Eridu

Eridu ( cuneiform: 𒉣 𒆠, sumerian Nunki and today Abu Schachren, Tell Abu Schachren ) was one of the oldest and probably even the oldest Sumerian city. It is located in southern Mesopotamia under the Tell Abu Shah pure in today's southern Iraq.

According to the Sumerian myth, it is the place where the story began. In the Sumerian king list, Eridu is mentioned as a city of the first ( mythical ) Kings Alulim and Alalgar. Thus, it is without a doubt at the top of the urban revolution that drew an unending chain of towns founded by himself. Unlike the early places like Jericho or Çatalhöyük it was the starting point of a civilization, the first city that truly deserves the name.

Your village precursors go on vorsumerische time back to the 6th millennium BC. From the Sumerian cities, which always built around a temple complex around, Eridu was the southernmost, about 11 km southwest of Ur in an offshoot of the Persian Gulf located. His typical ceramic Eridu ware was distributed along the Persian Gulf. Due to silting Eridu was cut off from the Persian Gulf and abandoned in the first or in the second millennium before Christ.

Eridu was home, which shows its special position among the cities, the main temple of Enki, the Lord of earth and Sumerian creator god, Lord of (fresh ) water, death, and the creative spirit. In addition to (God of Uruk ) and Enlil ( the wind, where no place is to be assigned ), he belongs to the divine triad.

1940 excavations took place in Tell Abu Shah clean, the mound of Eridu.