Ериду: Сумер қаласының археологиялық орталығы

Archaeological site in Iraq
the unincorporated community in Taylor County, Florida

Eridu (Cuneiform: NUN. KI ; Sumerian: eridugki; Akkadian: irîtu) was a Sumerian city located at Tell Abu Shahrain (Arabic: تل أبو شهرين), also Abu Shahrein or Tell Abu Shahrayn, an archaeological site in southern Mesopotamia. It is located in Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq near the modern city of Basra. Eridu is traditionally believed to be the earliest city in southern Mesopotamia based on the Sumerian King List. Located 12 kilometers southwest of the ancient site of Ur, Eridu was the southernmost of a conglomeration of Sumerian cities that grew around temples, almost in sight of one another. The city gods of Eridu were Enki and his consort Damkina. Enki, later known as Ea, was considered to have founded the city. His temple was called E Abzu, as Enki was believed to live in Abzu, an aquifer from which all life was believed to stem. According to Sumerian temple hymns another name for the temple of Ea/Enki was called Esira (Esirra). text=" The temple is constructed with gold and lapis lazuli, Its foundation on the nether sea (apsu) is filled in. By the river of Sippar (Euphrates) it stands. O Apsu pure place of propriety, Esira, may thy king stand within thee. " At nearby Ur there was a temple of Ishtar of Eridu (built by Lagash ruler Ur Baba) and a sanctuary of Inanna of Eridu (built by Ur III ruler Ur Nammu). Ur Nammu also recorded building a temple of Ishtar of Eridu at Ur which is assumed to have been a rebuild. One of the religious quarters of Babylon, containing the Esagil temple and the temple of Annunitum among others, was also named Eridu.

In March 2006, Giovanni Pettinato and S. Chiod from Rome's La Sapienza University claimed to have discovered 500 Early Dynastic historical and literary cuneiform tablets on the surface at Eridu "disturbed by an explosion". The tablets were said to be from 2600 to 2100 BC (rulers Eannatum to Amar Sin) and be part of a library. A team was sent to the site by Iraq's State Board of Antiquities and Heritage which found no tablets, only stamped bricks from Eridu and surrounding sites such as Ur. Nor was there a permit to excavate at the site issued to anyone. At this point Pettinato stated that they had actually found 70 inscribed bricks. This turned out to be stamped bricks used to build the modern Eridu dig house. The dig house had been built using bricks from the demolished Leonard Woolley’s expedition house at Ur (clearly spelled out in the 1981 Iraqi excavation report to avoid confusion to future archaeologists.

In some, but not all, versions of the Sumerian King List, Eridu is the first of five cities where kingship was received before a flood came over the land. The list mentions two rulers of Eridu from the Early Dynastic period, Alulim and Alalngar. The bright star Canopus was known to the ancient Mesopotamians and represented the city of Eridu in the Three Stars Each Babylonian star catalogues and later around 1100 BC on the MUL. APIN tablets. Canopus was called MUL. NUNKI by the Babylonians, which translates as "star of the city of Eridu". From most southern city of Mesopotamia, Eridu, there is a good view to the south, so that about 6000 years ago due to the precession of the Earth's axis the first rising of the star Canopus in Mesopotamia could be observed only from there at the southern meridian at midnight. In the city of Ur this was the case only 60 years later. In the flood myth tablet found in Ur, how Eridu and Alulim were chosen by gods as first city and first priest king is described in more detail. The following is the English translation of the tablet:

Adapa, a man of Eridu, is depicted as an early culture hero. Although earlier tradition, Me Turan/Tell Haddad tablet, describes Adapa as postdiluvian ruler of Eridu, in late tradition, Adapa came to be viewed as Alulim’s vizier, and he was considered to have brought civilization to the city as the sage of King Alulim. In Sumerian mythology, Eridu was the home of the Abzu temple of the god Enki, the Sumerian counterpart of the Akkadian god Ea, god of deep waters, wisdom and magic. Like all the Sumerian and Babylonian gods, Enki/Ea began as a local god who, according to the later cosmology, came to share the rule of the cosmos with Anu and Enlil. His kingdom was the sweet waters that lay below earth (Sumerian ab=water; zu=far). The stories of Inanna, goddess of Uruk, describe how she had to go to Eridu in order to receive the gifts of civilization. At first Enki, the god of Eridu, attempted to retrieve these sources of his power but later willingly accepted that Uruk now was the centre of the land. The fall of early Mesopotamia cities and empires was typically believed to be the result of falling out of favor with the gods. A genre called City Laments developed during the Isin Larsa period, of which the Lament for Ur is the most famous. These laments had a number of sections (kirugu) of which only fragments have been recovered. The Lament for Eridu describes the fall of that city. text="Its king stayed outside his city as if it were an alien city. He wept bitter tears. Father Enki stayed outside his city as if it were an alien city. He wept bitter tears. For the sake of his harmed city, he wept bitter tears. Its lady, like a flying bird, left her city. The mother of E maḫ, holy Damgalnuna, left her city. The divine powers of the city of holiest divine powers were overturned. The divine powers of the rites of the greatest divine powers were altered. In Eridug everything was reduced to ruin, was wrought with confusion."

The urban nucleus of Eridu was Enki's temple, called House of the Aquifer (Cuneiform: , E2. ZU. AB; Sumerian: e2 abzu; Akkadian: bītu apsû), which in later history was called House of the Waters (Cuneiform: , E2. LAGAB×HAL; Sumerian: e2 engur; Akkadian: bītu engurru). The name refers to Enki's realm. His consort Ninhursag had a nearby temple at Ubaid. During the Ur III period Ur Nammu had a ziggurat built over the remains of previous temples. Aside from Enmerkar of Uruk (as mentioned in the Aratta epics), several later historical Sumerian kings are said in inscriptions found here to have worked on or renewed the e abzu temple, including Elili of Ur; Ur Nammu, Shulgi and Amar Sin of Ur III, and Nur Adad of Larsa.

Level Date (BC) Period Size (m) Note XVIII 5300 3×0.3 Sleeper walls XVII 5300–5000 2.8×2.8 First cella XVI 5300–4500 Early Ubaid 3.5×3.5 XV 5000–4500 Early Ubaid 7.3×8.4 XIV 5000–4500 Early Ubaid No structure found XIII 5000–4500 Early Ubaid No structure found XII 5000–4500 Early Ubaid No structure found XI 4500–4000 Ubaid 4.5×12.6 First platform X 4500–4000 Ubaid 5×13 IX 4500–4000 Ubaid 4×10 VIII 4500–4000 Ubaid 18×11 VII 4000–3800 Ubaid 17×12 VI 4000–3800 Ubaid 22×9 V 3800–3500 Early Uruk Only platform remains IV 3800–3500 Early Uruk Only platform remains III 3800–3500 Early Uruk Only platform remains II 3500–3200 Early Uruk Only platform remains I 3200 Early Uruk Only platform remains