instance_of abu 
Marduk ( Sumerian spelling in Akkadian : AMAR . UTU " solar calf "; Greek , " Mardochaios ") was a late - ___MASK43___ ___MASK20___ from ancient Mesopotamia and patron ___MASK6___ of the city of Babylon . When Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi ( 18th century BC ), he slowly started to rise to the position of the head of the Babylonian pantheon , a position he fully acquired by the second half of the second millennium BC . In the city of Babylon , he resided in the temple Esagila . " Marduk " is the Babylonian form of his name . Abu in Sumerian ___MASK72___ was a minor ___MASK20___ of plants . He was one of the eight deities born to relieve the illness of Enki . Abu means `` father of plants and vegetation . '' Stephen Langdon has proposed that Abu may have been an early name of Tammuz , on the basis that Abu was identified as the consort of Inanna , and that the name Abu did not appear in texts later than the Third Dynasty of Ur . Assyria was a major Mesopotamian East Semitic - speaking kingdom and ___MASK83___ of the ancient Near East . It existed as an independent state from perhaps as early as the 25th ___MASK78___ BC in the form of the Assur city - state , until its lapse between 612 BC and 599 BC , spanning the Early to Middle Bronze ___MASK49___ through to the late Iron ___MASK49___ . Sumer was the first urban ___MASK70___ in the ___MASK9___ of southern Mesopotamia , modern - ___MASK50___ southern Iraq , during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze ages , and arguably the first ___MASK70___ in the world with Ancient Egypt and the Indus Valley . Living along the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates , Sumerian farmers were able to grow an abundance of grain and other crops , the surplus of which enabled them to settle in one place . Enki ( Sumerian : ) is a ___MASK20___ in Sumerian mythology , later known as Ea in Akkadian and Babylonian mythology . He was originally patron ___MASK20___ of the city of Eridu , but later the influence of his cult spread throughout Mesopotamia and to the Canaanites , Hittites and Hurrians . He was the ___MASK6___ of crafts (" gašam "); mischief ; water , seawater , lakewater (" a ", " aba ", " ab "), intelligence (" gestú ", literally " ear ") and creation (" Nudimmud ": " nu ", likeness , " dim mud ", make beer ). He was associated with the southern band of constellations called " stars of Ea ", but also with the constellation AŠ - IKU , " the Field " ( Square of Pegasus ). Beginning around the second millennium BCE , he was sometimes referred to in writing by the numeric ideogram for " 40 ," occasionally referred to as his " sacred number ." The planet Mercury , associated with Babylonian " Nabu " ( the son of Marduk ) was in Sumerian times , identified with Enki . Mesopotamia ("[ land ] between rivers "; from Ancient Armenian  ( Mijagetq ); " bild ar - rfidayn " " miyn rodn "; " Beth Nahrain " " land of rivers ") is a ___MASK38___ for the area of the Tigris  Euphrates ___MASK15___ system , in modern days roughly corresponding to most of Iraq plus Kuwait , the eastern parts of Syria , Southeastern Turkey , and regions along the Turkish - Syrian and Iran  Iraq borders . The Hurrians ( ___MASK82___ : ; ___MASK8___ : " u - ur - ri "), also called Hari , Khurrites , Hourri , Churri , Hurri or Hurriter , were a people of the Bronze ___MASK49___ Near East . They spoke a Hurro - Urartian language called Hurrian , and lived in Anatolia and Northern Mesopotamia . The largest and most influential Hurrian nation was the multi - ethnic kingdom of Mitanni , the Mitanni perhaps being Indo - European speakers who formed a ruling class over the Hurrians . The population of the Indo - European - speaking Hittite Empire in Anatolia included a large population of Hurrians , and there is significant Hurrian influence in Hittite mythology . By the Early Iron ___MASK49___ , the Hurrians had been assimilated with other peoples . Their remnants were subdued by a related people that formed the state of Urartu . According to a hypothesis by I . M . Diakonoff and S . Starostin , the Hurrian and Urartian languages shared a common ancestor and were related to the Northeast Caucasian languages . The present - day Armenians are an amalgam of the Indo - European groups with the Hurrians and Urartians . Babylon ( or ; Aramaic :  , " Babel ", , " Bavel ", , " Bbil ") was a major ___MASK62___ of ancient Mesopotamia in the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers . ___MASK30___ was built upon the Euphrates and divided in equal parts along its left and right banks , with steep embankments to contain the ___MASK15___ ' s seasonal floods . Babylon was originally a small Semitic Akkadian ___MASK62___ dating from the period of the Akkadian Empire c . 2300 BC . Seawater , or ___MASK51___ ___MASK1___ , is ___MASK1___ from a ___MASK48___ or ocean . On average , seawater in the world ' s oceans has a salinity of about 3 . 5 % ( 35 g / L , or 0 . 600 M ) This means that every kilogram ( roughly one litre by volume ) of seawater has approximately of dissolved salts ( predominantly sodium and chloride ions ). Average density at the surface is 1 . 025 kg / l . Seawater is denser than both fresh ___MASK1___ and pure ___MASK1___ ( density 1 . 0 kg / l at ) because the dissolved salts increase the mass by a larger proportion than the volume . The freezing point of seawater decreases as ___MASK51___ concentration increases . At typical salinity , it freezes at about . The coldest seawater ever recorded ( in a liquid state ) was in 2010 , in a stream under an Antarctic glacier , and measured . Seawater pH is typically limited to a range between 7 . 5 and 8 . 4 . However , there is no universally accepted reference pH - scale for seawater and the difference between measurements based on different reference scales may be up to 0 . 14 units . Nabu is the patron ___MASK20___ of scribes , wisdom and literature , being worshipped by the Assyrian and Babylonian people . He was identified as the son of the great ___MASK20___ Marduk by the Babylonians and as the son of Ashur by the Assyrians . The Hittites were an Ancient Anatolian ___MASK33___ who established an empire centered on Hattusa in north - central Anatolia around 1600 BC . This empire reached its height during the mid - 14th century BC under Suppiluliuma I , when it encompassed an area that included most of Anatolia as well as parts of the northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia . Between the 15th and 13th centuries BC the Hittite Empire came into conflict with the Egyptian Empire , Middle Assyrian Empire and the empire of the Mitanni for control of the Near East . The Assyrians eventually emerged as the dominant power and annexed much of the Hittite empire , while the remainder was sacked by Phrygian newcomers to the region . After c . 1180 BC , during the Bronze ___MASK49___ collapse , the Hittites splintered into several independent " Neo - Hittite " city - states , some of which survived until the 8th century BC before succumbing to the Neo - Assyrian Empire . A ___MASK17___ is an area of ___MASK58___ ___MASK69___ filled with ___MASK1___ , localized in a basin , that is surrounded by land , apart from any ___MASK15___ or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the ___MASK17___ . Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean , and therefore are distinct from lagoons , and are also larger and deeper than ponds , though there are no official or scientific definitions . Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams , which are usually flowing . Most lakes are fed and drained by rivers and streams . Eridu ( ___MASK82___ : ___MASK54___ . KI ; Sumerian : eridu ; Akkadian : " irîtu " modern Arabic : ___MASK73___ Abu Shahrain ) is an archaeological site in southern Mesopotamia ( modern Dhi Qar Governorate , Iraq ). Eridu was long considered the earliest city in southern Mesopotamia and is still today argued to be the oldest city in the world . Located 12 km southwest of Ur , Eridu was the southernmost of a conglomeration of Sumerian cities that grew around temples , almost in sight of one another . These buildings were made of mud brick and built on top of one another . With the temples growing upward and the village growing outward , a larger city was built . In Sumerian mythology , Eridu was originally the home of Enki , later known by the Akkadians as Ea , who was considered to have founded the city . His temple was called E - Abzu , as Enki was believed to live in Abzu , an aquifer from which all life was believed to stem . The Sumerian ___MASK72___ influenced Mesopotamian mythology as a whole , surviving in the mythologies and religions of the Hurrians , Akkadians , Babylonians , Assyrians , and other culture groups .