Rule Thousands of Years
According to Sumerian mythology, Eridu (also Eredu) is the oldest city on Earth. It was here for the first time that "the kingdom was sent down from heaven." The Nippurian royal list states that the first two Sumerian kings ruled in Eridu: Alulim (28,800 years) and Allalgar (36,000 years). The gigantic numbers are not surprising if you remember that the gods handed over power to them. Then the political center was moved to Bad Tibiru, and later to other Sumerian cities. The millennia under semi-mythical kings symbolized the Sumerians' ideas about the golden age, when people possessed supernatural powers. In fact, farmers settled on the site of Eridu around the 5th millennium BC. e.
Ruins of Eridu.
Agriculture in the ancient Mesopotamian city required not only hard work, but also the ability to save the harvest from the elements. The legend of the first kings of Eridu is also associated with the cataclysm. In Sumerian mythology, there was a (similar to the biblical) story of the Flood. Eridu was considered one of the five cities of the legendary antediluvian time.
Enki cult
Surprisingly, not a single clay tablet with a Sumerian cuneiform has been found in Eris. This is all the stranger because the supreme deity of the city was the god of wisdom, Enki, who patronized the arts and science. Also in Mesopotamia, they believed that he ruled the underground waters and created the Tiger.
All of Eridu grew up around the great temple of Enki. Archaeologists believe that the history of the temple, built of river clay bricks, was 2,500 years old. In the V millennium BC. e. a small sanctuary arose on a sandy hill. The last building was the ziggurat; its appearance is attributed to the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e. The city elite lived around the Enki temple. The further from the cult center a person's house was located, the less privileged position in society he occupied. By modern standards, the population of Eridu during its heyday (5 thousand people) was ridiculous, but for its time it was a gigantic figure.
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Even after losing the status of the "capital" of the ancient civilization, the city remained an important spiritual center. In the XXI century. BC e. The III dynasty of Ur united the whole of Mesopotamia. King Ur-Nammu did not forget about Eridu and even led a canal from the Euphrates through Ur to the city. With the help of it, the Sumerians not only irrigated the land, but also connected the capital with the Persian Gulf.
In ancient times, Eridu was located on the shores of the Persian Gulf lagoon, but over time the city moved away from the sea due to waterlogging (both natural and caused by the use of canals). It was in Eridu that a clay model of a boat was discovered by archaeologists, indicating that the Sumerians used a sail. They also had poles and oars. Along the coast, the ships were pulled by oxen and people. The city, whose patron was Enki, simply could not be located not on the coast (it was believed that God lives in the world ocean Abzu).
Reconstruction of a boat at the pier in Eridu.
During the construction of the canal to Eris, specialists used the most progressive inventions of their time. They prepared measurements and plans, made maps, and used rulers.
During the rise of Larsa (19th century BC), the cult of Enki, "the broad-eared, who knows everything that has a name," remained revered, but from an economic point of view, his "residence" fell into decay. The silting up of the canals led to an outflow of the population. The city was finally abandoned around 600 BC. e. The Babylonians knew about Eridu only as a symbol of the past and attributed its foundation to Marduk.
Today the ruins of the city are hidden under sand dunes and low hills. In the second half of the 1940s, a team of archaeologists led by Fuad Safar discovered 17 temples at once on the site of the settlement. They were all built on top of each other. Since then, the monuments of ancient Ered have been at the center of attention of the scientific community. Some archaeologists call them "the prelude of the Sumerian civilization."