Hai-Kal

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Hai-Kal is the older Sumerian name for Great Hall / Great Room . Over time, the Sumerian form of the name E-gal , which means big house, developed from this.

The oldest find with the designation Hai-Kal can be dated to the early dynastic period II / III in Eridu and Kiš . The floor plans show similarities with simple, larger halls. In the course of time, the Great Halls changed to more compact and subdivided buildings. This circumstance is assumed to be the reason for the change of the name form to E-gal .

The Hai-Kal / E-gal represented the royal headquarters where all important decisions were announced. The Sumerian title Ensi for kings or rulers was also used for the high priests who performed religious rituals in these buildings.

The seat of the Ensi / En in Uruk was part of this Hai-Kal , the Gi-par . It was a residential unit for cultic acts. In the epic En-Mer-Kar of Uruk and the En of Aratta , the king of Uruk receives his messenger in a Hai-Kal / E-gal .

The Akkadian expression E-kal-lum is derived from the Sumerian E-gal as a loan word, which was used around the turn of the 3rd millennium BC. To the 2nd millennium BC In the Semitic language .

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