E2-an-na

In discussing the origin of Cities, Marc Van de Mieroop (1) says that Uruk, which gave its name to the Uruk period, was essentially "the first city in world history." This is not precisely a statement of its antiquity, as Eridu most likely preceded it as tradition insists - yet, if we are talking in terms of a seattlement with a population meeting the criteria for the definition of a city, Van de Mieroop's statement is solid about Uruk. From early times, Uruk begain to amass a comparatively large population in Southern Mesopotamia, owing perhaps to its placement just inland of the marshs near the head of the Persian gulf: this allowed for a concentration of fisherman, farmers, gardeners, hunters and herdsman all of whom were able to specialize in their tasks and increase productivity because of this sophisticating urban environment. About the excavation of Uruk, the author tells us that it is really the only Uruk period center "where there is meaningful exposure of archaeological remains, allowing us to reconstruct the physical appearance of the settlement." Van de Mieroop says this is particularly true of the E-anna precinct (which
Balage has captured above), because it the precinct was abandoned in the early 3rd millennium and the author states that this caused fourth-millennium remains to stay close to the surface. Because of the increasing level of specialization, and that families were consequently less self-reliant, organization in the form of divine authority became very prevalent in Uruk; the temples therefore were very important components of Urukian society. The author gives the
following description of the E-anna complex:

"Within an area surrounded by a perimeter wall, several enormous buildings were in use simultaneously. These were not only large, in the order of 50 by 80 meters, but also extensively decorated with a technique that was typical for the Late Uruk period. Within the walls were stuck clay cones colored white, black, and red, which formed mosaics in geometrical patterns on the surface. In one building these cones were of stone, a material more difficult to obtain in
the region of Uruk than clay."

E-anna as Cultic center

It's noted that these temple buildings were important cultically as there were collection centers for offerings to the god's; for more here, please see next
painting titled "Uruk Procession."

E-anna and Uruk as the touchstone of Administration and writing

Van de Mieroop continues with a discussion of urban life in Uruk period Southern Mesopotamian; he states that the economy became so complex that it became necessary to record goods coming into and going out of the central organization. This led to the emergence of a specialized group of administrators as the author states: "In considering the changes in Society, it is important to realize that all this bureaucratic activity was the domain of a specialized
group of people." The important results of these developments that stem noticeably from Uruk are these: a) 'The process of social differentation culminating in the existence of a stratified society in which professional occupation primarily determines one's rank in the hierarchy' and b) WRITING: "This is the first time in human history that writing was invented (although some scholars credit this to Egypt), and the first evidence for real script comes from the
city of Uruk itself. The earliest tablets appear in the Uruk IVa and III archaeological layers of the Eanna precinct." This early cuneiform is sometimes referred to as "proto-cuneiform" and we can therefore say the activities in and around E-anna were the touchstone of writing and history.

The end of the first E-anna complex

Information is insufficient here, but towards the end of the Uruk period we know "the monumental buildings that dominated the E-anna complex were razed and the entire area was leveled." However "what happened in Uruk..is hard to discern."

E-anna in myth

In earliest times, E-anna was temple of AN the heaven god and honorary head of the Sumerian pantheon, he was the grandfather of Inanna. According to myth, the E-anna temple descended from Heaven, which is concurrent with the legendary divine origin of the city itself. An example is the following lines from Gilgamesh and Agga:

"(The city) Uruk, handiwork of the gods,
and (its temple) Eanna, temple descended from heaven....
It is the great gods (themselves who) made
their component parts!"

As the importance of the cult of Inanna grew, she came to rival An as central deity of the E-anna and although An was never completely disassociated with the temple, attestations of Inanna's mythological presence here are far more common in the literature. Particularly interesting in what is for the most part an understated cultic rivalry, is the myth "Inanna and AN". This myth, which is partly fragmented, tells the story of how Inanna captures
the E-anna from AN and concludes with the lines:

"56-60. She had captured E-ana from An! She secured it ……. Now Inana speaks of the E-ana as the house that is the place of the lady. The goddess who has attained her triumphant position, Inana who has attained her triumphant position, declares in the good place: "I have captured E-ana from An."

For more please see the following link: http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.1.3.5#

The White Temple also known as Anu's Ziggurat

The white temple

Has anyone noticed off in the distance of Balage's painting, A noticably white colored temple perched on top of a Ziggurat base? This is a second temple complex in the city of Uruk, and is a chief feature of a part of the city which, as H. Nissen (2) states, may possibly be identified with a name known in Mesopotamian myth and epic: "Kulaba". For examples of Kulaba in myth here are the following lines from ETCSL:

"Inana the mistress, the lady of the great powers who allows sexual intercourse in the open squares of Kulaba"
(t.1.1.3)

"Gilgameš, young lord of Kulaba, how long will you sleep for?"
(t.1.8.1.5)

"when the offices of en and king were famously exercised at Unug, when the sceptre and staff of Kulaba were held high in battle -- in battle, Inana's game"
t.1.8.2.1

"When it will be up to us, when we come back from Aratta, to bring our brother's body to brick-built Kulaba."
t.1.8.2.1

In fact the epics involving the famous kings of Uruk, Gilgamesh, Enmerker and Lugalbanda, abound with the repeated self-description "Lord of Kulaba", and Kulaba is mentioned as often as Uruk (Unug) itself, if not more. So it becomes very interesting to ask just what is the White Temple or the "Anu Ziggurat" which was the prominent feature of Kulaba? Nissen explains that there are three separate structures that can be identified on the same location
east of E-anna: There is an early archaic structure, a structure re-built on the original in the late Uruk period, and a still later structure that was built on the same spot at approx. 300 B.C. (the latter of which we may find less interesting here.) Regarding the earliest structure, the author describes it as "a shrine in the form of a temple standing on a high terrace with steep sides, already existing in the Ubaid period...not only are the origins of this shrine considerably older than those of the larger buildings in Eanna, they are older than all other remains in Eanna... One may regard the western area as the kernel of the whole great settlement of Uruk." This therefore, may explain the
reverence still shown to Kulaba in the Urukian epics. Unfortunately, the theological features of the White temple seem to be somewhat undetermined at this
time although on somewhat thin contextual evidence it is supposed to have been a temple of An. This seems particular unclear in the early examples
unfortunately.

1.Marc Van de Mieroop, A History of the Ancient Near East (2007)
2. The Early History of the Ancient Near East, 9000-2000 B.C. Hans Nissen