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 City of Nippur / Nibu
Nippur (located in the modern town of Afak and still
known as Nuffar) was one of the oldest of all
Sumerian cities, sometimes
being dated to 5262 BC. It was situated on both sides of the Shatt-en-Nil
canal, which was one of the Euphrates' earliest courses, lying between the
river's modern course and the Tigris, almost 160km south-east of Baghdad.
Originally, Nippur (or Nibu in Sumerian) was a village of reed huts in the
marshes which gradually rose upwards as a result of continuous habitation
and building work. Reed was replaced with mud brick and a holy centre seems
to have existed there almost from the very beginning, with the city being
regarded as sacred by many of the most powerful early kings. Enmebaragesi
was one of the early kings of
Kish who
achieved a level of domination over areas of Sumer, and one of his outstanding achievements was the
construction at Nippur of the Temple of Enlil, the leading deity of the
Sumerian pantheon, ruler of the cosmos and only subject to the god An. In
fact, in Sumerian cuneiform, the local name of the city, Nibru, and the god Enlil are the same. Nippur gradually became the spiritual and cultural centre
of Sumer, and remained so into the
Amorite period in southern
Mesopotamia. |
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Lal-ur-alim-ma |
Legendary antediluvian king. |
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Tabi-utul-Bel |
Legendary antediluvian king. |
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c.2700 BC |
Enmebaragesi of
Kish
constructs the Temple of Enlil at Nippur, quickly turning the city into the
Sumerian spiritual centre. |
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c.2450 BC |
Nippur becomes part of the empire of Eannatum of
Lagash. |
c.2430 BC |
Nippur is conquered by Enshakushanna of
Uruk. |
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c.2300 BC |
Sargon's Akkadian empire
controls the city.
In approximately 2230 BC, Naram-Sim of
Agade is prompted by a pair of inauspicious oracles
to attack the E-kur
temple, supposedly protected by the god Enlil, head of the pantheon. As a
result of this, eight chief gods of the Anunaki pantheon come together and
withdrawn their support from Agade, pronouncing famine upon the city and its
empire (probably
the result of the widespread climate-induced collapse of this period). Naram-Sin places his son, Sharkalisharri
in Nippur to control it directly. |
c.2230 - 2217 BC |
Sharkalisharri /
Car-kali-carri |
Son of Naram-Sin of
Agade and later king of
Agade himself. |
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c.2193 BC |
The Gutians conquer most
of Sumer, including
Nippur. |
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c.2112 BC |
The Semitic kings of the new dynasty at
Ur, Ur-Gur/Ur-Engur
and Dungi (probably Ur-Nammu and Shulgi of the Third Dynasty, so dating this
event), rebuild the temples and city walls at Nippur along the same lines as
the earlier work of Naram-Sin of
Agade. |
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c.2004 1998 BC |
With the collapse of Sumerian civilisation and the fall of
Ur, Nippur
is briefly occupied by invading
Elamites before becoming a possession of the
Amorite kingdom of
Isin. The city seems to
suffer some damage from the occupation but also gains recognition from the
Elamites. |
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c.1890 BC |
A weakened
Isin loses control of Nippur
around this point in time, although the details are not known. A single
Amorite king is known
for the city, so it may be that he rules during this period. |
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Hammurabi |
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c.1822 - 1763 BC |
Rim-Sin of Larsa is
known as the 'shepherd of the land of Nippur', suggesting the city falls
under Larsa's control. |
c.1763 - 1595 BC |
Larsa is defeated by the
Babylonian empire and
Nippur passes to Hammurabi. Its spiritual centre is transferred to Babylon
until the Kassites
gain power and Nippur is restored to its former splendour. |
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c.1375 - 1235 BC |
Nippur is the repository of a very substantial administrative archive that
concentrates on the reigns of the
Babylonian
kings from Burnaburiash II to Kashtiliash IV inclusive. The city and
surrounding province is administered by a governor who oversees the local
agricultural organisation which produces sometimes huge harvests. The
archive ends with the
Assyrian
capture of Babylonia, and five years later the city is briefly captured by
Elam. |
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c.1200 BC |
The city is mostly abandoned between 1200-900 BC during a regional decline
in urbanism. By 1000 BC there is perhaps nothing more than a small population
clustered around the ancient ziggurat. Control eventually passes to the
Assyrians
and then the Seleucids,
who turn the temple into a fortress. Final decay sets in under the
Sassanids and the
former city becomes a collection of mud huts beside the ziggurat. The
Parthians construct
over the ruins of the temple and the town finally disappears in the
thirteenth century AD. |
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