The Astral Family in Kassite Kudurru Reliefs. Iconographical and Iconological Study of Sîn, Šamaš and Ištar Astral Representations

Offprint From: La famille dans le Proche-Orient ancien: réalités, symbolismes, et images Proceedings of the 55th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Paris 6–9 July 2009 edited by LioneL Marti Winona Lake, Indiana eisenbrauns 2014 © 2014 by Eisenbrauns Inc. All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America www.eisenbrauns.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rencontre assyriologique internationale (55th : 2009 : Paris, France) La famille dans le Proche-Orient ancien : réalités, symbolismes, et images : proceedings of the 55th Rencontre assyriologique internationale at Paris, 6–9 July 2009 / edited by Lionel Marti. pages cm Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-1-57506-254-9 (hardback : alkaline paper) 1. Middle East—Antiquities—Congresses. 2. Middle East—Civilization— To 622—Congresses. 3. Families—Middle East—History—To 1500— Congresses. 4. Middle East—Social life and customs—Congresses. 5. Social archaeology—Middle East—Congresses. I. Marti, Lionel. II. Title. DS56.R46 2009 306.850935--dc23 2014014916 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1984. ♾ ™ Contents Avant-propos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Programme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix xi Conception de la famille, réalités humaines et divines : les mots et les choses Famille élargie ou famille nucléaire? Problèmes de démographie antique Laura battini Belief in Family Reunion in the Afterlife in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . nikita arteMov The Old-Babylonian Family Cult and Its Projection on the Ground: A Cross-Disciplinary Investigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . sara tricoLi The Social Family Unit in the Light of Bronze Age Burial Customs in the Near East: An Intertextual Approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . Monica bouso Les termes sémitiques de parenté dans les sources cunéiformes : L’apport de l’étymologie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Leonid kogan Les Relations Parents – Enfants dans la Mythologie Mésopotamienne . . auréLien Le MaiLLot Fathers and Sons in Syro-Mesopotamian Pantheons: Problems of Identity and Succession in Cuneiform Traditions . . Maria grazia Masetti-rouauLt Die Familie des Gottes Aššur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wiebke MeinhoLd The Astral Family in Kassite Kudurrus Reliefs: Iconographical and Iconological Study of Sîn, Šamaš and Ištar Astral Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . sara PizziMenti “Semence ignée”: pahhursis et warwalan en hittite . . . . . . . . . . . . Jaan PuhveL . . . . 3 . . . .27 . . . .43 . . . .69 . . . .87 . . . 113 . . . 133 . . . 141 . . . 151 . . . 163 IIIe millénaire Cherchez la femme: The SAL Sign in Proto-Cuneiform Writing . . . . . . . . . 169 Petr charvát v vi Contents Urnanshe’s Family and the Evolution of Its Inside Relationships as Shown by Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Licia roMano The Ebla Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . rita doLce Muliebris imago : reines, princesses et prêtresses à Ebla . . . . . . . . . PaoLo Matthiae Family Portraits: Some Considerations on the Iconographical Motif of the “Woman with Child” in the art of the Third Millennium b.c.e. davide nadaLi . . . 183 . . . 193 . . . 207 . . . 227 Ier moitié du IIe millenaire Family Daily Life at Tell Mardikh-Ebla (Syria) during the Middle Bronze Age: A Functional Analysis of Three Houses in the Southern Lower Town (Area B East) . . . . . . . . . . . . . enrico ascaLone, Luca PeyroneL, giLberta sPreafico To Dedicate or Marry a Nadîtu-Woman of Marduk in Old Babylonian Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LuciLe barberon Why Are Two Royal Female Members Given to the Same Man? . . . . . . . danieL bodi Awīlum and Muškēnum in the Age of Hammurabi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . eva von dassoW Les activités de Gimillum, frère de Balmunamḫe. Une gestion familiale des ressources agricoles et animales à Larsa au temps de Rīm-Sîn . . . MichèLe Maggio Famille et transmission du patrimoine à Larsa : Une approche anthropologique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MarceLo rede Families of Old Assyrian Traders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . kLaas r. veenhof . . 243 . . 267 . . 275 . . 291 . . 309 . . 317 . . 341 Deuxième moitié du IIe millenaire The Scribes of Amarna: A Family Afair? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jana Mynářová Family in Crisis in Late Bronze Age Syria: Protection of Family Ties in the Legal Texts from Emar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lena fiJałkoWska Modèle familial et solidarités sociales à Émar . . . . . . . . . . . . . soPhie déMare-Lafont La famille hittite : ce que les lois nous apprennent . . . . . . . . . . . . isabeLLe kLock-fontaniLLe La naissance d’après la documentation archéologique d’Ougarit . . . vaLérie Matoïan . . . . . 375 . . . . . 383 . . . . . 397 . . . . . 413 . . . . . 429 Contents vii The Families in the Middle Assyrian Administrative Texts from the “Big Silos” of Assur (Assur M 8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443 JauMe LLoP nam-dub-sar-ra a-na mu-e-pad3-da-zu . . . De l’apprentissage et l’éducation des scribes médio-assyriens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457 kLaus Wagensonner Astuwatamanzas 0 and the Family of Suhis in Karkemiš . . . . . . . . . . . . 481 frederico giusfredi Des néo-assyriens aux parthes Sammu-Ramat: Regent or Queen Mother? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Luis robert siddaLL Family Afairs in the Neo-Assyrian Court . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . frances Pinnock La notion de famille royale à l’époque néo-assyrienne . . . . . . . . . . . . Pierre viLLard The Multifunctional Israelite Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . baruch a. Levine Apprenticeship in the Neo-Babylonian Period: A Study of Bargaining Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . sivan kedar Eine ungewöhnliche Adoption und ein fataler Totschlag – Babylonische Familiengeschichten aus dem frühen 1. Jt. v. Chr. . . susanne PauLus The Case of Fubartu: On Inheriting Family Debts in Late 6th-Century Uruk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Małgorzata sandoWicz Tappaššar and Her Relations with Iddin-Nabû, the Adopted Son of Her Husband in the Light of a New Document . . . . . . . . . . stefan zaWadzki Le rôle de la famille de Nusku-gabbē au sein de la communauté de Neirab . gauthier toLini Von der gelehrten Schreibung zum anerkannten Standard . . . . . . . . . Juergen Lorenz Images of Parthian Queens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joost huiJs Parenté réelle et symbolique au sein de la communauté du temple en Babylonie tardive : l’exemple de l’archive des brasseurs de Borsippa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JuLien Monerie . . 497 . . 505 . . 515 . . 525 . . 537 . . 547 . . 563 . . 573 . . 591 . . 599 . . 605 . . 643 Communications hors thème Une question de rythme au pays d’Apum : Les quatre agglomérations de Tell Mohammed Diyab durant la période Khabour . . . . . . . . . . 665 christoPhe nicoLLe viii Contents The Wall Slabs of the Old Palace in the City of Ashur . . . . . . . . . . . . . steven LundströM L’évolution d’une colonie néo-assyrienne dans le bas Moyen-Euphrate syrien (9 e–8 e siècle av. J.-C.) : recherches archéologiques et historiques récentes à Tell Masaikh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Maria grazia Masetti-rouauLt “In Order to Make Him Completely Dead”: Annihilation of the Power of Images in Mesopotamia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . nataLie n. May Art Assyrien et Cubisme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . nicoLas giLLMan Noninite Clauses in Gudea Cylinder B, Revisited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . fuMi karahashi Remarques sur la Datation des Campagnes Néo-Babyloniennes en Cilicie . . andré LeMaire On Abbreviated Personal Names in Texts from Ugarit . . . . . . . . . . . . . WiLfred van soLdt La famille multicolore des bovins dans l’Uruk archaïque . . . . . . . . . . . roseL Pientka-hinz . 683 . 689 . 701 . 727 . 743 . 753 . 761 . 769 Offprint from: Marti Lionel ed., La famille dans le Proche-Orient ancien: réalités, symbolismes, et images: RAI 55 Paris © Copyright 2014 Eisenbrauns. All rights reserved. The Astral Family in Kassite Kudurrus Reliefs Iconographical and Iconological Study of Sîn, Šamaš and Ištar Astral Representations Sara PizziMenti Man has always been fascinated by the vault of heaven. The stars, luminous points in the dark night, have been synonymous of immortality with their continuous and cyclical presence. Since the end of the III millennium b.c.e. Mesopotamians observed the sky, thinking that what happens in the sky was relected in the earth. Stars were in fact messengers exerting a direct inluence and serving as mediators between man and gods, as man’s medium of communication with the divine 1. For example, when Gudea, ensi of Lagash (end of the III millennium b.c.e.), started the construction of the Ningirsu Temple, the god said to him: “. . .I will tell you the bright star(s) (which indicate) my regulations (?).” 2, giving a clearly important role to the stars. The stars could in fact have a good or an evil inluence in ritual intents. Also the main core of the MUL.APIN, the irst Babylonian astronomical compendium, belongs to the end of the III millennium b.c.e. and precisely to 2048 b.c.e., as E. Weidner in 1915 and then V.S. Tuman in 1992 demonstrated 3, though B.E. Shaefer now suggests that the epoch for the observations is 1370 +/- 100 b.c.e. 4. Because of their immortality stars and planets were considered heavenly images of gods. In a famous preyer of the irst half of the II millennium b.c.e., stars and planets were invoked with the epithet of “Gods of the night” 5, because of their appearance only in nocturnal time. This strong connection between divine and astral world is also supported by the Astrolabe Pinches, where astronomical names are followed by names of divinities or by their epithets 6. Between the numerous heavenly bodies that crosses the sky, the Moon, the Sun and the planet Venus were the irst and the most important ones that were identiied with gods. The Moon and the Sun, astral correspondents of Nanna/Sîn and Utu/ Šamaš, beat the time, alternating night with day, distinction so important not only in daily life but also in religious cult. Venus, astral correspondent of the love warrior deity Inanna/Ištar, has a course extremely diferent. It has in fact a double aspect as 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Reiner 1995: 15–16. Gudea, Cil. A IX 10 (Edzard 1997: 74). Weidner 1915; Tuman 1992. Schaefer 2007. Foster 2005: 207–208. Walker – Hunger 1977: 27–34. 151 152 s ara P izziMenti ‘morning star’ or ‘evening star’ 7. These three main astral deities are between irst with a double representation as anthropomorphic deities or divine symbols linked to their heavenly correspondent. The moon-god Nanna/Sîn appears as symbolic representation since neo-sumerian period (end of the III millennium b.c.e.). His divine symbol is the crescent with the hump toward down 8 (Fig. 1a). This speciic crescent representation could be explained making a parallel with the reality. It is important to notice that the Mesopotamians always started from the “direct view”. In fact, looking from the Mesopotamian latitude, the waxing moon has really its hump toward down 9. The sun-disk (Fig. 1b) is the symbol of the sun-god Utu/Šamaš 10, and it is surely identiied in the Naram-Sin Stele 11 (2254–2218 b.c.e.), following the Irene Winter suggestion that considers the three astral symbols on the upper part of the stele as the Sun in its three main positions: the sunrise, the culmination and the sunset 12. Since the Akkadian period the Sun is represented as a circular body from which eight triangular elements and eight rays are coming out 13. Finally, the astral symbol of Ištar is the eight pointed star 14 (Fig. 1c). As for the sun-disk, the nucleus of the symbol is the central circular body from which only eight triangular elements are coming out. During the I Dynasty of Babylon (irst half of the II millennium b.c.e.) the way of representation of these three astral symbols was standardised. The crescent had no changes, with its hump toward down, while the point number 7. Some literary texts testify the identiication of the love warrior deity Inanna/Ištar with the planet Venus at least since the beginning of the II millennium b.c.e. (Picchioni 2000: 38), but it is possible that she was seen as the planet Venus also in the III millennium b.c.e. (Rochberg 2009: 54–55). In fact some sumerian hymns reveals this connection. For example in a poem of praise to Inanna and Iddin-Dagan, she is adressed as “the radian star, Venus (mulDili-bad), the great light which ills the holy heavens”(ETCSL t.2.5.3.1:89). She is also called “Lady of the Evening” and “Lady of the Morning”, testifying the knew double aspect of Venus as ‘evening star’ and ‘morning star’: “My Lady looks sweet wonder from heaven. / The people of Sumer parade before the holy Inanna. / Inanna, the Lady of the Evening, is radiant. I sing your praises holy Inanna. / The Lady of the Evening is radiant on the horizon.” (Kramer– Wolkstein 1984: 101); “My Lady looks sweet wonder from heaven. / The people of Sumer parade before the holy Inanna. / Inanna, the Lady of the Morning, is radiant. I sing your praises holy Inanna. / The Lady of the Morning is radiant on the horizon.” (Kramer–Wolkstein 1984:103). 8. The link between the moon-god Sîn and the crescent is conirmed by pictorial evidence and religious text. For a speciic analysis of this symbol see: van Buren 1945: 60–64; Seidl 1989: 97–98; Black– Green 1992: 54; Collon 1992: 19–37; Herles 2006: 235–236. 9. Collon 1922: 20–21. 10. The sun-disk is clearly identiied as the symbol of the sun-god Šamaš by the stone tablet of Nabû-apla-iddina (IX century b.c.e.) and its duplicates in clay (King 1912: 120, Pl XCVIII: C1–2), where the king is conducted by a priest into the presence the Sun-god. A great solar-disk is represented in front of the god, while a lunar-disk, a sun-disk and a star are place into the shrine, above the god. The label above them reads: “Sîn, Šamaš, and Ištar are set over against the haevenly ocean”. For a speciic analysis of this symbol see: van Buren 1945: 87–90; Seidl 1989: 98–100; Black–Green 1992: 168; Herles 2006: 254–255. 11. Moortgat 1967: ig. 155. 12. I.J. Winter suggested that the representation of the Sun in its three main position could be the visual translation of the phrase “in a single day”, amply attested in the texts of Naram-Sîn (Winter 2004: 24). 13. See for example the over mentioned “Naram-Sin Stele”. 14. The eight-pointed star is known since prehistoric times. In early representation it may have had a general astral signiicance, but at least from Old Babylonian Period (or Early Dynastic Period) it was associated to the goddess Inanna/Ištar. For a speciic analysis of this symbol see: van Buren 1945: 82–85; Seidl 1989: 100–101; Black–Green 1992: 169–170; Ornan 2005: 151–152; Herles 2006: 226–227. Following some interpretation, the star could have solar meaning in prehistoric times (Gof 1963: 27); see for example the star painting of Teleilat Ghassul. The Astral Family in Kassite Kudurrus Reliefs 153 Fig. 1. The three main astral symbols represented on the kudurrus: a) crescent; b) sundisk; c) star. of Venus was ixed to eight, and the number of the triangular elements and of the rays of the sun-disk was ixed to four 15 (Fig. 1). With end of the I Dynasty of Babylon and the rising of the Kassite dynasty, in the second half of the II millennium b.c.e., a transformation happened in the religious thought and in the representation of the gods 16. It could be noticed a gradual but continuous transformation in their representation, with the introduction of the symbolic representation of the divinities that substituted the anthropomorphic one. Now on, Sîn, Šamaš and Ištar will be no more the only gods symbolically represented. Symbolic divine representations are the main subject of the decoration of the kudurrus, the Babylonian boundary stones, more correctly called narûs 17. Between the symbols represented on them, those of Sîn, Šamaš and Ištar seem to have a predominant role. By analysing the 110 kudurrus and fragments, it is possible to suppose their presence over all the kudurrus reliefs, as Ursula Siedl suggested in 1989 18. Moreover they are always placed on the upper part of the relief or on the top of the kudurrus, the same place that they occupy in the real world: the UP, the heavenly vault. A stylistic change and evolution is noticed for two of the three astral symbols here analysed. Venus for example isn’t always represented with the classical eight pointed star, but the point number of the star could be ive, six or eight. Only with the II Dynasty of Isin (1154–1024 b.c.e. ca.) Venus will be represented again with the standard eight pointed star. The same thing could be noticed for the Šamaš sun-disk. If at the beginning the sun-disk is represented with the classical four points and four rays shape, then, with the kudurru SB 23 19 (Fig. 2), belonging to the Meli-Shi-pak kingdom (1186–1172 b.c.e.), a new shape appears, with only eight rays coming out from the central circle. If the central circle is the representation of the heavenly body, the triangular elements are the representations of the light and the rays are the representations of the heat, it is possible to suppose that the main characteristic of the Sun, in its symbolic representation, is the heat. Coming back to the position of the sun-disk, the crescent and the eight pointed star on the kudurrus reliefs, the analysis of the those belonging to the Kassite period, has shown that these three symbols, always placed in the upper part of the reliefs, don’t have ixed relative positions. In fact it is possible to distinguish some patterns. Each pattern has a towards of reading given by the crescent, the only symbol with a towards of reading, because it must have always its hump toward down. The distinguishable patterns could be of two diferent types: in the irst type, the 15. van Buren 1945: 62. 16. Liverani 1988: 622. 17. Kathryn E. Slanski has recently demonstrated that the artifacts known has kudurru were called narû, ‘(stone) stele’ or ‘(stone) monument’, by ancient Babylonians (see Slanski 2003: 19–64). 18. Seidl 1989: 97–101. 19. Scheil 1908: 87, Pl. 11–12. 154 s ara P izziMenti Fig.2 - The kudurru SB 23, particular (Seidl 1989: Taf. 11a). Fig. 3. Examples of patterns represented on the kudurrus reliefs: a) linear pattern; b) ‘triangular shape’ pattern. most represented, the symbols are placed on a right line, while in the second type the symbols are the vertexes of a triangle (Fig. 3). Moving our attention from the symbols patterns to the sky, also the Moon, the Sun and the planet Venus don’t have ixed relative positions, but their positions cyclically change. These three astral bodies could be viewed together only at the sunrise or at the sunset, depending on the course of Venus. Venus has in fact a cycle of 584.4 days divided into four diferent phases: Venus is the ‘morning star’, visible at the sunrise for some 263 days; afterwards it remains invisible for nearly 50 days; then Venus is the ‘evening star’, visible at the sunset for another 263 days; and a The Astral Family in Kassite Kudurrus Reliefs 155 Fig. 4. Venus as it could be seen in the sky: a) Venus as ‘morning star’; b) Venus as ‘evening star’. (Stellarium v. 0.10.2) last “darkness” phase during which Venus is not visible for about 8 days, before appearing again as the ‘morning star’ 20. As ‘morning star’ Venus is placed at the right of the Sun (Fig. 4a), while as ‘evening star’, it is placed at the left 21 (Fig. 4b). At the end of the II millennium b.c.e. Babylonians also knew the course of Venus, as testiied by the MUL.APIN: “Venus become visible either in the East or in the West.” 22 The Moon also changes its position, but with a shorter course: only 29.53 days 23, course which the Mesopotamian month was based on 24. Finally the relative 20. Aveni 1986. 21. Aveni 1986. 22. “Dilibat lu ina ṣīt Šamši lu ina ereb Šamši innammarna” (MUL.APIN: Tab II i 61; see Hunger– Pingree 1989: 85). 23. Proverbio 1988: 212. 24. The Mesopotamians had a lunar month. The moon has in fact a predominant role in the determining the length of the year, as it is noted by Rim Sin of Larsa (1822–1763 b.c.e.): “Nanna, who establishes the months, who completes the year” (RIM 4 220 5–6). Each month begun “at the moment when, following the period of invisibility due to nearness of the sun, the lunar crescent appears again briely on the western horizon just after sunset” (Rochberg-Halton 1992: 810). Each month was 29 or 30 days, and its length was based upon sightings of the moon and not upon a predeterminate pattern of alternating 29- and 30- day month. (Cohen 1993: 3–4). 156 s ara P izziMenti Fig. 5. Changing sequence of the relative positions of Sun, Moon and Venus, with the passage from a linear pattern to a ‘triangular shape’ pattern. (Stellarium v. 0.10.2) position between Moon and Sun has a cycle of about 18,61 years 25. Thus, Sun, Moon and Venus do not have ixed relative positions, however their relative positions have complicated periodicities based on their motion in the sky. A shorter cycle, based on the Moon course and on the Venus motion, as ‘morning star’ or ‘evening star’, is distinguishable. In their nocturnal sky observations, the tupšarru 26, looking toward South, as testiied by the MUL.APIN, the East on the left and the West on the right 27, could see a cyclically changing of the relative positions of Sun, Moon and Venus, corresponding, in a short term, to the Moon cycle and characterised by a passage from a linear pattern to a triangular shape pattern or vice versa, it depends on Venus (Fig. 5). A linear pattern is represented on the kudurru SB 800 28, probably belonging to the Meli-shi-pak kingdom (1186–1172 b.c.e.) (Fig. 6). Here the Sun, the Moon 25. Proverbio 1988: 212. 26. “scribe-diviner ”, see CAD Ṭ: 150–161. 27. šumma zipqa ana amārika ina Nisanni UD 20 / ina šērti lam Šamaš ippuḫa tazzazma imittaka Amurru / šumēlka Šadû nīš pānīka Šūtu“....you stand / in the morning before the sunrise, West to your right, / East to your left, your face directed towards South” (MUL.APIN: Tab. I iv 10–12; see Hunger– Pingree 1989: 60–61). 28. Seidl 1989: 28–29, Taf. 14a-c. The Astral Family in Kassite Kudurrus Reliefs and Venus are placed on a right line. The Moon is at the irst place, while Venus is placed at the left of the Sun, as ‘evening star’. Making a reconstruction of the heavenly vault during the kingdom of Meli-shi-pak, it is possible to put in evidence a cyclical correspondence in the real sky of this pattern. Vice-versa a triangular shape pattern example is the kudurru SB 21 29, belonging to the Marduk-apla-iddina I kingdom (1171–1159 b.c.e.) (Fig. 7). In this case the Moon and the Sun are on the same line, forming the base of the triangle, while Venus, placed up, between them, is the vertex. Because of the position of Venus at the left of the Sun, that pattern too is the representation of a sunset, with Venus as ‘evening star’. Making a reconstruction of the heavenly vault during the kingdom of Marduk-apla-iddina I, it is possible to ind, also in this case, a perfect cyclical correspondence. Mesopotamians believed that every aspect of the real world was due to the divine will, and that every aspect of the real world could be used for divination. Thus, every thing had a speciic important meaning, and nothing was casual 30. Thus, it is possible to suppose that also in artistic production nothing was casual and that every single representation had a speciic meaning. So, inally, Fig. 6. The kudurru SB 800 (Seidl 1989: Taf.14). 29. Morgan–Jéquier- Lampre 1900: 170, Pl. XIV–XV. 30. Rochberg 2004: 47. 157 158 s ara P izziMenti the representation patterns of the crescent, the sun-disk and the eight pointed star, are not due to the artist’s will, but they could represent the real relative positions assumed by Sun, Moon and Venus at the moment of the drawing up of the contract written on the kudurru’s surface. With the end of the Kassite Dynasty and the ascent of the II Dynasty of Isin, at the end of the II millennium b.c.e., a strong change in kudurru’s reliefs happened, looking at this astral triad. Their position in the relief is always in the upper part or on the top of the kudurru, but quite all the patterns identiied in the kudurrus belonging to the Kassite period disappear. Now on, the three astral symbols are represented following a right line in this order: crescent, sun-disk and eight pointer star 31. Looking at the real world and at the real relative positions that Sun, Moon and Venus could assume in the sky, this new pattern has surprising no correspondent at all. However there’s a strong connection between the three gods represented by these three astral symbols. In the prayer of “Kussulu to the Moon-god” (1850–1500 b.c.e.) is said: “He married, he had a son and a daughter” 32. Sîn, Šamaš and Fig. 7. The kudurru SB 21 (Morgan - Jéquier Ištar have in fact a family tie: Sîn, Lampre 1900: Pl. XIV). married with Ningal, is the father of Šamaš and Ištar 33. The brother-sister tie between Šamaš and Ištar is also testiied by the myth of Inanna’s descent to the Netherworld. When Dumuzi make his appeal to the sun-god, the protector of justice and honesty, he call him his brother-in-law: 31. See for example the kudurru BM 90936 (King 1912: Pl. CIV). 32. Foster 2005: 215. 33. Inanna /Ištar was considered the daughter of the moon-god, as it is attested in literary texts since old-babylonian period, but it seems possible that she is not thought to be the daughter of the moongod before the UrIII period (Hall 1985: 736). Also the sun-god Utu/Šamaš was considered the son of the moon-god at least since the old-babylonian period, but this genealogical relation dates back to the UrIII period of earlier. (Hall 1985: 740). The Astral Family in Kassite Kudurrus Reliefs 159 “O Utu, you are my brother-in-law, I am the husband of your sister. I brought cream to your mother’s house, I brought milk to Ningal’s house.” 34 Instead the father-son tie between Sîn and Šamaš is supported by the numerous sumerian hymns, where Šamaš is called “sired from Sîn” and “born from Ningal” 35. Finally, Ištar is celebrated as the daughter of Ningal, the Sîn’s wife, in the Agushaya poem 36; and Assurnasirpal I (1050–1032 b.c.e.) dedicated a psalm to Ištar, with the epithet of “daughter of Sîn, twin sister of Šamaš” 37. So, if this divine group could be considered as a family, it is possible to individuate a kind of hierarchy. Sîn is placed on the irst place as father, followed by Šamaš. In a prayer to the moon-god for an eclipse is said: “O Sîn. . .Overwhelming is your light, as the Sun-god [your] irst-born!” 38. So, as irst-born of Sîn, Šamaš occupies the second place, inally followed by his sister Ištar. This hierarchy is perfectly correspondent to the order of representation of the astral symbols introduced by the II Dynasty of Isin on kudurrus reliefs (Fig. 8). Finally, the strong diference between the representation of Sîn, Šamaš and Ištar in kudurrus belonging to the Kassite period and those belonging to the II Dynasty of Isin can thus relects a social and ideological change. The representation that imitates the real positions of Moon, Sun and Venus into the heavenly vault changes into a conventional one that relects the hierarchy of this divine family. Finally, this strong diference between the representation of Sîn, Šamaš and Ištar in kudurrus belonging to the Kassite period and those belonging to the II Dynasty of Isin can relect a social and ideological change. In fact, with the reign of Nabucodonosor I (1125–1104 b.c.e. ca.), one of the most important sovereign of the II Dynasty of Isin, an extraordinary political, military and religious renaissance happened. Probably during these years the babylonian clergy started theological speculations, with Marduk as chief of the gods. A change happened also in the representation of Moon, Sun and Venus in the kudurrus reliefs. During the II Dynasty of Isin on the kudurrus surfaces the representation that imitates the real positions of Moon, Sun and Venus into the heavenly vault changes into a conventional one that relects the hierarchy of this divine family. 34. Inanna’s Descent to the Netherworld: vv. 358–361 (Wolkstein–Kramer 1983: 72). 35. See for example Hall 1985: 147. 36. “Let me praise the greatest one, the warrior among the gods, / The daughter of Ningal’s might and fame let me extol! / Ištar, the greatest one, the warrior among the gods, / The daughter of Ningal, let me tell of her might!” (The Agušaya Poem: vv. I:1–8; Foster 2005: 97. 37. On occasion of illness: v. 6 (Foster 2005: 327). 38. King 1986: 5, v.10. Bibliography Aveni, A 1986 “Archaeoastronomy: Past, Present and Future”: Sky and Telescope 72, 456–460. 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