Near East Kingdoms

Borsippa (City) (Sumer)

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The city states of Sumer formed one of the first great civilisations in human history (see feature link). This Near Eastern civilisation emerged a little way ahead of that of Africa's ancient Egypt, and up to a millennium before that of the Indus Valley culture. It developed out of the end of the Pottery Neolithic across the Fertile Crescent, a period which had seen Neolithic Farmer practices spread far and wide across the Near East and beyond.

As irrigation improved so the more southerly reaches of the Euphrates could at last be occupied by humans and their animals. Southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and the western edge of Iran) was subjected to permanent settlement, initially in the form of pastoralists but soon as farmers too. Cultures around the edges of this progression included the Hassuna and Samarra which began this settlement process, and perhaps elements of the Hissar culture in the Iranian highlands were also involved.

By the late fourth millennium BC, Sumer was divided into approximately a dozen city states which were independent of one another and which used local canals and boundary stones to mark their borders. Many early historical events in the region are found only in the Sumerian king list, which notates the rulers of the city states (and see feature link), but archaeology has also uncovered a wealth of detail.

One of the more important cities in Sumer was built on either side of a lake which was located roughly 17.7 kilometres to the south-west of Babylon. This was the city of Borsippa (the modern archaeological site of Birs Nimrud), which is tied in with Nimrod and the 'Tower of Babel' thanks to its own ancient tower which reached a height of seventy metres when new (see feature link).

The earliest structured archaeological investigation here was started in 1854, under the direction of Henry Creswicke Rawlinson. The site was excavated again between 1879-1881 under Hormuzd Rassam for the British Museum. Looters in the 1890s removed about two thousand cuneiform tablets, mainly from the Ezida temple. Robert Koldewey worked the site in 1902 and, in 1980-2003, an Austrian team from the Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck was led by Helga Piesl-Trenkwalder and Wilfred Allinger-Csollich. Digging restarted in 2023.

During the 'Third Dynasty' period of Ur, Borsippa was usually mentioned in connection with the comparatively new city of Babylon, being dependent upon it. Its recorded history is patchy after that, but small glimpses can be gained right down to the first century BC.

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(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from History of the Ancient Near East c.3000-323 BC, Marc van der Mieroop (Blackwell Publishing, 2004, 2007), from Historical Atlas of the Ancient World, 4,000,000 to 500 BC, John Heywood (Barnes & Noble, 2000), from Mesopotamia: Assyrians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Enrico Ascalone (Dictionaries of Civilizations 1, University of California Press, 2007), from Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History, J N Postgate (Routledge, 1994), from The First Empires, J N Postgate (Oxford 1977), from Mesopotamia, Chris Scarre (Ed, Past Worlds - The Times Atlas of Archaeology, Guild Publishing, London 1989), from The Archaeology of Elam, D T Potts (Cambridge University Press, 1999), and from External Links: Ancient Worlds, and US Central Command Cultural Property Training Resource.)

c.2254? BC

Kish leads a 'Great Revolt' against the Akkadian empire, rallying the northern Sumerian cities of Apiak, Borsippa, Dilbat, Eresh, Kazallu, Kiritab, Kutha, Sippar, and Tiwa, and placing a well-organised army in the field which is then defeated. Presumably this is the period in which Eresh (potentially Abu Slalabikh) has its own king in a fractured Sumerian political landscape.

This fragment of Early Bronze Age pottery was produced in Mesopotamia around 3000 BC, as the early city-building movement began to accelerate towards large-scale city states and a recorded history

? - c.2254 BC

Ensi (governor) of BAR.KI (possibly Borsippa).

? - c.2254 BC

Captain of BAR.KI. Defeated during revolt.

Amongst the defeated city heads are Dannum, captain of BARK.KI, which is typically taken to refer to Borsippa (albeit this is not universally accepted). Also defeated is Ilum-dan, the city's governor. Presumably this is the period in which smaller cities such as Eresh have their own kings in a fractured Sumerian political landscape.

fl c.2028 BC

Ensi (governor) of Borsippa & Babylon for Ibbi-Sin of Ur.

c.2013 - 2010 BC

The final king of Kisurra is removed in favour of another layer of Ur's records-heavy administrative system. Kazallu is conquered by Isin around 2013 BC, while Ur also loses Hamazi to Isin around 2010 BC and Puzur-Tutu, governor of Borsippa, switches allegiance to Isin.

Some of the earliest cities, such as Sippar, Borsippa, and Kish in the north, and Ur, Uruk, and Eridu in the south, formed the endpoints of what became the complex Sumerian network of cities and canals (click or tap on map to view full sized)

c.2004 - 1900 BC

With the collapse of the Sumerian city states, Mesopotamia endures a century or so of chaos. The Amorites, who for several centuries had been living amongst Sumerians, rise to power in southern and central Mesopotamia, as well as in northern Mesopotamia and Syria. They assume control of older city states throughout Mesopotamia, Syria, and Canaan, including Borsippa.

c.1854 BC

Babylon claims conquest of Sippar in the twenty-ninth year of the reign of Sumula-ilum (Sumu-la-el or Sumu-la-ila). The Sippar city wall may be destroyed during the fighting, as there is a year name which records its rebuilding. The city of Kutha has its walls rebuilt by Sumula-ilum, so it may be friendly or tributary by this stage. It is not conquered, however, while Borsippa certainly is taken.

1790s BC

By the time of Hammurabi's accession in Babylon, the city's kings had begun to enlarge the state's borders by conquering the Amorite cities of Dilbat, Borsippa, Kish, and Sippar. If it had not already also controlled Kazallu from about 1861 BC, it certainly does so by this time.

Babylon began life as a modest town which had been seized from Kazallu, but was quickly fortified by the building of a city wall in the nineteenth century BC

c.1155 BC

It is Kutir-Nahhunte III of Elam who claims to have descended on Babylonia 'like a flood' and turned Babylon itself - along with other cities which include Borsippa - into a 'ruin heap'. He abducts the city's statues of Marduk and other gods, while also capturing and exporting to Elam the last of the Kassite rulers, Enlil-nadin-ahhe.

Kutir-Nahhunte 'called up the barbarian horde, [it level]led the land of Enlil', then 'headed north towards Borsippa... torched its sanctuary... [plun]dered all the temples... took their possessions and carried them off to Elam.

An Isin dynasty soon takes control in Babylonia, probably because the Elamites are overstretched when trying to control both ends of their extended domains. However, that does not stop the Elamite raids.

Babylon had mixed fortunes in its relations with Assyria, but in 823 BC it successfully supported Shamshi-Adad V's claim to the Assyrian throne

720 BC

While attempting to attack Elam, Sargon of Assyria is defeated by Elamites and Babylonians near Der (it seems likely that another attack is mounted in 713 BC, as Sargon is surprised by a rebellion in Tabal while his attention is focussed on Elamite lands).

Sargon passes up the opportunity of attacking the Elamites at Bit-Imbi in order to move quickly to his forward camp in the ruined city of Dur-Ladini, where he receives a delegation of priests and citizens from Babylon and Borsippa who entreat the king to enter Babylon. This he does unopposed.

c.587 BC

It is during this period that Nebuchadnezzar rebuilds a former Babylonian temple as the Tower of Babel (see feature link), carries out new construction work in the city of Ur, and excavates a great reservoir near Sippar. Other building works are carried out at Borsippa, Eridu, Hillah, Kish, Seleucia, and Tell Nasrat Pasha (near Baghdad).

Not uniquely, the Eridu area was abandoned following a shift in the course of the Euphrates, which allowed its archaeological landscape to remain remarkably intact, including the remains of an irrigation canal seen here inside the twin curved 'banks'

1st century BC

Through ups and downs Borsippa remains occupied and active. In this century it is home to a large scribal class, but abandonment follows in the first millennium AD to leave today's archaeological ruins in Iraq.