City
Eridu
Eridu was considered
the first city in the world by the ancient Sumerians and, certainly, is among
the most ancient of ruins. Founded in circa 5400 BCE, Eridu was thought to have
been created by the gods and was home to the great water god Enki. The Sumerian
King List cites Eridu as the “city of the first kings”, stating, “After the
kingship descended from heaven, the kingship was in Eridu” and the city was
looked back upon by the variouis tribes and city-states of Mesopotamia as a
metropolis of a 'golden age’ in the same way the writers of the biblical
narratives created a 'Garden of Eden’ as their mythical paradise from which
humanity fell.
The city was an important center for trade as well as
religion and, at its height, was a great 'melting pot’ of cultures and
diversity, as evidenced in the various forms of artistry found among the ruins.
Eridu was abandoned intermittently over the years for reasons which remain
unclear and, finally, left behind completely sometime around the year 600 BCE.
Around 2050 BCE there was a precipitous decline of the
Eridu’s wealth. This was likely caused by further recession of the gulf coast
and an increasingly unreliable water table. This ecological change led to the
temple ziggurat of Amar-sin being left uncompleted. However the remains of the
ziggurat and the 17 stages of development layered beneath it provide a valuable
insight into the significance of this location.
The original building was a small square room with a
pedestal outside of which was a kiln or oven. Upon this site increasingly
complex temples were built, many showing signs of burned offerings and the
remains of fish which were thought to be sacred to Enki. For 3,500 years this
site would be the focus of Eridu and then the city would crumble to ruin
leaving only the temple. Enki’s temple was honored and restored well after the
city was otherwise uninhabited in a tradition the lasted until the 6th century
BCE.
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