Umma () in modern
Dhi Qar Province in
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 ...
, was an ancient city in
Sumer
Sumer () is the earliest known civilization, located in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (now south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. ...
. There is some scholarly debate about the Sumerian and Akkadian names for this site.
Traditionally, Umma was identified with Tell Jokha. More recently it has been suggested that it was located at Umm al-Aqarib, less than to its northwest or was even the name of both cities.
One or both were the leading city of the Early Dynastic kingdom of Gišša, with the most recent excavators putting forth that Umm al-Aqarib was prominent in EDIII but Jokha rose to preeminence later. The town of KI.AN was also nearby. KI.AN, which was destroyed by
Rimush, a 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 ...
. There are known to have been six gods of KI.AN including
Gula KI.AN and
Sara KI.AN.
The tutelary gods of Umma were Sara and Ninura. It is known that the ED ruler
Ur-Lumma built, a temple to the god
Enki-gal and one to the god Nagar-pa'e at Umma.
In the early Sumerian literary composition ''Inanna's descent to the netherworld'',
Inanna
Inanna is the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian goddess of war, love, and fertility. She is also associated with political power, divine law, sensuality, and procreation. Originally worshipped in Sumer, she was known by the Akk ...
dissuades demons from the netherworld from taking
Shara, patron of Umma, who was living in squalor.
History
The site was occupied at least as far back as the
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 ...
. A number of
proto-cuneiform came from there. While most early textual sources are from Early Dynastic III, a few tablets and a plaque from ED I/II came from there.
Early Dynastic period

Because the two sites were not excavated until modern times, based on the many looted texts available to them, earlier archaeologists grouped together the ancient cities during the Early Dynastic period of Gišša and Umma into the single geographic name of Umma. Modern excavation at these sites has clarified that.
Gišša ceased occupation after the ED and only one ruler is known, based on a lapis lazuli bead reading "To the goddess Inanna, Aka, king of Gišša (dedicated this bead)".
[Frayne, Douglas, "G͂iša and Umma", Pre-Sargonic Period: Early Periods Volume 1 (2700-2350 BC), University of Toronto Press, pp. 357-368, 2008 ]
Best known for its long frontier conflict with
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 ( ...
, as reported by
Entemena, the city reached its zenith , under the rule of
Lugal-Zage-Si who also controlled
Ur and
Uruk
Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilo ...
.
Sargonic period

Under 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 ...
Umma was a major power and economic center rivaled only by Adab and Uruk. Eleven governors under Akkad are known as well as two who may have been under Gutium. One, Lu-Utu, reports building a temple for
Ninhursag
Ninḫursaĝ ( ''Ninḫarsang''; ), sometimes transcribed Ninursag, Ninḫarsag, or Ninḫursaĝa, also known as Damgalnuna or Ninmah, was the ancient Sumerian mother goddess of the mountains, and one of the seven great deities of Sumer. She ...
and another for
Ereshkigal
In Mesopotamian mythology, Ereshkigal (Sumerian language, Sumerian: 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒆠𒃲 REŠ.KI.GAL, lit. "Queen of the Great Earth") was the goddess of Kur, the land of the dead or underworld in Sumerian religion, Sumerian mythology. In la ...
. Namahni, a governor from the time of Iarlagan of Gutium, records building the E-ula temple of Ninura.
The Sargonic period ruler of Umma
Lugalanatum
Lugalannatum (, ''lu-gal-an-na-tum''; ) was a ruler (" patesi") of the city of Umma.
Lugalannatum is known from a deposit tablet, now in the Louvre Museum, in which he mentions the rule of Si'um, king of the Gutians. The tablet was first publis ...
built the temple E-gidru there.
Ur III period
Under the
Ur III dynasty, Umma became an important provincial center. Several governors of Umma under Ur are known, Aa-kala, Dadaga, and Ur-Lisi, all sons of one Ur-Nigar, and Ninbilia, wife of Aa-kala. Most of the over 30,000 tablets recovered from the site are administrative and economic texts from that time. They permit an excellent insight into affairs in Umma. A year name of Ur III ruler
Shu-Sin was "Year Shu-Sin the king of Ur built the temple of Shara in Umma". The next ruler
Ibbi-Sin also had a year name of "Year Ibbi-Sin the king of Ur built the temple of Shara in Umma". The
Umma calendar of
Shulgi
Shulgi ( dšul-gi,(died c. 2046 BC) formerly read as Dungi) of Ur was the second king of the Third Dynasty of Ur. He reigned for 48 years, from (Middle Chronology). His accomplishments include the completion of construction of the Great ...
() is the immediate predecessor of the later
Babylonian calendar
The Babylonian calendar was a lunisolar calendar used in Mesopotamia from around the 2nd millennium BC until the Seleucid Era ( 294 BC), and it was specifically used in Babylon from the Old Babylonian Period ( 1780s BC) until the Seleucid Era. ...
, and indirectly of the post-exilic
Hebrew calendar
The Hebrew calendar (), also called the Jewish calendar, is a lunisolar calendar used today for Jewish religious observance and as an official calendar of Israel. It determines the dates of Jewish holidays and other rituals, such as '' yahrze ...
.
In the following Isin-Larsa period, a ruler of
Larsa
Larsa (, read ''Larsamki''), also referred to as Larancha/Laranchon (Gk. Λαραγχων) by Berossus, Berossos and connected with the biblical Arioch, Ellasar, was an important city-state of ancient Sumer, the center of the Cult (religious pra ...
,
Sumuel ( 1894-1866 BC), lists as one of his later year names "Year Umma was destroyed".
Archaeology
Tell Jokha
The site of Tell Jokha was visited by
William Loftus in 1854 and
John Punnett Peters of the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
in 1885. Peters found it to be half covered with sand dunes and found fragments of worked stone and copper fragments.
In the early 1900s, many illegally excavated Umma tablets from the
Third Dynasty of Ur
The Third Dynasty of Ur or Ur III was a Sumerian dynasty based in the city of Ur in the 22nd and 21st centuries BC ( middle chronology). For a short period they were the preeminent power in Mesopotamia and their realm is sometimes referred to by ...
began to appear on the antiquities market. From 1999 to 2002 Jokha was worked by an Iraqi team led by Nawala Ahmed Al-Mutawalli, recovering a number of tablets and bullae from the Early Dynastic, Sargonic, Ur III, and Old Babylonian periods as well as an Ur III period temple and Old Babylonian residences. The cuneiform tablets are in the process of being published.
[Almamori, H. O., "Gišša (Umm Al-Aqarib), Umma (Jokha), and Lagaš in the Early Dynastic III Period", Al-Rafidan 35, pp. 1–37, 2014] In 2016, a team from the Slovak Archaeological and Historical Institute led by Drahoslav Hulínek began excavations at Tell Jokha focusing on the Temple of Shara. A trench (Trench 1) excavated in 2016 showed the temple had two construction phases (Level 3 and 4). Level 4 is thought to date from the Old Akkadian period. In 2017 a square at the top (Trench 2) of the tell was opened, amidst numerous looter holes, and at Level 5 found Early Dynastic construction. In 2019 and 2020 eighteen cuneiform tablets from the Old Babylonian, Ur III, Old Akkadian and Early Dynastic periods were found in Trench 2, three in situ. A topographic survey showed that in the Early Dynastic period Umma reached an area of 400 hectares, with a 40 hectare city center.
Umm al-Aqarib (Gišša)

The site of Umm al-Aqarib (located at 45.80°E longitude and 31.60°N latitude) lies about 6 kilometers southeast of Tell Jokha, covers about 5 square kilometers and is made up of 21 mounds the largest of which is 20 meters above the level of the plain. It is thought to be the ancient city of Gišša and was abandoned after the Early Dynastic period. The location was first visited by
John Punnett Peters in the late 1800s, finding it relatively free from sand and featuring two prominent elevations of baked bricks set with bitumen.
It was excavated for a total of 7 seasons in 1999–2002 (led by Donny George Youkhanna and Haider A. Urebi) and 2008–2010 (led by Taha Kerim Abod) under difficult conditions. At Umm al-Aqarib, archaeologists uncovered levels from the
Early Dynastic Period (c. 2900–2300 BC), including residences, palaces, and several monumental buildings, including two Early Dynastic temples (the White Temple and Temple H). About 70 "cuneiform sources" were also excavated. The tutelary god is thought to be Ama-usum-ga/Usumgal-ana. Uruk period clay cone mosaics have also been found at the site.
dams, Robert McCormick, "The Uruk countryside: The natural setting of urban societies", 2024
Tell Shmet
The site of Tell Shmet (also Tell Schmidt and Tell Shmid) also lies nearby, around 10 kilometers to the northwest of Umma and within visual distance of
Zabala (Sumer), Zabala. It is on the banks of the eastern branch of the Euphrates river just above the canal leading to Zabala. It was part of the Umma province in the Ur III period. The site measures 990 by 720 meters (712,800 square meters). The main Sargonic and Ur III remains of the site were destroyed by a Ministry of Agriculture program to plant trees so as to prevent sand dunes. In response to looting which began in 1994 the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage conducted salvage excavations in 2001 and 2002 under Mohammad Sabri Abdulraheem. All of the paper records of the excavation were lost in looting of residential areas after the 2003 war. Plano-convex bricks and a residential area of the Early Dynastic III and Akkadian periods were uncovered. Finds included 67 clay cuneiform tablets, dozens of cylinder seals, and a number of stone and metal objects. The tablets mostly date ED III with the latest being Ur III. The tablets support the proposal that the ancient name of the site was Ki.an
ki. They mention the names of the gods
Ninazu
Ninazu (; DNIN.A.SU">sup>DNIN.A.SU"lord healer") was a Mesopotamian god of the underworld. He was also associated with snakes and vegetation, and with time acquired the character of a warrior god. He was frequently associated with Ereshkigal, e ...
and Dumuzi-Maru. Only six of the tablets have been published. Uruk period clay cone mosaics have also been found at the site.
Previous textual analysis had indicated that KI.AN was very near to
Zabala (Sumer), Zabala. During the reign of
Rimush, second ruler of the Akkadian Empire, KI.AN, under its governor Lugal-KA, joined a regional revolt and was defeated. In the Ur III period KI.AN had an ensi (governor). In that period it is known to have had a temple to the deified ruler
Shulgi
Shulgi ( dšul-gi,(died c. 2046 BC) formerly read as Dungi) of Ur was the second king of the Third Dynasty of Ur. He reigned for 48 years, from (Middle Chronology). His accomplishments include the completion of construction of the Great ...
(called "e-
dSulgi-ra") as well as temples to the gods
Šara,
Ninurra, Amarsuena,
Geštinanna, Dumuzi, Gula, Ninlagaša, and Nine'e.
Looting
During the
2003 invasion of Iraq, after Coalition bombing began,
looters descended upon the site which is now pockmarked with hundreds of ditches and pits. The prospects for future official excavation and research were seriously compromised in the process. In 2011,
Global Heritage Network, which monitors threats to cultural heritage sites in developing nations, released aerial images comparing Umma in 2003 and 2010, showing a landscape devastated by looters' trenches during that time—approximately 1.12 square km in total. Confiscated Umma area cuneiform tablets continue to make their way to the Museum of Iraq, including a group of 1500 in 2009.
List of rulers
Although the first dynasty of Umma has become well-known based on mentions in inscriptions contemporaneous with other dynasties from the
Early Dynastic (ED) III period; it was not inscribed onto the ''
Sumerian King List
The ''Sumerian King List'' (abbreviated ''SKL'') or ''Chronicle of the One Monarchy'' is an ancient Composition (language), literary composition written in Sumerian language, Sumerian that was likely created and redacted to legitimize the claims ...
(SKL)''. The first dynasty of Umma preceded the
dynasty of Akkad in a time in which Umma exercised considerable influence in the region. Only a single ruler (
Lugal-zage-si) from Umma was named on the ''SKL''; however, his name appears as the sole ruler for the third dynasty of
Uruk
Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilo ...
. The following list should not be considered complete:
Gallery
File:Stele of Ushumgal MET DT849.jpg, Stele of Ushumgal, 2900-2700 BC. Probably from Umma.
File:This cuneiform text gives the city of Umma's account of its long-running border dispute with Lagash. Circa 2350 BCE. From Umma, Iraq. The British Museum, London.jpg, Vase of King Gishakidu, king of Umma, and son of Ur-Lumma. This cuneiform text gives the city of Umma's account of its long-running border dispute with Lagash. . From Umma, Iraq. The British Museum, London.
File:Votive plaque of a beard-IMG 6857.JPG, Votive plaque offered by Bara-irnun, queen of Umma, to God Šara in gratitude for sparing her life. Date .
See also
*
Cities of the Ancient Near East
*
List of Mesopotamian dynasties
References
Further reading
*Adams, R., "Shepherds at Umma in the Third Dynasty of Ur: Interlocutors with a World beyond the Scribal Field of Ordered Vision", Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 49(2), pp. 133-169, 2006
*B. Alster, "Geštinanna as Singer and the Chorus of Uruk and Zabalam", UET 6/1 22, JCS, vol. 37, pp. 219–28, 1985
Bedale, Charles Lees, "Sumerian Tablets from Umma in the John Rylands Library, Manchester", The University Press, 1915
*B. R. Foster, "Umma in the Sargonic Period", Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol. 20, Hamden, 1982
*Georges Contenau, "Umma sous la Dynastie d'Ur", Librarie Paul Geuthner, 1916
*Jacob L. Dahl, "The Ruling Family of Ur III Umma: A Prosopographical Analysis of an Elite Family in Southern Iraq 4000 Years ago", Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten/Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO), 2007,
Romina Laurito, Alessandra Mezzasalma, Lorenzo Verderame, "Texts and Labels: A Case Study from Neo-Sumerian Umma", Proceedings of the 51st Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Held at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, July 18–22, 2005 Robert D. Biggs, Jennie Myers, and Martha T. Roth, eds., Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 62, Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 2008
*Lambert, Maurice, "L’occupation Du Girsu Par Urlumma Roi d’Umma", Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie Orientale, vol. 59, no. 2, pp. 81–84, 1965
*T. Maeda, "Ruler’s Family of Umma and Control over the Circulation of Silver", ASJ 18, pp. 254–260, 1996
*Molina, Manuel, "Court Officials at Umma in Ur III Times", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 103, no. 2, pp. 125–148, 2013
*P. Notizia, "More on the Pre-Sargonic Tablets from the Umma Region in the Rosen Collection. Collations and Remarks", Orientalia NS 88, pp. 94–117, 2019
Notizia, Palmiro, and Haider Oraibi Almamori, "The city-state of Umma in the Pre-Sargonic period. New tablets from the Iraq Museum", Akkadica 142, pp. 1–30, 2021
*Notizia, P. and Visicato, G., "Early Dynastic and Early Sargonic Administrative Texts Mainly from the Umma Region in the Cornell University Cuneiform Collections", CUSAS 33. Bethesda, MD: CDL Press, 2016
*F. Pomponio, "Lukalla of Umma", ZA 82, pp. 169–179, 1992
*Rost, Stephanie, and Angelo Di Michele, "Systematic Versus Random Sampling in Approaches to Landscape Archaeology: The Umma Survey Project in Southern Mesopotamia", Journal of Field Archaeology 47.5, pp. 285–304, 2022
Stephanie Rost, "Written Sources in the Empirical Investigation of Ancient Irrigation: The Operation of the I-sala Irrigation System in the Umma Province in Late Third-Millennium BCE Southern Mesopotamia", in Irrigation in Early States: New Directions, Oriental Institute Seminars 13, Chicago: The Oriental Institute, pp. 137–174, 2022
* Shin T. Kang, "Sumerian economic texts from the Umma archive", University of Illinois Press, 1973
* Tonia M. Sharlach, "Provincial taxation and the Ur III State", Brill, 2003
*Steinkeller, Piotr, "An Estimate of the Population of the City of Umma in Ur III Times", 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. 535–566, 2017
*van Driel, G., "The Size of Institutional Umma", Archiv Für Orientforschung, vol. 46/47, pp. 80–91, 1999
External links
Artifacts found at Umm al-Aqarib - CDLI“In the field”: The Project SAHI-Tell JokhaThe Province of Umma - CDLI
{{Authority control
Umma,
Archaeological sites in Iraq
Populated places in Dhi Qar Province
Former populated places in Iraq
Sumerian cities
Former kingdoms