Aratta

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Aratta was an ancient state somewhere in the Middle East or South Asia, found in mythology dating to ca. 2500-2100 BC. It is mentioned in the oldest Sumerian legends, particularly Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, as being a wealthy, mountainous, up-river country ruled by a king called Ensuh-keshdanna, who is engaged in competition with Enmerkar, ruler of Uruk.

Aratta was praised for its stone, metals, craftsmen and artisans. It was also a source of silver, gold and lapis lazuli. The goddess Inanna is said to have transferred her allegiance as consort, from Aratta to Uruk, playing a role something like that of a kingmaker.

Etymology

According to L. A. Waddell's controversial Sumer-Aryan Dictionary intended to demonstrate the Sumerian origin of Ancient Egyptian, modern English, and other languages, the name Aratta translated from Sumerian means earth, land, massive, heavy, high, hard^[1].

Mentions in Sumerian literature

There are four Sumerian texts describing the conflicts between Aratta and Uruk

• Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta tells how Enmerkar of Uruk fails to convince the Lord of Aratta to send him tribute to construct the ziggurat in Eridu, causing Inanna to abandon Aratta for Enmerkar.
• Enmerkar and Ensuh-keshdanna describes a similar contest between Enmerkar of Uruk and Ensuh-keshdanna, the Lord of Aratta.
• Lugalbanda in the Mountain Cave and Lugalbanda and the Anzu Bird (also known as Lugalbanda I & II) describe when Lugalbanda, listed as Enmerkar's successor, was among the troops arrayed against Aratta.

In these epics, the heralds from Uruk are depicted as passing through Susin and "the seven mountains of Anshan" to deliver Enmerkar's proclamations to other inhabited lands while en route to Aratta. Anshan was the name of an Elamite city lying within the Zagros mountains, that was far to the east, which would seem to fit the theory identifying Aratta with the Jiroft civilization.

Location hypotheses

Aratta is known to us from myth. ^[2] Several locations have been suggested as possible identifications of Aratta, assuming it existed. Samuel Kramer (1963) placed it in northwest Iran between lake Urmia and the Caspian Sea, and Georgina Herrmann (1968) put it south of the Caspian, while S. Cohen (1973) and Majidzadeh (1976) favoured the Hamadan area of western Iran. Some authors, including Armenian authors, have speculated Aratta to be an early name for Urartu or Ararat ^{[3] [4] [5][6][7] [8] [9] [10]}, although the area lacks the minerals associated with Aratta ^{[11][improper synthesis?]}, while others, including Iranian authors, have speculated it to be the newly-discovered Jiroft civilization ^{[12] [13]}, although it cannot be reached by river from Sumer. ^{[14][improper synthesis?]}

References

Bibliography

• Artak Movsisyan, Aratta: Land of the Sacred Law, Yerevan, 2001.
• Artak Movsisyan, Sacred Highland: Armenia in the spiritual conception of the Near East, Yerevan, 2000.am:አራታ

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