2014 Inanna wore eye make-up \u2014 but we do know that containers of cosmetics were found in the burial. And some of the things that do match up are relatively generic. Both Inanna and Puabi wear lapis necklaces and gold rings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Puabi\u2019s headdress seems much more elaborate than what Inanna wore. Puabi\u2019s is made of precious metals; Inanna\u2019s was made of cloth (it was spelled with the determinative for cloth.)  The bands of Puabi\u2019s headdress remind me of the colored bands used in Iddin-Dagan\u2019s procession.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though I did not find a one-to-one correspondence between Puabi\u2019s burial and \u201cInanna\u2019s Journey,\u201d there are identifiable correlations between artifacts from Puabi\u2019s grave and iconography used for Inanna in the sacred marriage ritual, the story of Inanna\u2019s journey to the Land of the Dead, and other contexts. There are similar kinds of gender ambiguity in both the Iddin-Dagan hymn and Puabi\u2019s burial tableau. It should be recognized that the rituals surrounding the burial of Puabi as a queen must have served a political agenda as well as a religious one. I certainly do not present this reading of Puabi in the Royal Cemetery at Ur as a counter to the work of Pollock and others (for example, Cohen 2005) who focus on different aspects of these burials. The tombs should be considered multivalent \u2014 just like the cuneiform writing system itself and in perhaps a slightly different way, the Sumerian gender system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Working on this paper has certainly furthered my knowledge of how the ancients worshipped Inanna. I began with the assumption that Inanna\u2019s sacred marriage and Inanna\u2019s journey to the Land of No Return were two separate and very different episodes. The burial of Puabi makes it clear that the ancients did not necessarily make such distinctions, just as it suggests that the people of the Royal Cemetery might have had other goals besides just the disposal of their dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also began with the assumption, based solely on Sumerian grammar, that gender expression might have been less problematic for these ancients. Adding evidence from textual and archaeological sources has deepened my analysis, allowing me to identify a four-tiered gender system:  unmarked for gender, marked for female, marked for male, and marked for both female and male.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evidence for the fourth gender position is limited. The Iddin-Dagan hymn and the Puabi burial together suggest that this position might be tied to the worship of Inanna, specifically to the two creatures created from the dirt from under Enki\u2019s fingernails to rescue Inanna from the Land of the Dead. It hardly seems surprising for a wealthy queen to have her own burial rites staged to emulate the myth of Inanna\u2019s return from the Land of No Return, but in this case the abundance associated with Ianna seems to have been highlighted as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Black, J.A., Cunningham, G., Fluckiger-Hawker, E, Robson, E., and Z\u00f3lyomi, G. (2001, July 9). Inana and Iddin-Dagan (Iddin-Dagan A): translation. <\/em>The electronic text corpus of Sumerian literature (ETCSL). https:\/\/etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk\/section2\/tr2531.htm<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bowen, J., & M. Lewis, (2020). Learn to read ancient Sumerian: An introduction for complete beginners. <\/em>Digital Hammurabi Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CDLI,  (2024a, July 15). CDLI Literary 000343 (Inanna\u2019s Descent) composite artifact entry (No. P468903). Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI). https:\/\/cdli.ucla.edu\/P468903<\/a> (Original work published 2014)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CDLI,  (2024b, July 15). CDLI Literary 000447 (Iddin-Dagan A) composite artifact entry (No. P473726). Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI). https:\/\/cdli.ucla.edu\/P473726<\/a>   (Original work published 2015)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CDLI,  (2024c, July 26,). CDLI Literary 497322 (Descent of Ishtar) composite artifact entry. (No. P497322). Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI). https:\/\/cdli.ucla.edu\/P497322<\/a> (Original work published 2016)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cohen, A. C., (2005). Death rituals, ideology, and the development of early Mesopotamian kingship: Toward a new understanding of the cemetery of Ur. <\/em>Brill Styx.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comrie, B., (1981). Language universals and linguistic typology. <\/em>University of Chicago Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crisostomo, C.J. (2015). \u201cWriting Sumerian, creating texts: Reflections on text-building practices in Old Babylonian schools.\u201d  Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions,<\/em> 15:121-142.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delnero, P., (2012). \u201cMemorization and transmission of Sumerian literary compositions.\u201d  Journal of Near Eastern Studies 71:189-208.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erickson, N., & Hugenberger, G., (2022). Basics of Akkadian: A grammar, workbook, and glossary. <\/em>Zondervan Academic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gelb, I.J., (1960). \u201cSumerians and Akkadians in the ethno-linguistic relationship.\u201d  Genava<\/em> 8:258-271.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hafford, W., & Zettler, R., (2015). Magnificent with jewels: Puabi, queen of Ur. In Chi, J. (Ed.), From ancient to modern: Archaeology and aesthetics,<\/em> pp. 106-121. Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jones, D., Mijares, S., & Dalglish, C., (2023). \u201cThe resurrection of Inanna: A play in three acts.\u201d  Coreoposis 2(2), <\/em>https:\/\/societyforritualarts.com\/coreopsis\/autumn-2023-issue\/the-resurrection-of-inanna\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kramer, S.N., (1951). \u201c\u2018Inanna\u2019s descent to the nether world\u2019\u201d continued and revised.\u201d  Journal of Cuneiform Studies, <\/em>5:1-17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kramer, S.N., (1969). The sacred marriage rite: aspects of faith, myth, and ritual in ancient Sumer<\/em>. Indiana University Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lapinkivi, P., (2004). The Sumerian sacred marriage in the light of comparative evidence. <\/em>University of Helsinki and Finnish Oriental Society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miller, N. & Zettler, R., (2012). Decoding plant and animal symbols from the Royal Cemetery, presented at Penn Museum on February 16, 2012, Online Collection \u2013 Penn Museum. https:\/\/www.penn.museum\/collections\/videos\/video\/820<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oppenheim, A., (1950), \u201cMesopotamian mythology III.\u201d  Orientalia<\/em> 19(2):129-158.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Penn Museum. (n.d.). What\u2019s in a name? Queen Puabi\u2019s headdress from the Royal Cemetery at Ur \u2013 Penn Museum. Retrieved February 14, 2025 from https:\/\/www.penn.museum\/collections\/highlights\/neareast\/puabi.php<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pittmann, H. & Miller, N., (2015). Puabi\u2019s diadem(s): The deconstruction of a Mesopotamian icon. In Chi, J. (Ed.), From ancient to modern: Archaeology and aesthetics,<\/em> pp. 106-121. Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pollock, S. M., (1983). The symbolism of prestige: An archaeological example from the royal cemetery of Ur. <\/em>[Doctoral Dissertation, University of Michigan].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reiner, E. (Ed.), (1968). The<\/em> Assyrian dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Vol.<\/em> A, Part 2<\/em>, The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reisman, D., (1969). Two neo-Sumerian royal hymns. <\/em>[Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reisman, D., (1973). Iddin-Dagan’s sacred marriage hymn. Journal of Cuneiform Studies<\/em> 25(4):185-202.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soden, W. von., (1965). Akkadisches Handw\u00f6rterbuch<\/em>. Harrassowitz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sladek, W. (1974). Inanna\u2019s descent to the netherworld,<\/em> [Doctoral Dissertation, The Johns Hopkins University].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomsen, M., (1984). The Sumerian language: An introduction to its history and grammatical structure<\/em>. Akademisk Forlag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Buren, E. D., (1939). \u201cThe rosette in Mesopotamian art,\u201d Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Arch\u00e4ologie,<\/em> N.F. XI(XLV):100-106.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolkstein, D. & Kramer, S. N., (1983). Inanna: queen of heaven and earth: Her stories and hymns from Sumer. <\/em>Harper Colophon Books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woolley, C. L., (1934). Ur excavations, volume II: The royal cemetery<\/em>. Publications of the Joint Expedition of the British Museum and of the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania to Mesopotamia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Z\u00f3lyomi, G. (2011). Akkadian and Sumerian language contact. In S. Weninger (Ed.), The Semitic languages: An international handbook,<\/em> pp. 396-404. De Gruyter Mouton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acknowledgments<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I wish to thank Cass Dalglish, Jack Johannessen, Sean Sanford, and the Coreopsis<\/em> peer reviewers for their thoughtful comments. Thanks also to Sharon Mijares for her encouragement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

End Notes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

 Brackets here indicate corrections made to the published copy, where \u201cmen\u2019s\u201d and \u201cwomen\u2019s\u201d were inadvertently reversed. Dr. Daniel Reisman and I discovered this error as we read the text together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2<\/sup> Due to the peculiar way in which scholarship about the ancient Near East has developed, scholars have relied on philological studies made of the Akkadian counterparts of the cult personnel featured in the Iddin-Dagan\u2019s hymn. But unlike Sumerian, Akkadian requires gender assignments to nouns as well as agreement between nouns and verbs. The Akkadian term for \u201ccult personnel 1\u201d has both a masculine and a feminine form in Akkadian. When scholars were first trying to understand the nature of this cult personnel, their philological studies were done on a masculine name (Reiner, 1968, p. 341), whether because this form of the name was more common or because of bias on the part of the scholars, I cannot tell. Working first in Akkadian blinded scholars to its possible \u201cboth female and male\u201d gender category. Instead, Oppenheim looked to sexual behavior rather than gfender, concluding that these cult personnel \u201cwere made sexually impotent (perhaps in various ways)\u201d (1950, p. 135). To reinforce this point, there exists an alternate spelling of our \u201chead-warrior\u201d spelled \u201chead-female dog\u201d (Soden, 1965, pp. 73-74). Following this reasoning, Reisman translated the name of cult personnel 1 as \u201cmale prostitute\u201d (1973, p. x). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working independently of Reisman, a team from the University of Chicago compiling a multi-volume dictionary of Akkadian (CAD) rejected a sexual interpretation of the term:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no specific evidence that he was a eunuch or a homosexual; the Era passage may mean simply that Ishtar turned his interest from the masculine role to the feminine role (Reiner, 1968, p. 341).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The source here referenced as \u201cEra\u201d has it that \u201cIshtar had changed [them] from men to women to show the people piety\u201d  (Reiner, 1968, pp. 341-342). The Chicago team\u2019s study of the term may not have been available to Reisman while he was doing his research, but Reisman\u2019s translation was repeated in the ETCSL translation, well after the publication of the relevant volume of CAD. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I follow CAD in being suspicious of the interpretation that sexual practices rendered these priests \u201cnot male,\u201d or at least the priests being described in the Iddin-Dagan text. The internal evidence of the text, together with evidence like that from the cemetery at Ur, make a strong enough case for solely gender-based understanding of the cult personnel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3<\/sup> This evidence includes one damaged line from a late version of the Akkadian version, text from a different composition, plus common curses from building inscriptions and legal texts (Oppenheim, 1950, pp. 132-135). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4 <\/sup>Linguistically, the term gender might also refer to any system of noun classes, without reference to differences in sex. In the context of this discussion, I find it useful to limit the notion of linguistic gender to its narrower meaning of one particular type of noun class system related, however remotely, to sex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5<\/sup> Translation by the author, following Sumerian word order. Not only does the use of passive voice avoid the question of the gender of those wearing the garments, but it seems appropriate since no agency is specified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6<\/sup> Burial PG8000<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7<\/sup> The question-and-answer section at the end of this video includes discussion of relationships between the Puabi tomb and \u201cInanna\u2019s Journey.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1558,"template":"","categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-507","paper","type-paper","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-papers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/societyforritualarts.com\/coreopsis\/spring-2025-issue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/paper\/507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/societyforritualarts.com\/coreopsis\/spring-2025-issue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/paper"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/societyforritualarts.com\/coreopsis\/spring-2025-issue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/paper"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societyforritualarts.com\/coreopsis\/spring-2025-issue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/societyforritualarts.com\/coreopsis\/spring-2025-issue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societyforritualarts.com\/coreopsis\/spring-2025-issue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societyforritualarts.com\/coreopsis\/spring-2025-issue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}