Numushda was a Mesopotamian god best known as the tutelary deity of Kazallu.
24 Facts About Numushda
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Numushda was regarded as a violent deity, and was linked with nature, especially with flooding.
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Numushda was regarded as a son of Nanna and Ningal, or alternatively of Enki.
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The oldest evidence for the worship of Numushda comes from the Early Dynastic period, and includes entries in god lists and offering lists and theophoric names.
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Numushda is sparsely attested in sources postdating the Old Babylonian period, which is presumed to reflect the decline of Kazallu.
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The theonym Numushda was usually written in cuneiform as nu-mus-da, with variants such as nu-umus.
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Numushda was regarded as a violent deity, and in that capacity he was associated with flooding.
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Mesopotamian astronomical texts mention a star named after Numushda, presumed to be either Eta Centauri or Kappa Centauri.
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Numushda was often regarded as the son of the moon god Nanna and his wife Ningal, though this tradition is absent from the earliest sources, dated to the third millennium BCE, which might indicate it only developed later on.
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Since Numushda is sparsely attested in sources from Ur, the cult center of Nanna, it is possible that the connection between them developed elsewhere.
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Numushda's wife was the goddess Namrat, whose name is Akkadian one and can be translated as "she is shining" or "the shining".
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Numushda appears alongside her husband in the myth The Marriage of Martu and in Lament for Sumer and Ur, as well as in an Old Babylonian god list.
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Cavigneaux and Krebernik suggest that Martu's status as Numushda's son-in-law reflected their shared connection to nature.
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APIN the star sharing Numushda's name is outright identified with the latter deity.
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Numushda was the tutelary god of Kazallu, a city located in the proximity of Marad and Kish, in the central part of modern Iraq.
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Numushda's temple located there bore the ceremonial name kun4-sa-tu, "stairway to the mountain", or e-kun4-sa-tu, "house, stairway of the mountain".
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Early attestations of Numushda include the god lists from Fara and Abu Salabikh.
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An ensi of Kazallu named Puzur-Numushda was among the rulers who rebelled against Naram-Sin.
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Numushda continued to be worshiped in the Ur III period.
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Numushda had a prominent role in Marad, as evidenced by references to him in the year names of local kings, including Sumu-ditana, Sumu-numhim and Sumu-atar, who all made donations to him.
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Numushda is attested in oath formulas from this city, in one case alongside Lugal-Marada.
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Numushda was the tutelary god of Kiritab, another settlement located in the proximity of Kazallu and Marad.
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Numushda was seemingly venerated in Old Babylonian Ur, though the evidence is scarce.
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Numushda appears in it after Belet-Agade and Kissitum.