Aratta

Aratta ( Akkadian for sublime mountains ) is the name of a country in the Sumerian mythology. It is controversial whether a city-state or kingdom of that name in the Middle East actually existed and might have where it's located.

Sumerian sources

Main source is the frühsumerische seal Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, in the probably legendary king Enmerkar of Uruk sends a messenger to Aratta, which requires the submission of arattäischen ruler Ensuh - keshdanna, as the goddess Inanna their favor no longer Aratta, but Uruk legally. Aratta is described as extremely rich country behind seven mountain ranges. In addition, Aratta is mentioned in the epic Lugalbanda and Enmerkar as the target of the campaign, with Lugalbanda still served at that time as an officer under Enmerkar.

In later cuneiform texts several times on the origin of the Akkadians (not the Sumer! ) Pointed out Aratta. Here is a link with the favor of relocation Inanna could be seen. Aratta seems to have been several centuries regarded as the source of the Sumerian civilization and religion.

Localization

The directions in the Lord of Aratta Enmerkar and led to numerous attempts to locate Aratta and Uruk starting to prove his historicity. Time Aratta is located in the 3rd millennium BC. Three theses are the focus of discussion:

Urartu thesis

Partial Aratta is considered a forerunner of the Urartu state and in the seen from northern highlands of Mesopotamia in present-day Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey laid. Thus Aratta would have been a very early state area.

Lake Van thesis

A variant of the Urartu thesis looks in Aratta due to some etymological speculation the place of the biblical paradise story and locates it east of Lake Van on the border of Turkey and Iran. Investigations of the now very barren land stroke show for the 3rd millennium BC, a lush fauna, which is assumed as the basis for a spatially narrow and early civilization.

Dschiroft thesis

The localization Arattas in southeast Iran currently finds the most support. Youssef Madjidzadeh took 1976 as the first this thesis and supports it now on begun by him in 2001 excavation in Konar Sandal with the Iranian city Dschiroft, previously a monumental structure ( ziggurat -like pyramid with almost 400 meters per side) and a variety of elaborate pottery with strikingly differentiated symbolism brought to light. The Jiroft culture is dated to around 2500 BC. Many of the found pictorial representations exhibit similarities to Sumerian legends and could have fertilized them.

Other theories to Aratta

The linguist Jahanshah Derakhshani summarizes Aratta to as the original home of the Indo-Europeans, as an alternative to the previously assumed origin region Southern Russia and Anatolia. Background is the thesis Derakhshanis, the people of Aratta have spoken an Aryan, ie Indo-European language.