.jpg) The ruins of Eridu. | |
  Shown within Near East  Eridu (Iraq) | |
| Alternative name | Tell Abu Shahrain |
|---|---|
| Location | Al-Batha Subdistrict, Nasiriyah District, Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq |
| Region | Lower Mesopotamia, Mesopotamia, West Asia |
| Coordinates | 30°48′57″N 45°59′46″E / 30.81583°N 45.99611°E |
| Type | Ancient city |
| Area | At most 10 ha (25 acres) |
| History | |
| Founded | c. 5500 – c. 5300 BC |
| Abandoned | c. 600 BC |
| Periods | |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1855, 1918-1919, 1946-1949, 2018 |
| Archaeologists | John George Taylor, R. Campbell Thompson, H. R. Hall, Fuad Safar, Seton Lloyd, Franco D’Agostino |
| Official name | Tell Eridu Archaeological Site |
| Part of | Ahwar of Southern Iraq |
| Criteria | Mixed: (iii)(v)(ix)(x) |
| Reference | 1481-007 |
| Inscription | 2016 (40th Session) |
| Area | 33 ha (0.13 sq mi) |
| Buffer zone | 1,069 ha (4.13 sq mi) |
| Coordinates | 30°49′1″N 45°59′45″E / 30.81694°N 45.99583°E |
Eridu (Sumerian: 𒉣𒆠, romanized: 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 Lower Mesopotamia. It is located in Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq, near the modern city of Basra. Eridu is traditionally considered 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 thought to stem. According to Sumerian temple hymns, another name for the temple of Ea/Enki was called Esira (Esirra).
"... 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. ..."[1][2]
At nearby Ur there was a temple of Ishtar of Eridu (built by Lagash's 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.[3][4]
One of the religious quarters of Babylon, containing the temple called the Esagila as well as the temple of Annunitum, among others, was also named Eridu.[5]
- ^ Langdon, Review of "Campbell Thompson, R 'The British Museum excavations at Abu Shahrain in Mesopotamia in 1918', 1920", S. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, no. 4, pp. 621–25, 1922
- ^ Langdon, S., "Two Sumerian Hymns from Eridu and Nippur", The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 161–86, 1923
- ^ Clayden, Tim, "Kassite housing at Ur: the dates of the EM, YC, XNCF, AH and KPS houses", Iraq, vol. 76, pp. 19–64, 2014
- ^ Radau, Hugo, "Letters to Cassite Kings from the Temple Archives of Nippur", Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1908
- ^ Gurney, O. R., "The Fifth Tablet of ‘The Topography of Babylon’", Iraq, vol. 36, no. 1/2, pp. 39–52, 1974