The (Rebuild) Dead Sea Scrolls & The Burney Relief[]
(I have no idea what the proper formatting for "talk" stuff is so sorry if this is incorrectly formatted. Originally written up by SharkLordSatan.)
So, I just noticed something while doing some random perusing on Wikipedia for information regarding a worldbuilding project of mine that involves Evangelion lore and the Da'at Yichud from Wolfenstein.
The image of the multi-winged figure at the bottom of the scroll in Rebuild (who I presume is meant to be Lilith) VERY closely resembles the Burney/"Queen of the Night" relief found in Babylon irl. Some similarities I've noted between the Lilith-figure and the irl relief;
- Both are holding rod-and-ring symbols. (It's kind of hard to see the rod part of the symbols in the scroll image compared to the rings, but they're there!) - Both wear ornate headdresses that are nearly identical to each other. - Both have wings, though the irl relief only has one pair while the Lilith-figure has 6. They both also have the odd 'spikes'/spurs on the calves. - Both have bracelets, necklaces, and bird's feet.
On a separate note, there's three theories as to what god the relief is meant to depict; Ishtar, Ereshkigal, and something called "Lilitu."
Ishtar (also known as Inanna) is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility, and was associated with beauty, sex, divine law, and political power. She is also referred to as the "Queen of Heaven".
Ereshkigal is a goddess/ruler of "Kur/Irkalla", or the underworld in ancient Sumerian mythology, who is also referred to as the "Queen of the Great Earth". She's said to rule the underworld alongside her husband Nergal.
Then, finally, there's Lilitu. This one is pretty interesting as, you can probably imagine, it's meant to be the irl Lilith.
I don't really have the mental energy to do more in-depth dives on each of these gods and how they could relate to EVA lore (which that in itself would basically be something of a nothingburger as any religious depictions in the franchise is more or less for the sake of 'rule of cool'), but if somebody really wants me to, I could try to summarize my thoughts a little better.
See Nebuchadnezzar's Key page.
We know that there is something related to Ishtar, and some akkadian writings in the film that were confirmed by Dan Kanemitsu to be translated from Akkadian in the 2.0 film. They hired someone to write something in. Of course, until someone translate it or moren information comes out of it in a book or something, it can be added to the page.
So until then before adding more speculation without sources, do not add it to the main page (talk is fine)