# Kabta

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'''Kabta''', inscribed <sup>d</sup>''kab-ta'', <sup>d</sup>''ka-ab-ta'', <sup>d</sup><small>TA</small>''-gu-nû'', or later <sup>d</sup><small>TAxMI</small>, was a rather obscure [Mesopotamia](/source/Mesopotamia)n deity who appears in texts and seals of the second and first millennium BC. He is frequently paired with [Ninsianna](/source/Ninsianna), the “Red Lady of the Heavens” or Venus star, who immediately follows him on the Weidner god-list.<ref>{{ cite journal | title = Altbabylonische Götterlisten. (Schluß) | author = Ernst F. Weidner | journal = Archiv für Keilschriftforschung | volume = 2 | year = 1925 | jstor = 41552166 | page = 78 }}</ref>

==Provenance==

He was first attested during the Ur III period, sometimes under the [Sumerian](/source/Sumerian_language) name Maḫdianna, inscribed <sup>d</sup>''maḫ-di-an-na'', the “Lofty one of heaven.”<ref>{{ cite book | title = Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie: Libanukasabas - Medizin (Vol 7) | chapter= Maḫdianna | author = M. Krebernik | editor = Dietz Otto Edzard | publisher = Walter de Gruyter | year = 1999 | page = 255 }}</ref> This suggests an astral character and explains his pairing with “Ištar (of) the star” (Ninsi’anna). Unfortunately, due to a break in the god-list An = Anum, further elucidation is unavailable and even the god’s gender is uncertain.<ref name=kabta>{{ cite book | title = Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie, Volume 5, Ia - Kizzuwatna | chapter = Kabta | author = W. G. Lambert | editor = Erich Ebeling, Bruno Meissner | publisher = Walter de Gruyter | year = 1999 | page = 284 }}</ref> [Lambert](/source/Wilfred_G._Lambert) suggested that he was her spouse<ref name=seals>{{ cite journal | title = Ancient near Eastern Seals in Birmingham Collections | author = W. G. Lambert | journal = Iraq | volume = 28 | number = 1 | date = Spring 1966 | jstor = 4199796 | pages = 73–74 | doi=10.2307/4199796}}</ref> and seal impressions from [Larsa](/source/Larsa) during the [Isin](/source/Isin)-Larsa period seem to confirm this.<ref>{{ cite book | title = Daily Rites In the Temples of Larsa | author = Joan Goodnick Westenholz | author-link = Joan Goodnick Westenholz | publisher = Bible Lands Museum | year = 2006 | page = 28 }}</ref> Kabta appears as the theophoric element in several names of the Old Babylonian and [Kassite](/source/Kassites) period,<ref name=kabta/> such as Nūr-Kabta, Amat-Kabta, Kabta-naṣir and Šu-Kabta.

Kabta is often confused with [Kulla](/source/Kulla_(god)), the brick-god, in literature, probably due to a misreading of line 337 from 'Enki and the World Order' by [Samuel Noah Kramer](/source/Samuel_Noah_Kramer), published in his work “Sumerian Mythology”, although Lambert blamed Dietz Otto Edzard for this error.<ref name=seals/>

==References==

{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kabta}}
Category:Mesopotamian gods

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