Kaluguduene, Ka-Utu-e(a), and Ka-Lamma-RA.BI (gates in Ezida at Borsippa)

Ezida's gates Kaluguduene, Ka-Utu-e(a), and Ka-Lamma-RA.BI are known from Akkadian inscriptions of the late Neo-Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (r. 668–631 BC), Assyria's last great king.

Names and Spellings

The Sumerian names of these three gates of Ezida mean "Gate of the Enemy" (Kaluguduene) and "Gate of the Rising Sun" (Ka-Utu-e(a)). The precise meaning of Ka-Lamma-RA.BI, however, is obscure on account of the final element (RA.BI). In Ashurbanipal's inscriptions, the names appear to be rendered into Akkadian and, thus, the names appear in texts of that Assyrian king as bāb luguduene, bāb ṣīt šamši, and bāb lamma-RA.BI.

Written Forms: KA₂ ^dLAMMA-RA.BI; KA₂ lu₂-gu₂-du₃-e-ne; KA₂ ṣi-it ^dUTU-ši.

Known Builders

• Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911–612 BC)
Ashurbanipal (r. 668–ca. 631 BC)

Building History

Sometime between 668 BC and 652 BC, Ashurbanipal set up four silver-plated (and inscribed) statues of wild bulls (Akkadian rīmu) in the "Gate of the Rising Sun" and the "Gate of Lamma-RA.BI;" this was done while his older brother Šamaš-šuma-ukīn (r. 667–648 BC) was the king of Babylon, Later in his reign, sometime after mid-648 BC and before 639 BC, while Kandalānu (r. 647–627 BC) was the king of Babylon, Ashurbanipal stationed a third pair of wild bulls in the "Luguduene Gate."

Ashurbanipal's father Esarhaddon (r. 680–669 BC), as well as the later Neo-Babylonian kings Nebuchadnezzar II (r. 604–562 BC) and Nabonidus (r. 555–539 BC), also stationed statues of wild bulls in Ezida's gateways, but those rulers generally do not specifically mention the names of the gates in which these statues were placed. Thus, it is possible that one or more of those kings also placed wild bulls in one or more of these three gates.

Archaeological Remains

Although several gateways of Ezida and its surrounding temple complex have been excavated, Kaluguduene, Ka-Utu-e(a), and Ka-Lamma-RA.BI have not been securely identified in the archaeological record.

Further Reading

• Koldewey, R. 1911. Die Tempel von Babylon und Borsippa (Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 15), Leipzig, pp. 50–59.
• Unger, E. 1932. "Barsippa," Reallexikon der Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie 1/6, p. 418 §§56f–h.

Banner image: photograph of the remains of Ezida and Eurmeiminanki taken ca. 2002 (left); woodcut from "Pleasant Hours: A Monthly Journal of Home Reading and Sunday Teaching; Volume III" published by the Church of England's National Society's Depository, London, in 1863 (center); areal photograph of the ruins of Ezida and Eurmeiminanki taken in 1928 (right). Images from Getty Images.

Jamie Novotny

Jamie Novotny, 'Kaluguduene, Ka-Utu-e(a), and Ka-Lamma-RA.BI (gates in Ezida at Borsippa)', Babylonian Temples and Monumental Architecture online (BTMAo), The BTMAo Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, [http://oracc.org/btmao/Borsippa/TemplesandZiggurat/Ezida/RoomsandGates/Kaluguduene/]