Tell Uqair
Urum | |
  Shown within Iraq | |
| Alternative name | Tell Uquair, Tell Aqair |
|---|---|
| Location | Babil Governorate, Iraq |
| Region | Mesopotamia |
| Coordinates | 32°46′54″N 44°39′53″E / 32.78167°N 44.66472°E |
| Type | tell |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1941–1942 |
| Archaeologists | S. Lloyd, Taha Baqir, F. Safar |
Tell Uqair (Tell Uquair, Tell Aqair) is a tell or settlement mound northeast of Babylon and about 50 miles (80 km) south of Baghdad in modern Babil Governorate, Iraq.
Archaeology
[edit]Tell Uqair is a small mound just north of Tell Ibrahim, the large mound marking the site of ancient Kutha. The topography consists of two sub-mounds separated by what is apparently the bed of an ancient canal. At maximum the hills are 6 metres (20 ft) above the terrain line. The site of Tell Uqair was excavated during World War II, in 1941 and 1942, by an Iraqi Directorate General of Antiquities team led by Seton Lloyd, with Taha Baqir and Fuad Safar.[1] The buildings and artifacts discovered were primarily from the Ubaid period, the Uruk period, and the Jemdet Nasr period and included four Proto-Cuneiform tablets. A sounding was done by a team from the Heidelberg University in 1978.
History
[edit]
The site of Tell Uqair first had significant occupation during the Ubaid period, and grew to its greatest extent during the Jemdet Nasr and Uruk periods. Some Early Dynastic graves and a scattering of Akkadian and Babylonian artifacts indicate the location continued in limited use up through the time of Nebuchadnezzar.
The most prominent discovery at Tell Uquair was the "Painted Temple", a large complex similar in design to the "White Temple" found at Uruk. Like that temple it had stepped niches with half columns.[2] Some of the original frescoes were still visible at the time of the excavation and were copied. Several frescoes were recovered intact and sent to the Baghdad Museum. The temple is believed to date to the Uruk or early Jemdet Nasr period. A small adjacent Jemdet Nasr temple was of somewhat later construction and contained large amounts of pottery from that period.[3]
It has been suggested, based on a toponym (ḪA.ÚR.BAR), that the Blau Monuments originated at Tell Uqair.[4]
Urum
[edit]Because of clay tablets found at the site, it is believed to be the ancient town of Urum.[5] The toponym for Urum is written in cuneiform as ÚR×Ú.KI (cuneiform: 𒌱𒆠), URUM4 = ÚR×ḪA (cuneiform: 𒌯), besides ÚR×A.ḪA.KI (cuneiform: 𒌬𒆠), from earlier (pre-Ur III) ÚR.A.ḪA.[6] It is known that during the 3rd millennium BC Urum was a cult site for the god Nanna.[7] It is also known that Urum was between the cities of Kish and Sippar (more specifically between Sippar and Kutha), which fits with Tell Uqair, and that under the Ur III empire one of the ensi2 was one Ur-Sin/Ur-Suena (attested in years 43 and 44 of Shulgi).[8][9] At that time Urum and TiWA/Tiwe, which was known as one of the polities that joined the great rebellion against Naram-Sin of Akkad (c. 2254–2218BC), made up one of the Ur III provinces.[10] Tulid-Šamši (Šamaš-gave-(me-)birth) was an en-priestess of Nanna at Urum during the reign or Ur III ruler Shu-Sin (c. 2037–2028 BC), known from seals of two servants.[11][12] She is also listed as en dEN.ZU.[13] A Niridagal was general in charge of the troops of Urum and Tiwa (A.HA) in the reign of Amar-Sin (c. 2046–2037BC).[14]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Seton Lloyd and F. Safar, "Tell Uqair: Excavations by the Iraq Government Directorate General of Antiquities in 1940 and 1941", in: Journal of Near Eastern Studies, v. 2, no. 2, April, pp 131-58, 1943
- ^ Ławecka, Dorota, "Bent or Straight Axis? Temple Plans in Early Dynastic Southern Babylonia", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 104, no. 2, pp. 206-228, 2014
- ^ Dermech, S., "The Tell'Uqair temple (4th mill. BC): colours and iconography", In BAF-Online: Proceedings of the Berner Altorientalisches Forum (Vol. 1), 2016
- ^ Balke, Thomas E., "The Interplay of Material, Text, and Iconography in Some of the Oldest “Legal” Documents", Materiality of Writing in Early Mesopotamia, edited by Thomas E. Balke and Christina Tsouparopoulou, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2016, pp. 73-94, 2016
- ^ Robert K. Englund, "Proto-Cuneiform Texts from Diverse Collections", (Materialien Zu Den Fruhen Schriftzeugnissen Des Vorderen Ori), Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1996, ISBN 3-7861-1875-2
- ^ Piotr Steinkeller, "On the Reading and Location of the Toponyms ÚR×Ú.KI and A.ḪA.KI", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 23–33, Jan. 1980
- ^ Yuhong, Wu, and Stephanie Dalley, "The Origins of the Manana Dynasty at Kish, and the Assyrian King List", Iraq, vol. 52, pp. 159–65, 1990
- ^ Sharlach, Tonia. "Princely Employments in the Reign of Shulgi", Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 1-68, 2022
- ^ Sallaberger, W., "Ur III-Zeit", in Mesopotamien: Akkade-Zeit und Ur III-Zeit, OBO 160/3, edited by W. Sallaberger, and A. Westenholz, Freiburg: Universitätsverlag, pp. 121–390, 1999
- ^ Steinkeller, Piotr. "Two Sargonic Seals from Urusagrig and the Question of Urusagrig’s Location" Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 112, no. 1, 2022, pp. 1-10
- ^ Frayne, Douglas, "Šulgi", Ur III Period (2112-2004 BC), Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 91-234, 1997
- ^ Michalowski, Piotr, "Of Bears and Men: Thoughts on the End of Šulgi’s Reign and on the Ensuing Succession", Literature as Politics, Politics as Literature: Essays on the Ancient Near East in Honor of Peter Machinist, edited by David S. Vanderhooft and Abraham Winitzer, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 285-320, 2013
- ^ Stol, Marten, "Priestesses", Women in the Ancient Near East, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 555-583, 2016
- ^ Steinkeller, Piotr, "Corvée Labor in Ur III Times", From the 21st Century B.C. to the 21st Century A.D.: Proceedings of the International Conference on Neo-Sumerian Studies Held in Madrid, 22–24 July 2010, edited by Steven J. Garfinkle and Manuel Molina, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 347-424, 2013
Further reading
[edit]- Seton Lloyd, "Ur-Al `Ubaid, Uquair and Eridu, in Ur in Retrospect: In Memory of Sir Leonard Woolley", Iraq, vol. 22, pp. 23–31, 1960
- M. W. Green, "Urum and Uqair", Acta Sumerologica, vol. 8, pp.77–83, 1986
- Gilbert J. P. McEwan, "The Writing of Urum in Pre-Ur III Sources", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 56, Jan. 1981