notions of the netherworld, that is, that a dead person had to pass through seven gates
in order to reach the center of the netherworld and that the different gods of the
netherworld maintained “houses” there. The poem offers very little information on the
path into the netherworld, providing no geographic or topographic descriptions, but
we do know that Urnamma did not have to overcome any obstacles during his journey
(see Katz 2003 ). In addition to the idea that the netherworld had the gates and gate-
keepers, there is also the possibility that there existed a notion in the third millennium
that a river led to the netherworld and that this river could only be crossed with the
help of a paid ferryman (Selz 1995 b). Such a notion may be confirmed by model boats
that were found in the Royal Cemetery (see Katz 2005 : 73 and 75 ).THE RITUALS FOR THE DEAD
The idea that the dead needed to be served food and drink can be regarded as central
to Mesopotamian mortuary practices. It should be noted here that the textual record
only allows an insight into the practices of urban elites and members of the royal
family. In the following I will focus on the situation in Early Dynastic Lagash.^4
The wives of the city rulers of of Lagash (Deimel 1920 ; Westenholz 1977 ; Bauer
1969 ; Beld 2002 : 162 – 182 )^5 kept detailed records relating to offerings for the dead.
According to this archive, the following goods were taken from the household of the
city “queen” and used to provide offerings for the dead: animals for slaughter (sheep
and goats), flour, roasted barley, different kinds of bread, oil, dates, bundles of fish, and
a certain kind of dish. We know that similar foods were also offered to the gods as part
of the daily rituals. Both the amount and the quality of these foods reflect the social
rank of the deceased. Other factors that may have influenced the size of a sacrifice
were probably the degree of kinship and the amount of time that had passed since
the actual funeral, yet no gender differences can be observed as women received the
same offerings as men. The wives of the rulers of Lagash maintained the cult of the
deceased royal family, but also of an important temple administrator and his family.
Additionally, they made offerings to their immediate ancestors, to siblings and other
deceased members of the ruling house of Lagash as well as distant relatives. The archive
lists all the names of those who received offerings together with the sacrifices that they
received.
The archive also mentions the place at which these rituals of the dead occurred: it
was designated as the “drinking place” (ki-a-nag ̆), commonly translated as “libation
place.” In some cases the texts mention “libation places” of a specific city (NINA/Sirara
and Lagash). Unfortunately, it is impossible to locate these places with any degree of
certainty. The “drinking place” in Lagash is called the ki-a-nag ̆ lugal lagasˇki, the
“drinking place of the ruler of Lagash.” Offerings to the dead were also made at a cer-
tain “place at the riverbanks” (ki gú), and one text mentions a “riverbank of Gilgamesh”
(gú dgilgamesˇ) specifically. In addition, offerings to the dead were sometimes made “to
the house,” but thus far the meaning of this phrase is unclear (Kobayashi 1985 ; Selz
1995 a: 35 , 105 – 106 , 155 – 156 ). It is also unclear whether the wives of the rulers of Lagash
oversaw daily and/or monthly offerings to the dead, as it is known for the queens from
the Ur III period (cf. Jagersma 2007 : 303 ). The annual festivals of the goddess Baba and
of the underworld deities dlugal-iri-bar(-ra) and dlugal-IRIxKÁR(ki)saw the most
substantial offerings for the dead in the city-state of Lagash (Selz 1995 a: 163 – 171 ; Beld
–– Death and burial ––