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ERIDU

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 741 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ERIDU , one of the See also:

oldest religious centres of the Sumerians, described in the See also:ancient Babylonian records as the " See also:city of the deep." The See also:special See also:god of this city was See also:Ea (q.v.), god of the See also:sea and of See also:wisdom, and the prominence given to this god in the See also:incantation literature of Babylonia and See also:Assyria suggests not only that many of our magical texts are to be traced ultimately to the See also:temple of Ea at Eridu, but that this See also:side of the Babylonian See also:religion had its origin in that See also:place. Certain of the most ancient Babylonian myths, especially that of Adapa, may also be traced back to the See also:shrine of Ea at Eridu. But while of the first importance in matters of religion, there is no See also:evidence in Babylonian literature of any special See also:political importance attaching to Eridu, and certainly at no See also:time within our knowledge did it exercise See also:hegemony in Babylonia. The site of Eridu was discovered by J. E. See also:Taylor in 1854, in a ruin then called by the natives See also:Abu-Shahrein, a few See also:miles See also:south-south-See also:west of Moghair, ancient Ur, nearly in the centre of the dry See also:bed of an inland sea, a deep valley, 15 M. at its broadest, covered for the most See also:part with a nitrous incrustation, separated from the alluvial See also:plain about Moghair by a See also:low, pebbly, See also:sandstone range, called the Hazem, but open toward the See also:north to the See also:Euphrates and stretching southward to the Khanega See also:wadi below Suk-esh-Sheiukh. In the See also:rainy See also:season this valley becomes a sea, flooded by the See also:discharge of the Khanega; in summer the See also:Arabs dig holes here which See also:supply them with brackish See also:water. The ruins, in which Taylor conducted brief excavations, consist of a See also:platform of See also:fine See also:sand enclosed by a sandstone See also:wall, 20 ft. high, the corners toward the See also:cardinal points, on the N.W. part of which was a pyramidal See also:tower of two stages, constructed of See also:sun-dried See also:brick, cased with a wall of See also:kiln-burned brick, the whole still See also:standing to a height of about 70 ft. above the platform. The See also:summit of the first See also:stage was reached by a See also:staircase on the S.E. side, 15 ft. wide and 70 ft. See also:long, constructed of polished See also:marble slabs, fastened with See also:copper bolts, flanked at the See also:foot by two curious columns. An inclined road led up to the second stage on the N.W. side. Pieces of polished See also:alabaster and marble, with small pieces of pure See also:gold and gold-headed copper nails, found on and about the See also:top of the second stage, indicated that a small but richly adorned sacred chamber, apparently plated within or without in gold, formerly crowned the top of this structure. Around the whole tower was a See also:pavement of inscribed baked bricks, resting on a layer of See also:clay 2 ft. thick.

On the S.E. part of the See also:

terrace were the remains of several edifices, containing suites of rooms. See also:Inscriptions on the bricks identified the site as that of Eridu.' Since Taylor's time the place has not been visited by any explorer, owing to the unsafe See also:condition of the neighbourhood; but T. K. See also:Loftus (1854) and J. P. See also:Peters (189o) both See also:report having seen it from the summit of Moghair. The latter states that the Arabs at that time called the ruin Nowawis, and apparently no longer knew the name Abu-Shahrein. Through an See also:error, in many See also:recent maps and Assyriological publications Eridu is described as located in the alluvial plain, between the See also:Tigris and the Euphrates. It was, in fact, an See also:island city in an See also:estuary of the See also:Persian Gulf, stretching up into the Arabian 'See also:plateau. Originally " on the See also:shore of the sea," as the old records aver, it is now about 12o m. from the See also:head of the Persian Gulf. Calculating from the See also:present See also:rate of See also:deposit of See also:alluvium at the head of that gulf, Eridu should have been founded as See also:early as the seventh See also:millennium B.C. It is mentioned in See also:historical inscriptions from the earliest times onward, as See also:late as the 6th See also:century B.C.

From the evidence of Taylor's excavations, it would seem that the site was abandoned about the See also:

close of the Babylonian See also:period. See J. E. Taylor, See also:Journal of the Royal See also:Asiatic Society, vol. xv. (1855) F. See also:Delitzsch, Wo lag das Paradies? (1881); J. P. Peters, See also:Nippur (1897); M. Jastrow, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria (1898); H. V. Hilprecht, Excavations in Assyria and Babylonia (19(4) ; L.

W. See also:

King, A See also:History of See also:Sumer and See also:Akkad (191o). (J. P.

End of Article: ERIDU

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