Noisy city, silent steppe, tweeting marsh. Soundscapes in Sumerian literature

In this article I focus on the soundscapes that emerge from Sumerian literary texts. In the introduction, I deal with the terminology and relevance of hearing in Sumerian culture and sensory model. I then discuss the relationship between hearing and knowledge, the power of the word, and the sensorial dimension in cosmogonies. In the main part of the article I analyse the dichotomy between the ordered positive urban space and the chaotic negative outer space. From the sensory point of view, this opposition is conveyed through the topoi of the noisy city and the silent outskirts. I then consider a third soundscape which eludes this dichotomy, the marsh, a mythical and liminal place whose soundscape is marked by animal and bird voices.