Abstract
In this paper I would like talk about the meaning of offerings to the statue of Entemena who was a ruler in Lagash during the E. D. III period. After his death his statue received offerings in DP 55 belonging to the níg-giš-tag-ga texts. Besides his statue those of Urnanshe, Lugalanda, Barnamtarra and Shagshag also received offerings. It is a noteworthy fact that the statue of Shagshag, wife of Uru-INIM-gi-na, received offerings from Shagshag herself in DP 54. I have investigated the royal inscriptions and the administrative archives so that I can indicate the following:
I. In the níg-giš-tag-ga texts that recorded offerings to deities, temples, “material things” containing statues and so on, mainly for festivals, there is not human being at all. In those texts rulers and their wives are the people that offered to deities rather than were worshipped.
II. In the en-en-né-ne texts that recorded offerings to ancestors there are Enentarzi, Lugalanda, Parnazntarra and so on, that is, they were the departed spirits, not deities. Those texts don't refer to statues at all so that they are not related to ancestor worship.
III. The royal inscriptions of Lagash in the E. D. III period hardly refer to statues of deities. Did rulers actively make their own statues for royal worship in spite of making a few deities'?
IV. Now there are two prayer statues of Lagash in the E. D. III period that belong to Entemena and Meannesi who was a son of Enannatum I. The inscriptions carved on the statues account for why rulers made those, that is, they were made to pray to deities for a long life and were dedicated to temples.
V. When Sumerians distinguish deities from men, they prefix the “divine determinative”=dingir. On the royal inscriptions of Lagash in the E. D. III period, none of rulers prefixed it to their name.
There is no evidence that confirms the identity of the statue of Entemena in DP 55 with that on Corpus, ENT. 1 or ENT. 16. But Entemena may have made some prayer statues besides the above mentioned, so that one of them may have become that in DP 55. I guess that the prayer stautue of Entemena was deified after dedicating it to temple and that offerings were dedicated to statues, not rulers. Therefore, I think royal worship was not adopted in Lagash during the E. D. III period.
