Line 28. _Uruk ri-bi-tim_, the standing phrase in both tablets of the old Babylonian version, for which in the Assyrian version we have _Uruk su-pu-ri_. The former term suggests the "broad space" outside of the city or the "common" in a village community, while _supûri_, "enclosed," would refer to the city within the walls. Dr. W. F. Albright (in a private communication) suggests "Erech of the plazas" as a suitable translation for _Uruk ribîtim_. A third term, _Uruk mâtum_ (see above, note to line 10), though designating rather the district of which Erech was the capital, appears to be used as a synonym to _Uruk ribîtim_, as may be concluded from the phrase _i-na ri-bi-tum ma-ti_ (l. 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 âli_--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 mâti_ in our text. Nineveh, together with the "suburbs," forms the "great city." _Uruk ribîtim_ 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. At all events, all three expressions, "Erech of the plazas," "Erech walled" and "Erech land," are to be regarded as synonymous. The position once held by Erech follows also from its ideographic designation (Brünnow No. 4796) by the sign "house" with a "gunufied" extension, which conveys the idea of Unu = _subtu_, or "dwelling" _par excellence_. The pronunciation Unug or Unuk (see the gloss _u-nu-uk_, VR 23, 8a), composed of _unu_, "dwelling," and _ki_, "place," is hardly to be regarded as older than Uruk, which is to be resolved into _uru_, "city," and _ki_, "place," but rather as a play upon the name, both Unu + ki and Uru + ki conveying the same idea of _the_ city or _the_ dwelling place _par excellence_. As the seat of the second oldest dynasty according to Babylonian traditions (see Poebel's list in _Historical and Grammatical Texts_ No. 2), Erech no doubt was regarded as having been at one time "the city," i.e., the capital of the entire Euphrates Valley.