214 of the Pennsylvania tablet),
which clearly means the "plaza" of the city. One naturally thinks of
REHOBOT `IYR in Genesis 10, 11--the equivalent of Babylonian _ri-bi-tu
?li_--which can hardly be the name of a city. It appears to be a
gloss, as is HIY' HO`IYR HAGEDOLOH at the end of v. 12. The latter
gloss is misplaced, since it clearly describes "Nineveh," mentioned
in v. 11. Inasmuch as REHOBOT `IYR immediately follows the mention
of Nineveh, it seems simplest to take the phrase as designating the
"outside" or "suburbs" of the city, a complete parallel, therefore,
to _ri-bi-tu m?ti_ in our text. Nineveh, together with the "suburbs,"
forms the "great city." _Uruk rib?tim_ is, therefore, a designation
for "greater Erech," proper to a capital city, which by its gradual
growth would take in more than its original confines. "Erech of the
plazas" must have come to be used as a honorific designation of this
important center as early as 2000 B. C., whereas later, perhaps
because of its decline, the epithet no longer seemed appropriate
and was replaced by the more modest designation of "walled Erech,"
with an allusion to the tradition which ascribed the building of the
wall of the city to Gilgamesh.
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