Ea-Damkina temple (Kalhu)

Akkadian inscriptions of the ninth-century-BC Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883–859 BC) record that that ruler built (or rebuilt) temples to the deities Adad, Damkina, Ea-šarru, Enlil, Gula, Nabû, Ninurta, Sîn, Šala, and Šarrat-niphi, as well as to the Sebetti and Kidmuri; for example, see RIAo Ashurnasirpal II 030 lines 53–78a. Of those, only four have been positively identified during nineteenth- and twentieth-century excavations: the Kidmuri temple, the Nabû temple, the Ninurta temple, and the Šarrat-niphi temple.

Despite the fact that the location of the Ea-Damkina temple at Kalhu is not known from the archaeological record, it is generally thought that it was located inside the Ninurta temple complex. Julian Reade (2002: 137 fig. 2, 191–193), based on the arrangement of the temples at Dūr-Šarrukīn, has suggested that a room (= Reade 2002 fig. 2 Room D) on the north side of the western courtyard of the building complex (Reade's 'Ninurta Court’) might have been the Ea-Damkina temple. This proposal cannot be confirmed from in-situ inscriptions and, therefore, must remain conjectural.