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66-595: Aratta is a land that appears in Sumerian myths surrounding Enmerkar and Lugalbanda , two early and possibly mythical kings of Uruk also mentioned on the Sumerian king list . Aratta is described as follows in Sumerian literature: Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta - The goddess Inanna resides in Aratta, but Enmerkar of Uruk pleases her more than does the lord of Aratta, who

132-690: A 27th-century BC Sumerian army through 550 km of Elamite territory to wage war with Aratta. Nevertheless, there have been speculations referring to eastern Iran as well. Dr. Yousef Majidzadeh believes the Jiroft culture could be Aratta. By 1973, archaeologists were noting that there was no archaeological record of Aratta's existence outside of myth, and in 1978 Hansman cautions against over-speculation. Writers in other fields have continued to hypothesize potential Aratta locations. A "possible reflex" has been suggested in Sanskrit Āraṭṭa or Arāṭṭa mentioned in

198-786: A Sumerian tablet discovered at Nippur . The Judaic underworld Sheol is very similar in description with the Sumerian Kur , ruled by the goddess Ereshkigal , as well as the Babylonian underworld Irkalla . Sumerian scholar Samuel Noah Kramer has also noted similarities between many Sumerian and Akkadian "proverbs" and the later Hebrew proverbs, many of which are featured in the Book of Proverbs . Anshan (Persia) Anshan ( Elamite cuneiform : 𒀭𒍝𒀭 Anzan ; Sumerian : 𒀭𒊓𒀭𒆠 Ansanᴷᴵ , 𒀭𒊭𒀭𒆠 Anšanᴷᴵ ) modern Tall-e Malyan ( Persian : تل ملیان ), also Tall-i Malyan,

264-536: A group of tablets that were found at the site the following season, Erica Reiner, from the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, was able to match these writings to those on the brick. They also matched the writings on tablets discovered by the Pennsylvania team which did, specifically, name Anshan. In 1973, it was confirmed that this site was the lost city of Anshan. Three separate groups of tablets were found by

330-497: A number of subsidiary villages and campsites. The Elamite city makes an appearance in the early Sumerian epic Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta as being en route between Uruk and the legendary Aratta , supposedly around the time writing was developed. At various times, Anshan provided, in its own right, the source for a number of Elamite dynasties that sometimes competed for extent and influence with other prominent Elamite cities. The earliest evidence of Anshan can be found in

396-558: A survey in 1968. The dig continued for several seasons, until 1978, when the Iranian Revolution intervened. Most recently, Tal-i Malyan was excavated by Kamyar Abdi in 1999. Abdi returned for a further six week dig in 2004 by the Cultural Heritage Organization of Iran and Dartmouth College . The most notable find was that of an inscribed brick found at an unspecified location at the site in 1971. A photograph

462-515: Is left in a cave, but he prays to the various gods, recovers, and must find his way out of the mountains. Lugalbanda and the Anzud Bird - Lugalbanda befriends the Anzud bird, and asks it to help him find his army again. When Enmerkar 's army is faced with a setback, Lugalbanda volunteers to return to Uruk to ask the goddess Inana 's aid. He crosses through the mountains, into the flat land, from

528-477: Is not named in this epic. Enmerkar wants Aratta to submit to Uruk, bring stones down from the mountain, craft gold, silver and lapis lazuli, and send them, along with "kugmea" ore to Uruk to build a temple. Inana bids him send a messenger to Aratta, who ascends and descends the "Zubi" mountains, and crosses Susa , Anshan, and "five, six, seven" mountains before approaching Aratta. Aratta in turn wants grain in exchange. However Inana transfers her allegiance to Uruk, and

594-494: Is the prologue to the epic poem Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld , which briefly describes the process of creation: originally, there was only Nammu , the primeval sea. Then, Nammu without a father gave birth to Utu , then went on to create An the sky, and Ki , the earth. An and Ki mated with each other, causing Ki to give birth to Enlil , the god of wind, rain, and storm. Enlil separated An from Ki and carried off

660-630: The Enûma Eliš ). The Sumerian-Akkadian pantheon was altered, most notably with the introduction of a new supreme deity, Marduk . The Sumerian goddess Inanna also developed the counterpart Ishtar during the Old Babylonian Period. The Hurrians adopted the Akkadian god Anu into their pantheon sometime no later than 1200 BC. Other Sumerian and Akkadian deities adapted into the Hurrian pantheon include Ayas,

726-597: The Mahabharata and other texts. Alternatively, the name is compared with the toponym Ararat or Urartu . Sumerian myth Before the beginning of kingship in Sumer , the city-states were effectively ruled by theocratic priests and religious officials. Later, this role was supplanted by kings, but priests continued to exert great influence on Sumerian society. In early times, Sumerian temples were simple, one-room structures, sometimes built on elevated platforms. Towards

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792-570: The Sumerian King List where many references are made to rulers of Awan . Manishtushu claimed to have subjugated Anshan, but as the Akkadian empire weakened under his successors, the native governor of Susa , Kutik-Inshushinak , a scion of the Awan dynasty , proclaimed his independence from Akkad and captured Anshan. Following this, Gudea of Lagash claimed to have subjugated Anshan in 2200 BC and

858-479: The Himalayan Mountains to Mesopotamia , which ran through northern Iran . Anshan, which had not yet been located then, was assumed to be in the central Zagros mountain range. However, when Anshan was identified as Tall-i Malyan in 1973, it was found to be 600 km south-east of Uruk, far removed from any northerly routes or watercourses from Uruk, and posing the logistical improbability of getting

924-514: The Neo-Sumerian rulers Shulgi and Shu-Sin of Ur are said to have maintained their own governors over the place. However their successor, Ibbi-Sin , seems to have spent his reign engaged in a losing struggle to maintain control over Anshan, ultimately resulting in the Elamite sack of Ur in 2004 BC, at which time the statue of Nanna , and Ibbi-Sin himself, were captured and removed to Anshan. In

990-456: The Third Dynasty of Ur , the Sumerian pantheon was said to include sixty times sixty (3600) deities. Enlil was the god of air, wind, and storm. He was also the chief god of the Sumerian pantheon and the patron deity of the city of Nippur . His primary consort was Ninlil , the goddess of the south wind, who was one of the patron deities of Nippur and was believed to reside in

1056-550: The galla dragging the god Dumuzid into the underworld. The later Mesopotamians knew this underworld by its East Semitic name: Irkalla . During the Akkadian Period , Ereshkigal's role as the ruler of the underworld was assigned to Nergal , the god of death. The Akkadians attempted to harmonize this dual rulership of the underworld by making Nergal Ereshkigal's husband. It is generally agreed that Sumerian civilization began at some point between c. 4500 and 4000 BC, but

1122-600: The 7th century BC, having been captured by Teispes (675–640 BC), who was an ancestor of Cyrus the Great and styled himself "the great king, king of Anshan". For another century during the period of Elamite decline, Anshan was a minor kingdom, until the Achaemenids in the 6th century BC embarked on a series of conquests from Anshan, which became the nucleus of the Persian Empire . The most famous conqueror who rose from Anshan

1188-591: The Hurrian counterpart to Ea; Shaushka, the Hurrian counterpart to Ishtar; and the goddess Ninlil , whose mythos had been drastically expanded by the Babylonians. Some stories recorded in the older parts of the Hebrew Bible bear strong similarities to the stories in Sumerian mythology. For example, the biblical account of Noah and the Great Flood bears a striking resemblance to the Sumerian deluge myth , recorded in

1254-489: The Old Babylonian period, king Gungunum of Larsa dated his 5th regnal year after the destruction of Anshan. During the early Elamite period, the rulers were known as the kings of Awan, but later on, they are referred to as the kings of Anzan, Susa, and Elam. There is also evidence that suggests Awan may have been a political district that was a part of a larger Anshan. Particularly since it has been discovered that Anshan

1320-638: The Old Babylonian variant of the Akkadian language , and date back to the Old Babylonian period c. 1800 BC. These tablets signify a Mesopotamian influence. The third set of tablets (in Level II), in Elamite cuneiform , are the ones used by Erica Reiner to positively identify Anshan's location. They date from the later part of the Middle Elamite Period and are mostly part of an archive. The building containing

1386-612: The Pennsylvania team at the site. The oldest group contains 33 tablets and fragments made of unbaked clay that date back to the third millennium BC (in Level III). Some were found in excavation area ABC in the main mound in a monumental building structures with the rest in smaller structures in Operation TUV. That set of tablets has not been translated because the writing is Proto-Elamite . The next set of tablets are inscribed in Cuneiform , in

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1452-439: The Sumerian city Shuruppak related to its local name for the god Enlil ; however that is no longer seen to be the case. Although Aratta is known only from myth , some Assyriologists and archaeologists have speculated on possible locations where Aratta could have been, using criteria from the myths: In 1963, Samuel Noah Kramer thought that a "Mount Hurum" in a Lugalbanda myth (which he titled "Lugalbanda on Mount Hurrum" at

1518-448: The advent of the Lugal ("King"), Sumerian city-states were under a virtually theocratic government controlled by various En or Ensí , who served as the high priests of the cults of the city gods. (Their female equivalents were known as Nin .) Priests were responsible for continuing the cultural and religious traditions of their city-state, and were viewed as mediators between humans and

1584-425: The cosmic and terrestrial forces. The priesthood resided full-time in temple complexes, and administered matters of state including the large irrigation processes necessary for the civilization's survival. Some cities in Sumer had periods where their kings were worshipped as gods, and occasionally, these times spread to all cities in the region. During the Third Dynasty of Ur , the Sumerian city-state of Lagash

1650-573: The dead to drink. Nonetheless, there are assumptions according to which treasures in wealthy graves had been intended as offerings for Utu and the Anunnaki , so that the deceased would receive special favors in the underworld. During the Third Dynasty of Ur , it was believed that a person's treatment in the afterlife depended on how he or she was buried; those that had been given sumptuous burials would be treated well, but those who had been given poor burials would fare poorly, and were believed to haunt

1716-532: The earliest historical records only date to around 2900 BC. The Sumerians originally practiced a polytheistic religion, with anthropomorphic deities representing cosmic and terrestrial forces in their world. The earliest Sumerian literature of the third millennium BC identifies four primary deities: An , Enlil , Ninhursag , and Enki . These early deities were believed to occasionally behave mischievously towards each other, but were generally viewed as being involved in co-operative creative ordering. During

1782-431: The earth as his domain, while An carried off the sky. The ancient Mesopotamians regarded the sky as a series of domes (usually three, but sometimes seven) covering the flat earth and a place where holy stars resided. Each dome was made of a different kind of precious stone. The lowest dome of heaven was made of jasper and was the home of the stars . The middle dome of heaven was made of saggilmut stone and

1848-450: The earth as his domain. Humans were believed to have been created by AnKi or Enki , the son of the An and Ki. Heaven was reserved exclusively for deities and, upon their deaths, all mortals' spirits, regardless of their behavior while alive, were believed to go to Kur , a cold, dark cavern deep beneath the earth, which was ruled by the goddess Ereshkigal and where the only food available

1914-499: The earth was named Ki . First the underground world was believed to be an extension of the goddess Ki, but later developed into the concept of Kur . The primordial saltwater sea was named Nammu , who became known as Tiamat during and after the Ur III period . Some ancient Sumerians believed that salt and other minerals were alive, and could even think independent thoughts. The main source of information about Sumerian creation mythology

1980-453: The edge to the top of Anshan and then to Uruk, where Inana helps him. She advises Enmerkar to carry off Aratta's "worked metal and metalsmiths and worked stone and stonemasons" and all the "moulds of Aratta will be his". Then the city is described as having battlements made of green lapis lazuli and bricks made of "tinstone dug out in the mountains where the cypress grows". Early 20th century scholars initially took Aratta to be an epithet of

2046-433: The end of Sumerian civilization, these temples developed into ziggurats —tall, pyramidal structures with sanctuaries at the tops. The Sumerians believed that the universe had come into being through a series of cosmic births such as gods. First, Nammu , the primeval waters, gave birth to Ki (the earth) and An (the sky), who mated together and produced a son named Enlil . Enlil separated heaven from earth and claimed

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2112-399: The end of the Sumerian civilization, ziggurats became the preferred temple structure for Mesopotamian religious centers. Temples served as cultural, religious, and political headquarters until approximately 2500 BC, with the rise of military kings known as Lu-gals ("man" + "big") after which time the political and military leadership was often housed in separate "palace" complexes. Until

2178-541: The gods as living in a feudal society with class structure . Powerful deities such as Enki and Inanna became seen as receiving their power from the chief god Enlil . The majority of Sumerian deities belonged to a classification called the Anunna ("[offspring] of An "), whereas seven deities, including Enlil and Inanna, belonged to a group of "underworld judges" known as the Anunnaki ("[offspring] of An" + Ki ). During

2244-425: The grain gains the favor of Aratta's people for Uruk, so the lord of Aratta challenges Enmerkar to send a champion to fight his champion. Then the god Ishkur makes Aratta's crops grow. Enmerkar and En-suhgir-ana - The lord of Aratta, who is here named En-suhgir-ana (or Ensuhkeshdanna ), challenges Enmerkar of Uruk to submit to him over the affections of Inanna, but he is rebuffed by Enmerkar. A sorcerer from

2310-634: The living. The entrance to Kur was believed to be located in the Zagros Mountains in the far east. It had seven gates, through which a soul needed to pass. The god Neti was the gatekeeper. Ereshkigal's sukkal , or messenger, was the god Namtar . Galla were a class of demons that were believed to reside in the underworld; their primary purpose appears to have been to drag unfortunate mortals back to Kur. They are frequently referenced in magical texts, and some texts describe them as being seven in number. Several extant poems describe

2376-429: The main cities of the region, thanks to its location on important trade routes. During the ' Banesh period' (3400-2800), at 50 hectares (120 acres), it was 5 times the size of Susa . The Marv Dasht area, where the highland city of Anshan is located, is a complex of several interconnected valleys and plains. During the mid-late Banesh Period (3100-2800 BC) Anshan also had a walled area of 200 hectares. It also featured

2442-579: The mid-17th century BC. During the Old Babylonian Period , the Sumerian and Akkadian languages were retained for religious purposes; the majority of Sumerian mythological literature known to historians today comes from the Old Babylonian Period, either in the form of transcribed Sumerian texts (most notably the Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh ) or in the form of Sumerian and Akkadian influences within Babylonian mythological literature (most notably

2508-433: The middle of the third millennium BC, Sumerian society became more urbanized. As a result of this, Sumerian deities began to lose their original associations with nature and became the patrons of various cities. Each Sumerian city-state had its own specific patron deity, who was believed to protect the city and defend its interests. Lists of large numbers of Sumerian deities have been found. Their order of importance and

2574-700: The moon. During the Akkadian Empire , Inanna , the goddess of sex, beauty, and warfare, was widely venerated across Sumer and appeared in many myths, including the famous story of her descent into the Underworld . Sumerian religion heavily influenced the religious beliefs of later Mesopotamian peoples ; elements of it are retained in the mythologies and religions of the Hurrians , Akkadians , Babylonians , Assyrians , and other Middle Eastern culture groups. Scholars of comparative mythology have noticed parallels between

2640-589: The morning and evening star. Her main cult center was the Eanna temple in Uruk , which had been originally dedicated to An. Deified kings may have re-enacted the marriage of Inanna and Dumuzid with priestesses. Accounts of her parentage vary; in most myths, she is usually presented as the daughter of Nanna and Ningal, but, in other stories, she is the daughter of Enki or An along with an unknown mother. The Sumerians had more myths about her than any other deity. Many of

2706-500: The myths involving her revolve around her attempts to usurp control of the other deities' domains. Utu was god of the sun, whose primary center of worship was the E-babbar temple in Sippar . Utu was principally regarded as a dispenser of justice; he was believed to protect the righteous and punish the wicked. Nanna was god of the moon and of wisdom. He was the father of Utu and one of

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2772-449: The original Akkadian belief systems that have been mostly lost to history. Sumerian deities developed Akkadian counterparts. Some remained virtually the same until later Babylonian and Assyrian rule. The Sumerian god An, for example, developed the Akkadian counterpart Anu; the Sumerian god Enki became Ea . The gods Ninurta and Enlil kept their original Sumerian names. The Amorite Babylonians gained dominance over southern Mesopotamia by

2838-538: The original patron deity of Uruk . Most major gods had a so-called sukkal , a minor deity serving as their vizier, messenger or doorkeeper. The Sumerians had an ongoing linguistic and cultural exchange with the Semitic Akkadian peoples in northern Mesopotamia for generations prior to the usurpation of their territories by Sargon of Akkad in 2340 BC. Sumerian mythology and religious practices were rapidly integrated into Akkadian culture, presumably blending with

2904-472: The patron deities of Ur . He may have also been the father of Inanna and Ereshkigal. Ningal was the wife of Nanna, as well as the mother of Utu, Inanna, and Ereshkigal. Ereshkigal was the goddess of the Sumerian Underworld , which was known as Kur . She was Inanna's older sister. In later myth, her husband was the god Nergal . The gatekeeper of the underworld was the god Neti . Nammu

2970-646: The recently defeated Hamazi then arrives in Aratta, and offers to make Uruk submit. The sorcerer travels to Eresh where he bewitches Enmerkar's livestock, but a wise woman outperforms his magic and casts him into the Euphrates; En-suhgir-ana then admits the loss of Inanna, and submits his kingdom to Uruk. Lugalbanda in the Mountain Cave - is a tale of Lugalbanda , who will become Enmerkar 's successor. Enmerkar's army travels through mountainous territory to wage war against rebellious Aratta. Lugalbanda falls ill and

3036-544: The relationships between the deities has been examined during the study of cuneiform tablets. During the late 2000s BC, the Sumerians were conquered by the Akkadians . The Akkadians syncretized their own gods with the Sumerian ones, causing Sumerian religion to take on a Semitic coloration. Male deities became dominant and the gods completely lost their original associations with natural phenomena. People began to view

3102-607: The remains of a city wall, 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) in length and 20 meters wide, which dates from the Late Banesh and Kaftari periods. A small site about 300 meters northeast from the main mound was termed the TUV Mound by the excavators. This area was only occupied during the Banesh phase of the late fourth millennium BC when it covered 3 hectares and the main site had an area of about 50 hectares. Proto-Elamite tablets were found at TUV at

3168-494: The rule of the Persians in the 7th century BC and then became one of the early capitals of Persia . Most of what is known about Anshan has been discovered through ancient artifacts discovered in archaeological digs at Tall-e Malyan and passages in early Mesopotamian and Elamite texts. Anshan is considered to be the origin of one of the world's oldest known civilizations. It was occupied continuously from before 4000 BC to 1000 BC and

3234-593: The same level as in the main mound. The site was first worked by Hassan Nader and Fereidoon Tavallali of the Archaeological Service of Iran in 1961. No records or publications of that effort appear to exist, though some artifacts ended up in the Persepolis Museum. Scientific excavation began in 1971 with a team, led by William Sumner, from the University of Pennsylvania and Ohio State University after

3300-414: The same temple as Enlil. Ninurta was the son of Enlil and Ninlil. He was worshipped as the god of war, agriculture, and one of the Sumerian wind gods. He was the patron deity of Girsu and one of the patron deities of Lagash . "Sumerian cities each had their own gods but acknowledged the supremacy of...Enlil." Enki was god of freshwater, male fertility, and knowledge. His most important cult center

3366-505: The stories of the ancient Sumerians and those recorded later in the early parts of the Hebrew Bible . Sumerian myths were passed down through the oral tradition until the invention of writing (the earliest myth discovered so far, the Epic of Gilgamesh , is Sumerian and is written on a series of fractured clay tablets). Early Sumerian cuneiform was used primarily as a record-keeping tool; it

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3432-471: The tablets was destroyed by fire which baked the tablets but in collapsing damaged a number of them. About 50 tablets are complete. An agreement was made between the researchers and the Iranian government that the Iranian government could choose ten artifacts and the remaining items would be divided between evenly between the two parties. The Iranian government chose to take several of the tablets in their choice of

3498-482: The time) might have referred to the Hurrians , and hence speculated Aratta to be near Lake Urmia . However, "Mount Hurum", "hur-ru-um kur-ra-ka" , in what is now called Lugalbanda in the Mountain Cave , is today read "mountain cave", and Kramer subsequently introduced the title "Lugalbanda, the Wandering Hero" for this story. Other speculations referred to the early gem trade route, the " Great Khorasan Road " from

3564-598: Was Cyrus the Great . Evidence of the connection to the Achaemenid Empire can be linked through writings on the Cyrus Cylinder which trace the lineage of Cyrus the Great . Cyrus is referred to as the "king of the city of Anshan" and his ancestors as "the great king, king of the city of Anshan" The site of Anshan covers around 200 hectares. The main feature is a low flat-topped mound of about 130 hectares running 4–6 metres (13–20 ft) in height. On three sides are

3630-419: Was a goddess representing the primeval waters (Engur), who gave birth to An (heaven) and Ki (earth) and the first deities; while she is rarely attested as an object of cult, she likely played a central role in the early cosmogony of Eridu, and in later periods continued to appear in texts related to exorcisms. An was the ancient Sumerian god of the heavens. He was the ancestor of all the other major deities and

3696-469: Was an Elamite and ancient Persian city. It was located in the Zagros Mountains in southwestern Iran , approximately 46 kilometres (29 mi) north of Shiraz and 43 kilometres (27 mi) west of Persepolis in the Beyza / Ramjerd plain, in the province of Fars . It was one of the earliest urban states to exist, and one of the earliest capitals of Elam from the late 4th millennium BC. It fell under

3762-448: Was believed to be ruled by the goddess Ereshkigal . All souls went to the same afterlife, and a person's actions during life had no effect on how the person would be treated in the world to come. The souls in Kur were believed to eat nothing but dry dust and family members of the deceased would ritually pour libations into the dead person's grave through a clay pipe, thereby allowing

3828-401: Was dry dust. In later times, Ereshkigal was believed to rule alongside her husband Nergal , the god of death. The major deities in the Sumerian pantheon included An, the god of the heavens, Enlil, the god of wind and storm, AnKi Enki, the god of water and human culture, Ninhursag , the goddess of fertility and the earth, Utu , the god of the sun and justice, and his father Nanna , the god of

3894-485: Was not until the late Early Dynastic period that religious writings first became prevalent as temple praise hymns and as a form of "incantation" called the nam-šub (prefix + "to cast"). These tablets were also made of stone clay or stone, and they used a small pick to make the symbols. In the Sumerian city-states, temple complexes originally were small, elevated one-room structures. In the early dynastic period, temples developed raised terraces and multiple rooms. Toward

3960-449: Was politically and culturally advanced. From the 15th century BC, Elamite rulers at Susa began using the title "King of Anshan and Susa" (in Akkadian texts, the toponyms are reversed, as "King of Susa and Anshan"), and it seems probable that Anshan and Susa were in fact unified for much of the "Middle Elamite period". The last king to claim this title was Shutruk-Nahhunte II (ca. 717-699 BC). Anshan fell under Persis Achaemenid rule in

4026-568: Was politically tied to the Elamites at Susa, as well as the Mesopotamians . Its exact location was unknown to scholars until 1973 when artifacts, uncovered through archaeological digs at Tall-i Malyan, confirmed its location. Prior to that scholars only knew of it to be somewhere in the central Zagros mountain range. During the Proto-Elamite period (late fourth millennium BC), it became one of

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4092-412: Was published in a French archaeological publication which contained inscriptions from this brick that were key to identifying the lost city of Anshan These inscriptions were written in Elamite and believed to be part of a temple built by the Elamite kings to honor the gods at Anshan. The inscription contained the name of the Elamite ruler Hutelutush-Inshushinak and his sons and daughters. After translating

4158-457: Was said to have had sixty-two "lamentation priests" who were accompanied by 180 vocalists and instrumentalists. The Sumerians envisioned the universe as a closed dome surrounded by a primordial saltwater sea. Underneath the terrestrial earth, which formed the base of the dome, existed an underworld and a freshwater ocean called the Abzu . The deity of the dome-shaped firmament was named An ; that of

4224-452: Was the E-abzu temple in the city of Eridu . He was the patron and creator of humanity and the sponsor of human culture. His primary consort was Ninhursag , the Sumerian goddess of the earth. Ninhursag was worshipped in the cities of Kesh and Adab . Inanna was the Sumerian goddess of love, sexuality, prostitution, and war. She was the divine personification of the planet Venus ,

4290-505: Was the abode of the Igigi . The highest and outermost dome of heaven was made of luludānītu stone and was personified as An , the god of the sky. The celestial bodies were equated with specific deities as well. The planet Venus was believed to be Inanna , the goddess of love, sex, and war. The sun was her brother Utu , the god of justice, and the moon was their father Nanna . Ordinary mortals could not go to heaven because it

4356-410: Was the abode of the gods alone. Instead, after a person died, his or her soul went to Kur (later known as Irkalla ), a dark shadowy underworld , located deep below the surface of the earth. The Sumerian afterlife was a dark, dreary cavern located deep below the ground, where inhabitants were believed to continue "a shadowy version of life on earth". This bleak domain was known as Kur , and

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