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Tanrı Zaptı: Eski Mezopotamya’da Politik ve Dini Bir Hamle

Year 2024, Issue: 29, 47 - 62, 31.08.2024
https://doi.org/10.33404/anasay.1505596

Abstract

Tanrı zaptı, Eski Mezopotamya’da tanrı heykellerinin zapt edilmesi, heykellerin fidye olarak alınması, farklı bir kentte saklanılması, kırılıp yok edilmesi ya da tanrının kendi iradesiyle şehri terk etmesini içeren karmaşık bir süreçtir. Tanrı zaptı fenomeni savaşlarda görülen basit bir yağma veya savaş ganimeti değil, politik bir hamledir. Krallıklar arası güç mücadelesinde, krallıkların ilahi varlıklar üzerindeki kontrol girişimi olarak ön plana çıkmaktadır.
Tanrı zaptı, genellikle stratejik öneme sahip ve isyan eden kentlerde uygulanmaktaydı. Bir krallığın düşman kentin tanrılarını ele geçirmesi, o kentin ilahi korumasını zayıflatmayı, aynı zamanda tanrıları ve dolayısıyla kendilerini daha meşru kılmayı hedeflemekteydi. Bu durum tanrıları alınan mağlup kentler üzerinde psikolojik ve sosyolojik etkiler yaratmakta, toplumun motivasyonunu etkileyerek toplumsal belleğine zarar vermekteydi. Bu açıdan tanrı zaptı, Eski Mezopotamya’da salt bir ganimet hareketinden ziyade, siyasi hâkimiyet ve dini otorite sağlama amacıyla yapılan karmaşık bir uygulamaydı. Uygulama yalnızca maddi güç göstergesi değil, krallığın ve tanrıların üstünlüğünü de vurgulayan sembolik bir eylemdi. Bu çalışma, tanrı zaptının siyasi, sosyal ve psikolojik etkilerini göz önünde bulundurarak bu eylemin Eski Mezopotamya’nın sosyo-politik dinamikleri üzerindeki etkisini ortaya koymayı amaçlamaktadır.

References

  • Baloğlu, B. (1998). İbn Hazm’da Tenasüh (Reenkarnasyon) Anlayışı. Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, (10), 51-62.
  • Berlejung, A. (1998). Die Theologie der Bilder: Herstellung und Einweihung von Kultbildern in Mesopotamien und die alttestamentliche Bilderpolemik. Saint-Paul.
  • Borowski, O. (2018). “… I besieged forty-six of his strong, walled cities… and took them…” Sennacherib In Judah—The Devastating Consequences of an Assyrian Military Campaign. Eretz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies/ארץ-ישראל: מחקרים בידיעת הארץ ועתיקותיה, 33-40.
  • Brandes, M. A. (1980). Destruction et mutilation de statues en Mésopotamie. Akkadica, 16, 28-41.
  • Cogan, M. (1973). Imperialism and Religion: Assyria, Judah and Israel in the Eighth and Seventh Centuries B.C.E. Scholars Press.
  • Dalley, S. (2021). The City of Babylon: A History, c. 2000 BC–AD 116. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Del Monte, G. (2013). Iscrizioni Reali Dal Vicino Oriente Antico Assiria. Materiali per il corso di Storia del Vicino Oriente Antico. Pisa. Pisa: Università di Pisa.
  • Elayi, J. (2017). Sargon II, King of Assyria. (B. Schmidt, A. Board, A. Caubet, B. J. Collins ve I. Finkelstein, Ed.). Atlanta: SBL Press.
  • Ephʻal, I. (1982). The Ancient Arabs: Nomads on the borders of the Fertile Crescent, 9th-5th Centuries BC. Brill.
  • Foster, B. R. (Ed.). (2005). Before the muses: An anthology of Akkadian literature. Archaeology, history, literature (3rd ed.). Bethesda, Md: CDL Press.
  • Frame, G. ve Grayson, A. K. (1994). An Inscription of Ashurbanipal mentioning the kidinnu of Sippar. State archives of Assyria/Bulletin, 8(1), 3-12.
  • George, A. (2011). A stele of Nebuchadnezzar II (Tower of Babel stele) (ss. 153-69).
  • Gilan, A. (2014). The End of God-Napping and the Religious Foundations of the New Hittite Empire. Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, 104. doi:10.1515/za-2014-0016
  • Gökçek, L. G. (2015). Asurlular. Ankara: Bilgin Kültür Sanat Yayınları.
  • Grayson, A. K. (1987). Assyrian Rulers of the Third and Second Millennia BC (to 1115 BC). University of Toronto Press.
  • Grayson, A. K. (1997). The Resurrection of Ashur: A History of Assyrian Studies. S. Parpola ve R. Whiting (Ed.), Assyrian 1995, Proceedings of the Anniversary Symposium of the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project Helsinki, September 7-11, 1995 içinde (ss. 105-114). Helsinki: Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project.
  • Hensel, B. ve Hagemeyer, F. (2022). The Ark Narrative (s) of 1 Sam* 4: 1b–7: 1/2 Sam 6* between Philistia, Jerusalem, and Assyria: A New Approach for a Historical Contextualization and Literary-Historical Classification. Orientalische Religionen in der Antike, 163-191.
  • Holloway, S. (2002). Aššur Is King! Aššur Is King! Religion in the Construction of Power in the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
  • Homès-Fredericq, D., Garelli, P., Durand, J.-M., Joannès, F., Hameeuw, H. ve Niederreiter, Z. (2017). Maallānāte: Archives d’un centre provincial de l’empire Assyrien. Bruxelles: Centre Assyriologique Georges Dossin.
  • Jacobsen, T. (1957). Early Political Development in Mesopotamia. W. de Gruyter.
  • Jensen, E. (2002). Mesopotamian Imagery and Influence in the Book of Daniel. Master of Sacred Theology Seminar Papers, 36, 1-26.
  • Johandi, A. (2016). The motif of divine abandonment in some Mesopotamian texts featuring the god Marduk. P. Funke, J. Hameen-anttila, T. Kammerer ve M. Koiv (Ed.), Kings, Gods and People: Establishing Monarchies in the Ancient Worldd People içinde (ss. 135-186). Münster: ‎Ugarit Verlag.
  • Johnson, E. D. (2008). The Phenomenon of God-nap in Ancient Mesopotamia: A ShortIntroduction. Rosetta, 5, 1-7.
  • Johnson, E. D. (2011). Stealing the enemy‘s Gods: An exploration of the phenomenon of Godnap in Ancient Western Asia. University of Birmingham.
  • Karaköz, K. (2024). Marduk Ordal’i Mitosu Üzerine Bir Değerlendirme. Tarih Araştırmaları Dergisi, 43(76), 47-74. doi:https://doi.org/10.35239/tariharastirmalari.1426163
  • Karlsson, M. (2016). Relations of Power in Early Neo-Assyrian State Ideology. Relations of Power in Early Neo-Assyrian State Ideology içinde . De Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9781614516910
  • Kitz, A. M. (2003). Prophecy as Divination. The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 65(1), 22-42.
  • Klengel, H. (1999). Geschichte des hethitischen Reiches. (H. Volkert, F. Imparati ve H. Klengel, Ed.). Leiden-Boston-Koln: Brill.
  • Layard, A. H. (1848). Nineveh and Its Remains: London: Appleton.
  • Levavi, Y. (2021). The Sound Of Silence: The Destruction Of Babylon By Sennacherib And The Babylonian Chronicles. Culture of Defeat içinde (ss. 165-188). Gorgias Press. doi:10.31826/9781463241889-010
  • Livingstone, A. (1997). New dimensions in the study of assyrian religion. Assyria 1995, 165.
  • Luckenbill, S. (King of. (1924). The Annals of Sennacherib. University of Chicago Press.
  • Melville, S., Strawn, B., Schmidt, B. ve Noegel, S. B. (2006). Neo-Assyrian and Syro-Palestinian Texts I. M. Chavalas (Ed.), The Ancient Near East Historical Sources in Translation içinde (ss. 279-292). Malden: Blackwell Publishing.
  • Miller, P. D. ve Roberts, J. J. M. (1977). The Hand of the Lord: A Reassessment of the “Ark Narrative” of 1 Samuel. Johns Hopkins University Press.
  • Na’aman, N. (2008). The Suhu governors’ inscriptions in the context of Mesopotamian royal inscriptions. Treasures on Camels’ Humps. Historical and Literary Studies from the Ancient Near East Presented to Israel Eph’al, 221-36.
  • Nielsen, J. P. (2015). “I Overwhelmed the King of Elam”: Remembering Nebuchadnezzar I in Persian Babylonia.”. J. M. Silverman ve C. Waerzeggers (Ed.), Political Memory in and after the Persian Empire içinde (ss. 53-73). Atlanta: SBL Press.
  • Peker, H. (2009). Suriye Üzerindeki Hitit Hakimiyetinin Kurulması: MÖ II. Binyılda Eski Yakındoğuda Süper Güçler ve Küçük Devletler. (Yayımlanmamış doktora tezi). İstanbul Üniversitesi, İstanbul.
  • Samet, N. (2014). The Lamentation over the Destruction of Ur. Penn State University Press. doi:10.5325/j.ctv1bxgwv9
  • Schneider, T. (2013). Assyrian and Babylonian Religions. M. R. Salzman ve M. Sweeney (Ed.), The Cambridge History of Religions in the Ancient World Vol. I: From the Bronze Age to the Hellenstic Age içinde (ss. 54-83). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Toptaş, K. (2020). Asur Kaynaklarında Araplar Ve Arap Krallıkları. Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 22(3), 889-934. doi:10.16953/deusosbil.746837
  • Waerzeggers, C. (2021). Writing History Under Empire: The Babylonian Chronicle Reconsidered. Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History, 8(1-2), 279-317. doi:10.1515/janeh-2020-0015
  • Walker, C. B. F. ve Kramer, S. N. (1982). Cuneiform Tablets in the Collection of Lord Binning. Iraq, 44(1), 71-86. doi:10.2307/4200152
  • Walker, C. ve Dick, M. B. (2001). The Induction of the Cult Image in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Mesopotamian Mīs Pî Ritual (C. 1). Neo-Assyrian text corpus project.
  • Wisnom, S. (2019). Weapons of Words: Intertextual Competition in Babylonian Poetry: A study of Anzû, Enūma Eliš, and Erra and Išum. Weapons of Words: Intertextual Competition in Babylonian Poetry içinde . Brill.
  • Woods, C. (2012). Sons of the Sun: The Mythological Foundations of the First Dynasty of Uruk*. Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions, 12(1), 78-96. doi:10.1163/156921212X629473
  • Yamada, S. (2000). The Construction of the Assyrian Empire. A Historical Study of the Inscriptions of Shalmaneser III (859-824 BC) Relating to His Campaigns to the West. (T. van den Hout, B. Halpern, M. Weippert ve I. Winter, Ed.). Leiden & Boston & Köln: Brill.
  • Younger, K. L. (2017). Tiglath-Pileser I and the Initial Conflicts of the Assyrians with the Arameans. A. Macir, A. Berlejung ve A. Schüle (Ed.), Wandering Arameans: Arameans Outside Syria Textual and Archaeological Perspectives içinde (ss. 195-228). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, Verlag.
  • Zaia, S. (2015). State-sponsored sacrilege:“godnapping” and omission in Neo-Assyrian Inscriptions. Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History, 2(1), 19-54.

God Napping: A Political and Religious Maneuver in Ancient Mesopotamia

Year 2024, Issue: 29, 47 - 62, 31.08.2024
https://doi.org/10.33404/anasay.1505596

Abstract

The capture of a deity, or “godnapping,” in ancient Mesopotamia is a complex process that involved the seizure of god statues, holding them for ransom, hiding them in a different city, breaking and destroying them, or the god leaving the city of their own will. The phenomenon of godnapping is not merely a simple plunder or war booty seen in battles, but a political maneuver. It emerged as an attempt by kingdoms to exert control over divine entities in the struggle for power between kingdoms.
The godnapping was often practiced in strategically important and rebellious cities. When a kingdom captured the gods of an enemy city, it aimed to weaken the divine protection of that city and at the same time to legitimize the gods and thus themselves. This had psychological and sociological effects on the defeated cities whose gods were taken, affecting the motivation of the society and damaging its social memory. In this respect, the capture of a deity in ancient Mesopotamia was a complex practice aimed at ensuring political dominance and religious authority, rather than merely a plunder movement. The practice was not only a display of material power but also a symbolic act emphasizing the superiority of the kingdom and its gods. This study aims to reveal the impact of the god napping on the socio-political dynamics of ancient Mesopotamia by considering the political, social, and psychological effects of this action

References

  • Baloğlu, B. (1998). İbn Hazm’da Tenasüh (Reenkarnasyon) Anlayışı. Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, (10), 51-62.
  • Berlejung, A. (1998). Die Theologie der Bilder: Herstellung und Einweihung von Kultbildern in Mesopotamien und die alttestamentliche Bilderpolemik. Saint-Paul.
  • Borowski, O. (2018). “… I besieged forty-six of his strong, walled cities… and took them…” Sennacherib In Judah—The Devastating Consequences of an Assyrian Military Campaign. Eretz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies/ארץ-ישראל: מחקרים בידיעת הארץ ועתיקותיה, 33-40.
  • Brandes, M. A. (1980). Destruction et mutilation de statues en Mésopotamie. Akkadica, 16, 28-41.
  • Cogan, M. (1973). Imperialism and Religion: Assyria, Judah and Israel in the Eighth and Seventh Centuries B.C.E. Scholars Press.
  • Dalley, S. (2021). The City of Babylon: A History, c. 2000 BC–AD 116. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Del Monte, G. (2013). Iscrizioni Reali Dal Vicino Oriente Antico Assiria. Materiali per il corso di Storia del Vicino Oriente Antico. Pisa. Pisa: Università di Pisa.
  • Elayi, J. (2017). Sargon II, King of Assyria. (B. Schmidt, A. Board, A. Caubet, B. J. Collins ve I. Finkelstein, Ed.). Atlanta: SBL Press.
  • Ephʻal, I. (1982). The Ancient Arabs: Nomads on the borders of the Fertile Crescent, 9th-5th Centuries BC. Brill.
  • Foster, B. R. (Ed.). (2005). Before the muses: An anthology of Akkadian literature. Archaeology, history, literature (3rd ed.). Bethesda, Md: CDL Press.
  • Frame, G. ve Grayson, A. K. (1994). An Inscription of Ashurbanipal mentioning the kidinnu of Sippar. State archives of Assyria/Bulletin, 8(1), 3-12.
  • George, A. (2011). A stele of Nebuchadnezzar II (Tower of Babel stele) (ss. 153-69).
  • Gilan, A. (2014). The End of God-Napping and the Religious Foundations of the New Hittite Empire. Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, 104. doi:10.1515/za-2014-0016
  • Gökçek, L. G. (2015). Asurlular. Ankara: Bilgin Kültür Sanat Yayınları.
  • Grayson, A. K. (1987). Assyrian Rulers of the Third and Second Millennia BC (to 1115 BC). University of Toronto Press.
  • Grayson, A. K. (1997). The Resurrection of Ashur: A History of Assyrian Studies. S. Parpola ve R. Whiting (Ed.), Assyrian 1995, Proceedings of the Anniversary Symposium of the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project Helsinki, September 7-11, 1995 içinde (ss. 105-114). Helsinki: Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project.
  • Hensel, B. ve Hagemeyer, F. (2022). The Ark Narrative (s) of 1 Sam* 4: 1b–7: 1/2 Sam 6* between Philistia, Jerusalem, and Assyria: A New Approach for a Historical Contextualization and Literary-Historical Classification. Orientalische Religionen in der Antike, 163-191.
  • Holloway, S. (2002). Aššur Is King! Aššur Is King! Religion in the Construction of Power in the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
  • Homès-Fredericq, D., Garelli, P., Durand, J.-M., Joannès, F., Hameeuw, H. ve Niederreiter, Z. (2017). Maallānāte: Archives d’un centre provincial de l’empire Assyrien. Bruxelles: Centre Assyriologique Georges Dossin.
  • Jacobsen, T. (1957). Early Political Development in Mesopotamia. W. de Gruyter.
  • Jensen, E. (2002). Mesopotamian Imagery and Influence in the Book of Daniel. Master of Sacred Theology Seminar Papers, 36, 1-26.
  • Johandi, A. (2016). The motif of divine abandonment in some Mesopotamian texts featuring the god Marduk. P. Funke, J. Hameen-anttila, T. Kammerer ve M. Koiv (Ed.), Kings, Gods and People: Establishing Monarchies in the Ancient Worldd People içinde (ss. 135-186). Münster: ‎Ugarit Verlag.
  • Johnson, E. D. (2008). The Phenomenon of God-nap in Ancient Mesopotamia: A ShortIntroduction. Rosetta, 5, 1-7.
  • Johnson, E. D. (2011). Stealing the enemy‘s Gods: An exploration of the phenomenon of Godnap in Ancient Western Asia. University of Birmingham.
  • Karaköz, K. (2024). Marduk Ordal’i Mitosu Üzerine Bir Değerlendirme. Tarih Araştırmaları Dergisi, 43(76), 47-74. doi:https://doi.org/10.35239/tariharastirmalari.1426163
  • Karlsson, M. (2016). Relations of Power in Early Neo-Assyrian State Ideology. Relations of Power in Early Neo-Assyrian State Ideology içinde . De Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9781614516910
  • Kitz, A. M. (2003). Prophecy as Divination. The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 65(1), 22-42.
  • Klengel, H. (1999). Geschichte des hethitischen Reiches. (H. Volkert, F. Imparati ve H. Klengel, Ed.). Leiden-Boston-Koln: Brill.
  • Layard, A. H. (1848). Nineveh and Its Remains: London: Appleton.
  • Levavi, Y. (2021). The Sound Of Silence: The Destruction Of Babylon By Sennacherib And The Babylonian Chronicles. Culture of Defeat içinde (ss. 165-188). Gorgias Press. doi:10.31826/9781463241889-010
  • Livingstone, A. (1997). New dimensions in the study of assyrian religion. Assyria 1995, 165.
  • Luckenbill, S. (King of. (1924). The Annals of Sennacherib. University of Chicago Press.
  • Melville, S., Strawn, B., Schmidt, B. ve Noegel, S. B. (2006). Neo-Assyrian and Syro-Palestinian Texts I. M. Chavalas (Ed.), The Ancient Near East Historical Sources in Translation içinde (ss. 279-292). Malden: Blackwell Publishing.
  • Miller, P. D. ve Roberts, J. J. M. (1977). The Hand of the Lord: A Reassessment of the “Ark Narrative” of 1 Samuel. Johns Hopkins University Press.
  • Na’aman, N. (2008). The Suhu governors’ inscriptions in the context of Mesopotamian royal inscriptions. Treasures on Camels’ Humps. Historical and Literary Studies from the Ancient Near East Presented to Israel Eph’al, 221-36.
  • Nielsen, J. P. (2015). “I Overwhelmed the King of Elam”: Remembering Nebuchadnezzar I in Persian Babylonia.”. J. M. Silverman ve C. Waerzeggers (Ed.), Political Memory in and after the Persian Empire içinde (ss. 53-73). Atlanta: SBL Press.
  • Peker, H. (2009). Suriye Üzerindeki Hitit Hakimiyetinin Kurulması: MÖ II. Binyılda Eski Yakındoğuda Süper Güçler ve Küçük Devletler. (Yayımlanmamış doktora tezi). İstanbul Üniversitesi, İstanbul.
  • Samet, N. (2014). The Lamentation over the Destruction of Ur. Penn State University Press. doi:10.5325/j.ctv1bxgwv9
  • Schneider, T. (2013). Assyrian and Babylonian Religions. M. R. Salzman ve M. Sweeney (Ed.), The Cambridge History of Religions in the Ancient World Vol. I: From the Bronze Age to the Hellenstic Age içinde (ss. 54-83). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Toptaş, K. (2020). Asur Kaynaklarında Araplar Ve Arap Krallıkları. Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 22(3), 889-934. doi:10.16953/deusosbil.746837
  • Waerzeggers, C. (2021). Writing History Under Empire: The Babylonian Chronicle Reconsidered. Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History, 8(1-2), 279-317. doi:10.1515/janeh-2020-0015
  • Walker, C. B. F. ve Kramer, S. N. (1982). Cuneiform Tablets in the Collection of Lord Binning. Iraq, 44(1), 71-86. doi:10.2307/4200152
  • Walker, C. ve Dick, M. B. (2001). The Induction of the Cult Image in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Mesopotamian Mīs Pî Ritual (C. 1). Neo-Assyrian text corpus project.
  • Wisnom, S. (2019). Weapons of Words: Intertextual Competition in Babylonian Poetry: A study of Anzû, Enūma Eliš, and Erra and Išum. Weapons of Words: Intertextual Competition in Babylonian Poetry içinde . Brill.
  • Woods, C. (2012). Sons of the Sun: The Mythological Foundations of the First Dynasty of Uruk*. Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions, 12(1), 78-96. doi:10.1163/156921212X629473
  • Yamada, S. (2000). The Construction of the Assyrian Empire. A Historical Study of the Inscriptions of Shalmaneser III (859-824 BC) Relating to His Campaigns to the West. (T. van den Hout, B. Halpern, M. Weippert ve I. Winter, Ed.). Leiden & Boston & Köln: Brill.
  • Younger, K. L. (2017). Tiglath-Pileser I and the Initial Conflicts of the Assyrians with the Arameans. A. Macir, A. Berlejung ve A. Schüle (Ed.), Wandering Arameans: Arameans Outside Syria Textual and Archaeological Perspectives içinde (ss. 195-228). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, Verlag.
  • Zaia, S. (2015). State-sponsored sacrilege:“godnapping” and omission in Neo-Assyrian Inscriptions. Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History, 2(1), 19-54.
There are 48 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language Turkish
Subjects Ancient History (Other)
Journal Section MAKALELER
Authors

Kübra Karaköz 0000-0003-3624-0332

Early Pub Date August 31, 2024
Publication Date August 31, 2024
Submission Date June 27, 2024
Acceptance Date August 19, 2024
Published in Issue Year 2024 Issue: 29

Cite

APA Karaköz, K. (2024). Tanrı Zaptı: Eski Mezopotamya’da Politik ve Dini Bir Hamle. Anasay(29), 47-62. https://doi.org/10.33404/anasay.1505596