by Lorenzo Verderame
First draft of the article:
L. Verderame (in stampa). L’immagine della città nella letteratura sumerica. In: DOLCE R., PELLITTERI A.. Cttà nel Vicino Oriente e nel Mediterraneo. Linee di storie e di simboli dall'antichità ad oggi. PALERMO: Flaccovio, pp. 99-126.
Published in Spanish as VERDERAME L. (2010). La imagen de la ciudad en la literatura sumeria, Rivista degli Studi Orientali 83 (2010), 23-48.
This is a study of the image of the town in IIIrd Mill. Mesopotamian ideology, in the light of the Sumerian... more
This is a study of the image of the town in IIIrd Mill. Mesopotamian ideology, in the light of the Sumerian literature.
In the first part I describe the relation between the god and his temple and the identification of the latter with the town. In particular I focus on the (presence of the) god as source of life and the pre-existence of town to human beings. Then, I discuss the image of the town that, thanks to the god presence, is a/the place and symbol of order opposed to the chaotic outside; this implies several topoi (the steppe as a chaotic place; its inhabitants, etc.) and symbolic places (the gate and the walls). From this point of view the outside assumes a double value, spatial (near/steppe; far/mountain) and relative (good: space for further expansions, goods; bad: chaotic place, dangerous, aggressive inhabitants). In the light of this values the literature deals with the periphery, tracing two patterns. From the periphery to the town the goods reach "naturally" the center of the world. In the opposite sense, the town (ordered) relates with the periphery (chaotic) through the war, considered a cultural activity. This is a way to participates of the control of the chaotic, but not the only. The other is the transformation of the raw/chaotic material through the craftsmanship. The paper concludes with the distraction of the town, caused by the abandon of the god and subsequent inversion of the ordered/chaotic axis. The city god symbol of the order place himself out of the wall, the chaos takes possess of the ordered town. The symbols of the order disappears, even
the "artifacts", result of the transformation/control process, return to their original states.
[Keywords: town, temple, Sumer, Sumerian, lamentations, Mesopotamia, literature, theology, mythology, relation center periphery, artisan]
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