Adamma (goddess)

Adamma was a goddess worshiped in Ebla in the third millennium BCE, later also documented in Hurrian sources and in Emar. The origin and meaning of her name remain a matter of debate among researchers. It is commonly assumed that it originated in one of the Semitic languages and that it can be compared to Hebrew ʾădāmâ, "soil" or "earth". An alternate view is that it belongs to a linguistic substrate at some point spoken in part of modern Syria. Hurrian origin has been proposed as well, but is considered implausible. In Ebla, Adamma received sacrificial sheep on behalf of the royal palace. She also had clergy of her own, as evidenced by references to a dam-dingir priestess in her service. Eblaite texts indicate she was also venerated in Hadani and Tunip. She was locally regarded as the spouse of Resheph, though the connection between them is not attested in later sources. After the fall of Ebla, she was incorporated into Hurrian religion, and in this context appears in Hittite and Ugaritic sources as well, often forming a pair with Kubaba. Furthermore, she was worshiped in Emar, where under the name Adammatera she might have been perceived as a deity associated with storage areas and the underworld. It is also possible that the goddess Admu known from Mari and from the Mesopotamian god list An = Anum was the same deity. Adamma's name was written in cuneiform as da-dam-ma in Eblaite and Hurro-Hittite sources, or as da-dama, as attested in Emar. In the Ugaritic alphabetic script, it was rendered as adm. Its etymology is a matter of debate. Karel van der Toorn and Pieter Willem van der Horst compare it with the Hebrew word ʾădāmâ, "soil" or "earth", and suggest it originated in a Semitic language. They state this view was the majority position at the time of publication of the relevant entry in the Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (1999). Alfonso Archi has instead tentatively suggested a derivation from the root, *ʾdm ("blood, red"), though he argues that ultimately Adamma's name cannot be clearly attributed to any known language, including any of the Semitic languages in particular.