Eshnunna

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Babylonia at the time of Hammurabi, ca. 1792-1750 BC

Coordinates: 33°45′N 44°45′E / 33.75°N 44.75°E / 33.75; 44.75 Eshnunna (modern Tell Asmar, Iraq) was an ancient Sumerian city and city-state in lower Mesopotamia. Although situated in the Diyala Valley north-east of Sumer proper, the city nonetheless belonged securely within the Sumerian cultural milieu.

The tutelary deity of the city was Tishpak (Tispak).

History

Occupied from the Jemdet Nasr period, Eshnunna was a major city during the Early Dynastic period. Starting with the rise of the Akkadian Empire, Eshnunna oscillated between times of independence and domination by empires such as the Third Dynasty of Ur and Isin. Because of its control over lucrative trade routes, Eshnunna did function somewhat as a gateway between Mesopotamian and Elamite culture. The trade routes gave it access to many exotic, sought after goods such as horses, copper, tin, and other precious stones and metals.

After rising to prominence as an independent state in the early second millenium, during the time of Shamshi-Adad, it was occupied Elam, then conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon in the 38th year of his reign, and absorbed within the Old Babylonian Empire (sometimes called the First Babylonian Dynasty). Thereafter, the city appears but rarely within cuneiform textual sources, reflecting a probable decline and eventual disappearance.

Archaeology

The remains of the ancient city are now preserved in the mound of Tell Asmar, near Baqubah, excavated in six seasons between 1930 and 1936 by an Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago team led by Henri Frankfort with Thorkild Jacobsen and Seton Lloyd. ^{[1][2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]}

Despite the long passage of time since the excavations at Tell Asmar, the work of examining and publishing the remaining finds from that dig continues to this day. These finds include roughly 1500 cuneiform tablets. ^[9]

In the late 1990s, Iraqi archaeologists worked at Tell Asmar. The results from that excavation have not yet been published.^[10]

Laws of Eshnunna

The Laws of Eshnunna consist of two tablets, found at Shaduppum (Tell Harmal) and a fragment found at Tell Haddad, the ancient Mê-Turan.^[11] They were written sometime around the reign of king Dadusha of Eshnunna and appear to not be official copies. When the actual laws were composed is unknown. They are similar to the Code of Hammurabi. ^[12]

Square Temple of Abu

During the Early Dynastic period, the Abu Temple at Tell Asmar (Eshnunna) went through a number of phases. This included the Early Dynastic Archaic Shrine, Square Temple, and Single-Shrine phases of construction. They, along with sculpture found there, helped form the basis for the three part archaeological separation of the Early Dynastic period into ED I, ED II, and ED III for the ancient Near East. ^[13] A cache of 12 gypsum sculptures, in a geometric style, were found in the Square Temple. They're some of the best known examples of ancient Near East sculpture. ^[14]

Notes

References

• City In the Sand (2nd Edition), Mary Chubb, Libri, 1999, ISBN 1901965023
• [12] R. M. Whiting Jr., AS 22 - Old Babylonian Letters from Tell Asmar, Oriental Institute Assyriological Studies, 1987
• [13] I.J. Gelb, Sargonic Texts from the Diyala Region, Materials for the Assyrian Dictionary, vol. 1, Chicago, 1961
• Maria deJong Ellis, Notes on the Chronology of the Later Eshnunna Dynasty, Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 61-85, 1985

See also

• Cities of the ancient Near East
• Khafajah
• Short chronology timeline