Near East Kingdoms

Shuruppak / Curuppag (City State) (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.

Shuruppak was occupied for around a millennium. It began life near the beginning of the Jemdet Nasr period, which lasted between 3100-2900 BC and which ended around the time of one of the many dramatic regional floods (see the Antediluvian period). The city was re-sited and rebuilt a little farther away from the flood waters after that. Overall though, it was essentially a manufactured city, created by design out of a few scattered villages of the Uruk period by the ruler of the greater city of Uruk.

The city was located at the modern archaeological site of Tell Fa'rah - or more simply as Fara - situated to the south of Nippur on the banks of the Euphrates. It was also known as Curuppag (both variations of the name mean 'the healing place'). It was about a quarter of the size of Uruk, around a hundred hectares in occupied ground space by the start of the 'Early Dynastic II' period from 2600 BC.

Dedicated to Sud, also known as Ninlil, the goddess of grain and the air, it became a grain storage and distribution city, with more silos than any other Sumerian city. As may be expected for a storage centre it also contained a mass of written records, clay tablets and seals, which have proven invaluable to archaeologists. It was not a monumental city though. It contained no temple as far as archaeology has been able to tell, and it provided no royal seat outside of the two candidates in the semi-mythical early Sumerian king list.

According to that king list, one king ruled in Shuruppak for 18,600 years, once (in one dynasty, or two kings in one dynasty according to the WB-62 list), and then the 'Great Flood' came and all subsequent Sumerian history takes place 'After the Flood'.

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City, Gwendolyn Leick (Penguin Books, 2001), from Encyclopaedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition, Cambridge (England), 1910), from The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character, Samuel Noah Kramer ('List 1' of Sumerian rulers, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1963), from Historical Atlas of the Ancient World, 4,000,000 to 500 BC, John Heywood (Barnes & Noble, 2000), from The Ancient Near East, c.3000-330 BC, Amélie Kuhrt (Routledge, 2000, Vol I & II), from Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East, Michael Road (Facts on File, 2000), from Mesopotamia: Assyrians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Enrico Ascalone (Dictionaries of Civilizations 1, University of California Press, 2007), from The Archaeology of Mesopotamia, S Lloyd (Revised Ed, London, 1984), 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 History of the Ancient Near East c.3000-323 BC, Marc van der Mieroop (Blackwell Publishing, 2004, 2007), from Ancient History: A Theory About Ancient Times, L C Gerts (List 4 of Sumerian rulers, Chapter 12: The Sumerian king list, 2002), from Mesopotamia, Chris Scarre (Ed, Past Worlds - The Times Atlas of Archaeology, Guild Publishing, London 1989), and from External Links: The Sumerian Kings List, J A Black, G Cunningham, E Fluckiger-Hawker, E Robson, & G Zólyomi ('List 2' of Sumerian rulers, available via the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, Oxford, 1998), and Ancient History, Anthony Michael Love ('List 3' of Sumerian rulers at Sarissa.org), and The Flood: Mesopotamian Archaeological Evidence (National Center for Science Education).)

c.3000 BC

The Sumerian city of Shuruppak is develop around this period from a few scattered Uruk period villages. It is smaller than the mighty expanse of the city of Uruk which lies approximately forty kilometres to its south and which seemingly controls its construction.

Throughout much of its existence - at least until the twenty-fourth century BC - Shuruppak is part of a wider political association. It and several other cities appear to act in unison, and for the good of the group as a whole.

The five other cities are Adab, Lagash, Nippur, Umma, and Uruk. Kish, while being independent of this group, seems to be seen as an associate member. Ur is much more likely to be outside of this group, and is a likely candidate for the twenty-fourth century BC attack. Shuruppak gains its city walls early in the third millennium BC, probably for protection in an increasingly turbulent world, but they do not protect it against Ur.

fl c. 2810 BC

Ruled for 18,600 years (5.17 years?) / 8 years, from WB-62 list.

fl c. 2800 BC

Son of Su-Kur-Lam. On the WB-62 list: 10 years.

c.2350 BC

Lugalzaggesi of Umma is the last ethnically-Sumerian ruler of Uruk. His reign coincides with the burning of Shuruppak, although there is no suggestion that he is the cause (the hostile city of Ur is much more likely). The fire seals in copious numbers of clay seals, records which provide a boon to later archaeologists.

The city is eventually re-inhabited but its glory days are over because the Euphrates water have shifted to its western branch, largely denuding the city of its previously-copious water supplies.

Lugalzaggesi's reign also coincides with that of Alusarsid of Agade, who seemingly begins to build an empire around his city state. Around 2330 BC, Lugalzaggesi is defeated and captured by Alusarsid's successor, Sargon of the now-expansive Akkadian empire. Sargon claims his territory and the kingship.

c.2017 BC

Later levels of archaeology for Shuruppak are badly eroded - the uppermost layers which are nearest the modern surface - so its story after the burning is less certain. It has probably been part of the holdings of third dynasty Ur in that city's later days.

As with much of southern Mesopotamia, Ur has rapidly faded in power and influence as harvests fail and the population declines. One of King Ibbi-Sin's officials now takes the opportunity to move to the subject city of Isin where he creates his own city state.

Its protections destroyed, Shuruppak is abandoned.