Inanna of Zabalam

Inanna of Zabalam
Tutelary goddess of Zabalam
A foundation figurine dedicated to Inanna of Zabalam from the reign of Warad-Sin of Larsa
Other names	Supālītum,[1] Sugallītu,[2] Nin-Zabalam[3]
Major cult center	Zabalam, Larsa
Genealogy
Children	Shara

Inanna of Zabalam (also Supālītum,^[1] Sugallītu,^[2] Nin-Zabalam^[3]) was a hypostasis of the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna associated with the city of Zabalam. It has been proposed that she was initially a separate deity, perhaps known under the name Nin-UM, who came to be absorbed by the goddess of Uruk at some point in the prehistory of Mesopotamia and lost her unknown original character in the process, though in certain contexts she nonetheless could still be treated as distinct. She was regarded as the mother of Shara, the god of Umma, a city located near Zabalam.

The worship of Inanna of Zabalam is already attested in the early texts from the Uruk period, which makes her one of the oldest tutelary goddesses of specific cities known from Mesopotamian sources. Her temple was known under the ceremonial name Gigunna. It is attested in sources from Early Dynastic, Sargonic and Ur III periods, and from various literary texts. Later on, she came to be associated with the city of Larsa. An inscription of king Warad-Sin mentions the construction of a temple dedicated to her, the Ekalamtanigurru, possibly identical with the older sanctuary. She is also attested in various religious texts and in theophoric names from Larsa. Further cities where she was worshiped in the Old Babylonian period include Nippur, Uruk, Isin, Kisurra and Babylon. It is presumed that her main cult center, Zabalam, was eventually abandoned, though she is still mentioned in documents from the reign of the First Sealand dynasty and references to various temples dedicated to her occur in the Canonical Temple List from the subsequent Kassite period.