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Updated: June 10, 2025
Ur-Bau, when erecting a sanctuary to Ea at Girsu, significantly calls the god 'the king of Eridu. The sanctuary is not, in this case, the dwelling-place of the god. We are justified, therefore, in going back many centuries, before reaching the period when Ea was, merely, the local god of Eridu.
Ur-Bau, we have seen, about 2700 B.C., erected a zikkurat in the temple area. Some centuries later we find Bur-Sin repairing the zikkurat and adding a shrine near the main structure. As the political fortunes of Nippur varied, so E-Kur had its ups and downs.
Ur-Bau expressly calls the god the 'king of Eridu. The sacredness of the place is attested by Gudea, who boasts of having made the temple of Nin-girsu as sacred as Eridu. It is over this city that Ea watches. The importance of the Persian Gulf to the growth of the city, would make it natural to place the seat of the god in the waters themselves.
It seems to me that the use of Anu here is purely metaphorical for 'high' or 'lofty, and that the king merely wishes to emphasize the dignity of his station by declaring himself to be the heavenly priest, somewhat as we should say 'priest by divine grace, or 'supreme priest. Nin-si -a. Ur-Bau and Gudea alone of the ancient rulers refer to this god.
Still, Ur-Bau does not stand alone in his devotion; Uru-kagina, Gudea, and others refer to Bau frequently, while in the incantation texts, she is invoked as the great mother, who gives birth to mankind and restores the body to health. In the old Babylonian inscriptions she is called the chief daughter of Anu, the god of heaven.
The moon appearing in the heavens, and the resemblance of its crescent to a bull's horn, are the two factors that account for the expressive epithet used by Ur-Bau. That the worship of the god of heaven par excellence should not have enjoyed great popularity in the early days of the Babylonian religion might seem strange at first sight. A little reflection, however, will make this clear.
Cros has sunk a series of deep shafts to determine precisely the relations which the buildings of Ur-Bau and Gudea, found already on this part of the site, bear to each other, and to the building of Adad-nadin-akhê, which had been erected there at a much later period.
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