Zame Hymns

Zame Hymns or Zami Hymns are a sequence of 70 Sumerian hymns from the Early Dynastic period discovered in Abu Salabikh. Their conventional title is modern, and reflects the recurring use of the formula zame, "praise". They are the oldest known Mesopotamian collection of hymns, and some of the oldest literary cuneiform texts overall. No copies have been discovered outside Abu Salabikh, and it is possible that they reflect a local tradition. However, partial parallels have been identified in texts associated with other sites such as Fara and Kesh.

The sequence consists of 70 hymns, each of which is dedicated to a deity associated with a specific location. Most of them belonged to the pantheon of southern Mesopotamia, with northern deities being less numerous and these from more distant areas like Ebla, Mari and Susa absent altogether. While the first eleven hymns are dedicated to major, well attested deities such as Enlil, Inanna, Nanna or Ningal, some of the others are sparsely attested and their character is poorly understood.

Due to structural similarities it has been suggested that the Zame Hymns influenced the later Temple Hymns, traditionally attributed to Enheduanna.

Name
The modern name of the Zame Hymns is derived from the Sumerian word za3-me. It should not be considered a name of a distinct literary genre. It is derived from a phrase which recurs in all of the hymns, identified as an early form of later za3-mi2, "praise". The title has been coined by Robert D. Biggs at the time of their first publication in 1974.

The designation of the individual sections of the composition, as hymns, while conventional, is sometimes criticized due to their length, as some consist of only two lines. However, sometimes the entire sequence is referred to as a singular hymn.

Overview
The Zame Hymns are the oldest known collection of Mesopotamian hymns, and have been dated to Early Dynastic IIIa period. More precise dating is not possible.

Alongside compositions from Fara discovered in 1902 and 1903, the Zame Hymns have been described by Robert D. Biggs as "testimonies of the first great flowering of Sumerian literature". However, according to Manfred Krebernik and Jan Lisman literary texts, while overall more recent than administrative and lexical ones, must have already been composed earlier, possibly in the Uruk III period, as the text corpora from Fara and Abu Salabikh already show the existence of shared conventions, and in some cases the same compositions are known from more than one Early Dynastic site.

No copies of the Zame Hymns have been discovered outside Abu Salabikh. However, they are not entirely isolated, and a number of passages with parallels to them have been identified in other contemporary texts, which might indicate all were derived from shared oral tradition.

Mark E. Cohen proposed shortly after the original publication of the hymns that they were composed in Abu Salabikh. He suggested that Lisin occurs as the final deity praised in them because she was the tutelary goddess of Abu Salabikh. Support for this view has more recently been voiced by Krebernik and Lisman, who argue that based on Lisin's position in the hymns and the possible identification of her cult center as Abu Salabikh, it can be assumed that they were originally composed in this city to celebrate the foundation of her temple. They speculate they might have been performed when this event was reenacted during a cyclical (possibly annual) festival, but stress that this cannot be established with certainty.

A different view has been advanced by Douglas Frayne, who argued that since both the second and second to last hymns focus on Uruk or Kullaba, the toponyms listed might represent the full territorial extent of an area which at some point was under the control of this city. He proposed that scribes composed them under the patronage of a ruler of Uruk, similarly to how the later Temple Hymns traditionally attributed to Enheduanna might have been composed on behalf of Sargon of Akkad with the aim of delineating the extent of the Akkadian Empire. Since cities in the proximity of Lagash are mentioned in the hymns, he assumes they were originally compiled before the rise of Ur-Nanshe to power, as it is known that from that time up to the reign of Urukagina the area was independent from Uruk.

Joan Goodnick Westenholz assumed that the Zame Hymns were composed for both theological and political reasons, as a reflection of the existence of an "amphictyonic" organization centered on Nippur, due to the prominent position of this city and its tutelary god Enlil.

Discovery and publication
The Zame Hymns first became known to Assyriologists in 1966, after the publication of preliminary results of excavations of Abu Salabikh by Robert D. Biggs. The excavations were conducted in 1963 and 1965 by a team from the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, with participation of representatives of the Iraqi Directorate General for Antiquities.

All of the known copies come from Abu Salabikh. A total of 24 tablets and fragments have been identified; it is assumed that at least some of the latter belong to the same tablets, but it is nonetheless agreed that at least seven different copies have been excavated. With the exception of a single fragment which might not belong to the composition, all of the copies were found in the same room, which might have served as the scriptorium of a temple. However, the tablets were not scribal exercises, as evidenced by their large size and the fact they were copied by experienced scribes, some of whom added colophons. Five survive, with a total of seventeen individuals presumably involved in the preparation of the tablets mentioned in them. Other texts discovered in the same room include the myths Lugalbanda and Ninsumuna and Ezina and her children, the Abu Salabikh god list (in multiple copies) and numerous examples of UD.GAL.NUN.

Biggs published the first modern edition of the hymns in 1974, though he stressed that it should only be considered the first step in the process of translating them. The first hymn has been subsequently translated by multiple other researchers, though the rest of the corpus attracted less attention. A new edition of the full sequence of hymns has been completed by Manfred Krebernik and Jan Lisman in 2020, though they also state that it should not be considered definitive, as uncertainties over correct translation of multiple passages remain due to the fact the order of signs might not necessarily reflect grammar and syntax in Early Dynastic texts.

Contents
70 individual hymns of variable length (from 2 to 12 lines) have been identified. It is not known if this number has any special significance in the Early Dynastic period, but later sources do not indicate that 70 was a number with any specific importance in Mesopotamian religion. The text of the hymns is uniform overall, and very few passages have variants.

While some of the texts discovered in Abu Salabikh follow the unusual UD.GAL.NUN orthography, the Zame Hymns, much like the copies of Instructions of Shuruppak and the Kesh temple hymn from this site, represent conventional Sumerian similar to that later used in Old Babylonian scribal schools. They are nonetheless considered difficult to translate, as in the Early Dynastic period cuneiform signs were not yet necessarily arranged in sequence in accordance with the lexical and morphological units they represented. Suffixes, postpositions, verbal morphemes and some determinatives (especially ki, used to designate toponyms) are left out, which might indicate the texts served as a memory aid for individuals already familiar with the hymns.

Most of the hymns start with a toponym and its description. Each concludes with a formula consisting of a theonym and the phrase za3-me. Most likely za3-me in this context should be interpreted as za3-me mu-DUG3, "(a deity) spoke praise".

Next to the god lists from Fara and Abu Salabikh, the hymns are considered the most important source of information about the pantheon and location of religious sites in lower Mesopotamia in the Early Dynastic period. The first 11 hymns focus on the most important deities (Enlil, Inanna, Ninirigal, Enki, Asalluḫi, Nanna, Utu, Ningal, An, Damgalnuna and Nin-UM) and their cult centers. Notable omissions include Bau, Dumuzi, Ninhursag, Ninlil, Ninurta, Nuska and Ningishzida. Additionally, comparatively few northern deities are mentioned, with only hymns from 12 to 17 being dedicated to them. This presumably reflects the perception of upper Mesopotamia as a "fringe" area in the south. However, Aage Westenholz notes that the inclusion of some of the northern deities like Zababa indicates that there was no systematic religious discrimination against their cults. More distant areas, like Ebla, Mari and Susa, are omitted altogether.

Of the deities listed, at least twenty five are male and at least thirty seven female, but due to scarcity of attestations gender of some of the others is impossible to determine. In some cases, goddesses are identified with feminine titles like lamma or ama, but they are not applied consistently.

Robert D. Biggs assumed that the hymns should be interpreted as praise uttered by Enlil, the first god mentioned, in honor of the other deities. However, according to Manfred Krebernik and Jan Lisman the opposite is more likely, with Enlil being praised by other deities. Xianhua Wang notes that this view is overall more widespread among Assyriologists. A second possibility suggested by Krebernik and Lisman is that all of the deities are praised by mankind.

List of hymns
Unless stated otherwise, the numbering of the hymns, toponyms and theonyms follow the table in Krebernik & Lisman 2020.

Possible influence on later texts
In contrast with compositions such as the Instructions of Shuruppak or the Kesh temple hymn, the Zame Hymns did not continue to be copied in later periods. The Temple Hymns attributed to Enheduanna are the only known collection of hymns written in Sumerian with a similar structure. While a number of texts from Fara, including a composition focused on Sud and her temple, as well as a section of the Kesh temple hymn describing the eponymous house of worship (lines 22–54) show parallels to them too, ultimately the Temple Hymns are the most similar. Comparisons between them have been made as early as 1966. The Zame Hymns are sometimes outright described as a forerunner of the Temple Hymns, and it has been suggested the author of the latter work was familiar with the former. Both compositions deal with the assignment of cult centers to major deities, and around a half of the cities mentioned in the Temple Hymns are also present in the Zame Hymns. However, the Temple Hymns do not use the formula zame; its later form zami only appears in the hymn dedicated to Nisaba and her cult center Eresh.