Editing Enki (section)

==Ea and West Semitic deities==
In 1964, a team of Italian archaeologists under the direction of [[Paolo Matthiae]] of the [[University of Rome La Sapienza]] performed a series of excavations of material from the third-millennium BCE city of [[Ebla]]. Much of the written material found in these digs was later translated by [[Giovanni Pettinato]]. Among other conclusions, he found a tendency among the inhabitants of Ebla, after the reign of [[Sargon of Akkad]], to replace the name of [[El (god)|El]], king of the gods of the [[Canaanite pantheon]] (found in names such as Mikael and Ishmael), with ''Ia'' (Mikaia, Ishmaia).<ref>Freeman, Tzvi. "Is there evidence of Abraham's revolution? – The Big Picture". Chabad.org. Retrieved 2011-06-06.</ref>

Jean Bottéro (1952)<ref>Bottero, Jean. "Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia" (University of Chicago Press, 2004) {{ISBN|0-226-06718-1}}</ref> and others<ref>Boboula, Ida. "The Great Stag: A Sumerian Deity and Its Affiliations", ''Fifty-Third General Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America (1951)'' in ''American Journal of Archaeology'', Vol. 56, No. 3 (Jul. 1952) 171–178, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/500533 All pertinent information is available online.]</ref> suggested that ''Ia'' in this case is a West Semitic (Canaanite) way of pronouncing the [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] name ''Ea''. Scholars largely reject the theory identifying this ''Ia'' with the Israelite theonym ''[[YHWH]]'',<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=goq0VWw9rGIC&pg=PA226 |title= Mercer Dictionary of the Bible |author1= Watson E. Mills |author2= Roger Aubrey Bullard |page=226 |year=1990 |publisher= Mercer University Press |isbn= 9780865543737}}</ref> while explaining how it might have been misinterpreted.<ref>"Yahweh" in K. van der Toorn, Bob Becking, Pieter Willem van der Horst, ''[[Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible]]'' (1999), {{ISBN|978-90-04-11119-6}}, p. 911: "his cult at Ebla is a chimera."</ref> ''Ia'' has also been compared by William Hallo with the [[Ugarit]]ic god ''[[Yam (god)|Yam]]m'' ("Sea"), (also called Judge Nahar, or Judge River) whose earlier name in at least one ancient source was ''Yaw'' or ''Ya'a''{{failed verification |date= April 2024}}.{{clarify |Quoted sorce doesn't mention anywhere either Yam/Yamm, Yaw, or Nahar. Neither the text here as is, nor reverted edit by Temerarius, are supported by source. Maybe the actual book is meant, not its review referenced here? |date= April 2024}}<ref>{{cite journal |first=William W. |last=Hallo |title=Review: Enki and the Theology of Eridu |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=116 |issue=2 |pages=231–4 |date=April–June 1996 |doi=10.2307/605698 |jstor=605698 }}</ref>

Ea was also known as ''[[Dagon]]'' and ''[[Apkallu|Uanna]]'' (Grecised ''Oannes''), the first of the Seven Sages.<ref name="Duke 1971 320–327"/>