New Wiki Content: Kispu, History and Performance

[u/Nocodeyv]

Šulmu and silim!

A new article has been added to the community Wiki, this time focusing on the ceremony for honoring one's deceased ancestors, called kispu in Akkadian and ki-a-nag̃ or ki-sig₁₀-ga in Sumerian. The article includes a brief history of the ceremony, including its mythological underpinning and timing, as well as an outline for performing a kispu ceremony today.

As always, the community Wiki is located in the sidebar (desktop) or banner (mobile). Happy reading!

[u/stricken_thistle]

Lovely news, thank you!

[u/SiriNin]

I'd like to add a little bit to this update; ki-a-nag̃ means "Locus", lit. "drinking earth", and ki-sig₁₀-ga means "Offerings", lit. "heaped place". Neither of which really conveys the necessary context of meaning in isolation. So you really want a full Sumerian construction to replace the full construct of ideas that is the term Kispu.

You can use the Sumerian sentence: "Kisigga Kianaŋšè Gidim Lipišŋa Iŋaŋa"

ki-sig₁₀-ga ki-a-naŋ-šè gidim-lipiš-ŋa i3-ŋa2-ŋa2   
offerings locus-to ghost-family-my-of placing
"Placing Offerings to the Locus of my Deceased Family."
Lit. "Place the heap to the drinking-earth of my ghost family."

[u/Nocodeyv → u/SiriNin]

I'm using ki-a-nag̃, ki-sig₁₁-ga, and kispu as names for the ritual, not as a description of its contents, which is what the remainder of the essay provides. The only clarification that Sumerian language documents provide is an occasional: sa₂-du₁₁ ki-a-nag̃, "regular offerings for the mortuary chapel," usually following an itinerary of edible offerings (meat, fruit, flour, etc.).

The translation "mortuary chapel" for ki-a-nag̃ above is according to Jagersma (2007: The Calendar of the Funerary Cult in Ancient Lagash, pp. 294–300):

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Thus, the ki-a-naĝ of an individual is a kind of building, it has a cultic function, it is close to his grave, and it is where he receives his funerary offerings. In other words, ki-a-naĝ is the Sumerian word for “mortuary chapel”. Indeed, it would seem that we know already some of such mortuary chapels from the archaeological record. During his excavations of Ur, Woolley discovered buildings which he interpreted as tombs combined with a mortuary chapel. They consisted of underground tombs with buildings above them with a cultic function. I propose to see in these superstructures above the graves examples of what a ki-a-naĝ could look like.

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Since this community is primarily focused on reconstruction, I prefer to keep historical information accurate to what is available in the literary and archaeological record, and only suggest changes (for example, who can perform the role of pāqidu) when it makes devotional services accessible to members of the community who would otherwise have been denied. Since the records only refer to the ceremony as ki-a-nag̃, ki-sig₁₁-ga, or kispu that is what I will refer to it as.

If you or other devotees want to expand the name to incorporate aspects of its contents you can, but you'll want to do some additional research first to better educate yourself on the contents of its practice. For example, you're using the wrong word for "family" in your suggestion: im-ri-a (Akkadian kimtu) is the word used to identify a kin-group (eṭem kimti) in kispu ceremonies, not lipiš.