Hadabal

Hadabal^[1] or 'Adabal (written ^dNI-da-bal^[2] or ^dNI-da-KUL^[3]) was a prominent god in ancient Syria in the 3rd millennium BCE, known from the Ebla archives. After the destruction of Ebla, he vanished from history.^[4]

Origin[]

Opinions of experts regarding the origin of Hadabal vary, with some assuming his name has a Semitic origin and others that he belonged to a pre-Semitic substrate.^[5] Origin in a pre-Semitic and pre-Hurrian substrate has been proposed for multiple other ancient Syrian deities, for example for Dagan,^[6] Ishara, Aštabi, Kubaba and Adamma.^{[7][8][9][10]}

Character[]

Hadabal was a god associated not with the city of Ebla itself (unlike Kura and Barama, almost exclusively attested in relation to it) but with the countryside surrounding it, with the towns Arugadu, Hamadu and Luban in the Orontes valley being particularly prominent sites of his worship. It's possible he was an agricultural god.^[11] However, Alfonso Archi states that despite Hadabal's prominence in Ebla his role and cosmological importance cannot be presently determined.^[12]

The proposal that both Hadabal and Kura were not distinct gods but merely epithets of a weather god (Hadad) is regarded as unconvincing.^[13][14]

Worship[]

The worship of Hadabal likely predates the period of Eblaite domination over surrounding areas.^[15]

He is frequently mentioned in Eblaite administrative texts (105 mentions), with only Kura appearing more often (130 mentions).^[16] Despite his popularity he appears in very few personal names from Ebla, though theophoric names are generally uncommon in sources from that city, with the "substratum" deities in particular being basically never used as components of personal names (Kura and Hadabal being the sole exceptions). It's possible that this means that name-giving traditions from Ebla remained unchanged since times predating the hypothetical contact between nomadic ancestors of the Eblaites with the "substratum" culture.^[17]

Two notable festivals dedicated to Hadabal are known, both of which took the form of a pilgrimage. The main pilgrimage was annual and visited his sanctuary in Luban, the royal palace of Ebla, and other sacred locations through the kingdom. Between 5 and 14 members of a priestly group connected to the palace - sometimes including the king himself - took part in it. A second similar festival, in which these officials didn't necessarily always partake, was a pilgrimage to Arugadu. The purpose of these celebrations was most likely to provide the inhabitants of the kingdom of Ebla with a sense of shared religious experience, it's also possible that by partaking in it the ruler could legitimize himself in the eyes of his subjects even in distant settlements. It's been proposed that a journey undertaken by the king as part of his coronation had a similar role, but the places visited hardly overlap, with only Ebla itself and Darib visited both during the pilgrimage in honor of Hadabal and the royal ceremony; additionally, the latter covered a much smaller area, while the pilgrimage likely reached areas as distant as Amadu (Hama) and the Amik Valley.^[18]

Daughters of Eblaite kings seemingly customarily served as high priestesses (dam-dingir - "woman of the god") of Hadabal and his spouse (known only as "Lady of Luban") in Luban, though it's uncertain if they resided there permanently.^[19][20][21]

Several Eblaite documents list the offerings to Hadabal in Hamat alongside these made to Resheph and his spouse Adamma in Tunip, which may indicate these towns were located close to each other.^[22] Hadabal, Resheph and Hadad all received an offering consisting out of two pairs of bull horns and a mace each year.^[23]

Alfonso Archi compares Hadabal to Hadad of Halab and Dagan of Tuttul, noting that all 3 gods enjoyed a considerable degree of popularity even though their respective cult centers weren't major political powers in their own right.^[24]

Later relevance of cult sites[]

In texts from Ugarit, a location seemingly corresponding to the Arugadu (or Larugadu) was associated with a hyposthasis of the local moon god, Yarikh; Hadabal himself, however, isn't attested in such sources from later periods.^[25]

References[]