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Ninegal (also spelled Ninegalla) or Belat Ekalli ( Belet-ekalli) was a Mesopotamian goddess associated with palaces. Both her Sumerian and Akkadian name mean "lady of the palace."
From Mesopotamia the worship of Ninegal spread to Elam in the east and to Syria and the Hittite Empire in the west. She was particularly venerated in Mari and Qatna, and due to her presence in the pantheon of ancient Syria she was also incorporated into Hurrian religion. The Hurrians transcribed her name as Pentikalli ( Pendigalli).
Especially in literary works, Ninegal could function as an epithet of Inanna, and they could be also associated with each other in other contexts. However, it is now generally assumed that they were distinct deities in origin. Additionally, Ninegal could be associated with the goddess of prisons, Nungal.
Belat Ekalli/Ninegal could be implored to act as an intermediary between a praying worshiper and her husband Urash, similar to other divine wives (Aya, Shala) in the case of their respective husbands or the attendant goddess Ninshubur in the case of Inanna.
Multiple attestations are known from the Ur III period, and it is assumed Ninegal was worshiped in all of the major cities of southern Mesopotamia at the time. There is evidence that the first kings of the Ur III dynasty, Ur-Nammu and Shulgi, were active participants in the cult of Ninegal. She also appears in offering lists from Nippur and Puzrish-Dagan. A temple dedicated to her, Egalmah (Sumerian: "exalted palace"), possibly built by Ur-Namma, existed in Ur. It is possible that Warad-Sin later rebuilt it as a temple of the medicine goddess Ninisina. Another temple of Ninegal existed in Umma. In this city she was apparently closely associated with offerings for deceased ensis. Further evidence for worship of this goddess in the Ur III period is a detailed list of cultic paraphernalia dedicated to her from Eresh.
Her Akkadian name, Belet Ekalli, is attested for the first time in the Ur III period texts from Assur. She had a temple in this city, Ekinam (Sumerian: "house, place of destinies"), first mentioned in an inscription of Zariqqu, a governor during the reign of Amar-Sin, who rebuilt it. In the Middle Assyrian period, it was repaired by Adad-nirari I. A month named after her is mentioned in Old Assyrian texts from Kanesh.
It is unclear when Ninegal started to be worshiped in Dilbat, though it is possible she already belonged to the pantheon of this city in the Ur III period. Her temple in this city was Esapar (Sumerian: "house of the net"), possibly a part of E-ibbi-Anum, the temple of the local god Urash, rather than a fully separate building. However, in a document listing various temples Esapar is instead said to be the name of a temple of Nungal, with no location listed. As these two goddesses were associated, it is possible that there was only one Esapar.
Ninegal continued to be worshiped in the Old Babylonian period, especially in Ur and in Larsa, where a temple dedicated to her, E-a-ag-ga-kilib-ur-ur (Sumerian: "house which gathers all the instructions") was rebuilt by queen Simar-Eshtar, wife of Rim-Sîn I. She is however only sporadically mentioned in letters, compared to deities popular in the sphere of personal worship, such as Aya, Gula or Ishtar.
A late reference to Belet-Ekalli can be found in a letter from Babylon, in which a certain Mār-isar relays to the neo-Assyrian king Esarhaddon that a statue of Belet Ekallim meant for the Esagila temple complex was not yet finished.
Both the forms Ninegal and Belet Ekallim are attested in .
Earliest attestations of Ninegal from outside Mesopotamia come from Mari, and indicate she might have been introduced to this city as early as in the Ur III period. It is possible that she was the tutelary deity of the ruling house in the Old Babylonian period. There is evidence that during Zimri-Lim's during some festivals she received the same number of sacrifices as the eight other most honored gods: the local tutelary god Itūr-Mēr, Dagan, Annunitum, Nergal, Shamash, Enki, Ninhursag and Hadad. In a letter Zimri-Lim's wife Shibtu enumerated Dagan, Shamash, Itūr-Mēr, Belet Ekalli and Addu as "the allies for me" and the deities who "go by my lord's side." In offering lists she appears between Ninhursag and Ningal.
In addition to Mari, in Syria Belet Ekalli was also closely associated with Qatna, where the played the role of the city goddess. Some attestations are also known from Emar, where she was among the deities worshiped during the zukru festival. She is also attested in a god list, in which Belet Ekalli in the Akkadian column corresponds to dWee-el-ti-ga-li in the Hurrian language one.
According to Alfonso Archi, in Hurrian sources Ninegal was referred to as Pentikalli. The name is also sometimes transcribed as Pendigalli. Archi assumes that the Hurrians received her from Syria, and that her importance in Mari played a role in her spread. Marie-Claude Trémouille describes her as a goddess from the circle of Hebat from Halab (modern Aleppo). In Hurrian texts, she is designated as a concubine of Teshub. She was assimilated with Pithanu, described as a goddess who sits on Teshub's throne. The later name likely meant "daughter from Hanu," and should be understood as a sign of her association with the middle Euphrates area. Depictions of Pentikalli are mentioned in texts from Hattarina and Lawazantiya. She is also known from texts from Ugarit, where her name is spelled alphabetically as pdgl, and possibly appears in a personal name, annpdgl, theoretically reconstructed as Anani-Pendigalli. It has also been proposed that the Ugaritic goddess b'lt btm/nhtm, "lady of the house," was derived from Belet Ekalli.
A triad consisting of dNIN.E.GAL, Nergal and Ea is attested in economic texts from Susa. A dossier of texts dealing with the sale of sheep from the same city mentions a "scribe in the service of Ninegal." In Susa Ninegal also occurs in an inscription of Atta-hushu, written in Akkadian, though it has been proposed in this case the name might be a logogram representing Pinikir. Furthermore, a deity whose name was written logographically as dNIN.E.GAL was one of the many Mesopotamian and Elamite religion and goddesses worshiped at Chogha Zanbil, built by Untash-Napirisha.
While Volkert Haas assumed that Hittite references to dNIN.E.GAL can be understood as indication of presence of the Mesopotamian goddess in Anatolia, Piotr Taracha argues that the name was only a logographic representation of the goddess Tešimi, concubine of the Weather god of Nerik, in whose circle the presumed logogram occurs. In the treaty between Hittite king Šuppiluliuma I and Mitanni king Šattiwaza Ninegal appears after the couples Enlil and Ninlil and Anu and Antu in a list of "primeval gods" meant to serve as divine witnesses.
According to the god list An = Anum, the sukkal (divine attendant) of Ninegal was the minor deity Dikum.
Wolfgang Heimpel proposes that in Mari, Ninegal was closely associated with Annunitum, possibly due to their shared connection with Inanna/Ishtar.
In the Hymn to Nungal the eponymous goddess is apparently referred to as Ninegal. This association is also attested in a fragment of another, presently unidentified, hymn, and in two proverbs.
While the use of the name as an epithet was common in literary texts, the Shulgi hymns seem to be an exception, as they treat Ninegal as a distinct goddess.
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