Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T22:19:07.575Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE EARLY DYNASTIC MONUMENTAL BUILDINGS AT UMM AL-AQARIB1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2015

Haider Oraibi Almamori
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article presents the results of excavations conducted at the site of Umm al-Aqarib, in the Dhi Qar Governorate of Iraq, in the years 1999–2002 and 2008–2010. Despite significant practical difficulties, the excavations revealed an Early Dynastic city of major importance, with monumental architecture including two large temples, called here the White Temple and Temple H, and a palace. In interpreting the excavation results, the author argues that Umm al-Aqarib, and not Jokha (Umma) as has previously been thought, was the central settlement of the kingdom of Gišša during the Early Dynastic III period, and that the White Temple, the largest yet known from Early Dynastic Sumer, is to be identified as the temple of Šara, city god of Gišša.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 76 , December 2014 , pp. 149 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

I would like to dedicate this article to the memory of the late Dr Donny George, who was field director of the excavations of Umm al-Aqarib for the first and second seasons (1999–2000). I will never forget the exciting days which I spent with him at the site during those years of difficulties for Iraq. I thank Mr Taha Kerim Abod, field director of the fifth, sixth and seventh seasons (2008–2010), who kindly permitted me to study and publish evidence found at Umm al-Aqarib in those seasons.

The present article derives from my PhD dissertation Umm al-Aqarib: An Architectural and Textual Study of a Sumerian City, which I submitted to Kokushikan University in 2013. Another article entitled “Gišša (Umm al-Aqarib), Umma (Jokha), and Lagaš in the Early Dynastic III period,” also based on my PhD dissertation, has been published in Al-Rafidān 2014. I wish to express my thanks to Profs. Kazuya Maekawa (Kokushikan University), Yasuyoshi Okada (Kokushikan University), and Daisuke Shibata (Tsukuba University), who gave me many suggestions and advice during my doctoral studies.

I am most grateful to Prof. Zainab Bahrani (Columbia University) and Dr. Harriet Crawford (University of London), who kindly helped me in the interpretation of the Umm al-Aqarib excavations. They also corrected errors and improved my English for this article.

References

Adams, Robert McC. and Nissen, Hans J. 1972. The Uruk Countryside: The Natural Setting of Urban Societies, Chicago.Google Scholar
Oraibi Almamori, Haider 2014. Gišša (Umm al-Aqarib), Umma (Jokha), and Lagaš in the Early Dynastic III period, Al-Rafidān 2014 (Kokushikan Univertsity).Google Scholar
André-Salvini, B. 2003. Plaque dedicated by a queen of Umma, in: Aruz J. (ed.), Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus, New Haven: 78.Google Scholar
Frayne, Douglas R. 2008. Presargonic Period (2700–2350 BC). The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Early Periods, Vol. 1, Toronto, Buffalo and London. (=RIME 1)Google Scholar
George, Donny and Abdul Wahed, Haidar 2002. Temple ‘H’ at Umm al Aqarib, in: Werr, Lamia Al-Gailani et al. (eds.), Of Pots and Plans: Papers on the Archaeology and History of Mesopotamia and Syria Presented to David Oates in Honour of his 75th Birthday, London: 379–84.Google Scholar
Hansen, Donald P. 1970. Al-Hiba, 1968–1969, A preliminary report, ArtibusAsiae 32/4: 245–50, with figs. 1–15.Google Scholar
Mackay, Ernest 1929. A Sumerian Palace and the “A” Cemetery at Kish, Mesopotamia, Part II. Field Museum of Natural History, Anthropology, Memoirs I, No. 2, Chicago.Google Scholar
Matthiae, Paolo 1977. Ebla: An Empire Rediscovered (transl. by Holme, Christopher), London, Sydney, Auckland and Toronto.Google Scholar
Moortgat, Anton 1969. The Art of Ancient Mesopotamia: The Classical Art of the Near East, London-New York.Google Scholar
Peters, John Punnett 1897. Nippur or Explorations and Adventures on the Euphrates: The Narrative of Pennsylvania Expedition to Babylonia in the Years 1888–1890, New York and London.Google Scholar
Postgate, J. Nicholas. 1977. Excavations at Abu Salabikh, 1976, Iraq 39: 269–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Postgate, J. Nicholas and Moon, Jane A. 1982. Excavations at Abu Salabikh, 1981, Iraq 44: 103–36.Google Scholar
Sollberger, Edmond 1956. Corpus des inscriptions “royales” presaroniques de Lagaš. Geneve. (=CIRPL).Google Scholar
Sürenhagen, D. Relative chronology of the Uruk period. New evidence from Uruk-Warka and northern Syria, Bulletin of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies 25: 57–70.Google Scholar
Tucker, D. 2009. Brutal destruction of Iraq's archaeological sites continues (Photo gallery) www.uruknet.info?p=58169 / Link: www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-tucker/brutal-destruction-of-ira_b_290667.html Google Scholar
Woolley, C. Leonard 1934. Ur Excavations, Vol. II: The Royal Cemetery, London and Philadelphia.Google Scholar