BABYLONIAN MONTH OF MAY/JUNE: GODS OF BUILDING

 In the Standard Mesopotamian Calendar, the month starting from the new moon of May is called Simanu (“Month of the Brick Gods”). The King would lay the first brick in the brick mold. Then brickmaking and construction could begin in earnest. The Gods of Bricks and Building were honored in eight rituals that centered on the brick kilns.

 

The erecting of a building was re-enacting a moment of creation. It meant digging into the ground which marks the Earth. This foundation now retains a memory of the wild land. Therefore, before anything was done, divination (usually astrology) was done to find the particular time to build at a place. The rituals are done to link the place with that time. In “Creating Places of Power,” Nigel Pennick wrote “This link between this world and the other world preserved the holy moment within a limited, circumscribed area separated from the profane outerworld.”

 

For modern people, this can be the time to celebrate masonry and other aspects of building. Think of how bricks provide for safe and snug homes. The beginnings of civilization could be said to be represented by bricks and mortar.

 

The Gods of Bricks and Building are:

Arazu: The God of Completed Construction

Girra: The God of Fire. The God of Kilns

Kabta: God of Pickaxes, Construction and Bricks

Kulla: The God of Building.

Musdama: The God of Foundations. The God of Architects

Nuska: The God of Fire. The God of Civilization.

 

Note: In Sumer, the time of the inundations of the fields began at the new moon of May. The month of May-June is known as Sig-ga.