Physical limits were important vehicles of symbolism in the Ancient Near East. Ki-sur-ra (ki means land, sur: to divide), in Sumerian, means borders but also territory: a territory, a delimited space in which it is possible to settle and live, is an entity defined by its borders. A border implies a bordered space.
Boundaries
articulate the horizontal and the vertical. The Sumerian word In-dub-ba means also boundary, a word
that includes the nom dub, which
means a pole-pin. A boundary is not only a straight horizontal line –a boundary
is also a horizon, two notions designed by the same word in Sumerian (oros, in Greek, means limit, boundary)-,
but it also implies a succession of vertical items that make visible the limit.
A boundary limits or fixes not only a surface, but also a space. Kudurrus were markers of space. Kudurrus were vertical black stones,
planted on the delimitated land, covered with symbols securing the divine
protection for the field.
The notion
of limit notion implies that two worlds are being established and opposed or
confronted: the inner and the outer worlds, the low and high worlds, the
visible and invisible worlds, the mundane and transcendent worlds. At the same
time, the fixation of limits implied the necessity of possible connections
between the two worlds through passages, gates, stairs, pillars, etc.
Each world
is characterised positively and negatively, each one is in the hands of
different “ontological” beings: the living and the dead, the natural and the
supernatural beings, mortals and immortals. At the same time, some beings, such
as heroes, were able to mediate between both worlds, beings able to reach the
far away limits and to cross them, as it is clear in the Gilgamesh Poem.
Gilgamesh travelled until the end of the world and crossed the borders of
waters to enter the world of the dead to speak with Utnapištim (who survived
the Flood).
The
fixation of limits was an essential activity. In the so-called Sumerian Paradise myth, Enki, the god of
arts (architecture, in particular), crafts and magic, the “trickster” god, was
the one who completed the creation of the world by establishing limits around
the inhabited space.
Limits were
a sign of power, a paradigm of manmade creation. We have to remember the first
and last Gilgamesh words looking at the walls of the city of Uruk he had
decided to build. Those walls –his creation- were going to be able to maintain
his name and fame after his inevitable death.
Thanks to images and items, such as tablets with architectural plans,
cuneiform tablets, kudurrus, and “models” (different types of items in the
shape of dwellings), we can imagine the function of these items and the notion
of limits they embody and display. At the same time, we can glimpse what an
inhabited, an orderly space might have meant in a land made of deserts and at
the mercy of demons and enemies. Limits were barriers but they were also paths
thanks to which a mediation, a negotiation could be established with the
“others”- whether divinities, evil spirits, monsters or human enemies.
Limits were walls and doors at the same time.
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