Nanshe

In this article, I will tell you a story about a chance discovery I made today about geese...From the end to the beginning...

Terracotta plaque showing seated goddess Nanshe and geese. From southern Iraq. 2003-1595 BCE. Iraq Museum...Pic by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin... 

In Sumerian mythology, Nanshe was the daughter of Enki (god of sweet water) and Ninhursag (earth and mother goddess). 

Her functions as a goddess were varied, but like her father, she was heavily associated with water...

Here is another depiction of the goddess Nanshe. She is accompanied by two geese and holds a vase in hand. Two streams of water and fish emerging from the vessel...Ur, 2100 BC...

She is depicted as the source of  Tigris and Euphrates...Just like her father Enki...

The most common depiction of Enki is with two streams pouring out of his shoulders or out of a jar which he is holding in his hands. This portrays Enki as the god of water who controls the source of Tigris and Euphrates...You can read about it in my posts "Utu or Enki", "Goatfish" and many others...

So why geese...Well geese, water...Kind of obvious, right? True, but there is a lot more to it. Geese here are used as a animal calendar marker...

If we check the list of birds of Iraq, we can see that three large geese species found in Iraq (the geese depicted next to Ninshe are large birds): A: Graylag goose, B: Greater white-fronted goose, C: Lesser white-fronted goose...

Now all these geese are winter visitors to Mesopotamian marshes. They spend summers near arctic circle, where they breed, and spend winters in Mesopotamia, where they arrive in Oct/Nov...

The fact that the geese arrive to Mesopotamia at the beginning of winter is very important and explains why the goddess Nanshe, the goddess of water and fertility, was depicted with geese...(apart from the fact that geese like water 🙂)

The climatic year in Mesopotamia is divided into hot/dry half (Apr/May-Oct/Nov) and cool/wet half (Oct/Nov-Apr/May). And all the sweet water which makes Mesopotamia fertile and habitable is the result of the rain and snow that falls during the cool/wet half of the year...

And geese arrive from the north, right at the beginning of the rain season, bringing rain with them...And stay in Mesopotamia during the cool, wet, fertile season...

They arrive from the direction of Abzu, the source of sweet water, and the place where Enki, the god of sweet water lives. 

"Abzu, place that is a big mountain, princely crown of the heaven and earth. To the lord Nudimmud (Enki), (give) praise!"

Basically, Abzu are the North-Eatern mountains, which are the source of Tigris and Euphrates...

Now have a look this. This is (most likely) Jemdat Nasr style seal 3100-2500 BC (?). From the Leroy Golf collection of Sumerian Seals...

Officially it depicts "animals in two rows: three gazelles next to a column of two flying birds over two walking birds". 

Actually what this seal depicts is: 

1. Birds, which look very much like ducks or geese, landing...

2. Gazelles or Ibex goats...Left: gazelle, Right: ibex

Both Gazelles and Ibex goats are a common animal calendar marker for the beginning of the rain season in Mesopotamia. Why? Cause the beginning of their mating season (Oct/Nov) coincides with the beginning of the rain season in Mesopotamia...

I talked about goat as a symbol for the rain season in "Goat carrier", "Dancing goat men from Luristan", "Vessel from Tepe Hissar" and many others

I talked about gazelle as a symbol for the rain season in "Pissing gazelle", "Ashur", "Mysterious creature", "Abu" and many others

And the migratory geese (ducks) arrive to Mesopotamia right at the time when gazelles start mating and when the rains arrive... Which is what this seal depicts... Beginning of rain season...

And as I said, the geese arrive from the north, from the northern mountains, Abzu, the mountain home of Enki, the God of water, source of fresh water, which is source of fertility... 

Hence geese as the companions of Enki's daughter, Nanshe, the goddess of water and fertility...

Now in "Alternate fortunes? The role of domestic ducks and geese from Roman to Medieval times in Britain" we can read that "...in ancient Mesopotamia geese were kept in herds and were used for sacrifices and food, but this does not necessarily prove domestication..."

Well, I can tell you that geese were definitely not domesticated during the time when Sumerian language was developing in Mesopotamia...We can see this from the Sumerian lexicon where the word for goose is: 

kur-gimušen: ('mountains'+'to return') 🙂

The birds which arrive from Enki's mountains in the north at the beginning of the rain season, and go back to Enki's mountains at the end of the rain season...

And this is where the story began...With me finding the Sumerian word for goose...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...