Tell Ishchali (also Iščāli or Šaǧālī) an

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

Diyala Province Diyala Governorate ( ar, محافظة ديالى ) or Diyala Province is a governorate in central-eastern Iraq. Provincial government *Governor: Muthana al-Timimi *Deputy Governor: Mohammed Jassim al-Jubouri Council Geography Diyala Gove ...

(

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 Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

). It is thought to be ancient Nerebtum or Kiti and was part of the city-state of

Eshnunna Eshnunna (modern Tell Asmar in Diyala Governorate, Iraq) was an ancient Sumerian (and later Akkadian) city and city-state in central Mesopotamia 12.6 miles northwest of Tell Agrab and 15 miles northwest of Tell Ishchali. Although situated in the ...

. It was occupied during the

Old Babylonian period The Old Babylonian Empire, or First Babylonian Empire, is dated to BC – BC, and comes after the end of Sumerian power with the destruction of the Third Dynasty of Ur, and the subsequent Isin-Larsa period. The chronology of the first dynast ...

Ancient name

At first, the site of Ishchali was thought to be

Khafajah Khafajah or Khafaje (Arabic: خفاجة; ancient Tutub, Arabic: توتوب) is an archaeological site in Diyala Province ( Iraq). It was part of the city-state of Eshnunna. The site lies east of Baghdad and southwest of Eshnunna. History of arc ...

. Upon discovery there of a date formula that read "year that king Ishme-Bali built the great wall of Nerebtum", that designation became popular. Currently, scholarly opinion is split between Nerebtum and Kiti as the result of many tablets from the temple of

Inanna Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, divine justice, and political power. She was originally worshiped in Su ...

of Kiti being analyzed. The name of Sadlas has also been proposed. A number of bricks of Ipiq-Adad II were found in the Kitium temple inscribed with:

History of archaeological research

Items from illegal excavations at Ishchali began appearing on the open market in the 1920s, including many

clay tablet In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a sty ...

s. To pre-empt this activity, the Iraq expedition of the Oriental Institute of Chicago conducted two seasons of excavations there between 1934 and 1936. The expedition was led by Henri Frankfort and the work at Ishchali was handled 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 ...

and Harold Hill, all of the Oriental Institute.

Tell Ishchali and its environment

The site lies about south and east of the modern city of

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

and southeast of

on the

Diyala River The Diyala River (Arabic: ; ku, Sîrwan; Farsi: , ) is a river and tributary of the Tigris. It is formed by the confluence of Sirwan river and Tanjaro river in Darbandikhan Dam in the Sulaymaniyah Governorate of Northern Iraq. It covers a to ...

, a tributary of the

Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...

. The main tell at Ishchali measures roughly . There are also small mounds to the north and south of it. The entire site covers around .

History of occupation

Surface finds indicate that Ishchali may have been occupied as far back as the Akkadian period, but all excavated epigraphic evidence dates to the

. While some tablets mention early local rulers, for most of the known history of Ishchali kings from

held sway there, including Ipiq-Adad and Ibal-pi-El. During the time of Sabium, king of Babylon, , Ibal-pi-El I of Ešnunna, Sîn-iddinam of Larsa and Sîn-kašid of Uruk the king of Nerebtum was Iku(n)-pi-Si. The most notable feature of Ishchali is the main temple. It was that of Inanna-Kitium, or Inanna of Kiti. It is one of the largest temples ever found in the ancient Near East at 100 meters by 65 meters. Rebuilt several times, always following the original plan, the monumental building consisted of one large upper temple and two smaller areas which are thought to be shrines. The many tablets found there give an excellent picture of temple life. A number of cylinder seals dating from the Early Dynastic to the

Larsa Larsa ( Sumerian logogram: UD.UNUGKI, read ''Larsamki''), also referred to as Larancha/Laranchon (Gk. Λαραγχων) by Berossos and connected with the biblical Ellasar, was an important city-state of ancient Sumer, the center of the cult ...

period were also found there, assumed to be relic donations to the temple. There was also a smaller temple to the local city-god version of the god Sin.

Material culture

Of the 280 tablets excavated, 138 went to the Oriental Institute with the remaining 142 assigned to 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 ...

. The tablets illegally excavated from Ishchali are in many locations including the

Lowie Museum of Anthropology The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology (formerly the Robert H. Lowie Museum of Anthropology) is an anthropology museum located in Berkeley, California, on the University of California, Berkeley, campus. History Founded in 1901 under the p ...

at Berkeley, the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire in Geneva, Iraq Museum, Oriental Institute, and the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Artifacts from Ishchali

File:Four-faced goddess, Ishchali, Isin-Larsa to Old Babylonia periods, 2000-1600 BC, bronze - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago - DSC07384.JPG, Four-faced goddess, Ishchali, Isin-Larsa to Old Babylonia periods, 2000-1600 BC, bronze - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago File:Storm god, Ishchali, Isin-Larsa to Old Babylonian, 2000-1600 BC, baked clay - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago - DSC07416.JPG, Storm god, Ishchali, Isin-Larsa to Old Babylonian, 2000-1600 BC, baked clay - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago File:Plaque with bull-men holding a palm trunk with sun disk, Ishchali, Isin-Larsa to Old Babylonian, 2000-1600 BC, baked clay - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago - DSC07390.JPG, Plaque with bull-men holding a palm trunk with sun disk, Ishchali, Isin-Larsa to Old Babylonian, 2000-1600 BC, baked clay - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago File:Storm god, Ishchali, Isin-Larsa to Old Babylonian, 2000-1600 BC, baked clay - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago - DSC07418.JPG, Storm god, Ishchali, Isin-Larsa to Old Babylonian, 2000-1600 BC, baked clay - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago File:Plaque with musician playing a lute, Ischali, Isin-Larsa period, 2000-1600 BC, baked clay - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago - DSC07344.JPG, Musician playing a

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...

, Isin-Larsa period, 2000-1600 BC, baked clay - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago

References

External links

Ishchali tablets at CDLITerracotta plaque from Ishchali at the Oriental InstituteReconstruction of Kitium Temple at ARTEHISTORIA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ishchali Archaeological sites in Iraq Diyala Governorate Former populated places in Iraq Tells (archaeology)