funerals, then it explains why the dialect of lamentation is a dialect otherwise associated
with women and the ambiguity of the image of the gala. Furthermore, traditional
compositions designated ‘Discipline of Wailing (ama-ér-ra-ku-tim) (in the cult of )
Belet-ilı ̄’ (Shaffer 1993 ), based on the repertoire of the ama-ér-ra (‘mothers of
lamentation’), support this supposition.Female votaries
In the fourth rank are female votaries, temple-associated classes of women. The
importance of these women as ritual specialists is highlighted by the denigration of
the barbarians who lack the necessary cultivation to put into office these female cultic
officiants. As the early second-millennium king Sîn-iddinam of Larsa declares in his
prayer to the sun-god Utu to demonstrate the reverse of his piety:The Simashkian does not elect nu-gigor lukurpriestesses for the places of the gods.
(ETCSL 3. 2. 05 , line 24 )In the third millennium sources, there is an uneven distribution of the nu-gigand the
lukur. Both professions already appear in the Early Dynastic lexical list Lu E. The lukur
is the most frequent; she occurs in temples of the god Ninurta as well as his spouse
dNin-nibruki in Nippur, the god Sˇara in Umma, and the goddess BaU in Girsu.
However, attestations of lukurin the Early Dynastic administrative texts are quite scant
and uninformative. Interestingly, the divine lukursare the septuplet daughters of the
goddess BaU. One of these was dHé-gír, for whom a separate temple was constructed
by Uruinimgina, king of Lagasˇ; he entitles her ‘the beloved lukurof Ningˆirsu’ (Frayne
RIME 1 274, 1. 9. 9. 3 v 16 ’- 18 ’). Then again, she stands together with her sisters at the
side of Ningˆirsu in his temple, the Eninnu, built by Gudea (Cyl. B xi 3 – 14 , Edzard
RIME 3 / 1. 1. 7 .Cyl. B p. 94 ). The duties of the human lukur may have included the care
of the deities. More than one lukur could serve simultaneously. Some come from upper
echelons of society – sister of ensi(k) of Lagasˇ and daughter of king at Nippur – others
daughters of minor priests, bureaucrats or lower echelons at Umma. They may have
lived separately in a ki-lukur-ra/é-lukur-gal.
In the Neo-Sumerian period, this title lukuris borne both by the devotee (junior
wife) of a deified king or even a local ruler (lukur lugaland lukur ensí) and by a female
devotee of a deity (Sharlach 2008 ). The royal lukuralso undertook religious activities
and saw to the provisioning of certain deities, particularly goddesses. In the early Old
Babylonian period, the lukursof Ninurta ( 30 – 40 ) were actively involved in religious
rites of a festival, perhaps Gusisu (Huber Vulliet 2010 ).
The title nu-gigoccurs infrequently among temple personnel in third-millennium
sources (Sallaberger and Huber Vulliet 2003 – 2005 : 633 § 5. 7 , 636 § 6. 4. 1 ). One is the
enigmatic Early Dynastic royal epithet of Mesanepada of Ur ‘spouse of the nu-gig’
which may refer to the priestess (Frayne RIME 1 , 392 1. 13. 5. 2 ) or to the divine nu-gig
Inana (Zgoll 1997 b). However, there is no evidence of her actual participation in cultic
activities (Huber Vulliet 2010 : 135 – 138 ).
–– Joan Goodnick Westenholz ––