Maps of Ancient Lower Mesopotamia's "Sealand" (Akkadian/Babylonian: Mat Tamti) and the land of Dilmun
16 March 2008 (Revisions through 18 July 2008)
This article in a nutshell:
A search of the internet for a map of Ancient Lower Mesopotamia's area called the Sealand or Mat Tamti was without success, so I have decided to post such a map here. My primary interest is in identifying the pre-biblical origins of the mythical biblical Garden of Eden in Mesopotamian myths. I understand one of Eden's precursors is the fabled land of Dilmun said to have been located in "the Sea," which apparently (cf. below) was a _euphemism_ for "the Sealand" or Mat Tamti, thus the reason for maps showing the Sealand in this article.
According to ancient Mesopotamian myths in the beginning all was sea, then in the midst of the sea a freshwater stream emerged and broke through to the sea's surface. Land was gathered about this freshwater conduit and the Sumerian city of Eridug was established by the Sumerian god called Enki. The Akkadians (Babylonians) would call Sumerian Eridug Eridu and Enki Ea, (Ea meaning according to some "house of water"). Enki/Ea was envsioned as not only being the god of freshwaters but also the creator of mankind. He made man to till and tend his garden which possessed fruit trees at Eridu, replacing the Igigi gods who had complained of their grievous toil in caring for his garden. The uncultivated land surrounding Sumer's cities and their gardens of the gods which included fields surrounding the cities was called in Sumerian eden or edin (both spellings appear in the professional literature).
Eridu is described as being "at the shore of the sea" in various hymns. Surprisingly this "sea" is also referred to as a snake marsh and Enki enjoyed punting his boat in this area. Apparently the Sealand or Tamti was the marshlands east of Sumer and west of Elam. The Mesopotamians may have envisioned the marshlands and their lagoons as the original primitive state of the "first land" that had emerged from the sea in their myths.
Beek on the "seacoast" being at Eridu (I note that Sennacherib said that Babylon's dust reached "THE SEA" via the Euphrates river and Dilmun, perhaps Sennacherib's "sea" is Shulgi's "sea," the tamti or Sealand ?:
"Shulgi, the son of Ur-Nammu, devoted special care to the city of Eridu, which lay on the sea coast...Perhaps people considered the extensive area of swamps... as forming part of the sea?"
(p. 10. Martin Beek. Atlas of Mesopotamia. London. Thomas Nelson & Sons. 1962)
There are some "surprises" here regarding the Sealand or Tamti. Many maps of Ancient Lower Mesopotamia drawn up by scholars from circa 1881 to 2008 show the Persian Gulf as ending at or near Ur and Eridu based on the ancient texts stating that Eridu was near the "shore of the Sea."
In 1960 Georges Roux visited this area and was able to establish the existence of several ancient tells dating from the 2d millennium B.C. making it quite clear that the Persian Gulf's (Arabian Gulf's) shore was _not_ at Ur or Eridu despite these cities being described in 2d millennium B.C. texts as at the "Sea's shore," the area immediately east of these two Sumerian cities was in fact a region consisting of freshwater lagoons, marshes and _areas of open land_ which could be cultivated. Roux plotted the remains of the Euphrates river winding its way through these marshlands and their lagoons and noted the ancient settlements near this river and traces of their irrigated fields and wells.
Sargon of Akkad (circa 2350-2300 B.C.) boasted of circling the Sealand and conquering Dilmun. I suspect that Dilmun is in the Sealand or marshlands east of Eridu and Ur and it is not the island of Bahrein (or Failaka) in the Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf) as is understood by most scholars.
From the below verses I draw the conclusion that the "land of the sea" is the Tamti marshlands east of Eridu and Ur and west of Elam, where lie Dilmun, Magan and Meluhha.
"The [la]nd of the sea I seiged three times, I conquered Dilmun.
I went up to great Der...
Whatsoever king who shall arise after me...
Let him siege the [la]nd of the sea three times,
[Let him conquer Dilmun].
Let him go up [to] great Der..."
(p. 165. Sargon of Akkad, 2334-2279 BC. Benjamin R. Foster. From Distant Days, Myths, Tales, and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia. Bethseda, Maryland. CDL Press. 1995. ISBN 1-883053-09-9. paperback)
If Shulgi's "Sea" is the Marshlands east of Eridu perhaps the "Sea" associated with Dilmun, Magan and Meluhha is the Sealands?
"They destroyed Gutium and invaded Elam,
They destroyed Elam and arrived at the seacoast,
They killed the people of the (sea) crossing.
They were thrown to [ ],
Dilmun, Magan, Meluhha,
Whatever is in the midst of the sea they killed."
(p. 173. "Legend of Naram-Sin, 2254-2218 B.C." Benjamin R. Foster. From Distant Days, Myths, Tales, and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia. Bethseda, Maryland. CDL Press. 1995. ISBN 1-883053-09-9. paperback)
Professor Potts on the term 'sea' being applied by the ancients to marshlands or swamps with their lagoons as well as the open sea of the Persian Gulf and thus it is an error to think Ur and Eridu which are described as near a 'sea,' are implying the Persian Gulf, instead 'the sea' is actually an area of lagoons and marshes:
"The same caveats noted by Waetzoldt must also be applied to the accounts of Sennacherib's campaign against Elam in 696 B.C., according to which 'ships of my warriors reached the swamps at the mouth of the river where the Euphrates carries its waters into the fearful sea'...In all these cases, however, whether Ur and Eridu in the third millennium, or the expedition of Sennacherib against Elam, references to 'the sea' must be treated cautiously. Not only has Waetzoldt shown that, in early sources, the same terms are used for marsh/swamp and open water, but more recently S.W. Cole has demonstrated clearly that a large marsh around the site of Borsippa, southwest of Babylon and far from even the northernmost line of the Gulf, projected by de Morgan or Larsen, was routinely called the 'sea' (Akkadian tamirtu) in texts dating to the Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid periods (Cole 1994:81-109). Clearly, therefore, references to 'the sea' are ambiguous and must be examined more closely in conjunction with other types of evidence before they are taken to refer to the open waters of the Gulf itself. Indeed, this point is brought home forcibly by the very designation of southernmost Mesopotamia from the early second millennium B.C. onwards."
(p. 36. "The Progradation of the Tigris-Euphrates Delta." pp. 30-41. D. T. Potts. Mesopotamian Civilization: The Material Foundations. Ithaca, New York. Cornell University Press. 1997)
Potts noted that ancient texts from Nippur reveal the products from the Sealand were cattle, grain and dates:
"In cuneiform sources southernmost Mesopotamia was known as mat tamti(im) (Sumerian KUR.A.AB.BA), the 'Sealand' (Brinkman 1993:6)...a small group of texts from Nippur which mention cattle from the Sealand, K. Kessler has suggested that this region was one of the principal stock-breeding regions of the Kassite state, providing cattle...Grain and dates from the Sealand are also mentioned in Kassite texts from Nippur, suggesting that the area was agriculturally important as well at this time. In the Neo-Assyrian period the Sealand was the home of the important Chaldean tribe, Bit-Jakin, against whom numerous Assyrian monarchs campaigned. In the Neo-Babylonian period the Sealand remained a province of the empire, at least through the reign of Nebuchrezzar II (604-562 B.C.), and it again became one under the Achaemenid king Cambyses (529-522 B.C. (Joannes 1990:177)."
(p. 36. Potts. 1997)
Texts about Enki of Eridu have him blessing various localities near Sumer, one of which is Dilmun. It is interesting to note here what products are blessed by Enki: lagoons filled with fish and dates. A number of scholars understand from texts that Dilmun boats traded copper with Sumer, yet the Enki blessing does not mention any metals or precious stones. Timber is also noted in Sumerian texts being brought in boats coming from Dilmun and Potts has noted timber was a 'marshland' product:
"...texts from Girsu...forty texts concern 'wood newly cut from the marsh woodlands..."
(p. 109. Potts. 1997)
Professor Potts on the Sealand and their ancient settlements, citing the work of various scholars including Georges Roux's discoveries (1960) near the Hor al-Hammar Lagoon, arguing this are was _never_ submerged by the Persian or Arabian Gulf:
"In cuneiform sources southernmost Mesopotamia was known as mat tamti(m) (Sumerian KUR A.AB.BA), the 'Sealand'...While B. Meissner could claim in 1920 that the lack of mounds in this region made it certain that it had been under water (Meissner 1920:4), G. Roux's survey of the Hor al-Hammar (fig. 1.17) showed that this was purely the result of insufficient exploration (Roux 1960:30), for there is in fact a string of mounds 'extending in an almost straight line from Tell Lahm to a point 23 miles north of Basrah' which, Roux suggests 'provides a strong argument against the classical theory according to which the whole of this region was under sea-water from prehistoric times to the dawn of the Christian era' (Roux 1960:30). The existence of sites such as Tells Kirbasi, al-Lahm, Aqram and Abu Salabikh in the area of the modern Hor al-Hammar underscores the fact that, from at least the early second millennium B.C. onwards, this was a populated area which, while it may have been marshy, was certainly not submerged beneath the Gulf. Rising no more than 2 meters above the water line, Tell Kirbasi is today periodically surrounded by water, yet it is difficult to imagine that a site like this was located on an island in the Kassite period, for there is little reason to suppose that if this were the case, Tell Kirbasi or indeed the Sealand generally would have been cited as a source of cattle and cereals. Thus, de Morgan's suggested shoreline in the time of Sennacherib would place under water sites such as Tell al-Lahm which we now know were occupied during the Neo-Assyrian period! The discovery of a cylinder of Nabonidus (555-539 B.C.) at Tell al-Lahm...moreover, confirms that 150 years after Sennacherib's time, the region was most definitely not submerged, and indeed Sanlaville's sea-level curve shows that sea-levels throughout the second millennium B.C. were only marginally higher (less than 1 meter) than they are today, while from the Neo-Assyrian through the latter part of the Parthian era, they were, contrary to de Morgan's belief, significantly lower than modern levels.
That is not to say, however, that the entire area of southernmost Mesopotamia was dry land, or that references to 'the sea' in Sennacherib's account or in texts relating to Ur and Eridu do not refer to some inland body or bodies of water which actually existed...more recently Adams has suggested, 'We may have to deal in in the past, as to a lesser extent we still do today, not with a well-defined shoreline but with a progression of swamps and more and more open, more brackish or saline lagoons' (Adams 1981:16). Nevertheless, this does not necessarily mean that the Hor al-Hammar itself existed when the sites found by Roux were inhabitated. As Roux himself remarked, the existence of relict canals near Tell Abu Salabikh and a well at Tell Aqram suggest that this region was once cultivated, as indeed the Kassite cuneiform sources cited above confirm, and drier than it is today."
(pp. 37-38. Potts.1997)
"Finally, had the Gulf actually reached the area of Ur, Eridu or Tello, one must ask whether these sites could have then existed. W. Nutzel has noted that the tidal pattern in the northern Gulf affects the waters of the Shatt al-Arab in that salt-waters enters it at least as far as Abdul Khasib, circa 10 kilometers east of Basra. The interchange of salt and sweet water would have made irrigation from such water impossible, for none of the staple cereals grown in antiquity would have been able to tolerate water with such a high salt content. Therefore, settlements must always have been situated outside the zone affected by such an interchange. The very existence of sites like Ur, or for that matter, the mounds discussed above in the Hor al-Hammar district, Nutzel argues, precludes the possibility that salt-water was present in close proximity to them (Nutzel 1980:98-9)."
(p. 39. Potts.1997)
Georges Roux's 1960 map of the Hawr al Hammar Lagoon and area reveals that in antiquity the Euphrates apparently winded its way (the Euphrates being the dotted line extending from Ur to Tell Abu Salabikh) through the marshlands..
Roux discovered along this river a number of ancient settlements dated to the 2d millennium B.C. That is to say Eridu, despite the texts declaring it lay "at the edge of the Sea," was _not_ the easternmost settlement in Lower Mesopotamia!
The marshlands east of Ur and Eridu had the following "pre-Islamic" settlements (Triangles/Pyramids), listed here from West to East of Ur and Eridu (inverted triangles/pyramids are Islamic sites), all of which lay within the "alluvium" boundary caused by the Euphrates' waters, which fed the marshes and the lagoons: (1) Tell Murajib, (2) Tell Abu Rasain, (3) Tell Tuwayyil, (4) Tell Lahm, (5) Tell Jabarah, (6) Tell Jedejdah, (7) Tell Agram, (8) Tell Abu Salabikh, (9) Tell Nahr 'Umar (cf. p. 37, map titled "The Hor-al-Hammar." Figure 1.17. Archaeological sites in the Hor al-Hammar (after Roux 1960: Map 1)." D. T. Potts. Mesopotamian Civilization, The Material Remains. Ithaca, New York. Cornell University Press. 1997. For Roux's commentary accompanying the below map cf. Georges Roux. "Recently discovered ancient sites in the Hammar Lake District (southern Iraq)." Sumer. Vol. 16. 1960. pp. 20-31. Missing from this map is another 2d millennium B.C. site, Tell al Kirbasi between Tells Agram and Abu Salabikh. Please note the four triangles north of the Hor ha Hamar and south of Hor Sallar which are un-named, they apparently mark other 2d millennium B.C. sites?)
Below, a map showing the Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf) extending to Ur and Eridu (cf. p. 141. James Henry Breasted. Ancient Times, A History of the Early World. Volume I. The Ancient Near East. 1st Edition 1916, 2nd edition. 1967. Boston, Ginn & Company). To this day, 2008, many are _unaware_ of Roux's 1960 findings and Potts' 1997 note of caution about "the Sea" or Sealand being an area of lagoons, marshes and open areas of land which in antiquity were cultivated in 2d millennium B.C. times. I understand that Dilmun lies in the Sealand. Today the Tigris and Euphrates meet at Qurnah where some Arab traditions fix the location of the Garden of Eden. However, the below map shows the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates _not_ to be at Qurnah, but at or near Lagash and Ur. The flood-hero variously rendered Ziusudra, Atra-Khasis or Utnapishtim was settled in the land of Dilmun "at the mouth of the rivers," generally understood to be the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates. Could one of the islands maked off as dotted lines between Lagash and Ur be the mysterious kur Dilmun, "the land of Dilmun"? (Please click here for my article on Dilmun's location).
Heidel on the flood-hero's being settled at the "mouth of the rivers":
"But now Utnapishtim and his wife shall be like unto us gods.
In the distance, at the mouth of the rivers, Utnapishtim
shall dwell!
So they took me and caused me to dwell in the distance, at
the mouth of the rivers."
(p.88. "Tablet XI." Alexander Heidel. The Gilgamesh Epic and the Old Testament Parallels. Chicago & London. The University of Chicago Press. 1946, 1949. Reprint of 1993)
Below, a map showing the Akkadian/Babylonian province called Mat Tamti (mat= land, tamti=sea) or "Sealand" as lying just east of Ur and Eridu in ancient Sumer circa the 8th-6th centuries B.C. and comprising the marshlands which today surround the Hor al-Hammar lagoon. The Cartographers show the Euphrates passing to the north of the Hor al-Hammar lagoon _contra_ Roux's map showing it passed the southside of the lagoon. Today the Euphrates does indeed pass to the north of the Hor al-Hammar lagoon. Perhaps these cartographers were _unaware_ of Roux's research which was published in 1960 and Pott's published in 1997? (cf. map plate: BIV-13."The Neo-Assyrian Empire, 760-612 BC and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, 612-539 B.C." Siegfried Mittmann & Gotz Schmitt, editors. Tubinger Bibelatlas. Tubingen, Deutschland. Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft. 2001).
Professor Albright on the location of Dilmun which he calls the "Babylonian Elysium," being at first in the marshlands east of the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (please note Albright is writing this in 1919, just 3 years after Professor Breasted's above map was published in 1916 showing the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates as entering the Persian Gulf or "Sea" near Lagash and Ur. The Tubinger Bibelatlas reveals this area was called the Sealand or Mat Tamti and Sargon of Akkad boasted of conquering the Sealand and Dilmun):
"According to Babylonian mythology, the flood-hero, Utnapishtim, was given eternal life by the gods after the deluge, and was translated to the pi narati, or "mouth of the rivers"...It is at present quite generally supposed that the pi narati was originally the delta of the Two Rivers, which in early times emptied into the gulf through separate mouths, and that when the Babylonians became better acquainted with the interior of the marshes they removed their Elysium to some distant region toward the setting sun."
(p. 161. W. F. Albright. "The Mouth of the Rivers." pp. 161-195. The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures. Vol. XXXV. No. 4. July. 1919)
Professor Thorkild Jacobsen of Dilmun's setting being the marshes of southern Mesopotamia (Please click here for the full text):
Enki...He brings fresh water underground from the Euphrates at the Sumerian port of Izin and has it fill the large footprints made by the sun god as he steps from Dilmun up into heaven, much as footprints in marshy ground will fill up with water...Dilmun; for the scene of the second story is most naturally seen as the marshes in southern Mesopotamia."
(p. 182. "Enki and Ninsikila/Ninhursaga." Thorkild Jacobsen. The Harps That Once...Sumerian Poetry in Translation. New Haven & London. Yale University Press. 1987. paperback)
Professor Kramer thought a great fresh-water lake lay to the east of ancient Sumer (I note this area appears to be the Mat Tamti (cf. the above maps):
"In Sumerian times a large fresh-water lake lay beyond the head of the Persian Gulf."
(For the below map cf. p. 181. Map titled "Sumer and its neighbors." Samuel Noah Kramer. "The Sumerians." pp. 179-190 in C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, editor. Hunters, Farmers, and Civilizations: Old World Archaeology. San Francisco. W.H. Freeman and Company. 1979. [This article originally appearing in the Scientific American magazine of October 1957])
Note: Roux's (1960) map of this region reveals that this area was _not_ a part of the Persian Gulf or a great freshwater-lake, it was apparently a marsh with open areas of land through which flowed the Euphrates in the 2d millennium B.C., several settlements dating to this period being found. As is quite clear from the below map the "mouth of the rivers" (pi narate) where Dilmun was located in ancient texts, was _not_ at Qurna where the white dotted lines converge for the Euphrates and Tigris today, but farther west of Qurna, nearer Ur and Lagash, suggesting Dilmun was _not_ in the Qurnah area as has been argued by Howard-Carter (1980, 1981, 1987)
Conclusions:
My interest in the Sealand, "land of the Sea," or mat tamti is that I understand the land of Dilmun (kur Dilmun/Tilmun) was located in this area, and Professor Kramer suggested that Dilmun may have been a Sumerian prototype behind Genesis' mythical Garden in Eden.
The Enki texts mention his seducing several maidens at Dilmun who stand at a river's bank in a marshland setting. Dilmun is described as being on a river and possessing river docks for its ships. Other texts mention Dilmun's products as consisting of dates, grain, and fish from lagoons. Sargon of Akkad boasted of circling the Sealand or Land of the Sea three times and conquering Dilmun. Sennacherib boasted of dumping the dust of a destroyed Babylon into the Euphrates whose darkened waters terrified the Dilmunites when the Euphrates deposited Babylon's dust on Dilmun's shore. The Euphrates' mouth in antiquity was _not_ at Qurnah it was apparently conceived in ancient texts as being near Ur and Eridu which are described as lying at the Sea's shore and the area east of the Euphrates' mouths was called "the Sea" or "Sealand." All these clues suggest for me that Dilmun is a settlement in the Sealand (also alternately called "the Sea") near the Euphrates as it snakes its way through the marshlands and lagoons as portrayed on Roux's above 1960 map. As to which settlement near the Euphrates in the Sealand or "in the Sea," is Dilmun, we will know when a site is identified via archaeological excavations as being continuously occupied from circa 3200 B.C. to 539 B.C. the period when Dilmun or Tilmun appears in Mesopotamian texts.
Mine is not the only voice crying out to itself in the wilderness about Dilmun being located _east_ of Sumer, Dr. Theresa Howard-Carter Ph.D. has expressed a similar conviction before her colleagues in 1980, 1981 and 1987, arguing Dilmun is a yet unidentified tell somewhere near the Shatt al-Arab between Qurna and Basra in Iraq. She understands there are "multiple" Dilmun sites: (1) An "earliest" Dilmun in southern Iraq near the Shatt al Arab; (2) a "later" Dilmun at the island of Bahrain and (3) the island of Failaka; and (4) the northeastern littoral of the Arabian coast from the vicinity of Kuwait to Bahrain. I disagree. For me there is only _one_ location for a continuously occupied Dilmun of circa 3300-539 B.C. and that is a yet unidentified and unexcavated tell east of Ur and Eridu near the Euphrates river which winds its way through marshes to the west and south of the present day Hor al Hammar Lagoon as noted on Georges Roux 1960 map. For Howard-Carter's arguments please click here.
Bibliography:
W. F. Albright. p. 161. "The Mouth of the Rivers." pp. 161-195. The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures. Vol. XXXV. No. 4. July. 1919.
Martin Beek. p. 10. Atlas of Mesopotamia. London. Thomas Nelson & Sons. 1962.
James Henry Breasted. Ancient Times, A History of the Early World. Volume I. The Ancient Near East. Boston, Ginn & Company. 1st Edition 1916, 2nd edition. 1967. cf. p. 141.
Benjamin R. Foster. From Distant Days, Myths, Tales, and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia. Bethseda, Maryland. CDL Press. 1995. p. 173. "Legend of Naram-Sin, 2254-2218 B.C."
Alexander Heidel. The Gilgamesh Epic and the Old Testament Parallels. Chicago & London. The University of Chicago Press. 1946, 1949. Reprint of 1993. p. 88. "Tablet XI."
Thorkild Jacobsen. The Harps That Once...Sumerian Poetry in Translation. New Haven & London. Yale University Press. 1987. p. 182. "Enki and Ninsikila/Ninhursaga."
Samuel Noah Kramer. "The Sumerians." pp. 179-190 in C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, editor. Hunters, Farmers, and Civilizations: Old World Archaeology. San Francisco. W.H. Freeman and Company. 1979. [A selection of articles earlier appearing in the Scientific American Magazine].
Siegfried Mittmann & Gotz Schmitt, editors. Tubinger Bibelatlas. Tubingen, Deutschland. Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft. 2001. cf. map plate: BIV-13."The Neo-Assyrian Empire, 760-612 BC and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, 612-539 B.C."
D. T. Potts. Mesopotamian Civilization, The Material Remains. Ithaca, New York. Cornell University Press. 1997.
Georges Roux. "Recently discovered ancient sites in the Hammar Lake District (southern Iraq)." Sumer. Vol. 16. 1960. pp. 20-31.
C. Leonard Wooley. The Sumerians. Oxford. The Clarendon Press. 1928, 1930.
Please click here for Professor Thorkild Jacobsen's translation of a text suggesting Dilmun is located on a river in the midst of marshlands of southern Mesopotamia.
Please click here for Sennacherib's claim Dilmun lies at the mouth of the Euphrates.
Please click here for Enki's blessing of Dilmun while in his boat propelled by punting poles in the marshlands near Eridu.
Below, a map of the Sea Land rendered (1928) by Wooley as the "Sea Country" (cf. Illustration No. 2. "Map of Sumer and Akkad." C. Leonard Wooley. The Sumerians. Oxford. The Clarendon Press. 1928, 1930). The dotted line from Agade to the Persian Gulf represents the furthest reach of the Gulf in antiquity as understood by some scholars circa 1928.
