Coordinates: 33°03′32″N 44°15′08″E / 33.058829°N 44.252153°E
Sippar (Sumerian Zimbir, meaning: "bird city"), was an ancient Sumerian and later Babylonian city on the east bank of the Euphrates, some 60 km north of Babylon, in what is now Tell Abu Habbah, Iraq.
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History
It was divided into two parts, "Sippar of the Sun-god" and "Sippar of the goddess Anunit", the former of which was discovered by Hormuzd Rassam in 1881 at Abu Habba, c. 30 km southeast of Baghdad.
Sippar is called Sepharvaim in the Old Testament, which alludes to the two parts of the city by its dual form.
Two other Sippars are mentioned in inscriptions, one of them being "Sippar of Edinu", which may have been an additional quarter of the city. It is possible that one of the "Sippars" might be identified with Akkad, the capital of the first Semitic Empire.
The main god of the city was the Sumerian Sun god, Utu (Shamash in Akkadian).
One of its kings was En-men-dur-ana, who was said to have ruled many years before the Flood.
Xisuthros, the "Chaldean Noah", is said by Berossus to have buried the records of the antediluvian world here--possibly because the name of Sippar was supposed to be connected with sipru, "a writing". And according to Abydenus, Nebuchadnezzar excavated a great reservoir in the neighbourhood. Here too was the Babylonian camp in the reign of Nabonidos.
Pliny (Natural History 6.30.123) mentions a sect, or school of Chaldeans called the Hippareni. It is often assumed that this name refers to Sippar (especially because the other two schools mentioned seem to be named after cities as well: the Orcheni after Uruk, and the Borsippeni after Borsippa), but this is not universally accepted.[1]
In his 29th year of reign Sumu-la-El of Babylon reported building the city wall of Sippar. Some years later Hammurabi of Babylon reported laying the foundations of the city wall of Sippar in his 23rd year and worked on the wall again in his 43rd year. His successor in Babylon, Samsu-iluna worked on Sippar's wall in his 1st year. The city walls, being typically made of mud bricks, required much attention.
Archaeology
Tell Abu Habba was first excavated by Hormuzd Rassam between 1880 and 1881 in a dig that lasted 18 months. [2] Tens of thousands of tablets were recovered including the Tablet of Shamash in the Temple of Shamash/Utu. Most of the tablets were Neo-Babylonian. The temple had been mentioned as early as the 18th year of Samsu-iluna of Babylon, who reported restoring "Ebabbar, the temple of Szamasz in Sippar", along with the cities ziggurat.
The tablets, which ended up in the British Museum are being studied to this day.[3] As was often the case in the early days of archaeology, excavation records were not made, particularly find spots. This makes it difficult to tell which tablets came from Sippar-Amnanum as opposed to Sippar.[4] Other tablets from Sippar were bought on the open market during that time and ended up at places like the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania.[5] [6] Since the site is relatively close to Baghdad, it was a popular target for illegal excavations.[7]
In 1894, Sippar was worked briefly by Jean-Vincent Scheil.[8] The tablets recovered, mainly Old Babylonian, went to the Istanbul Museum. In modern times, the site was worked by a Belgian team from 1972 to 1973. Iraqi archaeologists from the College of Arts at the University of Baghdad, led by Walid al-Jadir with Farouk al-Rawi, have excavated at Tell Abu Habbah from 1977 through the present in 24 seasons.[9][10] After 2000, they were joined by the German Archaeological Institute. [11]
Notes
- ^ "It is usually assumed that the Hippareni refers to Sippar (Ptolemy's Sippara), but even that requires proof, since the change of ‘s’ to ‘h’ is strange." —R. D. Barnett (1963). "Xenophon and the Wall of Media". The Journal of Hellenic Studies 83: 14. doi:.
- ^ [1] Hormuzd Rassam, Asshur and the Land of Nimrod: Being an Account of the Dicoveries Made in the Ancient Ruins of Nineveh, Asshur, Sepharvaim, Calah, [etc]..., Curts & Jennings, 1897
- ^ [2] Nebo-Sarsekim Cuneiform Tablet at Archaeology.org
- ^ Anne Goddeeris, Economy and Society in Northern Babylonia in the Early Old Babylonian Period, Peeters Publishers, 2002, ISBN 9042911239
- ^ [3] Hermann Ranke, Babylonian Legal and Business Documents from the Time of the First Dynasty of Babylon; Chiefly from Sippar, University of Pennsylvania, 1906
- ^ Karel Van Lerberghe, Old Babylonian legal and administrative texts from Philadelphia, Leuven : Departement Oriëntalistiek, 1986, ISBN 9068310631
- ^ E. A. Budge, By Nile and Tigris: A Narrative of Journeys in Egypt and Mesopotamia on Behalf of the British Museum Between the Years 1886 and 1913, John Murray, 1920
- ^ V. Scheil, Une Saison de fouilles a Sippar, Le Caire, 1902
- ^ Lamia al-Gailani and Walid al-Jadir, Seal Impressions from Sippar, Sumer, vol. 37, pp. 129-144, 1981
- ^ F. N. H. Al-Rawi and Stephanie Dalley, Old Babylonian texts from private houses at Abu Habbah ancient Sippir : Baghdad University Excavations, Nabu Publications, 2000, ISBN 1897750072
- ^ W. al-Jadir and Z. Rajib, Archaeological Results from the Eighth Season at Sippar, Sumer, vol. 46, pp. 69-90, 1990
References
- Rivkah Harris, Ancient Sippar : a demographic study of an old-Babylonian city, 1894-1595 B.C., Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut, 1975
- F. N. H. al-Rawi, Tablets from the Sippar Library I. The "Weidner Chronicle": A Suppositious Royal Letter concering a Vision, Iraq, vol. 52, pp. 1-15, 1990
- F. N. H. al-Rawi and A. R. George, Tablets from the Sippar Library II. Tablet II of the Babylonian Creation Epic, Iraq, vol. 52, pp. 149-158, 1990
- F. N. H. al-Rawi and A. R. George, Tablets from the Sippar Library III. Two Royal Conterfeits, Iraq, vol. 56, pp. 135-149, 1994
- Luc Dekier, Old Babylonian real estate documents from Sippar in the British Museum, University of Ghent, 1994
- F. N. H. al-Rawi and A. R. George, Tablets from the Sippar Library IV. Lugale, Iraq, vol. 57, pp. 199-224, 1995
- John MacGinnis, Letter orders from Sippar and the administration of the Ebabbara in the late-Babylonian period, Bonami, 1995, ISBN 8385274073
- F. N. H. al-Rawi and A. R. George, Tablets from the Sippar Library V. An Incantation from Mis Pi, Iraq, vol. 57, pp. 225-228, 1995
- F. N. H. Al-Rawi and Andrew George, Tablets from the Sippar Library, VI. Atra-hasis, Iraq, vol. 58, pp. 147-190, 1996
- A. C. V. M. Bongenaar, The Neo-Babylonian Ebabbar Temple at Sippar : its administration and its prosopography, Nederlands Historisch-Archeologisch Instituut te Istanbul, 1997, ISBN 062580815
- F. N. H. al-Rawi and A. R. George, Tablets from the Sippar Library VII. Three wisdom texts, Iraq, vol. 60, pp. 187-206, 1998
- F. N. H. al-Rawi, Tablets from the Sippar library X: A dedication of Zabaya of Larsa, Iraq, vol. 64, pp. 247-248, 2002
- Andrew George and Khalid Salim Ismail, Tablets from the Sippar library, XI. The Babylonian almanac, Iraq, vol. 64, pp. 249-258, 2002
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
See also
External links
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