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The debate over camels takes us to ancient Mesopotamia

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Innana: Goddess of love and warfare

Oftentimes, it seems like modern female ideals are made to cater to a specific part of womanhood: be it the tender, semi-passive side of the loving and caring partner; or be it the wrathful side of the evil “witch”, the one who catalysts war with her look and vibes: the arch-murderer even.

However, for us it is quite clear the femininity is not a one sided archetype but a rounded experience containing the whole scope of emotions - from the easy-breezy, pastel-esque ones onwards to the harsh and dark hues.

As the ideal female has been limited and even forgotten at times, it is quite necessary to look back to our ancient cultures (yes, they are ours; the fact that X person was born in Y geographic place does not, in my view, limit its conciousness - especially spiritual conciousness, to derive meaning only from Y ancient heritage and mythologies. On the contrary: to better understand the spiritual meanings of our human-made myths we have to reach to the largest scope available and look for the mutual, for the sameness which will contain the needed hints to detect our very nature.

Who is Innana?

In Mesopotamian culture, the cult of the goddess Innana was strong, and she embodied both war/sex and beauty/love. She was the main revered deity in the ancient city of Uruk, and her sculptures and reliefs were found across various Mesopotamian cities.

How was she described?

As she was the embodiment of both love and war, the writings and literature about her were quiet varied. For example, a very famous tale is called The Descent of Inanna into the Underworld. In this myth, Inanna chose to go down to the underworld when her sister, Ereshkigal, was mourning her husband’s death. However, in a very underworld-ly fashion, Inanna had to go through 7 different gates to get to her sister. In each gate, she was forced to lose one of her clothing items: from her veil to her jewellery and her clothing.

But the darkest truth was that she could not get back to the human world after visiting the underworld, that is, unless she found a living human to replace her there. And so Inanna was relcutant to change with her son or her friend. Finally, she chose her then-husband to replace her - simply because she has found him drunk and definitely not mourning her absence...

A very different work is that of the female scribe Enheduanna, which is a hymn dedicated to Inanna’s powers. You can read it here.

What can Inanna teach us about the real role of Venus in astrology?

When thinking about it from a Mesopotamian perspective, it is clear why many people have a misconception about the power of Venus as a planet in astrology. In Sumer, Inanna was known as the goddess of both sex/war and beauty/love. It was only later that her round character was divided into two separate goddesses: Venus/Minerva (in Roman terms) or Aphrodite/Athena (the Greek equivalent of the same goddesses). It gets even darker thinking how Inanna was, according to some sources, the most popular deity in ancient Mesopotamia. Seems like she was more relatable and therefore, adored, as a goddess of not only the pretty and pink hues of reality but also the darker shades of existence...

In such fashion, knowing the myth of Inanna and her dual powers reminds us that Venus is not just about love and beauty, but is also very much about sex, power, desire to get to that love and beauty. So you could say that the dark side works in favor for the light side.

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Babylon, Mesopotamia

Sumeria board game

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How were battles fought in Ancient Sumer and Akkad?

There are three sources of information for reconstructing how battles were fought in ancient Sumerian and Akkadian times and how the armies were organised and equipped. These are:

Artefacts. Finds of weaponry and equipment from archaeological excavations in the Middle East, and especially in Mesopotamia. The name itself means ‘the land between the rivers’, these being the Tigris and Euphrates, of course. Most of this region now lies within the modern countries of Syria and Iraq. Agriculture and civilisation developed here several thousand years BC, leading to the rise of numerous cities. Over time, layer upon layer of occupation debris accumulated beneath each city, creating a huge mound, known as a ‘tell’, on top of which stood the latest city. Many such tells are now archaeological sites. Excavation frequently reveals artefacts including weapons of war. For example, in the royal tombs of Ur excavated in the 1920′s, as well as tombs at the site of the ancient city of Kish, remains of four-wheeled battle-carts were uncovered. The actual armaments can be compared to pictorial representations on monuments, which often depict them in what is to us a distorted perspective, helping to clarify such things as the design of a battle-cart. Pottery and bronze models of battle-carts are particularly useful. One wonders whether they were intended for a ritual game of soldiers! Incidentally, a board game was found in the royal tombs of Ur.

Art. Carvings, inscriptions and depictions of warfare on monuments have also been discovered in excavations. Notable examples include the ‘Stela of the Vultures’ from Lagash and the ‘Standard of Ur’ from the royal tombs. This type of evidence tells us what the troops actually looked like. A victory stela was an inscribed slab of stone erected to record and commemorate a victorious military campaign. It would be set up in the temple precincts in gratitude to the patron god of the city, and as a reminder to future generations to uphold the rights of the city against foes and rivals. Statues of rulers with inscriptions recording their campaigns served a similar purpose. Many such monuments survive as fragments, having sometimes been smashed by enemies when they managed to overthrow the city. Others were carried off to far away places, such as Susa in Elam, as booty by later conquerors.

Texts. Written records in the form of clay tablets inscribed in the cuneiform script. Excavations have unearthed archives of thousands of these tablets. Many still await translation. These included the bureaucratic and diplomatic records of the city-state, ritual texts, literature and historical records such as king lists. The scribes of ancient Mesopotamia and surrounding regions used clay as a writing material, unlike the Egyptians of the same period who wrote on papyrus. The soft clay was impressed with a wedge-shaped stylus and baked to create a permanent record, which can survive for millennia. The first languages to be written in this way were Sumerian, Akkadian and Old Elamite, as well as the dialect of Ebla. These scripts reflect the languages spoken at this time in Mesopotamia and surrounding lands. Apart from recording the details of battles and campaigns, such documents provide first-hand contemporary evidence for how armies were organised and equipped, as well as preserving the messages sent by rulers to each other and to their generals concerning the reasons behind and conduct of their wars. A huge amount of information can be discovered in these texts. Texts supplement inscriptions, as for example in the case of the long border war between the city of Lagash and her great rival Umma, which now can be reconstructed from many sources, each revealing new details and anecdotes. Since texts already found are still being translated and studied, we can expect continuous new information from cuneiform scholars about the military history of Sumer and Akkad."

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