The name of Nuska

Wilfred G. Lambert
Dans Revue d'assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale 2002/1 (Vol. 95), pages 57 à 60
Éditions Presses Universitaires de France
ISSN 0373-6032
ISBN 2130540147
DOI 10.3917/assy.095.0057
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 [RA 96-2002] 57

THE NAME OF NUSKA

BY

WILFRED G. LAMBERT

M. P. Streck offers a useful collection of data in the article « Nusku » in RLA 9,

629-633 except that while referring to the Emesal Vocabulary he never actually quotes
the Emesal name of this god or refers to other passages with it. The OB form is
[ù-m]u-un-mu-duru5 (M. E. Cohen, CLAM, p. 284, 205 = p. 359, 222) and the late form is
d
umun-mu-du-ru (Cohen, op. cit., p. 236, 288 ; p. 305, 162). It also occurs in the beginning
of a hymn in bilingual format to Nuska, K 8430, published previously by S. Maul in
Herzberuhigungsklagen, p. 365 = pl. 58 :
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ur-sag an-ta-g[ál . . .
qar-ra-du šá-q[u-u . . .
dumun-mu-du-ru a[n-ta-gál . . .
dPA + TÚG šá-qu-(u) [ . . .

umun é-me-lá[m-an-na . . .

The Emesal Vocabulary offers both forms of the Emesal name with a literal
rendering in the main Sumerian dialect, and the common writing in the Akkadian
column :
[dumun-m]u-ú-duru5 = den-[gi/giš-d]u-rùPA = dPA + TÚG
dumun-mu-du-ru = den-[gi/giš-d]u-ùrPA = dPA + TÚG

MSL IV 4, 13-14 (K 171 + collated, glosses from K 22243 joined to K 4562+).

The god list An = Anum I 242-244 offers further complications in its listing of the
names of Nuska (all equated with dPA + TÚG) :
dPA-en-šà-duTÚG
den-mu-waPA
den-MINPA

Revue d’Assyriologie, volume XCVI, p. 57 à 60, 1/2002

 58 W. G. LAMBERT [RA 96
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Here the fisrt gloss no doubt means en šà dùg « the en who makes glad the heart »
(the function of a vizier in relation to his master), while mu-wa no doubt misunder-
stands mu-duru5 (PA has a value mu’a = etlu). These glosses occur in one Late
Babylonian copy only and lack the authority of the list and its author. Contrary to the
Emesal Vocabulary and An = Anum den-PA is not the name of this god in the main
Sumerian dialect, but it is dPA + TÚG, note at random the Ur III seal inscription for
Šulgi : dPA + TÚG (M. de Clercq, Collection de Clercq I, no. 86, and the personal name in
the Ur III period dPA + TÚG (= Nuska(k) : « He of Nuska », A. Falkenstein, NSGU,
no. 132, 3).
Now for meaning : umun-muduru is « lord of the sceptre » (see MSL IV 21, 150-151
and notes) and en-PA reflects that : the original Sumerian gišduru contracts to gidru/gidri
written PA. But what of PA + TÚG attested in two ED passages (both with wrong
references in RLA 9, 630 : read StEL 3 11 iv 2, not StEb..., and BiMes 3 30 iii 1, not
BM...) ? Streck (loc. cit.) states that this writing goes back to PA-UŠ4, but offers no
 2002] THE NAME OF NUSKA 59

explanation of this assertion. According to Proto-Ea umuš, of which uš4, is a short form, is
the value of the sign TÚG with meaning temu, milku, and pakku (MSL XIV 34, 69 ; 91,
69 ; 185, 168). However, another value of TÚG is nám (MSL XIV 34, 68 ; 91,
68 = ru-bu-u4 ; 185, 166 = te-e-mu). Here the meaning in Proto-Ea, « nobleman », hardly
agrees with Ea’s « intelligence », and the earlier is certainly to be preferred since
nám = « lord » occurs in UD.GAL.NUN (W. G. Lambert, OA 20 (1981), 92 and 94-97 ;
M. Krebernik, in J. Bauer, R. K. Englund and M. Krebernik, Mesopotamien, Orbis
Biblicus et Orientalis 160/1, 1998, p. 301) and later. This offers a very simple explanation
of the normal PA + TÚG : the signs got fixed in the wrong order, like dEN-ZU, and
TÚG PA means nám gidru « lord of the sceptre ». This is obvious, but raises the more
difficult question whether Nuska could be the spoken form of (e)n-usuk-a(k) « lord of the
sceptre ». There is no problem in the dropping of the e : note amar/már, úmun/mún, etc.,
and normal dialect Nerigal, Emesal Umun-irigala. But Sumerological literature seems to
have no word usuk « sceptre ».
There is, however, a word udug = kakku : Proto-Ea : ú-du-ug SAL.GIŠ
(MSL XIV 48, 429) ; Ea II ii 35 : ú-dug ŠITA.GIŠ = ka-ak-ku (op. cit., 248) ; Diri II 255 :
ú-dug GIŠ.ŠÍTA = kak-ku (MSL VI 84), see W. G. Lambert, AO 20 (1981), 96. Identi-
fying this udug with an assumed usuk in the name Nuska would presume an interchange
of dental and sibilant, of which there has been little recent discussion, but Poebel,
Grundzüge der sumerischen Grammatik, p. 27, offers evidence in tuš/suš « sit » and
kaz/guz/kud « trim » (see now CAD sub voce ga1a1u B), also in loans : zadim = sasinnu
« bow-maker », šatur/šasur = šassuru (see now CAD sub voce šassuru A). Thus a
Sumerian word usug/k « sceptre » is perfectly possible, attested only lexically as udug/k
and in the name Nuska as usug/k. The assigned meaning kakku is no problem, since it is
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well attested for real weapons as for symbolic weapons. This proposed identification of
attested udug = kakku with conjectured usug in the name Nuska is of course not
established fact, but the free assertions of ancient scholars that dEN-PA is the standard
dialect form of the god’s name do push one to seek for the meaning « lord of the sceptre »
in the name Nuska.
The claimed attestations of Nusku in Old Babylonian (RLA 9, 630) are wrong.
Meissner, BAP 35, 28 and 48, 5 do not have the names i-bi-dnu-us-ku and i-din-dnu-us-ku.
On collation the divine element in both is dnu-muš-da.
In conclusion copies of two K fragments relevant to Nuska are given here, courtesy
of the Trustees of the British Museum : K 8430 (see above) and Sm 1640, apparently
unpublished. It seems to be a fragment of a liturgical text dealing at this point with the
gods of Nippur. Line 3 names Nuska of course, while lines 4-5 offer names of his spouse,
also found in TCL 15, 10, 147 and 137.
 60 W. G. LAMBERT [RA 96-2002]

Sm 1604
1 . . . . ] i-x[ . . .
2 . . . ]x aš x[ . . .
3 . . . -m]u-du-ru PA? [ . . .
4 . . . dgašan]-me-šu-du7 [ . . .
5 . . . dgašan-k]i-ág-nun-na [ . . .
6 (traces)

W. G. LAMBERT
Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity
University of Birmingham
Birmingham B15 2TT
England

ABSTRACT

The Emesal form and all the « ordinary » writings of the name of Nuska mean « lord of the sceptre », so
the question is raised whether the name Nuska also has the same meaning.
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