Abu Salabikh

The low tells at Abu Salabikh, around northwest of the site of ancient Nippur in Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate, Iraq mark the site of a small Sumerian city state of the mid third millennium BCE, with cultural connections to the cities of Kish, Mari and Ebla. Its contemporary name is uncertain: perhaps this was Eresh. Kesh was suggested by Thorkild Jacobsen before
excavations began. The Euphrates 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 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.

The site was a British concern after 1975, under the direction of Nicholas Postgate for the British School of Archaeology in Iraq (1975–89). Excavations were suspended with the Invasion of Kuwait (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, revealed a small but important repertory of cuneiform texts on some 500 tablets, of which the originals were stored in the Iraq Museum, Baghdad. They were largely lost when the museum was looted in the early stages of the Second Iraq War; 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'', 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. 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.

See also

* Cities of the Ancient Near East

References

Further reading

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