Nisaba

Sumerian goddess of writing, accounting, scribal learning, and grain (also read in older scholarship as Nidaba), venerated at Eresh and Uruk as the keeper of the lapis lazuli tablet and patroness of Mesopotamian scribes.

Core Themes

• Divine patroness of the tablet house (edubba), literacy, surveying, and agricultural abundance.
• Consort of Haya and mother of Ninlil; later syncretized with the Babylonian scribal god Nabu.

Related Concepts & Sources

Cuneiform Tablets (scribal medium), Haya (consort), Nabu (Babylonian scribal counterpart), Sumerian Mythology (context)

Assyriological Record

Oracc AMGG Entry

Nidaba (goddess)

Authority

University of Pennsylvania (Oracc)

Cuneiform Corpora

4 attested

Bibliography

5 citations

Scholarly entry: Nidaba (goddess), Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses (Oracc, University of Pennsylvania).

Attestations in Cuneiform Corpora

• The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
• The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions
• The Corpus of Ancient Mesopotamian Scholarship
• Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (search)

References

• Braun-Holzinger, E. 1998-2001. "Nisaba, B." In Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie 9 , p. 579. Berlin: De Gruyter.
• Civil, M. 1983. "Enlil and Ninlil: the marriage of sud", Journal of the American Oriental Society 103: 43-66. Online via JSTOR.
• McEwan, G.J.P. 1998-2001. "Nanibgal". In Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vordersasiatischen Archäeologie 9 , p. 151. Berlin: de Gruyter
• Michalowski, P. 1998-2001. "Nisaba, A." In Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie 9 , pp. 575-579. Berlin: de Gruyter.
• Michalowski, P. 2002. "Round about Nidaba: on the early goddesses of Sumer." In Sex and Gender in the Ancient Near East. Proceedings of the 47th Recontre Assyriologique Internationale, Helsinki, July 2-6, 2001 , eds. S. Parpola and R.M. Whiting. Helsinki: The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, pp. 413-422.