The low tells at Abu Salabikh, around northwest of the site of ancient Nippur in

Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate Al-Qadisiyah Governorate ( ar, القادسية, translit=Al Qādisiyah), also known as Al-Diwaniyah Governorate ( ar, ٱلدِّيوَانِيَّة ''ad-Dīwānīyah''), is one of the governorates of Iraq. It is in the center-south of the count ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

mark the site of a small Sumerian city state of the mid third millennium BCE, with cultural connections to the cities of

Kish Kish may refer to: Geography * Gishi, Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan, a village also called Kish * Kiş, Shaki, Azerbaijan, a village and municipality also spelled Kish * Kish Island, an Iranian island and a city in the Persian Gulf * Kish, Iran, ...

, Mari and

Ebla Ebla ( Sumerian: ''eb₂-la'', ar, إبلا, modern: , Tell Mardikh) was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located about southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was an important center t ...

. Its contemporary name is uncertain: perhaps this was Eresh. Kesh was suggested by

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

before excavations began. The

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers''). Originating in Turkey, the Eup ...

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 middle third millennium BCE, the city dwindled away. Only eroded traces remain on the site's surface of habitation after the Early Dynastic Period. The site consists of several mounds, the 12 hectare wall enclosed Main (Early Dynastic), the 10 hectare Uruk, the West, and the 8 hectare South.

Archaeology

Abu Salabikh was excavated by an American expedition from the

Oriental Institute of Chicago The Oriental Institute (OI), established in 1919, is the University of Chicago's interdisciplinary research center for ancient Near Eastern ("Orient") studies and archaeology museum. It was founded for the university by professor James Henry Brea ...

led by Donald P. Hansen in 1963 and 1965 for a total of 8 weeks. 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, stone tablets, papyri, palm leaves, and ...

. The site was a British concern after 1975, under the direction of Nicholas Postgate for the

British School of Archaeology in Iraq The British Institute for the Study of Iraq (BISI) (formerly the British School of Archaeology in Iraq) is the only body in Britain devoted to research into the ancient civilizations and languages of Mesopotamia. It was founded in 1932 and its aim ...

(1975–89). Excavations were suspended with the

Invasion of Kuwait The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait was an operation conducted by Iraq on 2 August 1990, whereby it invaded the neighboring State of Kuwait, consequently resulting in a seven-month-long Iraqi military occupation of the country. The invasion and Ira ...

(1990); "plans to resume fieldwork have now been abandoned in the light of current political conditions" Postgate reports. The city, built on a rectilinear plan in the early

Uruk period The Uruk period (ca. 4000 to 3100 BC; also known as Protoliterate period) existed from the protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia, after the Ubaid period and before the Jemdet Nasr period. Named after ...

, revealed a small but important repertory of

cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sh ...

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

Iraq Museum The Iraq Museum ( ar, المتحف العراقي) is the national museum of Iraq, located in Baghdad. It is sometimes informally called the National Museum of Iraq, a recent phenomenon influenced by other nations' naming of their national museum ...

, Baghdad. They were largely lost when the museum was looted in the early stages of the

Second Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror , image ...

; fortunately they had been carefully published. Texts, comparable in date and content with texts from Shuruppak (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 st ...

'', a well-known Sumerian "wisdom' text of which the Abu Salabikh tablet is the oldest copy. A list of deities includes the oldest known mention of the Semitic god

Baʿal Baal (), or Baal,; phn, , baʿl; hbo, , baʿal, ). ( ''baʿal'') was a title and honorific meaning "owner", " lord" in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during antiquity. From its use among people, it came to be applied ...

. Postgate's interdisciplinary approach was integrated under the broad aim of describing the daily life of a small Sumerian city, down to the lives of the simplest illiterate inhabitants.Postgate summarized the discoveries at Abu Salabikh in the relevant article in J. Curtis, ed., ''Fifty Years of Mesopotamian Discovery''(London) 1982:48–61.

References

Matthews, R. and Matthews, W. (2017) A palace for the king of Eres? Evidence from the Early Dynastic City of Abu Salabikh, south Iraq. In: Heffron, Y., Stone, A. and Worthington, M. (eds.) At the dawn of history. Ancient Near Eastern studies in honour of J. N. Postgate. Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake, pp. 359–367. *Wencel, M., "ABU SALABIKH – ABSOLUTE RADIOCARBON CHRONOLOGY.", Iraq, vol. 83, pp. 245–258, 2021 *Robert D. Biggs, The Abu Salabikh Tablets. A Preliminary Survey, Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 73–88, 1966 *Postgate, J. N., and Moorey, P. R. S., 1976. Excavations at Abu Salabikh, Iraq, vol. 38, pp. 133–69, 1975 *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 *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 * Susan Pollock, Caroline Steele and Melody Pope, Investigations on the Uruk Mound, Abu Salabikh, 1990, Iraq, vol. 53, pp. 59–68, 1991 * 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 *Abu Salabikh Excavations: **Volume I - J.N. Postgate, "The West Mound Surface Clearance",Oxbow Books, 1983 PD

**Volume II - H.P. Martin, J. Moon & J.N. Postgate, "Graves 1 to 99", Oxbow Books, 1985 PD

**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 {{ISBN, 9780903472135 PD

External links

Abu Salabikh, Iraq 1988: the diary of an archaeological excavation By Jerry Youle - British Institute for the Study of IraqDigital tables from Abu Salabikh at CDLISite photographs from Oriental Institute
Populated places established in the 3rd millennium BC Populated places disestablished in the 3rd millennium BC Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate Archaeological sites in Iraq Sumerian cities Former populated places in Iraq Tells (archaeology) Kish civilization Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia) Uruk period City-states

Archaeology

See also

References

Further reading

External links