Sippar (Tell Abu Habbah)

Cooperation for the archaeological fieldwork project of the University of Baghdad in Sippar (Abu Habbah)

The Orient Department supports the longstanding archaeological fieldwork of the University of Baghdad at ancient Sippar with selective training and publication projects.

Location

Sippar is situated c. 35 km southwest of Baghdad close to the modern city of Yussufiyeh.

History

	Remains of the Ziggurat dedicated to the sun god Samas

Sippar, the main Babylonian cult site of the sun god Šamaš, belongs to the oldest and most important Mesopotamian cult centers. Šamaš is the protective deity against darkness and evil, as god of justice and supreme judge also the protective divinity of the kingship and one of the most important divinities of the Mesopotamian kingdoms. Sippar seems to have been settled at the end of the 4th/beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. The first written reference dates to the 23rd c. BC. Around 35000 written records from the 19th-16th c. BC ("old-babylonian period") and especially from the 8th-6th c. BC (neo-babylonian period) inform us on the economy and administration of the city as well as on religious beliefs and literature. The main sanctuary "E-babbar" of the sun god Šamaš was in use for about 2000 years. Here originally such important monuments as (probably) the victory stele of King Naram-Suen of the akkad-period or the Law Code of Hammurabi were erected. The golden age of the city seems to have ended with the neo-babylonian period. But archaeologically there are also traces of younger periods such as the Achaemenid, Seleucid and Parthian period (6th c. BC-2nd/3rd c. AD). 

Objectives

The research and fieldwork of the University Baghdad in Sippar serves in particular the formation of young academics. The Baghdad branch of the German Archaeological Institute participates in this effort with specific projects which introduce the development of new scientific questions and the use of innovative techniques. The scientific aim is the identification of the different functional units of the city as well as a detailed knowledge of the diachronic historical development of the city of Sippar.  

History of Research

	The settlement mound of Sippar is situated in an area used nowadays for agriculture.

Since 1881 archaeological research has been carried out in Sippar with long gaps in between. They were first undertaken in 1881/1882 by Hormuzd Rassam on behalf of the British Museum, in 1894 by Vincent Scheil and in 1972/1973 by a Belgian research team. Since 1977 the University of Baghdad is in charge of the excavations. Fieldwork following the cooperation agreement with the Baghdad branch of the German Archaeological Institute was first carried out in the year 2000. 

Previous Activities

Around 1/3 of the city, which measures c. 1.2 square kilometers, has been explored archaeologically in its upper layers. Especially the area of the E-babbar, the temple area for the sun god Šamaš, which was excavated to its neo-babylonian layers. Large parts of this complex were already excavated at the end of the 19th c., but an extension of the excavation by scholars of the University of Baghdad have provided substantial new information on the layout. Extensive courtyards surround here a Ziggurat (high terrace with temple), which contains additional temples and economic units of the sanctuary. The discovery of a library, in which clay tablets were found in shelf-like structures still in their original place of storage, was among the most important discovery of the excavations until 1999. During that time there were also excavations in an extensive domestic quarter from the old-babylonian period and a deep sounding through the settlement layers of the 3rd millennium BC.
In the fall of 2000 a systematic survey of the entire inside the city walls of Sippar was carried out. Thus the topographical plan could be transformed into digital standard. Systematic documentation of all finds and findings on the surface made possible their mapping, through which functional units and the duration of settlement in different areas of the city could be determined. The settlement centers of the different periods are discernible, and assumptions on the location of religious, representative and economic or domestic quarters are possible. The data collected through surface survey form the basis for the development of new research strategies and the selection of new excavation areas. The first most important result was the confirmation of a nearly complete settlement of the city in the up to now in Sippar only partially substantiated "early dynastic period" (c. 3000-2250 BC). Few pottery fragments from the "late Uruk-period" (late 4th millennium BC) are proof of an early settlement at this place.  

Current Work

	Levelling of pottery finds

Since 2003 no fieldwork was possible in Sippar due to the armed conflict. In the year 2004 fighting took place at the site which destroyed a depot building with finds that had yet to be analyzed as well as all plans and written documents stored in Sippar. A detailed appraisal of the damage was not possible up to now.
Currently all finds and findings for which the documentation had been concluded at the site are prepared for publication in a cooperation between the University of Baghdad and the German Archaeological Institute.  

Cooperation

Universität Baghdad, College of Arts - Department of Archaeology 

Contact

Dr. phil. Margarete van Ess

Telefon: 03018-7711-0
Telefax: 03018-7711-189
Email: orient@dainst.de

Bibliography

Abdulillah Fadhil - Zuhair Rajab Abdallah Al-Samarraee, Ausgrabungen in Sippar (Tell Abu Habbah). Vorbericht über die Grabungsergebnisse der 24. Kampagne 2002, in: Baghdader Mitteilungen (BaM) 36, 2005, 157-224.
Abdulillah Fadhil - Zuhair Rajab Abdallah Al-Samarraee, Sippar - Results of prospecting 2004/24, in: Sumer, A journal of archaeology in Iraq and the Arab world, Vol. LII, No. 1&2, 2003 und 2004, 294-357.