Kalkal (god)
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| Kalkal | |
|---|---|
Divine doorkeeper of the Ekur | |
| Major cult center | Nippur |
| Genealogy | |
| Spouse | Nimintabba |
Kalkal was a Mesopotamian god regarded as a divine doorkeeper. He was associated with the Ekur, the temple of Enlil in Nippur. He is attested in sources from this city from multiple periods, including offering lists from the Ur III period, an Old Babylonian god list, and the Neo-Babylonian Nippur Compendium. He was also worshiped in Maškan, where a temple dedicated to him existed in the Ur III period, as well as in Assur, as first attested in Middle Assyrian sources. He is also attested in a number of literary texts, such as the myth Nanna-Suen's Journey to Nippur and the lament Enamani Ilu Ilu.
The theonym Kalkal was written in cuneiform as dkal-kal or dka-al-ka-al, with the determinative sometimes omitted.[1] Despite phonetic similarity it is not related to the theonym Kakka.[2] According to the god list An = Anum (tablet I, line 269) he was also known as Egaldibba (de2-gal-dib-ba).[3]
Kalkal was regarded as a divine doorkeeper.[4] He was believed to fulfill this role in the Ekur, the temple of Enlil in Nippur.[1] He is directly described as the "chief doorkeeper of Ekur" (i3-du8 gal e2-kur-ra-ke4) in An = Anum (tablet I, line 268).[3] This role could be less commonly attributed to Enlil's sukkal Nuska, who could be regarded as Kalkal's superior.[5]
According to An = Anum (tablet I, line 270) the goddess Nimintabba was considered Kalkal's wife.[3] Antoine Cavigneaux and Manfred Krebernik suggest that she might also have been associated with doors.[6]
Worship
Kalkal is attested in various genres of religious texts from between the Ur III and Late Babylonian periods.[1]
In the Ur III period he received offerings in the Ekur in Nippur alongside the "gate of Enlil", presumably the entrance to this temple complex.[7] He also appears in the Old Babylonian Nippur god list.[8] According to the Nippur Compendium, a text dealing with religious interpretation of the name of this city and its various religious landmarks[9] known from Neo-Babylonian and Late Babylonian copies,[10] he was also worshiped in the local temple of Sin alongside Sin himself, his wife Ningal, their children Ishtar and Shamash, and Shuzianna.[11]
A temple of Kalkal existed in Maškan,[12] a town located in the proximity of Umma[13] most likely founded under the reign of the Third Dynasty of Ur.[14] It is attested in multiple texts from this period, including a list of religious personnel in the service of Kalkal, Nergal and the deified king Shulgi.[12]
In the Middle Assyrian and Neo-Assyrian periods Kalkal was worshiped in Assur in Assyria.[1] He is mentioned in a text conventionally referred to as Götteradressbuch[15] or Divine Directory from Aššur,[16] a Neo-Assyrian list of temples located in this city and deities worshiped in them.[17] Furthermore, both Kalkal and images representing him are mentioned in the tākultu from the reign of Sennacherib.[15] Additionally, a gate linking two of the courtyards of the temple of Ashur was known as the Kalkal gate.[18]
Multiple theophoric names invoking Kalkal are known.[1] For example, an individual named Lu-Kalkal appears in a text from Girsu from the Ur III period.[19]