#sippar

12 Great Cities of Ancient Mesopotamia: The Rise and Fall of the Earliest Cities in the World

Rivalry between Mesopotamian city-states was often heated, and each tried to outdo the others with the largest ziggurat, the most majestic walls, cultivated public gardens and parks, and, of course, the most robust economy that made such works possible. When a city triumphed in creating some amazing wonder, a festival was held, and when a city fell, it was mourned, notably through the genre known as Mesopotamian city laments. Read about twelve of the greatest of these cities, what they were famous for, and how they passed into memory.

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Votive tablet depicting Shamash, the sun-god of Sippar, seated in his shrine with the Babylonian king Nebopaliddin being led into the God's presence by two figures. Babylonian art, 9th century BC.

Babylonian Map of the World (6th century BC), also known as Imago Mundi, is oldest clay tablet map written in Akkadian.

The tablet describes the oldest known depiction of the known world.

It was discovered at Sippar, southern Iraq, 60 miles north of Babylon on east bank of Euphrates River.

This map not only serves as a historical record of the region's geography but also includes mythological elements, providing a comprehensive view of the ancient Babylonian worldview.

Today, the Babylonian Map of the World is housed in the British Museum, where it continues to be a valuable artifact for understanding the ancient past.

Details of the map:

1. “Mountain” (Akkadian:šá-du-ú)

2. “City” (Akkadian: uru)

3. Urartu (Armenia) (Akkadian: ú-ra-áš-tu)

4. Assyria (Akkadian: kuraš+šurki)

5. Der (Akkadian: dēr)

6. Swamp (Akkadian: ap–pa–ru)

7. Elam (Akkadian: šuša)

8. Canal (Akkadian: bit-qu)

9. Bit Yakin (Akkadian:bῑt-ia-᾿-ki-nu)

10. “City” (Akkadian: uru)

11. Habban (Akkadian: ha-ab-ban)

12. Babylon (Akkadian: tin.tirki), divided by Euphrates

SI.427, Old Babylonian period (1900-1600 BCE)

The ancient clay tablet was discovered and cataloged along with many other tablets by the 1894 French archaeological expedition at Sippar in central Iraq.

The Babylonians used a base 60 number system – similar to how we keep time today – which made working with prime numbers larger than five difficult.

The rectangles depicting the field have opposite sides of equal length, suggesting surveyors of that time period had devised a way to create perpendicular lines more accurately than before.

That tablet described right-angle triangles using Pythagorean triples: three whole numbers in which the sum of the squares of the first two equals the square of the third – for example, 32 + 42 = 52.

MESOPOTAMIAN CLAY HUMBABA DEMON MASK 

SIPPAR, C. 1800-1600 BC

This type of mask was used for divination. The mask is formed of coiled intestines represented by one continuous line. Such an omen would mean ‘revolution’. A cuneiform inscription on the back of this clay mask suggests that the intestines might be found in the shape of Humbaba’s face in this mask. Humbaba (also called Huwawa in some texts) was a monster who appears in the Epic of Gilgamesh. 

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The Imago Mundi (or Babylonian Map of the World) is a 6th-century BCE Babylonian clay tablet, considered the oldest surviving world map.

Found in Sippar, Iraq, and housed in the British Museum, it depicts a circular world centered on Babylon, the Euphrates River, and a "Bitter River" (ocean) with mythological regions. 

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Irving Leonard Finkel (born 1951) is an English philologist and Assyriologist.

He is the Assistant Keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian script, languages and cultures in the Department of the Middle East in the British Museum, where he specialises in cuneiform inscriptions on tablets of clay from ancient Mesopotamia.

Šamaš Tablet Reign of Nabu-apla-iddina, 887-855 BCE Excavated by Hormuzd Rassam at Sippar (modern Abu Habbah)

The relief depicts the king Nabu-apla-iddina being led by the priest Nabu-nadin-šum and the goddess Aa towards the god Šamaš within the Ebabbar temple. The text records the replacement of the solar disc of Shamash with a new cult statue modeled after an ancient sculpture found in the mud of a riverbank.

Kudurru (boundary stone), named “O Adad, mighty lord, bestow abundant streams!” Found at Sippar (Iraq) Middle Babylonian/Kassite, ca. 1186-1172 BCE

The text inscribed on the stone records the king Meli-shipak’s grant of farmland to Khasardu, a minister. Various officials and gods are called upon to witness and uphold the transaction. 

The inscription is carved in several panels that take the form of an encircling wall with towers. Above are symbols of various deities and celestial bodies, with a serpent coiled about the summit.

The stone stelae that scholars now refer to as kudurrus were probably placed in temples to commemorate royal grants of land or privileges. Surviving examples date between the twelfth and the seventh centuries BCE.