Near East Kingdoms

Sippar / Zimbir (City State) (Sumer)

Ancient Mesopotamia (Intro) Canaanite States & Groups Israelites & Israel Mesopotamian States & Groups Rome Syrian States & Groups

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.

Evidence shows that Sippar was occupied from the Uruk IV period (3900-2900 BC), although there were actually two cities named Sippar. Now known as the archaeological mounds of Tell Abu Habbah and ed-Der, it was a dual city, half of which was the Ebabbar, under the protection of the sun-god Utu of Sippar (or 'Shamash' in Akkadian), and half under the goddess, Anunit or Annunitu. Sippar is known as Sepharvaim in the Old Testament, which alludes to the city in its dual form.

The city's ruins can be found some twenty kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Mossul native Hormuzd Rassam was entrusted in 1880 with collecting antiquities for the British Museum. He had previously worked with Austen Layard and was licensed by the Ottoman empire to excavate further. When he started at the highest point in some promising mounds at Tell Abu Habbah, he found he was on top of one of Sippar's ziggurats, and access was soon gained to the main chamber.

This area which benefited from a short-lived conjugation between the Euphrates and the Tigris. When the two separated as their courses changed (a frequent occurrence on the flat plains of southern Mesopotamia) the widening gap between them left good quality land which was ripe for the city's founding in the Uruk IV period.

That location gave it access to both waterways for trade and transport, as well as a steady water supply, and was in easy reach of the Assyrian plateau, the Jezirah, and the middle Euphrates region which controlled access to the Syrian valleys. It was always a mercantile centre while it flourished, and so was a good deal more cosmopolitan than many other Mesopotamian cities. It was also another important religious centre, perhaps due to its great age in Sumerian terms.

The city is noted in Sumerian under several name variations, all of which relate to the two main city areas rather than to a host of smaller satellite cities, none of which have ever been found by archaeologists. These names include 'Great Sippar', 'Walled Sippar', 'Yahrurum Sippar', and 'Amnamum Sippar'. The latter two are tribal names, probably best linked to the regional domination in the early third millennium BC by Amorite tribes and kings. 'Great Sippar' was Tell Abu Habbah, while 'Little Sippar' had the Eulmash, the temple of Annunitu.

According to the Sumerian king list, one king ruled in Sippar for 21,000 years, once (meaning one dynasty) and then Sippar was 'abandoned' and the kingship was removed to Shuruppak. Note that older dating systems place the earliest reigns at dates which have been shown to be unrealistically early.

The king list presents kingship as a divine gift which had been bestowed upon mankind in primordial times. It was passed down from king to king and from city to city through the will of the gods and could only be held by one person at a time. This now appears to be more of a high kingship, with each city recognising the most powerful king of the period while ruling their own territory. Only later did the concept of empire emerge to remove or minimise local rule under a more powerful empire-builder.

(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 First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies, Peter Bellwood (Second Ed, Wiley-Blackwell, 2022), 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), from The Age of the God-Kings, Kit van Tulleken (Ed, Time Life Books, Amsterdam 1987), and from External Links: Ancient Worlds, and 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 Images from History (University of Alabama).)

c.3000 BC

Archaeological work by Hormuzd Rassam in the AD 1880s produces several finds which open up areas of Sippar's history which simply are not known at the time in any written sources. These include a stone vase of the Jemdet Nasr period from about 3000 BC, and a statue of about 2450 BC, dedicated by a king of Mari named Iku-shumugan.

By this stage 'Great Sippar', the archaeological mound of Tell Abu Habbah, may have been inhabited for half a millennium or so, having first been settled in the Uruk IV period. The sanctuary of the sun-god here remains important enough to be endowed with highly valuable gifts from kings and local officiates well into the third millennium BC.

fl c.2820 BC

Ruled for 21,000 years (5.8 years?).

c.2330s BC

Sargon claims to be the first king to unite Mesopotamia (Sumer and Agade, plus a wide swathe of northern Mesopotamia), although Enshakushanna of Uruk has already achieved that in the mid-twenty-fifth century BC.

The second tell of Sippar, that of ed-Der or 'Little Sippar', is certainly settled and active during the 'Ur III' period, and may date back to the Akkadian period. It remains settled and active for as long as 'Great Sippar' remains settled and active. However, the southern sun sanctuary at Larsa generally eclipses the Sippar temples from 'Ur III' onwards.

Sippar (Amorite City State) (Southern Mesopotamia)

Sippar began to become important in strategic terms following the ending of the Sumerian civilisation at the collapse of the 'Ur III' dynasty. The city became the centre of a small state in the northern reaches of southern Mesopotamia during the Old Babylonian period.

Many of the larger post-Sumerian city states were hurrying to fill the power vacuum, while fresh waves of Amorite tribespeople were entering the region from the north-west to cause even more confusion. Sippar, as the northernmost city of  the plains, then became particularly important to its new Amorite rulers.

Isin managed to regain many of the most important Sumerian sites, but little is known of Sippar until after 1800 BC. Babylon claimed conquest of it in the twenty-ninth year of the reign of Sumu-la-ila (1854 BC or 1838 BC depending on chronology used). The Sippar city wall may have been destroyed during fighting, as there is a year name which records its rebuilding.

The kings of Babylon subsequently did much to promote the city as a premier religious centre in parallel with Nippur in the south, at least until the southern cities slipped from their control and they became embroiled in wars with petty neighbouring states.

fl c.1900? BC

A short dynasty of Amorite rulers appears to gain control in Sippar, a little way after several other Amorite dynasties have sprung up across the region, most notably in Isin.

Gypsum lion head finial, possibly from the throne of a votive statue of 'Early Dynastic III' at Sippar, about 2500 BC, and with the Sumerian word for 'king' ('lugal') being inscribed on one side

fl c.1900? BC

Possibly seized the throne.

? - c.1854? BC

Defeated by Babylon?

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), which means 1854 BC in the chronology being used here, but 1838 BC is also proposed (by Gwendolyn Leick at least). The Sippar city wall may be destroyed during the fighting, as there is a year name which records its rebuilding.

by c.1792 BC

The city has certainly been conquered by the early kings of Babylon, but this phase of the city's known records stretches between about 1800-1600 BC, showing that occupation and administration continue past this point.

Hammurabi does much to improve the city, presenting it as a northern version of the key religious centre of Nippur. His successors, however, especially from the late 1700s BC onwards, are primarily concerned with defence and the task of maintaining the city walls.

c.1595 BC

The Babylonian empire has been steadily declining following the arrival of the Hittites in the north, and due to over-farming of the fields which leads to increased salinisation and failing crops. The culture of the Hittites emerges, as does that of the Hurrian empire of Mitanni.

Around this time, 1595 BC, the Hittite ruler, Mursili I, leads his army down the Euphrates in a lighting raid which sees Babylon being sacked and its leadership destroyed. The power vacuum allows the Kassites to emerge as Babylonia's new masters but Sippar may be abandoned for some centuries.

1174 BC

The new Kassite rulers of Babylonia seem to have restored areas of the city from about 1600 BC. Now, with them weakened after throwing off Assyrian control, it is Kutir-Nahhunte III, king of Elam and conqueror of Babylon, who sacks Sippar.

1069 - 1046 BC

A text which dates to the reign of Adad-apla-iddina of Babylonia reports that Aramaean and Sutean tribes have ravaged the countryside, destroying Sippar so thoroughly that the cult there subsequently ceases for about a century. The religious precinct only recovers in the tenth century BC.

722 - 721 BC

After King Hoshea stops paying tribute, Samaria is invaded and eventually falls to Assyria. The ten (of twelve) Hebrew tribes in Israel are relocated by the Assyrians (27,290 inhabitants in all).

In their place, the residents of the rebellious city of Hamath are shipped in, along with people from Sippar, and it is these people who form the core of the later Samaritans (whose name may be due to their relationship with the lands of Samaria - although this is a contested claim).

694 - 691 BC

An Elamite military raid takes Babylon, and the populace takes the opportunity to capture Ashur-nadin-shumi himself. They hand him over to the Elamite king at his base in Sippar and he is taken off, never to be seen again.

A new native king takes the throne in 694 BC, but he is quickly removed by Sennacherib. Then Mushezib-Marduk seizes the throne and organises a strong anti-Assyrian coalition made up of Chaldaeans, Babylonians, Aramaeans and Elamites, whom he pays from the temple treasury.

692/691 BC

Khumma-Menanu of Elam king leads a coalition of states against Assyria's King Sennacherib at the Battle of Halule on the Tigris. With him is Mushezib-Marduk of Babylon, the minor kingdom of Ellipi (roughly located in Luristan, to the immediate west of Elam), and the kingdom of Anshan which seems able to be able to call on the Parsua or Parsuash.

Anshan has often - but not always - been part of Elam itself, but it may be ruled by a subsidiary line at this time. The location of the battle suggests a march by the allies towards the heart of Assyrian-dominated territory.

The outcome is not decisive, and does not prevent Sennacherib from devastating Babylon itself following a fifteen month-long siege, although it does protect Elam. Sippar also suffers Sennacherib's wrath for having provided a base for the Elamites. The temple of Annunitu is destroyed and the cult statue of Shamash is taken away along with other Babylonian deities.

481 BC

A revolt against the Achaemenid Persian king, Xerxes, is put down. Sippar is enjoying its last period of substantial activity, with records being kept here around the middle of the first millennium BC, but this event seems to end it. All activities in the Sippar temple appear to cease after this date and the city limps on in a reduced form.

AD 600

Some general life continues, and it at least occupies the temple. Parthian and Sassanid pottery and glass is found by archaeologists which must come from contemporary private dwellings or graves. Little else is known about the city's remnants though, and no later founds have been made.