Foundation figurine of Warad-Sin for Inanna at Zabalam

Zabala, also Zabalam ( ''zabalam^ki'', Sumerian - ''MUŠ₃.UNU^ki'', modern Tell Ibzeikh (also Tell el-Buzekh or Tell Ibzaykh),

Dhi Qar Governorate Dhi Qar Governorate (, ) is a governorate in southern Iraq, in the Arabian Peninsula. The provincial capital is Nasiriyah. Prior to 1976 the governorate was known as Muntafiq Governorate. Thi Qar was the heartland of the ancient Iraqi civilizatio ...

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 a city of ancient

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. ...

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 ...

, located in what is now the Dhi Qar governorate in

. In early archaeology this location was also called Tel el-Buzekh. Locally it is called Tell Bzikh. Zabala was at the crossing of the ancient Iturungal and Ninagina canals, 10 kilometers to the northwest of

Umma Umma () in modern Dhi Qar Province in Iraq, was an ancient city in Sumer. 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 sugges ...

. The city's deity was Inanna of Zabala. A cuneiform tablet from Zabala contains one of only a few metro-mathematical tables of area measures from the Early Dynastic Period.

History

The first mentions of Zabala are in seals from the

Jemdet Nasr period The Jemdet Nasr Period (also Jemdat Nasr period) is an archaeological culture in southern Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). It is generally dated from 3100 to 2900 BC. It is named after the type site Tell Jemdet Nasr, where the assemblage typical fo ...

including a list of early sites - Ur, Nippur, Larsa, Uruk, Kes, and Zabalam. The earliest historical record, a bowl inscription, indicates that Zabala was under the control of Lugalzagesi of

. This is further supported by tablets from that period. The city is also known to have been under the control of Me'annedu, father of Lugalzagesi.

Akkadian Period

In the Sargonic Period,

Rimush Rimush (or Rimuš, ''Ri-mu-uš''; died 2270 BC) was the second king of the Akkadian Empire. He was the son of Sargon of Akkad. He was succeeded by his brother Manishtushu, and was an uncle of Naram-Sin of Akkad. Naram-Sin posthumously deified Sa ...

of Akkad reports Zabala as attempting to rebel against the control 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 ...

Shar-kali-sharri Shar-Kali-Sharri (, ''Dingir, DShar-ka-li-Sharri''; died 2193 BC) reigned c. 2218–2193 BC (middle chronology) as the ruler of Akkadian Empire, Akkad. In the early days of cuneiform scholarship the name was transcribed as "Shar-Gani-sharri". In ...

and Naram-Sin both reported building a temple to the goddess Inanna in Zabala.

Post-Akkadian Period

After the fall of Akkad, Zabala came into the sphere of the city-state of

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 ...

as reported by the year names of several rulers including Itar-pisa and Ur-Ninurta. The town was later subject to Abisare 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 ...

, whose year name reported the building of the "Favorite of Inanna of Zabalam" canal.

Ur III Period

During the Ur III period, Zabala was controlled by the Ur governor in

which was the capital of Umma Province.

Babylonian Period

Cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

texts state that

Hammurabi Hammurabi (; ; ), also spelled Hammurapi, was the sixth Amorite king of the Old Babylonian Empire, reigning from to BC. He was preceded by his father, Sin-Muballit, who abdicated due to failing health. During his reign, he conquered the ci ...

built Zabala's temple Ezi-Kalam-ma (House of the Life of the Land) to the goddess Inanna. The temple of Inanna in Zabalam is the subject of hymn 26 from a collection known as ''

Temple Hymns A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

'', traditionally attributed to

Enheduanna Enheduanna ( , also transliteration, transliterated as , , or variants; ) was the (high) priestess of the moon god Sin (mythology), Nanna (Sīn) in the Sumerian city-state of Ur in the reign of her father, Sargon of Akkad ( BCE). She was likely ...

Archaeology

The roughly rectangular site, which covers an areas of about 61 hectares, was first identified during the South Mesopotamian Mound Survey in 1954. It consists of three main mounds, east, west, and south. It is surrounded by a wall which was "built of brick and clay with plaster material, and is decorated with buttresses and recesses". Beginning in the early 1900s, a great deal of illegal excavation occurred in Zabala. An example of writing from the time of

was removed from Zabala during this period. This activity reached a new height in the 1990s, at which time the Iraqi State Organization of Antiquities and Heritage authorized an official excavation, the first at the site. Two seasons of excavation, in 2001 and 2002, occurred under the direction of Haider Al-Subaihawi. Several public and religious buildings were uncovered, a number of cuneiform tablets and an inscribed stone foundation cylinder of Warad-Sin, king of

were found. A bronze sculpture ( canephor, which is a form of

Caryatid A caryatid ( ; ; ) is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term ''karyatides'' literally means "maidens of Karyai", an ancient t ...

), from Warad-Sin which mentions his father Kudur-Mabuk was also found. A number of Old Babylonian period cylinder seals were also found. A further outbreak of archaeological looting at Zabala broke out after the 2003 War in Iraq.al Hamdani, A. (2008): Protecting and Recording our Archaeological Heritage in Southern Iraq, NearEastern Archaeology, vol. 71, pp. 221–230

Notes

References

*Andrew George, House Most High: The Temples of Ancient Mesopotamia (Mesopotamian Civilizations, Vol 5), Eisenbrauns, 1993, *B. Alster, Geštinanna as Singer and the Chorus of Uruk and Zabalam: UET 6/1 22, JCS, vol. 37, pp. 219–28, 1985

External links

CDLI background on Zabala

Post 2003 war looting at Zabala
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828072653/http://savingantiquities.org/feature_iraq.php , date=2008-08-28 Sumerian cities Archaeological sites in Iraq Former populated places in Iraq History of Dhi Qar Governorate 2nd-millennium BC disestablishments Inanna Jemdet Nasr period City-states