The

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

of Abu Salabikh (Tell Abū Ṣalābīkh), around northwest of the site of ancient

Nippur Nippur (Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''Nibru'', often logogram, logographically recorded as , EN.LÍLKI, "Enlil City;"I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, ''The Cambridge Ancient History: Prolegomena & Prehistory'': Vol. 1, Part 1, Ca ...

and about 150 kilometers southeast of the modern city of

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate Al-Qadisiyah Governorate (, ), also known as the Al-Diwaniyah Governorate (, ), is one of the governorates of Iraq. It is in the southern part of the center of the country. The estimated population of the province is about a million and a half ...

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

marks the site of a small Sumerian city that existed from the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

through the late 3rd millennium, with cultural connections to the cities of

Kish Kish may refer to: Businesses and organisations * KISH, a radio station in Guam * Kish Air, an Iranian airline * Korean International School in Hanoi, Vietnam People * Kish (surname), including a list of people with the name * Kish, a former ...

, Mari and

Ebla Ebla (Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''eb₂-la'', , modern: , Tell Mardikh) was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a Tell (archaeology), tell located about southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was ...

. Its ancient name is unknown though Eresh and Kesh have been suggested as well as Gišgi. Kesh was suggested by

Thorkild Jacobsen Thorkild Peter Rudolph Jacobsen (; 7 June 1904 – 2 May 1993) was a Danish historian specializing in Assyriology and Sumerian literature. He was one of the foremost scholars on the ancient Near East. Biography Thorkild Peter Rudolph Jacobsen re ...

before excavations began.Biggs, Robert D., "An Archaic Sumerian Version of the Kesh Temple Hymn from Tell Abū Ṣalābīkh", vol. 61, no. 2, pp. 193-207, 1971 The

Euphrates The Euphrates ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originati ...

was the city's highway and lifeline; when it shifted its old bed (which was identified to the west of the Main Mound by coring techniques), in the late third millennium BC, the city dwindled away. Only eroded traces remain on the site's surface of habitation after the Early Dynastic Period. There is another small archaeological site named Abu-Salabikh in the Hammar Lake region of Southern Iraq, which has been suggested as the possible capital of the

Sealand dynasty The First Sealand dynasty (URU.KÙKIWhere ŠEŠ-ḪA of King List A and ŠEŠ-KÙ-KI of King List B are read as URU.KÙ.KI), or the 2nd Dynasty of Babylon (although it was independent of Amorite-ruled Babylon), very speculatively c. 1732–1460 B ...

History

Although signs of occupation at the site date back to the Neolithic period, primary occupation occurred during the Uruk period in the Late Chalcolithic and then in the Jemdat Nasr and Early Dynastic periods in the Early Bronze Age. An examination of the smaller outlying sites nearby showed there was also occupation in the

Kassite The Kassites () were a people of the ancient Near East. They controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire from until (short chronology). The Kassites gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of Babylon in 1531 B ...

Sassanian The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranian peoples, Iranians"), was an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, th ...

, Seleucid, and Parthian periods in the area.

Archaeology

The site consists of three mounds with an overall extent of roughly 900 meters by 850 meters. To the east is the 12 hectare wall enclosed Main (Early Dynastic) mound. To the west, on the other side of the bed of an ancient canal or watercourse, is the 10 hectare Uruk and Jemdet Nasr mound to the north and the 8 hectare South mound with its Early Dynastic palace to the south. The full Early dynastic extent, with outer margins now under alluvial deposits, is estimated at 50 hectares. Abu Salabikh was excavated by an American expedition from the Oriental Institute of Chicago led by Donald P. Hansen in 1963 and 1965 for a total of 8 weeks. They found the site, lying in a salt bog, had numerous robber holes. Unlike the nearby site of Nippur which continued to be occupied for millennia, at Abu Salabikh the Early Dynastic remains were near the surface. The expedition found around 500 tablets and fragments, containing some of the earliest

ancient literature Ancient literature comprises religious and scientific documents, tales, poetry and plays, royal edicts and declarations, and other forms of writing that were recorded on a variety of media, including stone, Clay tablet, clay tablets, Papyrus, pa ...

. A number of animal remains were also found including domestic dog, lion, equid, pig, cattle, gazelle, caprines (sheep and goat), and antelope. Remains of various birds were also found. Between 1975 and 1990 Abu Salabikh was excavated by a British School of Archaeology in Iraq team under the direction of Nicholas Postgate. Finds included beveled rim bowls.Nicholas Postgate, "Excavations at Abu Salabikh 1976", Iraq, vol. 39, pp. 269–299, 1977 Excavations were suspended in 1990 with the

Invasion of Kuwait The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, codenamed Project 17, began on 2 August 1990 and marked the beginning of the Gulf War. After defeating the Kuwait, State of Kuwait on 4 August 1990, Ba'athist Iraq, Iraq went on to militarily occupy the country fo ...

and have not been resumed. The city, built on a rectilinear plan in the early

Uruk period The Uruk period (; also known as Protoliterate period) existed from the protohistory, protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia, after the Ubaid period and before the Jemdet Nasr period. Named after the S ...

, revealed a small but important repertory of

cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

texts on some 500 tablets, of which the originals were stored in the

Iraq Museum The Iraq Museum () is the national museum of Iraq, located in Baghdad. It is sometimes informally called the National Museum of Iraq. The Iraq Museum contains precious relics from the Mesopotamian, Abbasid, and Persian civilizations. It was loo ...

, Baghdad.M. Krebernik and J. N. Postgate, "The tablets from Abu Salabikh and their provenance", Iraq, vol. 71, pp. 1- 32, 2009 Texts, comparable in date and content with texts from

Shuruppak Shuruppak ( , SU.KUR.RUki, "the healing place"), modern Tell Fara, was an ancient Sumerian city situated about 55 kilometres (35 mi) south of Nippur and 30 kilometers north of ancient Uruk on the banks of the Euphrates in Iraq's Al-Qādisiy ...

(modern Fara, Iraq) included school texts, literary texts, word lists, and some administrative archives, as well as the

Instructions of Shuruppak __NOTOC__ The Instructions of Shuruppak (or, ''Instructions of Šuruppak son of Ubara-tutu'') are a significant example of Sumerian wisdom literature. Wisdom literature, intended to teach proper piety, inculcate virtue, and preserve community s ...

, a well-known Sumerian "wisdom' text of which the Abu Salabikh tablet is the oldest copy. While the writing remained Sumerian, Semitic scribal names became more common as the Early Dynastic period wore on. The archaic form of Sumerian in the texts is not fully understood however a number of literary compositions were found that had beforehand been thought to have not existed until half a millennium later in the Old Babylonian period. Originally it was thought that the tablet, contemporary with the ones found at Fara were dated to the period of Early Dynastic III ruler of First dynasty of

Lagash Lagash (; cuneiform: LAGAŠKI; Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''Lagaš'') was an ancient city-state located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk, about east of the modern town of Al-Shatrah, Iraq. Lagash ( ...

Ur-Nanshe Ur-Nanshe (, ; ) also Ur-Nina, was the first king of the First Dynasty of Lagash in the Sumerian Early Dynastic Period III. He is known through inscriptions to have commissioned many building projects, including canals and temples, in the state of ...

(c. 2500 BC). Subsequent study pushed the dating to a century before Ur-Nanshe though it has also been suggested that the dating was after Ur-Nanshe though before

Eannatum Eannatum ( ; ) was a Sumerian ''Ensi (Sumerian), Ensi'' (ruler or king) of Lagash. He established one of the first verifiable empires in history, subduing Elam and destroying the city of Susa, and extending his domain over the rest of Sumer and Akk ...

of Lagash, his grandson. This is still an open issue. On the Uruk mound, which was abandoned after the

Jemdet Nasr Jemdet Nasr () (also Jamdat Nasr and Jemdat Nasr) is a Tell (archaeology), tell or settlement mound in Babil Governorate, Iraq that is best known as the eponymous type site for the Jemdet Nasr period (c. 3100–2900 BC), under an alternate period ...

period, 1650 high fired clay sickles were found. Two grain samples from the Middle Uruk layer of the Uruk Mound were accelerator radiocarbon dated with calibrated dates of 3520 ± 130 BC. Calibration was based on that of Pearson. Seventy-four Neolithic clay accounting tokens were found at the site. Over one hundred pottery shards that had been filed into 3 centimeter discs and pierced were found, suggested as for use in abacus type counting devices.

Eresh

The city of Eresh (eréš^ki) is known from the Early Dynastic, through the Akkadian period into the Ur III period and then apparently disappears from history though a year name of

Sin-Muballit Sin-Muballit was the father of Hammurabi and the fifth Amorite king of the first dynasty (the ''Amorite Dynasty'') of Babylonia, reigning c. 1811-1793 or 1748-1729 BC (see Chronology of the Ancient Near East). He ruled over a relatively new and ...

(c. 1813-1792 BC) is "Year Sin-muballity built the city wall of Eresz". Its location is unknown though earlier Uruk was proposed and more recently Abu-Salabikh and Jarin. One tablet found at Abu Salabikh (IAS 505) did mention workers belonging to a "King of Eresh". Its city-god was

Nisaba Nisaba was the Mesopotamian goddess of writing and grain. She is one of the oldest Sumerian language, Sumerian deities attested in writing, and remained prominent through many periods of History of Mesopotamia, Mesopotamian history. She was commo ...

, whose cult site was later moved to

. Eresh appears on an Early Dynastic geographical list. It is known that during the reign of the second Ur III Empire ruler Shulgi there was a governor of Eresh named Ea-Bani and one named Ur-Ninmug, and under Amar-Sin one named Ur-Baba. In the Ur III period there was a shrine to the goddess Annunitum at Eresh.

Enheduanna Enheduanna ( , also transliteration, transliterated as , , or variants; ) was the (high) priestess of the moon god Sin (mythology), Nanna (Sīn) in the Sumerian city-state of Ur in the reign of her father, Sargon of Akkad ( BCE). She was likely ...

, daughter of

Sargon of Akkad Sargon of Akkad (; ; died 2279 BC), also known as Sargon the Great, was the first ruler of the Akkadian Empire, known for his conquests of the Sumerian city-states in the 24th to 23rd centuries BC.The date of the reign of Sargon is highly unc ...

, the first ruler of the

Akkadian Empire The Akkadian Empire () was the first known empire, succeeding the long-lived city-states of Sumer. Centered on the city of Akkad (city), Akkad ( or ) and its surrounding region, the empire united Akkadian language, Akkadian and Sumerian languag ...

wrote a collection of 42 ''

Temple Hymns A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

'', with the final one, which survives in fragmentary form, dedicated to E-Zagin, the temple of Nisaba in Eresh. In the Sumerian literary composition Enmerkar and En-suhgir-ana, a sorcerer, Urgirinuna, goes to Eresh and makes all the cows and goats stop giving milk. In the Sumerian literary composition Marriage of Sud it reads "He (Enlil) said, "Quick, please, Nuska, I will give you instructions about this, I want to send you to Eresh, Nidaba's city, the city whose grounds are august".Meier, S. A., "Preparation for the Mission", in The Messenger in the Ancient Semitic World. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1988

References

*Robert D. Biggs, "The Abu Salabikh Tablets. A Preliminary Survey", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 73–88, 1966 *Biggs, Robert D., "Ebla and Abu Salabikh: The Linguistic and Literary Aspects", in La lingua di Ebla: Atti del convegno internazionale (Napoli, 21–23 aprile 1980), Edited by Luigi Cagni, Naples: Istituto Universitario Orientale, pp. 121–33, 1981 *Biggs, R. D. and Postgate, J. N., "Inscriptions from Abu Salabikh, 1975", Iraq 40, pp. 101–117, 1978 *Crawford, Harriet E. W., "Some fire installations from Abu Salabikh, Iraq (Dedicated to the Memory of Margaret Munn-Rankin)", Paléorient, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 105–14, 1981 *Crawford, H. E. W., "More Fire Installations from Abu Salabikh", Iraq, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 32–34, 1983 *Angela von den Driesch, "Fischknochen Aus Abu Salabikh/Iraq", Iraq, vol. 48, pp. 31–38, 1986 *Edzard, D. O., "Fara und Abu Salabih. Die 'Wirtschaftstexte'", ZA 66, pp. 156–195, 1976

ori, Fiammetta, "Numeracy in early syro-mesopotamia. A study of accounting practices from Fāra to Ebla", University of Verona Disertation, 2024

Jones, Jennifer E., "Standardized Volumes? Mass-Produced Bowls of the Jemdet Nasr Period from Abu Salabikh, Iraq", Paléorient, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 153–60, 1996 *Manfred Krebernik and Jan J. W. Lisman, "The Sumerian Zame Hymns from Tell Abū Ṣalābīḫ With an Appendix on the Early Dynastic Colophons", dubsar 12, 2020 *Krebernik, Manfred and Lisman, Jan J.W., "Ezinan’s Seven Children: An Early Dynastic Sumerian Myth from Abū Ṣalābīḫ", Altorientalische Forschungen, vol. 51, no. 2, pp. 170-220, 2024 *Mander, Pietro, "Designs on the Fara, Abū-Ṣalābīkh and Ebla Tablets", Annali dell’Istituto Universitario Orientale (Napoli) 55, pp. 18-29, 1995 *Moon, Jane, "Some New Early Dynastic Pottery from Abu Salabikh", Iraq, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 47–75, 1981 *Payne, Joan Crowfoot, "An Early Dynastic III Flint Industry from Abu Salabikh", Iraq, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 105–19, 1980

Pollock, S., "Political Economy as viewed from the Garbage Dump: Jemdet Nasr Occupation at the Uruk Mound, Abu Salabikh", Paléorient, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 57–75, 1990 *Pollock, Susan, "Making Fire in Uruk-Period Abu Salabikh", At the Dawn of History: Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honour of J. N. Postgate, edited by Yağmur Heffron, Adam Stone and Martin Worthington, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 413–422, 2017 *Pomponio, F., "I nomi personali dei testi amministrativi die Abu Sal?bih", Studi Epigrafici e Linguistici sul Vicino Oriente Antico 8, pp. 141–147, 1991 *Pope, Melody, "Remembrances from the Field – Excavating at Abu Salabikh with Susan Pollock. A Photo Essay", Pearls, Politics and Pistachios. Essays in Anthropology and Memories on the Occasion of Susan Pollock's 65th Birthday, hrsg. v. Aydin Abar, pp. 203–218, 2021 *Nicholas Postgate and J.A. Moon, "Excavations at Abu Salabikh 1981", Iraq, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 103–136, 1982 *Nicholas Postgate, "Excavations at Abu Salabikh 1983", Iraq, vol. 46, pp. 95–114, 1984 *Postgate, J. N. - Killick, J. A., "British Archaeological Expedition to Abu Salabikh, Final Field Report on the 8th Season", Sumer, vol. 39, pp. 95–99, 1983 *Postgate, John Nicholas, "City of Culture 2600 BC: Early Mesopotamian History and Archaeology at Abu Salabikh", Archaeopress Publishing Ltd., 2024

ostgate N., Moon J., "Late Third Millennium Pottery from Abu Essalabikh", Sumer 43, pp. 69-79, 1984 *R.J. Matthews and Nicholas Postgate, "Excavations at Abu Salabikh 1985-86", Iraq, vol. 49, pp. 91–120, 1987 *Nicholas Postgate, "Excavations at Abu Salabikh 1988-89", Iraq, vol. 52, pp. 95–106, 1990 * S. Pollock, M. Pope and C. Coursey, "Household Production at the Uruk Mound, Abu Salabikh, Iraq", American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 100, no. 4, pp. 683–698, 1996 *Nicholas Postgate, "Early Dynastic burial customs at Abu Salabikh", in Sumer 36, pp. 65–82, 1980 *Postgate J.N. and Moon J.A., "Excavations at Abu Salabikh, a Sumerian city", National Geographic Research Reports: 1976 projects, vol. 17, pp. 721–743, 1984

ostgate J.N., "Abu esSalabikh and Tell Mardikh: Sumer and Ebla", Sumer 42, pp. 68–70, 1986

Unger-Hamilton, Romana, et al., "Drill bits from Abu Salabikh, Iraq", MOM Éditions 15.1, pp. 269–285, 1987 *Wencel, M., "ABU SALABIKH – ABSOLUTE RADIOCARBON CHRONOLOGY.", Iraq, vol. 83, pp. 245–258, 2021 *Abu Salabikh Excavations:

olume I - J.N. Postgate, "The West Mound Surface Clearance", Oxbow Books, 1983

olume II - H.P. Martin, J. Moon & J.N. Postgate, "Graves 1 to 99", Oxbow Books, 1985 **Volume III - Jane Moon, "Catalogue of Early Dynastic Pottery", Oxbow Books, 1987 PD

**Volume IV - A.N. Green, "The 6G Ash-Tip and its Contents: Cultic and Administrative Discard from the Temple?", Oxbow Books, 1993 PD

External links

Oriental Institute Annual Reports 1964-1965 - The Soundings At Tell Abu SalabikhOriental Institute Annual Reports 1965-1966 - Tablets from Tell Abu SalabikhOriental Institute Annual Reports 1967-1968 - Tablets from Tell Abu SalabikhOriental Institute Annual Reports 1971-1972 - Tablets from Tell Abu SalabikhOriental Institute Annual Reports 1972-1973 - Tell Abu SalabikhDigital tables from Abu Salabikh at CDLISite photographs from Oriental Institute
{{Authority control Populated places established in the 3rd millennium BC Populated places disestablished in the 3rd millennium BC History of Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate Archaeological sites in Iraq Sumerian cities Former populated places in Iraq Tells (archaeology) Kish civilization Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia) Uruk period

History

Archaeology

Eresh

See also

References

Further reading

External links