Lagaba was a city in the historical region of southern

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

(now southern

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 ...

). It is the place of origin of many illicitly excavated

clay tablet In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian language, 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 t ...

s,Oded Tammuz, The location of Lagaba. ''Revue d'Assyriologie et d'Archeologie Orientale'' 90: 19-25, 1996.

all in Akkadian language, Old Babylonian. More than 400 tablets are known to have originated there. Tablets from Lagaba are kept in various collections around the world, among which * the Babylonian Collection at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. Tablets from the Yale Babylonian Collection have been published by G.M. Beckman in the Catalogue of the YBC and by Oded Tammuz of Ben Gurion University many dated to the reign of Samsuiluna, * the Böhl Collection at

The Netherlands Institute for the Near East The Netherlands Institute for the Near East (Dutch: ''Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten''; colloquially known by its abbreviation: NINO) is an institution for the advancement of the study of the Ancient Near East, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, ...

W.F. Leemans, ''Ishtar of Lagaba and her Dress'', Studia ad Tabulas Cuneiformes Collectas a F.M.Th. de Liagre Bohl Pertinentia I (1). Leiden: The Netherlands Institute for the Near East, 1952.W.F. Leemans, ''Legal and Administrative Documents of the Time of Hammurabi and Samsuiluna (Mainly from Lagaba)'', Studia ad Tabulas Cuneiformes Collectas a F.M.Th. de Liagre Bohl Pertinentia I (3). Leiden: The Netherlands Institute for the Near East, 1960. at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

, * the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street in Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, * various others. Most of the known Lagaba tablets are from the Old Babylonian period. In the time of

Sumu-la-El Sumu-la-El (also Sumulael or Sumu-la-ilu) was a King in the First Dynasty of Babylon. He reigned c. 1880-1845 BC ( MC). He subjugated and conquered nearby cities like Kish and built a string of fortresses around his territory. He is known to have ...

(c. 1880-1845 BC), ruler of the First Babylonian empire, the ruler of Lagaba was Mutumme-El. After a long period of control by Babylon the year names of the next to last ruler of that empire

Samsu-iluna Samsu-iluna (Amorite: ''Shamshu-iluna'', "The Sun (is) our god") (–1712 BC) was the seventh king of the founding Amorite dynasty of Babylon. His reign is estimated from 1749 BC to 1712 BC (middle chronology), or from 1686 to 1648 BC (short chron ...

(c. 1750-1712 BC) ceased to be used in Lagaba in his year 30 suggesting that city, like others in the empire, had gained independence. The tutelary god of Lagaba was Ishtar of Lagaba (Lagabītum, Bēlet-Lagaba, "Lady of Lagaba") though other gods were also worshiped there including

Nabu Nabu (, ) is the Babylonian patron god of literacy, scribes, wisdom, and the rational arts. He is associated with the classical planet Mercury in Babylonian astronomy. Etymology and meaning The Akkadian means 'announcer' or 'authorised pe ...

and

Laṣ Laṣ (''dLa-aṣ''; also romanized as Laz) was a Mesopotamian goddess who was commonly regarded as the wife of Nergal, a god associated with war and the underworld. Instances of both conflation and coexistence of her and another goddess this pos ...

. It has been suggested that this god corresponds to Lakuppītu who is worshiped in

Isin Isin (, modern Arabic language, Arabic: Ishan al-Bahriyat) is an archaeological site in Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate, Iraq which was the location of the Ancient Near East city of Isin, occupied from the late 4th millennium Uruk period up until at ...

.George, Andrew R., "House most high: the temples of ancient Mesopotamia", Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1993

Location

The precise location of Lagaba is unknown to this day. The first thorough investigation into the location of Lagaba was undertaken by Leemans, on the basis of tablets kept in Leiden, suggesting that Lagaba lay on a waterway (possibly the Shatt en-Nil canal) between

Babylon Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...

and

Kutha Kutha, Cuthah, Cuth or Cutha (, Sumerian: Gû.du8.aki, Akkadian: Kûtu), modern Tell Ibrahim (also Tell Habl Ibrahlm) (), is an archaeological site in Babil Governorate, Iraq. The site of Tell Uqair (possibly ancient Urum) is just to the north. ...

in the vicinity of Kutha. By reviewing a tablet from Lagaba kept in Yale, Tammuz in 1996 concluded it to be 15 km North-north-east of the city of

, on the western bank of 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 ...

River.

Location

See also

References

Further reading