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Espak fs kulmar See discussions stats and author pro ?les for this publication at https www researchgate net publication Was Eridu The First City in Sumerian Mythology Article January CITATIONS author Peeter Espak University of Tartu PUBLICATIONS CITATION

See discussions stats and author pro ?les for this publication at https www researchgate net publication Was Eridu The First City in Sumerian Mythology Article January CITATIONS author Peeter Espak University of Tartu PUBLICATIONS CITATIONS SEE PROFILE READS All content following this page was uploaded by Peeter Espak on March The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded ?le CWas Eridu The First City in Sumerian Mythology PEETER ESPAK Abstract The majority of written sources known to us from ca ?? B C do not give Eridu any special status as the ?rst or primordial mythological city Only the mythology and royal ideology of ?ulgi seems to have made that exception Due to its hypothetical original sacred nature Eridu was one of the central points of religious and intellectual worship during the whole history of the Ancient Near East However the underlining of Eridu ? s special divine status in early Mesopotamian mythology in contemporary scienti ?c treatises often seems exaggerated The current paper discusses the mythological and ideological signi ?cance of the city of Eridu based on several ancient royal inscriptions and mythological accounts and concludes that in Sumerian mythology we can call Eridu one of the most sacred religious and cultural centres among others comparable to Nippur Ur and Uruk ??but not ??the ?rst city ? Keywords Sumerian mythology Early Dynastic royal ideology Eridu Enki Nippur Marduk Although there is no proof that the city of Eridu was considered to be ??the most ancient city ? in Sumero-Akkadian mythology this understanding has a strong in uence on our entire picture of the Mesopotamian mythology religion and history The ancient primordial importance of Eridu is usually stated without any actual proof ??be it textual or archaeological ??and simply as ??common sense knowledge ? beyond any doubt The ancient cultic importance of Eridu is indeed con ?rmed by archaeological and textual evidence It is also certain that the god The current paper has been supported by the Estonian Science Council grant PUT and ETF CWas Eridu The First City in Sumerian Mythology Enki of Eridu must have been a major ?gure in the religious concepts of the inhabitants of Sumer already in the beginning of the rd millennium although the archaeological evidence from his Eridu temple does not give any conclusive hints about the possible original nature of that god Eridu was situated in a lagoon-based territory or marshland ??a possible explanation of why in later mythology Enki is associated with marshes reed-beds canals and rivers From layer VIII of the ancient Eridu temple di ?erent clay coils possibly representations of snakes were found Snakes are always associable with chthonic cults or underworld cults in di ?erent archaic religions of the world and it is reasonable to suggest that the snake ?gurines were brought to the temple in the hope that they could carry a prayer to the underworld region of the god of Eridu later known under the name Abzu Also burnt ?sh-o ?erings were found from layer VI