Destination Eanna: Cultic Assemblies Visiting Uruk During the Neo-Babylonian Period

In the Neo-Babylonian period, gods and their associated cultic personnel often travelled from their respective cities to Babylon, the political and religious capital of the empire, especially for major rituals such as the akītu festivals. Visits by the cultic officials of Babylon and nearby Borsippa to other, less prominent temples are less well attested and consequently poorly understood. Nonetheless, a handful of administrative and economic texts, primarily from the Eanna archives, attest to Babylonian and Borsippean (and, in one case, Larsean) priestly and divine visitors in Uruk'. These records contain information related to the logistics not only of moving cult statues between cities but also of provisioning traveling and visiting personnel, including by the rē'i sattukki, who normally provided livestock only for ritual purposes. In turn, these texts illuminate some aspects of the economic and cultic relationships between different temples from the perspective of the Eanna in Uruk in the Neo-Babylonian period and may hint at lesser-known festivals or visits that served a function not primarily related to rituals.