Hursag

{{Short description|Sumerian term}}

{{SpecialChars}}

{{Mesopotamian myth (7)}}

Hursag ({{langx|sux|𒄯𒊕}} {{smallcaps|ḫar.sag̃}}, ḫarsang) is a Sumerian term variously translated as meaning "mountain", "hill", "foothills" or "piedmont".{{cite book|author1=Thorkild Jacobsen|author2=I. Tzvi Abusch|title=Riches hidden in secret places: ancient Near Eastern studies in memory of Thorkild Jacobsen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S4s5MveufJgC&pg=PA45|accessdate=24 May 2011|year=2002|publisher=Eisenbrauns|isbn=978-1-57506-061-3|pages=45–}} Thorkild Jacobsen extrapolated the translation in his later career to mean literally, "head of the valleys".Biggs, Robert D., Studies presented to Robert D. Biggs, June 4, 2004, Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, p.223, 30 Jan 2008

Mountains play a certain role in Mesopotamian mythology and Assyro-Babylonian religion, associated with deities such as Anu, Enlil, Enki and Ninhursag.{{citation needed|date=January 2013}}

Hursag is the first word written on tablets found at the ancient Sumerian city of Nippur, dating to the third millennium BCE, Making it possibly the oldest surviving written word in the world.

Some scholars also identify the hursag with an undefined mountain range or strip of raised land outside the plain of Mesopotamia.{{cite book|author=Richard J. Clifford|title=The cosmic mountain in Canaan and the Old Testament|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Q3XAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=29 May 2011|year=1972|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674174252 }}{{cite book|author1=M. Mindlin|author2=Markham J. Geller|author3=John E. Wansbrough|title=Figurative language in the ancient Near East|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JPpT4xvMq2sC&pg=PA15|accessdate=29 May 2011|year=1987|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-7286-0141-3|pages=15–}}