Bad-tibira

Bad-tibira
History
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Shown within Iraq
Alternative name	Tell Madineh
Location	Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq
Coordinates	31°22′47″N 45°59′59″E / 31.37972°N 45.99972°E / 31.37972; 45.99972
Type	settlement
Periods	Early Dynastic, Ur III, Old Babylonian
Site notes
Excavation dates	1927
Archaeologists	Raymond P. Dougherty
Condition	Ruined
Ownership	Public
Public access	Yes

Bad-tibira (Sumerian: 𒂦𒁾𒉄𒆠, bad₃-tibira), "Wall of the Copper Worker(s)", or "Fortress of the Smiths", identified as modern Tell al-Madineh (also Tell Madineh), between Ash Shatrah and Tell as-Senkereh (ancient Larsa) and 33 kilometers northeast of ancient Girsu in southern Iraq, was an ancient Sumerian city on the Iturungal canal (built by Ur III ruler Ur-Nammu), which appears among antediluvian cities in the Sumerian King List. Its Akkadian name was Dûr-gurgurri. It was also called Παντιβίβλος (Pantibiblos) by Greek authors such as Berossus, transmitted by Abydenus and Apollodorus. This may reflect another version of the city's name, Patibira, "Canal of the Smiths".

There is known to be a temple of the deity Kittum at Bad-tibira. It has been suggested that Ninsheshegarra, an aspect of the goddess Geshtinanna who is sister of Dumuzid, was worshiped in the temple Esheshegarra at Bad-tibira.

Bad-tibira in Sumerian literature

According to the Sumerian King List, Bad-tibira was the second city to "exercise kingship" in Sumer before the flood, following Eridu. These kings were said to be En-men-lu-ana, En-men-gal-ana and Dumuzid the Shepherd.

The early Sumerian text Inanna's descent to the netherworld mentions the city's temple, E-mush-kalamma(a temple to Lulal ). In this tale, Inanna dissuades demons from the netherworld from taking Lulal, patron of Bad-tibira, who was living in squalor. They eventually take Dumuzid, who lived in palatial opulence at Uruk. This Dumuzid is called "the Shepherd", who on the King List resides at Bad-Tibira in contrast to the post-diluvian Dumuzid, the Fisherman, who reigns in Uruk.

History

A cone found at the site marked the construction by Ur-Nammu (c. 2100 BC), a ruler of the Ur III empire, of the Iturungal canal.

"For the goddess Inanna, dy of Eanna, his lady, Ur-Nammu, mighty man, king of Ur, king of the lands of Sumer and Akkad, dug for her the Iturungal canal, her beloved canal"

The "brotherhood text" in cuneiform inscriptions on a cone, of which there are many exemplars, from the site records the friendship pact of Entemena, governor of Lagash, and Lugal-kinishedudu, governor of Uruk. It identifies Entemena as the builder of the temple E-mush to Inanna and Dumuzid, under his local epithet Lugal-E-mush.

"For the goddess Inanna and the god Lugal-emush, En-metena, ruler of Lagash, Built the E-mush (“House — Radiance ”), their beloved temple, and ordered (these) clay nails(?) for them. En-metena, who built the E-mush temple — is personal god is the god Sul-MUS×PA. At that time En-metena, ruler of Lagash, and Lugal-kinishe-dudu, ruler of Uruk, established a brotherhood (pact) (between themselves)."

A foundation tablet of En-metena from the site, with multiple exemplars, also mentioned the building of E-Mush "... At that time, En-metena built for Lugalemush, the E-mush (“House — Radiance ”) of Pa-tibira, his beloved temple, restoring it. ...". Pa-tibira appear to be an alternate spelling of Bad-tibira.

In the Isin-Larsa Period possession of the city passed between Larsa and Isin. Larsa ruler Sin-Iddinam (c. 1785- 1778 BC) claimed, on a cone thought to be from the site, to have built the great wall of Bad-tibira "by means of his triumph he built in a grand fashion the great wall of Bad-tibira". Isin ruler Lipit-Ishtar, "the shepherd of Nippur", claimed to have built the "House of Righteousness" there. The city was under the control of Larsa during the long reign of Rim-Sîn I. During the reign of Rîm-Anum, a ruler of Uruk during the Old Babylonian period, a šagina-official of Bad₃-tibira is recorded as being received by military scribes at Uruk.

Archaeology

The site was visited in 1927 by Raymond P. Dougherty for a day. He reports that the site covered about a square mile with the western mound being the largest with low extensions bearing off a mile to the north. Numbers baked bricks were seen along with door sockets, flint saw blades, and a bronze needle. Some badly effaced half-bricks on the surface of the mound bore the inscription of Amar-Sin, of the Third Dynasty of Ur. Pieces of vitrified brick scattered over the surface of the large mound bore witness to the city's destruction by fire.

In 1965 Vaughn E. Crawford of the Metropolitan Museum of Art visited the site, noting that surface pottery indicated occupation until about 1500 BC.

Tell Jidr (Tall Ǧidr)

The site, on the Tigris River in modern Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate in Iraq, lay on the ancient Iturungal canal which also connected Adab, Umma, and Zabalam. In particular it lies between Adab and Zabalam. At its maximum extent it covered an area of 130 hectares. In 1967 a survey (generally known as the Warka Survey) was conducted the region, marking Tell Jidr as site WS-004. The ancient city of Adab lay just to the northwest. Two inscribed bricks of Gudea, ruler of Lagash were found at the site. The surface of the main two mounds is dominated with the remains from the Parthian and Sassanian periods. The northeast mound is 1300 meters by 1000 meters and the somewhat lower southeast mound is 1400 meters by 700 meters. At various locations around the site remains of the Ubaid, Uruk, Early Dynastic I, Kassite, and into the Sassanian period (without evidence of Neo-Babylonian or Achaemenid on the surface). The ruins of the Early Islamic site of Imam Dhahir lies adjacent. At various times a number of city names have been proposed for the site including Karkar, Irisaĝrig, KI.AN, Kesh, and Dabrum. The primary evidence for Karkar is an itinerary of the Uruk ruler Utu-hengal in his campaign against the Gutian ruler Tirigan and the fact that during the Ur III empire Karkar was part of the province of Umma (the city of Umma lies 17 kilometers northwest of Tell Jidr). From 2016 to 2018 the QADIS regional survey conducted satellite, drone, surface survey, soundings, and geoarchaeological boring at Tell Jidr (QD013). It found that the extended site covered 430 hectares. Two inscribed bricks of the Ur III ruler Ur-Nammu were found which contained a dedication to Ishkur which would support the identification of the location as Karkar. It is difficult to confirm at this point if the bricks have not been re-used from another location, especially in the case of the Gudea bricks. The site is heavily pitted from robbers looking for coins, glass, and jewelry. in March 2023 the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences worked at the site.

List of rulers

The following list should not be considered complete:

#	Ruler	Epithet	Approx. dates	Notes
Early Dynastic I period (c. 2900 – c. 2700 BC)
Predynastic Sumer (c. 2900 – c. 2700 BC)
"Then Eridu fell and the kingship was taken to Bad-tibira." — Sumerian King List (SKL)
1st	En-men-lu-ana 𒂗𒈨𒂗𒇽𒀭𒈾		Uncertain, fl. c. 2856 BC (43,200 years)	Historicity uncertain Said on the SKL to have held the title of, "King" of not just Bad-tibira; but, to have held the "Kingship" over all of Sumer The Uruk List of Kings and Sages (ULKS) pairs him up with an apkallu (an apkallu was a sage in Sumerian literature and religion—En-men-lu-ana was paired up with Enmeduga)
2nd	En-men-gal-ana 𒂗𒈨𒂗𒃲𒀭𒈾		Uncertain, reigned c. 2844 BC (28,800 years)	Historicity uncertain Said on the SKL to have held the title of, "King" of not just Bad-tibira; but, to have held the "Kingship" over all of Sumer The ULKS pairs him up with an apkallu (Enmegalama)
3rd	Enmeusumgalana 𒁹𒂗𒈨𒃲𒁔𒀭𒈾		Uncertain	Historicity uncertain Said on the SKL to have held the title of, "King" of not just Bad-tibira; but, to have held the "Kingship" over all of Sumer The ULKS pairs him up with an apkallu (Enmebuluga)
4th	Dumuzid 𒌉𒍣𒉺𒇻	"the shepherd"	Uncertain, r. c. 2836 BC (36,000 years)	Historicity uncertain Said on the SKL to have held the title of, "King" of not just Bad-tibira; but, to have held the "Kingship" over all of Sumer The ULKS pairs him up with an apkallu (Anenlilda)
"3 kings; they ruled for 108,000 years. Then Bad-tibira fell and the kingship was taken to Larak." — SKL

Notes

W.F. Albright and T.O. Lambdin, "The Evidence of Language", in The Cambridge Ancient History I, part 1 (Cambridge University Press), 1971, ISBN 0-521-07051-1, page 150.
Hallo, William W. and William Kelly Simpson, The Ancient Near East: A History, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., New York, 1971, p. 32
Vaughn E. Crawford, "The Location of Bad-Tibira", Iraq 22 "Ur in Retrospect. In Memory of Sir C. Leonard Woolley" (Spring - Autumn 1960:197-199); the secure identification is based on the recovery at the pillaged site of fragments of a known inscription of Entemena that had surfaced in the black market without provenance. Earlier excavations at a mound called Medain near the site of Lagash, following a report of a vendor of one of the inscriptions, had proved fruitless: see H. de Genouillac, Fouilles de Telloh, ii:139 (noted by Crawford 1960:197 note 7).
Collection of taxes from Dûr-gurgurri features in correspondence of Hammurabi (first half of the 18th century BCE) noted in L. W. King and H. R. Hall, Egypt and Western Asia in the Light of Recent Discoveries (New York, 2005) p. 306f; it remained a city of metal-workers and the principal settlement of the guild of gugurrē, "metalworkers" (L. W. King, The Letters And Inscriptions Of Hammurabi, King Of Babylon About B.C. 2200 vol. III, p. 21, note 2.).
Hallo, William W. and William Kelly Simpson, The Ancient Near East: A History, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., New York, 1971
Frayne, Douglas R. and Stuckey, Johanna H., "K", A Handbook of Gods and Goddesses of the Ancient Near East: Three Thousand Deities of Anatolia, Syria, Israel, Sumer, Babylonia, Assyria, and Elam, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 158-174, 2021
George, A. R., "House Most High. The temples of ancient Mesopotamia", Winona Lake, 1993 ISBN 978-0931464805
Metcalf, Christopher, "A Poem about Ĝeštinana (“Dumuzi-Inana J”)", Sumerian Literary Texts in the Schøyen Collection: Volume 1: Literary Sources on Old Babylonian Religion, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 76-78, 2019
Inanna's descent to the netherworld - ETCSL
Frayne, Douglas, "Ur-Nammu E3/2.1.1", Ur III Period (2112-2004 BC), Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 5-90, 1997
Presumably the same temple as E-mush-kalamma, according to Crawford.
Crawford 1960:197.
^ Frayne, Douglas, "LAGAŠ", Presargonic Period: Early Periods, Volume 1 (2700-2350 BC), Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008, pp. 77-292, 2008
Frayne, Douglas, "Larsa", Old Babylonian Period (2003-1595 B.C.): Early Periods, Volume 4, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 107-322, 1990
Ferris J. Stephens, "A Newly Discovered Inscription of Libit-Ishtar" Journal of the American Oriental Society 52.2 (June 1932):182-185) p. 183.
Van De Mieroop, Marc, "The Reign OF Rim-Sin", Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie Orientale, vol. 87, no. 1, pp. 47–69, 1993
Seri, Andrea, "The military, messengers and foreign officials". The House of Prisoners: Slavery and State in Uruk during the Revolt against Samsu-iluna, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2013, pp. 214-236, 2013
Dougherty, Raymond P., "An Archæological Survey in Southern Babylonia (Continued)", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 25, pp. 5–13, 1927
Crawford 1960:198.
Harper, Prudence O. "Tomorrow We Dig! Excerpts from Vaughn E. Crawford's Letters and Newsletters from al-Hiba", Leaving No Stones Unturned: Essays on the Ancient Near East and Egypt in Honor of Donald P. Hansen, edited by Erica Ehrenberg, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 89-102, 2002
Marchetti, N., Gallerani, V., Luglio, G., Valeri, M., "Tell Jidr: A Late antique Megacity in Central Mesopotamia", Poster presented at the 11th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Munich, 2018
Jacobsen, Thorkild, "The Waters of Ur", Iraq, vol. 22, pp. 174–85, 1960
van Driel, G., "The Size of Institutional Umma", Archiv Für Orientforschung, vol. 46/47, pp. 80–91, 1999
“RIME 3/1.01.07.003, Ex. 18 Artifact Entry.” (2003) 2023. Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI). June 14, 2023. https://cdli.ucla.edu/P232331
Gallerani, Valentina, "Parthian and sasanian settlement patterns in the Qadis survey area (Qadisiyah, Iraq)", Parthica: incontri di culture nel mondo antico: 25, pp. 157-169, 2023
R. McC. Adams and H. Nissen, "The Uruk Countryside: The Natural Setting of Urban Societies", Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972 ISBN 0-226-00500-3
Falkenstein, A., "Sumerische religiöse Texte", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 55, no. Jahresband, pp. 11-67, 1962
H. J. Nissen, "Sumerological Studies in Honor of Thorkild Jacobsen on His Seventieth Birthday", 7 June 1974, Assyriological Studies 20, Chicago, 1976, ISBN 978-0-22-662282-8
Powell, Marvin A., "Karkar, Dabrum, and Tall Ǧidr: An Unresolved Geographical Problem", Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 47–52, 1980
Zomer, Elyze, "An Uprising at Karkar: A New Historical-Literary Text", Journal of Cuneiform Studies 71.1, pp. 111-120, 2019
Steinkeller, P., "New Light on the Hydrology and Topography of Southern Babylonia in the Third Millennium", ZA 91,no. 1, pp. 22–84, 2001
Mantellini, Simone, et al., "Development of water management strategies in southern Mesopotamia during the fourth and third millennium BCE", Geoarchaeology 39.3, pp. 268-299, 2024
Marchetti, Nicolò, Al-Hussainy, Abbas, Benati, Giacomo, Luglio, Giampaolo, Scazzosi, Giulia, Valeri, Marco and Zaina, Federico, "The Rise of Urbanized Landscapes in Mesopotamia: The QADIS Integrated Survey Results and the Interpretation of Multi-Layered Historical Landscapes", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 109, no. 2, pp. 214-237, 2019
Marchetti, Nicolò, and Federico Zaina, "Rediscovering the Heartland of Cities", Near Eastern Archaeology 83, pp. 146-157, 2020
Hamdani, Abdulamir al., "Protecting and Recording Our Archaeological Heritage in Southern Iraq", Near Eastern Archaeology, vol. 71, no. 4, pp. 221–30, 2008
Balakhvantsev, Archil S., Katherine Berzon, and Taisiya Dvurechenskaya, "Archaeological Exploration at the Site of Tell Jidr (Karkar) in Iraq: Results and Prospects", Vostok. Afro-Aziatskie obshchestva: istoriia i sovremennost 2, pp. 6-17, 2024

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