User:SomeGuyWhoRandomlyEdits/Dynasty of Eridu

The dynasty of Eridu was a dynasty of two or three rulers from the city of Eridu who (r. c. 3000 – c. 2800 BCE). This dynasty is part of the Early Dynastic I period (c. 2900) of ancient Mesopotamia. According to the Sumerian King List (SKL): the dynasty of Eridu was succeeded by one from Bad-tibira.

Origin
Mesopotamia was inhabited by several distinct, flourishing cultures in between the end of the Last Glacial Period (c. 14000) and beginning of the Copper Age (c. 5000). Archaeological sites such as those of the Samarran and Halafian cultures were centered at central and upper Mesopotamia (central and northern Iraq); later settlements in lower Mesopotamia required complicated irrigation methods. It appears that the archaeological culture of the Ubaidians' may have been derived from that of the Samarrans'. The first among these lower Mesopotamian settlements were tells el-'Oueili, al-'Ubaid, and Abu Shahrain. Sumerian religion and literature would later relate over the millennia that Sumer was founded at Tell Abu Shahrain (the modern Arabic name for the city known to the Sumerians as Eridu).

The history of Sumer is usually taken to include the prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk periods. Sumerian civilization originated in the southeastern reaches of the Fertile Crescent—a region once widely regarded by the general consensus of mainstream historians to be the only cradle in which the first known complex, non-nomadic, agrarian civilization (that being Sumer) spread out from by influence. Most historians have suggested that Sumer was first permanently settled c. 5500 by a West Asian people who spoke Sumerian (a non-Semitic, non-Indo-European, agglutinative, language isolate). However, the ethnic composition of Mesopotamia throughout this period cannot be determined with certainty. Furthermore: it is not yet known whether or not these were actual Sumerians who are identified with the much later culture(s) centered at sites such as those of Uruk, Tell Jemdet Nasr, Tell al-Uhaymir, and Tell el-Muqayyar—all of which were already inhabited during the Ubaid and most would rise to power as influential city-states throughout the Uruk, Jemdet Nasr, and/or ED period(s).

The Sumerians believed that their civilization had been brought—fully formed—to the city of Eridu by one of their gods (Enki) or his advisor (Adapa). Eridu was a settlement founded during the Ubaid 1 period (c. 5500) and may have been abandoned during the Late Ubaid/Early Uruk period (c. 4200). The city had already recovered by the Early Dynastic I period of Mesopotamia (c. 2900) and may have been inhabited by anywhere from 4,000—20,000 citizens. It was long considered the earliest city in lower Mesopotamia.

Language
Ever since the decipherment of the Sumerian cuneiform script; it has been the subject of much effort to relate it to a wide variety of languages. Proposals for linguistic affinity sometimes have a nationalistic background because it has a peculiar prestige as one of the most ancient written languages. Such proposals enjoy virtually no support among linguists because of their unverifiability. Some Assyriologists have argued that by examining the structure of the Sumerian language, its names for occupations; as well as, toponyms and hydronyms—one can suggest that there was once an ethnic group in the region that preceded the Sumerians. These pre-Sumerian people are now referred to as Proto-Euphrateans (or Ubaidians), and are theorized to have developed out of the culture centered at the Samarra Archaeological City (c. 6200).

Proto-Euphratean is considered by some to have been the substratum language of the people that introduced farming into lower Mesopotamia during the Early Ubaid period (c. 5500). Proto-Euphratean may have exerted an areal influence on it (especially in the form of polysyllabic words that sound un-Sumerian)—making researchers suspect them of being loanwords—and untraceable to any other known language. There is little speculation as to the affinities of this substratum language; therefore, it remains unclassified. Sumerian was once widely held to be an Indo-European language; but, that view later came to be almost universally rejected. It has also been suggested that Sumerian descended from a late prehistoric creole language.

Other scholars think that the Sumerian language may have originally been that of the hunting and fishing peoples who lived in the Mesopotamian Marshes and the Eastern Arabia littoral region; additionally, were part of the Arabian bifacial culture. Some archaeologists believe that the Sumerians lived along the Persian Gulf coast of the Arabian Peninsula before a flood at the end of Last Glacial Period c. 10000. Many scholars have proposed historical and genetic links between the present-day Marsh Arabs and the Sumerians of ancient Iraq based off of: their methods for house-building (mudhifs), homeland (Mesopotamian Marshes), and shared agricultural practices; however, there is no written record of the marsh tribes until the ninth century CE—and the Sumerians had already lost their distinct ethnic identity some 2,700 years prior.

A genetic analysis of four ancient Mesopotamian skeletal DNA samples suggests an association of the Sumerians with the inhabitants of the Indus Valley Civilization (possibly as a result of ancient Indus-Mesopotamia relations). Sumerians (or at least some of them) may have been related to the original Dravidian population of India.

Sumerian King List
The SKL is an ancient regnal list written using cuneiform script, listing: the kings of Sumer, their supposed reign lengths, and the locations of kingship. This text is preserved in several recensions. The list of kings is sequential; although, modern research has indicated that many were contemporaries–reflecting the belief that kingship was handed down by the gods and could be transferred from one city to another–asserting to a hegemony in the region. The SKL is important to the chronology of the Ancient Near East (ANE) for the third millennium BCE. However, the fact that many of the dynasties listed reigned simultaneously from varying localities makes it difficult to reproduce a strict linear chronology.

Most of the dates for the predynastic kings have been approximated to certain centuries (rather than specific years), and are only partially based on any available archaeological data. For most kings listed, the SKL is itself the lone source of information. The SKL initially (and presumably) mixes mythical, pre-dynastic kings enjoying implausibly lengthy reigns; then, gradually working its way into the more plausible, historical dynasties. Although the primal kings are historically unattested, this does not necessarily preclude their possible correspondence with the historical (some of which may have later been mythicized, deified, and/or demonized). Some sumerologists and assyriologists think of the primal monarchs as fictional characters that were invented several centuries and/or even millennia after their purported reigns.

While there is no evidence that they ever reigned as such, the Sumerians purported the predynastic kings to have lived in a mythical era before a flood. None of the antediluvian kings have been verified as being historical through archaeological excavations, epigraphical inscriptions, or otherwise. The antediluvian reigns were measured using two Sumerian numerical units (a sexagesimal system). There were sars (units of 3,600 years each) and ners (units of 600 years). As Alulim was said to have ruled for several millennia, his reign can be reduced from 8 sars down to 8 years.

Some modern scholars believe the Sumerian deluge story corresponds to localized river flooding at Shuruppak and various other cities as far north as Kish (as revealed by a layer of riverine sediments radiocarbon dated to c. 2900 BCE) which interrupt the continuity of settlement. Polychrome pottery from the Jemdet Nasr period was discovered immediately below this Shuruppak flood stratum. Archaeologists have confirmed the presence of a widespread layer of riverine silt deposits shortly after the Piora oscillation that interrupted the sequence of settlement. It left a few feet of yellow sediment in the cities of Shuruppak and Uruk and extended as far north as Kish. The polychrome pottery characteristic of the Jemdet Nasr period below the sediment layer was followed by EDI artifacts above the sediment layer.

The mythological, predynastic period of the SKL portrays the passage of power in antediluvian times from Eridu to Shuruppak in the south, until a major deluge occurred. Some time after that, the hegemony reappears in the northern city of Kish at the start of the ED period. The earliest tablets from this period were retrieved from Jemdet Nasr in 1928. They depict complex arithmetic calculations such as the areas of field-plots. However, they have never been fully deciphered, and it is not even certain that the few words on them represent the Sumerian language.

Antediluvian kings
Alulim was an ancient Iraqi ruler. His name appears on numerous versions of the Sumerian King List (SKL). He was succeeded by Alalngar. Alulim may have (r. c. 3000 – c. 2900) BC; however, the SKL states that he ruled for several millennia. The SKL lists him as the first king of both Eridu and Sumer.

The Uruk List of Kings and Sages pairs seven antediluvian kings each with his own apkallu. An apkallu was a sage in Sumerian religion and/or literature. The first apkallu (Adapa) is paired up with Alulim. Professor William Wolfgang Hallo of Yale University suggests an equivalence between Alulim and the Biblical patriarch Enosh (in the Sethite genealogy given in Genesis chapter five). Professor William H. Shea adds that Alulim may have been a contemporary of the Biblical figure Adam (the latter of which may have been based off of Adapa).