ht.[183] At
Tell-Sifr, Abu-Habba, and elsewhere, many thousands also have been
found, belonging chiefly to the second period. A feature of these
documents is the invocation of the gods, introduced for various
purposes, at times in connection with oaths, at times as a guarantee
against the renewal of claims. Again, certain gods are appealed to as
witnesses to an act, and in the lists of temple offerings, gods are
constantly introduced. Since many of the commercial transactions
recorded in these documents, moreover, concern the temples of Babylonia,
further occasions were found for the mention of a god or gods. The
proper names occurring in these documents, compounded as these names in
most cases are with some deity,[184] furnish some additions to the
pantheon of Babylonia. Naturally, a distinction is to be made between
deities introduced in temple lists and in the course of legal
proceedings, and such as are merely known through forming an element in
proper names. The former constitute a part of what might be called the
'active' pantheon of the time. Deities that are actually invoked by
contracting parties for whatever purpose are such as are endowed with
real significance; and if any of these are not mentioned in the
historical texts proper, the omission is due to the lack of material.
The testimony of the legal documents in this respect is fully as valid
as is that of the historical texts. In proper names the case is
different. Custom being a prominent, if not a controlling, factor in the
giving of names, it may happen that the deity appearing as an element in
a name is one who, for various reasons, is no longer worshipped, or
whose worship has diminished in significance at the time we meet with
the name. Again, deities of very restricted local fame, deities that
occupy the inferior rank of mere spirits or demons in the theological
system of the Babylonians, may still be incorporated in proper names.
Lastly, in view of the descriptive epithets by which some deities are
often known, as much as by their real names, it frequently happens in
the case of proper names that a deity otherwise known is designated by
one of his attributes. Thus we find in legal documents of the second
period a goddess, Da-mu-gal, who is none other than the well-known Gula,
the great healing deity; Ud-zal, who is identical with Ninib, and so
written as the god of 'the rising sun';[185] and Mar-tu (lit., 'the west
god'), which is a designation of R