Paper short abstract:

In this paper I will analyse the geo-political evolution of the Persian Gulf coast and the impact this had on ancient Mesopotamian mythology, in particular how the sea and seascape from the main scenarios of the oldest Sumerian literature became a marginal and marginalizing element in later cosmological thought.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I will analyse the geo-political evolution of the Persian Gulf coast and the impact this had on ancient Mesopotamian mythological thought. In the "Land between the two rivers", the crucial role of watercourses caused the gradual displacement of sea to a marginal and marginalizing function. The earlier state formations of the IIIrd millennium BCE had risen on the shores of the sea, and the Sumerian city-states were part of a network of intense cultural and commercial exchange that connected the cultures of the Persian Gulf with those of the Indian Ocean and, most probably, with those of the East Africa coast as well. Later on, the crisis that hit the region and the shift of power towards the territories of the north condemned this area to abandonment. The neglect of canal systems in Sumer caused the formation of marshes that hindered direct access to the sea. All this process of transformation finds an echo in the mythical and cosmological thought. The lagoon, the sea, and overseas lands (Dilmun) are the main scenarios of the oldest Sumerian literature, whereas in later composition this waterscape is marginal, if not absent. If the sea had been a key means of communication, it now becomes a limit. The expression “from the Lower Sea to the Upper Sea”, in fact, is used by the Mesopotamian rulers to refer to the borders of the known world. The hendiadys marks two geographical limits, the Persian Gulf, on the one hand, and the Mediterranean sea or the lake of Van, on the other. In the cosmological view the world is encircled by a sea or better a river of "bitter waters". Therefore, the sea is not anymore at the center of the political and mythological geography, but at its margins.